The McGill Tribune Vol. 27 Issue 16

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WE CAN HAZ WEBCOMICS? FEATURES, PAGE 10

Published by the Students' Society of McGill University

CPC SETS SIGHTS ON CHAOS, ROCK'N ROLL, PAGE 14

www.mcgilltribune.com

GRASPé stages coup

Volume 27 Issue 16 -January 15, 2007

Victim of blind injustice

Administration stands their ground T homas Q uail In a first-degree case of radicalism this past Thursday morning, activists from McGill's GrassRoots Association for Student Empower­ ment barricaded entrances to a reception area on the fifth floor of the James Administration building.

A GRASPé statement released at 8:oo a.m. on the morning of the protest explained their basis for action.

"The group has barricaded all entrances to the fifth floor of the building in an attempt to disrupt the McGill administration's activity and force them to acknowledge students'dis­ content with the coming tuition increases."

With the offices of Principal Heather Munroe-Blum and other senior officials on the fifth floor, GRASPé's demonstration aimed to

kick off a semester projected to teem with di­ rect action.

"The administration occupies this space on the fifth floor, apparently working in the best interests of the students. We wanted to send a message by occupying this space. We want to see change," said Warne Goodman, a Uo arts student and one of the activists.

The protest started at around 7:45 a.m. as GRASPé locked up entrances to the floor. The group then proceeded to decorate the space with zip-ties, streamers and signs.

Within an hour, senior officials, anxious to start their workday, called security.

GRASPé memberTessa Vikander said that during the standoff, one of the senior admin­ istrators told the group heatedly through the See ACTIVISTS on page 3

Hutu refutes charges

Defence starts testimony James G ilman This past week, lawyers for a Rwandan man on trial for his role in the 1994 Rwandan geno­ cide began their defence, claiming that much of the evidence against him is fabricated.

FormerToronto resident Désiré Munyaneza is accused of genocide, crimes against human­ ity and war crimes for his part in the atrocities.

Munyaneza, a Hutu, allegedly led a militia on a killing and raping rampage with the intent to wipe out Rwandan Tutsis.

Munyaneza is the first person to be charged in Canada under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act of 2000.

"Previously, international crimes were con­ tained in the Criminal Code and there had only been one prosecution attempted using the pro­ visions of the Code,"said Jillian Siskind, president of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, a group currently monitoring the trial.

"The Munyaneza trial is tremendously im­ portant for Canada in terms of its own ability to hold war criminals accountable for their actions, but also as an example among its international colleagues in a world where international ac­ countability has tended to be restricted to inter­ national tribunals or military courts,”she said.

McGill ATHLETICS

Tamara Ramusovic, a U3 political science student and president of the McGill chapter of Journalists for Human Rights felt that a case such as this was integral in not losing sight of the atrocities of the past.

"It is important to send a message that those crimes are of such a nature that they can­ not be forgotten with the passage of time and reconciliation requires bringing leaders who committeed and encouraged mass murder and rape to justice,"Ramusovic said.

Experts say that Canada has had a less than perfect record in bringing suspected war crimi­ nals to justice.

The Canadian Centre for International Jus­ tice, a charitable organization, said in a press release that although government of Canada figures have shown that over 800 war crimi­ nals and human rights abusers are now living in Canada, "There have been no trials for war criminals in this country since a handful of cases against former Nazis failed in the early 1990s."

Munyaneza came to Canada in 1997 claim­ ing refugee status, but an RCMP investigator linked him to the Rwandan genocide and he was subsequently placed under investigation.

He was arrested in Toronto in 2005 following See WITNESSES on pages

Illegal resident A delkader Belaouni passes th e tim e w ith fo ur-part harmony. See page 2 for th e full story.

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COVER PHOTO BY STEVE CAMPBELL

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Ambulance rerouting may be deadly Meetings later in the month may settle issues T heo M eyer Questions continue to surround a directive from the Quebec Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux to reroute South Shore trauma victims from McGill-affiliated centres to Université de Montréal hospitals.

Patients from the South Shore were originally sent to Charles LeMoyne Hospital, a former third level trauma centre with access to emergency re­ suscitation, surgery and intensive care resources, but not a full range of trauma specialists. When the hospital was stripped of its status in July 2007, it resulted in the creation of a new "transfer corri­ dor" that directed child trauma victims to Ste-Justine Hospital and adults to Sacré-Coeur Hospital, both affiliated with the Université de Montréal.

According to a McGill University Health Cen­ tre press release, the directive denies patients' access to the Montreal General Hospital and Montreal Children's Hospital, both of which are lo­ cated closer to the South Shore than Ste-Justine and Sacré-Coeur.

"There's been a long standing rule that both trauma programs [at Children's and Ste-Justine] had a supraregional mandate," said Dr. Nicolas Steinmetz, president of the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation. The system, established in 1992, sends trauma victims to the nearest and best equipped hospital. "[The supraregional system is] a standard system for areas of a certain population density," said Dr. Tarek Razek, director of Adult Traumatol­ ogy at the MUHC. "We work broadly as a team across the region to treat the patient."

According to Razek, the system has dramati­ cally lowered trauma mortality in the Montreal area.

"Patients with significant injuries had a mor­ tality of 50 per cent in 1993,"he said."In 1998 [after the adoption of the supraregional system], with very few changes, mortality was 18 per cent and had dropped to 8.9 per cent in 2002."

Controversy has arisen between doctors at the MUHC hospitals and Quebec governmental

CITY

agencies over the potential costs to the patient that could arise from the rerouting. Agence de la santé et des services sociaux representative Ma­ thieu Leroux, however, insisted that the rerouting posed no threat to South Shore trauma victims.

“The thing that's very important to under­ stand is that patients are stabilized before they are sent to the island of Montreal," he said. "[The rerouting created] an official transfer corridor, but if the doctor thinks the patient needs urgent care, he can bypass it."

While Razek stated the problems associated with rerouting have been solved already, Stein­ metz held a different view.

"There is no evidence that the change [in routing] would provide better care," he said.

"There's a process underway to settle the matter.

Meetings are scheduled for later this month be­ tween different hospitals and government agen­ cies."

Steinmetz also stated that it was unfortu­ nate that newspapers had styled the situation as

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Sacre Coeur and Ste. Justine hospitals are substantially fu rth e r from th e South Shore than Charles Lemoyne.

a conflict between hospitals. A Dec. 6 National Post article notably portrayed the situation as a conflict between the more anglophone Montreal Children's Hospital and the francophone Ste-Justine Hospital. Leroux, however, continued to deny the existence of any major conflict.*

NATIONAL

Algerian avoids deportation O rgan law s confuse donors Blind man finds safe haven in church through that provision," Fox-Decent said. "Lots K en S un of people who are in Canada illegally can still be granted this discretionary release and will be Abdelkader 'Kader' Belaouni has lived as allowed to remain in Canada, simply because it an illegal resident for the last two years, claim­ would be un-humanitarian and uncompassion­ ing sanctuary at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church in Montreal's Pointe St. Charles district. Originally a ate to deport them."

Belaouni, who lost his vision in 1992 from family grocer from Oran, Algeria, Belaouni fled diabetes, has been unable to find paying work his country in fear of persecution from the gov­ upon arriving in Canada due to his disabilities. He ernment and armed forces. After arriving in New York City in 1996, he lived with no legal status in fills his days with community service, including work with the Multi-Ethnic Association for the the United States for nearly six years, only to flee Integration of the Handicapped of Quebec, and again to Canada in December 2002, citing dis­ has used these experiences to improve his French crimination in a post-9/11 city, when he applied and integrate into Québécois culture. Now fluent for a U.S. green card. in French, his work in the community has earned "I said to myself, I had nothing to hide [from him the commendation and support of numer­ U.S. Customs]," Belaouni said. "[During the appli­ ous humanitarian associa­ tions and support groups, in­ "Nowhere in the legal text does it say that you cluding the Bloc Québécois can seek sanctuary anywhere."

Member of Parliament repre­ — Robert Gervais, CBSA spokesperson senting the Pointé-St.-Charles area, Thierry St-Cyr, who has publicly supported Belaouni and claimed that'he didn't have a fair decision." cation process,] they took my passport away and Though he claimed that he was discriminat­ I had very long, six-hour interviews. After, at an ed against during the applications for permanent appointment with the judge, he asked me where status for his disability, Belaouni received notice my passport [was], and i could not tell him where of deportation on Nov. 21, 2005, and sought ref­ it was." uge in St. Gabriel's soon after, on Jan. 1,2006.

After arriving in Canada, his application for "The year before I had my deportation order, refugee status in March 2003 was denied, and I went to visit with my MP [Thierry St-Cyr], and in 2005, Belaouni applied for permanent status he said 'Kader, be careful;' Belaouni said. "'For under the Pre-Removal Risk Assessment and Hu­ sure, you will be discriminated against for being manitarian and Compassionate programs. blind!'

While the Citizenship and Immigration Despite Belaouni's claim of sanctuary, the Canada office was not able to discuss the specific Canadian Border Services Agency can enter the details of Belaouni's case, Jacqueline Roby, CIC church at any time to take him because sanctu­ spokesperson, explained that an applicant for ary is not backed legally by any Canadian law.

PRRA must prove to CIC officials a risk of persecu­ "Nowhere in the legal text does it say that tion, torture or other cruel or unusual treatments you can seek sanctuary anywhere," said Rob­ or punishments. Additionally, H&C applicants ert Gervais, CBSA spokesperson. "Our priority in must demonstrate "unusual, undeserved or dis­ terms of arrests and deportation are firstly na­ proportionate hardships."

"We base our whole system on one rule, tional security threats. Individuals remain a prior­ ity, but we know where the individual is and he which is that one must apply for immigration does not pose any security threats." before coming to Canada, not after," Roby said.

While Gervais does not anticipate any reason "We expect everyone to respect procedure; in for CBSA officials to enter the church and forcibly exceptional circumstances, someone can apply extract Belaouni, he expects that "at some point, for immigration from within Canada under H&C they will have to leave the premises and then grounds." they will come into the custody of the CBSA." According to McGill law Professor Evan FoxIn the meantime, Belaouni, who still contin­ Decent, who specializes in immigration law, a ues to volunteer as an Arabic and piano teacher, hypothetical situation similar to that of Belaouni's can only wait within the walls of his church, and could warrant a successful H&C application, on campaign for his quest for liberty. the grounds that the applicant will suffer signifi­ "[CBSA] can come at any time,"Belaouni said. cant hardships due to his blindness.

"I don't have freedom, and I'm not allowed to go "The Minister [of Immigration] is arguably outside. All my life is in the church now."* under legal obligation to grant permanent status

Current procedures will remain unchanged V in c c i T sui

a single sexual encounter with a male within the last five years would not be considered accept­ able even though he is not gay."

Langevin sympathized with groups who feel that the new regulations are discriminatory.

"I do understand right now that the way that it's written is not really elegant and could be shocking to some subgroups of our community, and this can be probably better phrased or bet­ ter explained,”he said.

Ren Haskett, policy and equity coordinator of Queer McGill, said that the group is planning to join other queer advocacy groups in speaking out against the ban, but is waiting until the exact consequences of the new regulations become more apparent.

"We are not sure what the specific regula­ tion was, whether it's an actual denial or whether they screen more closely men who have anal sex," she said. "Treating organs as 'high risk' sim­ ply because they come from a man who has anal sex is discriminatory in itself. Although this is better than a complete ban on gay organs, it's insufficient and doesn't change the discrimina­ tory nature of the policy. At the moment there is a large movement of people who are circulating petitions, who are writing to [Members of Parlia­ ment] and Health Canada officials to try and get the policy reversed. We will definitely be involved in that, probably not in as a big a way as we have with the blood drives, but we will take a stance in it and we will probably be involved."

Haskett also hoped that the new organ donation regulations would not hinder Queer McGill's ongoing discussions with Health Cana­

A new Health Canada policy on organ do­ nation has been reported in the media as ban­ ning all donations from men who have had sex with men in the past five years as well as intra­ venous drug users, those recently released from jail and others considered to be at a high risk for infectious disease.

The new regulations, made effective on Dec. 7, require that transplant programs "deter­ mine that the donor is not unsuitable to donate on the basis of the contraindications or exclu­ sion criteria set out in...the [Canadian Standard Association's organ standards]," which have been in use on a voluntary basis since 2003.

According to Québec-Transplant medical director Stéphan Langevin, the CSA standards say that the aforementioned groups “cannot be considered as potential donors for cells, tissues and organs.” However, both the CSA standards and the new Health Canada regulations contain a ''loophole'' in the form of an exceptional distri­ bution clause, which state that "a source estab­ lishment may distribute cells, tissues or organs that have not been determined safe for trans­ plantation if.. .the transplant physician or dentist, based on their clinical judgement, authorizes the exceptional distribution," but only if there is no safe substitute available and the recipient gives informed consent.

"We've already applied [the standards] since 2002,2003 and before these rules we’ve already applied specific precautions. But these rules ce­ ment what we’ve already done in the past; all our work is there to try to prevent transmission of in­ fectious diseases to our recipients.The only thing "The only thing that's new is the fact... that it's that's new is the fact that now a law, but these norms were there before." since December it's now — Stéphan Langevin, Québec-Transplant a law, it's now a part of the legislation, but these da and Héma-Quebec on changing the its blood norms were there before," said Langevin. "De­ donation policy regarding MSM donations. pending on the tissue bank, you can consider all "I suppose they're obviously different is­ potential donors. For some tissue banks you can­ sues, but it shows a general pattern of regres­ not because they have a bigger pool of donors and with the way they work, it's easier to exclude sion on the part of the Canadian government and Canadian health officials, specifically," people with only questionnaire than with other she said. tests that they could do, [because the latter is] Langevin said it will take further epidemio­ more expensive." logical study and discussion to change the cur­ Health Canada spokeswoman Carole Sainrent organ donation policy. don insisted that the bans are based on popula­ "If you can demonstrate that your popula­ tions with an increased risk of disease transmis­ tion is not more at risk than another one, this can sions as opposed to lifestyle choices. certainly lead to a change in these kinds of analy­ "A gay man who had practiced abstinence ses and norms. But who's going to do that, that's for the five years prior would be acceptable," she a big, big question." ■ said. "Likewise, a heterosexual man who had had

15.01.08 «The McGill Tribune • 3

CAMPUS

CAMPUS

Grades trickle back Optics used to combat malaria Imaging to improve detection methods at snail's pace

base frequency."

The molecule that reflects these emissions in malariaA centuries-old epidemiological enigma and one of infected blood is called hemozoin. When the parasite in­ the most common infectious diseases, malaria continues fects the red blood cells, it comes upon hemoglobin, which to ravage certain areas of the modern world. With no vac­ it finds poisonous. The parasite then processes the heme cine currently available, it is a race against time between groups into a new molecule called hemozoin. scientists and the crafty protozoan parasites to stay one "If the parasite can't make this material [hemozoin] it step ahead of the other. dies," Bohle said.

