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News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

3

Raucous GA exceeds capacity Motion to create corporate responsibility committee passes without Palestine reference Queen Arsem-O'Malley News Writer

T

he Winter 2010 General Assembly (GA) approved five motions on Wednesday, mandating that SSMU divest from the tar sands, support a cap on ancillary fees at McGill, restore $5 ATMs, create a corporate social responsibility committee (CSR) to oversee McGill investments, and take an active policy against the self-funded tuition model. A motion originally banning pro-life groups from campus failed, in spite of numerous proposed amendments.

While several SSMU councillors said they were happy that all motions were discussed and that the GA maintained quorum, some were less pleased by the actual debate. SSMU VP (Clubs & Services) Sarah Olle said that she was “upset by the lack of constructive dialogue that was had and I think our community, as demonstrated today, is just incredibly divided about issues external to the University, and I wish that people could focus more on the university experience itself and bringing people together.”

Arts Senator Sarah Woolf described the GA’s proceedings as “messy,” and was “disgusted and depressed with how the beginning of the GA went,” but added that the structure is constantly being improved, and was pleased that students stayed to see every motion through. “I don’t think this is the death knell of the GA,” she said.

At its peak, the GA exceeded the capacity of the Shatner cafeteria, with over 600 students present. The CSR motion, which referred to the the

occupied Palestinian territories in its preamble, contributed to the sizable turnout, but also prompted Speaker Zach Newburgh to issue warnings to students about adhering to decorum soon after the call to order.

Twenty minutes into procedure, the GA was bombarded with complaints about the inability to hear speakers, repeated calls for decorum, and motions to reconsider almost every decision made, leading to a record five-hour duration.

Before debate could begin, the agenda was amended to move the CSR motion to the top of the docket. After Khaled Kteily, the motion’s author and an executive for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – McGill (SPHR), spoke in favour of the motion, an amendment was passed to strike two clauses in the motion’s introduction.

The clauses specified that McGill has ties to “organizations that engage in and profit from unethical practices including but not limited to profiting from the unlawful occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Debate quickly became heated during discussion of the amendment and the motion; one student was asked to put away their Israeli flag while another accused Newburgh of a conflict of interest as SSMU speaker, because he is president of Hillel Montreal and his roommate is president of Hillel McGill.

An inability to estimate majority decisions during discussions of the amendment led to an hour and a half of inaction as various votes were counted to strike clauses, and then to reconsider the decision to strike. Debate resumed, and after a failed attempt to adjourn the GA altogether, a simple majority vote

At its peak, over 600 students attended the GA. passed the motion, without reference to occupied Palestine.

Prior to the GA, the Facebook account of a member of SPHR was hacked, and a message was sent to members of SPHR’s GA event claiming that voting had moved online, including a link to Elections McGill. SPHR coordinators and SSMU executives took immediate action to correct the misunderstanding.

The motion against McGill adopting a self-funded tuition model was moved by SSMU VP (External) Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan.

During his motivation speech, Ronderos-Morgan pointed to other Canadian universities’ substantial tuition increases, and saw McGill’s attempt toward a self-funded model as

a sign that they were making a “serious statement about what it sees as means necessary to balance the budget.”

The motion passed, quickly followed by a motion to reinstitute $5 ATMs on campus, and a motion demanding SSMU’s refusal to accept mandatory ancillary fees.

Both were debated for several minutes.

A motion calling for SSMU to investigate investments with ties to tar sands in Alberta was passed by a simple majority, despite debate about the economic feasibility of the motion and a failed amendment which would have eliminated references to the financial institutions with ties to the tar sands. SSMU currently owns over $230,000 in bonds with the Royal Bank of Canada, which

Victor Tangerman | The McGill Daily

finances tar sands projects. SSMU councillor Joël Pednault recommended SSMU move its investments to banks like Desjardins, which does not finance such projects.

The final motion, on banning discriminatory groups on campus, was led by statements from authors Maddie Ritts and Liam Olson-Mayes explaining their choice to single out pro-life groups, stating that they are necessarily discriminatory and that “by allowing pro-life groups, we condone and accept their position,” and targeting the Silent No More campaign. After extensive debate and votes on multiple amendments, including one to strike direct reference to pro-life groups in the resolution, the entire resolution failed to pass.

Research policy still in flux New policy is too vague on ethics, according to student representatives Stephanie Law The McGill Daily

T

he absence of restrictions on potentially harmful research in the new Regulations on Conduct of Research policy continued to raise concerns in Senate on Wednesday.

The new policy was originally up for approval at Wednesday’s Senate meeting, but due to an administrative oversight, the policy was only briefly discussed.

McGill Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations) Denis Thérien explained that the Academic Policy Committee must approve the policy before it is brought to Senate, which had not been done yet.

“I think it’s unfortunate because…the policy is ready to be adopted right now and every month that goes by without having a document like this is dangerous [and]

is not good for the University. We need this to come in force as soon as possible,” Thérien said.

There was a general consensus among the administration and senators that the new policy adequately addresses the problems that arose when the first draft was brought to Senate in November.

“The removal of the clause on anonymity as well as the addition of [the reference to] social responsibility into the preamble is definitely an improvement on the document that was previously brought up,” Rebecca Dooley, SSMU VP (University Affairs), said. “[The new policy does] address some of the concerns that were brought forward by students [at the last Senate].”

During Senate discussions on the policy, Sarah Woolf, SSMU Arts senator, pointed out that the new policy will be replacing the Policy on Research Ethics and the Regulations on Research Policy,

and therefore should include more specifications on ethical standards.

“The policy does refer to a research ethics board. However, to the best of my knowledge, the board is generally concerned with the welfare to the immediate human or animal subjects, rather than the potential societal and ethical outcomes of research,” Woolf said. “Despite the extent of the articulation of ethics, the revised version of the policy does not provide guidance to what this ethical standard might be.”

Thérien and others on the team that is drafting the new policy did not address Woolf’s concerns.

Richard Janda, Faculty of Law senator and law professor, also believes the policy still needs to be strengthened in order to prevent potentially harmful applications of research conducted at McGill.

“Just as we have ethical review of research on human subjects…I think that we can ask those kinds of questions [for any research].

Particularly, I believe we should ask those kinds of questions when the sources of money that are being given for research are not peerreviewed granting councils,” Janda said.

Prior to the Senate meeting, the new policy was reviewed and discussed at the Research Advisory Council (RAC), which was formerly the Research Policy Committee.

The RAC is composed of representatives from all faculties, associate deans, representatives from Thérien’s office, and student representatives.

According to a post-doctoral representative in the RAC, who wished to remain anonymous, the RAC attempted to develop a clause to regulate research with potentially harmful applications. “There was

an effort made by a number of committee members to come up with a better clause. But in the time we had, we couldn’t come up with better wording,” she said.

The post-doctoral representative was disappointed that they did not have sufficient time to discuss and develop an appropriate clause.

She felt that the representatives from Thérien’s office had a strong influence in the discussion and had clearly set objectives.

Cleve Higgins, organizer with Demilitarize McGill, argued that in fact, having these regulations in place are in the interest of McGill and its administration.

“I think it is important for McGill to institutionally deal with this issue, and in that way there doesn’t need to be a campaign against the University or against the researcher every time the research is connected to harmful application,” said Higgins.

4 News

The McGill Daily,Thursday, February 11, 2010

Administration denies unfair profiling Muslim Students’ Association calls for apology Stephen Davis The McGill Daily

A

n email regarding security at club events has some students accusing administrators of prejudice, SSMU execs calling for a reformed policy on room bookings, and the administration insisting the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

In an email sent on February 2, McGill events administrator Debbie Yacoulis asked SSMU VP (Clubs and Services) Sarah Olle to provide advance warning of any events held by QPIRG, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), and the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA).

Yacoulis claimed that extra time was needed to grant these groups security clearance for their events.

Olle forwarded the email to members of the three organizations mentioned. The message came as a surprise to the MSA. The group is currently drafting a request for a formal apology.

“Our events are never controversial and we never have problems.

Most of our events are [attended by] Muslims coming for more knowledge,” said Anais Massot, VP (External) for the MSA. Massot has been with the MSA for three years and could not recall any group events where extra security was needed.

Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson explained that the email did not reflect University policy, which mandates that security needs are to be determined on an event-byevent basis “I don’t see it as being an issue; I see it as being a mistake,” Mendelson said.

Yacoulis emailed Olle after learning that the MSA planned to host a lecture entitled “The Essentials of Islamic Knowledge and Practice.”

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Olle is familiar with the University’s event-by-event policy and said that the email from Yacoulis was confusing.

“It’s always been on a per event basis, which I think is a good system because you can’t assume that just because a group is a certain group, its events will be a certain way,” Olle said.

Jim Nicell, McGill’s Associate Vice-Principal (University Services), echoed Mendelson’s statement, reaffirming the University’s per event security policy.

“The message that was delivered was incorrect and did not represent in any way the position of this University in the way that we deal with events,” Nicell said.

Khaled Kteily, SPHR VP (Membership and Development) believed the three groups were singled out because of their pro-Palestinian stances on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“The only commonality that I can see here is that these [three] organizations are supportive of the Palestinians,” Kteily said.

Massot saw a similar trend.

“SPHR is pro-Palestinian, QPIRG does a lot of events that are [proPalestinian]…and we’re Muslim, so I guess we fall into that category as well,” she said.

Anna Malla, QPIRG’s internal coordinator, was upset but not particularly surprised upon reading the email.

“I know that we do get profiled to a certain degree, but the degree to which this is a situation of actual racial profiling of speakers really shocked me. They specifically have been flagging events that have Palestinian speakers,” Malla said.

Rebecca Dooley, VP (University Affairs) indicated that other groups have been profiled by the administration. Dooley described a “human tunnel” of security guards at the Senate meeting where the university’s research policy was

Jerry Gu | The McGill Daily

The administration is calling the email a misunderstanding, but students aren’t convinced. discussed. The issue attracted students opposed to military research on campus. Dooley said the increased security presence was likely brought in to restrain these students.

“They weren’t violent, but it was just assumed that students with that sort of opinion were going to be aggressive, and violent, and disruptive,” Dooley said.

When security is required at events, the club must cover the additional costs.

Kteily said this was an unfair burden to place on clubs.

“If they are going to mandate additional security guards, the very least that could be done is that McGill cover these costs.

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Realistically, we are dealing with a budget that is stretched to the limits,” Kteily said.

Nicell stood by the University’s policy.

“At a certain point, if there’s no subsidies available for carrying out those events, it’s going to have to be carried by the group itself,” Nicell said.

For Olle, the initial email points to problems with the University’s policy that extend beyond the cost of security. Olle explained that since policies are developed by high-ranking administrators, the actual regulations are not always communicated effectively to the people who help clubs book events.

For instance, Olle also mentioned an email she received from an administrative assistant who referred to Choose Life as “Abortion McGill.”

Olle said she sees this as indicative of inadequate knowledge of clubs among lower-level administrators.

“The knowledge trickle-down about what’s happening gets very convoluted when it gets to those lower levels,” Olle said. “I hope that this does continue to push the University to come up with a more comprehensive, clear policy about events on campus…because I just think this is just another example to show that what they’re doing right now doesn’t work.”

News meetings Mondays @ 4:30 Shatner Cafeteria BE THERE

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

5

Demolition of lower St. Laurent on hold Café Cleopatra fights City expropriation and eco-friendly office project Emilio Comay del Junco The McGill Daily

P

lans for the redevelopment of St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine have paused while local strip club Café Cleopatra challenges a City-ordered expropriation in court.

Café Cleopatra is the last occupied building on the western side of St. Laurent between Ste. Catherine and René Lévesque, where the Societé de developpement Angus (SDA) is slated to build a 12-storey office tower – the Quadrilatère St. Laurent – to house Hydro-Québec offices as well as green, sustainable retail space.

Since Café Cleopatra’s October 2009 notice of expropriation, SDA has acquired the block’s remaining buildings, including Main Importing, the oldest Middle Eastern grocers in Canada, and the Montreal Pool Room, a hot dog restaurant. However, the court case has paused the demolition of the block, which was scheduled to begin on January 1.

While the outcome of Café Cleopatra’s case remains unclear, Viviane Namasté, a professor at Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute and member of the Save the Main coalition, which works for the preservation of lower St. Laurent, said it could determine the future of SDA’s project. “[The case] could put some wrenches in the plans and there are some strong legal arguments to be made against the expropriation,” Namasté said. Éric Paradis, president of Save the Main, runs “Club Sin,” a long running, popular fetish event at Café Cleopatra.

He questioned the logic of constructing the Quadrilatère St. Laurent, which has been promoted as an eco-friendly redesign of the street.

“Our city disregards counterculture. They don’t give a damn.

They’d rather have a 12-storey office tower…. It’s alternative art being given the boot,” Paradis said.

Café Cleopatra owner Johnny Zoumboulakis has also been an open critic of the way the City handled the redevelopment plan. He pointed out that no open bid was

held for the redevelopment. Rather, Montreal Mayor Gerard Tremblay’s administration approached SDA privately before presenting the plans to the public.

“It’s a puzzle why Angus was given so many projects without any public consultations or open bids,” Zoumboulakis said.

Public consultations were held by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) in May 2009, but some activists, local businesses, and urban planning experts felt that its recommendations were not implemented.

Namasté felt that many recommendations made during the OCPM consultations did not go “far enough,” though they did caution the City to take more time with the redevelopment project.

“The City, in my view, didn’t decide to slow down,” Namasté said. “When they decided to send a notice of expropriation to Café Cleopatra, that had to be voted on at municipal council. But they didn’t have at that point a clear mock-up of what the project would be.”

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

A beloved unisex disco is up for expropriation.

Charest questioned in India for asbestos sales Scientists slam province for hazardous exports Evan Zatorre and Jan Wollenberg News Writers

O

ver 100 doctors and scientists from around the world have drafted a letter to Premier Jean Charest urging Quebec to stop the export of asbestos to developing nations. The letter was issued in late January, shortly before the premier left on a trade mission to India, the largest importer of Quebec-made asbestos.

The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), which sponsored the letter, cited statistics from Quebec that show that asbestos-related diseases remain a major threat to public health in the province.

“The Quebec Workers’ Compensation Board shows that 60 per cent of occupational deaths were caused by asbestos…. This gives a total of 612 new cases of asbestos-related disease in Quebec in 2004,” wrote CANSA in the letter.

Linda Reinstein, co-founder and executive director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization noted that the figures were inaccurately low. “Large numbers of deaths

caused by asbestos-related cancers and cardiac arrest are not properly attributed to asbestos,” she said.

The majority of all asbestos produced in Quebec is exported to developing nations, where regulations on their usage are generally absent. “It’s sad to see workers in developing countries dying of preventable disease,” said Reinstein.

