McGillDailyVol101Issue32

Volume 101, Issue 32

February 13, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

McGill THE

DAILY A cross to bear since 1911

Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

THE ART ISSUE

ADVERTORIAL

It’s Spring Break – Time to finally write that assignment!

So why is it so hard to concentrate?

N

ext week is spring break, a time of excitement for those who look forward to yearly road trips, or to catch up on some much needed sleep. For many other students, it’s a wonderful opportunity to get organized and prepare for the upcoming midterms. While this can be straightforward for some, for others, staying focused on the task at hand, organizing and prioritizing can be a constant struggle – suddenly, spring break has zipped by and they now find themselves on the Sunday before class, with an unwritten 10-page paper due in the morning.

Help!

This inability to regulate focus, by either under focusing or over focusing, might be a result of the medical condition Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a real and often misunderstood condition that affects students at any age, including in university. ADHD may present with or without hyperactivity. The symptoms, which impair attention regulation, can seriously impact all

aspects of a student’s life, especially when it comes to learning. Medical experts agree that while many students are disorganized and prone to procrastination, those with ADHD have a much harder time regulating their attention or their priorities.

University students with undiagnosed ADHD may soon realize that while they were able to cope in elementary or high school, this next level of education can be overwhelming, and the additional strain on their attention and executive functioning may make it impossible to succeed at the post-secondary level. Sadly, these students and their professors often wrongly conclude that they are not capable of learning the material or successfully completing the program. These students may then drop out, or change to another program where they will continue to struggle due to the underlying condition going undiagnosed.

Are you worried that you or someone you care about has ADHD? It is undeniable that a stigma still exists with regard to ADHD among university students, but this should not be a barrier to academic success and future career. If you are worried you might have symptoms of ADHD, it is important to get a thorough medical assessment, so if required, a variety of appropriate treatment options, strategies and accommodations can be discussed.

The Centre for ADHD Awareness, Canada (CADDAC) is a national, not-for-profit organization providing leadership in education and advocacy for ADHD organizations and individuals with ADHD across Canada.

CADDAC’s mandate is to take a national leadership role in networking all organizations, professionals, patients, caregivers and other stakeholders involved in ADHD related issues, and to then support those people through education and advocacy.

Ten Questions to Ask Yourself 1.

When I study I am easily distracted; my mind wanders and I miss big chucks of conversations

2.

While reading I can’t keep on track - I skip around or go right to the end

3.

I am a master at procrastination

4.

I have difficulty planning / prioritizing class projects

5.

I am forgetful; appointments, assignments, bills – I am always late

6.

I find it hard to wait my turn; in class during group work, when talking with a friend

7.

I am in constant motion; fidgeting, finger drumming, leg shaking

8.

I am impulsive; I say whatever comes to mind, without weighing the consequences

9.

My mood changes frequently; I have a quick temper

10. I have trouble keeping friends and/or maintaining relationships.

These behaviours can sometimes be the symptoms of ADHD. If you recognize yourself in most of many of the situations listed above, you may want to speak with a doctor about ADHD in adults.

Please note that the above questionnaire does not constitute a diagnostic tool and that only a certified, medical doctor can confirm a diagnosis.

If you would like more information on ADHD, visit www.caddac.ca

CANADA COLLEGE www.collegecanada.com Any Language Course: 7.00$/hour TESOL Certification Recognized by TESL Canada.

TOEFL iBT, GMAT, MCAT, TEFaQ, TEF preparation.

Student’s visa, Visa renewal.

514-868-6262

info@collegecanada.com 1118 Sainte-Catherine West, #404, Montreal, QC

Classifieds are

free

for McGill students!*

mcgilldaily.com/

classifieds

*Student ID required.

EGSS McGill University Education Graduate Students’ Society of

11th Annual Conference / 11e congrès annuel

(e)Merging Knowledges:

Classroom, Community, Culture March 9-10, 2012 / 9 et 10 mars 2012

Join the conversation!

Registration: $35 ($25 Early bird before February 15) Includes lunches, snacks, and wine & cheese reception.

Info: EGSSconference.com

Online registration is now open!

Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant!

McGill Education Building 3700 McTavish Street, Montreal

THE DAILY WILL BE BACK ON STANDS AFTER READING WEEK

* IN THE

MEANTIME, VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

3

QPIRG presents McGill with new offer #6party may be formally included in negotiations with administration Erin Hudson

The McGill Daily

Q

PIRG announced details of its offer to enter into tripartite negotiations with the McGill administration concerning the validity of the results of its fall 2011 referendum.

If accepted, the offer would mean that QPIRG, the McGill administration, and the group of students who occupied the office of Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson in the James Administration building – who are known as “#6party” – would sit at the bargaining table.

QPIRG has been in discussions with McGill concerning the referendum results, however, member of the QPIRG Board of Directors Kira Page said the organization had not been meeting frequently over the past week.

“They offered us the same thing they offered to CKUT on Monday, and we asked them for time to consider that decision given the context of the occupation, and that was until Friday,” she explained.

CKUT announced on Wednesday that they had accepted McGill’s offer: submitting a new question concerning the online opt-out system in exchange for recognition of the existence portion of the question.

Page spoke to the reasoning behind QPIRG’s offer to include

the occupiers.

“Given that their primary demand is the same as our primary demand, namely the full recognition of the referendum results, we felt like particularly for that reason, the best thing to do moving forward would be to try to get everybody at the same table,” she said.

A QPIRG press release stated, “In light of the administration’s refusal to negotiate with the students of #6party and their increasingly inhumane treatment of these students (including but not limited to denying them access to food, bathrooms, and electricity), we hope to resolve this dispute as soon as possible.”

“We believe that in-person negotiations between representatives of the three parties will be the most expedient way to achieve this,” the statement read.

Ethan Feldman, a student on the sixth floor and Daily staffer, said that the students learned of QPIRG’s offer “moments before the press release was sent out.” “[QPIRG] chose to do this, and without a doubt we have their back, and we’re glad that they have ours. It’s important to have allies,” Feldman said.

Both Feldman and Page stated that QPIRG was not involved in planning the occupation.

“We very much stand in solidarity with students being able to take these sorts of actions and we totally understand the place that it’s com-

ing from, the anger and frustration with the way that the administration is disregarding student democracy and student democratic processes,” said Page.

However, Page noted that the two groups do not share all the same demands.

“We’ll be negotiating on the goals that we share, namely, the full recognition of the referendum results,” she added.

The sixth floor occupiers are also calling for Mendelson to work out of Service Point for the remainder of his term, devote at least 15 per cent of his workday to holding office hours for students, and reconfigure his former office into a student space.

QPIRG negotiations are held with representatives from Mendelson’s office. Director of Media Relations at McGill Doug Sweet told The Daily that Mendelson was unavailable to comment on QPIRG’s offer.