Here at McGill, a recent breakthrough by a team of This development begs the questions o f whether de­ researchers led by Professor Paul Wiseman from the de­ rivatives o f this scientific discovery are feasible in impover­ partments of physics and chemistry could have a revo­ ished nations, such as in malaria drug development. lutionary impact on the detection methods of malaria"Like all diseases, the quicker you catch it and recog­ infected blood. nize it, the better," Bohle said. "A sensitive detection method The research project, conducted in collaboration with is highly desirable... Malaria is a disease o f pov­ Professors David Scott Bohle and Elias Georges, used erty as much as it is parasitology and any ultra-fast lasers and a high-powered microscope to drug relating to malaria has got to detect malaria in the blood. be cheap."

"The lasers that we use on this type of mi­ Wiseman added that he croscope are not standard lasers; they are called hopes to start working on a de­ ultra-fast lasers that emit approximately vice that may soon be available to 8o-million light pulses every second," the biomedical community.

Wiseman said. "We shine this light "We are going to try and build onto the sample and the sample a self-counting instrument that would be a emits emissions at a specific frequen­ quick test for malaria.'he said. "If our prototype cy as a result of the properties of the becomes feasible, it could eliminate the need sample. This process is known as non­ fora trained technician.What I don't know is how linear microscopy." cheaply it can be made."

SCIENCEBLOGS.COM The reflected emissions given The impetus for the project started about off by the sample are indicative of M alaria protozoa lyse red a year ago when Wiseman was attending a blood cells. third-harmonic generation imaging, seminar given by Bohle, w ho was talking about which falls under the umbrella of op­ the recent identification o f the molecular tical quantum mechanic principle. An acoustic analogy can structure o f hemozoin. Inspired by work that he had done be used to explain the concept. as a post-doctoral student w ith non-linear microscopy and "If you have a pipe organ, this pipe will give off sound heme groups at the University o f California San Diego, Wise­ at a given frequency," Wiseman said. "This resonance fre­ man approached Bohle about setting up a project. quency also gives off harmonics at any multiple of the base "This was an off-shoot project o f mine, it was one o f frequency. Basically, with optics, it works the same way those times that you roll the dice and it works out for you. but with light. So we come in, shine light on the sample It has worked out far better than I could have imagined," and it creates reflected emissions that are multiples of this Wiseman said. ■ T homas Q

Students upset with McGill L ena G a yra u d

As students returned to school for the winter, many were appalled to find that they had not received their grades from the previous term until well into the new semester.

Ling Wu, McGill's exam coordi­ nator was shocked at the fact that some students did not receive their final marks until Jan. 10. "For the multiple choice exams, I sent all the marks to the professors before Dec. 30,"she said. "It really depends on the professors."

Wu said that she worked over­ time to be sure the marks were sent out before the New Year began.

"Many professors may leave town and then have to figure out marks when they come back, which is maybe why some take so long."

Students expressed their concerns with the wait.

"I think it's a slightly inconve­ nient situation because some stu­ dents need to know their grades in order to take follow-up courses," said LuluTian, Ui biomedical science and political science. "If they want an extended time to figure out grades then we should be able to get ex­ tensions on add/drop deadlines, because a lot of that rides on our fall semester marks."

"They originally said that grades would be back by Jan. 3 and they

weren't," said Annabel Lane, U1 Eng­ lish literature. "If you're going to pick a date, then the professors should fol­ low through with that responsibility."

Scoring for m ultiple-choice exams is handled by Network and Communication Services in Burn­ side Hall, where scanned forms are processed on a first come, first serve basis. NCS claimed that exams are scored within two days of submis­ sion. The exams are then picked up by course instructors along with the marks, individual student breakdowns of answers, an error report, frequency distribution, as well as various other statistics including quartiles, the highest and lowest score and ques­ tion difficulty (as determined by the number of students who got the right answer).

Lindsay Spence, a second year business administration student at Concordia University, said she re­ ceived all of her marks before New Year's Eve. "I didn't even check every day, so they may have even come sooner.

I've never heard of students at Con­ cordia getting their fall marks in the winter semester."

Wu mentioned that NCS is in the process of reconstructing the multi­ ple-choice exam processing proce­ dure, so perhaps come April students will see a change in the timeliness of their final marks. ■

Activists up for morning chorus

The Department of Jewish Studies

Tuition hikes prompt sit-in with senior administration Continued from COVER

door that, "It's ok if you do a sit-in, but stop going through our desks," as the group continued to wreak trivial havoc within the space.

Taking matters into their own hands, administrators broke through the entrance using a "bit of elbow grease," according to Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson.

Provost Anthony Masi was said to have been the first to barrel through the door.

Although attempts were made by GRASPé to engage senior officials in debate concerning tuition, the activists were ignored as they sat in a circle on the floor outside the principal's office.

The group remained in the area until around noon, when they proceeded to leave the area chanting. No charges have been laid.

Mendelson explained the disciplinary measures taken by the administra­ tion regarding the incident.

"The students were IDed by McGill Security. Standard practice results in an incident report are being sent to the Dean of Students, who may pass such information along to the appropriate Disciplinary Officers," he said. "However, what happens in a particular case is, of course, completely confidential."

GRASPé Anglophone media liaison Michael Freeman explained why Thursday's sit-in was significant.

"This [fifth floor James Administration] is the centre of power in McGill.

Heather Munroe-Blum and senior administration have stood up in front of tu­ ition boards and deregulation committees and said how tuition hikes are a good thing. This was to let them know that there is still a movement that ob­ jects to this change," he said. "McGill has a reputation for being a conservative university. Student protest groups within McGill tend to feel isolated from the rest of these groups province-wide. This was a gesture of solidarity with these groups."

Vikander hoped that GRASPé would be able to acquire further impetus for provincial and McGill-wide resistance to the tuition hike.

"This was the kickoff for the semester; we wanted some momentum going into the new year,"Vikander said. ■

uail

Call for Submissions: B I A C H E R A N D G L A S R O T FA M IL IE S M E M O R IA L A W A R D F O R H O L O C A U S T R E S E A R C H

stablished in 2000 by Mr. and Mrs, Josef Glasrot, survivors of the Holocaust and residents of Montreal. Open to any student at McGill University, the award is presented for excellence in research in Holocaust and related studies, and particularly on the history of the ghettos of Warsaw and Kovno [Kaunas]. Essays prepared in any course or independent research may be considered. The award is administered by the Department of Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Jewish Community Foundation. The award will be presented during the Closing Exercises of the Department of Jewish Studies in June, 2008.

The value of the Blacher and Glasrot Families Memorial Award is $1000.

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• T h e c o m p e titio n is o p e n to u n d e r g r a d u a te a n d g ra d u a te s tu d e n ts a t M cG ill U n iv e r sity .

• S tu d e n ts m u st su b m it 2 ty p e d c o p ie s o f th e ir e s s a y s to g e th e r w ith fu ll c o n ta c t in fo r m a tio n .

• E ssa y s c a n b e b a se d o n p r im a r y o r s e c o n d a r y m a te r ia ls a n d w o r k in a ll r e la te d d is c ip lin e s w ill b e c o n s id e r e d .

• E ssa y s u b m is s io n s m u st r e a c h th e D e p a r tm e n t o f J e w is h S tu d ie s O ffic e , 3 4 3 8 M cT avish S tr ee t, n o la te r th a n A p r il 11, 200 8 .

The McGill Tribune

4 - News* 15.01.08

CAMPUS

Students participate in Soup-er Science New professors provide insight into the wild, weird and extraordinary N ancy P ham Bringing together hungry students and cutting-edge re­ searchers, five Soup and Science events over the last week served up everything from electronics to ecology research along with soup and sandwiches.

"The main purpose is to give students a chance to see how they can get involved," said event organizer Victor Chisholm, un­ dergraduate research officer for the Faculty of Science. "McGill professors are always working on exciting research projects that offer a lot of opportunities."

Dean of Science Martin Grant explained that attendance has grown to the point that some students were turned away.

"The idea here is to give professors a chance to talk about their innovative work and a chance for students to listen, and to feed your stomach and your intellect," he said. "The event helps bring students and professors together. It makes opportunities for research seem more at reach and less intimidating."

The presentation in the auditorium at Redpath Museum last Thursday brought together five McGill professors ranging from the department of physiology to the department of atmospheric & oceanic sciences. Professors from each field were given three minutes to speak about their work to date.

Mathematics and statistics professor Keith Worsley began by explaining how his research in statistical analysis led him to inves­ tigate the relationship between brain imaging and astrophysics.

"It's important to continue [studies] in the maths," Worsley said. "I never would have thought that I'd get into studying neu­ rology without going to medical school. Math built my strong foundation before I branched out. Events like Soup and Science can help students realize how different disciplines are interre­

lated."

Worsley's presentation showed images of the galaxies from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Redshift Survey, which he explained resemble the hemispheres of the human brain.

The problem of vitamin D deficiency in human physiology was discussed by Professor John White. He stated that Montreal was the epicentre of "vitamin D winters," where six months of in­ adequate ultraviolet light absorption lead to a variety of medical.

"You get vitamin D from the things that you don't eat, like cod liver oil and ultraviolet beams," White said, emphasizing the relevance of his research in vitamin D, a hormone that helps in calcium homeostasis, cancer chemoprevention and regulation of the immune system.

Other topics included computer graphics and the human vision, acoustic analysis and modeling and the Canadian Arc­ tic Buoy Program presented by professors Langer, Scavone and Tremblay.

As the presentations concluded, students were given a chance to mingle with the professors over a complementary lunch.

"I didn't expect to enjoy the presentations as much as I did.

I was more attracted to the offer of food,”said Jake Berkeley, U2 microbiology and immunology. "It's great that McGill does this for its students. As undergraduates, we should feel lucky that our school opens so many doors for us."

"I had the chance to talk to Sieber about her work, and dis­ covered a lot of new things that appealed to me," said Marija D'Souza, U2 international development studies. "I think McGill should do this for other faculties, as well. Students in the Arts, Engineering and the like can too benefit from such an idea”*

NEBOJSA PETROVIC Speech Pathologist Vincent Graeco is at a loss for words.

News Brief CIA interrogation techniques linked to McGill sensory deprivation research Am id a loom ing presidential veto, the U.S. House o f Representatives ap­ proved a bill last m onth that banned the Central Intelligence Agency from using harsh interrogation techniques, including controlled drowning, or "water-boarding", and sensory deprivation, which was researched at McGill University in the 1950s and 1960s.

Specifically, the bill restricts the CIA's tactics to those that are explicitly authorized in the 2006 Army Field Manual. Water-boarding, sensory depriva­ tion, electrocution, mock executions, the use of attack dogs, the induction of hypothermia and the withholding of food, water or medical care are all ex­ plicitly banned in the field manual. It also said that all detainees are subject to the Geneva Conventions, thus making the rules applicable to those held as "unlawful enemy combatants."

The W hite House has threatened to veto the bill, should it receive Senate approval, saying th a t it w ould remove a useful tool th a t protects Americans.

ploor Fellow, Don, MORE Fellow

2008-2009 Are you thinking about th e next academic ye a r y et?

I f you like people and you e re in te re s te d in a challenging and rewarding student leadership position, why not apply to be a Floor Fellow, Don or MORE Fellow a t McGill Residences? The deadline far submission o f applications is Monday, Jam ary 28**, 2008 before 5:00 p.m. (ptmso not», no t m *ppttc*tiom wM t* »cc»pt»a,

The use of sensory deprivation draws upon Cold War research under­ taken at McGill University with the National Institute of Mental Health which showcased the results of such treatment. The process was tested in the 1950s

by Professor Donald 0 . Hebb and involved putting subjects in cubicles with goggles, gloves and earmuffs in order to disorient their senses and induce hal­ lucinations and psychosis.

According to University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Alfred McCoy, an expert on the history of the CIA, this was part of the agency's "massive mind control project to crack the code of human consciousness.. .with research ex­ penses reaching up to $i-billion a year at peak in the 1950s."

Fleas* check our website; www.mMill.ca/resIdenoE^ooffellow on hew to apply

McCoy told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation th a t there were real, long-term effects o f those short-term experiments.

FACULTY OF ARTS TEACHING AWARD

"I've tracked down some of the original subjects in Hebb's experiments of 1952 and men now in their 70s still suffer psychological damage from just two days of isolation with goggles, gloves and earmuffs," he has said.

H. Noel Fieldhouse Award For Distinguished Teaching

In terms o f detainees, McCoy has said tha t Australian prisoner David Hicks, w ho is the first and only Guantanamo Bay detainee to be convicted under the M ilitary Commissions Act o f 2006, has suffered severe damage as a result o f his tim e there. Hicks was released from Adelaide's Yatala Labour Prison on Dec.

29,2007.

— Kayvon Afshari

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15.01.08-N e w s -5

SPEAKERS ON CAMPUS

Planck units quantize universe Witnesses speak out Dallaire testifies at hearing

Smolin talks small at new lecture series

Continued from COVER

T rip Yang Kicking off the Cutting Edge Lectures Series of 2008, re­ nowned physicist Dr. Lee Smolin ofWaterloo's Perimeter Insti­ tute for Theoretical Physics discussed new experiments that use the universe as a laboratory in search of Planck lengths.

These experiments push physicists close to the limit of several quantum theories of relativity.

The Planck length is one of the smallest known units of length and is often used to describe quantization. One Planck length is defined as 1.6 x 1er35 metres, which is far too small to be observed in conventional accelerators. Smolin, author of the book The Trouble with Physics, explained that by using ob­ servations of "light and particles coming from cosmological distances, tiny effects can be amplified resulting in observa­ tions that probe these tiny distance scales."Using the universe as an amplifier, these minute distances can be examined to deepen our understanding of the laws of relativity.

"We should not be able to see cosmic rays arriving on Earth that are both higher than 610" electron volts [also known as the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin threshold, named for the physicists who calculated the number in 1966] or further away than 300 million light years," Smolin said. "One way to avoid this prediction is if the relativity principle is false and therefore there is a preferred state of rest in the universe."

A controversial finding arose in 1993 when the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array, a Japanese cosmic ray detector, re­ ported energy events over the GZK threshold. Subsequent experiments at University of Utah's High Resolution Fly's Eye and the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina could not con­ firm the Japanese claims.

The tentative conclusions that arose from Smolin's semi­ nar were that there "exists a GZK cutoff, Einstein's relativity principle is continued at Planck scales and double special relativity and good old-fashioned special relativity are fine."

Smolin's lecture drew enthusiastic reviews from the

MATTPARK Small talk used to address big issues. event organizer, professor of physiology Leon Glass.

“I thought Dr. Smolin's lecture was fantastic," Glass said.

"He succeeded in objectively showing different viewpoints to debated topics."

However, some of the audience felt Smolin was not as objective as scientifically required.

“While the lecture was interesting and definitely ac­ cessible even for non-physics students, the presenter was a little too sure of himself" he said. "I felt, at certain times, he presented his opinion as an objective fact instead of using a disclaimer such as'l believe,”saidTijmen De Haan, U2 honours physics.

Smolin himself also did not think the presentation was perfect.

"This presentation did not appeal to the physicists as much as I would have liked," he said. "I simplified some concepts because the audience was half physicists and half non-physicists. I also had to rush [through] some older concepts because I wanted to spend more time on the new experiments."*

investigation by the RCMP War Crimes Unit and his trial began last March in Mon­ treal.

