DAIL99_25_screen_quality

LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

Facilitator Training Interested in developing your facilitation and leadership skills in a student-friendly context?

We need motivated students who want to be involved in our

Leadership Training Program!

Learn key facilitation skills and have the opportunity to lead various workshops throughout the 2010/11 academic year.

Successful candidates will take part in a free two-day comprehensive facilitation training weekend. You must be a returning student for the 2010-2011 year as well as available for training on the weekend of Saturday, March 13th and Sunday, March 14th from 10:00 to 16:30.

After attending the training session and leading workshops you will receive a facilitation training certificate and a personal letter of attestation.

Please pick up an application at the First-Year Oice and submit it in-person with your CV and cover letter to the First-Year Office, Suite 2100, Brown Building.

(Macdonald Campus students ONLY - email apps accepted)

Calling all medical, dental, rehab, nursing and vet students!

Career boosting summer job pays up to $6,000 for a one to three month summer placement in a research lab working on arthritis-related projects.

LSAT MCAT GMAT GRE Preparation Seminars • Complete 30-Hour Seminars • Convenient Weekend Schedule • Proven Test-Taking Strategies • Experienced Course Instructors • Comprehensive Study Materials • Simulated Practice Exams • Limited Class Size • Free Repeat Policy • Personal Tutoring Available

The Canadian Arthritis Network and The Arthritis Society invite you to visit www. arthritisnetwork.ca for more details.

Click on Training Programs or call 416-586-4800 ext. 4798.

Deadline for applications: January 29, 2010.

• Thousands of Satisfied Students

OXFORD SEMINARS 1-800-269-6719 416-924-3240 www.oxfordseminars.ca

Classifieds To place an ad, via email: ads@dailypublications.org phone : 514-398-6790 fax : 514-398-8318 Cost : McGill Students & Staf : $6,70/day; $6.20/day for 3 or more days. General public : $8.10/day; $6.95/day for 3 or more days. 150 character limit. There will be a $6.00 charge per contract for any characters over the limit.

Prices include taxes. MINIMUM ORDER $40.50/ 5 ads.

Categories : Housing, Movers/Storage, Employment, Word Processing/ Typing, Services Ofered, For Sale, To Give Away, Wanted to Buy, Rides/Tickets, Lost & Found, Personal, Lessons/Courses, Notices, Volunteers, Musicians, etc. Lost & Found ads are free.

Deadline to apply is Friday noon, February 19th.

Contact: Joan Butterworth leadership.training@mcgill.ca

514-398-6913 or 514-398-8991

Housing 4 1/2 - MTL North, renovated, large rooms, very quiet and clean, close to buses, metro and all services, 15 mins. away from downtown (Pie-IX metro station), available Oct 1st. $545. Call (450) 661-6110

FREE HOUSING CLASSIFIEDS FOR STUDENTS!

Call for Candidates he Daily Publications Society, publisher of he McGill Daily and Le Délit, is seeking candidates for

two student positions on its Board of Directors. he position must be illed by McGill students belonging to any faculty other than the Faculty of Arts, duly registered during the upcoming Winter term, and able to sit until April 30, 2010. Board members gather at least once a month to discuss the management of the newspapers, and make important administrative decisions.

mcgilldaily.com

Candidates should send a 500-word letter of intention to chair@dailypublications.org by January 18th.

Contact us for more information.

Drop by the Daily office (Shatner B-26) and on presentation of a student ID, we’ll place your housing classified on our website for free. mcgilldaily.com/classifieds

Employment MASTER SCHOOL OF BARTENDING Bartending and table service courses Student rebate Job reference service • 514-849-2828 www.Bartend.ca (on line registration possible)

“LAZY EYE”

Have you had a since childhood? McGillVision Research is looking for study participants. Please call Dr. Simon Clavagnier at 514934-1934 ext. 35307 or email mcgillvisionresearch@ gmail.com for further information.

Services Offered Medego Health Clinic. Appointments with doctor available now for university students. 1205 de Maisonneuve, Suite 250. Call 514-448-2800.

Textbooks bought and sold, new & used, online buybacks. Buy, sell, rent at cheapbooks.com (260) 3996111, español (212) 380-1763, urdu/indi/punjabi (713) 429-4981, see site for other support lines.

Miscellaneous Psychology professors and grad/undergrad students. Can you help a psychology student, senior citizen, who was assaulted and robbed. All psychology texts were stolen. Donations of used/old undergrad and grad psychology books urgently needed. An old copy of DSM III will be deeply appreciated. Please call: 514-2772029. Thank you.

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

Students say the “grab and go” snack bar in the building’s lobby is nice, but definitely not a cafeteria.

3

Victor Tangermann for The McGill Daily

RVC residents may demand refund Administrators scramble to provide compensation for closed dining hall Stephen Davis The McGill Daily

T

he Royal Victoria College (RVC) council is considering calling for a partial rent refund for their building’s residents, citing the prolonged renovations that have kept the hall’s cafeteria closed since the summer.

Director of Food and Hospitality Services Mathieu Laperle sent a letter on December 18 notifying residents that the cafeteria “[would] not be opened and fully operational in January as…originally anticipated.” In the letter, Laperle expressed hope that the cafeteria will be open by the middle of this semester, but could not specify a date.

The council responded by sending an email survey asking RVC residents if they would sign a petition calling for rent reimbursement.

They also included a message claiming Food Services had broken a promise to have the building’s dining hall up and running by October 2009, expressing frustration with “the way the project has been managed, and the lack of information provided by Food Services prior to the…letter.”

One hundred seventy-eight individuals of a possible 266 – some leaving their names, others voting anonymously – have responded to the survey. All one hundred seventyeight voted in favour of a petition.

The survey signals growing dissatisfaction among RVC residents

over renovations that have lasted several months, slowed by bureaucracy, bargaining, and outdated infrastructure.

Susan Campbell, manager of McGill’s residence dining halls, pointed to the building’s plumbing as an early and unexpected hindrance to construction.

“All of the plumbing had to be changed, and [contractors] didn’t know that until they actually got in and started to tear things apart,” Campbell said. She also noted problems with excavation and ventilation that appeared during construction.

“They couldn’t predict these things when they were first looking at the project,” she said.

Campbell added that contractors seldom give clients firm completion dates. “We had hoped [the cafeteria] would be ready for September, then October, then November....

It’s the contractors.... They can only [say] ‘This is what we’re hoping for.’”

Grab and go someplace else When choosing residences in early 2009, students were unaware of the renovations or the possibility that the project could last through the fall semester.

Hélène Thorel, VP External of RVC council, was upset administrators did not communicate with students more effectively.

“Part of the reason that we pay such high rent is that we have a seven-day meal plan,” Thorel said, pointing to RVC as among the most

expensive of McGill’s residences.

Incoming students were formally notified over the summer of the ongoing renovations.

Some of the building’s dons were unaware of the construction until their orientation at the end of the summer.

“You wouldn’t rent an apartment without a kitchen.... It’s kind of a fact of life now, but I’m still pretty upset about it,” said Kelly Stephens, an RVC don.

In lieu of an open cafeteria, Food Services granted RVC residents the freedom to spend all of their money at any McGill-managed cafeteria on campus. Typically, students must spend 85 per cent of their money at their home cafeteria, with the option to spend the remaining 15 per cent elsewhere.

A “grab and go” snack bar was also constructed in the building’s lobby. Students were able to purchase mainly cold and some hot food until the early afternoon. The snack bar was also open on weekends from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This semester, Food Services extended the snack bar’s hours, and added a greater number of dishes.

Laperle sees this added flexibility as reasonable compensation for RVC residents and says it coincides with Food Services’s goal of increased variety for all students in residence.

“Our goal and our vision was... offering more and more options,” Laperle said.

Campbell agreed. “Once we realized it wasn’t going to be open in January, we knew we had to kick it up a few more notches,” she said.

Though it is a provisional measure, Campbell said she has received positive feedback regarding the snack bar and increased flexibility.

“If you were to take students… at the end of [this year and last year] and say which was the better experience…I think they’d be fairly close,” Campbell said.

Marlene Benavides, president of RVC council, said students appreciate the effort, but won’t be completely satisfied by anything short of a fully functional cafeteria.