“People in developing nations need money desperately, corporations take advantage of this, and workers end up working with asbestos in compromising conditions with no protection.”

According to the Canadian Press, Charest was questioned on the issue during a press conference in Delhi. He responded that his government has no control over asbestos exports.

Canada is the second largest producer and exporter of chrysotile asbestos in the world, and the majority of Canadian asbestos mines are located in Quebec. In 2002 Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources adopted a policy encouraging “municipalities to increase their use of products containing chrysotile.”

Kathleen Ruff of the Rideau

Institute on International Affairs commented that asbestos use has, however, declined in the province.

“There is no legal ban. But except for in towns like Asbestos [Quebec] where asbestos is even used in pavement, there has been a large decrease in asbestos use. Quebec is removing asbestos from schools and workplaces, as once it is in place it is a problem for decades,” said Ruff.

The letter criticized Quebec for having a double standard toward asbestos exposure.

“We find it shocking that the exposure level you endorse for people overseas is 10 times higher than the level permitted by...other Western industrialized countries....

We applaud your government for seeking thus to protect Quebec workers from asbestos harm. We call on you to show equal concern for the lives of workers in the developing world” the letter read.

The industry, however, claims that if used properly, asbestos is not harmful. The Chrysotile Institute, founded in 1985, is a joint initiative by the federal government of Canada and the government of Quebec. According to Clément Godbout, the president

of the institute, it “receives 60 per cent of its funding from the provincial and federal governments and the remaining 40 per cent from industry.”

Godbout also stressed that the institute’s mandate “is not to promote chrysotile itself, but merely to promote the safe and responsible usage of it.” The institute has said that chrysotile is safe for use if air contamination levels are kept below one fibre per cubic centimetre.

Godbout commented that a person working in an environment that maintains those standards, even over a long period of time, is subject to “a very low risk, certainly no more than that of the average worker in another industry.” To the anti-asbestos groups he said, “show us research that proves there is significantly high risk for our standard of one fibre per cubic centimetre. To my knowledge I haven’t seen any scientific reports or proof yet.”

In reference to the countries that import Quebec’s asbestos, Godbout said, “The information on safe use is available and we encourage them to use it. The small enterprises that don’t adhere to the safety standards

should be shut down.”

In response to these claims, CANSA has stated in a press release, “The [World Health Organization]... and the fifty countries who have banned chrysotile asbestos, state that there is no safe exposure level for chrysotile asbestos.”

CANSA also stressed that the lack of awareness abroad is supported by the province’s attitude toward its use. They also criticized the asbestos industry for attempting to silence anti-asbestos science, citing various lawsuits and attempts at intimidation.

“The asbestos industry has tried to represent asbestos as a political issue of Quebec culture and pride,” said Ruff. She added that at the October 2006 UN Rotterdam Convention, Charest’s government successfully lobbied Canada to block the addition of chrysotile asbestos to the UN’s hazardous substances list.

McGill principal Heather Munroe-Blum accompanied Charest as part of his delegation.

On February 6, Munroe-Blum and Charest presented at a high-profile sustainable development summit in Delhi.

6 News

The McGill Daily,Thursday, February 11, 2010

CAF asks for French 200-level classes Éléna Choquette Le Délit

T

he Commission on Francophone Affairs (CAF) recently finalized a proposal to be presented to the Principal’s Task Force on Diversity, Excellence, and Community Engagement.

The CAF is the SSMU body responsible for promoting francophone culture and rights at McGill.

The proposal addresses the “University’s disconnect from its immediate population, namely the province of Quebec.” It suggests that the University offer a majority of 200-level courses in French as well as English. It also proposes that a third of professors hired demonstrate French-language competence.

However, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson felt many francophone students wanted to take courses in English. “Many francophones who come to McGill come here because they want to improve their English,” he said.

Citing his experience as a McGill professor, Mendelson added that “typically, very few students exercise that right [to submit work and

exams in French].”

Manon Lemelin, the first-year assistant for francophone students, also questioned the need for French-language 200-level courses.

She said that the francophone students she meets with tell her they enrol at McGill to “to learn and perfect their English.”

Isabelle Daunais, director of undergraduate studies at the Département de langue et littérature françaises, suggested that departments should make their own decisions regarding language of instruction. “[I] rarely hear students complain about the lack of Frenchlanguage courses in other departments. [For students in our department, attending classes in English] is a special challenge worth taking on.”

Others were thrilled by CAF’s proposal.

“I think it’s a very good idea,” said Marion Vergues, a French professor at the English and French Language Centre.

But Vergues expressed concerns that the level of language would need to be lowered for non-francophone students taking classes in French.

Vergues suggested solving this

Rebecca Chapman | The McGill Daily

Mendelson and first-year francophone advisor say students want to improve English

University-wide 200-level classes in French aren’t coming anytime soon. problem by integrating a languagelearning component into Frenchlanguage courses for non-francophones. “The English and French Language Centre would be the bestpositioned [unit] to develop this kind of inter-faculty relationship,” she added.

As for hiring French-speaking professors, Mendelson said language is not a priority. Explaining that McGill is a “world class university,” Mendelson said facul-

ties try to recruit the best possible professors – based on their qualifications, the quality of their research, and their teaching abilities.

“We’re trying to serve students as well as our resources permit,” Mendelson added.

Mendelson explained that current priorities are the translation of important information and documents like the Handbook on Student Rights and

Responsibilities, and ensuring that everyone can hand in work and exams in French.

This year, McGill is offering French-language beginning- and intermediate-level courses in the Canadian studies, political science, electrical engineering, and earth and planetary sciences programs, as well as in the Faculty of Education.

— translated from French

by William M. Burton

Post-doc’s tax and childcare status rejected Student appeals to McGill, PGSS for help Stephanie Law The McGill Daily

M

cGill post-doctoral fellow Virginie Dormoy was forced to pay over $5,000 in tax returns when the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rejected her student status and refused to recognize her post-doctoral fellowship as non-taxable. The CRA also revoked the universal childcare benefits that Dormoy should have received for her child had her fellowship not been taxed.

Dormoy’s problems began when she forgot to submit her T2022A – a form issued by McGill that attests to a fellow’s student status, though there is no guarantee the CRA will recognize it. She was contacted by the CRA in December, at which point she sent in her form, only to have it rejected.

“They told me they wouldn’t accept my form. They said I was not a full-time student because I’m not in an academic program that leads to a diploma,” Dormoy said. “Due to this incident, I had to pay $7,000, which includes losing my GST tax rebate and my child tax benefit.”

According to Dormoy, the CRA officer who had contacted her, Michel Detourneau, refused to negotiate her student status and said that the decision was final.

Detourneau declined The Daily’s request to comment on Dormoy’s case.

There are approximately 650 post-doctoral fellows at McGill, whose fellowship stipends are, on average, worth $38,000 per year.

“Revenue Canada chose to treat me differently from other post-doctoral fellows despite the fact that I submitted the same forms, and I have not received any support from McGill,” she said.

Both of Dormoy’s supervisors have written letters on her behalf to Martin Kreiswirth, dean of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies, to ask for his help and support.

In response, Kreiswirth recently wrote a letter to the CRA on Dormoy’s behalf affirming that she is duly registered with the University and undergoing advanced academic training.

However, the letter is the extent to which Kreiswirth is able to help Dormoy.

“As an individual’s tax status

is a personal matter and may be affected by numerous personal factors…McGill has advised that any post-doctoral fellow who has been assessed by Revenue Canada must seek professional assistance… regarding [her] particular tax file,” Kreiswirth wrote in an email to The Daily.

Due to the lack of initiative from McGill, Dormoy sought the help of the Postgraduate Students’ Society (PGSS).

According to Ladan Mahabadi, VP (External) of PGSS, the issue is complicated by the lack of agreement among Canadian universities. For example, the University of Toronto and University of Alberta do not consider their post-doctoral fellows as students and do not issue the T2022A tax slips.

Mahabadi explained that it is PGSS’ goal to help Dormoy and to use any resources available to them.

“We’re trying to challenge the [CRA’s] decision and potentially seek legal advice on what the next step should be. We’re also trying to gather support from the [McGill] administration and other post-doctoral fellows on campus and across

Montreal,” Mahabadi said.

Matthew Milner, a PGSS postdoctoral representative, argued that this issue goes beyond taxes and income.

“It doesn’t come down to taxes at all. It’s either we get benefits as students and we can exercise them, one of which is the tax exemption; or we’re employees and we get other benefits like retirement pension and medical benefits,” Milner said.

On the other hand, Olivier Beaulieu-Mathurin, president of the National Graduate Council of the Quebec Federation of University Students (CNCS-FEUQ), stated that post-doctoral fellows should be considered as students.

“Post-docs should be considered as students because they are undergoing training. In fact, at some universities, they do receive a document at the end of their fellowship, which acknowledges their completion,” Beaulieu-Mathurin said.

There was consensus among the student representatives that CRA should not be interfering with university affairs.

“The CRA is evidently skewing the interpretation of the tax act. In

the tax act, the university, which is a chartered institution of a province, has the right to define who its students are.... CRA is a federal agency and it is trying to trample in an area of provincial jurisdiction,” Milner said.

Student representatives are weary of the effects that this case could have on the financial security of current and future post-doctoral fellows.

“By setting this precedent, what’s to stop CR A from getting students to pay them retroactively without warning? Where’s the safeguard? It is likely that prospective post-doctoral fellows might be deterred from coming to McGill because of this,” Mahabadi said.

According to Kreiswirth, McGill is currently pursuing this issue at many levels.

“McGill is participating with the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies and the Association des doyens des études supérieures au Québec to reinforce our belief that fellowship stipends for postdoctoral fellows are eligible for the educational deduction,” Kreiswirth wrote.

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

NEWS BRIEFS

Violence exposed

Miranda Whist | The McGill Daily

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were involved in a domestic problem – a couple. She told the police, and they didn’t think it was true.

They thought she was a liar. She almost died. There are a lot of cases like that, and unfortunately [the authorities] don’t pay attention.

MD: Could you talk about what is being done to empower women in indigenous communities?

RAL: We have maisons d’hébergement [safe houses] outside the communities – close to 11 or 12 here in Quebec. Women know now that they can go out of the community to be safe, with their children. If they stay in the community, the problem is nobody will talk, and also often it’s the uncle or the husband [who is committing the violence]. Now they are going out of the community, and the women who take care of them are indigenous too.

But also, there are a lot of circles of women that meet now once a week so they can talk. We show films now, and when they see that, they realize that [what is depicted] is the same story [they experienced], so they start to talk.

MD: Could you talk about your work in film, and how you came to see film as a tool for problem solving and change?

RAL: We began with N’a qu’un oeil, a film that aims to educate about domestic violence. It [went] around to the communities, and to conferences. It works. It’s not very fast, and we still have violence. But you have women who didn’t know [something] was violence, and

Iran makes preemptive arrests Iran has arrested several people who were preparing to disrupt rallies on February 11 marking the 1979 Islamic revolution, police said on Wednesday.

The arrests pose a clear warning to opposition supporters planning new protests. Opposition leaders have called on supporters to take to the streets on Thursday, raising the risk of renewed violence eight months after a disputed election plunged Iran into crisis.

— reuters.com Haiti toll hits 230,000 According to the Haitian government, 230,000 people died in last month’s earthquake, 18,000 more than the previous estimate.

The toll from the January 12 quake is approaching that of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 250,000 people.

— bbc.com

Indigenous women’s activist Rachel-Alouki Labbé sheds light on domestic violence in aboriginal communities

ince 1980, it is estimated that as many as 3,000 indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada.

According to the grassroots advocacy group, Missing Justice, these cases remain largely unsolved – of the 520 official cases on record, more than 300 are still open.

Additionally, in Canada, indigenous women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence than any other group of people.

This Sunday will mark the first time that the Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women – an event that began in Vancouver in 1991 and now takes place in cities across the country – will take place in Montreal. A panel discussion on the injustices faced by indigenous Canadian women will also be held on Thursday, February 11.

Rachel-Alouki Labbé, an Abenaki filmmaker and activist, sat down with The Daily to discuss the complex issues surrounding violence against women in indigenous communities.

The McGill Daily: Why do cases of violence against indigenous women go unsolved?

Rachel-Alouki Labbé: Because the Gendarmerie royale du Canada [GRC or RCMP] just don’t care.

They’re so used to seeing us in a violent way, so they think we don’t care, and they don’t care. They don’t follow up. They don’t take it as if it were important, like it were someone from their community.

I have friends in Winnipeg that

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[after seeing the film] they know.

MD: You’ve made a film about the femicide issue in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. What connections did you see between missing and murdered indigenous women in Mexico and in Canada?

RAL: We are sisters. When I talk to people here, they don’t know what’s going on there. They only know that we can go to Mexico and lay on the beach and have a good time. When you start to talk about femicide, the gangs, the drug cartels, what happens to these women, [people] don’t know.

I decided to go there to show [the situation], that these women are almost all aboriginal women from the south – poor women.

The problem [in Mexico] is the same as here – they just don’t care, they don’t want to resolve the problems because [they say], “These are just aboriginal women. Why should we spend money to find out who killed these women?” It began to be very easy to kill women there.

MD: What do you think is needed from the Canadian government in order to stop violence against indigenous women?

RAL: First, they have to listen.

They have to be involved in the problem. They don’t listen and they don’t look and they don’t want to know because it’s not good for Canada. In Canada everywhere you go, people think they are taking good care of aboriginal people, and this is not true at all. If we could show everyone around the world about [violence against indigenous

women], Canada wouldn’t be the best place in the world to live. I think [the government] wants to keep their rank. They have to listen to us. If we decide to make a film, they have to show it. Sometimes they don’t, because it’s not good for the image. So I think things have to change, of course, but it’s not only aboriginal women who have to change it, it’s [everyone] together.

MD: Have you seen changes to the condition of indigenous women in recent years? In what ways?

RAL: I see improvements. When I was younger, it was worse, because women weren’t talking about [violence]. Now, we have social workers, and [many of them] are aboriginal.

Since 20 years ago, we have made a lot of [progress]. But the violence is so extreme. Sometimes you go to a community and it’s more than 87 per cent [who have experienced] violence against women and children, and sexual abuse. We have a lot of work to do. We are still dying of it. We all have someone we know who went to the hospital [because of violence]. This is not normal.

If we could all come back to our traditional thinking, sometimes…

Of course we are in 2010, but just think about our soul, how we were before. Because we are forgetting that we are aboriginal, and we are part of the earth. I wish we could think about what and who we were, all the peace we had. [Violence] is not the way of thinking of the aboriginal people.