The trial was delayed for a week last April after Munyaneza was severely beaten in his jail quarters at the Rivières-des-Prairies detention centre in eastern Montreal. His assailant, a 17-year-old fellow inmate, is said to have attacked Mun­ yaneza after reading about the charges against him in the newspaper. Since then, authorities have implemented "extraordinary measures" in order to assure his se­ curity, limiting his contact with other inmates and keeping him in isolation on the way to and from the court.

Retired Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the Canadian Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Rwanda during the genocide and author of Shake Hands with the Devil, his award winning account of the 1994 massacre, is among the witnesses that have already testified.

A number of Rwandan witnesses, their identities protected due to fears of reprisals at home, have also testified.

Munyaneza's defence lawyer claims that he and his and team will "illustrate the falseness" of around a dozen of these witnesses and their allegations in proving his client innocent.

The first witness called by the defence was Munyaneza's sister Delphine Uwimbabazi, who acknowledged knowing the identity of at least two of the sup­ posedly secret witnesses, raising questions about Canada's effort to protect them.

Much of the $i.6-million trial has been, and will continue to be, held behind closed doors.There will be further hearings in France, Rwanda and Tanzania before the court hears from final witnesses back in Montreal in the spring. ■

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O p in io n FISH FOOD

TINTED GLASSES

A miscarriage of justice

Earning my charity c(red)

J osh Fisher JO SHAD A M FISHER@ G M A IL.CO M

K at G ibson KAPPALETTA@ HO TM AIL.CO M

hen shopping for lingerie, I don't usual­ ly consider the impact of my choice on the state of the world. "Lace or cotton?"

I wonder. "Or perhaps, thong or boy-cut?"

Not until this past holiday season, how­ ever, did "will these panties do more to help the AIDS crisis in Africa than these ones?" be­ come part of my deliberation. Now, thanks to the Gap and Bono, my panties' potential global utility (I know the joke is there.. .leave it alone) has become an actual consideration. Two years ago, Bono became the public spokesperson for (PRODUCT)red, a multi-industry brand name that donates a percentage of its sales revenue to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria and Tu­ berculosis. Among the companies involved are Hallmark, Motorola, American Express and Gap, of course. Picture the Gap ads featuring a nearly naked Ann Hathaway and little red T-Shirts with sayings like"lnspi(red)"or panties with "desi(red)” written on them. According to Bono and Gap, purchasing these panties could change the world.

I must admit I had a rather shameful reac­ tion while shopping for presents in GAP this holiday season. Rather than buying these items, I found myself hesitant, and yes, perhaps even slightly scornful of those other shoppers proud­ ly wrapping up their trendy little charitable do­ nations.

"They only care because it's cool," I found myself thinking. "They're only giving because they loved The D evil Wears Prada" My self-im­ portant thought process told me that real charity originates from a selfless desire to help others and not from the same impulse that compels .the purchase of Ugg boots. I now recognize this attitude for what it is: a pre­ tentious misunderstanding of where focus truly belongs when contemplating actions of charity.

A few years ago, I treated those colourful rubber bracelets whose purchase supported

W

various charities with similar disdain. Suddenly, all the cool kids were wearing them; even my teenage brother was sporting baby blue evi­ dence of his concern for prostate cancer. Some friends objected to this method of raising money for charity, claiming that the motive of the giver is of some central importance to the charitable process, and that the urge to look trendy is hardly an admirable reason to give. This argu­ ment's flaw is that it looks at charity backwards.

Charity starts with the needs of the recipient, and these needs must take precedence over the motivation of the donator. Motivation is im por­ tant only from the point of view of the donator, and focusing on this aspect misses the whole point of the charitable process. Who cares why someone chooses to give? Charity isn’t about them in the first place, and I have a hard time believing that an AIDS victim in Africa is going to care about whether his drugs were paid for

by Mother Theresa or my trendy little brother.

In fact, making charity trendy is probably the very best way to get lots of help to those who need it most. Can you imagine how many lives would be saved if giving could become as important for your image as say, owning a tiny cell phone? Imagine if all the proceeds from the sale of gigantic sunglasses went to provid­ ing clean drinking water in Ethiopia, or build­ ing AIDS orphanages in Botswana, or send­ ing birthing packages to India. Walk through campus keeping track of all Lululemon yoga pants sightings, multiply the number by the cost of the pants, imagine sending that much money to sick children around the globe and then question whether trendy charity deserves even the slightest criticism. Wouldn't it be swell if everyone in the world cared as much about AIDS as they do about looking trendy? Well, of course, but in this lag period before we discover the cure for’apathy, I'll be proudly shaking my Inspi(red) butt to U2, and I strongly suggest you do the same. ■

he National Parole Board (NPB) de­ cision to deny parole to Robert Lat­ imer has put our justice system into disrepute.

Robert Latimer is a Saskatchewan man who cared for his daughter Tracy for the first 12 years of her life, but then caused her death because, he says, he couldn't stand to see her suffer. Tracy was a quadriplegic who suffered from cerebral palsy. She couldn't speak or feed herself, suffered seizures, chronic vomiting and was in constant pain. Latimer's seconddegree murder conviction illustrates the idea that our criminal justice system is often about punishing proscribed behav­ ior, rather than protecting society. So be it. But judging from numerous newspaper letters and blogs on the subject, many Ca­ nadians feel strongly that his punishment in this case was far too harsh.

Part of every legal decision concerns the potential effects of the precedent on future actions. The NPB's decision to deny Latimer day parole will set a prec­ edent that will have at least two dev­ astating consequences, compounded by the high publicity of this case. First, it sends the message to future mercy killers that they are now more likely to receive an acquittal, even if the law remains un­ changed, given the amount of sympa­ thy that exists in the general public for Latimer. In fact, one juror even stated that the jury decision would have been different had they known that Latimer would have to spend so much time be­ hind bars. Given the public outrage at the NPB Latimer decision," "the next Latimer" will likely be held to a lower standard of justice— and juries may even allow him to walk free rather than dole out a draconian mandatory sentence.

T

Further, the decision sends a prob­ lematic message from a different per­ spective, which is that if Latimer had lied and showed remorse in front of the NRB, he would have almost certainly been granted parole. This is because the system often rewards supplication, rather than impartiality. However, the problem is that remorse can easily be feigned. This idea has practical implications. Most notably, it has the potential to give rise to false con­ victions, something that legislators, law­ yers and judges alike all fear and abhor.

Those wrongly accused will feel more compelled to plea bargain (to confess in exchange for a lighter sentence than if convicted following a full trial) and take their chances with a parole board.

Although this may be'more difficult to remedy, the problem of future juries ig­ noring the law ("jury nullification") when faced with a sympathetic defendant can be avoided if Parliament should change the law to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for murder. Mandatory mini­ mum sentences— advocated by those who purport to be "tough on crime”— may actually have the opposite effect, if juries and judges decide to acquit (or con­ vict of lesser and included offences) when faced with sympathetic accused and strict sentencing regimes.

In the end, those who champion the rights of disabled children should not be applauding this decision, and neither should those who believe in harsh punish­ ment. Beyond the fact that it is unjust and inconsistent for the NPB to grant parole to malicious killers and rapists while denying it to someone like Latimer, the precedent established by the recent Latimer decision carries the potential for far more danger­ ous legal and social effects. ■

±40°

They're just electioneering D avid L evitz DA VID .LEVITZ@ M A IL.M CG ILL.CA his year America has already made it abundantly clear that the campaign for "change" will determine the next presi­ den t.. .but who will it be? Barack Obama's slogan,"Change we can believe in," has been so successful that nearly every other candidate— Democrat and Republican— has adapted it to his or her own campaign. Voters of every political leaning justify their votes by vaguely citing the hope for “change.'To his credit, Obama has gracefully accepted the theft of his buzz­ word, stating, "This change thing must be catching on, because now everybody's talking about change. That's okay. We want everybody on the change bandwagon."

Senator Clinton says, "I want to make change, but I've al­ ready made change. I will continue to make change. I'm not just running on a promise of change, I'm running on 35 years of change... .so you know I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change.'The campaigns have by­ passed the question of what kind of change, and already the candidates are working to demonstrate that they are the most poised to deliver it, whatever it may be. If we can judge any­ thing from this vague-yet-ubiquitous call for change, it is that Americans are finally unified in their disgust for Dubya (even if it is two terms too late).

Obama alluded to this strange unity of the American peo­ ple in his Iowa speech, referring to a "coalition for change that

T

stretches through the red states and blue states." In the same speech he made an appeal to the listeners' emotions, sharing with them the excitement of the triumphant underdog: "They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't d o .. .you came together as Dem o­ crats, Republicans and independents to stand up and say that we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come!"

Obama's strategy is obviously to funnel the universal de­ sire for change into a broader sense of national unity in which he can implicate himself. Obama's rhetoric conflates his Iowa triumph at a Democratic caucus with the larger, bipartisan voter turnout, creating a false sense of unity in the place of a very real division. However, to his advantage, he knows that no rational statements can accomplish his objective and, more importantly, that it is emotion— not reason— that wins elec­ tions. Though less experienced than his opponents, Obama is a shrewd politician.

Now, after the fear-years, at a moment in time when the U.S. could most use a rational political leader, presidential can­ didates are clamoring to capitalize on high emotions. Giuliani's 9/11 reaction makes him "America's Mayor," with no mention of

how his negligence led to the lung disease of Ground-Zero clean up workers. Romney and Huckabee, in particular, cash in on the image of the patriarchal, homophobic, tax-cutting, “moral" Christians that Republicans so love. Huckabee, who even has a few good platforms, makes particularly odious appeals to emotion in his argument for the Federal Marriage Amendment. Rather than calling a spade a spade— in this case, a hateful proposal to expressly deny equal rights to an entire faction of the population— he defends his stance instead with talk of terrorists, poverty and his wife's miraculous recovery from spine cancer.

I do not mean to endorse any candidate here, but rather to describe a more general phenomenon. After the 2004 elec­ tion I heard several otherwise-intelligent people say that they couldn't vote for Kerry because he was too elitist, while Bush was "a man of the people.'The point is that anyone who bothered to take a reality check and look at the platforms found the exact opposite to be true. In the end, though, it's all about perception of reality and not reality itself. Democracy may be the best form of government to date, but unfortunately there is no one to save the people from the people. Even the "good" politicians, who are far more aware of the issues than their voters, must compromise themselves and the standards of their campaigns if they are ever to be elected. ■

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15.01.07 • The McGill Tribune • 7

T r t b ij n e

EDITORIAL

Quebec doctors needed, stat!

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ast December, several leading French lan­ guage advocacy groups joined together to decry the effects of a notable exception to Bill io i— the 1983 provision (originally lobbied for

by McGill-affiliated m edical centres) that allows hospitals to hire non-French speaking personnel, so long as French services are also available to all patients.

The CBC quoted several francophone pa­ tients, all of whom had all been treated at McGill's Royal Victoria Hospital, as feeling 'humiliated' by their lack of access to a French-speaking doctor.

Moreover, these patients were given prescrip­ tions and other im portant discharge docum ents written in English. The hospital exemption, ar­ gued Le M ouvement Français Montréal and the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, should be closed and the strict original French-fluency provisions of Bill 101 should apply to all Quebec hospitals and medical personnel.

Unfortunately, these language lobby groups are being shortsighted— and their dem and that francophone issues take precedent over m edi­ cal necessity will only com pound the myriad of problems faced by teaching hospitals and m edi­ cal schools across Q uebec in recruiting, training and keeping young doctors and residents in­ province.

It's a reality that French is the official language of the province and that French-speakers should have access to im portant public services in their own language. Further, there is nothing inher­ ently wrong with the com plaints of language-ad­ vocacy groups— indeed, McGill and Royal Victoria seem remiss in their mandate to provide services in French, if patients are com plaining publicly about their lack of access. However, it's also a re­ ality that the Quebec hospital system is already strained— and that the provincial governm ent should balance language concerns against the shortage of doctors, and the exodus of talent to the United States.

Nationwide, Canada (including Quebec) is facing a severe doctor shortage. In a Canadian Medical Association survey of 20,000 Canadian doctors, more than 4,000 reported that they planned to leave m edicine altogether within the next two years. An additional 35 per cent re­

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ported that they were planning on scaling back their hours. Com bined with the im pending re­ tirement of large numbers of the baby-boom er doctors, there remains a nationwide shortage of qualified doctors— regardless of language. Since

are creeping up in the debate over Q uebec hos­ pitals, when in fact, the situation is growing even more dire. The shortage of qualified medical prac­ titioners means that language groups should be allowing for more flexibility in the hiring of sem i­

"U nfortunately, these language lobby groups are being short­ sighted— and tn e ir dem and th a t francophone issues taRe prec­ ed en t over m edical necessity w ill only com pound th e m yriad o f problem s faced by teaching hospitals and m edical schools across Quebec" 2003, Quebec has fought hard to raise enrollment in the provinces'four m edical schools— with only modest success.

Further, all the language com plaints re­ volved around patient care in em ergency rooms.

However, the state of em ergency care in Quebec and the city of Montreal is atrocious— despite a 6o-m illion dollar investment by the Charest gov­ ernment. The average wait tim e to be admitted to the hospital from an em ergency room is a shock­ ing 16 hours and 18 minutes, while the target set by the Liberal governm ent is just 12 hours. The teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Montreal fared the worst, with a waiting time of just under 30 hours for hospital admission. Further, Montreal hospitals performed far worse than their regional counterparts— one-third of which actu­ ally m anaged to keep admission times under the provincial target.

Thus, it seems strange that language issues

fluent or sem i-proficient French speakers, not less. More emphasis should be placed on raising the level of French proficiency within the m edi­ cal schools themselves, rather than am ending the Bill 101 exemption.

Emergency care never takes place under ideal conditions. In an ideal world, all medical stu­ dents would be perfectly fluent in both French and English and would be able to meet any of their patient's language needs. However, the health care situation in Quebec is far from ideal— and the province is facing a perfect storm of low medical school enrollment, increasing demand for medical services and a tidal wave of retiring doctors. In the midst of such a crisis, the language exemption that allowed McGill and other institu­ tions to hire non-French personnel is an impor­ tant exemption that allows for m uch-needed flexibility in the midst of a growing public health challenge and should be preserved at all costs. ■

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OFF THE BOARD

Snatching the vote

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C ontributors Kayvon Afshari, Kathryn Amey, Jennifer Bartoli, Samay Bhachech, Andrew Burt, Steve Campbell, Josh Fisher, Lena Gayraud, Kat Gibson, James Gilman, Jamie Goodman, Jacob Kanter, David Levitz, Matt Park, Nebojsa Petrovic, Nancy Pham, Clare Pidsley.Theo Meyer, William Robinson, Adam Scotti, Shushmita Shivkumar, Trip Yang

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Elizabeth Perle hat's it? That's the em otional breakdown that blows the election for [Hillary Clinton]?