“We’re extremely happy to see that the grab and go has been improved from last semester. But it’s still not a cafeteria,” Benavides said. “I suppose the definition of ‘variety’ is based on personal opinion…. They don’t have to live here and eat these meals.”

Stephens also said that during finals last semester, many residents opted to skip dinner rather than travel to other cafeterias after the snack bar had closed.

Long term vision, short term problems The problems extend beyond what Benavides and others see as a lack of variety. Students view the closed cafeteria as a detriment to the communal aspect of residence life that first-year students look forward to.

“Community building has been a much bigger challenge…. Last year, the cafeteria was a big meeting place,” Stephens said. “Because everyone’s constantly out of the building for meals [this year], it hasn’t come as easily.”

The slowed renovation process may be indicative of a vision for food services that is too broad to conform to neat timetables.

“We don’t want to have something similar [to] what is available [at other universities],” Laperle said.

“We’d like to create something different…. When you go to Douglas Hall you [should] feel there is something different...versus Bishop Mountain Hall, versus RVC, New Rez, and Carrefour Sherbrooke,” he added.

Still, some wish more discretion had been used in making a major decision at a time of significant changes for McGill residences.

“Among other things, the prolonged construction could be a result of them having to take on too much at once, with major construction in both Carrefour Sherbrooke and RVC, at the same time as dealing with all of the challenges of serious administrative changes,” Stephens said.

With colder temperatures and hot meals hard to come by, the call for rent reimbursement promises to be a persistent one.

“It’s getting darker and colder and [rent compensation] would make us feel a little bit better about the situation,” Benavides said.

4 News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

McGill Daily Sports

STM struggles over graffiti

Off-Campus Eye

Photo by Miranda Whist

Write it.

Read it.

Love it.

La Presse recently reported that the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has spent $11.3 million since 2003 to clean up Montreal’s graffiti, which STM spokesperson Isabelle Tremblay has called “un fléau” (a scourge). But David Proulx, the founder of l’Association Graff-X, says Montreal graffiti is more complex.

“I don’t think [graffiti] is a fléau – it is and it isn’t,” said Proulx.

“It depends on what graffiti you are talking about. There is bombing art and talented art.” L’Association Graff-X seeks to give youth

sports@mcgilldaily.com

a creative outlet through graffiti workshops and a legal graffiti wall – which Proulx says is an important resource.

“The kids want to have walls, and the City keeps knocking down the walls to put up condos…. There is a fléau, but at the same time it’s an art in development – what can you do? Frankly, I think it’s kind of sad that people don’t realize that it would be best to stop doing vandalism and focus on murals,” Proulx said.

—Sam Neylon

dents u t s

t ge

MONDAY. DO THE MATH. SAVE MONEY! on

Start the week with 10% off your grocery bill when you buy $50 or more.* Mondays only upon presentation of your student card.

m o Y

OUR SUPERMARKETS ARE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD:

3 4 2 1 du Parc Ave 514 281-0488 8 am - midnight, everyday

Rue Clark

brooke

Rue St-Urbain

ce Rue Sher

Rue St-Marc

Rue Tower

Rue du Fort

Rue Ste-Famille

ne-Man Rue Jean

Avenue du Parc

Rue Hutchison

Avenue du Mont-Royal

Boulevard St-Laurent

Boulevard de Maisonneuve

Rue Ste-Catherine

1953 Sainte-Catherine St W. 514 932-3756 8 am - midnight, everyday

*Excludes beer, wine and cigarettes. Offer valid until June 30th, 2010.

Cannot be combined with any other offer. Participating stores only.

o ff

50 du Mont-Royal Ave W. 514 849-8028 8 am - 11pm, everyday

n

ou s ee, stay ing i n

scho ol pa

ys o ff

on mondays

ys

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

5

Ignatieff critiques Tories on campus tour Liberal leader condemns Parliament’s prorogation and discusses coalition politics Alexia Jablonski News Writer

L

iberal leader Michael Ignatieff spoke at Concordia on January 12 and fielded students’ questions on prorogation – as well as the tar sands, the war in Afghanistan, and the seal hunt – as part of a cross-Canada campus tour.

Ignatieff, speaking about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, for the second time in two years, from December 30 until March 3. Critics have viewed the move as an attempt to postpone a vote of no confidence and escape censure regarding recent political controversies.

A majority of Canadians, 53 per cent according to a Toronto StarAngus Reid online poll, oppose prorogation.

Ignatieff expressed that Harper’s sudden decision is an affront to Canada’s democratic norms.

“Mr. Harper gambled on the cynicism of the Canadian public,” said Ignatieff. “He thought no one would care if he shut down Parliament. He gambled wrong....

In our idea of democracy, it is Parliament that’s sovereign, not the prime minister.... Any prime minister with respect for democracy must use [prorogation] in the most sparing way possible.”

Despite his criticism, Ignatieff has no power to remedy the present situation. Since Harper’s Conservatives retain more parliamentary seats than any other party, he is constitutionally authorized – with the consent of the governor general – to postpone the reopening of Parliament.

“This system works when the prime minister accepts that his power is constrained,” said Ignatieff.

In order to reverse prorogation, the Liberals would have to topple

Hristo Vassilev for The McGill Daily

Michael Ignatieff uses Concordia event to further Liberal agenda. the government by forming a coalition with other parties.

However, after his ascension as the leader of the Liberal party last year, Ignatieff refused NDP leader Jack Layton’s proposal to form a coalition against the Conservatives.

“What I felt missing was political legitimacy,” said Ignatieff, speaking on his decision.

According to Robert Tesolin, co-president of NDP Concordia, Ignatieff’s decision to support Harper’s government last year following his first prorogation of Parliament may have emboldened

the prime minister to once again suspend it.

“To a certain extent, [Harper has] acted with impunity because he’s seen that it works. He thinks that his adversaries will let him get away with it,” Tesolin said.

However, Lawrence David, VP External of Concordia’s Political Science Student Association, supported Ignatieff’s decision to avoid forming a coalition with other parties. David argued that the creation of a coalition during the 2008- 2009 crisis would have formed a weak and unstable government due to

its necessary alliance with the Bloc Québécois – a party he felt would necessarily undermine the coalition’s agenda by rejecting anything contrary to a sovereingtist position.

“The Liberal party felt it was to their benefit to form a strong party on their own. By forming a coalition, they would empower lesser parties in the eyes of their constituents,” said David. “Their priority is to build a power base.”

As recent polls suggest a decline in popularity for the Conservatives, the question remains as to whether Ignatieff will be able to capitalize on

popular discontent to rally support for his party.

David indicated that widespread outrage against prorogation offers “the perfect opportunity and launch-pad to do so.”

Certain students, however, remain pessimistic about the possibility for a revival of political interest in the Liberal Party. “They’ll be forced to tacitly or openly support the government,” said Tesolin.

“There’s no way they can come close to forming their own govern– ment.... [Ignatieff] is at the helm of a sinking ship.”

Two SSMU senators resign Arts Senator Nick Wolf criticizes SSMU, wants to choose his successor Shirine Aouad The McGill Daily

S

SMU lost two senators at the beginning of winter term, with the resignation of Arts Senator Nick Wolf in early December and Medicine Senator Hana Thomas in early January. Both senators resigned because they will not be able to allocate time to their positions, as Wolf is leaving McGill and Thomas will start a more demanding segment of her program.

Wolf’s resignation caused some controversy when he voiced concerns over SSMU Council’s absence of long-term goals and the ineffi-

ciency of its meetings in his resignation email.

Wolf’s criticism, addressed to SSMU VP University Affairs Rebecca Dooley, came as a surprise to the executive. “He never participated or voiced any of these concerns. It is very much the senator’s responsibility to bring concerns to the table,” Dooley said.

In his criticism, Wolf singled out the manner in which SSMU handled the controversial Choose Life event “Echoes of the Holocaust” held in November. Debate surrounding the event culminated in the suspension of the club’s status by SSMU, after the club proceeded to hold the event in spite of an earlier Council

censure of its contents.

“Instead of fighting for the rights of the minority, which in this case was the Choose Life group, they fought to suppress a perfectly valid viewpoint,” Wolf wrote. “[Student councillors] were mocked on the floor of Senate by the administration for limiting free speech at McGill, and they were entirely correct.”