— compiled by Amelia Schonbek

Myanmar sentences American to prison A court in Myanmar sentenced an American citizen on Wednesday to five years in prison and hard labour on charges of carrying a forged identity card and two other offenses. Nyi Nyi Aung, a naturalized American who has spent two decades campaigning for democracy in his native Myanmar, will be allowed to serve the three prison terms concurrently, cutting down the actual jail time to three years. Aung’s lawyers said they would appeal the decision.

— Thomas Fuller, The New York Times Bixi sponsor indicted in China A Chinese prosecutor handed down indictments on Wednesday against an Australian citizen and three Chinese employees of British-Australian mining giant – and Bixi sponsor in Montreal – Rio Tinto.

The Chinese government charged Rio Tinto with accepting bribes and stealing trade secrets, after backing down from an espionage charge.

— David Barboza, The New York Times Britain loses torture appeal The British foreign secretary lost an appeal to keep information secret regarding the alleged torture of Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident, while he was held in Pakistan in 2002 at the behest of U.S. authorities. Mohamed was accused of receiving training from al-Qaeda. According to a CIA report released by the British foreign office, he was subjected to sleep deprivation and threats.

— bbc.com

Mind&Body

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

8

DIY Valentine’s Day Feel the love regardless of relationship status

Sex talks Maddie Guerlain and Amanda Unruh The McGill Daily

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ith so much candy and so many hearts floating around campus this week, Valentine’s Day starts to feel a little more grotesque than affectionate, and a little more commercial than considerate.

On top of that, everything is about “that special someone” – assuming everyone in the world is (1) in a relationship; (2) with someone of the opposite gender; (3) with only one other person; (4) is in love with that person; and (5) enjoys showing affection by buying things. Ugh. Well this Valentine’s Day, we propose a few alternatives to all the old usual suspects – chocolate, flowers, getting beer and a song delivered to you in class by the Plumber’s Philharmonic Orchestra, et cetera.

First, why not take Valentine’s Day to love your friends? We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day; some provinces have Family Day; the U.S. has Presidents’ Day; and we have Veterans’ Day and birthdays, but nothing about basking in awesome hot friendship. Instead of letting all the lame marketing give you a complex about having or not having a single significant other, take some time to think about the many

significant people in your life. Bake your best friends a cake, exchange massages by candlelight, play board games until the wee hours of the morning, paint your faces, make a large dinner, and then eat a lot of brownies. The amazing lovecelebration options are endless, so don’t let the stereotypes of intimate couples limit your Valentine’s Day. Second, treat yourself to a little love and masturbate! Like most things we write about here, the topic was probably taboo in your health class, and especially so for women.

To set the record clear and straight: masturbation is for everyone. This includes people in relationships, so don’t stop reading even if you’ve had your V-Day planned for two months with your partner.

While pleasure and sex can involve other people, it doesn’t have to. Learning to masturbate and explore your own body can be intimidating due to social stigma, medical terminology, and the way we are taught to think of certain parts of ourselves as dirty, offlimits, or uninteresting. In reality, learning what makes you feel good can be a huge confidence-builder, is lots of fun, and is a great source of information to share with a partner

Sally Lin | The McGill Daily

Liberate your Valentine’s Day from feelings of shame – about being single, or about your body. if you do have one.

Masturbating can range from jerking off under the covers, to playing with the shower head, to pinching your nipples, to using a vibrating bullet or dildo. Being alone gives you the opportunity to try new things, whether it be lube, a toy, or being tied up with silk scarves. The point is to feel good (not scared!), so do what you are comfortable

with and then explore from there.

You’re in control, which means you can choose the pace, the setting, and the action. Just getting started?

Choose a place where you feel comfortable, give yourself some time, and begin slowly. Masturbating doesn’t need to be goal-oriented or completely focused on getting off every time, and it doesn’t need to stay between your legs. Start with

something you are familiar with, like a mini-massage, and then go from there to wherever and whatever feels good.

We hope these suggestions help make your Valentine’s Day a little more inclusive and exciting. And although all the marketing is overwhelming and annoying, just keep in mind all the great chocolate sales on February 15.

Don’t turn your boyfriend gay, says magazine Estrogen to take over world: Cosmo William M. Burton The McGill Daily

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o I’m flipping through Cosmo, per usual, and I chance upon this gem: “Are you turning your boyfriend into a girly man?”

by Molly Treffin. Intrigued, I read on – and discovered how women are accidentally turning their lovers into queers, and what they can do to reverse this insidious homosexualization.

Treffin starts by pointing to a worrying trend of women treating men like lovers and friends: “A growing number of women are behaving as though their guy is one of their girlfriends, and more

men are agreeing to partake in traditionally feminine activities,” says Christopher Bazina, PhD, whose only claim to fame seems to be his book The Secret Lives of Men. Acting like your boyfriend is a gurlfriend initiates him in feminine activities and interests like watching The Hills, using skin-care products, and emotional intimacy. According to a study cited by Cosmo that I couldn’t find on the Internet, people with friendship-like romantic relationships are unhappier than those in more traditional unions. Thus, friendship with your fuck-buddy is a doubly dangerous phenomenon: not only do they make you unhappy, but they also “chick-ify” men. The consequence? Your man’s

“testosterone level nose-dives.” (No studies cited, of course.)

Cosmo’s solution is elegant.

Don’t share your interests with your boyfriend; don’t be emotionally intimate with him; increase distance in order to magnify your “mystique” – men love mystery. Bottom line: don’t get close to men.

If you do, it’s at your own peril.

“Sure, some guys will appreciate going shopping with a girlfriend who will help [them] pick out nice clothes and legitimately enjoy listening to your Cat Power album in the car,” the article states. But these men are homosexuals.

So watch out – you might want to invite your boy to body-pump class or eat vegetarian food with

him, but if you do, you’ll soon find him singing along to Lady Gaga and exchanging blowjobs with his bros.

One too many girltalks and your man’ll be an invert.

This is pretty bad advice to start with. But when you notice that the science here seems pretty weak – according to what statistics are women treating men like girlfriends? By what mechanism does testosterone decrease when men perform “feminine activities? – the real problem here becomes clear.

Maybe it’s nitpicky to quibble with Cosmo over statistics, but an advice magazine that cloaks itself in the power of science is pretty dangerous. How many women will

read this and fear that their boyfriends are secretly gay? How many will fear they’ve contaminated their men with homosexual pollution? How many will disengage and cause irreparable harm to their relationships in order to keep their men testosterone-fueled and phallocratic?

But whatever, I guess. It’s just a magazine, right?

We’re accepting short, pointed critiques of articles in women’s magazines. Please note: the section editor is an avid reader of women’s mags, and can appreciate their appeal as much as their diabolical qualities.

Send your ideas to mindnbody@ mcgilldaily.com.

Mind&Body

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

9

Is there a decent dep wine in the house?

Sour grapes Max Campbell

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asting One: De Noiret Red ($10.99 per litre) (2.5/5 Stars) First sip: bad. Second sip: bad.

Second glass: not too bad.

The first tasting for Sour Grapes was done by committee in the living room of my apartment. None of us have any knowledge of what a good wine should taste like, or what a bouquet is, or what tannins are. I have heard people say that a certain wine tastes like blackberries or chocolate or mahogany. Some in-the-know tasters hold the glass by the stem and others by the bowl. They lift up their glasses to their noses and smell deeply; then they draw the wine into their mouths and swish the wine between their teeth and then smack their lips together to taste certain nuances. At this wine tasting, we aren’t worried about which vintage we are trying or whether hints of elderberry come out, and the “by the stem or by the bowl” issue?

We are all drinking out of mugs.

What I do know is that, in the

world of wine, I am an outsider.

This bottle wasn’t found in the France aisle of the SAQ; it was in the between-the-chips-and-the-beersection of the depanneur down the street. I am clinging on to the lowest rung of wine culture and my grip is slipping faster than our De Noiret is opening up. We decanted it in a Boreal pitcher.

Back in the living room something tastes off and we’re pretty sure it’s the tannins. It’s gotta be the tannins. We are sipping and swishing and smelling and smacking our lips but none of us really know what to taste for.

“Mahogany? Oak? Is that what I’m getting?”

“I’m tasting more…poplar.”

“Poplar?”

“Whatever. Whatever the worst kind of wood is.”

After we had all drunk the first glass, we went around and made a list of reactions and we agreed on some basic points: the wine doesn’t smell like anything. The wine doesn’t

Jerry Gu | The McGill Daily

really taste like anything either, but there is a hint of chemicalness, as if they forgot to rinse the bottle out after they cleaned it. Someone called it “very chuggable,” which, after a

half-glass, it was. The biggest flavour mystery, though, was revealed when we read the back label: “It embraces the full richness of the terroir to give birth to a wine in perfect harmo-

ny.” Who are they kidding, terroir?

Terroir means dirt.

Pair with: Doritos, Cheetos, other cheesy “-itos”

Unbaked goodness I love sugary confections as much as the next person, though, and so I present to you today two recipes for not-so-baked goods.

Budget bon-vivant Justin Scherer The McGill Daily

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t was brought to my attention recently that I never include any baking in my column. An apt observation, to be sure, but I have a reason for my neglect of cakes and pies: I actually don’t have an oven. When looking for an apartment we were given the choice of an oven or a dishwasher.

The decision was an easy one. I detest dishes.

1. Beaver Dams The miniscule amount of effort required to make these delectable cookies is so amazing, it feels criminal sometimes. Chocolate lovers beware! These are too good to resist.

Ingredients: 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup butterscotch chips, 1/4 cup butter or margarine, 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter, 1 cup peanuts, 2 cups chow mein noodles.

Method: Melt the first four ingredients in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring often. Remove from heat when completely combined. Mix in the peanuts and noodles until they’re completely coated. Use a fork to make small piles on waxed paper. Allow to

cool before eating. They should look like tiny beaver dams. Delicious!

2. No-Bake Peanut Butter S’More Cookies: I adapted this recipe from something I found online. I was skeptical at first, but these cookies surprised me with their rich sugary goodness.

Ingredients: 2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup milk, 3 tbsp. peanut butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 3 1/2 cups graham crackers (about one sleeve) broken into coarse chunks, 2 cups mini-marshmallows.

Method: Combine sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk in a saucepan pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add vanilla and peanut butter. Stir until completely blended.

Slowly fold in the graham crackers and marshmallows. Spoon onto waxed paper and refrigerate until firm.

Jerry Gu | The McGill Daily

Letters

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

10

Re: “In which I deconstruct the family jewels” | Commentary | February 4

Lord knows rebelling against the oppressive “straight white males” is only possible through using the same tools they’ve used against women for centuries.

Stefan Campbell U3 Geography

Anorexia: not caused by food alone Re: “If mealtimes are a struggle, don’t face them alone” | Mind&Body| January 28 The profiling of eating disorders is obviously very commendable, and the tone of the article was perfect in dealing sensibly with a taboo topic. But it is very shortsighted to pin down the cause of eating disorders to food alone. This may seem counter-intuitive, but the underlying psychological factors of eating disorders are paramount in understanding the motives, and therefore, in determining a solution. Nowhere did the article make any mention of these elements – a need for control, a plea for attention, an act of rebellion, to name just a few (of course, I could not make an exhaustive list here; the causes are as diverse and unique as the people who suffer from them).

Moreover, to isolate peer pressure, body image, and stress as causes may end up isolating the victims themselves: if someone thinks that help is only directed to those obsessed with becoming thin, they might be less likely to seek help if they see it as not being relevant to their situation. The position of a psychiatrist on the program’s team and the analysis of each case individually – as the article suggests is the case – are vital and praiseworthy elements of McGill’s Eating Disorder Program, and students are lucky to have these resources available. But wider awareness of the truth behind eating disorders – if this can ever be determined in an area with such a wide breadth of symptoms and causes – is needed if we want to successfully fight these illnesses. Seeing victims as extreme dieters obsessed with looking good won’t help.

Naomi Endicott U1 Anthropology Daily staffer

Ballsy, Saeed, but too ballsy Re: “Think before you give” | Commentary | January 28 Sana Saeed’s analysis of the relief organizations in Haiti is concise and daring, but I find it a little too daring. I don’t think that any of these organizations, however politically biased, can be considered to be profiting from the people of Haiti given the current situation. If there is imbalance of distributed aid in the aftermath of the disaster, it is only because of the enormous number of people affected and the scarcity of the resources.

Furthermore, she goes on to state that reconstruction plans are less important than Haitians learning to prepare themselves for future disasters, an argument that contradicts itself. If the infrastructure was developed and 300,000 people weren’t living in the slums, there would not have been a need to be on guard for natural disasters. In the long term, investments in infrastructure can raise the GDP and move the economy upward, something that goes to the core of the problem.

After all, Haiti is a tourist destination and it needs some major reconstruction projects; such projects can provide jobs for the thousands of people affected by the disaster and by poverty. Not to mention completely rebuilding the city in the long term, as is currently happening in New Orleans.

And I also want to say that this earthquake is not something that they could have prepared for, so it is completely senseless to think that they could educate themselves about a natural disaster that isn’t even yet predictable.

What could be done is to implement earthquake engineering and seismic retrofit in buildings, as is done all over the world.

Alexander Kunev U3 Mechanical Engineering

Multiculturalism: been there, done that Re: “The irresistible scream of mutual respect” | Letters | January 28 Bogdan, I don’t see how you can say you’ve “experienced no other society in which there are so many diverse cultures living with such a high degree of intercultural understanding and open-mindedness” when a line later you mention the Indian Students Association.

Could it be that this represents not Canadian multiculturalism but – oh my word, my word, my word – Indian multiculturalism?

I have no doubt that Canada is a multicultural society, or will be if it isn’t so already. Indeed, one of the reasons Indians like Canada is that it’s so much like India with its crazy delicious ideas of “everyone can get along” and “you don’t have to be x religion or y race to be a patriot” and street signs in Punjabi. (Also, Canada is partly the reason India is a nuclear weapon state, but we don’t like to bring that up.) Consider, though, that India is run in 26 languages (including English and French – nyah, nyah) and maintains a secular democracy in a country of one-billion mostly rather religious people.

And although the Republic was founded only 60 years ago, this has been more or less how India has been run for the last five millennia. We were multicultural before Canada was even founded (or found, for that matter). Recognize.

As for assimilation, we have Chinese, French, Japanese, Swedish, Romanian, and Singaporean “honourary Indians” (including, um, you!) at McGill, who between them have learned Hindi, rush to Bollywood films before I do, and can finally eat with their hands like grown-ups instead of messing around with forks and knives. Who’s the Borg now, eh?

Manosij Majumdar U3 Chemical Engineering

Safe sites ignore the heart of the drug problem

Fight oppression with oppression!