I'm glad no one here ever sees me get a flu shot," quipped Jon Stewart on the Jan 8 D aily Show episode in reaction to the media frenzy surrounding Senator Clinton's "emotional" m o­ ment after her loss in Iowa.

And, as per usual, Jon's right. It wasn't a breakdown. It was hardly even em otional. Yet, the so-called incident was the lead story of prac­ tically every major news source across the co un ­ try.

The w hole thing is sexist— and it doesn't take som eone w ho obsessively follows the generally m isogynistic media coverage of Senator Clinton's cam paign (like myself) to realize that. W hat has been less obvious, however, is the fact that the coverage of Senator Clinton's "breakdown"— and her subsequent surprise win in New H am p­ shire— has also brought to the forefront similarly sexist coverage of female voting behaviour.

Take the title of a New York Tim es article published after Senator Clinton's win, for exam ­ ple: "Women's'Support for Clinton Rises in Wake of Perceived Sexism.'The absurd use of the word "perceived" aside, it is a problem atic assum ption

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that because of Senator Clinton's sexist coverage after her so-called em otional "moment," women, en masse, w ent and changed their vote. Such coverage (which has been mirrored in dozens more articles from mainstream media sources) persistently insists that this election is about gender. They necessarily treat w om en as a single m onolithic group w hose voting habits are not based upon careful deliberation about a candi­ date's policies and social positions.

Frankly, I think it's tim e for the media to stop pretending to figure out the female voting pat­ terns without actually doing any significant re­ search on the subject.

I have yet to see a single article produced this cam paign period that attempts to analyze the ways (or singular way) in w hich men are voting; it is assum ed that they have the clout to understand what candidate they intend to vote for and their behaviour is not questioned because of their gender. In recent articles such as the one m en­ tioned above from TheTim es, w om en are depict­ ed not only as hom ogeneous, but also as utterly indecisive and flippant in their choices.

I also m aintain that the opinion pieces em erging (the latest Dow d-ism on Hillary's cry

com es to mind) condem ning those w ho do con­ sider gender in their voting choices are equally myopic. It is com pletely reasonable for Senator Clinton's sex to be a person's deciding factor in an election. As was pointed out in a post on the blog Shakesville, it is "no less legitimate than cit­ ing John Edwards being a millworker's son who knows what it's like to be working class as one's deciding factor." Similarly, Guiliani supporters often point to his working class fam ily history.

W hy is no one accused of overlooking their poli­ cies if they respect Edwards and Guiliani's back­ grounds?

The m edia-darling Mitt Romney has teared up on at least three occasions during his cam ­ paign, but that's no matter. Everyone wasn't sit­ ting around waiting for him to finally succum b to his big, girly, em otions that would finally prove, once and for all, that his vagina w ould render him physically incapable of handling the job.

Maybe Senator Clinton's sudden illustration of fem inine em otion managed to finally win her the 'women's vote' previously 'stolen' by Obama in Iowa. Maybe not. I would ask my uterus its opinion, but unfortunately it's too busy knitting pink booties to offer political advice. ■

The M cG ill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Students' Society of McGill University in collaboration with the Tribune Publication Society. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Students'Society or McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to ietters@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor's name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by theTribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions.

Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the M cG ill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.

8 • The McGill Tribune • 15.01.07

V O X P O P U LI

The need for nuance in the Middle East A ndrew B urt ANDREW.BURT@MAIL.MCGILL.CA t's not like it used to be.”

These are the words of a friend of m ine— an Egyptianborn Sunni Muslim raised in Dubai. I had asked him if the ef­ fects of the Sunni-Shia divide were palpable even in Arab-Canadian circles. Freshman year, he told me, we were all Arabs. Now we're Sunni Arabs, or Shiite Arabs or Christian Arabs. It's not the same.

It would, of course, be foolish to draw conclusions about the Arab world based on a few isolated conversations. But the fact that sectarian rifts within the Arab world have permeated Ara­ bic social circles here provides a small window into the effects of the changing political landscape in the Middle East. Like all its predecessors in the last half-century, the next U.S. administration will face a Middle East fraught with problems. All this comes at a time when U.S. power in the region has hit its nadir, embroiled as American arms and resources are in the Iraq war. But there is hope for the next U.S. administration. A pragmatic approach towards this newly volatile Middle East will give the U.S. an op­ portunity to help bring stability and restore American standing in the region. Policy in the.next U.S. administration can achieve these goals by addressing the following three threats.

First: the conflict in Iraq threatens to draw in its neighbours, potentially instigating a wider regional conflict. Civil violence in Iraq has pitted Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan against Syria and

Iran. On the one side, Iran and the Shia-aligned Alawi regime in Syria seek a likeminded Shiite-governed Iraq and Iran has sought to achieve this goal by actively aiding and encouraging Shia mili­ tias there. Meanwhile, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are eager to see a Sunni-governed Iraq to counterbalance Iran's rising power.

Direct confrontation between any of the five countries over their interests in Iraq might spark a regional war.

Second: despite the recent National Intelligence Estimate maintaining that Iran has slowed its nuclear program, the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions may well lead its neighbours into a regional arms race. In the event that the possibility of a nuclear Iran becomes immediate, Israel might attempt a pre­ emptive strike to keep Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, trig­ gering retaliation by proxy through Piezbollah on U.S. and Israeli interests.

Third: Hezbollah's perceived success against Israel in 2006 and Iran's pursuit of nuclear energy in the face of UN sanctions have bolstered support for extremist policies in the Arab world.

Flamas's control of Gaza has furthered the perception that ex­ tremist policies trump moderate ones. Additionally, the Bush ad­ ministration's with-us-or-against-us approach to the Middle East has resulted in the increasing isolation of moderate Arab govern­ ments, and the weakening of American credibility in the region.

In addition to addressing the three threats outlined above,

the next U.S. administration faces a Middle East comprised of largely disenfranchised majorities and their autocratic govern­ ments, who have proved either unwilling or unable to address this disparity. The threat of further instability stems not simply from the newly irritated sectarian divisions in the Middle East, but from the animosity preserved in its disenfranchised communities by broken political systems. As the rhetoric of Flamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad illustrate, radi­ cal voices in the Middle East know how to exploit this animosity all too well. Ensuring that all facets of the Arab world share simi­ lar— if not equal— economic and political power is the best way to achieve any effective stability in the region and to quell the resentment extremists use to garner support.

Unfortunately for the next U.S. administration, there is no quick way achieve this objective. A first step in the process, how­ ever, is abandoning the Bush administration's brazen attitude to­ wards the Arab world in favour of a more nuanced approach. A new U.S. policy for the Middle East built on diplomacy and the steady espousal of political reform is the best— and perhaps the only— way that the U.S. can help to foster, and not force, long­ standing stability for the region. ■ Andrew Burt is a U3 political science student and Tribune opinion contributor.

lift!

Letter to the editor ».»*- m m m m R U s m s ü !f f

^ O F F THE BOARD

Killing your children, one pencil at time

s?f # * m w p * i §

Tau "baseless and distrubing" Byron Tau's simplistic attack ("First World's Burden" 08.01.08) on v- advocates of intervention and strong action abroad is baseless and 11 disturbing. Tau proposes two excuses why no attention to foreign domestic crisis should be acted upon. Firstly he daim s that exhaust­ ed warring parties will be forced to make peace. This is of course ridiculous in theory and empirically; exhausted parties will declare war again as soon as they regain strength. Secondly, he proposes a clear victor will bring peace that is a thinly disguised defence of eth­ nic cleansing (Tau commends the "peaceful" dictatorship in Rwanda I as a admirable result of genocide). A clear victor in a civil conflict : I won?t bring peace because there is always an "other," there's always a new victim to be found no matter how many have been purged.

Tau tries to attach modern calls for action in Africa with "white man's burden" but he should note that Europe, Asia and the Middle East have received much stronger intervention than any countries in Af­ rica in the post war-period. Noteable failures aside, South Koreans and ethnic Albanians don?t seem to be complaining about inter­ vention that saved their country and their people respectively. Tau's relentless pursuit of controversy built on a simplistic criticism, flimsy comparisons (Rwanda and Cyprus?) and outright fallacies discredits his rather reasonable conclusion that intervention in Kenya would ,v be rash.

— James Young U3 Economics

k a J S ® B yron T au

I

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n my case, it was the pencil that broke the camel's back. I was in the McGill bookstore for my bi-an­ nual office supply purchase, when I came across a shocking new product— the PaperMate anti-bacterial mechanical pencil. With a label that proudly touts both the pencil's patented "Flex-Grip" technology as well as the innovative bacterially resistant coating, this is one writing implement that every germophobe, hypochondriac and obsessive-compulsive on campus can't afford to be without. Unfortunately, nothing is more shortsighted and paradoxical than our society's obsession with cleanliness. In fact, our proclivity to include antibiotic agents in every con­ sumer products is perhaps the greatest public health menace of our generation— and poses an especially lethal threat to children.

Com m on sense dictates that a child raised in a relatively sanitary environment will be a healthy child. Parents go to great lengths to keep their chil­ dren safe from germs, viruses, and bacteria of all stripes. So ingrained is this revulsion to bacteria that corporate marketing departments play on parents' worst fears, cynically marketing household cleaning products (and now even pencils) designed to kill any and every microbe that might give Juniôr the sniffles or the sneezes. In fact, Hasbro, maker of Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys, has just introduced a line of anti­ bacterial toys, and other leading toy companies are sure to follow.

However, this instinctive fear of bacteria and other germs is predicated on a colossal misunder­ standing of human biology, and the development of the immune system. Bacteria are not monolithically harmful. In fact, in a recent paper in Nature Biotech­ nology, one scholar noted that 'good' bacterial cells in the human digestive tract actually outnumbered total human cells in the body. Five-hundred different species exists, consisting of 100 trillion cells— where­ as our human cells only number a mere trillion. In re­ sponse to the study, one writer keenly observed,"The human genom e does not carry enough information to determine key elements of our own biology” Our vital, healthy bacterial component aside, the human immune system develops by learning responses to invading harmful bacteria. Developed world societies, however, have managed to elimi­

■

nate most of the harmful germs from our food and water supply. Neurotic first world parents compound the problem by virtually sterilizing the environments that their young children grow up in. As a result, children's immune systems are not exposed to the variety of germs and microbes that will lead them to develop healthy immune responses able to deal with bacterial invasion.

"Ever wonder why your dog can gobble, lick and gnaw all he wants along the glorious buf­ fet of a city street and (almost) never get sick?" asked Kent Sepkowitz on Siate.com. "Your dog is used to eating shit. Americans, on the other hand, grow up eating almost no shit at all. Our food is hosed and boiled and rinsed and detoxi­ fied and frozen and salted and preserved. Recently, we have begun to irradiate it, too—just in case."

Thus, whenever any (however minor) contamination of the food supply occurs, serious health problems occur, especially in children— namely because North American children grow up in.sterile environments.

In the past year, contaminated spinach, peanut but­ ter and other pedestrian household staples made headlines when they were infected with virulent strains of e c o li or botulism. These household staples were all exposed to varying trace amounts of animal manure. The victims of these outbreaks have inevita­ bly been children— whose immune systems are still developing, and whose sterile upbringing has not actually made them any healthier.

Further, childhood allergies have ecome a classroom menace, with between 4 and 8 per cent of grade-school aged children suffering from some sort of allergy or intolerance— and leading theories all point to the lack of proper exposure to micro-or­ ganisms during immune system development.

It is the duty of all parents to be concerned about the health and welfare of their children— and that responsibility includes purchasing products for their well-being. However, our society's proclivity to­ wards eradicating every last microbe comes with a whole host of (sometimes fatal) unintended conse­ quences. Modern children don't need anti-bacterial toys. Household bathrooms don't need anti-bacterial soap. And I sure as hell don't need an anti-bacterial pencil. ■

r -r r

--------------------------C a m p u s

—

James Tiberius Kirk v. Jean-Luc Picard Genuine hair loss v. hidden hair loss Kirk

Picard

Ride: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and 1701-A

Ride: USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, and 1701-E

Entourage: A hard-drinking Southern doctor named Bones, the everstoic Vulcan Mr. Spock and the rest of his politically correct Planeteers (Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu).

Entourage: A womanizing first officer, an android, Starfleet's first Klin­ gon, a useless half-Betazoid empath, that guy from Roots.

Beefs with: Ricardo Montalban's Corinthian-leather clad ubermensch,

Beefs with: The hive-minded Borg collective, the often playfully om ­ nipotent superbeing Q and, for a few episodes, those whacky Ferengi.

Khan Noonien Singh, the Klingon Empre and those troubling Tribbles.

Main Squeeze: Despite a few holiday dalliances with women, the Cap­ tain has pursued a longstanding flirtation turned marriage with the ship's crimson vixen, Dr. Beverly "The Crush" Crusher.

Main Squeeze: Though Kirk had more one-tim e lady friends than Jerry on Seinfeld, he managed to tie himself down to Carol Marcus long enough to impregnate her. Also landed the first interracial kiss on TV with his communications officer, Uhura.

Catchphrase: "KHAAAAAAAANIII!" Best Moment: Managed to slingshot a Klingon warbird around the Sun, go back in time to save two humpback whales and as a result, pre­ vent Earth's atmosphere from being ionized. Picked up the mom from 7th Heaven along the way.

Sure, he's not as dashing and barrel­ chested as his twenty-third precursor, but as a well-read space age Renaissance man who's great in a tight spot, Picard edges out Kirk.

Plus he invented the "Picard Maneuver," hence required reading for all Starfleet cadets.

Catchphrase: "Make it so.", "Engage.","Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Best Moment: In the series finale of StarTrekrThe Next Generation, Picard becomes unstuck in time and has to move through three timelines to stop himself from negating the existence of humanity. He succeeds, de­ spite his crew thinking the old man has gone off his space-rocker due to a touch of ol'lrumodic Syndrome.

— Com plied by John Sem ley and Byron Tau

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Fokus Film Festival Call for Submissions! jjf ljr TVMcGill's second annual fjlrpj& tiv a l is now accepting submissioilstmtil early March! *

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The SACOMSS Helpline is training new volunteers for Winter 2008.

Training is 40 hours beginning on Jan. 19. If you are interested in volunteering stop by the SACOMSS table at Activities Night (Jan. i 6 Shatner Building, 3480 McTavish, 4-8 p.m.)

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Players'Theatre Presents "The Glass Menagerie"

during the Great Depression. Directed by Mike Lake.

The Glass Menagerie is Tennessee Williams' beautifully poetic play about Tom, a young poet, seraching for meaning in the world

17

Sunday

J a u n a r y 1 7 -1 9 :8 p .m .

J a n u a r y 19 m a t in e e : 2 p .m .

Players' Theatre, 3rd Floor, Shatner

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CKUT is holding an open house Jan. 24 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 3647 Uni­ versity St. Stop by to learn more about your com m unity radio staton.

24

Want to advertise in the Campus Calendar? For just a toonie you can advertise your event up to two weeks in advance.

Email calendar@mcgilltribune.com for more information, or drop by the Tribune office in Shatner 110 .