What has brought attention to his resignation, however, has been the way in which Wolf has tried to bypass official procedure – which involves a faculty call-out for applications and a caucus selection.

Rather, the former senator has irked some of SSMU by trying to find his own replacement.

Wolf expressed concern for a conservative minority whose voice he felt has been silenced by radical political agendas at SSMU or AUS. “I wanted to find someone to give a slightly more conservative voice on AUS Council…. The current Arts Senators represent the centre and the far left,” he said.

The former senator also viewed the event as an opportunity to confront students with the current challenges the Senate is facing. “I hope my resignation is a wake-up call to how Senate was being run. I know other Senators agree with my statements, although they won’t say so publicly,” Wolf said.

However, such an interested selection, Dooley said, is explicitly discouraged among SSMU members.

According to SSMU bylaws, when a senator resigns from their position, the seat is reallocated to the largest faculties in SSMU. Following a public application call-out, applicants are reviewed and recommended by faculty associations, and selected by the Senate caucus.

Dooley also said that although she took his points to heart, she is not worried about the resignation’s publicity. “It might spark some debate, which I think is a healthy thing. We represent all students: students with mainstream and less mainstream views,” Dooley said.

6 News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

McGill profs to testify against equal marriage Religious Studies and Law professors invited to give expert testimony in Iowa, and likely in California Humera Jabir The McGill Daily

T

wo McGill faculty members may be called to testify as expert witnesses in a landmark California Supreme Court case that will determine whether California’s current prohibition on equal marriage is unconstitutional.

The case, which began last Monday, will challenge Proposition 8, or the California Marriage Protection Act. The legislation reinstated a ban on equal marriage in the state when it was approved by 52.3 per cent of California voters in November 2008.

A plaintiff’s witness list includes Katherine Young, a professor in the McGill Faculty of Religious Studies, who “purports to be knowledgeable in compara-

NEWS BRIEFS Newspaper giant up for sale The newspaper-publishing unit for Canwest Global Communications is up for bid by chief lenders after it was successfully granted creditor protection on January 8. The deal was reached four months after parent company Canwest Global Communications first filed for bankruptcy protection in October, citing its losses on falling advertising revenues, atop an already steep debt of $4 billion from previous acquisitions.

Under the Companies’ Creditor Arrangement Act, the publishing division is in the hands of Canwest’s creditors: the Big Five Canadian banks, along with unidentified international financiers.

The auction, which goes on this week, has quickly attracted at least four potential bidders; Canwest hopes that a bid between $1 billion and $1.5 billion – less than half of what was paid for its acquisition back in 2000 – will be made sometime in next seven to eight weeks.

In the case that none of the bids made in the upcoming weeks are

tive religion and on what universally constitutes marriage.” Paul Nathanson, a researcher in the same faculty, is also included on the list and is described as someone who “purports to be knowledgeable about religious attitudes toward Proposition 8.”

Both may be called to the stand to present academic testimony on the effects of legalizing equal marriage. But if history is any indication Young and Nathanson may not make it to the witness box.

The expertise of the two academics on equal marriage was called into question in 2007 when they testified with McGill law professor Margaret Somerville in the Iowa district court case Varnum v. Brien – which paved the way for equal marriage in the state.

Polk County Judge Robert

Hanson rejected their testimonies because he found that neither Nathanson, Young, nor Somerville met the criteria for the admission of expert testimony.

In a written statement, Hanson pointed to their absence of expertise in sociology, child development, psychology, or psychiatry. “Though they may have expertise in certain areas, such expertise is insufficient to qualify Ms. Somerville, Dr. Young and Dr. Nathanson to answer the particular questions that they are asked.”

Hanson further explained that Young’s testimony was disallowed, since she claimed to “[pull] together factors from many academic disciplines, including sociological, economic, political and religious factors, though she does not profess expertise in these areas,” and Nathanson’s for

failing to support his observations empirically. Somerville was also prevented from testifying on the grounds that she “eschews empirical research and methods of logical reasoning in favor of ‘moral intuition.’”

Hanson went on to state that “The views espoused by these individuals appear to be largely personal and not based on observations supported by scientific methodology or based on empirical research in any sense.”

Somerville admitted that as a specialist in the field of ethics, she did not have any expertise in the areas of child development and psychology when asked by the plaintiff’s lawyers.

“They asked me about all the things I didn’t have,” said Somerville. “It is perhaps unfortunate that it was so out of context,

but I take it very seriously that you must be very truthful…. [They] set me up to get that answer, and that is good lawyering on their part and bad luck for me.”

However, from an academic’s tandpoint, Nathanson, Young, and Somerville are considered controversial within Canada. Young and Nathanson have been criticized for their methodology in their writings on misandry, where they argue that men are victimized by various forms of feminism and popular culture. In 2006, faculty at Toronto’s Ryerson University turned their backs on Somerville at a ceremony granting her an honorary doctorate in protest of her opposition to equal marriage.

Young declined to comment on her testimony in Varnum v. Brien and on her involvement in the California case.

accepted, the banks have decided that it will set up a new, publiclytraded company to operate the newspapers, independent from both Canwest and its creditors.

In the meantime, operations are still managed by Canwest. The publishing division is the country’s largest newspaper chain and owns the National Post, along with 10 major city dailies – including the Montreal Gazette. Before any announcement of Canwest’s sale, the National Post was moved from the other dailies as a separate legal entity, thus not qualifying for creditor protection.

However, operations at the Gazette and other affected dailies are not anticipated to change in the near future.

—Kayan Hui

recently proposed, should alleviate such financial burdens.

At present, there are over 10,000 free parking spaces in the Plateau, most of which are in residential areas. Many of the drivers simply park to use the Metro or walk into the downtown commercial district, according to borough mayor Luc Ferrandez.

The proposed plan is driven by the borough’s recently elected controlling party, Projet Montréal. A public statement by Ferrandez outlined the more detailed elements of the plan, which is still in preliminary development stages.

Metered parking spaces will be greatly expanded, while others will require permits of varying levels – which will be available to non-residents to purchase . The lesser of these permits will be small, shortterm cards (around $2) used by guests or temporary visitors.

Ferrandez pointed out that retailers will not be penalized.

Shoppers in the Plateau will find some meters with two hours free, a change aimed at maintaining the level of commercial revenue while overall traffic decreases.

According to Ferrandez, the effects of this change will be numerous. Faster turnover of cars will unclog the congested streets, public transportation use will rise, residents will more easily find parking, and the sale of permits will generate revenue.

—Noah Caldwell-Rafferty

Nicell outlines University master plan

teaching lab. He also discussed the University’s plans to build a bioengineering facility on the northwest corner of McTavish and Docteur Penfield, as well as to eliminate parking spaces on lower campus by May. Daniel Herscovitch, U3 Civil Engineering, said that the plan seemed to represent the McGill community’s best interests. He was the most excited about the plan to make McTavish Street more of a student-exclusive domain.“I think [this] is the best project, especially for students,” Herscovitch said.

U3 Civil Engineering student Owen McGaughey, a member of the environmentalist civil engineering group Pre-Serve, said that the energy reduction clauses of the implementation plan were a step in the right direction.

“I think most staff and students are interested in seeing a more modern campus that… treads more lightly on the earth, and I think the master plan suits those desires well,” McGaughey said.

McGaughey added that he would be downloading the new master plan to look over it more closely and encouraged other students to do the same.

The McGill University master plan can be downloaded by signing into mcgill.ca/masterplan/documentation.

—John Lapsley

Plateau restricts parking, raises revenues In an effort to decrease the flow of traffic and better accommodate residents, the Plateau has proposed a plan to restructure local parking.

The initiative will aim to limit the number of free spots available, while charging visitors to park in residential neighbourhoods, remedying the Plateau’s problem of outside cars clogging the streets.

Facing a $4-million deficit, the Plateau also hopes to generate $3 million alone each year from the initiative. This, coupled with a smaller snow-removal budget also

McGill’s Associate Vice Principal of University Services Jim Nicell presented upcoming changes and renovations within the University’s five-year master plan to a packed McConnell auditorium Tuesday.