Re: “Support for safe injection sites” | Science+Technology | February 1

Re: “In which I deconstruct the family jewels” |Commentary | February 4

I was left shocked and terrified at the same time at the grim reality of our drug policies that Tara Brosnan’s article exposed. If we have come to believe that saving someone from an overdose is considered to be beneficial medical care, then we have completely lost the battle against drugs. It is not treatment from death that we need to be looking at, but rather prevention from addiction in the first place. And this starts with educational classes and a better environment for kids in high school: these efforts should extend to the Montreal police going after the drug dealers with more resources, rather that sitting around all day and giving speeding tickets.

In the end, Richard Elliot’s argument in The Daily article that explains how we should save public funds by treating people on site (while they are overdosing their brains out) really says it all. It’s not that they think this is the best solution, but they just don’t want to spend too much money on those people and that’s the sad truth.

After I finished this article I will admit I was slightly angry, and then a bit confused. Besides the obvious “it completely destroys your argument when you use violence to prove it” point (refer to the Wikipedia page for Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. for more info), I also just don’t see the journalistic merit of this article at all. If the author’s intention was to tell us a quirky anecdote about how awesome and empowered and independent from hegemony she is, all the while glossing over the underlying ideals she’s trying to convey, then she has succeeded.

It takes a lot of guts to give up on trying to prove an argument because either “he was too dumb,” or talking in circles about your hypothesis about the pervasiveness of fatphobia in our society is too tiring. Lord knows rebelling against oppressive “straight white males” is only possible through using the same tools that those oppressive white males have used against women for centuries.

Alexander Kunev U3 Mechanical Engineering

A member of the Bavarian technocrati emerges Re: “The cybersexual revolution” | Features | February 8 While I found the article on “The cybersexual revolution” an interesting read, I found some of the points it made to be somewhat ludicrous.

“Those who produce the software and hardware we use are a minority who make rules that govern the majority. A technocrati is currently being constructed as an elite club. Like most clubs of our society, it’s a boys club.

Women are less familiar with computer technology – possibly in part due to the male-oriented

Stefan Campbell U3 Geography

computer game industry.”

The rules governing the software and hardware aren’t created to keep the control to an elite few; they’re often based on logic or the laws of electromechanics. The supposed “elite” club that rules the majority (the creators of the technology) are people who’ve taken the time to study the laws and rules, and I highly doubt they aim to form a “technocrati” to use their knowledge to marginalize other groups of people. (Being one of the “elite,” I can safely say I’ve yet to meet someone who does).

David Smith U2 Computer Engineering

Letters

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

Oh snap Re: “Money and sex” | Commentary | February 8 Mike Prebil doesn’t seem to get my last column. I didn’t criticize a Los Angeles Times story for mentioning “gory” details regarding sex-reassignment surgery. I criticized the piece for mentioning a trans person’s personal medical history – particularly when that person was not even the subject of the story. I have never suggested that mainstream society shouldn’t learn about trans issues. Instead, my point was that people should consider how trans people feel when they get asked very personal questions about their medical histories. It’s not the responsibility of individual trans people to answer violating questions about their personal lives for the sake of “educating” mainstream society. There are other ways to learn about specific procedures. I’m sure most people who read The Daily can learn more online than they ever wanted to know from places dedicated to that purpose. My column is not one of those places, however. I critique society from a trans perspective; I don’t educate people about details regarding medical treatments. Because of these distortions, I’m not sure that Prebil even understands my argument – or my column in general.

Frankly, I find his commentary on The Daily in general reflects a belief that the paper should be “mainstream” – missing the entire point of The Daily. The Daily is an anti-oppressive newspaper with a clear statement of principles.

The public editor shouldn’t be criticizing The Daily for not being “mainstream” – they should hold The Daily up to its principles and to high standards of journalistic ethics. Right now, The Daily is giving a platform to someone who is not fulfilling the role of a public editor, who opposes the paper’s politics, and who hasn’t even accurately represented Daily pieces. This isn’t productive for anyone. Mike Prebil needs to do his job or abandon ship.

Quinn Albaugh U3 Political Science Daily columnist

I’m taking my toys, and I’m going HOME! Re: “Conservative McGill doth protest too much” | Commentary | February 8 Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan suggests that “QPIRG is a lot like SSMU.” But the two are still not the same. SSMU acts as the student union here at McGill, and I don’t have a problem with them levying a fee over me. Let me also clarify that SSMU rightly provides equal access to funding for all student groups, and I don’t oppose that in the slightest. Every student at this university contributes to SSMU, and therefore, it is only right that every student (with no distinction by political affiliation) should have the right to apply for group funding.

But then there’s QPIRG. QPIRG, on the other hand, is a research group. They fund groups that I find politically radical and incendiary.

Their “research” is not the sort that I am interested in footing the bill for. McGill University has provided me a means by which I can withdraw my money from their organization. Since I am morally opposed to their work, I choose to opt out.

Do not try to make the suggestion that yours is the only side dedicated to student life. Conservative McGill is not having a “campaign against student life.” Neither is the Parti Libéral du Québec at McGill, or Free the Children McGill, who are also participating in this campaign. That is a gross generalization that ignores our legitimate opposition to a group we find harmful and don’t want to fund.

I’m not opposed to student life through SSMU. I’m opposed to QPIRG, and they’re not my student union, so I’m not giving a penny to them. Luckily, I’m not obligated to.

Brendan Steven U0 Arts Tribune columnist

Credentials-longerthan-letter alert Re: “Conservative McGill doth protest too much” | Commentary | February 8 So, if QPIRG provides the same function to its working groups as SSMU does to its clubs, why do we need the both of them?

SSMU already does a great job promoting pluralism on campus, right, Ronderos-Morgan?

Zach Newburgh U2 Middle East Studies Speaker, SSMU Council Speaker, EUS Council President, Hillel House – Montreal

Errata

Due to an editorial error, in the article “Money and Sex” (Commentary, February 8), it was incorrectly stated that “’Montreal hosts Haiti aid talks’ (News, January 28) criticized U.S. involvement while quoting sources that called

for more aid dollars.” This sentence should have read: “‘Montreal hosts Haiti aid talks’ quoted sources criticizing U.S. involvement while also quoting sources that called for more aid dollars.”

The Daily regrets the error.

For SHAAAAAAAME! Re: “Paging Doctor Cornett” | Commentary | October 8 As an alumnus of McGill University, I am shocked that this institution would dismiss one of the few teachers I have ever met in my many years spent at institutes of higher learning who really knows the meaning of the term education. Having sat in on two of his classes, I found myself wishing that I could have had the educational experience his students were privileged to benefit from. I call on the McGill University officers to have the integrity to give the reason for his dismissal.

It is unthinkable not to do so.

Mira Khazzam B.A. Italian Language and Literature, 1969

This letter will be the one to bring Cornett back Re: “Paging Doctor Cornett” | Commentary | October 8 I too would like to add my voice as a professor, novelist, poet, and arts and education activist, to those who are urging the McGill University administration to inform Norman Cornett of the specific reasons for his teaching dismissal from the Faculty of Religious Studies.

I have known Cornett for over a year now, through his innovative Montreal dialogic programming events. It is evident to me that he is a dedicated and inspiring teacher, researcher, and speaker, with an avid following of respectful, intelligent, and socially engaged students, colleagues, and community citizens. A tireless supporter of the love of learning (through interactive multidisciplinarity), it is disgraceful and contrary to McGill’s policies that he should receive no feedback from your academic institution regarding the nature of his dismissal from his teaching post.

It is crucial that our academic institutions be held accountable for their decisions, especially as they affect instructors and students. Honesty, accountability, and transparency are the cornerstones of respectable institutions. Norman Cornett is entitled to an answer from McGill’s Faculty of Religious Studies.

Priscila Uppal York University

11

Cops investigating cops: a surefire method

Where’s the full monty on Mads Gilbert?

Re: “Don’t deport Dany Villanueva” | Editorial | February 4

Re: “Emergency in Gaza” | News | February 8

I was flipping through The Daily when I stumbled upon “Don’t deport Dany Villanueva,” about Dany Villanueva, the older brother of the late Fredy Villanueva. I have to say it’s been long time since I’ve read a piece so heavy on diatribe and light on evidence.

Let’s look at the facts, shall we?

A) Dany Villanueva is a permanent resident of Canada, meaning that Canada has graciously allowed him to live and work there like they did for my family decades earlier, but he is NOT a citizen. B) Villanueva decides to repay Canada’s generosity by robbing somewhere or somebody (I didn’t detect much sympathy for the victim of this crime in the piece) and illegally purchasing a firearm – which, I am sure, was to be used for only legal things. C) Fredy Villanueva’s shooting has been investigated by the Sûreté du Québec and the Crown. No misconduct was found to have occurred.

So it seems the only reason that Fredy Villanueva’s death is still an issue is because his family and supporters refuse to accept conclusions and would prefer to slander the police by referring the “blue wall of silence” or other conspiracies. Based on the facts, the only miscarriage of justice is the fact that Dany Villanueva wasn’t deported earlier. But thankfully, unlike gun charges, apparently justice never goes stale.

Humera Jabir’s interview with Gaza doctor Mads Gilbert cleverly omits key information McGill students deserve to know. While I would support a discussion of medical ethics and the need for appropriate medical care in dangerous situations, Gilbert’s background and political involvement should not be overlooked.

Gilbert had voiced support for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, saying in an interview with Norwegian paper Dagbladet, “The attack on New York did not come as a surprise with the politics the West has followed the last decades. I am upset by the terrorist attack, but I am at least as upset over the suffering that the U.S. has caused. It is in this context that 5,000 dead has to be seen. If the U.S. government has a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, the oppressed has a moral right to attack the U.S. with the weapons they may create as well.” When asked if he supported a terror attack on the U.S., Gilbert said, “Terror is a bad weapon but the answer is yes, within the context which I have mentioned.” Students have a right to full disclosure of the figures The Daily chooses to interview so they can make an informed decision. If students wish to learn more about international events, why doesn’t The Daily use credible sources?

Nwakaku Okere U1 Cell Biology and Anatomy

I applaud Cornett’s proxy tenacity, too Re: “Paging Doctor Cornett” | Commentary | October 8 I continue to be appalled by the lack of accountability on the faculty of McGill to step forward and state the reason for Cornett’s dismissal.

At the same time, I feel there is an insidious undercurrent underwriting that silence and those keeping the silence will go to great lengths to not show any transparency. I believe it was Cornett’s teaching methods that threatened to shake the very foundation of that institution.

Cornett very openly threw away the standard course structure, and along with it, standard prescribed

Vicky Tobianah U3 Honours Political Science and English Literature McGill Daily News Writer

assignments and exams. I believe it is the tearing down of the existing structure and reimagining of his teaching approach that terrifies the faculty so deeply and has resulted in their complete lack of communication with Cornett.

I applaud Cornett’s tenacity in pursuing the reason for his dismissal. I’ve often thought it as a lost cause, that McGill will never reveal their reasons for firing him. But it is that nagging absence of justice and honesty that I believe pushes this very interesting, dynamic man to tirelessly pursue this cause.

Arlene Havrot-Landry

The Daily loves to hear what you think. Send your manifestos to letters@ mcgilldaily.com from your McGill email address, and keep them to 300 words. The Daily does not print letters that are sexist, homophobic, classist, free-masonic, or otherwise hateful.

12Features

Meat in the middle

Tom Aagaard for The McGill Daily

Sophie Busby & Olivia Hoffmeyer discuss the ethics of renouncing vegetarianism and dietary extremism

W

hen she was in high school, Olivia’s family got into urban farming. Though her city has laws prohibiting roosters, you can buy chickens online and have them sent to your doorstep. They send more than you order because you can’t tell their sex until they start crowing. The problem then becomes what to do with the adolescent roosters. One morning, a particularly fat rooster named Charlie started crowing – it’s a boy! Olivia pushed for Charlie to be dinner. The irony of this? She was a strict vegetarian.

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hen we advocate becoming more in touch with where our food comes from, we aren’t saying to throw the household pet in the oven. To some, eating the food you raise might seem on the other end of the spectrum from vegetarianism. For many, however, avoiding meat is avoiding the unethical practices that come along with the mainstream industry. Eating Charlie would mean knowing how he was raised and what he ate. In the end, Charlie ended up on a farm and not on Olivia’s dining room table. Still, the seeds sown by the desire to eat a family pet led to our recent decision to give up vegetarianism.

For both of us, not eating meat was a personal decision, as well as a statement against the environmental consequences of the meat industry. This is the story of two ordinary girls who love food. We had chosen to eat vegetarian for, collectively, half as long as we’ve been able to choose what to eat in the first place. For us, vegetarianism was an easy transition, and for a long time, a decision that went unquestioned. It was in line with our moral convictions. Recently, however, the decision has become more fraught with issues of choice, cooking, eating, health,

politics, the environment, and lifestyle.

Being a vegetarian because you once felt a life-changing pang of empathy for a fluffy lamb is one thing. However, there’s a growing trend to boycott meat for environmental reasons. Some don’t eat cute things, or things with eyes, noses, feet, fur, or any combination of the above; see your vegetarianism, veganism, pescetarianism, et cetera. Others don’t eat meat for religious, cultural, political, or economic reasons.

Vegetarian: the identity In the postmodern search for grounding identities, what’s in our refrigerator has become more than political; it has become fundamental to our identity.

What we choose to put in our shopping carts or mouths is an important decision that becomes complicated by these identities. It is difficult to navigate the divisive minefield that is the vegan-vegetarianomnivore triad. We cannot help but feel ourselves forced into the “ex-vegetarian” position. This means being treated as if we are deserting the cause or returning to the world of the living, depending on who we are talking to.

We cannot let this stand unchallenged, for two reasons. Firstly, strict identities polarize the issue, making it become one of in-group and out-group politics. Secondly, it implies that not eating meat or animal products is the best way to confront the problems of the meat industry and that this lifestyle choice is a superior position.

As Joe Schwarcz, a McGill professor and director of the Office of Science and Society, says, “Extremism in anything is never the answer.” His calm wavered on the subject of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): “People tend to develop a quasi-religious fervor about these things.

Especially when you look at some of the activist organizations like PETA, which to me is nothing other than a terrorist organization.”

PETA alienates anyone outside of their stringent animal rights camp, and forces a certain image of what it means to be proanimal. This extremism does not allow for people to be concerned with the common practices of meat consumption in any way other than militant veganism. We do not regret our time as vegetarians, but we never intended to be part of a movement

that vilified non-meat eaters.

A valid alternative Many choose not to support the meat industry because of its numerous environmental consequences: for instance, abuse of land, pollution, and energy use from transportation, and excessive waste. However, buying meat can be used to support farmers, suppliers, and butchers with ethical business models. One’s financial input can potentially make a more positive change than a boycott. Every dollar is like a vote: we can put pressure on the industry to change how animals are raised, killed, and sold.

Currently, McDonald’s is the world’s largest buyer of beef, according to the film Food, Inc. Simply not buying McDonald’s hamburgers can have more of an impact than not buying meat at all.