F EATURES The d e a th oP th e S un d ay com ics The rise oP the Webcomic and what it C arolyn Yates "I'm most excited about m oving beyond what paper can do; breaking past the edge of the page, allow ing the story to take its own shape, find its own size," says Scott McLeod, author of the best­ selling book "Understanding Comics" in an interview in The M ac O b ­ server.

The com ics section has always been a staple of North Am erican daily newspaper reading. However, with the current newspaper in­ dustry— and print media in general— in serious decline, a growing

able to them a potentially limitless audience and so it enables anyone, with or w ithout talent and with som ething to say— or nothing to say— to be heard," says Mark Federman, a Ph.D candidate at the University ofToronto in adult educa­ tion and former Chief Strategist of the M cLuhan Program in culture and technology.

C o m p a ra tiv e ly e a s y - t o - u s e and with a wide range of quality requirements, Webcom ics sometimes struggle to achieve widespread popular‘% |j ity— unlike, for exam ­ ple, newspaper cartoons, where getting published autom ati­ cally gives artists a large audience. On the other hand, it's very easy to get exposure and gain popularity if you know how to adver­ tise— and discipline yourself.

"The best and worst thing about W ebcom ics is that anybody can toss a JPG or two up at some free Web site and be a Web cartoonist. So while they are a great way to hone your craft, get disciplined about meeting deadlines and that sort of thing, it's hard to stand out from all that crap or build an audience," says Gordon McAlpin, the author of M ultiplex, a tw iceweekly W ebcom ic about staff in a fictional subur­ ban cinema and the real movies that play there.

W hile the anything-and-anyone goes non-

num ber of consum ers are now turning to the World W ide Web to get their com ic fix. The W ebcom ic trend, of course, has its own distinct audience; due to its rela­ tively unrestricted content and artistic developm ents it is separate and not necessarily com plem entary to print publishing. Thus, there remain benefits for pu b­ lishing cartoons in each m edium .

"I just think [the advantages of print] are tem po­ rary," McLeod says.

policy of online art means that the bar is signifi­ cantly lowered in terms of content and style— and general d ecency— it also allows for greater and wider m eans of expression.

"We used to think that mass media was media created for the m asses... What the net allows us to do is to turn ^ T P the power dynam ic of w ho gets to say stuff," Federman says.

One example of a shifting power dynam ic is Mom's Cancer, a W ebcom ic created by Brian Flies detailing his mother's struggle with lung cancer and its effect on their family. Though not syndicated, the W ebcomic won sev­ eral awards and was eventually released in a hardcover edi­ tion— som ething that was possible because of its on­ line fan base.

"Mom's Can cer began as a W ebcom ic because I didn't know w hat to do with it,” Flies explains. "The Internet offered a very low -cost means of im m ediate w orld-w ide distri­ bution."

McLeod also acknow ledges the monetary differences between Web (versus print) com ic publishing.

"When I was creating only printed com ics in the 80s, I chose not to self-publish because of all the work involved. Here online though, I do

Easy as cake One advantage— or disadvantage— of online publishing is that anyone can do it. W hile this may re­ sult in quality com ics w ithout the resources to snag a spot in a daily newspaper or the serial volum e to reach an audience, it also means that com ics of any content or quality can find a niche audience.

"People w ho do any sort of art now have avail­

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One more thing to distract in class.

everything myself and it's all relatively easy (though, of course, it required some learning at first)," McLeod says. "There's a difference between survival and profit­ ability, of course. I don't lose m oney but I don't make too m uch either."

The audience is watching The low -cost form of distribution also gives artists a greater opportunity for previously unaccepted variations that would not be elsewhere. For McAlpin, one of the tangible benefits of an online format is this fluidity.

"I love the freedom to do strips that are four or six or 12 panels long if I want; that kind of flexibility would be hard to com e by in print," M cAlpin explains.

Another advantage to online pub­ lishing is the condensed time-frame.

Rather than taking days or months, m ini­

mum, to publish a strip or serial volume, artists are free to respond to events or inspiration in as m uch or as little tim e as they want.

"I love that I can read a bit of movie news or see a movie, do a com ic strip about it and post it, all within 24 hours. I can keep any movie [or] news com m en­ tary fresh, w hich just wouldn't be pos­ sible in print,"McAlpin says.

M ultiplex currently gets 33,000 page views per day, according to Google. By com parison, the weekend edition of The Globe and Mail has a circulation of 410,285 (2007data from the Canadian Newspaper Association).

The ease of the creative process also allows for audience feedback and gives the artists a chance to respond. Message boards and e-m ails are easier to send than letters— and make co m m unica­

tion between the artist and audience easier to maintain than with normal print media.

"Immediate interaction with readers was one of the bçst benefits of being on the Web. Within hours of putting Mom's Can cer online, I started to get a sense of w hether people liked it or not. And I began getting the most extraordinary e-m ails. One of the earliest and best was from a professor of nursing in Australia who asked ifsh e co u ld include some of my pages in training materials for her stu­ dents dealing with cancer patients.

The idea that my family's story would be interesting and useful to health­ care professionals on the other side of the world blew me away," Fies says.

As with all Internet message boards, the anonym ity and rapid result from

15.01.08 • The McGill Tribune • 11

For mature audiences only J ohn S emley

■neans Por print media

Where comics were once the domain of eternally moralistic caped crusaders and the boring life lessons of the Peanuts gang, they now consti­ tute— along with "indie" rock and high-top Chuck Taylors— an essential part of the larger faded-plaid fabric of geek chic culture. All dressed up as "graphic novels" (somewhat of a misnomer considering that they are actually comic books proper where what we call "comic books" better resemble pamphlets), comics have by now convincingly seeped out of their shadowy subcultural crannies and carved out a space for themselves amongst that which can con­ ceivably be called art. It's a trend perhaps as annoying as anything trendy, but still, there are some good titles. Here are a few of them.

e-m ails allow anyone to send whatever they like and can result in a variety of com m ents.

"There's the disadvantage of being one click away from every idiot on the planet. But that's the Internet for you," M cAlpin says.

Everyone wants to be in print Internet creators are often free to ignore the normal restrictions on touchy subject mat­ ter or sexual or violent explicitness. This allows them greater freedom content-wise.

"We're seeing an explosion of talent that w ould otherwise not have been found, because the barrier of entry and the gatekeepers h ave... lim itations on who gets to contribute and who gets to be seen," Federman says. "We're seeing hum our and com m entary and satire that would never have ■J made it in conventional newspapers or other forms of com ics and this makes us all consider­ ably richer."

At the end of the day, how ­ ever, m any of these | Internet-based cari toonists hope for S eventual print 4ÉI sy n d ic a tion and the possibility of reaching a larger audience.

"Unlike some W ebcom ics creators, I always hoped Mom's

WWW. P K P C O H i C $ . COM

PHDCOMICS.COM |

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Webcomics target the technologically inclined.

Can cer m ight becom e a b o o k ... I didn't know much about publishing except that I'd probably need an k agent and it would take a long time, likely involv­ ing years of waiting with no promise of success," Fies says. "The attention I got on the Web helped me attract publishers and make • "p "*■ a business case that there §§¥ was an audience for a book V like mine. It turned out to be a U f nice synergy."

OlV/

Kappoww!!!-ing into the future But what does this mean for

print publication?

"W ebcomics are probably contributing to the dem ise of the newspaper com ic strip... and they may be eating away com ics pecals'sales [i.e. the typical r i od i 22-36 page com ics magazines], but graphic

novel sales have grown considerably in the past couple of years," McAlpin says. "If anything, I would guess that W ebcom ics are helping print com ics in that they're exposing a lot of non­ com ics readers to a huge range of material— stuff that isn't just gag strips or dudes kicking the shit out of each other— and creating new readers in the process."

Whether stick-figure sketches on cave walls, superheroes blasting laser rays-o-death over thinly-veiled politi­ cal ideals in the second World War, or school children brutally murdering each other in Japanese m anga, com ­ ics, in som e form, have always been around. And, likely, they always will, though perhaps in different textual formats.

"We always tell stories using the dom inant means of co m m un ication ... right n ow ... It's natural that [comics] w ould find their way online," Federman says. "I think it will continue as long as people have som ething to say and the ability to create abstract images. It will continue on for as long as we're com ­ m unicating online, until the next dom ­ inant form of communication." ■

667

SEA SO N

J.H .

W ILLIAM S III

IWANTMYC0MICSN0W.COM

Out with the old and in with new?

,M aus: A Survivor's Tale Writer: Art Speigelman Artist: Art Speigelman

Tom and Jerry meet Night and Fog in Spiegelman's sophisticated metabiography which, while employing anthropomorphized animals, hardly reduces the holo­ caust to some simple game of cat-and-mouse. Relaying both story of his father Vladek, a Polish Jew and con­ The Watchmen centration camp survivor, and belated trauma of sec­ Writer: Alan Moore ond-generation survivors, Speigelman's book superbly Artist: Dave Gibbons articulated the impossibility of expressing a horror that Blowing the tacit misconception that superheroes BUCKSLIB.COM jS inexpressible. It won a Pulitzer Prize, so yeah, take that were just a bunch of do-gooders in dum b spandex out­ H i and Lois. fits who spend all day thwarting masked bank robbers and safeguarding their secret identities right out of the water, The Watchmen shows that superhuman crime fighters (or "costumed adventurers") are people too.

Tackling themes of authority, power relations, conspiracy and (that ol'standby) the human condition, Moore and Gibbons' book stands as the hallmark of the adult-ori­ ented superhero book and in 2005 was fittingly voted by FIRSTSHOWING.COM Time magazine as one of'the too best English-language novels from 1923 to the present."

DARKH0RSE.COM

SUDDENW0RLD.COM

Sin City Writer: Frank Miller Artist: Frank Miller Before the ultra-violent Robert Rodriguez movie, there was the ultra-violent comic book. Nodding its head off to film noir, detective and other strains of cultish pulp, Sin City stomps all over the well stomped-over terrain of damsel in distress narratives. Weaving a whole bunch of yarns into the fairly-taught narrative of Basin City, where cops are bought and sold, tough guys try to stay out of trouble between drinks and a bunch of war­ ring families vie for control of the whole torrid operation, Sin City won all kinds of fan and critical praise before ex­ ploding into a certifiable cultural phenomenon. All the bar-fights, nipples, naughty language and various other excesses probably make it a keystone of comics.

Persepolis Writer: Marjane Satrapi Artist: Marjane Satrapi Satrapi's French-language autobiography follows her from her childhood in Iran during the government's transformation from Shah-led monarchy to the fun­ damentalist Republic of Ayatollah Khomeini and her various acts of youthful rebellion. Like M aus or Harvey Pekar's more banal Am erican Splendour, Satrapi's book shows that the goings-on of everyday life prove compel­ ling material for comic representation, from conversing with God, rejecting the laws regarding female headwear and punk rocking to the Bee Gee's and Iron Maiden. Like so many works in the medium, Persepolis saw release as a 2007 animated film directed Satrapi and Vincent Parounnaud.

S t u d e n t L iv in g Good or chocolate chip cookies When over the top desserts just don't hit the spot i L indsay Frank

I FOOD FOR , THOUGHT |

Steps:

Ingredients:

i

Recipe adapted from Kraft Canada

Reinventing classic dishes with added new elements can be fun and an adventure for the palate— but sometimes, you don't want "mango em ul­ sion" or "truffle essence" crown­ ing your dish— sometimes, you want the classic to taste, well, like it's supposed to taste. If it's tradition and comfort you seek, then there is nothing quite like a good chocolate chip cookie.

1 3/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda pinch of salt 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups M&M's (or regular chocolate chips)

2.

3.

Preheat oven to 370 degrees F. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter, brown sugar and white sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until well blended. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing well after each addi­ tion. Stir in M&M's.

Roll rounded tablespoonfuls of dough into balls; press down top slightly and place 2 inches apart, onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Bake 8 to 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks, then refrigerate or freeze for up to one month. Makes roughly 30 cookies.

FEATURES is where the good stuff's at.

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15.01.08 • The McGill Tribune • 13

ECOTIP

DUCKTAPE

P la n e t f r ie n d ly t e c h n o lo g y f o r t h e la z y

Shut out the cold!

a n d t h e e c o lo g ic a lly c o n c io u s

W in d o w S e a lin g

In-home green screens C rystal C han Rapid technological advancem ent has probably done more to shape how we interact with each other and perform tasks than anything else we've been ex­ posed to during the string of current'ages'all tied to the trend: the information age and the computer age.

We live faster, easier and generally lazier. Unfortunate­ ly, dizzying numbers of these plastic and chemical consumer products are unceremoniously dumped months or even days later. 40 percent of landfills'lead com es from consumer electronics, says Environment Canada. The ecological havoc that results is decried nowadays fairly frequently and publicly.

Yet, technology is not necessarily all bad. How we use it while listening to tunes or capturing m em o­ ries can easily aid rather than hinder the current en­ vironmental cause. Instead of com plaining and aban­ doning our Mac's (which, let's face it, not many of us can practically), learning to use technology properly can literally do a world of good.

As students, our lives often revolve around our iPods, laptops and digital cameras. This is surpris­ ingly green. Digitizing actually does a lot to keep paper, CDs, film and film developm ent chemicals from being used. Watching films on your computer screen, a necessity for most students, uses on average a quarter of the energy of a desktop and even less in comparison to a basic television set, never mind a plasma HDTV. Of course this environmental good depends on our ability to resist getting every new-fangled elec­ tronic device that comes out. So do not get an iTouch if you already have a working MP3 player. If you do

need to upgrade electronics, ask for Energy Star ap­ proved items at the store. According to a 2006 Green­ peace report, Apple is surprisingly regressive in the eco-friendly field, whereas Dell, Nokia and HP take top spots. To power all these, consider wind-power­ ing your computer or a friend's as a funny eco-friend­ ly birthday present: a visit to http://pem bina.org/w ind and $18 CAD will power your laptop for three years!

Recycling isn't only for egg cartons; rather thanchuck your laptop, donate it. Most makers take back and safely recycle their computers, or try charities such as Computers for Schools (http://cfs-ope.ic.gc.ca) or ww w .rebootcanada.ca. Use search engine www. blackle.com to look for other ways to save energy— you'll be doing so already with the energy-saving black screen.

Using your technology in an ecologically friend­ ly manner never necessitates more effort than your regular habits. ■

S amuel D rory Windows serve us in many ways (as someone living in a basement will read­ ily admit), but at times the costs seem to outweigh the benefits when they let in everything from rain to the noise of the street below, not to mention the added electricity and pharmaceutical consumption that comes with cold air wafting through one's bedroom and the subsequent sickness. Luckily, however, there exist a couple of easy fixes that can be implemented by the common lay-person looking to increase comfort while cutting consumption.

Before you begin your sealing operation, you will need a couple of easy-tofind materials at your disposal, all cheaply and readily available at your average Canadian Tire type of store: a flame, caulk softener or a blow dryer, polyurethane caulk, a caulking gun, and a putty knife.