Nicell described the master plan – which was designed in 2001 – as the University’s long-term development strategy to “accommodate a carefully directed growth in enrolment.”

He emphasized the project’s flexibility throughout the presentation, stressing the need to keep the plan adaptable in order to address the interests of the McGill community. “[The master plan] isn’t as simple as, ‘Here’s the plan; here’s where we’re doing for the next 30 years,’” Nicell said. “It must be flexible to the McGill community’s changing needs, priorities, and opportunities.”

He also stressed that the objective of long-term sustainability underlies every part of the implementation plan.

Nicell spent the bulk of the presentation detailing over a dozen of the plan’s impending projects, including renovations of Stewart Bio, the Bronfman Building, the Lyman Duff Building, the Otto Maass chemistry labs, and the mechanical engineering undergrad

The McGill Daily will be taking an issue off.

We’ll be in Edmonton learning how to be better journalists.

We’ll see you again on January 22! www.cup.ca/naturalselection

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

7

Bad romance Feminism and women of colour make an unhappy pair

Aristotle’s lackey Sana Saeed

I

nfluenced by seventies empowerment classics, the Spice Girls, and my own experience as a veiled teenager vacillating between homogenous and diverse ethnic communities, the word “Woman” became a defining characteristic of my identity during my middle and high school years. While unaware of all the word’s connotations, I knew from a very young age that to be a woman is beyond breasts, Aunt Flows, and unmentionable monologues. Struggle is inherent to every woman’s life, regardless of her appearance, her location, her age, her past. I believed that to be a woman was not only to experience this struggle, but also to realize it, to embrace it, to fight.

To never succumb.

The realization of the struggle(s) inherent to my womanhood helped me better formulate a worldview that would eventually bring me to peace with several things that had haunted my thoughts for years. Vanity, glass ceilings, career, ambition, opinions, unorthodox language and choices, and unattainable expectations had all carved out comfortable abodes in my head and I was constantly forced to deal with the issues that arose from their sometimes unwanted and sometimes desired presence.

I picked up my first piece of feminist literature at the age of 16. It was your basic introductory work, providing a detailed discussion and analysis of various forms of feminism – as an ideology and as an academic discipline – ranging from radical to ecological. The academic foundation of the activist movement attracted me and eventually led me to take a feminist theory class during my first undergraduate semester. A mixture of an activist fetish, first-year depression, and general intellectual curiosity gently coaxed me into joining a collective of sorts and really exploring the McGill feminist landscape. It was angry, fun, filled with ambiguities. I liked it. It terrified me at times, overwhelmed me, but it was something.

Alas, somewhere along the way, the relationship went sour.

The passion left. The tensions had always been there, but were ignored for the sake of solidarity.

Though always aware of my womanhood, I had never been as sensitive to my ethnic and religious identity as much as I was forced to be upon entering university. New ideas regarding power relations, history, politics, gender, and ethnicity were thrust into my adorable 18-year-old face. I embarked on the sort of spiritual and cultural rejuvenation that seems to come with age and paying tuition. I began to re-explore my Islamic identity while also looking into my heritage, beyond the date of my parents’ migration to North America.

And as my awareness of racism and ethnic power dynamics’ pervasive nature increased, the paradox involved in maintaining a capital-F feminist self also increased. I became more and more uncomfortable being associated with Feminism – a feeling fueled largely by how mainstream strands of feminism (including the ever-dominant Radical branch) would treat ethnic identities.

Generally speaking, feminism, as a socio-political and

intellectual movement, has been dominated by white women, along with a select few white transgendered individuals and white homosexual men.

Think that’s a gross exaggeration? Send a letter.

There has been very little input in the initial and primary construction of feminist discourse by those outside the aforementioned groups. The “white” history and experience – the meaning and implications of which exceed the scope of this column’s word count – defined, created, and have sustained what we understand feminism to be today, specifically the Liberal and Radical strands.

Now many will respond that several types of feminism today have evolved into more inclusive movements that take into consideration that so-called “women of colour” have different experiences than white women as women.

And that’s precisely where the problem lies: women of colour.

“Women of colour” beautifully illustrates the exact problem I discovered with feminism, as a woman who did not fit the mainstream criteria for being just a Woman. As a “woman of colour,” I am not just a Woman. I am a woman with a little something extra; there is a difference struck between women like me and white women. There is no Woman. There are no Women. There are two groups: women and “women of colour.” This tidily, and unfortunately, translates into the “us” and “them” categorization.

Because this distinction is made and has been proudly appropriated by “women of colour” without much criticism, this presumption that the white woman’s identity is a sort of “foundational” identity for all women is prevalent within feminism. As mentioned earlier, feminism was created and has been sustained on a very white – and North American – experience and history. This experience and this history have created the framework within which decades of feminist theory and thought have been constructed.

This paradigm was most aptly demonstrated when nonwhite feminists began to critique the very real ethnic power imbalances that existed in the discourse during the sixties and seventies. “Ethnicity,” including also faith and culture, was more or less fitted into the existing framework: the framework that was built on the white woman’s experience with and understanding of patriarchy. There was no real attempt to rethink the intellectual and historical foundations of the movement. Those thinkers, like Angela Y. Davis and bell hooks, who did attempt that reconceptualization, have gone into the shadows of academia, existing as mere footnotes at the end of feminist class syllabuses.

So, is the white woman the palette upon which the “colours” of all other women can be found and mixed, used interchangeably to create a beautiful “inclusive” portrait of something which is, in many respects, ugly? If we are all equal, why are some “of colour” while others have the privilege of a much shorter identity label?

I strongly believe that much of the feminist analysis on sex, sexual identities, capitalism, beauty, and genil y der deconstruction coma D ill prises a powerful tool, buildcG M he ing ideas that require our con/T r se sideration if we want to change s e M a i our status-quo condition. I am not, v i Ol however, foolish enough to believe in the universal applicability of these ideas here in North America (forget the rest of the world).

There is a real void within mainstream feminist discourse that has marginalized the very women whom it has allegedly sought to empower and “save.” Feminism is still very much a white woman’s movement and discipline; it has tokenized women it sees as “of colour” in its attempt to be more inclusive and universal. This is not progress: this is not equality. This is a kinder racism: unintentional, and really a part of an institutionalized mentality and epistemic history, but racism nevertheless.

What is required for feminism’s return to relevance is a complete reconsideration and questioning of the foundation it was built upon, one sustained by the white woman’s narrative on patriarchy. This reevaluation can potentially lead toward a more holistic feminism – hopefully rebranded as something for all men, women, and everyone beyond – that is based on an understanding that the experiences of all women with patriarchy vary. All women view and interact with “patriarchy” in different ways and more than lip-service recognition of this fact is required to transform feminism.

There should be no saving involved. There should be no brackets. There should not be two categories of women, if it is women about whom we speak. There should be realization, embracement, and battle. There should be real inclusivity – of cultures and ideas. Nothing fitted neatly into the existing crevices and cracks.

And there should be just Women. Period.

Sana Saeed writes in this space every week. Embrace her at aristotleslackey@mcgilldaily.com.

8 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

Un truc de ouf La tendance à l’inversion syllabique en France

The French connection Joël Thibeault Every other week, Joël Thibeault writes a column for French learners, as a way of encouraging them to practice their French. ous êtes excitée! Vous êtes sur le point de vous rendre en France pour la toute première fois. Vous saluez vos parents et amis avant de quitter le pays et, dans l’avion vers la capitale française, vous entendez deux hommes qui ont l’air peu commodes: «Sa reum la tepu, hier, j’étais chez ma meuf, j’me suis téma un film de tarba, chanmé quoi!»

Vous prenez votre courage à deux mains et vous allez les voir: —Euh... veuillez m’excuser?

—Wohh, t’es teubé ou quoi? Tes fons’dé à la beuh là ou c’est parce que j’suis rebeu que tu fais genre tu captes nawak à ce que je dis?

Vous êtes complètement perdue. Vous vous demandez pourquoi deux personnes qui semblent s’exprimer en français «parisien» n’arrivent pas à être comprises par une autre francophone. Et bien, sachez que, comme le français québécois, le français de France est coloré de mots et d’expressions qui, malgré leur absence dans le dictionnaire, font de ce français une langue unique.