Since occupying Mendelson’s office on Tuesday, the only administrator that students on the sixth floor have negotiated with is Associate Vice-Principal (University Services) Jim Nicell.

Page said she hopes to resume negotiations over the weekend.

“None of us like working weekends, but in the context of people being denied access to food and bathrooms and electricity, and having been in [the James building] since Tuesday, we really want to move forward as quickly as possible,” she said.

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Students began occupying Mendelson’s office last Tuesday.

Queer student assaulted at Mac Campus Incident latest in series; associate dean “can’t stop them from occurring” Stephanie Williams News Writer

O

n February 2, a Macdonald Campus student was assaulted at an event by six nonMcGill students, who fled the scene without being identified. He was attacked for dancing with another male student.

The student, Kristian Fidrych, a U2 Wildlife Biology student, was put into a headlock, punched, and kicked until he managed to escape. It is believed the assailants were intoxicated.

The incident has put Macdonald campus under the microscope for what has become an ongoing issue for its small queer community.

Although this was the worst attack Fidrych has experienced, he said that it is not the first.

In an interview with The Daily, Fidrych described past incidents.

“At least the [students] that are out [who] I know...most of them have experienced verbal [attacks] and pushing to a degree,” he said.

Associate Dean of Student Affairs for the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences David Lewis called the incident “really sad and unfortunate.”

“I just wish [the incidents] didn’t occur, but I can’t stop them from occurring,” he continued.

As well as associate dean, Lewis is also disciplinary officer for the faculty, and is charged with resolv-

ing issues like these either formally or informally. In Fidrych’s case, no disciplinary action can be taken because the attackers were not McGill students.

Lewis noted that, due to the nature of the small community atmosphere at Macdonald campus, when issues like this do occur, they attract increased attention.

Fidrych cites the rural atmosphere and a small group of students who “come from non-urban areas that aren’t exposed to the gay lifestyle,” as a possibility for the high incident rate.

For targets of homophobia at Macdonald campus, there is no specific support group dedicated to these issues. At the downtown

campus, SACOMSS (Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society) and Queer McGill act as support groups. Queer McGill’s Macdonald counterpart, Rainbow Mac, closed this year after a chronic lack of members in recent years.

Fidrych said queer students that have not publically come out were afraid to join.

“They didn’t want to be associated with being gay, with Rainbow Mac, because they were afraid,” he said.

It is an option for queer students to come downtown, or phone in to support services to seek help. As Kate Rath-Wilson, external coordinator for SACOMSS said, “We’re here to listen to anyone who wants to call the line.”

Lewis said he hoped that “stu-

dents in these kind of situations would, at the very least, speak to someone that they are comfortable with,” and also hoped that they’ll feel comfortable speaking with him.

Rath-Wilson said that SACOMSS has been lobbying to get Rez Project into Mac residences. Rez Project is a seminar for first-year students living in residences, where discussion focuses on “gender identity, consent, and a whole bunch of issues that come with people living together.”

As for Fidrych, he expressed some apprehension about his next visit to the campus.

“This is scary. I don’t really see myself partaking in any late-night activities there anymore,” he said.

4 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

SSMU issues statement on James occupation Letter neither condones nor condemns the occupiers Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

S

SMU Legislative Council decided last Thursday to support a peaceful resolution to the student occupation of the James Administration building.

Council decided neither to condone nor to condemn the occupiers, seeking to avoid placing blame on the students.

At the start of the session, during the announcement period, Jade Calver, president of the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS), announced that Jamie Burnett would no longer represent the Faculty of Arts on SSMU Council.

The AUS announced that a statement justifying the decision is forthcoming.

Burnett released a statement accusing Calver of being in violation of the AUS Constitution, as she made the announcement to Council without submitting a

motion for his removal.

The discussion about the James occupation began after members of the gallery and Engineering Senator Usman Bin Shahid urged SSMU to make an official statement.

Arts Senator Matt Crawford and Clubs and Services Representative Adam Winer were among the 23 students who entered the office of Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson last Tuesday.

Following calls for unity on campus from both councillors and students, Council decided to adopt a tone of cooperation in the letter.

Cameron Butler, a U3 Engineering student and member of the gallery, stated that he disagreed with the occupation, but also expressed that he wanted to avoid students blaming each other.

“It is counterproductive to condemn the occupiers. The

MAKE THE DAILY BEAUTIFUL illustrations@mcgilldaily.com | photos@mcgilldaily.com | design@mcgilldaily.com

SSMU needs to work at bringing together the student community – that is more productive than placing blame,” said Butler.

Emil Briones, Music senator, echoed Butler’s feelings and said that “focus should not be placed on making the student body more divided.”

“We have to steer away from labelling each other for doing things we believe in,” said Briones.

However, some students present in the gallery asked Council to condemn the actions of the occupiers following the writing of an open letter that had been signed by approximately 200 students at the time Council was held.

Brendan Steven, U2 Arts, asked Council to take a specific political stance on the actions of the occupiers.

“The SSMU has always been willing to endorse politically divisive issues – it would show a lack of courage if it failed to condemn the occupiers,” said Steven.

Zach Newburgh, former SSMU president, was also active in calling for condemnation of the occupiers.

“There is something wrong if we don’t come together in condemnation. This is not a divisive issue. The tactics are not appropriate. Members of this body that participated will have a hard time talking to the administration,” said Newburgh.

Following debate, councillors drafted a letter calling for a resolution of the occupation that “does not involve the use of force,” and expressing the “wish to see a constructive outcome to the current situation, one which expands the possibility for a more democratic University.”

Shortly after discussing the occupation, Council decided to propose a question for the winter referendum period to reform the Judicial Board (J-Board).

The question asks for a change in the SSMU Constitution to abolish the final authority the J-Board currently holds.

Newburgh and Steven, who have a pending J-Board case against Elections SSMU CEO Rebecca Tacoma, expressed their concern over decisions that could affect SSMU. Newburgh stated that “lack of legal expertise” could lead to “ambiguity in the interpretation of the laws at hand.”

SSMU President Maggie Knight suggested that councillors vote in favour of the question on referendum, citing “no reason to doubt the competence of the SSMU legal counsel.”

Council also adopted a referendum question regarding the composition of the J-Board, which will propose adding two undergraduate students who are not in the Faculty of Law. In addition, referendum questions will be brought forward regarding the CKUT fee becoming non-opt-outable, as well as an increase to the fee for the SSMU Health Plan.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Nastasha Sartore News Writer

S

ince last spring, when the Quebec government announced a $1,625 increase in tuition fees over the next five years, debate has sparked among students about how best to protest the hikes.

A group of McGill students have been organizing with students and organizations across the province to organize a general student strike this spring.

At the winter AUS General Assembly (GA), Jaime Maclean, a member of the AUS Mobilization Committee, supported a motion to create an AUS Strike Committee.