The meat industry will continue to supply the products that consumers purchase.

“Everything is run on profit. If someone isn’t going to make money off of it, it isn’t going to happen,” explains Schwarcz. Forking out a few extra bucks could mean a farmer can continue to raise fewer chickens in better conditions. On the other hand, opting

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010 for the cheapest alternative means continued support for low ethical standards in the industry.

The move from veggie- to meat-eater is more complicated than just starting to cook meat. Now, when we go into the grocery store, we have to determine whether the chicken breasts on sale are a product of a meat industry we want to support. This is something that should be a part of every decision we make as consumers. It is a battle we are particularly committed to fighting, despite the extra effort it requires to pass over Provigo’s unknown meat sources and travel to a second grocery store, or visit a local butcher, or maybe even make the trek to Atwater or Jean Talon. Our wallets the market and the meat industry more than silent protest ever could.

The ethics of eating animals While we’ve changed our perspective on eating meat, we don’t condone putting hot dogs on everything. We still base our meals around vegetables. Schwarcz’s words of wisdom: “Most of the diet should be based on foods that are of plant origin.” He explains that 70 to 80 per cent of what you eat should be plant material.

Our decision to be vegetarians was never founded on an opposition to meat-eating.

We were against how our culture eats meat.

Taking a critical look at our dietary choices, however, we realized that North America’s problems with over-consumption apply to more than just meat.

“Meat eating is a luxury…. But just because we say it’s a luxury should not trivialize it,” explains Schwarcz. He suggests, “Life is a quest for luxury, finding what makes you happier.” For a long time, we were happy with luxuries like fresh peaches and gourmet cheese. As we began to cook more, the addition of meat to our diets opened doors.

The new, positive options in the kitchen seem endless. In the words of a friend, it’s a whole new world.

The ethics of raising animals Our media is devoting more and more attention to the ethics of our dietary choices and practical methods of eating in a low impact, environmentally friendly way – which can be overwhelming. Movies like Food, Inc. and books like Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals indicate the growing popularity of vegetarianism. Graphic images of vile slaughterhouses disturb many into never wanting to eat meat again.

However, the slaughterhouses depicted in this propaganda aren’t the only places that raise and kill animals for meat. “[While] there are certainly a lot of problems in the beef industry and the chicken industry in how the animals are raised, those kinds of activist movies take things a bit out of context,” explains Schwarcz. “They will find some horrific example and insinuate that the whole industry is like that. But one case like that is too many.”

In contrast to these graphic scare tactics, Food, Inc. offers a feel-good message and tells us that as individual consumers we have power to make a change. We’re on board with promoting agency instead of extremism.

The debate surrounding the ethics, environmental consequences, and health benefits of food is often clouded with jargon – which only sometimes means what we think it does. Labels like organic, green, grain-fed, free-range, natural, and farmfresh draw our attention to how the food was produced and appeal to our activist hearts. However, they have become overused and no longer necessarily mean anything at all.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency decide what products qualify for

these labels. The qualifications are often as vague as the words themselves (especially when it comes to buzz words like green and natural). For example, to earn the USDA title of “free-range,” chickens only need access to the outdoors for five minutes per day, according to the United Poultry Concerns. On the other hand, sometimes the cost and red tape around certifications means that it isn’t worth it for small farmers, even when their products are sincerely organic and free-range.

This ambiguity makes the battle in the grocery aisle even more difficult as we are forced to wonder whether it really is better to buy an organic, grain-fed, or free-range chicken. Researching local farms can clear up some of the confusion. When you know where your food comes from, it is easier to make an informed decision; it can reveal the bigger picture around that slice of turkey breast in your cart.

The 100 Mile Diet, a pop-environmental movement based on the adventures of Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, challenges you to only eat what is grown within 100 miles of your home. In Canada that means no olive oil, no tropical fruit, and no sugar, just to name a few. While it is always better to eat locally and seasonally whenever possible (we try to avoid produce that has crossed an ocean), the 100 Mile Diet can have the same drawbacks as extremist vegetarian or vegan approaches.

“Philosophically, it’s a good idea. You should be supporting your local growers for sure,” says Schwarcz. “In terms of the environmental cost, it’s not quite as clear cut as the activists make it out.” The pressure and endless food philosophies can be daunting.

At the end of the day, you just have to make a moderate decision that suits your lifestyle, budget, and values. We recognize that not everyone has the luxury to afford always eating local or organic, but it helps to be aware of these debates; hopefully, we won’t always be cash-strapped students.

With all these issues in mind, we gathered our friends for dinner on Friday night.

They brought the vegetable dishes, and we provided the meat. The day before, we went to the Atwater market. There are a variety of meats for sale – some are local. We had done our research on Ferme des Voltigeurs, a chicken farm near Drummondville that has been around since the 1960s. A butcher told us that he has been buying their chickens for 20 years. Not only do they grainfeed the chickens, they make sure that once they have been slaughtered, the dead poultry are aired out instead of dunked in ice water. This is a farm worth supporting.

The thing we love the most about paying a little (really, not that much) more for what is, hands down, better meat, is that it actually tastes better too.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes The decision to start eating meat again was not an easy one. It started months ago with hushed conversations and maybe a few pieces of bacon for breakfast. Neither of us ever intended to be vegetarian forever. When questions about changing our diets arose, it became something we pondered and read about long before that first piece of meat crossed our lips. We are still eating primarily vegetarian diets, but now we don’t have to be picky when we go to someone’s house for dinner and the choices on restaurant menus seem endless.

Consider voting with your wallet, your kitchen, and your dinner table. A vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is not a bad one, but it does not have to be a fierce, oppositional abstention. Enjoy your food, enjoy cooking, and enjoy getting in touch with the whole process, from farm to farts. In short, pay more for meat, eat less of it, cook it well, and have fun!

13

What to look for on labels -Free-range refers to animals being allowed to roam freely.

-USDA free-range certification only requires access to the outdoors.

-As of June 2009 only products with 95 per cent organic content or more can be labelled organic in Canada.

-In Canada, organic food must be free of feed additives, growth hormones, pesticides, and herbicides.

Local ethical farms Ferme Morgan organic poultry at Jean Talon and Club Organic, 4341 Frontenac fermemorgan.com Les Fermes Saint Vincent organic red meat, pork, and fowl available at Atwater and Jean Talon markets saint-vincentbio.com Ferme au bonheur des pres organic lamb by delivery aubonheurdespres.com To find more about your meat: eatwild.com

The impact of raising meat Land Use -In the U.S., 25.9 per cent is grassland pasture and range land while only 19.5 per cent is cropland, much of which grows feed crops.

-The expansion of pastures and arable land for feed crops in Canada causes deforestation and is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

-Meat-based diets require seven times more land than plant-based diets.

Flatulence -Methane emissions cause half of the planet’s human-induced warming -Eighty-five per cent of methane worldwide is from livestock’s digestive processes.

Pollution -The live stock sector accounts for over eight per cent of global human water waste.

-It is the one of the primary sources of water pollution worldwide.

Waste -About 50 per cent of each cow, sheep, or goat; 40 per cent of each pig; 30 per cent of each chicken ends up as waste.

-Ontario alone produces 86,000 tonnes of deadstock each year.

Energy -Housing animals in windowless sheds requires energy for conveyer belts, artificial ventilation, and lighting.

-Livestock travel on average 1,000 miles before they are slaughtered in the U.S. -Additional energy goes into processing, packaging, and regrigeration.

Cattle Inventory -In Canada and the U.S., farm animals outweigh humans four to one.

-The U.S.: 94.5-million heads of cattle -Canada: 13.2-million heads of cattle

14Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

Operation Cast Lead comes to campus The blockade on discussion of Israel-Palestine must end

Aristotle’s lackey Sana Saeed

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ast night’s SSMU General Assembly motion brought an ugly and ongoing conflict back to the surface. And it is time that we talk about the unjust and disproportionate aggression faced by thousands of students on campus.

Much happened in the aftermath of the invasion of Gaza in late December 2008 by Israeli forces: Gaza’s irrevocable damage; an unabashedly overconfident Israel finding itself at the receiving end of a barrage of international condemnation; the Goldstone Report and the growth of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement. Yet perhaps the most striking aftershock, for us here, was the conversion of the McGill campus into a second front for Operation Cast Lead, with shells of identity politics being cast upon all those who dared to speak out against Israeli aggression.

February 2009: I pushed through the doors of Redpath, my body welcoming the accompanying brief breath of warmth. I headed downstairs to grab a quick coffee and joined two friends, Sarah and Ayesha, in the overcrowded cafeteria. Interested in Ayesha’s perspective as a Sri Lankan Muslim, I brought up the issue of the conflict in Sri Lanka. This conversation was taking place during the days leading up to the now infamous February 5 General Assembly and all three of

us had found ourselves frustrated with the whispered segregation taking place between students. We needed something else to discuss.

The response from Ayesha consisted of a smirk and a roll of the eyes.

Ayesha admitted that the Sinhalese Buddhist government did not treat its minority population most preferably, but argued that the Tamils did not appreciate the state’s attempts to bring them onto an equal footing. The government had to do what it had to do to keep the country together and safe from a terrorist organization. With this justification as a foundation, she insinuated that the killing of thousands of Tamils was not tantamount to genocide: they were just, albeit unfortunately, collateral damage. They also seemed to forget that they were being used as human shields by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Genocide, as a claim, was just in vogue.

These words sounded all too familiar – I felt as though I was sitting across from a hijab-clad Zionist.

As I pushed further, she began to struggle with her words. How did she see the slaughter of the Palestinians as genocide but not of the Tamils?

“I just...I just can’t imagine my society doing something like that.”

And just like that an epiphany struck Sarah and me. Ayesha was unable to fathom how her society –

consisting of people just like her and her family – could be involved in the slaughter of another people.

All of a sudden the Armeniangenocide-denying Turks, Darfurigenocide-denying Arabs, and Zionists I had argued with had become humanized in an almost vulnerable sense. For a fleeting moment, I understood, without any anger, why my arguments with such individuals never really went anywhere other than exasperated gasps and frustrated fleeing.

Their denial of such atrocities cannot be forgiven; an injustice is an injustice regardless of circumstance. The support for any injustice is support against all of justice. But, again, for that moment I finally understood how deniers of atrocities could deny what they did.

Denial of atrocities, especially when they are linked strongly to a national, religious, or ethnic identity, is a dissociation of the self’s complicity in any sinful doing. To accept the wrong committed is to accept that there is something somewhat deficient, in an indeed peculiar way, with oneself in terms of self-identification and history.

And that admittance is terrifying.

And here we are again, a year later, back to playing on our identity. Last night’s General Assembly ended up being nothing more than a showcase of passionate identity politics. In particular, it reminded us that there is a high level of intolerance on campus regarding the issue of Palestine. The mere mention of the occupation of Palestine, which is illegal and a clear violation of human rights, created uproar and a campaign that claimed that the motion was demonizing Israel.

Last year’s motion, which asked SSMU to condemn Israeli attacks

Victor Tangerman | The McGill Daily

The GA: a Gaza-away-from-home? against schools during the Gaza invasion, was a motion that had Israel as its focus. No one denied this. This year’s motion put forward

by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), however, was focused on social corporate responsibility, on expanding the Financial Ethics Review Committee’s mandate, using the Occupied Palestinian Territories as the example of a human rights violation, which it is. The fact that the preamble in the motion, which mentioned the Occupied Territories, created the sort of outcry and controversy that it did is most unfortunate and deplorable.

The fact that an SPHR member’s Facebook account was hacked into, and subsequently, that the event supporting the motion was cancelled with false information about the GA spread to over 2,000 people is disgusting. Are we not above this?

Or, are we so subordinate to our identities that we lose rationality and any sense of fairness and justice?

It’s time to close the second front of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here on campus. We need to stop militarizing our minds and our words. Student support against Israeli aggression and occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories must continue – Israel is not being singled out for human rights abuses or breach of international law.

Supporters of Tibet are not told that they are singling out China.

Supporters of Iranian homosexuals are not told they are singling out Iran. A wrong is a wrong is a wrong.

This continued attempt to shut down any small public debate on any issue even mentioning Palestine or Israel – which must always be discussed behind closed doors, it seems, between deceivingly congenial club executives – is a form of mental violence being fuelled by the irrationality of identity politics.

Enough is enough.

Sana Saeed writes in this space every week. Write her at aristotles. lackey@mcgilldaily.com.

HYDE PARK

Revenue Canada oversteps its bounds Taxing post-doctoral students is unfair David Davidson

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irginie Dormoy, a McGill University post-doctoral fellow, received shortly before Christmas an unexpected tax bill of $5,000. Not only this, but soon after, additional thousands were demanded to repay a portion of Dormoy’s GST rebate and child-tax benefit. Imagine the distress caused by receiving an unexpected bill of $7,000 during the holiday season and having only a matter of weeks to scrape your payment together.

No doubt, Revenue Canada has the right to revue income tax returns and to demand payment on taxable income, but they do not have the right to determine student status. Dormoy is a registered post-

doctoral fellow at McGill University and, as such, is considered a student by both the University and the government of Quebec. These are important considerations because, by definition, fellowships given to individuals with student status are not taxable.

In this particular instance Revenue Canada, for reasons that are unclear, has decided not to recognize Dormoy’s status as a student and is ignoring McGill’s mandate to define who may and may not claim this status. In this instance, a T2202A form (the tuition, education, and textbooks certificate) was issued by McGill, submitted

by Dormoy, and subsequently rejected by Revenue Canada. By issuing this form, the University affirmed that post-doctoral fellows are students, and therefore, have

the right to claim the education amount when filing their income tax returns. In rejecting Dormoy’s T2202A, Revenue Canada challenged McGill’s decision and has thereby set a precedent.

Dormoy, with the assistance of the McGill Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) and the Conseil national des cycles supérieurs of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec is trying to fight Revenue Canada’s action. For the moment, this situation appears to be affecting a single individual but it seems inevitable that if Revenue Canada is successful in their attempt to tax Dormoy’s fellowship, they will extend this policy to all post-docs. This will impact the ability of post-doctoral fellows, often newly married with young families and carrying significant

student debt, to earn a living.

Adding this additional stressor to the lives of individuals already stretched thin by the demanding hours and relatively small salaries of their jobs is unfair. The unfairness in this instance is exacerbated by the sudden and unexpected manner in which Revenue Canada applied their tax policy. Doubtless the impact will not be limited to post-docs but will eventually hurt the University as well. The reduced income due to full taxation will inhibit the recruitment of quality post-docs. Additionally, if post-docs are not to be treated as students, then they must be treated as employees – meaning a significant increase in costs due to the disbursement of pension plans and unemployment insurance. These payments will cost

McGill millions.