First, check for drafts by holding a flame up to the windows in your dwell­ ing. Any air slipping through will immediately become apparent by the flame flickering. Now, check the outside of the offending windows. If the caulking around the panes seems excessively cracked and worn, it is probably time to reseal them. Start by removing the window frame from its position. Check with your putty knife to see whether the caulk will readily come off. If not, either apply caulk softener, following the instructions on the bottle, or use a blow drier to warm the presumably ancient stuff up, which should make it malleable and easier to peal off. Once the caulk is removed, fit the new caulk into the caulk gun and apply a liberal fillet about one centimetre thick all around the pane. Use the putty knife to smooth it over and ensure yourself of the seal. Celebrate with a suddenly affordable beverage of choice.

For an exceedingly quick fix, old blankets which are readily available for cheap at your local Salvation Army will do. Tack, hang, nail, or otherwise affix a blanket over each offending window. If you want to get fancy, hook a loop of string around the top left or right point of attachment of the blanket. Placing the blanket through the loop will hold it to one side for a more refined curtain effect during the day. ■ Sources: www.lowes.com www.acehardware.com

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A r t s & E n t e r t a in m e n t m u s ic

Montreal's answer to indie-rock antipathy CPC Gangbangs' Paul Spence talks chaos, psychosis and recycling This aura takes in all the Paul Spence, who shares vocal, most fun types of fun: that guitar and song-writing duties with oh-so unholy trinity of cheap bandmate Roy Vucino, believes Guitar. Drums. Bass. In the face of the, er, glut of indie-in-quosex, drugs and rock'n'fucking CPC Gangbangs to be built on the tation-marks bands indulging an instrumental arms race with one roll. Unlike many of the more most essential foundations of rock'n' another— Beirut's Balkan dirges, Islands steel drum rhythms, Vam­ overtly political punk bands, roll intensity. pire Weekend's Afro-pop whatever— albums that renew faithful­ whose careers have been "Most of the bands I'm inspired ness in the unbounded permutations of guitar, drums and bass furnished by the all too easy by didn't last longer than one, two (and vocals) always prove compelling listening. It's a tried rock act of rocking against Bush or three years," said Spence "There formula, after all. All that unprocessed libidinal energy and antiin one-or-another lacklustre was an element of, sort of, chaotic everything attitude: it's raw power. The Trashmen knew it, The fashion, Spence stresses that behaviour and band members who Stooges knew it, MC5 knew it, Black Flag knew it and Montreal's CPC Gangbangs are a funda­ barely got along outside of the musi­ own CPC Gangbangs knows it. mentally apolitical band. cal sphere... that sort of led to music Indeed, the spirit of Lemmy looms large over the band's "I've got nothing against that had an edge to it." It is easy to debut, last summer's M utilation Nation, in the form of both the political bands," he said "But recognize this edge in CPC's music, frantic rock energy of Motôrhead and the Hawkwind-style shades Bono isn't going to stop glob­ whether it be the "just 'cos" youth­ of space-rock psychedelia. A,sweaty merger of gritty blues rock, al warming and nor are CPC ful rebellion and adolescent sex of heady psych-punk and the bruising spirit of self-annihilation, M u­ Gangbangs. I take my fucking "Teenage Crimewave" ("Saturday I tilation Nation is the type of balls-out rock record that never fails to bottles to the corner on recy­ bought a gun/Tom orrow w ell have reward upon repeated listening. It's the sound of too much cheap cling day like everyone else, some fun/ Sunday we'll steal some Alberta whiskey rolling around in your head. but at the same time I don't m ore/ I gotta go man I'm fucking Made up of veterans of punk outfits like the Spaceshits, Day­ bored”), the “Fuck! You!" choruses of light Lovers and Les Sexareenos, the members of CPC Gangbangs ALIEN8RECORDINGS.COM try to teach somebody what to do."

"Mechanical Man" or the various stabs are fluent in the twisted tongue of punk, and it is this well-devel­ Mutilation Nation: Best album art of the year? Best It seems that the band's at authority in "I Want Blood/Life Sup­ album art ever in the history of album art? oped anarchic ethos (and all the killer tunes) which makes them only concern is simple: to put port”("Kill your preacher he's a fucking one of the most interesting acts currently working in Montreal. on an intense rock show, where fans can pound shitty disgrace/ Cut up his face with a razor blade"). beer, take drugs and pum p fists. And Spence is With the sort of lyrics that would melt no stranger to this hard-partying attitude. Be­ the moral conscience of all those KISS-hating fore CPC, he was (along with David Lawrence suburban mothers from the seventies, CPC and Michael Dowse) one of the hockey-haired Gangbangs stands outside much of the cur­ masterminds behind 2002's head-banger rent swell of more conspicously radio-friendly mockumentary FUBAR: The Movie. The cer­ "indie” bands who take up residence tified cult classic status of the film, in in Montreal. which Spence played hair-metal hoser "Most bands that have success everyman Dean Murdoch, has en­ are either riding a current trend deared him to the devout punk and or wave of music or they're doing metal subcultures. something that is completely out­ "I have nothing but good things side the current trends,” said Spen­ to say," Spence said regarding the ce of the current musical climate. success of FUBAR. "The only thing "One way or another,”he continued, that is consistent is that people want "you're kind of locked into what to shotgun beers with me, which is we're doing. I'm at the age when more-or-less fine by me." ■ I'm not going to have another punk band that has as much intensity Com e shotgun beers with C P C and aggression, so i take the, sort of, NOWTORONTO.COM Gangbangs (with Nym phets and the darker side of my personality and Hopsital Rats) at Theatre Ste-Catherine put it into the songs that I'm writ­ LAST.FM in g ... there's an energy or an aura of The Giverer: Spence dolled up (264 Ste-Catherine E) this Saturday at as FUBAR's Def Leppard loving How to succeed without looking like you're trying: CPC Gangbangs.

9:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door psychosis to them."

Deaner.

J ohn S emley

POP RHETORIC

Tears for (Mama) Spears K athryn A mey t is indisputable that Britney has become America's trailer park tabloid princess, from driving around Kwik-E-Mart parking lots in the m iddle of the night with her entou­ rage of various shady characters, losing and then gaining and then losing custody of her two boys, or the multitude of other m ind-boggling activities that the once American sweetheart now partakes in. So whom do we blame for her erratic and generally, cracked-out, behaviour? Why, her mom of course.

Poor Mama Spears has been exposed to continual scrutiny after the downward spiral of her eldest daughter.

But at least Mama always had one good child to fall back on: sweet and innocent, wholesome Nickelodeon headlin­ er Jamie Lynn Spears, the title character on the hit tween show Zoey tot. But that was before 16-year-old Jamie Lynn announced to the world, or rather to OK! M agazine (for what I can assume was a fairly tidy sum), that she was three months pregnant.

In the weeks after the fallout, Zoey tot was declared to be as good as cancelled. Rumours flew that perhaps 18-year old boyfriend Casey Aldridge was not the father, and that instead, the baby belonged to some m uch-older Nickel­ odeon executive. Speculation provoked whisperings that

Nickelodeon could potentially cash in on knocked up Jamie Lynn by turning out a special Zoey tot episode tackling teen pregnancy.

Laying the rumours to rest, Jamie Lynn claimed in the best-selling edition of OK! M agazine o f all time, that Decem ­ ber's finale would be the last episode of Zoey tot (it pulled in the highest am ount of viewers in the show's history - 73 million), that Casey Aldridge was the father (and that they are still together), and that she would be returning to Louisi­ ana to raise the child in her hometown.

As much fun as it is to berate the Spears sisters for all of their missteps, what really irks me is the fame-whoring that is clearly going on. Jamie Lynn and Mama Spears an­ nounced the news to OK! M agazine before telling most of their family. K-Fed was warned only the day before the issue dropped and the Spears clan did not even have the decen­ cy to tell poor Britney before the magazine hit newsstands.

Reading about your sisters' lovechild on the cover of a tab­ loid? I know that's the way I would hope to find out about any pregnancies in my family.

Attempting to milk what is referred to as the"Jamie Lynn factor," People M agazine published an interest piece featur­ ing six real-life pregnant teens and their stories. Shockingly,

none of these stories highlighted any sentiment regarding birth control or abstinence in teenagers. All of the real-life moms had followed through with their pregnancies, kept their children and were doing well financially. Statistically, this is not often the case. According to a 2006 U.S. Special Report and the 2002 National Cam paign Against Teen Preg­ nancy, two out of three teen mothers will not graduate from high school, and as high as 50 per cent of teen mothers will seek social assistance within five years.

Recently it seems the media has been looking at teen pregnancy through rose-coloured glasses. LooktoTheCW 's j television series One Tree H ill, where star student Haley gets ; married at age 16, pregnant at 17 and on last season's finale, : goes into labour while giving her valedictorian address. Of course, she finds a supportive and loving husband waiting in the wings.

Regardless of individual sentiments, teen pregnancy is making money, whether through teen dramas, heartwarm­ ing movies such as this year's Juno, or the Jamie Lynn scan­ dal and subsequent tabloid obsession. With OK! M agazine chom ping at the bit, offering a cool million for the exclusive first peek at Jamie Lynn's new addition, this celebrity spawn will be able to buy one damn nice trailer, y'all. ■

05.09.08 -The McGill Tribune • 15

FILM

TELEVISION

I fought the shah

TV without writers

Animating the autobiography

Will the strike chill winter lineup?

J ennifer Bartou Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the movie Persepolis recounts the auto­ biography of Marjane Satrapi, a woman from Teheran who lived through the Iranian Revolu­ tion as a child. The graphic novel— a bestseller in several countries around the world— is here brought to life using animated images. Though Hollywood producers had previously tried to buy the rights for the movie, Satrapi was not interested in a big production or a Hollywoodization of Iranians. Instead, she opted to make the movie entirely in France, where she is now self-exiled, and was able to maintain creative control over almost every aspect of the film. In French, the movie features the voices of some of the nation's most renowned actresses: Dani­ elle Darieux as Marjane's grandmother, and Catharine Deneuve as her mother.

The movie, for the most part in black and white, is drawn using an atypically simplistic graphic style, echoing a child's understanding of the world. Told through the perspective of an eight year-old, the Iranian Revolution and its aftermath take on an individual and raw meaning.Through the arrest and imprisonment of her uncle, the buying of a Bee Gees record under the table and the veiling of the female popu­ lation, the political changes of the country are shown to alter Marjane's life in every possible way. When Iran is thown into military conflict

with Iraq, her parents send her to Vienna so that she can grow up away from the falling bombs and the increasingly prevalent climate of fear.

Persepolis has a powerful impact because the images are suggestive rather than blatantly violent. Had the movie been filmed with fiction­ al characters and dramatized all the violence and blood, it would have been strangely easier to distance oneself from the plot and consider it to be fiction. But the minimalist simplicity of Persepolis' anim ation make it impossible to look away from the scenes and feel at all apathetic or uninvolved. This is made evident in one of the most striking scenes of the film, when dark silhouettes fall to the ground in the distance implying the overwhelming effect of war on a nation of people.

Notwithstanding the seriousness of the movie's subject, some scenes manage to feel candid, humorous and perhaps uncannily fa­ miliar. Persepolis is not only a true testimony of how totalitarian regimes affect individuals regardless of culture, religion or traditions. It is also a testimony to the character of life itself and illustrates poignantly the manner in which hardships can be combated and overcome with constant glimpses of optimism along the way. ■ Persepolis hits Cinem a du Parc (3575 Parc) on January 18th. Check w w w.cinem aduparc.com for tickets and showtimes.

SUSHMITA SHIVKUMAR W hile the weather gurus have predicted the coldest winter in fifteen years, more chill­ ing is that the media gurus cannot predict an end to the current writers'strike. If the winter line-up continues to follow the current trend, it is going to be a dismal few months of tele­ vision viewing.

jPOD Tuesday at 9 on CBC Starring: David Kopp, Emilie Ullerup

American Gladiators Mondays at 8 / 7 C on NBC Starring: Laila Ali, Hulk Hogan A revival of the original sports contest of the same name, Am erican G ladiators sees four contestants pitted against resident gladiators in a series of progressively intense physical challenges. The contestants are shot at with tennis balls, knocked off beams by battering rams and basically beaten to a pulp by the steroid-pum ped gladiators. Hosts Laila Ali (daughter of M oham m ed Ali) and Terry "Hulk" Hogan lend their bulk gleefully to the weekly assault. Not exactly a meeting of the minds, but with characters named Stealth, Fury, Mi­ litia, and Wolf, how could this show not be

Cashmere Mafia Wednesdays at 10 / 9 C on ABC Starring: Lucy Liu, Bonnie Sommerville, Frances O'Connor, Miranda Otto SEP7.CA

Veils of ignorance: the young Satrapi is chastized for being down with the Buzzcocks.

executives who are desperately failing to bal­ ance their personal and professional lives. Mia (Lucy Liu) is an aggressive publisher directly com peting with her fiancé. Juliet (Miranda Otto) is a successful executive whose hus­ band is cheating on her. Frances O'Connor's character Zoe is a struggling executive who cannot seem to care for her bratty children.To round out the clichés of the foursome is Caitlin's (Bonnie Sommerville) incredibly shallow questioning of her sexuality.Think Sex and the City meets Desperate Housewives, but without the wit, charm or originality of either.

Lifting the boilerplate format of any show portraying female protagonists, C ash mere M afia follows the lives of four high-flying

W hile Hollywood may usually dominate our viewing, in the light of the writers'strike, it is worth turning our attention to shows closer to home. Adapted from the popular novel of the same name by Douglas Coup­ land, jP O D follows the lives of a group of gam ­ ing geeks whose names all happen to begin with the letter'J'and who work in an old m ili­ tary silo— a "pod". With a host of strange and quirky characters, like a pot-grow ing mom who inadvertently commits murder in the pilot episode, this show may evolve to be fairly interesting.

Dance War: Carrie Ann vs. Bruno Mondays at 8 / 7 C on ABC Starring: Carrie Ann Inaba, BrunoTonioli Singers w ho can dance and dancers who can sing. This is what this show aims to find in an attempt to meld the best of shows like Am erican Idol, and So You Think You Can D ance. It fails miserably. Auditioning sub-par talent and describing everything as"adorable," Carrie Ann and Bruno are grating as they try to form their g ro u p s^ f potential super-per­ formers. Even though the show includes the requisite clown host, the heart-rending sto­ ries and the ar­ tificial drama, it sorely lacks the energy and entertain­ ment of all the other shows it is trying to mimic. ■ Pictures: starpuise.com , tv.ign.com , m snbc.com .

FILM

Always a bridesmaid...

Knocked Up's Katherine Heigl keeps ringing them wedding bells W illiam Robinson The chick flick of the month, 27 Dresses, starring Kather­ ine Heigl and James Marsden, is a gim m icky story offering fun without much funny. It is, of course, the stereotypical chick flick which promotes ideas of romance, true love and marital bliss.The plot follows Harlequin's standard template suspiciously closely, while offering spectacular visuals, not of scenery, but of goodlooking people.