The motion did not pass due to loss of quorum. According to Maclean, the committee would inform students about what a strike would look like, and rally support through “grassroots mobilization.”

Maclean said that in order to vote on a general student strike, AUS would need to become a member of the pro-strike organization Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE). In order for AUS to become a member, its constitution must be amended to make

the GA the highest governing body of the society. The question will be voted on in a special referendum already underway.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a spokesperson for CLASSE, said that the coalition has already begun discussing a possible start date for the strike.

He told The Daily he hopes that McGill’s student associations “will join the strike as soon as possible.”

Nadeau-Dubois added that CLASSE plans to stay on strike until the government repeals the hikes.

Maclean said that joining a coalition of Quebec student associations is necessary because it will play an important role in government negotiations. “If we don’t join a larger coalition like [CLASSE], or if we don’t go on strike, then our voices will be lost,” she said.

If the AUS joins CLASSE, students will be able to vote in a GA on the question of a general student strike this March. Should the vote pass, it will have to be renewed on a weekly basis.

“The point is to keep it democratic and make sure that students are still committed to the cause,” Maclean said.

SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault explained that in the case of a general strike, students would have to

Hera Chan | The McGill Daily

Provincial Day of Action scheduled for March 22

Over 200,000 students declared a one-day strike on November 10. partake in picket lines and encourage others not to go to class in order for it to be effective.

Pedneault also noted the possibility of forming a “strike council.”

This council, made up of anyone from the student body who chooses to be involved, would meet on a daily basis to brainstorm ideas and decide what actions students should take. He stressed the potential for this process to be “as open as possible.”

“People can decide to use the energy that was created this year

to make the University more democratic, and oppose specific government policies,” Pedneault said.

Both Pedneault and Maclean also stressed that, based on the history of student activism in Quebec, a student strike could be successful in putting economic pressure on the provincial government.

“A student strike isn’t about striking from education, it’s about putting economic pressure on the government because [universities] can’t sustain a cancelled semester,” Maclean said.

WHAT’S THE HAPS

Students discuss possibility of strike

5

Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women Tuesday, February 14, 5:30 p.m.

Cabot Square (Ste. Catherine and Atwater) Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women invites you to Montreal’s 3rd Memorial March. Contact justiceformissing@gmail.com.

7th Annual Social Justice Days, presented by QPIRG McGill and SSMU February 13 to 17, workshops daily from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Lev Bukhman, 2nd floor, Shatner Building Intended to stimulate alternative political culture in the McGill community, Social Justice Days includes a week of workshops, discussions, and speakers.

Check QPIRG’s website: http://qpirgmcgill.org.

Our McGill: It’s time to come together Monday, February 13, 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

SSMU Ballroom, 3rd floor, Shatner Building Event organizers hope to create an inclusive group of concerned community members dedicated to creating safe and open spaces for dialogue. Lunch, snacks, and drinks will be served! Check out the event on Facebook.

Students call on federal government to honour treaty rights to post-secondary education Over 10,000 eligible First Nations students denied financial support Annie Shiel

The McGill Daily

S

tudents across Canada are calling upon the federal government to honour Aboriginal treaty rights to post-secondary education by removing a cap on funding growth.

Despite increases in tuition across Canada and the expansion of the Aboriginal population, the growth of the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP) – a government-funded program that provides financial assistance for Status Indian and Inuit students enrolled in post-secondary education – has been capped at 2 per cent since 1996.

Kakwiranoron Cook, outreach coordinator at McGill’s First Peoples’ House, said that while each First Nation has signed its own treaties with the government, they all guarantee Aboriginal access to education.

According to Aboriginal Students’ Representative for the Canadian Federation of Students Patrick Smoke, “It is a treaty responsibility for the federal government to ensure that every First Nation and Inuit student has a right to education.”

Before the 2 per cent growth cap was put in place, Smoke explained,

there were 27,000 students receiving funding from the program. Now there are only 22,000.

Not only are tuition hikes outpacing the growth of PSSSP funding, but the number of Aboriginal individuals who are eligible for funding is rapidly increasing as well.

According to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the cap has meant that 10,589 eligible First Nations students were denied financial support from 2001 to 2006 as a result of the limited funding available. In 2007-08, AFN estimated that an additional $197 million would be required to overcome the impact of the cap – this number continues to grow.

According to Smoke, “We’re the fastest growing demographic in Canada. We’re outpacing the birthrate by six times… The number of First Nation and Inuit students who want to attend secondary school is going to expand as well.”

Geneviève Guibert, spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, confirmed that the department’s approved annual growth rate for the program stands at 2 per cent, but clarified that “the overall annual growth rate is larger due to significant investments – nearly two billion dollars – made in priority areas through suc-

cessive budgets since 2006.”

Regardless of the actual growth rates, many students are finding that PSSSP funds are still not enough. Many students have to take out loans, and Non-Status First Nations and Métis peoples aren’t eligible for funding.

Cook works with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across Canada to connect with youth and promote higher education. He has found that “a lot of people are interested in McGill, but the biggest issue is funding.”

Indeed, as the number of students asking for funding increases, Aboriginal communities are forced to make compromises in how they distribute financial assistance.

For Smoke, this may complicate the continuation of his studies. Smoke is from Alderville First Nation outside Toronto, which recently had to divert funding away from healthcare in order to serve the students who had applied for funding. Because of these budgetary constraints, only the students with the best marks will continue to receive funding come September.

“The thought of having to take on $10,000 of debt to pay for my education next year is a scary thought,” he said. “It’s not right

because I am entitled to funding, as is every First Nations student in Canada.”

Removing the current growth cap on the PSSSP to fund all eligible students would require an additional investment of about $250 million annually. According to some calculations, however, this is a small figure compared to what the government might save.

Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo recently told the National Post, “If in one generation, we close the education gap, and the labour market gap, this could result in new revenue for the Canadian economy of $400-billion, and savings in government expenditures of $115-billion.”

In spite of these figures, Smoke explained, “It is going to be a difficult task with the conservative government that’s currently in place. Considering their cost-cutting mode, to invest $250 million back a year into post-secondary education for Aboriginal students really isn’t on their agenda right now.”

What may be on the agenda, however, is the complete reform of the PSSSP to a government loan program. The current program – which has been under formal government review for seven years – provides financial assistance that does not

need to be paid back by its recipients.

“I can’t imagine what the day would be when they decided to change [the PSSSP] into loans,” said Cook. “There would be a lot of outcry for sure, and it’s hard to imagine what that would do to sway students away from pursuing postsecondary education.”

Smoke added that “a lot of First Nations and Inuit students cannot take on debt… By making [PSSSP] a loans program you’re going to see our numbers drop [in post-secondary education].”

For many of those calling on the government to increase funding to the PSSSP, it is a matter of the government responsibility to honour treaty rights and promote equity.