Prenons, par exemple, le verlan. Il s’agit d’un argot français qui consiste à inverser les syllabes des mots. C’est un genre de slang utilisé surtout dans les grandes villes françaises par les adolescents.

Si on retourne à notre conversation du début, on remarque entre autre les mots «meuf», verlan de «femme», et «téma», qui vient de «mater», mot qui signifie «regarder» et que nous n’utilisons pas au Québec. Il est pertinent de mentionner que même le mot «verlan» est une inversion de syllabes: si on les remet dans le bon ordre, on

V

Rebeccah Hartz / The McGill Daily

HYDE PARK

TaCEQ: a coalition of the willing Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan

T

he Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has run the gamut of options for external representation. Despite having history with three other student-union federations, SSMU has now opted for external representation with the nine-month-old Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ).

Across Canada and Quebec, campus student unions like SSMU have traditionally sought outside association with other campus unions in order to more successfully press the government on vital student concerns. These concerns include legislation on fees (tuition or ancillary), university funding, and an assortment of other government programs and policies (or lack thereof) that address the quality and accessibility of our post-secondary education. The outcome: federative student organizations such as the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) have been formed to tackle these issues. These organizations are major players in the student movement.

So why is TaCEQ the right option for SSMU and, by extension, for McGill undergraduate students?

History lesson: after five years of membership, SSMU voted 74 per cent in favour of de-federation from FEUQ in the fall of 2006. Later that academic year, SSMU took out prospective membership with CFS. Within a year, SSMU was independent again. Both federations were characterized by cultural and institutional practices that did not square with SSMU.

Some of those practices: overly centralized executive power; unresponsiveness to member associations; policies that make it difficult to withdraw; partisan leanings.

Evidence to substantiate these claims could occupy pages and pages: just look in The Daily archives. Suffice it to say that we were not alone in these criticisms.

Both federations have been blighted in recent years by an exodus of student unions citing similar reasons.

Some student unions would disagree with SSMU. That’s fine, as long as this view democratically reflects the will of their student membership. Despite its best efforts, SSMU was unable to enact many of the reform measures that would have brought the federations more in line with its values. This institutional paralysis and lack of responsiveness to its membership fundamentally undid the confidence that SSMU had in these federations.

Lacking suitable alternatives, SSMU likely would have stayed independent and, arguably, politically weak for some time. As mentioned, though, many similar-minded student unions in Quebec shared its reasons for disillusionment with the federations.

Consequently, four former FEUQ-affiliated student unions created a new vision for a formalized association: TaCEQ. The organization was born as a fresh attempt at remodelling the institutional culture and structure of – the very notion of – a coalition of student unions.

The member associations of TaCEQ, currently representing around 65,000 students in Quebec, agree that the best model for external representation is a formalized,

decentralized, and voluntary coalition. This means a coalition that is member-driven: one that exists only as long as it serves the interests of each campus. Therefore, two founding principles of TaCEQ – entrenched in its bylaws – preserve an expedient exiting process and the right to dissent within the coalition.

The strength of this structure is its legitimacy, which must constantly be maintained. TaCEQ as an organization and its executives are forced to develop consensus and meet the expectations of its members, or rapidly face dismantlement.

To achieve this, TaCEQ holds bimonthly meetings where representatives from all member associations identify priorities for campaigns and strategies for pressuring the government and raising awareness on issues. Mandates are then delivered to the two-person executive to follow up on these dossiers, to act as spokespeople for the organization, and to coordinate initiatives with the member unions.

The executive is constantly answerable to the unions that constitute TaCEQ. Membership in TaCEQ provides SSMU with the best of both worlds: strength in numbers and the legitimacy of strong representation that comes with external association, as well as the ability to retain a dignified and independent voice, in order to better represent you, the undergraduates of McGill.

Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan is VP External of SSMU. For more information about TaCEQ, visit tableetudiante.qc.ca, the SSMU website, or get in touch with Ronderos-Morgan at 514-398-6978 or at external@ ssmu.mcgill.ca.

obtient «l’envers». À l’origine, le verlan a été créé afin que des groupes d’adolescents et de jeunes adultes ne puissent pas être compris par les autres. Par conséquent, il est logique que la plupart des mots concernés portent sur les drogues, le sexe et tous les autres tabous de la société contemporaine.

Certains mots en verlan ont maintenant été acceptés dans la langue française et apparaissent donc dans Le Petit Robert.

Ce dernier précise toutefois qu’ils sont de registre familier. Quelques exemples sont «ouf» (fou), «zarbi» (bizarre) et «meuf». L’usage fait même parfois apparaître des mots qui sont le verlan d’un verlan, ce qu’on appelle communément le double verlan. En prenant le verlan «beur» (Arabe), on crée le double verlan «rebeu». Le même phénomène se produit avec «feumeu», double verlan de «meuf». À travers mes différentes chroniques, j’ai essayé de démontrer que le français possédait une richesse lexicale rare. J’ai très souvent entendu des personnes dire qu’elles voulaient apprendre le « Parisian French » en croyant qu’à Paris, le français parlé était complètement standard. Chers amis, sachez qu’il est vrai que le français de Paris est une langue particulièrement jolie. Toutefois, d’après moi, la langue de Molière est magnifique justement parce qu’elle varie d’un endroit à l’autre. Il vous faut aller au-delà des dictionnaires et de vos cours de français afin d’être exposés à sa réelle beauté.

You can write to Joël at thefrenchconnection@mcgilldaily.com.

Like reading in French? Why not read Le Délit? Find it on stands now.

Errata In the article “Khadr to be prosecuted by the U.S. military” (News, November 16), it was erroneously stated that Omar Khadr had been waterboarded at Guantánamo Bay. In the article “Principal takes time to talk to students” (News, November 19), it was stated that “the University’s policy on faculty absence ... requires professors who fall sick with the H1N1 flu virus to find and pay their own replacement....” In fact, this policy only applies to course lecturers, who are responsible for finding and paying replacements in cases of illness.

In the article “Long gun registry under fire” (News, November 30) reference was made to the conviction of a shooter following an incident in Mayerthorpe, Alberta. In fact, while two men were convicted for involvement in the incident, neither was the shooter. The shooter, James Roszko, was a convicted felon, but he committed suicide at the scene and was not convicted.

The Daily regrets the errors.

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

9

HYDE PARK

Step up to the climate plate, Canada Jessica Bell

T

his past December, the world’s governments met in Copenhagen to negotiate a new climate treaty. Citizens across the globe protested, watched, and prayed for an ambitious and fair solution to this ballooning humancreated catastrophe.

But our leaders failed us. No legally binding agreement came out of Copenhagen as the 192 participating countries could not unanimously agree on a deal.

A weak, unbinding agreement was struck in the final hours of the conference. The U.S., China, South Africa, Brazil, and India agreed to a deal – established in a process the Bolivian delegation described as “anti-democratic, anti-transparent, and unacceptable.” The five nations then aggressively pushed a “take-or-leave-it” document on the remaining countries – giving negotiators very little time to read the accord over before voting on it.

The agreement asks developed countries to provide $10 billion a year to developing countries from 2010 to 2012, and increase that amount to $100 billion a year by 2020. Civil society coalitions like TckTckTck.org were calling for support of at least $100 billion a year by 2013.

Nor were countries required to commit to hard emissions reductions or timeframes. The promised but unenforceable emissions reductions made so far still keep the planet heading toward an estimated 4°C warming. This last November, Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for

Climate Change in the U.K., postulated that only around 10 per cent of the planet’s population – around half a billion people – will survive if global temperatures rise by 4°C. The scientific community, the European Union, and most developing countries are calling for a maximum temperature increase of between one and two degrees.

Canada played a key role in the treaty talks’ failure. Our government said it would only reduce our emissions by three per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and the secret high-level government document leaked by the CBC on December 14 revealed the government was pondering abandoning even that pathetic promise.

The Conservatives are out of touch with the majority of Canadians, whose concerns have been expressed in recent polling and through unprecedented displays of action.

On December 12, people in Canada organized 400 rallies, protests, and vigils demanding a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty. In the weeks leading up to Copenhagen, over 20 people were arrested holding seven peaceful sit-ins at the offices of Conservative cabinet ministers.