The story has multiple morals and more than its fair share of clichés and while these create a pleasant, familiar atmosphere, the film also has more disturbing undertones. The main charac­ ter, Jane (Heigl) is a personal assistant and perennial bridesmaid who develops a crush on her boss, George (Edward Burns), a man who dropped out of college to make an exciting, profit­ able and environmentally friendly living. Unfortunately George gets entangled with Jane's sisterTess (Malin Akerman), a model who gets by on her looks. While the sisters present a dismal pic­ ture of the career woman, we do find an assertive woman as the newspaper editor who commands the life of Kevin, a successful

journalist (Marsden). If it wasn't enough that femininity is mostly portrayed as career-impotent, we also find that Jane is obsessed

with marriage and her sister is seeking a man for reasons of com ­ fort and security.

The soundtrack of 27 Dresses is less than uninteresting, fea­ turing nothing near as chart smashing as in similarly lady-friend­ ly flicks such as The D evil Wears Prada. Although it advertises with great zeal that the same writer was involved in both of these movies (Aline Brosh McKenna), the dialogue of 27 Dresses is pre­ dictable to the point that the person sitting next to me was able to whisper words before they left the mouths of the actors.

If you're into dresses, you'd be better off watching Fashion Television or the Oscars. If weddings are your interest, very little of them are shown and you would be better off seeing any of the innumerable films with the word "wedding" in the title. See this movie for the skilled Judy Greer vvho plays the only down to earth, relatable character in the film or maybe for the over­ powering sexiness of Marsden. As is often quipped leaving the theatre, the best jokes are in the previews. ■

WORSTPREVIEWS.COM

27 Dresses is playing a ll over the greater M ontreal area. Check out w w w.cinem a-m ontreal.com for showtimes.

Something old: Heigl as another wannabe bride.

16 • Arts & Entertainment • 05.09.08

THEATRE

Reviews Rivers Cuomo. Alone: The Hom e Recordings o f Riv­ ers Cuom o. Weezer's musical output this decade has been far from impressive. They simply couldn't match the heights of their 90s pop success, releasing two atrocious and one mediocre album since their return from hiatus in 2000. However, lead singer River Cuomo's bizarre collection of quirky outtakes, demos and other rarities is a (shockingly) pleasant surprise. Leav­ ing slick production values at the door, Cuomo's new career-spanning collection oscillates wildly between acoustic numbers and riff-heavy power pop, with one foray into hip-hop via an ironic Ice Cube cover ("The Bomb"). Songs like "The World We Love So Much" have ominous chord progressions that betray Cuomo's early love of 80s and 90s metal, while "Blast Off!" and the alternative version of "Buddy Holly" hearken back to the joyous power-pop of the Blue Album . “Chess" showcases Cuomo's tendency to write obtuse lyrics, but make them fit— somehow squeezing the lines “Chess is such a difficult g a m e /s o many pieces" in an otherwise excellent acoustic pop song.

"Longtime Sunshine"is a re-imagining of the Beach Boys "That's Not Me,"telling the age-old tale of a young man packing up and heading away from home, only to find loneliness and regret. Moreover, for a rarities album, Cuom o is to be commended for the surprising lack of filler material. In short, Cuom o has assembled a genuinely interesting collection of songs from all periods of his songwriting career. Cuom o may want to ditch the Weezer day jo b — and stick it out Alone.

— Byron Tau Pitbull. The Boatlift. Contemporary poet Benjamin Zaphaniah says that "Rap is simply street poetry" but when it comes to poignant or insightful lyricism La­ tino hip hop artist Pitbull is at the bottom of the class.

Also calling himself Mr. 305 after the area code of his native Miami, the newest release by this nicknamegreedy artist deserves to reach a similar number in the album charts. Although you'd be forgiven for thinking that the album's title, The Boatlift, is some kind of un­ decipherable sexual innuendo, it actually refers to the musical ride on which Pitbull claims to take his listener. Most tracks on The Boatlift are indeed capable of inducing seasickness, full as they are of repetitious chanting or thumping beats designed to scare listeners onto to the dance-floor. Perhaps the best of a bad bunch is "Midnight,”which contains the thoughtfully crafted simile "I'm like a deck of cards you gotta deal with me." Also notable are "The Anthem" featuring Lil Jon, whose very angry sounding rap technique disguises some heartfelt compliments such as"u sexy, u fine,”and the delightful "Stripper Pole (remix)" which relates what happens when a guy discovers that his girlfriend is a professional erotic dancer. I won't give away the ending, but it's safe to say that the protagonist is far from disappointed.

— Clare Pidsley

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Hearts of glass

Players' presents The Glass Menagerie Ezra G

u n ter

Victrola records left behind by her absent father, Amanda induces Tom to bring home a "gentleman caller" (Vincen­ zo Joel) from work, whom she hopes will take a romantic interest in her chronically shy and reclusive daughter.

Since its premier in 1944, The Glass M enagerie has won numerous awards and accolades, including the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Despite its weighty reputation, however, the play has not aged particularly well. While its themes of frustration and pow­ erlessness are timeless, its sparse structure and script are liable to fall flat with contemporary audiences seeking more substance than the play's sweeping suggestiveness provides.To its credit, the Players'Theatre production suc­ ceeds at capturing the spirit of the play, though the cast could have been better rehearsed and the acting often fails to overcome what is admittedly sluggish dialogue.

Rosen-Brown's impeccably accented and unremittingly shrill Amanda is spectacular, however, as is Weiss's un­ canny incarnation of the perpetually mumbling, floor­ gazing Laura. While perhaps not the most exciting show ever to hit the stage, there are worse ways to spend an evening than seeing The Glass M enagerie. ■

From its first lines, Tennessee Williams' The Glass M enagerie is presented as being both unrealistic and es­ sentially truthful. "I am the opposite of a stage magician," says Tom Wingfield, the narrator as well as a character in the play."He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion."

Williams himself, in his production notes for the play, noted that "everyone should know nowadays the unim ­ portance of the photographic in art: that truth, life, or re­ ality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transfor­ mation." Aside from certain incongruous effects such as slide-show images indicated by Williams in the 'reading edition'of the play, however, the most fantastical element of The Glass M enagerie is its intense claustrophobic effect.

"Because of its considerably delicate or tenuous material," Willaims writes, "atmospheric touches and subtleties of direction- play a particularly important part." Making the most of Players'Theatre's small, dark space, director Mike Lake has created an appropriate atmosphere of feverish familial intimacy for the current production of Williams' Players' presents The Glass Menagerie, Jan. 17-19 at Southern Gothic drama.

8:00 p.m. and Jan. 19 at 2:00 p.m.

Carried by Tom's memories back to a small, sparsely furnished apartment in depression era St. Louis, the play presents the strug­ gles and suffering of the semi-autobi­ ographical Wingfield family. Tom (Kyle Foote), is a reluctant warehouse worker with a frustrated artistic temperament and is often understood to represent Williams himself while Amanda, Tom's loud and overbearing mother (Ariel Rosen-Brown), is strongly reminiscent of Williams' own mother, a southern woman with inflated ideas about her state of social elevation. The charac­ ter around whom the drama revolves, however, is Tom's sister Laura (Jordana Weiss), whose slight physical disability results in drastic social disfigurement suggestive of Williams' schizophrenic sister Rose. In her abiding ambition to MATT PARK find a life for Laura beyond the con­ fines of her glass collection and the A portrait of the Southern gentry: Rosen-Brown as Amanda.

S po rts BASKETBALL— UQAM 89, REDMEN 59

Redmen can't sustain winning momentum After historic win at Concordia, McGill slips up against UQAM at home J a co b K anter

Coming off their first win against Concordia in 21 tries— Jan. 5 S 77-76 thriller— the McGill Redmen appeared to have left their

energy and intensity behind at the Concordia Gymnasium as the last-placed UQAM Citadins easily dispatched the Redmen 89-59 at Love Competition Hall on Friday night. With the victory, the Citadins finally broke into the win column on their sixth attempt, while the Redmen fell to 4-3 in the Quebec conference.

In their last meeting, the Redmen also struggled with the winless, but pesky, UQAM squad, squeaking out a 90-85 victory on the Citadins' home court. In the rematch, however, UQAM played with the fervor of a team with its back to the wall, dom i­ nating McGill from wire to wire and winning the majority of the loose ball battles.

"We didn't play with any intensity," Red men guard Moustafa El Zanaty said. "UQAM hustled, they got after loose balls and we laid back and let them do whatever they wanted. When they picked up their intensity we started playing on our heels, and once they got rolling the difference was too much to overcome."

A n o ff ta rg e t n ig h t

El Zanaty had yet another efficient night, coming off the bench to lead McGill with 28 points on eight of 12 attempts in only 25 minutes. His teammates, however, shot a dismal 26.8 per cent from the floor. The Redmen, usually dependent on solid outside shooting, made only four of 19 three-pointers, many of which were uncontested. The shots simply were not falling for

Three Citadins around the hoop and not a Redman in sight.

McGill, while every reply seemed to drop for the Citadins.

While the two sides were evenly matched throughout the first half and UQAM took an unintimidating 35-30 lead into break, the Citadins went on a demoralizing 15-3 run early in the third quarter and never looked back.

"We kept it together in the first half, but in the second half we started running around like we didn't know what to do," Mc­ Gill Assistant Coach Michael Chmielewski said. "As soon as we became disorganized the wheels fell off."

In addition to their lack of intensity, the Redmen were plagued by inconsistency. The Red 'n'White didn't allow a field goal over the game's first five minutes, but the defence inexpli­ cably collapsed later as McGill gave up 27 points in both the third and fourth quarters.

"We are a team that plays two or three quarters," said El Zanaty. "We haven't played a solid.game for all four quarters, out­ side of the Concordia game [last Saturday]."

The Citadins were led by a stellar performance from swingman Mario Joseph, who netted 22 points on nine of 12 shoot­ ing, along with six rebounds and three steals. Late in the second quarter Joseph was the benefactor of a series of McGill turnovers, resulting in three consecutive breakaway layups— momentum from which UQAM exploded into the decisive third quarter. As a team, the Citadins shot an astounding 593 per cent from the field and out-rebounded the Redmen 31-23. UQAM also com m it­ ted only 12 turnovers, compared to McGill's 21.

home record. But you can't take anything away from UQAM.They wanted it much more than we did, and they played unbelievably well. They played like their season was on the line."

While the Redmen were 0-3 at home after the UQAM de­ feat, they were able to notch their first conference victory at McGill on Sunday afternoon as the sqaud, on the strength of an Anthony double-double during which he scored 10 points and 12 rebounds, defeated the lowly Bishop's Gaiters 55-52. After re-

M o re th a n a b e n c h w a r m e r

Though the Redmen have had an up and down sea­ son, El Zanaty has been a beacon of consistency and effectiveness.ln his first year of CIS eligibility, the Montreal native is the ninth-leading scorer in the country, averaging 21.4 points per game, and has notched at least 19 points in each conference game so far. Against the Citadins the sharp­ shooting El Zanaty connected on two of three shots from behind the arc as well as on a lh o of his free throws.

"He's a spark off the bench," power forward and fellow McGill star Sean Anthony said of El Zanaty. "Whenever he comes in, he starts things up for us. I don't know where we'd be without him".

With the combination of upsetting their ranked rivals, Concordia, last week and coming out flat against an inferior UQAM side, McGill cannot seem to break away from the vi­ cious cycle of their up-and-down season. Indicative is that, puzzlingly, the Redmen are 4-0 on the road and 1-3 in the friendly confines of Love Competition Hall.

ADAM SCOTTI “We were 4-0 in home non-conference games," Chmielewski said. “So I wouldn't read too much into our

ADAM SCOTTI PF Sean Anthony takes it hard to the rim for a McGill score.

bounding against Bishop's in a game in which McGill dominated the boards 46-30, the Redmen, now 5-3, will host the first-place Laval Rouge et Or on Friday, looking to further prove themselves against the division's elite. ■

THIRD MAN IN

Are you ready for some, uh, hockey?

J ohn S emley here baseball at times seems reducible to a numbers game, football a tactical contest of both strategy and virility and soccer a dull, unwatchable affront for all Imanner of patently dodgy forms of flag-waving nationalism, [there has always seemed something, daresay, balletic about [hockey which has rendered it sacrosanct in the Canadian [cultural consciousness. Lacrosse be damned! Hockey is our national sport. Our national pastime. Take away our CFL, our Raptors, our major league baseball clubs, our crisp, affordable [lagers and take away Bachman and Cum m ings both. But leave [us at least our Habs and our Leafs, and something of our larger [fabric will remain intact. And though the offenses against the [sport by its ever-vigilant commissioners huddled somewhere [just outside the faintly-beating heartland of the U.S. have been [many— FOX's highlighted puck, embarrassingly named ex­ pansion teams (the Minnesota Wild? Really?)— there has been [none more brazen, more calculatedly disingenuous than the [Winter Classic.

Oh whoops, I mean: The AM P Energy NHL Winter Classic [which (in case a New Year's Day hangover or general disinter[est in hockey rendered you oblivious to all the gross promo­ tion) was a regular season game between the Buffalo Sabres [and the Pittsburgh Penguins held outdoors on Jan. 1 of this [year. An outdoor game in Ralph Wilson Stadium (home of the NFL's Bills) just outside Buffalo: a seemingly sincere endeavour [right down to the throwback jerseys, below freezing tempera­

W

tures and Sabres'netminder Ryan Miller's hockey sock over his helmet.

Takes me back to when I was a kid and me and all the other Smalltown, Ontario scamps would congregate on Old Man Miner's pond, doing our best Gretzky, Jagr and Zarley Zalapski impressions, using overturned garbage pails as goal markers: a classifiably Canadian vignette fit for tepid waterco­ lour depiction on a throwaway Tim Horton's coffee cup. Except all those five buck fantasies of our national obsession were rarely attended by 70,000-and-some fans drunk on spectacle, piss-warm parking lot Bud Lites and the whole obtuse ritual of tailgating. It was also certainly never sponsored by Pepsi's answer to Red Bull's domination of the canned testosterone market-share, Mountain Dew AMP. Besides remaining generally suspect of anything which functions on the premise of putting tens of thousands of people together, armed with a surfeit of beer and the appro­ priate chants, I am particularly leery of this football-ization of hockey.This isn't meant (necessarily) as a slight against football itself, but the fact is that the experience does not necessarily translate to an ice hockey context. For a start, a regulation-size hockey rink is noticeably smaller than the expansive 100 yards of a football field, and sees players moving around generally quicker and in higher concentration, making the action excep­ tionally difficult to follow from the eight-miles-high vantage point of a stadium's nosebleeds. Maybe this visual incoherence

just abets the impetus of the Winter Classic to more closely approximate the terrain of a football game. And weather-wise, various unpredictable factors (freezing temperatures, snow) result in an imbalance between this and all the other games of the regular season, which unfold under fairly consistent en­ vironmental controls. If we're to believe that this is regular sea­ son game like any other, then it should certainly, like so many of Barry Bonds'juiced-up homers, go down in history with at least an asterisk beside its 2-1 (for the Penguins) final score, lest we abandon any pretence of sporting impartiality in favour of the allure of the primitive exhibition, of the big show.

As someone who has followed hockey with various levels of commitment more or less his whole life, I am sensitive to the demands placed on the league, especially in the United States.