First Peoples’ House Aboriginal Student Advisor and recent McGill graduate Alyse VanEvery, who received funding from PSSSP, explained that “I’ve heard my non-native friends say, ‘Oh, you’re so lucky, look what you get.’ No, look back, look at the bigger picture. I’m not so lucky. There is such a thing as discrimination in this world,” she said.

“At the end of the day, the government funds students [because of treaty rights], and I don’t think it’s a lot to ask for,” she continued.

6 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Quebec’s most popular political party still not official The Coalition Avenir du Québec has not yet won an election Emma Ailinn Hautecoeur The McGill Daily

A

s the National Assembly prepares to reconvene on February 14, members of Quebec’s newest and most popular political party – the Coalition Avenir du Québec (CAQ) – will likely be sitting as independents.

On November 4, 2011, the CAQ was registered as a party with Quebec’s chief electoral officer, but has yet to be recognized as an official party by the National Assembly, despite holding nine seats in the Liberal-controlled Assembly.

In a poll conducted last December by CROP – a Quebec polling firm – the CAQ finished first with 39 per cent, beating the incumbent Liberals by over 10 per cent. CAQ leader François Legault expects an election to be

called this spring.

Legault has capitalized on dissatisfaction among the majority of Quebecers alientated by the divisive rhetoric opposing federalism to sovereignty.

A former PQ minister, Legault wants to instead focus on the economy and improving the quality of life of Quebecers.

The Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ), another opposition party in Quebec, merged with the CAQ on January 22, bringing six Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) with them. Three Parti Québécois (PQ) members have also defected to the CAQ. The legal requirement for official recognition as a party is 12 MNAs and 20 per cent of the popular vote in a general election. Exceptions can be granted, as one was for the ADQ in 2009, by the Office of the National

Assembly.

Robert Dutrisac, National Assembly correspondent for Le Devoir, said it is unlikely the CAQ will get a favourable decision from the Liberal-controlled Office.

“In 2009, there had been a recommendation from the Office of the National Assembly…recognize the ADQ. At the time, it was in the interest of Premier [Jean] Charest to recognize the party, but now things are different,” said Dutrisac in French.

In an interview in French with The Daily, CAQ President Dominique Anglade said the official party status would allow the current CAQ MNAs to have significantly longer speaking time, as well as a $400,000 research budget.

Anglade said the extra speaking time is what counts for the CAQ, because “they want to be able to talk about the real issues

Quebec is facing today.”

“People want to hear what the new voices on the political landscape have to say,” said Anglade.

Both the Liberals and the PQ have challenged the CAQ’s legitimacy on the basis that they have not yet won an election.

The CAQ chose not to run a candidate in a Bonaventure riding by-election last December.

PQ House Leader Stéphane Bédard also suggested Legault should run in the Argenteuil riding by-election. The seat was vacated December 16, and has returned a Liberal MNA in every election since 1966.

Anglade says Legault had already decided on running in his preferred riding, l’Assomption, when Argenteuil’s seat was vacated.

“It would have been too risky for him to run in Argenteuil, because it is a traditionally Liberal riding,” Dutrisac said.

The CAQ and tuition According to SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault, the CAQ platform on post-secondary education is alarming. Based on the idea that students who are getting training for high-paying jobs should pay more for their education, the CAQ proposes a modulation of tuition fees according to their program’s profitability.

Pedneault thinks this is “even worse than the current tuition increase” imposed by Charest.

“This kind of modulation has already shown to profit only the richer families,” said Pedneault.

Anglade suggested the CAQ will counter the problems of accessibility with a restructuring of the Quebec grants and loans program.

Anglade said she “cannot reveal the details” of the restructuring, since the party is still developing it.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

7

Do you want a radio station or not?

Why opt-outs make a difference for CKUT Niko Block Soap Box

C

KUT is regularly ranked as either the first or second most listened-to radio station in this city. It is almost certainly the city’s primary point of contact with McGill, and it’s a huge part of our own community’s public image here. Over the years, thousands of students have picked up skills as programmers, organizers, and journalists by volunteering at the station. Countless student bands have launched their careers over our airwaves.

There’s been some trouble in paradise lately, though. A dizzying amount of misinformation about CKUT has been flying around on the internet lately, and I think a comprehensive explanation of what’s going on is in order. I’ll try to make this as sexy as possible.

The first thing to clarify is that CKUT played no role whatsoever in organizing the occupation of the James Administration building. In fact, we were taken completely off-guard by it. CKUT supports the right of students to defend their own democratic processes, however, and maintains the validity of the fall referendum results.

We have been negotiating with McGill since December, and those talks have led to an agreement in principle that the admin will recognize that referendum as a validation of our existence. In the upcoming referendum period, we’ll be asking students for permission to change our fee from opt-outable to non-opt-outable, just like the Daily’s or the Trib’s. (Our tentative understanding with the admin is that if we do win, we will be able to offer a refund from our own offices, as per our internal policies.)

Am ina

90.3 BY THE NUMBERS All right, here comes the really sexy stuff.

In the first year of the online optout system, opt-outs knocked $14,000 out of our budget; last year, it was about $27,000. Our total budget last year was about $450,000; of that, $170,000 came from student fees. The rest we raised through our funding drive, advertisements, and grants.

Given the size of our total budget, the $27,000 we lost to opt outs in the last fiscal year may not seem like a lot, but with overhead costs eating up the lion’s share of our budget, it makes the difference between viability and unviability.

Those overhead costs include

over $8,000 in mandatory royalties for the music we air; $26,000 to rent our broadcast tower on the top of the mountain; $12,000 for our transmitter; over $44,000 in rent and other fees goes to McGill; and $10,000 goes toward insurance. (Many of these expenses have increased over the years, while our fee has remained at $4 – exactly what it was when we became incorporated in 1988.)

That leaves a series of relatively negligible costs – things like printing or software upkeep – until we get to our largest single expense, which is the $255,000 we pay in salaries to our six full-time workers and two parttimers. (On top of that we have a few non-permanent staff, including two

Ba t yr ev a

|T he

M

cG ill D

ail y

students in McGill’s work study program.)

The annual salary for the average full-time staff member at CKUT is $26,000. After taxes, this would put it closer to $21,000. With kids, which some of them do have, it puts them below the poverty line. There has been no cost of living increase in their earnings since Minerva was set up in 2007, and they work more than 50 hours per week on a regular basis – sometimes as much as 80. You do the math, and it works out to less than minimum wage.

We’ve already cut two full-time positions in the past five years, and meetings have ended in tears when we’ve tried to cut paid labour-hours

further than we already have.

The station is suffering tremendously as a result of all this. Some of our most dedicated and talented staff members have quit in recent months, given the overwhelming workload and miniscule remuneration offered by CKUT. The most important thing to clarify here is that the station is by no means living gluttonously off the fat of student fees. The campuscommunity radio model, as it is practiced throughout the country, is one that relies on a stable income of student membership fees. Under our license with the CRTC, there are certain grants we can’t apply for. And, so as not to encroach too much on the commercial market, we cannot advertise for more than four minutes per hour. McGill, however, is the only university in the country to implement this kind of opt-out system on their campus radio station.