Please help us by voicing your opinion on this issue to your department head and the Office of the Associate Provost (Graduate Education), headed by Martin Kreiswirth (514-398-1224). We at PGSS are trying to evaluate the extent of this activity by Revenue Canada and as such have initiated a survey on the PGSS web site. If you’re a post-doctoral fellow at McGill and have been required

by Revenue Canada to pay taxes on your fellowship, please go to mcgill.pgss.ca and take the survey.

David Davidson is a post-doctoral student in experimental medicine and a PGSS councillor. Write him at david.davidson@mcgill.ca.

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

15

HYDE PARK

Where are our women?

Justice now for missing and murdered aboriginal women Sheetal Pathak

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hen asked what she perceived to be the biggest challenge facing indigenous women in Canada, Aimee Louw, an activist with the Missing Justice: Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women campaign, asked if I wanted her to be honest. She then replied that the main problem was that we, as a system and as a society, “just don’t value aboriginal women.”

The statistics are staggering. Since 1980, the official number of indigenous women who have gone missing or been murdered is 521, according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. In many cases, however, the police simply do not record the ethnicity of the crime victim or of the missing person, one cause of the lack of data on the actual number of missing and murdered indigenous women. Other sources, such as Walk 4 Justice, suggest that the actual number is as high as 3,000.

Of the official 521 cases, more than 300 remain unsolved. Sixty per cent of the known perpetrators are white and male. Indigenous women as a group are five times more likely to die as a result of violence than other women in Canada.

Institutionalized abuse What we do know is enough cause for alarm. There are clear-

Sally Lin | The McGill Daily

ly systemic forces at work here.

Economic and social marginalization, disenfranchisement of the aboriginal peoples in Canada, racist and sexist government policies, and a lack of access to services and programs tailored to aboriginal people’s needs – these are but a few factors that combine to drastically increase the vulnerability of indig-

enous women. This situation is further aggravated by racist and sexist attitudes of individuals within the police, the public service sector, the media, and the general public.

Canada has a bad track record with regard to aboriginal peoples.

Entire communities are still devastated from past racist, sexist, and colonialist policies, such as the atrocity of the residential school system. To this day, systemic discrimination continues to destroy people’s lives. For example, aboriginal children are four to six times more likely to be taken away from their families and communities by the state than other children.

Let’s add economic marginalization to that picture. On average, off-reserve indigenous women earn $5,500 a year less than their nonindigenous sisters. They are overrepresented in sex work in many Canadian cities. In fact, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern that in Canada, indigenous children and youth “in disproportionate numbers, end up in the sex trade as a means of survival.” Participation in sex work, because of its clandestine nature, the associated social stigma, its dubious legality, and the resulting reluctance to seek police protection, increases one’s exposure to violence. Indeed, sex work has often been used to rationalize the most brutal acts of misogyny.

In addition, racial stereotypes

about aboriginal peoples ensure that they are “over-policed and under-protected,” according to the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba. While some of the families of the missing and murdered women were grateful for the efforts of the police in finding their grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and sisters, many found their interactions with the police wanting.

Discrimination’s effects What is racial and gender discrimination?

It is being beaten when you dare speak your native language in a residential school. It is being called a “dirty Indian,” “Indian whore,” “Indian hooker,” “squaw slut,” and other sexually-charged racial slurs as you exit a bar one night with some friends.

It is the police officer who refuses to begin looking for your loved one until it is too late because he believes she ran away, as indigenous women do sometimes, disregarding your protests that you know her, and know that she wouldn’t neglect to call her family.

It is the white judge and the all-white jury that tried the two 20-year-old white men who were responsible for beating Pamela Jean George to death on April 17, 1995.

As the jury was considering whether she consented or not to sexual activity, the judge commented that they should remember that Pamela Jean George “indeed was a prosti-

tute.”

It is the indifference and apathy of Canadian officials, the media, and society at large, so that when an indigenous woman disappears, there is little or no coverage of the story and the efforts to find her are limited to family and friends.

It is the contrast between the lethargy of the system in many cases involving indigenous women and the generally swift response of government officials, the media, and entire towns when a white girl goes missing.

It is a widespread, categorical denial of the greater trend of violence, exploitation, and sexual predation of what seems to be white men preying on indigenous women.

In fact, the impunity with which the violence against indigenous women is perpetrated suggests that these women were targeted because the perpetrators expected to get away with it. So far, most of them have.

Sheetal Pathak is a U3 International Development Studies student. Write her at sheetal.pthk@gmail.com.

For more information, visit Missing Justice at missingjustice.ca and the Native Women’s Association of Canada at nwac-hq.org. The First Annual Woman’s Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women is this Sunday, February 14, at 1:30 p.m. It starts at Parc Émilie-Gamelin (Square Berri).

COMMENT

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK letters@ mcgilldaily. com

Round 1: arts v. sports Amelia Schonbek

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efore December 23, 2009, a section of Vancouver’s Beatty Street was home to a series of murals painted by 16 local artists as part of a charity fundraiser. But on that morning, the Downtown Eastside murals were painted over by City of Vancouver workers in a colour that’s come to be known as “Olympic Blue.”

None of the artists were informed of the impending destruction of their works.

The reason for the paint job?

Though the city called it “maintenance in the area,” the section of Beatty Street in question will be used as an entertainment site during the Olympics. It’s not hard to connect the dots.

A few weeks later, in early January, a piece of graffiti appeared on the wall. Under a depiction of the Olympic rings were seven words: “With glowing hearts we kill the arts.”

It’s ironic that although culture has been hailed as the “second pillar” of the Olympic Games since Vancouver’s original bid, bringing the Olympics to B.C. has been accompanied by unprecedented

cuts in funding for the arts in the province, as well as accusations that Olympic organizers have engaged in censorship.

In the run-up to the Games, Tourism, Culture, and Arts Minister Kevin Krueger has said that they’re “going to feed hungry children before [they’re going to] provide grants to organizations.” Although provincial officials have said that they’ve

art aside, economically, the cultural sector employs 80,000 people in B.C. and gives back $5.2 billion in taxes to the province each year – a huge return on a relatively small investment.

It would perhaps be easier to stomach these funding cuts if the money lost were being spent wisely. But when, in advance of the Olympics, $486 million is going

By the end of the Games, B.C. arts funding will have been cut more than 80 per cent decided to slash arts funding in order to have money to “feed hungry children,” the fact is that by the time the Olympics are over, B.C. funding for the arts will have been cut more than 80 per cent, from $47 million per year to $3.7 million. By 2011, 92 per cent of funding will have been lost.

These numbers are nothing short of absurd. No other item on the provincial budget comes close to this level of funding decrease, which leaves one wondering what the Liberal government was thinking. All talk of the social value of

toward a retractable stadium roof, another $1 million toward tickets to the Games for politicians, and $2.86 million to fund parties – yes, parties – in various towns that the Olympic torch will pass through, it’s difficult to see how the decision to cut arts funding is being set up as one that pits money for the arts against the aforementioned hungry children.

Let’s be honest – redirecting money toward alleviating B.C.’s child poverty problem is not the root cause here. It’s the Games.

Recently, the Vancouver Sun

reported that the total cost of the Olympics would reach $6 billion (“Olympics bill tops $6 billion – so far,” January 23), all so that a bunch of people can line up at the top of a mountain and see who can ski to the bottom first. Forgive me if I don’t see the point.

Of course, some will argue that the point is the feeling of pride and love for one’s country that comes from watching homegrown athletes succeed at the Games. But I, for one, feel a sense of pride in being Canadian when I see a new work by a Canadian dancemaker, or when I take in an innovative art installation put together by an up-and-coming Canadian artist. These are things that we, as a nation, ought to be proud of as well – before, during, and after the two weeks of Olympic competition. What’s shameful is that arts institutions in B.C. are closing their doors for lack of funding. When the Games are over and done with, it will be B.C.’s cultural landscape, not just Vancouver’s urban one, Amelia Schonbek has a B.A. (’09 in English and is The Daily’s coordinating Culture editor. Write her at a amelia.schonbek@mail.mcgill.ca.

16Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

Debating the ICC

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The ICC should prosecute crimes against democracy

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ince the end of the Cold War, democracy has imposed itself as the only viable option for a people to choose as a political model. Against the failure of autocratic, fascist, and communist regimes to provide public goods to their populations and preserve civil and human rights, democratic systems have proved the most useful at achieving these desirable goals.

Therefore, the International Criminal Court (ICC) should prosecute politicians who commit crimes against the democratic process: election-rigging and engaging in any sort of activity to coerce voters into voting a certain way. The ICC should prosecute these crimes because disrupting the democratic process in a country and removing citizens’ ability to choose their government is a violation of a fundamental human right. An integral part of freedom is having a voice as a citizen, and we can all agree that making nonsense out of the democratic process goes against any notion we have of free speech and free choice – both protected and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The ICC should have the authority to intervene when the voice of citizens is suppressed through rigged elections, because the right to choose one’s government is as fundamental as the right to live, protected by the ICC when it prosecutes war criminals and crimes against humanity.

Only politicians who know that they will not get elected otherwise rig elections, for example Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran’s latest elections. The Islamic Republic is one of the few countries in the Middle East where elections do matter (to a certain extent) and are usually fair. These elections seem to have been the first since the foundation of the republic to have been rigged – Ahmadinejad recognized he wouldn’t be re-elected.

So why should the ICC specifically be given a mandate to prosecute those who rig elections?

Sally Lin | The McGill Daily

Interested in debates on similar topics? The McGill Debating Union holds debates open to the public every Monday at 6:00 p.m., in Shatner 302.

Both articles were written by Linda El Halabi, a U1 Political Science and International Development Studies student. El Halabi is a member of the McGill Debating Union. Write her at linda.elhalabi@mail.mcgill.ca.

Often, countries with frequently rigged elections and without a well-respected democratic process don’t have a system of checks and balances that constrain leaders’ behaviour. The judicial systems in countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria are not independent – they are incapable of effectively constraining political leaders’ actions. The ICC only intervenes in cases where the domestic courts are ineffective and where corruption is high, as is mostly the case in failing states.

These leaders fear above all not their own judicial system but the international community’s response – specifically, sanctions. If they’re intimidated by the possibility of an ICC indictment, they’ll be more inclined to respect the democratic process because they’ll fear losing certain privileges, for example travel to Europe and the U.S. Another reason why the ICC should be the organ for these prosecutions: it has historically been very successful at setting international precedents, such as its indictment of war criminals like Laurent Nkunda of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan’s Omar Bashir. In the same way that the court has succeeded in setting standards regarding human rights violations, it can set standards for the maintenance of the democratic process.

Some argue that the ICC should not intervene because the democratic process is long and shouldn’t be imposed on people. No country, they say, has gone from dictatorship to liberal democracy without a grey area in between. But even when a leader does leave office, their successor often rigs elections as well – witness Nigeria and Zambia’s tumultuous histories.

The people then become disenchanted with democracy, convinced that their voices don’t matter – hence the low-voter turnout in most African countries.

It is the duty of the international community to prevent through the ICC the undermining of the democratic process.

The ICC should mind its own business

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enocide destroys humanity.

Election-rigging destroys preference. It’s a biased and Western idea to assert that democracy is the only way to bring a people happiness. Many countries are neither liberal democracies or dictatorships – falling somewhere in between – like China, Brazil, and many Latin American countries. These nations are emerging powers. The way their policies attract investment legitimize them in the eyes of the people. Benevolent authoritarian regimes exist, and as long as they provide people with stability and goods, the international community ought not intervene and turn the people against their rulers.

Most countries agree when they see a genocide being committed, because there’s physical proof. The notion of genocide is objective. However, good governance is a subjective notion – China, for example, doesn’t believe that Western democracy is an effective model.

Essentially, allowing the ICC to prosecute crimes against democracy would create a binary where democratic and authoritarian regimes would face off and any country wishing to join the club of wealth and power would have to be all in or all out. Such a binary view would discourage leaders from even organizing elections, thus destroying the foundations for democracy.

The ICC prosecuting crimes against democracy would further marginalize fragile democracies – it could even

push them to become full dictatorships. Many countries could be tempted to expel UN observers, thus depriving the international community of a tool to monitor human rights violations. Prosecutions for crimes against democracy will not promote democratic governance.

Promotion of democracy in authoritative, corrupt countries are often undertaken by reformist opposition movements like the African National Congress in Apartheid South Africa or the opposition in Iran today.

Indigenous discourse builds support from the bottom up; international pressure in favour of these movements should suffice to promote democracy. ICC prosecutions will hinder these grassroots movements from fighting for their own model and will impose a Western, imported model on the people.

The biggest harm of this resolution would be the destruction of the ICC’s legitimacy. The court has been the only institution successful in prosecution of crimes against humanity. Countries like China and Cambodia respect ICC resolutions because they can agree on the harm of genocide and they consider the ICC ideologically neutral – which is to say, legitimate. If the ICC started prosecuting crimes against democracy, then countries like China would stop viewing it as legitimate and stop cooperating with it. Cooperation is essential to the ICC’s effectiveness – and such a resolution threatens the level of cooperation it needs to function properly.

Sports

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

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On hockey and hegemony Canadian insecurity even bleeds into the hockey world Ben Foldy The McGill Daily

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ne of the reasons I came to McGill was to live in Canada. I pictured Canada as a sort of left wing paradise, my escape from Bush’s America to a land of partially subsidized education (which also helped the decision), universal health care, and hockey.

In one of my first days at McGill, a fellow student asked me where I was from. After hearing my answer, she told some convoluted story about how she had to wear a Canadian flag on her backpack during a trip to Kenya to avoid being shot at for “being American.”

I called bullshit on that, reminding her that the Harper government had not exactly worked wonders for Canadian credibility in the world. In response, she proudly showed me her tattoo – a maple leaf with “Made in Canada” emblazoned beneath it. I quipped that it should have read, “Made in Canada, exported to the United States along with the other 85 per cent of our economy,” before excusing myself

from the incredibly stupid conversation.

From the militia myth to the Avro Arrow (look these up if you’re unfamiliar), much of the foundation in Canada’s sense of national identity stems from an uneasy relationship with the hegemon to the south.

As a result, any arena in which Canadians exhibit superiority over Americans seems to attain nearmythic status in national discourse.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the development of what I like to call “Canadian hockey chauvinism.”

From the constant references to “our” game to the fact that a different nation’s victory is considered a national disaster, Canadian hockey chauvinism – on top of being annoying – is actually socially destructive.

For this reason, I would like nothing more than the Canadian men’s hockey team to fail to win Olympic gold.

It is not merely because I am a bitter American. I take pleasure from Canada losing because of the sense of entitlement that Canadians seem to feel toward winning. Since NHL players started competing in international tournaments, I cannot remem-

ber a single competition where Canadians were not the favourites – at worst, they shared the distinction with the Russians.