And going by the number of postings on Facebook, the number of outraged letters to the editor, and the number of meetings being called, it has become increasingly clear that people are not demoralized by Copenhagen: they are incensed.

“Like many of my friends, I joined the climate justice movement recently because of the importance of Copenhagen,”

Jerry Gu for The McGill Daily

Backroom dealing at the COP15 conference burst the climate-justice bubble. says Katelyn Blacisk, one of my colleagues at People for Climate Justice. “Canada must do its fair share, reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as rapidly as possible, and prioritize the needs of poor people who are feeling the effects of

climate change worst and first.

Until Canada does this I’m staying active.”

As people living in Canada we have the opportunity and responsibility to force our government to address the greatest threat humanity has ever faced.

Jessica Bell is an organizer for People for Climate Justice as well as a trainer for the Ruckus Society. To get involved, contact the People for Climate Justice – canadaclimatejustice.wordpress.com. You can write Jessica at jessicambell@gmail.com.

HYDE PARK

A second life is not a life Facebook dissociates users from reality Adam Baginski

I

t’s a peculiar fact of life that we love to call things the opposite of what they actually are. Why else would we park in driveways and drive on parkways? Sometimes, we give things one name, even though in practice they are the opposite.

For example, Facebook (as well as its counterparts) is called a “socialnetworking” tool. At first glance, this appears to be true. In theory, Facebook resembles a sort of 21stcentury coffee shop, a hangout spot for the computer age. In practice, it is anything but.

Traditional “social networking,” known to most as hanging out, is frequently more about others than it is about yourself: when you hang

out with people for any extended period of time, you’re generally able to get a feel for what they’re actually like. After all, given some time and relaxation with friends, most people will act like themselves. There is a great opportunity to establish real emotional connections and friendships, where you can take pleasure in the company of others while they hopefully take pleasure in yours.

Facebook, on the other hand, is all about you and the image you create for yourself. Through digital smoke and mirrors, it serves as an emotional comfort in two main ways.

First is the image itself. On Facebook, you only show others your idealized version of your self.

You can fill your profile with witty things (that you would never actu-

ally say) so everyone can admire how clever you are. You have hundreds of friends (not that you really know any of them) so you must be very popular. And don’t forget the picture. Blemish-hiding photos were the thing to do in high school.

Now you have a quasi-artistic digitally edited photograph, so everyone knows you feel the sad glee of something very sixties. Haven’t seen Across The Universe yet? Then maybe your picture shows you being a goofball: that way everyone knows how totally whimsical and spontaneous you are!

The other comfort Facebook provides is that of reassurance. As a generation, we are characterized by such chronic insecurity that we now resort to posting photos of every minute detail of our activities, clinging to the desperate hope

that documenting our lives will make everything we do that much more real. When’s the last time you went to a party that didn’t feel like a series of poses for Facebook?

Can’t remember? I can’t either.

Rather than enjoying the company of others and actually enjoying life, we spend all of our time ensuring that we look happy. That way, after we utterly fail to enjoy the world around us, we can log onto Facebook and say, “See, look at me smiling – look how happy I am!”

And for this generation, that reassurance is enough to wash, rinse, and repeat.

Not only is this new “social networking” not social, but it is also dangerous. Every day our generation gets further and further disconnected from the world around us. We live as if we were the stars

of some movie or TV show, focusing on skin-deep appearances and the images that we pretend to have.

On an emotional level, we become the summation of our wall posts and comments, lacking faith in ourselves unless we are soothed by the attention of others. In the end, this false person we display can’t replace the real thing. And we wonder why we aren’t happier.

Don’t think you’re part of it? Try this. Think of some of your close friends, of what their faces look like.

The images of their faces that just popped into your head: are they from memories of your friends, or from pictures on Facebook?

Adam Baginski is a U2 Civil Engineering student. Don’t social network with him at adam.baginski@mail.mcgill.ca.

Mind&Body

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

13

Make the next decade sexier The Daily’s sex columnists on widening your repertoire of intimate sensations

Sex talks Amanda Unruh and Maddie Guerlain

‘T

is the season for resolutions. While most of us have probably made resolutions we will forget about next week, why not resolve to do something you will actually stick with: adding some variation to your sex life? You may be wondering what kind of changes are possible. Aside from suggesting new positions, recommending more oral sex (flavoured lube for everyone!), or giving tips on how to make those orgasms last 20 times longer (we have no such hints), we suggest one thing: learn to play.

Play is another word for kink, which is anything outside the realm of the “norm.” Play often involves playing with power and its dynamics, with one person taking a more submissive role to the person in the dominant role. In general, most people have negative perceptions of these activities – mental images of people in black leather masks, whips, and other items that look like they cause pain.

This is by far an unwarranted stigma to affix to playing. Play is exactly what it sounds like: fun!

Teasing, stimulating, and titillating can increase your sexual arousal and leave you wanting more.

Sensual play, or sensation play, is involved in all things kink. It is the base for intimacy – the process of working up the feelings you induce and endure. So many things you already have around the house can help you in your play. Feathers, bath poufs, or gloves in silk and leather, for example, are all potential soft tools to make your lover tingle. Imagine using a fork, cheese grater, or a rolling pin from the kitchen, a pair of panties and a tasseled scarf from your bedroom, or your tweezers or cotton balls from the bathroom. All of these items can be used to tease and increase your partner’s arousal, just through the different sensations of rubbing them against the body.

You can also deprive your partner of one of their senses, either by

blindfolding or using earplugs, in order to bring thrills and mystery to your teasing, and heighten other senses, like touch and taste. The senses of smell and taste open up many sexy opportunities for teasing and playing. Think of the smell of your lover’s shirt or perfume, a tasty fruit, or even a meaty treat for your blindfolded buddy. The idea is to just feel. Take a more exciting approach to stimulating sensations.

Start off gentle, and maybe speed up or get rougher.

Adding variety to a sexy session requires discussion and agreement beforehand. Defining boundaries is vital to having a positive and exciting time, to make sure that you both have similar expectations and ideas about what makes a good time.

This is also an opportunity to see if your partner has anything they do not want you to do.

Talk with your partner throughout your play, so that you can emphasize their favourite sensations and check in to make sure things are still good. Some people use “traffic light signals” to indicate how they are feeling, whether to ask a person to stop what they are doing (red), slow down (yellow), or keep going (green). However you play, listen to each other, and have fun.

Rebeccah Hartz and Matthew Kay / The McGill Daily

—with contributions from Kay de Monet

Discovering new sexual sensations is easy with household items!

Ingredients: One whole chicken (remember that a larger chicken will take longer to cook), three limes, a head of garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The budget bon-vivant Justin Scherer

T

hese recipes make investing in a whole chicken worth it. Depending on the size of your chicken and how many side-dishes you eat, two people can eat roughly two dinners and two lunches using these recipes. Plus they’re delicious.

1. Lime-Butt Roast Chicken Roasting is a delicious way to enjoy chicken and much cheaper than buying boneless chicken breasts. Make sure that you have a meat thermometer to check if the meat is done. You will also need a large spoon for basting, and a roasting pan large enough to cover your chicken.

Method: Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take the chicken out of the package, hold it by the legs, and rinse it quickly under cold water. Pat the chicken all over with paper towel to dry. Take a few spoons of your olive oil and spread it over the entire chicken. Season all over with salt and pepper to taste.

Next, peel your garlic cloves (I usually use about four) and cut your limes into quarters. Leaving your garlic cloves and lime quarters whole, stuff as many of them as possible into the chicken’s cavity. Stick your meat thermometer into the meatiest part of the breast. Place your chicken in the roasting pan and bake covered for about one and a half hours, basting every 20 minutes. Take the lid/foil off the pan for the last 20 minutes to make the chicken golden brown.

Make sure to check your meat thermometer to see if the chicken is done. Slice and serve. Do NOT throw out the leftover bones and meat!

2. Leftover Chicken Soup This is a delicious way to stretch your chicken purchase into two meals while reducing wasted food.

Ingredients: Your leftover chicken frame, two bay leaves, two large carrots, one large onion, four large potatoes, two to three cups of any small noodle (my favourite is dry chow mein noodles), salt and pepper to taste.