This situation of decreasing revenues and increasing expenses is unmanageable.

Ultimately, McGill needs to ask itself if it is a community – and a university – that deserves a top-notch local radio station. I do. And I am of the humble belief that virtually any of the thousands of students who have volunteered at CKUT over the years would agree.

A complete version of this article is available online. Niko Block is an undergraduate representative to the Board of Directors of CKUT. He is also the Daily’s Readers Advocate columnist and former Daily News and Features Editor.

The opinions expressed here are his own. He can be reached at niko.block@gmail.com.

The need for direct action How our campus discourse is broken Jon Booth

Hyde Park

T

hough there have been many nasty and untrue things said about the sixth floor occupiers, the most substantive and, at the same time, most off-base criticism is the critique of their tactic of direct action. Many students seem to be saying, “I agree with the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.”

The goal of direct action, in any context, is simple and straightforward: to directly effect change outside of traditional decision-making structures. For obvious reasons (no

one wants to be stuck in an office with no food for days), activists usually resort to direct action only after authorities have proven themselves unwilling or unable to change.

While some complain that direct action inhibits “open dialogue,” this claim is fallacious for two reasons.

First, because direct action rarely happens until dialogue has failed and, second, because there cannot be constructive discourse when there is an imbalance of power.

Though the fetishization of dialogue for dialogue’s sake is as much a part of university culture as cheap beer and all-nighters, dialogue is always constricted by power. The idea that people in power will be

won over and change their mind because of neat Powerpoints and balanced, well-thought-out arguments is nothing but a fantasy.

The problem, in short, is this: why should the administration ever listen to students? Our administration believes that McGill’s brand exists independent of its students, faculty, and staff. Like any privileged group, the primary concern of our administration is the maintenance of its position with all its attendant benefits. No matter how logical, well-reasoned, or just our demands are, the McGill bureaucracy has nothing to gain by granting them. There has been talk of McGill becoming a “consequence-free

environment,” but it is the administration, not the student body, that does not face consequences for its actions – no matter how absurd, unjust, or capricious they are.

The need for direct action, then, becomes clear: to gain leverage and equalize the power imbalance. If the administration faces no costs or consequences for actions that hurt our community these actions will never stop.

Some may say that in a democracy we should not have to resort to direct action to solve problems. Perhaps they are correct and using established processes works in a democracy. However, while McGill is many things, it is not a democracy.

Change requires action, and change requires struggle. In the words of abolitionist and revolutionary Frederick Douglass, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

Jon Booth is a U3 History and Economics student. He can be reached at jonathon.booth@ mail.mcgill.ca

8 Letters

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

“Dr. Cornett’s life and academic pursuits demonstrate an uncommon courage, and a hopeful conviction that it is possible to find common ground in the face of long odds, and in spite of or even because of the different experiences and expertise that we bring to the table.”

Jeff Derman B.A McGill 2001, M.A University of Toronto 2003, B.C.L./LL.B. McGill 2007

Capitalism is, indeed, alive

Respect Dr. Cornett

Cornett Letter

Re: “Capitalism is still alive” | Commentary | January 23

Re: “Socrates likes you for you” | Feaures | February 2

Re: “Socrates likes you for you” | Feaures | February 2

While the author of “Capitalism is Alive” (Commentary, January 23, Page 8) should reconsider using selfevidence as a justification for their ideological beliefs (particularly in framing legitimate debate as academic dishonesty), I will merely gesture at the foundational errors committed in their article in favor of a more interesting debate.

To wit, the author has failed to grasp that capitalism needs no reform, for it is working as intended: in the interest of the bourgeoisie by means of the cudgel of state authority!

I am surprised that the author believes that what currently exists is not “pure” capitalism. By his definition, capitalism’s ideals are “meritocracy” and “long-term profits.” Fair enough! If this meritocracy is judged by who can generate the most profit, does it not stand to reason that the outcome is a hijacking of the government?

The political puppetry of the rich has provided in abundance the freedom to exploit the worker, expropriate their wealth and exterminate dissent. The prestige of the wealthy increases at the expense of the worker, and so the meritocracy is fulfilled!

The expense to the worker in all this is not merely economic, but all too human. Democracy cannot exist in any meaningful sense if accidents of material alienate us from one another.

No subject exists when we are economic objects. Finding selfworth in meritocracy is the myth sold to us by libertarian mouthpieces and is the utopian la-la land of the deceived.

The article presents to us “solutions” to capital – so do I: the appropriation of production by workers and the expropriation of the expropriators. Alternatively, more portraits of Karl Marx in the Arts Lounge will do fine.

Ryan Healey, Attending more of Dr. Cornett’s “dialogic” sessions would do you good. Cornett has a brilliant way of forcing you to find your own truth by putting you face to face with the different truths of others. Eventually, there will be no need to hide behind exorbitant wordiness that only convolutes your point – if you even had one? Don’t write based on interviews conducted by others - do more in depth interviews of your own.

Authenticity takes courage and Dr. Cornett helps you find that.

As William Ernest Henley said “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Time to start building your boat.

I write in response to Ryan Healey’s thoughtful if misguided piece on Professor Cornett in the Daily last week.

Let me begin by saying that as a former Dailyite it is reassuring to see that the quality of journalism in this publication has actually improved in the intervening years. As I mentioned to Healey privately, he is a masterful writer and the pacing of his piece was outstanding.

However, there remains a philosophical difference between him and me as to the central issue on the Cornett debacle. I have maintained over the years that McGill University’s refusal to explain its actions is what most infuriates the students, staff, academics and supporters involved in this case.

But power never explains itself, power has no need for justifications and power has the means to outwait (and outwit) the powerless. Taking issue with Cornett’s pedagogical methods is perfectly legitimate, but McGill never officially did that. McGill never officially did anything but fire him and deny all wrongdoing. Had senior administration deigned to engage students on this issue perhaps some real progress could have been made. Instead the administration was content to sit back and let conspiracy theorists fill in the gaps with outlandish explanations of their actions.

The paternalism of the administrators is only aided and abetted by the silence of those who understand that an injustice has been committed against a man and choose to remain silent. Even those who support the University’s stance on this issue – and I have met precious few outside senior administration – must be troubled by the high-handedness of their actions. The surreal events of November 10th when Montreal’s finest stormed our campus are a direct result of this insular, paranoid ruling clique that refuses all engagement. It’s sickening.