But it’s not the team. It is the fans. Much like the girl from freshman year, my debates over the sport have often ended with my Canadian friends rejecting my arguments on the logic that my American-ness necessarily precludes me from any knowledgeable insights. Never mind that I played the sport for 10 years or that I stupidly devote way too much of my time to analyzing rosters and match-ups – I often forget I forfeited my hockey credibility at the border.

But the ideology behind Canadian hockey chauvinism transcends the rink. It is found in Canadians who are content with simply “not being American,” even while Parliament is prorogued by a minority government for the second time in as many years and casualties mount in an unwinnable war.

I am not unappreciative of the opportunities I’ve found in Canada. I love spending $700 a year for health care. Paying less than half the tuition of an equiva-

lent school in the States is great.

But I’m also given the opportunity to watch a great people walk blindly into the night, content to be co-opted by a reasonable standard of living and hockey medals while their government regresses both internationally and domestically.

Canada doesn’t deserve to win the gold solely on the merit of not-being-America. Regardless of not-being-America, it is still classless to boo the anthems and the 17-year-old kids representing their countries at the World Juniors competition. Canada doesn’t deserve to win just because it’s the best hockey team in the world or has the strongest tradition of winning.

I am tired of hearing Canadians rant about America while their own government obstructs climate change legislation, rolls back democratic institutions, leaves its citizens to be tortured in Guantánimo, and grants asylum to unemployed Afrikaans while sending Mexican women back to be raped and murdered.

I should mention that I am not supportive of American hegemony in either hockey or the real

world. I am painfully familiar with the failings of my own government, both domestically and internationally, as well as the sting of America losing the gold medal to Canada on American soil. But when I look to hockey for an escape from the malaise induced by the state of the world, nothing kills the mood more than the boisterous Canadian kicking up more of a stir about a hockey game than the recent actions of their government.

I would be lying if I said this article wasn’t deliberately provocative. But it is ridiculous that a stupid column on sports would provoke more uproar than the outrageous stories reported every day on the current state of affairs. I’ll tell you what. If I were one of Don Cherry’s “hockey gods,” Canada could win the gold, but afterward it would have to get back on track to living up to its self-professed traditions of humanitarian, moral, and political progressiveness. But I fear that ultimately, the Olympics will be just another distraction, another reason to prorogue, another reason to root for what is becoming an unrecognizable Canada.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

Artful commodities

For an extended version of this article, visit mcgilldaily.com/culture.

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very much alive in both men and women.” He focuses mainly on menswear, with an approach that fits into his “overall image of a strong, independent woman.” For him, fashion “is a way of being” and inspiration “is just a thing. It’s out there, it comes from anywhere and anytime,” and manifests itself in any design, whether for men or for women. His clothes exude edginess and confidence, and for that reason might not be absolutely accessible, as the consumer must have enough edge and confidence to buy his clothes and pull off wearing them.

The October 21 issue of the Globe and Mail aired this concern after Taddeo’s last show: “Was it sexy?

Absolutely. Was it sellable? Not so much; it’s too high-end for teens but not quite sophisticated enough to attract fans of [exclusive label] Helmut Lang.”

Further up the established-designer chain is Eve Gravel. Having showcased collections from her self-titled label for 15 seasons at Montreal Fashion Week, she uses the event as a means for furthering her already-lucrative business.

Like any burgeoning businesswoman, she defines her success less by Canada’s fashion editorials, and more by sales. “[Montreal is] a hard market. Sometimes when you design, you have to think, ‘It has to be wearable.’ Because independent stores won’t buy it if it’s not.” She even envisions herself in the designs as a means to prioritize accessibility. Nevertheless, her designs retain a uniqueness that is decidedly Eve. “Each piece is a work of art,” she asserted in an interview with Montreal Gazette fashion writer Eva Friede.

Gravel’s fashion philosophy – to design clothes both universal and approachable, to dress polished women in sophisticated and well-made clothes – allowed her to extend her line outside of Montreal.

But despite her international success, Gravel remains loyal to local fashion. Discussing MFW, she praises the camaraderie that occurs among her fellow designers. “In the Montreal scene, everyone helps each other.”

And with Fashion Week less than three weeks away, Montreal’s designers are already in a collective frenzy – finishing their collections, casting their models, and doing last minute alterations. But they’re also figuring out how to put on a show that will simultaneously capture the awe of their audience and the pocketbooks of investors, who look for collections that can transcend the runway and succeed on the sidewalk.

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f you’re from Montreal, you have boasted at least once about your hometown being the hub of the hot and hip. The city is replete with LaSalle graduates sewing their way into the hearts of local fashion cliques and authorities (from the pregnantgoldfish.wordpress. com to Kill Magazine), who turn trends into epidemics and take style very seriously. But the Quebec scene remains small in size, forcing designers to find success in creating clothes that can sell to everyone.

For local labels to flourish, accessibility is key; it’s the fulcrum that balances the often-idiosyncratic creativity of high fashion, with the lucrative business savvy necessary for the self-employed.

Three local designers – Audrey Cantwell, Travis Taddeo, and Eve Gravel – have all experienced varying degrees of success thanks to the accessibility of their designs. Cantwell’s womenswear is just starting to creep up on international fashion blogs and into national press, Taddeo is already a sophomore designer at Montreal Fashion Week (MFW), and the barely-30 Gravel is practically a veteran.

While each designer’s aesthetic is unique, they all maintain the perfect balance for their client between getting noticed in designer clothes and being able to afford them, without looking like the subject of an obscure Dalí illustration.

Cantwell’s enigmatic clothes are ideal for any woman who has fantasized about being a sexy Madeline Usher. Cantwell studied fashion design at LaSalle, and won the prestigious Telio competition in 2008: a Canada-wide design contest for fashion students. Two years and three collections later, Cantwell is set to release her fourth – Mysterium – for spring. And, like most burgeoning designers, she relies on fashion blogs to promote her collections and to direct customers to her online store, Black Market Baby. “Selling online is how I survive,” Cantwell says.

Each of her collections is different, but there is an underlying feel to her aesthetic. “I like to think that [the collections] flow into each other somehow,” she said of her style. One unifying feature seems to be her obsession with textures. Her recurring use of animal skins, like fur and leather, reveals her fondness for nature; it’s a major inspiration of hers, both for creativity and work ethic – she claims that her collections just “happen naturally.”

Along with nature, Cantwell cites “fantasy, mythology and the occult” as creative muses, basing each piece in Mysterium on the spiri-

tual or Wiccan – like her “Vodun” dress (another word for Voodoo), or “Grimoire” jacket, named after a textbook of spells and black magic.

Despite their Goth-esque names, the clothes themselves are not limited to the stereotype that term conjures. Rather, her designs exude a deep femininity rarely captured in typical fashion circles, which may be why Cantwell hasn’t been pushed into the cutthroat and critical realm of Montreal Fashion Week. “It’s difficult just to get your name out there. The only market right now in Montreal that seems interested in my collection is the more DIY and local/indie designer scene. But I’m okay with that!” She adds that she wants her label “to stay small,” perhaps as a means of staying true to her own aesthetic.

She made this clear when she modeled her X collection lookbook, showing the sincerity and authenticity of her designs. And her four completed collections are a testament to that, as they all maintain a cryptic aura and style that can only be understood as Cantwell’s auteurism.

Moving from crypticwear to clubwear, Travis Taddeo is Montreal’s most recent golden boy.

The Calgary native, who also studied at LaSalle College, moved to Montreal at 21 and began his luxurious leather-fur-Tencel-jersey clothing line by dressing himself and his friends – the crème de la crème of Montreal fashion scenesters. The hype that surrounded his first fashion show two years ago at MFW launched his line into national prominence, far beyond Montreal’s insular club scene.

That scene has been a great platform for Taddeo, who praises the city for “embrac[ing] its artists and its fashion.” In an interview with Fashion Television last season for his S/S 2010 line, he gushed about how his designs represent their native scene: “We like to have fun in Montreal. We’re not afraid of trying new things and wearing fierce outfits.”

Describing his clothes as “high fashion streetwear,” Taddeo elaborated on his responsibility as a designer. “For me it’s about stepping up the game for everyday clothing. Make it comfortable, wearable, and original.” His pieces, when displayed alone on Taddeo’s choice of waif models, are bold and artistic and create a real performance on stage, but remain wearable when paired and styled appropriately.

“Streetwear for show value,” he coined in an interview with Fashion Magazine at his last show.

Taddeo designs for both men and women, but his approach to their clothing is undifferentiated.

“I design for an attitude that is

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Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

Making it in a strange land New project serves to highlight anglophone artists working in Montreal

Julie Alsop The McGill Daily

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lenty of McGill students are from out-of-province places where English is the first language. Many of us arrive here with a desire to learn French, but most of us only go as far as learning how to order breakfast. The two English-speaking universities in the city and the cheap rent mean that each year, Montreal receives any number of young, anglophone transplants who come to party, study, or “make it” in Montreal’s thriving arts scene.

The people at ArcMtl, responsible for Expozine and the Distroboto project, which repurposes cigarette machines to sell art instead, are unveiling a new project this month that examines the anglophone arts scene in Montreal. “Making It Montreal” brings together anglophone artists in Montreal who’ve chosen to make this city their home and place of work. Louis Rastelli, one of the organizers, explains that “These artists chose to ‘make it’ in Montreal and, in the process, are making Montreal through living here and contributing to the arts scene.”

The project features bands, visual artists, and writers who have chosen Montreal as their artistic home. MakingItMontreal launched their web site last Thursday at Divan Orange, with a musical showcase featuring Tony Ezzy and Lake of Stew. I spoke to Ezzy, an electro-funk musician being showcased by MakingItMontreal, about why he chose to move from Maine to Montreal and the tensions that exist between franco and anglo art scenes here.

The McGill Daily: Why did you choose Montreal as home? What makes this city so attractive to artists – is it just the promise of cheap rent?

Tony Ezzy: The possibility of cheap rent is one thing, yes. This is also where I came immediately after graduating high school, so I had a good foundation of friends.

Montreal is also an attractive city, as far as urban planning goes.

The un-American-ness of it is very attractive, and the relaxed attitude toward the rat race.

MD: Can you describe Montreal’s character?

TE: Somebody who is naturally really smart and does well in school without having to study. Since they do better than the people around them they think they are truly intelligent, so they turn off their mind and stop learning, and become very cynical. This is what Montreal would be like as a person.

MD: Do you think the anglo and franco art scenes in Montreal are different? How do you think they work together? What sort of cultural, lingual, or political barriers have you encountered as a working artist in Montreal?

TE: The franco scene gets more funding, but has much less international crossover appeal. As far as I can see, they don’t work together too much, except when they’re thrown together for political reasons. Francophones appreciate the English stuff way more than the average anglophone appreciates French stuff. Actually, francophones seem to appreciate the anglophone stuff more than the anglophones do.

MD: As an anglophone, what’s your perspective of language politics in Montreal? Is there a lot of tension? Does the tension come from specific generations? What do you think could be done to help resolve tensions or barriers between these two linguistic groups?

TE: Any kind of politics is an abomination and a form of tyranny.

It negates the natural potential for happiness and peace in humans.

I personally experienced tension once from a sound man at a place on Papineau and Laurier. He literally sabotaged my show and I had no idea what I had done to offend him.

I found out after that it was because I was performing in English. It made him look bad. If somebody is having a bad day or wants to be negative, they can use the language dispute as an excuse.

That’s it. People need to change their way of seeing things individually. Nothing can really be done on the collective level. People need to relax. It’s just talking. Half the time it’s incomprehensible, no matter what language they’re speaking.

You can find out more about MakingItMontreal on their web ite, makingitmontreal.org.

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Rubber love Jean-François Bouchard’s “Still Life” explores intriguing alternatives to organic relationships

Courtesy of Galerie SAS

Lena Camara Culture Writer

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inding love, or even simple female companionship, is a difficult endeavour for many men. Some, however, have found an answer: the RealDoll. RealDolls are sex dolls tailored to the consumer’s preferences; each one is individually hand-made, customizable from tongue size to the number and location of beauty spots, and costs $5,000 on average. Apparently, love can be bought.

RealDoll is owned by Abyss Productions, a small firm in San Marcos, California. The creator, Matt McMullen, employs a handful of workers at his factory and ships out approximately seven dolls per week. The 21st-century Pygmalion was formerly a struggling sculptor who gained considerable attention once he gave up creating 12-inch dolls and began sculpting them in life-size. His dolls are generally considered to be the best in the business, in addition to being the most customizable. Taking great pride in his work, McMullen has said the men who form an emotional attachment to their RealDoll flatter him the most.

Jean-François Bouchard, whose work is primarily concerned with the repressed and hidden eccentricities of the average person, has

used the trend of RealDolls as his inspiration in a new exhibition named “Still Life,” a series of photographs of RealDolls, accompanied by their owners’ quotations. Many owners said that their RealDolls provide a permanence and stability which they don’t believe could happen with a real woman. Some even protested that “real relationships are too dramatic.”

Shot in very high resolution, the images are stunning and detailed, emphasizing the artistry and hours of work spent creating the dolls.

From groomed eyebrows to perfect teeth, each doll is remarkably lifelike. It becomes more apparent why the doll owners find it so easy to lose themselves in their imaginary worlds, though the exhibition does not make any attempt to sever the connection between the aesthetic and psychological. Instead, it allows the owners of such dolls to explain their relationships and how they arose.

The 2007 BBC documentary Guys and Dolls explored the emotional relationships that form between dolls and their owners. Among the interviewees was Davecat, also featured in “Still Life.”

Davecat lives with his parents, listens to goth music, and is fascinated by Japanese culture. He is the stereotypical image of an iDollater – the name the owners of RealDolls have given themselves – and we are

inclined to feel pity for him. But Davecat does not want our pity. He confesses that he still has a desire to be with an “organic woman,” but his current RealDoll girlfriend, Sidore, will be keeping him company until he finds the right woman.

The dolls can also offer an illusion of power, given that they are totally dependent upon their owner.

The dolls endow each owner with the power of creation, the chance to play god and mould a personality with his own mind, and this kind of customization proves invaluable to them. As Mike Kelly put it in Guys and Dolls, one cannot roll over at 4 a.m. and just have sex with a real woman “because you have to ask for permission.”

The exhibition at SAS is free, but the photographs, going for $4,000 apiece, are only a stone’s throw from the price of a RealDoll.

Invest wisely. Just seeing the photographs, however, allows one insight into apparently one-sided relationships which, in the end, are relationships with oneself.

Thanks to the individual attention McMullen pays to his dolls, each photograph captures not only a rubber doll, but a projection of the character of a living, breathing individual.

“Still Life” is on display at Galerie SAS (371 Ste. Catherine O.) through March 14.