Note: If you have them, using whole peppercorns adds an extra punch to this recipe.

Method: Roughly chop your vegetables and set aside. Place chicken frame along with any leftover meat, giblets, et cetera in a large, thick-bottomed pot. Fill the pot with water until the chicken is covered, bring to a boil, and simmer on low heat with the lid on for at least 90 minutes. The longer you let the pot simmer, the better the soup will be. Next, remove all the bones from the soup using a slotted spoon or fork, leaving the small pieces of chicken in the pot. Add the spices and vegetables, and simmer until the vegetables are tender. If you’re using normal pasta, add it when the vegetables are almost done and turn up the heat slightly. If you’re using chow mein noodles, add them right before eating. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Tip: if you find your broth a bit bland, add a chicken bouillon cube and let it simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

Photo Essay

Timothy Lem-Smith

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

14

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

15

Redrawing animation La Cinémathèque Québécoise offers a look at emerging animation talent Naomi Endicott The McGill Daily

W

A ll

illu

s tr

at r

at i

on

sA

qu il

V ir

an

i/

Th

eM

cG

ill D

ai l y

hen it comes to animated feature-length film, it’s pretty obvious that there are two major players: Disney-Pixar, and everyone else.

As far as popular opinion goes, Disney-Pixar overwhelmingly outstrips everyone else – all the films they’ve released since the introduction of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for the award, and four have won. This success is, of course, echoed at the box office, in critics’ reviews, and through merchandise sales.

However, the “everyone else” has not been idly sitting by. Interest in alternative animation is steadily increasing, with studios such as Aardman Animations (who produced 2000’s Chicken Run, and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit, which won the Academy Award in 2005) and

Studio Ghibli (responsible for the 2002 Oscar-winning Spirited Away, and 2005’s nominated Howl’s Moving Castle) providing strong opposition to the “Disneyification” of the genre.

Perhaps the more interesting element to the other side of animation cinema, however, is the rising talent – up-and-coming directors who are establishing their presence in a field dominated by studios comparable in size and influence to Disney-Pixar.

Although these big studios, such as Aardman and Ghibli, offer an alternative at the box office, the subject matter of their films is usually confined to that which we expect from typical “cartoons” – child-oriented content, wholesome messages, a realistic look to the animation, and perhaps a couple of risqué jokes thrown in to keep the parent-escorts entertained. But this crop of new directors have shown themselves to be more open to risk-taking in the field of alternative

animation. In their own unique way, each builds on the head-start bigger studios have given them, but their purposes go beyond keeping the kids entertained on a rainy afternoon. They aim to make us think about our preconceived notions of what animation should be. The Cinémathèque Québécoise is recognizing the growing importance of this subgenre though their upcoming series, Feature Length Animation: New Voices, which is comprised of feature-lengths debuts made using more traditional animation methods like stop-motion and clay-mation.

Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max is one of the films featured during the series. Through the pen-friendship of an insecure eight-yearold Australian girl and a 44-yearold New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome who bond over their love of chocolate and lack of friends, the movie explores suicide, alcoholism, sexuality, relationships, mental illness, and death. Mary and Max uses these themes – coupled with its bleak palette of brown and grey and unexpectedly ugly clay-mation characters – to disrupt the audience’s perception of the “cartoon” genre. But the way in which the film treats its tricky subject matter could be a better approach to animation for children. Although likely to draw some awkward questions from younger children, ultimately, the film’s portrayal of realistic rather than stereotyped relationships and common insecurities such as body image, loneliness, and young love, is a far more valuable expression of the reality of life.

That’s not to say that realism destroys the imagination of these films.

Animation’s ability to transcend what would be possible in a liveaction setting is the most important element of the form, and the key to its popularity.

This is seen vividly in Henry Selick’s Coraline – also featured in Cinémathèque Québécoise’s series – a film adapt-

ed from the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman. It too is a story of loneliness. Coraline escapes to a perfect other-world, complete with an Other Mother who is the antitheses of her own inattentive and work-laden real mother. But this escape comes with a sacrifice – the exchange of her eyes for buttons. This at first seems a ridiculous and innocent thing: to a grown audience, something quaintly imaginative that immediately brings to mind ideas of rag dolls and toy animals. But as the film progresses, the evil behind this necessity becomes clear. The Other Mother wishes to keep Coraline with her forever, a goal fuelled by her overwhelming desire for something to love. This in itself is disturbing – we are most used to a film’s bad guys acting out of hate (Scar from the Lion King, Captain Hook, and every stepmother ever) rather than love, and for the viewer, seeing the story’s climactic danger propelled forward by love challenges one’s conception of right and wrong.

When juxtaposed with the development of the animation from rosily idyllic to menacing and distorted, this theme throws the categorization of Coraline as simply a children’s film into question.

Selick also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the similarities to Tim Burton’s style of animation are noticeable – oversized heads, caricatured features, and a pervading sort of spiky feeling. Selick exploits to its full extent animation’s power to be anything imaginable, and many scenes are breathtaking in their alienness, creativity, and darkness. This is a far cry from the realism that has come to be expected of more conventional animation: a preoccupation with making characters as humanly-proportioned as possible and scenery close to that of the real world, transformed into technicolour.

That these alternative feature films pose a challenge to DisneyPixar is undeniable. Many already have achieved cult status across the world – The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ralph Bakshi’s version of Lord of the Rings, Persepolis,

The Triplets of Belleville. The films featured in Cinémathèque Québécoise’s upcoming animation season promise to be worthy of joining these ranks. Their alternative styles, thought-provoking subject matter, and offbeat plot lines lead us to question the stereotypes of American animation and its intended audience, while simultaneously guaranteeing a really awesome trip to the movies.

Feature Length Animation: New Voices runs from January 21 through February 11 at The Cinémathèque Québécoise (335 De Maisonneuve E.). For more information visit cinematheque.qc.ca

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

17

Slamming cultural boundaries Montreal poet Fabrice Koffy examines the immigrant experience through verse Lauren Liu The McGill Daily

T

he energy found at the Kalmunity Vibe Collective’s live improvisation sessions, held every Tuesday at Le Consulat, is infectious – the ordinary spectator can’t help but be drawn in by the fusion of roots rhythm and selfdescribed “organic” poetry. Fabrice Koffy is among those who began their artistic careers in the inspired bowels of Kalmunity: it was after stumbling into one of the collective’s weekly sessions seven years ago that Koffy decided to make poetry his bread and butter. That’s why the first lines of Koffy’s debut spoken word album Poésic, “Tu sais, j’étais un homme sans vocation/et puis, sans motivation,” are surely no longer true of the wordsmith of Ivorian origin. Koffy says that being a poet was a “choice”; although he’s been writing since a young age, Koffy’s full-fledged pursuit of poetry meant abandoning commerce studies at Concordia. But despite his recent successes, Koffy is modest about his work. He describes the performance aspect of being a spoken word artist as a humbling experience. On the spoken word community, Koffy says that “people look up to them, they have a mic in their hands, and people listen to what they say.”

The Kalmunity Vibe Collective was founded with the intention of providing a “voice for the voiceless,” and when you look at spoken word in this light, the responsibility that comes with having a microphone in your hand and a stage beneath your feet is one that’s not to be taken

Matthew Milne / The McGill Daily

Koffy’s poetry evokes the combined identities of his Côte d’Ivoire upbringing and his current life in Quebec. lightly.

Having lived in Africa, Europe, and Canada, Koffy has many things to offer, not least of which is the unique perspective that comes with his tri-continental experiences. He is a living testament to the French colonization of the Côte d’Ivoire.

In past interviews, Koffy has mentioned learning French history in his childhood, reading about African history though the lens of French textbooks, and being unable to speak any local languages from Côte d’Ivoire. Consequently, in Poésic, Koffy imparts this thought about his francophone African identity: “Je suis le fruit de la coloni-

sation… alors, je me demande qui je suis à present.” Having moved to Montreal in 1998, Koffy spoke to me about feeling like an outsider both when he returns to his native Côte d’Ivoire as well as in Quebec, because of the way he speaks and dresses, and the colour of his skin.

However, despite feeling like he exists in a space of cultural limbo, Koffy is enthusiastically vocal about embracing his Quebecker identity.