Matthew Crawford, U3 Political Science and English Literature

Sincerely, Tara Brockwell B.A McGill 2006

Dr. Cornett, just one more reflection Re: “Socrates likes you for you” | Feaures | February 2 Ryan Healey’s article on Dr. Norman Cornett offers some intriguing and apparently honest assessment of Dr. Cornett’s person, professional drama and pedagogical legacy. I have known Dr. Cornett since my time in undergrad 10 years ago, and would add my voice to those who find inspiration from this passionate and learned academic.

Particularly in the current political and economic climate, in which it is both easy to simply take sides, and it is just as easy to abdicate the field of intellectual inquiry to experts. Dr. Cornett’s life and academic pursuits demonstrate an uncommon courage, and a hopeful conviction that it is possible to find common ground in the face of long odds, and in spite of or even because of the different experiences and expertise that we bring to the table.

It is pleasing to see Dr. Cornett still making headlines, and causing people to think, and think deeply.

Jeff Derman B.A McGill 2001, M.A University of Toronto 2003, B.C.L./LL.B. McGill 2007

In closing, fuck you very much McGill.

Leon Mwotia MBA Candidate 2014

Does The Daily write satire or journalism Re: “Socrates likes you for you” | Feaures | February 2 I have to say I’m happy with the article. It achieves what I hoped it would. Ryan Healey begrudgingly affirms Dr. Cornett as the timeless educational genius that he is, a beacon of light (I just said that to make you cringe, Ryan) for students who were mentally and emotionally drained by the regimented ‘rational’ format of McGill academics.

I could have done without having to read the extent to which Ryan was personally disturbed by any form of spirituality or emotion evoked within the environment that Cornett facilitated.

But then again, Ryan’s stance as an emotionally impotent ‘asshole’ has made for some good objective reporting. His research has clearly been rigorous, and if I overlook his own exasperation and sardonic humour, I find the general description of Cornett to be astoundingly accurate.

Rosanna Marmont B.F.A Concordia 2009

Dr. Cornett, an amazing person Re: “Socrates likes you for you” | Feaures | February 2 I believe that Dr Norman Cornett’s dialogical teaching style is great! This style of teaching is especially great for those of us who have a more communicative learning style.

Two- way dialogue is the teaching style of the past and the future. Many societies have had oral traditions for hundreds of years, this makes Dr Cornet’s two-way dialogical teaching style a perfect all round fit, and yet with our growing multi-cultural populous this two way communicative style is a perfect way to bridge the communication gaps that so often exist between differing cultures, and between traditional and modern mindsets for teaching and learning. I applaud Dr Cornett’s creative tenacity, and his courage in the face of scrutiny.

Snow Monica Wright M.A Tesol Candidate 2012

Cornett is on to something Re: “Socrates likes you for you” | Feaures | February 2 I was wondering how long it would take a sarcastic, careerist McGill-grad-to-be to really take the easy shots at Cornett – to portray the occasionally embarrassing, ridiculous moments of his classes as though they were the entire thing, and gleefully rub his hands as he claims superiority to the entire affair. Now I know. Healey will no doubt pat himself on the back as Cornett supporters pour in their defense of their beloved ex-professor (yes, as I am here) – but I for one feel sorry for the author of this piece, not only for having missed the point of the dialogic sessions themselves, but for feeling the need to write in a backhanded way that dissuades other young minds from participating.

And for what purpose? Do you want the $300 back, Healey?

Healey’s article is a sobering reminder to anyone struggling in the creative arts: there are always people out there, silver-tongued and clever, who will attempt to shred your life’s work in the hopes of getting a leg up themselves. On the other hand, I’m delighted to see that years later, Cornett’s dismissal from McGill is still a hot topic on campus. It’s a sure sign that he’s on to something.

Thomas Witte B.A McGill 2006

The Daily received more letters than we could print.

The remaining letters will be posted online. Send in your thoughts (300 words or less) to letters@mcgilldaily.com.

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

9

A new era for planet Earth It’s hot, it’s here to stay, and it really is all our fault.

Prose Encounters of the Nerd Kind Andrew Komar

proseencountersofthenerdkind@mcgilldaily.com

G

lobal climate change is a process that takes much longer than a single lifetime to play out – or to see the worst effects. On a long-term scale, the scope of the change is so great that geologists have proposed that we are currently living through the dawn of a new geologic era: the Anthropocene, also known as the Age of Humanity.

It was only a few thousand years ago that much of North America was covered in kilometer-thick layers of ice. The ices ebbed and flowed across the continent over the course of millenia due to natural warming caused by the Earth’s wobbly orbit around the sun. Our current place in the complex ‘wobble’ would ordinarily put us at the beginning of another period of giant ice sheets scraping across the continents. But we’re not only stopping this ice age, we’re going much further: The forecast for the Anthropocene is that it’s to be an age of extreme warming.

In the best case scenario: we collectively dump only a half-trillion ton slug of carbon dioxide equivalent gasses, and the world becomes two degrees Celsius warmer. What

does a world that is two degrees warmer actually look like? We need only look 130 thousand years back in time to see a world that was about that much warmer – the Eemian Interglacial period.

Based on what we know about the Eemian, we can very likely expect a shifting of natural ecological ranges in the next few thousand years. It is unlikely that today’s animals will be able to move with these ranges, because humans are in the way of any migration. We are currently living in the beginning of a massive, planet-wide extinction event that could rob our descendants of 50 to 90 per cent of the biodiversity that exists today. The Eemian Arctic was likely seasonally ice-free, which is an ignoble milestone we will see again in our lives. However, the Eemian interglacial period cooled off when the wobbly orbit of the planet caused enough of a temperature drop to allow glaciers to flow once again, which won’t happen this time, as the warming is happening due to humans and not a wobble.

To get an idea of the worst case scenario, we must look much farther back, to 55 million years ago, to the Eocene. This was the last time the planet experienced what paleoclimatologists call a “supergreenhouse”. A super-greenhouse is caused by an quick, enormous dump of greenhouse gases into the

BEST CASE SCENARIO Two degrees celcius warmer Happens if: we start reducing carbon emissions – drastically, and right now WORST CASE SCENARIO Twelve degrees celcius warmer Happens if: we continue business as usual

was sufficient to raise the global average temperature by as much as ten to twelve degrees Celsius, warmer at the poles than the tropics. Fossil evidence from the time indicates that even the northernmost point in the Arctic Circle was warm enough to support tropical species of plants and animals, suggesting a polar heating change of over twelve degrees Celsius.

From the point of view of a human lifespan, the extra carbon that we are putting in the atmosphere will be there essentially forever, as will the effects on the climate and bio-

diversity. The outcomes of pollution might seem apocalyptic and outlandish, but the reality of the situation is that extreme greenhouse gas emissions have caused large changes to the environment in the past. It is irresponsible of us to refuse to understand the very long-term implications of our actions today. So, on behalf of those without the benefit of having the choice, who will come long after we’re gone, we ought to decarbonize our economy now. Welcome to the Anthropocene: let’s make this next geological era a good one.