20Culture

The McGill Daily,Thursday, February 11, 2010

Turning a lens on injustice “On Movements in Manila” documents Filipino poverty and resistance

Seble Gameda Culture Writer

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tefan Christoff’s recent photo exhibition, “On Movements in Manila,” sheds light on the growing instability, socioeconomic disparity, and politically motivated violence occurring in the Philippines today. The photos that comprise the exhibition were taken during the spring of 2007, while Christoff was travelling in the Philippines on an international observers’ mission to witness and document the political situation surrounding the 2007 midterm elections.

The exhibition, on view at Kaza Maza throughout February, was sponsored by the Centre for Philippine Concerns. The photos expose issues that are often invisible to those in the West – the extreme poverty and social inequalities spurred by corporate affiliations and the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s governmental neglect. The images’ strength is that they provoke critical thinking about the realities of Filipino life that are usually hidden from Western eyes.

Filipino author Miguel Syjuco spoke at the exhibit’s vernissage.

Syjuco’s award-winning novel Ilustrado depicts the Philippines’ rich history, and he spoke on the topic at the event. A strategically placed country for Western exploitation, the Philippines was both a Spanish and an American colony at various points in its history.

After gaining independence from America in 1946, the Philippines was forced to accept the Bell Trade Act as a condition of secession, an agreement that placed severe hinderances on the Philippines’ economic independence from America.

The economy is now dominated by foreign corporate interest, and depends on the more than $1 billion that enters the country monthly as remittances from workers abroad, a dynamic enthusiastically supported by the Arroyo government.

“We’ve forgotten about this country, that was very close to home, that was supposed to be the 51st state of the United States....We’ve forgotten that it was once considered the pearl of the Orient. We’ve forgotten that it has a very rich culture,” Syjuco said. “[Christoff’s] photographs are a testimony of not wanting to forget.” The devastation of poverty and social injustices that is the legacy of colonialism and ongoing economic domination are vividly shown in each of Christoff’s images.

One such photograph is an image of fluttering election banners, symbolic of the hope for change that is still very alive in the Phillippines. Such hope is not necessarily far-fetched. Grassroots

Sally Lin | The McGill Daily

Stefan Christoff’s photographs expose issues forgotten and ignored. struggle is nothing new in the Philippines. One of the women’s solidarity groups in the country today is named for Gabriela Silang, an 18th-century woman who led an insurgency group against Spanish colonization. More recently, dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted through a series of non-violent demonstrations and peaceful protests in the People Power revolution of 1986, though the Revolution did little to displace the long-standing oligarchies which still control the nation. However, civilian resistance continues to be suppressed today.

“Political repression [is] a reality… systemic political killings targeting progressive activists, union leaders, student activists, and progressive journalists [have been occurring] throughout the country since 2001, which is when the current President, Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, came to power,” commented Christoff.

Although the turbulent events

occurring in the Philippines are not widely covered in Western media, there are major international implications to the country’s unrest.

The Canadian and American governments are deeply affiliated with the current Arroyo administration.

Joey Calugay, from the Centre for Philippine Concerns in Montreal, explained the causes of foreign presence and exploitation of the country. Since the start of Arroyo’s presidency, U.S. troops have been arriving in the Philippines yearly, under the pretext of military training. However, there have been accounts of U.S. troops involved in military action against the Filipino people. “The Philippines has been a strategic geopolitical country… for the U.S. and continues to be so,” Calugay remarked.

Canada has also played a role in the economic crippling of the Philippines. Many Filipino workers are employed here through tem-

porary migrant work, such as the Live-In Caregiver Program and at the tar sands development. In the Philippines itself, Canadian mining companies have significant holdings. One Calgary-based company, Toronto Ventures Incorporated, has even been accused of violence against the Subanen indigenous people according to the online Filipino news source Bulatlat. The corporations “come in and plunder the natural resources, displace people, and basically get 100 per cent of the profits,” said Calugay. As Canadian mining companies take advantage of the country’s resources, nearly 45 per cent of Filipinos live on less than $2 U.S. per day. However appalling the Western presence, stated Calugay, “All these human rights violations and the suppression of people’s resistance and struggles against… foreign mining, is now labelled as war on terror.” “[Arroyo’s] government is

attempting to use free trade economics…to pressure the peasantry and workers to accept the economic model that they’re trying to present…and that economic model is really one that sees the Philippines as either a vast labour pool or a country filled with natural resources that corporations can harvest,” said Christoff. One photograph, of a woman from GABRIELA standing in front of election signs, captures the resistance that is occurring in the face of such governmental oppression.

Christoff took on this photo project to expose the truths about the Philippines that are not so easy to swallow – the electoral fraud, the social inequalities, the Western complicity, the destitution. Through examining these photographs, the viewer gets a small glimpse of the injustices facing Filipinos today, and the ongoing resistance against these problems.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dial B for bondage T

hrough a long black veil, an older woman in leather says, “Make you sure have a good night.” The way she speaks to me, and the way she cups my face in her hands, I might as well be her son going off to war. Except for the half-naked man in a cage behind me and the mass of dancing black shapes in front of me. Her genuine seriousness in a somewhat theatrical environment is appropriate to Montreal’s fetish community, a social amalgamation of invented personas, lost personalities, and sex .

Armed with a green jelly sleeping mask-cum-fetish outfit, I went to the “ANONYMOUS” party at Katacombes with an open mind and a fake name. My preconceptions were probably not much different from those of the general populace – fetishism is centred around a marginalized sexual community, a group of mysterious outsiders engaging in sordid “perversion.” But to me, there was a winking knowledge of their marginality and an admittedly romantic idea of sexual rebellion.

Like many first encounters, some of my assumptions were validated and others refuted. ANONYMOUS could have been a Halloween party in January, albeit with a standardized uniform of black leather. In jeans and the aforementioned Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, I probably stood out more than the guy with the enormous anglerfish costume or the couple in skin-tight plastic masks. Fittingly, I felt a lot more at home at the party in disguise – there’s not much at stake when everyone is costumed and attending for the same reason. The night’s MC articulated the mood: “Hello, you perverts!”

That kind of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness of the scene’s own strangeness contributed to its surprising approachability.

Sexual perversion, made manifest in clichés like sadism, submissiveness, and fetishism, among others, may alienate non-subscribers, but anyone could have gone to this “fetish” party. A high-school science teacher I spoke to had come not looking for a master so much as wanting to dress up and drink – theoretically the same reason I showed up.

A performance that evening embodied the mix of social accessibility and alternative sexualities.

Four androgynous dancers in various shades of leather (gender, if not kept anonymous, is often irrelevant) proceeded to act out sex and physical punishment on stage, ultimately stripping each other down to the same black outfit.

Anonymity plays a large role in the sense of ease that is near uni-

versal in fetishism, usually for participants’ professional sake outside of events. At Kabaret Kink, an event I attended later, a dancer called Nebula X identified businessmen and doctors amidst the dancing throngs. While waiting in line, I saw a calm group of Quebeckers on a double date, none of them younger than 50 and all clad in black leather outfits that covered only the face, crotch, and feet.

Fetishism’s anonymity extends to the Internet, where most events are organized. Personalities gain prominence through their blogs, like Head Mistress Madame Jade Dragon. A self-described fem(me) dom(inante) who runs Club Sin, a monthly party at Café Cleopatra, Madame Jade’s web site lists sexual practices, apparels, orientations, preferred locations, and restaurants for those in the know.

I quickly realized that whatever definition of fetishism I had was too limited. BDSM, which often overlaps with fetishism, is a flexible acronym. The “D” and “S” represent “discipline,” “dominance,” “submission,” or “sadism”, respectively, and are paired with “bondage” and “masochism.” Trying to define fetishism at either ANONYMOUS or Club Sin was at first frustrating, but ultimately needless. From what I could tell, fetishism depended on exactly who was taking part.

At the cabaret show at Café Cleopatra, the BDSM bastion in Montreal’s crumbling red-light district, Nebula X valourized fetishism as a venerable occult practice, “a religion…stimulated by magic,” that could be traced back to the 18th century. Her characterization of fetishism as “alternative fashion” articulated the highly performative nature of fetish events, from the leather show at Katacombes to the cabaret act that night. Membership in the community is expressed through clothing and public actions, such as a topless woman in the cage Café Cleopatra, beating her hunched over partner. Nebula X stressed that fetishism was “a feeling a human can feel,” something internal and distinctly personal.

A particular preconception I had about fetishism was its degree of specificity. Didn’t everyone have some very particular turn-on – hearing a certain word five times or wearing children’s sports uniforms?

Presuming one needed an individual fetish, a friend and I assumed the role of South American twins. But those who come to Club Sin don’t bring their menageries and toolboxes of individual fetishes.

More so than Nebula X, Mistress Irony, a Club Sin performer, represented the liberating experience of fake identity as well as the pitfalls

in profiling a community meant to remain anonymous. For a celebrity, Mistress Irony returned no results on any fetish web sites, leading me to believe her name was assumed only for one particular night. Her name, she said, was chosen for its decidedly intangible properties.

“It can only exist in literature,” she explained. Fetishism was about more than sex for her: “The guys with the gas mask, that could be a political thing.”

Mistress Irony also represented the duality of a fetish persona. She earns 40 per cent of her income from promoting fetish events, and the rest from her job at a church, another potential reason for her name. In my quest to nail down fetishism, Mistress Irony confirmed Nebula X’s assertion and my frustration. To her fetishism was simply, and elementally, “magic.”

Her companion, a faithful Club Sin attendee, travels from Quebec City once a month – a commute demonstrative of Montreal’s position as a mecca for Quebec BDSM. After World War II, Montreal became a red-light capital in comparison to more prudish American cities, partly for Quebec’s fairly relaxed social policies. Yet there remains an important distinction between strip clubs and sex clubs here.

BDSM events, part of a more unorthodox, if welcoming, subculture, are not generally organized at large clubs, but rather at small venues like Café Cleopatra, and even private houses. Yes, this makes them approachable and available, but certainly also less publicized.

The overwhelming majority of clubgoers I spoke to were francophone and the median age seemed about 30. The disconcerting image of halfnaked old men in chains was mirrored by a large congregation of lone dancing older women, like a chorus of leather-clad Miss Havishams.

Suffice it to say, anglophone McGill first-years were not marching into the established fetish scene.

Though fetishism may have liberating aspects, I have to admit some measure of trepidation toward scenes like public flagellation or anonymous hypnotists’ offers of “massages between the legs.”

Among alternative sex practices, fetishism seemed to be a micro-zeitgeist, an attitude of personal preference and expression in a community bonded by the same objectives (and outfits). It was multi-faceted, not necessarily a curiosity cabinet of perversity and not just an occasion for dressing up either. Indeed, one’s avoidance of fetishism is understandable, but the undeniable truth remains in the palpable feeling of acceptance available for those who seek it.

Sally Lin | The McG ill Daily

Joseph Henry whips his prejudices about fetishism into shape

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Compendium!

The McGill Daily, Thursday, February 11, 2010

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Lies, half-truths, and Beverly Brzezinski

Local owl implicated in organ harvesting ring Illustrations: Nadezhda Poplawskaya | The McGill Daily

Sloth found dead with entrails missing Télésphore Sansouci The McGill Daily

A

gents from the Société de police de la ville de Montréal in conjunction with the RCMP are investigating the disembowelment of local threetoed sloth Leonard Johannson.

They have arrested Mile-End resident and owl Beverly Brzezinski in the matter.

Brzezinski is believed to be the infamous “Spectacled Owl.” MileEnd and Outremont have been terrorized for two months by murders and attempted murders perpetrated by the “Spectacled Owl.” Brzezinski has been a fixture of the stretch of Parc Avenue that runs through Mile-End for decades.

Now she stands accused of murder, attempted murder, and organ trafficking.

The deceased is one Leonard Johannson, a long-time resident of the northern portion of the Plateau.

Johannson was well-known for his impressive swimming skills and his friendly, lethargic demeanour.

with incisions – as of a talon – in their hides and organs pecked out, as though by a bird of prey.

Johannson is survived by a plethoric brood of 13 sloths. His wife, Gertrude, née MacDonald, died three years ago from an undisclosed illness.

Brzezinski’s family has vowed to fight the charges.

When asked about the incident,

GA condemns Charter, safety Bunch o’ shit passes, Harper-lover defines “generalization” for abortion fan Harriet Rocco The McGill Daily

I Leonard Johannson, deceased.

The murder was the “Spectacled Owl”’s first foray outside of the MileEnd–Outremont region.

Sixteen people – mainly sloths – have been killed in the past two months and as many more alerted the police to intruders. The homeinvasion victims described the intruder as a small owl with glasseslike eyes.

All 16 of the victims were found

Beverly Brzezinski, suspect.

McGill student O’Ria McRean (U4 Physics), responded: “I guess I feel normal, which means down. And, like, other things. I mean, why not me?”

A wake will be held right now.

Do you like to laugh?

Then don’t write for Compendium.

We only want people who want to make other people laugh. compendium@mcgilldaily.com

Text: Nick Van Beek / Illustration: Rebeccah Hartz | The McGill Daily

n an overlong display of not giving two shits except for defeating that one motion you came to shit on, last night’s SSMU General Assembly (GA) saw hundreds of students sit around in a progressively filthier cafeteria, periodically and confusingly shoving yellow placards into various boxes carried by elected officials.

Like most GAs, the explanation of gender parity was met with a litany of insightful criticism.

“P-what?! That so dumb-dumb!” one student said, adding, “I’m sorry, I dont under-, how does that, um, are you saying that, because I.” Heeding his criticism, the body went on to consensually pass most motions after stripping them of their substance and original spirit.

For instance, the motion calling on SSMU to ban the colour red was rendered useless after the whereas clause on the Colour Wheel was stricken via lamendmentation.

During debate on the tar sands motion, which not only

required SSMU to write a letter to NotSoSunnyCorp telling them they’re bad, but also to actually divest from such companies.

“Obviously the only way to fund environmental projects is to invest in the tar sands....It’s either or. Either, comma, fucking, or,” U4 Physics student O’Ria McRean said before making a note to himself to consider making friends.

In what was perhaps the most contentious issue of the soirée démocratique, a couple dozen dudes conflating free speech with student safety successfully added a clause – taken from the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms, thank you Big Red Machine – which asked SSMU to fight for the right to free expression, religious choice, and all around reasonable stuff they felt the original motion would compromise. Then, despite the fact that the motion had been changed to suit their liking, the question was struck down.

“I hope SSMU does as much to fight rights guaranteed by the Charter as they did to censure HMB,” Sax Milverman muttered like no one else can.

Throughout the event, security guards also got to revel in the sound of their raised voices, and several Points of Whateverness were raised.

For instance, one asked the speaker to pronounce bitumen as if he had heard of Alberta before.

“Point of Personal Privilege,” said one Arts student. “Um, being a McGill student.”

Samantha Rudick | The McGill Daily