To him, being a Quebecker doesn’t mean abandoning his unique past and perspective; on the contrary, he believes in integrating into Quebec society, but in a way that doesn’t negate his past. Speaking

about the crossroads between art and activism, Koffy denies that he is an activist above and beyond being a poet. But he adds that “The music that [members of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective] play is roots music – music from the African diasporas. It’s funk, hip hop, jazz, blues, afro-beat, reggae, dub…and maybe those kinds of music already have a revolutionary message within.”

On Poésic, Koffy worked with Quebecker musician Guillaume Soucy, who composed all the music heard on the album. At his upcoming show at the Montréal, arts interculturel (MAI), expect spoken word accompanied by bass, drums, gui-

tar, and violin, along with a contemporary dance performance. Koffy says that, ultimately, his poetry is inspired by and comes down to the act of conveying emotion. Through his poetry, Koffy hopes to touch on the humanity we all share. “I want to believe I understand you,” he tells me, “because we’re the same.

Knowing me is knowing you, and knowing everybody else. And writing, for me, is a way to get to know me.”

to their own critiques. In both of these Internet articles, user comments have often pointed at the hypocrisy involved in calling out Cameron’s film as being an expression of white guilt, when the critical viewpoint itself could be seen as guilty of a similar act. As one commenter called it, “‘white guilt oneupsmanship’ in academic criticism.”

But as this particular stream of criticism has reached mainstream prominence and the attention of minority critics – having been featured in the New York Times earlier this week – the legitimacy of the critique has stood up to this ironic scrutiny.

Nevertheless, continuously charging Cameron with racism seems to miss a broader point about our culture and its movies.

It seems unlikely that Cameron consciously intended to suggest that only a white man can

save the Na’vi people from the clutches of a space-faring Earth (a thinly-disguised metaphor for capitalist America). Avatar is not the first film to portray a former oppressor as a dying culture’s last hope, nor does it mark the first time that criticism of that plot archetype has arisen, implying that the notion is embedded within our cultural subconscious.

Memorably, on a Chappelle’s Show sketch called “Mooney at the Movies,” comedian Paul Mooney lambasted the similar white guilttrip The Last Samurai as offensive, suggesting that Hollywood carry its prejudice to its logical end: “The Last Nigger on Earth…starring Tom Hanks.” If filmmakers are interested in exposing oppression, perhaps the first thing to go should be filmmakers’ own predilection for indulging their passive guilt through their art.

Fabrice Koffy, accompanied by Guillaume Soucy, will be performing at MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance) at 10 p.m. on January 15 and 16.

The modern minstrel show What Avatar shows us about our movies Eric Wen Culture Writer

L

ess than a month after its release, Avatar is already the second highest grossing film of all time, having passed the $1.3-billion mark last weekend. The film’s undisputed global reign over box offices, however, has been met with criticism, as many have taken issue with the film’s perceived bigotry. Indeed, the sci-fi epic’s many unsubtle allegories to historical and contemporary conflicts have attracted scorn for being, well, unsubtly racist.

Spearheading these accusations, Annalee Newitz’s article on the sci-fi web site Io9, entitled “When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?” has charged the film with being an expression of director James

Cameron’s white guilt.

Crucially, Cameron portrays the main character, Jake Sully, as a messiah for the oppressed alien Na’vi – a plot point problematized by the character’s white heritage.

Indeed, the white Sully accomplishes something that the Na’vi tribe has failed to do for generations, eventually displacing the previously selected tribesman as their leader. Essentially, the broader implication – common to these plot types – is that films like Avatar show white protagonists as leading their adopted cultures against oppressors (of which they were formerly a part).

It’s called the “white guilt fantasy” for a reason: some critics understand these films as an attempt to rectify past wrongs committed by white people, while at the same time lionizing the white protagonist as the savior of the

native people. The native peoples – the Na’vi, in the case of Avatar – cannot successfully combat their enemies without the aid of a white person. This critique in particular is voiced on the blog Lawyers, Guns and Money, in a post entitled “Intentions be damned, Avatar is racist,” when the parallel is drawn to the notion of the ideal of the “black quarterback.” The blogger, “SEK,” argues that NFL general managers and scouts for years have been looking for a quarterback with a white player’s brain in a black player’s body, and sees Jake Sully’s Na’vi avatar in the film as an embodiment of that racist ideal.

The claim requires little elaboration: Jake Sully is, after all, a white man mentally piloting a genetically engineered Na’vi body.

However, as critics argue against the racist undercurrents in Avatar, perhaps they too have fallen victim

Compendium!

20

The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lies, half-truths, and bitter complaints

NJ gets stoned, stonewalls gays “Gay rights, schmay rights. What we need is some dank chronic” Télésphore Sansouci The McGill Daily

I

n a shockingly ethical and logical succession of decisions, the New Jersey legislature sagely approved usage of medical marijuana (48-14 in the Assembly and 25-13 in the Senate) and wisely rejected the legalization of equal marriage (14-20 in the Senate).

The state is the second American state in the last 12 months to protect the family from fabulousness and make ganja available to its bummed-out citizens – either by making it legal for certain medical patients or by decriminalizing the drug.

The votes follow the precedent set by California, where equal marriage is specifically banned by a voter-approved constitutional

amendment and where marijuana is both decriminalized and legal for patients.

“I, for one, am proud of our legislators,” said Joanna Kowalski, a resident of New Jersey. “Thank God they had the cojones to stand up to the gay mafia, who are raping our children’s minds.”

Her neighbour, Koko McDonald, agreed.

“Gay rights, schmay rights. What we need is some dank chronic.

“Need some sticky-icky up in this joint,” she added, before requesting that this reporter stop hassling her.

“You’re harshing my mellow.”

And now the legislature is delivering. Toke away, Ms. McDonald!

Anyway, in other news, major GLBT rights groups across North America convened in Provincetown this weekend to unveil this year’s Gay Agenda, which analysts pre-

dicted would be enormous, given the waves of setbacks equal marriage has faced in recent years.

Those analysts were right: the twenty-foot-by-twenty-foot, rainbow-rhinestone-covered day planner was filled with rendez-vous aimed at corrupting youth.

“Our overriding goal is obviously to destroy the family,” said Gay Agenda coordinator Johnathon Doppelmann. “We think a weak point is the children. What these lawmakers and voters don’t understand is that once the kids are stoned, they’ll be so much easier to seduce.”

Straight Agenda coordinators could not be reached for comment.

They were too busy attempting to repeal human rights for queer people where they exist and preemptively ban them where no laws exist.

Back on the farm...

FUCK THIS #1: From exam time OK, I know that it’s exam time, that McLennan is the place to be, and that perhaps it is a little naive to arrive at 1 p.m. on the first day of exams and expect to find a spot.... But seriously, if you don’t need a plug, don’t sit in the only seat near one and don’t use a desk that has one! There are plenty of plug-free spots for you to sit in (that are empty I might add), yet you think you’re entitled to sit in a spot that has a plug.

Why? Because of you, there are students sitting in the hallways of the library trying to write essays. There are students who are sitting on the floor so that they can plug in their laptop while you sit at a desk with your coursepack and unused plug.

McGill needs to wake up and realize we live in the 21st century, but until then (which, judging by this school’s track record, will be a long time coming), let’s work together. If you don’t need a plug, go sit somewhere else.

FUCK THIS #2: Learn how to fucking spell ‘Our’ not ‘or’. honour, labour, neighbour, colour, flavour, just to name a few. We’re living and studying in Canada, so get the fucking spelling right.

Professors included.

Fuck This! is a therapeutic anonymous rant column, not necessarily about exams or spelling. Send your 200-word-or-less jeremiads every week to compendium@mcgilldaily.com. Anonymity guaranteed, but nothing hateful – just frustrated!

Snacking in the silent grove of academe

Laura Moncion for The McGill Daily

Hope Bigda-Peyton for The McGill Daily

IMF saves the day, yet again Economy fixed, everything kewl

“Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some, y’know?”

The McGill Daily vol. 98, no. 43

Trillion dolla biiiiiiiill courtesy of Mémène “Omar” Sansfaçcon / The McGill Daily

Compendium!

Write!

Draw!

Complain! compendium@mcgilldaily.com