Thanks to natural processes, temperature back to where it is now

Peak acidification of the oceans (goodbye, sealife)

Thermal maximum (no snow in North America)

CLIMATE FORECAST

400,000 to 1 million CE

7000 to 8000 CE

2500 to 3500 CE

atmosphere, on the order of one to five trillion tons of CO2 equivalent gas. Much of this may have come from methane-ice known as clathrates, which are very sensitive to oceanic temperature. Whatever the initial cause, this gigantic mass of extra carbon caused a global warming event that involved extreme changes that would be reflected in the climate for millions of years. If our industrialized society continues business as usual – and we do indeed have sufficient reserves to do so – burning gas, oil, and coal reserves could potentially release trillions of tons of CO2 in the next few hundred years.

Today, around 60 per cent of the carbon we emit annually is absorbed into the oceans, which makes them much more acidic.

The acidification during the Eocene global warming period was so severe that it actually burned a red mark in the global sea sedimentary deposits. About half of all coral species, but particularly the deep-water variety, disappeared from the fossil record. Modern day species that may be vulnerable to any future acidification of the oceans include the global coral reefs (themselves the base of a staggering amount of biodiversity), lobsters, crabs, oysters, and many deep-sea microscopic life forms that form the root of the oceanic food chain.

The excess CO2 in the Eocene

30,000 CE

(at the latest) Antartica melted

1 to 20 million years

Permanent ice begins to form again

Amina Batyreva and Alyssa Favreau | The McGill Daily

Based on cumulative emissions of 1 to 5 trillion tons of CO2 – ie we continue to use oil until there is no more oil left

10 Features

SOVEREIGNTY AFTER

THE

OF

FALL

THE

BLOC Alexia Jablonski Illustration by Edna Chan

“O

n veut un pays! On veut un pays! On veut un pays!”

The words filled the conference room at the posh Hilton Bonaventure hotel as Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), steps down from the podium. She had just given the keynote speech at her party’s general council – five hundred party members and supporters were assembled to hear their leader speak.

They loved her. Earlier, when her arrival was announced, four or five people entered the room, playing bongo drums that were suspended from their necks, while music blared from the loudspeakers.

Still, as I listened to the PQ rank and file chanting for an independent Quebec, I wondered, briefly and whimsically, if they had all just listened to a quite different speech than the one I had just taken in.

In the speech I heard, Marois lambasted the provincial Liberal government of Jean Charest for its energy policies, but above all, his tuition hikes, budget deficit, and general economic performance.

Marois also hammered the prime minister on the environment, military spending, and health care. Her solution for all of it seemed to come down to sovereignty. “The most fundamental change for Quebec is to pass

from Stephen Harper’s Canada to the country of Quebec,” Marois intoned. “We want to change countries!”

I was confused. Weren’t these the same things Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe had talked about over and over, blithely self-confident, before seeing his party nearly wiped off the electoral map last May, and losing his own seat in parliament to an NDP upstart? What made the PQ think it would work for them? Hadn’t Quebec moved on?

Earlier that evening, I arrived at the hotel to register for Friday evening’s activities. As I walked through a series of hallways adorned with glistening mirrors, chandeliers, paintings, and luxurious rugs, I passed groups of businessmen in sharp, tailored suits. I felt a gnawing sense of being a bit too casually dressed for the venue.

It wasn’t the only way I felt out of place. I was, in a sea of separatist francophones, an anglophone McGill student. Could they tell I was an outsider by the way I walked? By my smell?

Uncertain as to whether I was inadvertently giving off any telling anglo signals, I followed the signs to the press room, where I was given a nametag indicating that I was writing for the

The

Artsup

nicole pacampara

2 ARTSUP

a alice shen

c

camille chabrol

mad hatter

THE MCGILL DAILY 3

the naturalist

E

edna chan smoking

4 ARTSUP

after the rain

s

sergey tsynkevych

frozen in time

THE MCGILL DAILY 5

n

nicole pacampara

n

nicolas quiazua feather pilot

6 ARTSUP

m

meredith toivanen

THE MCGILL DAILY 7

m

matthew watson

une renaissance

l

louis denizet

THE MCGILL DAILY 8

i

ian murphy

vieux port de montréal

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

19

Following the Bloc Québécois’ annihilation in last year’s election, does anyone in Quebec think seperation is politically viable anymore?

“Journal Université McGill.” (This, by the way, is like being a small tuna fish trying to sneak past a Great White and getting a nosebleed.)

After the opening plenary ended, I went to a nearby room where the national youth committee’s conference was being held. When I entered the exquisitely decorated conference room, hung with Quebec flags, a middle-aged man approached me and said, “You look lost.

Are you looking for something?”

“I’m checking to see if those seats in front are reserved for the media section,” I replied.

He looked puzzled. “The media section? I didn’t even know there was a media section.”

As I moved to the front, I realized that his surprise was justified – I was the only person sitting at the media table during the rest of the conference.

(The PQ youth wing does seem to have a fairly persistent visibility problem. Alexandre Banville, the group’s communications director, forwarded my editor’s first email to him to the youth wing president, with a message attached: “lol !” He accidentally copied my editor on the inside joke. When my editor asked if he was meant to receive the message, Banville replied that he was sorry – he and his colleague “were just talking about how long it had been since we talked to any anglophone media.”)

After a few opening speeches, a handful of youth delegates who had recently been elected to new positions – treasurer, vicepresident, and so forth – headed to the front.

Each of the eight or so beaming and chiclydressed poiliticos-in-training gave a short speech expressing their gratitude and their fond expectations for the party’s future.

All of a sudden the crowd burst into a standing ovation. When I turned around to see what had incited this furor, I saw that Pauline Marois had entered the room. She spoke for a few minutes in praise of the recently elected youth members, then left.

The delegates then voted on various resolutions to revise their mandate. Motions to preserve the French language and to “put an end to the federal government’s interference,” were voted in unanimously.

Other, more wonkish, topics incited long debates among delegates, as when the room split on support for free university education.

(They finally decided to convene a national youth meeting on the topic of accessibility to education.) At the end of the meeting, I talked for a few minutes with one of the youth delegates. I asked him whether the committee’s support for tuition subsidies – a topic that only minutes ago had made them waxing grandiloquent on students’ inalienable right to a free education – would be extended to out-of-province students attending English-language universities. Pausing for a moment, he replied that he was unsure and would have to look it up.

I then asked him about the relevance of sovereignty in Quebec, and he enthusiastically responded that it still represented the wishes of a large proportion of Quebecers.

Pointing to a Léger Marketing-Le Devoir poll

from last year, he stressed that 41 per cent of Quebecers support sovereignty. I looked the poll up when I got home: it was conducted between May 9 and 11, exactly one week after the Bloc Québécois, Canada’s only federal sovereigntist party, had lost 43 of its 47 seats in the federal election.