With game attendance and viewership of this conspicuouslyCanadian sport ever-dwindling, cheap stunts like the Winter Classic succeed in, if anything, putting a whole bunch of chilly asses in the seats. But isn't this just a quick fix mentality? Can the NHL's financial woes be assuaged by merely dressing hock­ ey up to look like football? Judging by the sold-out crowd at Ralph Wilson Stadium Jan. 1— and the abundance of Ontarians who emigrated southeast to attend— they just might. Well met, you damnable Winter Classic; you've, managed to make an important part of Canadian identity as vulgar and obvious as anything American entertainment has to offer. From hell's heart, I stab at thee.,»

1 8 -S p o rts -15.01.08

The McGill Tribune

NFL PLAYOFF PREVIEWS

Pats and Pack to trade tundra for Arizona desert AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME Offence: A month ago this portion of the column would have been very easy to I write: "Eli Manning in a big playoff game on the road? The Cheeseheads will eat him alive." But Peyton's younger brother has played very well over the past three weeks, giving the Patriots a run for their money and then winning two road playoff games.

He has three great targets, in Plaxico Burress, Amani Toomer and emerging rookie receiver Steve Smith, who thrive on YAC, and as long as he doesn't regress under the pressure, the Giants have a shot. On the Green Bay side of the ball is Brett Favre. Sure, the Packers have a great running game, led by Ryan Grant, that will give the Giants j fits, but all the focus will be on the resurgent Favre. America loves him, and so do I. He and baby carrots are conspiring to turn me gay.

Offense: What is there left to say about the Patriot of­ fense juggernaut after 17 games of unparalleled domi­ nance? Easily the NFL's top-ranked offence this season, New England's college-style spread offense with NFL MVP Tom Brady seemingly always operating out of the shot­ gun and four or five receiver sets reached prolific levels.

With Brady dissecting opposing secondaries using his wealth of weaponry such as All-Pro WR Randy Moss and WR Wes Welker, the Pats set new offensive benchmarks in single-season touchdown passes by a quarterback (Brady, 50) and touchdown receptions by a receiver (Moss, 23), points scored in a season (589) and touchdowns in a sea­ son (75). It will be interesting to watch how Head Coach Bill Belicheck chooses to use Moss against the Chargers' strong secondary: as a decoy to draw double and triple teams as seen in a one-catch effort against the jaguars, or as the receiver who caught for 105 yards and two scores against San Diego earlier this year. Even compared to the Pats, the Chargers don't exactly have a pop-gun offense, although injuries suffered at Indianapolis this past week­ end could cripple any production. Coming off yetanother rushing title, the San Diego offence is led by mercurial RB LaDanian Tomlinson, who can run, catch and even pass for touchdowns: however, LT suffered a knee injury in the first half of the team's victory over Indy that kept him out of the rest of the game, and may impact his effectiveness in a cpld Gillette Stadium. While coming off a very solid performance against the Colts, throwing for three TDs, QB Phillip Rivers aiso went down with an injury to his right knee that forced him to leave the Indy game in its most crucial stages. IfTomlinson and Rivers can't properly con­ tribute against New England, don't expect journeyman QB Billy Volek and backup RBs Michael Turner and Darren Sproles to provide enough firepower for a second con­ secutive week.

cause of aging linebackers such as Teddy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel. While they did win the game, Jaguar RBs Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew were able to pound the ball inside the tackles, and ifTomlinson is 100 per cent for the Chargers this week, Brady and Co. may have a tough time getting on the field. This defence did, however, limit a fully-loaded San Diego team to a dismal 14 points in the second game of this season, and will try to blitz Rivers as the young QB threw two interceptions under heavy Patriot pressure in the last match. The Chargers' defence was lit up by Brady for 38 points on September 17, but the playoffs is a whole new beast and after stopping Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, expect San Diego to come after the star QB. LBs Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips ex­ ecute the 3-4 pass rush better than almost anyone in the NFL and with stud CB Antonio Cromartie, the NFLs leader in interceptions (to), the motivated Chargers have the horses to run with the New England offence and prevent an embarrassing repeat performance.

Advantage: Patriots

Advantage: Patriots

Advantage: Packers

Defence: Always a critical element of a playoff drive, es­

Prediction: Patriots 38, Chargers 17

Prediction: Packers 33, New York 24

Advantage: Chargers

Advantage: Packers

Defence: The Giants'defensive line is one of the best in the game, but New York fans j have to be worried about their banged-up secondary facing one of the best passing ; attacks in the NFL. Nevertheless, DE's Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan will create : havoc for Favre, and hope to force him into his wild gunslinger mode— where he's j prone to throwing interceptions. Green Bay's strength is in their physical secondary, led by Al Harris, Charles Woodson and the brilliantly-named Atari Bigby. They're fast j and hard-hitting, and have to be relishing the thought of rattling the up-and-down j Manning. Expect the Pack to mix in a healthy dose of blitz packages to try and get; Manning on the move, where he has a habit of making bad decisions.

Coaching: With all due respect to San Diego's Norv Turn­ Advantage: Packers er, who has (surprisingly) far surpassed his predecessor, Marty Schottenheimer's, playoff success in only one at­ Coaching: Both coaches have done a great job this year, and therefore there's not a | clear edge in this category. Green Bay's Mike McCarthy has earned kudos from pun­ tempt, this is freaking Bill Belicheck we’re talking about. dits for his masterful work with the young Packers, but how about a little love for the j Advantage: Patriots Giants Tom Coughlin? The prickly coach has taken a more player-friendly approach j Intangibles: A warm weather team trying to win in New to this season and as a result, has gone from on the hotseatto New York hero.

England in January? Not likely. Add to the equation that Advantage: Even the Pats have their sights firmly set on extending their per­ fect record and San Diego seems to have no shot at pull­ Intangibles: The forecast calls for cold weather, which is good news for the Pack­ ing off the monumental upset. The Chargers' only hope ers, who would gladly welcome more snow to ruin the traction for New York's big j appears to lie in the fact that their squad was thoroughly defensive ends. But no matter what the conditions, the most football-crazy city in j embarrassed by the Patriots at Gillette Stadium and few America hosts a conference championship on a.field that has taken on a mythical ] aura. Home-field advantage doesn't get much better than that. teams get such a perfect chance at redemption.

pecially in the bad, northeastern January weather, New England has shown a vulnerability against the run be­

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15.01.08 • Sports • 19

w ww.m cgilltribune.com

BASKETBALL— UQAM 5 9 , MARTLETS 51

Martlets come up short

Taller UQAM serves up fiftn straight loss M

att

C

"I think our struggles in the paint have just come with not getting the ball into [our forwards] well enough, to give them chances,” said Kennedy. "We've maybe struggled with some rebounding so far this year, but our main problem is we're just not executing our plays like we can. There are so many good players on this team, we've just got to start working together."

McGill had a strong start to the game, notching the game's first points off of a hard, slashing drive by Weekes and building an early lead thanks to six points from Bowles in the game's first seven minutes. But the Citadins mounted a 7-0 run to end the first quarter, capped by a fadeaway jum per by Gauthier-Théoret, to give UQAM a lead it would not relinquish for the remainder of the match.

h esser

You can't teach height, as the saying goes, and the McGill Martlets learned the truth behind that old basketball adage the hard way during a 59-51 loss to the UQAM Citadins at Love Competition Hall on Friday night.

The Martlets'received good play from their trio of starting guards— Christine Kennedy, Nathifa Weekes and Rikki Bowles— but had no answer for the strong play of UQAM's three leading scorers, Claudia Gauthi­ er-Théoret, Cora Duval and Karine Boudrias. The aver­ age height of McGill's Kennedy, Weekes and Bowles is 5'4", while Gauthier-Théoret, Duval and Boudrias have a much more imposing average height of s 'io ".

The Citadins'used their size advantage and an ag­ A reversal of fortunes gressive attack to dominate the Martlets in the paint The Martlets' forwards responded with a much and finish with a lopsided 54-31 edge in rebounding. stronger showing on Sunday afternoon, helping Mc­ "We're not taking care of Gill end a five-game losing any of the details," said Head streak by knocking off the Bish­ Coach Ryan Thorne. "We got op's Gaiters 48-35 at Love Com ­ outrebounded in the first half petition Hall. Centre Emilie Ruel by about 15 boards, which is ter­ led the way for the ladies in red rible. All the little things that get and white, scoring eight points you wins, we're not doing right and pulling in a gam e-high 12 now." rebounds.

Gauthier-Théoret, a point As opposed to Friday guard in her final year of CIS night's game, it was McGill who eligibility, led all scorers with 16 dominated the boards against points, including hitting 8 of 10 the Gaiters, finishing the game free throws. Standing s'9" tall, with a commanding 49-35 edge the UQAM playmaker enjoyed a in rebounding. Forward Cath­ massive six-inch height advan­ erine Parent snatched eight of tage over her Martlet counter­ those 49 Martlet boards and part Kennedy, who led McGill added a team-high 10 points, scorers with 14 points and four while Kennedy notched six steals. points to surpass the 500-point Duval, a talented 6'T'centre plateau in career scoring. who moves with the agility of The Martlets (2-6) are next a small forward, and Boudrias in action this Friday, when they notched 11 and 10 points, respec­ host the undefeated Laval tively, for the Citadins, while Mc­ ADAMSCOTTI Gill's Weekes added 12 points and G Nathifa Weekes tries to drive past a Rouge et Or (7-0), who are ranked ninth in the nation. ■ stationary UQAM defender. five rebounds in a losing cause.

FANTASY I have an idea for the Leafs organization, because I figure at this point things can't get any worse. They should host a fantasy league, where the winner becomes the new GM. Actually I just can't even be bothered talking about the Leafs anymore. I'm depressed. Anyways, here are the fantasy picks for the week, focussing on centres.

Sit him

The Guarantee

C Marc Savard— Boston: Even though Savard has been playing pretty well this season, Boston is only playing three games this week, two of which are against the Rangers and G Henrik Lundqvist. While he may still put up a few points, he won't match his usual point totals when he's playing a team he has historically struggled against.

C Daymond Langkow— Calgary: Langkow's been putting up pretty solid numbers since he began skating on a line with Jerome Iginla, and this week, he should be able to continue that streak. Even though he's playing only three games this week, they're against three teams in the lower half of the league in terms of goals against per game. And to make it even sweeter, one of those games is against the lowly Kings, which is reason enough to play anyone not on the Leafs.

C Mike Fisher— Ottawa: With the news that Dany Heatley is going to be on injured reserve for six weeks, someone will have to step up, and Fisher seems like a good candidate. He's been on fire recently, and with four games this week— Philly being the only team that Ottawa won't be able to score on with ease— bank on this Fish doing swimmingly.

— Sam ay Bhachech

Surprise of the week

Sports Briefs McGill rebounds against the Gaiters Dominating the boards 46-30, McGill rallied from a late 10-point deficit to beat Bish­ op's 55-52 in men's university basketball at Love Competition Hall Sunday, on the back of Sean Anthony double-double. It was McGill's first home-court victory in regular-season | play as the Redmen improved to 5-3, including an unblemished 4-0 road record.Trailing | 52-42 with seven minutes remaining, the Redmen went on a 13-0 run to take the lead j and close out the contest. | Anthony had 10 points, a gam e-high 12 rebounds and a pair of steals. He shot only two for io from the field but went six for six from the foul line. G Pawel Herra led the Red­ ; men with 12 points, going four for five from three-point range. F Michael White added 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, including a key defensive board with 20 seconds j remaining. Andrew Wright and Junior Nicolas scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, for j the Gaiters. j McGill had an 11-7 advantage in steals and led 18-12 after the opening quarter but | allowed the Gaiters back in to tie the score 27-27 at the half. Bishop's took a 44-38 lead j after three quarters before suffering their fourth-quarter collapse. !

The Redmen shot 35.4 per cent from the field (17/48), 29.2 from three-point range (7/24) and 58.3 from the foul line (14/24). Bishop's replied on 31.1 from the floor (19/61), 20.0 from beyond the arc (5/25) and 81.8 from the stripe (9/11).

Martlet volleyballers slip to Carabins The Martlets fell to-fourth-ranked Montreal as the Carabins rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat McGill 3-2 in women's university volleyball at Love Competition Hall on Sunday.

In a two-hour and 17-minute marathon match, the first-place Carabins won by set scores of 22-25,25-17,30-32,25-18 and 15-11. j Power-hitter Marie-Pier Murray-Methot paced Montreal with 20 kills, one ace, nine | digs and one stuff block as the Carabins women improved to 13-2 in their last 15 meet­ j ings with the Martlets, dating back to Jan. 2006. !

It was an especially costly match for McGill, which lost the service of setter Valerie Savard, who suffered a severe ankle injury in the second set. The fifth-year veteran left [ the match on crutches and was scheduled to have X-rays taken at a nearby hospital.

I McGill's Am y Graham continued to step up her game with a second straight im­ | pressive outing as the power-hitter racked up 15 kills, 16 digs and one ace in a losing cause. Jennifer Thompson added a typically strong performance for the Martlets. She was credited with 27 digs, 11 kills, two aces, a pair of stuff blocks and a stellar 2.68 passing ratio. i j An en-Thralling performance at swim meet j Redman Samuel Thrall won three bronze medals as McGill finished third at a Que­ ] bec Cup university swim meet in Sherbrooke, Saturday. The Montreal Carabins won the I men's competition with 148 points, followed by Laval (135), McGill (55) and Sherbrooke (12). i On the women's side, McGill's Joanie Stilling and Allison McCabe each won a pair j of bronze medals. Laval won the women's competition with 148 points, followed by i Montreal (122), McGill (67) and Sherbrooke (0).

Thrall was third in the 50-metre backstroke, completing the sprint in 29.53 seconds.

He was also leadoff in the 4x50 individual medley and swam the third leg of the 4x50 freestyle. Stilling was timed at four minutes, 36.60 seconds in the 400-metre free and swam the anchor leg of the 4x50 individual medley, which was clocked in 2:08.10.

McCabe, who swam the third leg of that relay, reached the podium in the 50m but­ terfly, completing the race in 30.66 seconds.

Newly ranked Redmen down Ridgebacks Centre Simon Courcelles scored twice as ninth-ranked McGill rallied from a second period deficit with six unanswered goals to defeat the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks 6-1 in men's university hockey at Oshawa, Saturday. It was the first-ever meeting between McGill, the world's oldest operating hockey team, and UOIT, a new franchise in the Ontario league and it wasn't a friendly affair as the two teams combined for 121 minutes in penalties, 85 of which were awarded to the Ridgebacks.

McGill, playing for the first time since returning from an 11-day overseas voyage during the holidays, shook off the rust after a 1-0 first period deficit scoring three times in each of the second and third stanzas. Eric L'Italien, Mathieu Leclerc and Courcelles gave the Redmen a 3-1 lead after two. D Louis-Simon Allaire, who had three points in the game, made it 4-1 with a power play marker at 1:08 of the third, followed by Vincent Lambert's goal three minutes later. Courcelles added his team-leading 12th goal on the power play to round out the scoring.

Redmen goaltender Jean-Michel Filiatrault, sidelined for much of the season by a knee injury, made his third regular season start. The 23-year-old made 14 saves for the win.

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