The federal riding of Verchères-Les Patriotes, located on the South Shore of Montreal, is one of the ridings the Bloc lost last May. It has a population of 97,726, and has sent a Bloc MP to Ottawa in every election since 1993, the Bloc’s first. In 2011, NDP newcomer Sana Hassainia beat the Bloc incumbent Luc Malo by a margin of roughly 4,000 votes. When I first heard that the riding had switched to the NDP, I was shocked. Many of the towns that make up the riding are nearly homogeneously francophone.

Varennes, a small suburb of about 21,000, remains inhabited primarily by the descendants of French settlers who arrived hundreds of years ago. The skyline is dominated by the silver spires of Sainte-Anne de Varennes Basilica. Located directly across from my aunt and uncle’s house is a large, graphic monument, erected in 1850, commemorating the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

If there is any town that is made up of the type of traditional “pure laine” Quebecers that the Bloc loves, and that constitutes the purported backbone of the sovereign cause, it is Varennes. Most of my relatives here identify primarily with the nation of Quebec rather than Canada, if they’re not explicitly separatist. This is a place where people only celebrate la Saint-Jean, Quebec’s national holiday, and barely acknowledge Canada Day. One of my relatives, who is originally from Ontario, told me that his neighbours pressured him to take down the Canadian flag he had placed outside his house on July 1.

To try to puzzle out why such a dyed-inthe-wool francophone region had abandoned the Bloc, I visited Varennes, and went straight to Bugsy’s, the main bar in town.

Bugsy’s opens on a small, shed-like mudroom. Up a few steps and through a ramshackle door is the bar, and a giant pool table.

A few of the mostly middle-aged patrons were still wearing their work clothes from the nearby chemical plant. A Habs flag adorned one of the walls. After my aunt introduced me to a group of customers as her “English niece from Montreal,” several people were extremely eager to share their views on politics. And they were all surprised about what had happened in the 2011 election.

“I expected changes, I expected that the NDP would make a lot of gains, but not as much as this,” said a local teacher, who asked not to be named. “Even here, in Mr. Malo’s riding, I was surprised.”

One of the contributing factors to the Bloc’s defeat was an inflow of anglophones and other ethnic groups, voters who are less

sympathetic to a party that has traditionally appealed primarily to francophones.

However, the people I talked to described this as a secondary factor, and stressed that the real reason for the change was exasperation amongst dependable pro-Bloc voters.

“I think it was a movement against the status quo, and that’s why people voted orange everywhere in Quebec,” the teacher said.

“Even here, in Verchères-Les Patriotes where it was very pro-Bloc and very péquiste, it was Sana Hassainia who won as the representative for the NDP because people want change.”

“I don’t believe that Gilles Duceppe represented our ideas,” said a first-time NDP voter, who also didn’t want their name printed. “I felt that it was like he was just holding a job, that he was cynical, that we had given him this position and that he was entitled to it. It didn’t look like anything was moving.”

Besides being dissatisfied with the direction of the Bloc’s leadership, there was a strong feeling of disillusionment with the ideal of sovereignty. “[The ideal] is alive among older people maybe, but most people think it is way too late for this,” said the NDP voter. “It goes against all the establishment, everything that is established, everything that is. There was the sovereignty movement in the time of [PQ leader René] Lévesque, but at the moment I don’t believe in it anymore. There’s no one that has the charisma to move people.”

“If it was supposed to happen, it would have happened over a decade ago,” said another patron, Jean-Guy Dagenais. “I think it’s burnt out.”

A “lesser of two evils” mentality seemed pervasive in many voters’ decision to elect the NDP. While few of the bar’s patrons seemed particularly enthusiastic or knowledgeable about the party, it was regarded as least atrocious national party.

Earlier, I had asked my aunt why she thought Sana Hassainia had beat the incumbent Bloc MP. “People were looking for an exit door to not have to vote as usual,” she said. “After the results were announced, we were all asking each other, ‘who is this?’ She had never made any public appearances, no speeches, there were only posters plastered everywhere…

You want to know how bad it is for the Bloc?

They don’t even fucking know this person!“ She told me that the building in which Hassainia has set up her office is better known for being a hive of illegal activity. Apparently, there was a police crackdown involving an illicit “Chinese massage parlor” on one of the building’s floors several months ago.

But whatever you think of Hassainia and the NDP, they don’t stand for leaving Canada and, with it, its generous transfers of federal tax revenue.

“Everything that the federal government sends us, we would lose it if we became independent,” Dagenais said.

“Whether Quebec is able to manage on its own, I don’t know, because Quebec is one of

the most indebted provinces in Canada,” said the NDP voter. “What would happen if Quebec became sovereign? I have no idea. For me, sovereignty would be darker than what we have now.” w As we saw at the federal level last May, a new provincial party has emerged this year that Quebecer voters hope will extricate them from the political quagmire. The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), a party founded by former PQ minister François Legault and businessman Charles Sirois, has deliberately set aside the sovereignty question – its platform is primarily one of economic reform. Despite having been formed less than a year ago, it is already leading in the polls. In a poll conducted last December

by CROP, possibly Quebec’s most trusted pollster, 39 per cent favored the CAQ, while 28 per cent preferred the incumbent Liberal party and just 18 per cent supported the PQ. Tellingly, while the NDP and CAQ represent new, popular political forces in Quebec, they are almost diametrically opposed in their economic policies. The CAQ, described as a “centre-right” party, advocates fiscal austerity and supporting entrepreneurs, whereas the NDP endorses greater spending on public services and higher corporate taxes. Why are citizens who voted so strongly in favor of a party of the left now turning to the other side of the political spectrum?

Since the main commonality between the NDP and CAQ is their newness and deliberate avoidance of the sovereignty issue, the answer may simply be that most people in Quebec are desperate to move past the tedium of the separatist debate. That’s what people are telling pollsters, anyway – another CROP survey last fall found that 71 per cent of Quebecers think the sovereignty debate is “outdated.”

And yet the sovereigntists blaze on. The most striking moment I witnessed during the PQ conference was when party president Raymond Archambault proclaimed that, “Quebecers should not let themselves be seduced by the hypnotizers of the coalition, those who are telling us that we must abandon our dreams, those whose projects are poorly-defined but who view the state as a supplier of services for the lowest cost, those who are evoking the specter of the public debt to make us forget another, much more menacing specter, the negation of who we are, the negation of the Quebec nation.”

The performances of Marois and Archambault that night actually reminded me a little of Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who held out in the Philippines for almost thirty years after the end of WWII, until his commander tracked him down to officially relieve him of his duties, and tell him the war was over. In the cavernous conference room of the Hilton Bonaventure, I felt like that commander. Madame, I wanted to tell Marois gently: come out of your foxhole – the other guys won.

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

with

the tax experts

I GOT MY MONEY’S

State of the Blue Jays franchise looking brighter WORTH For the first time since their World Series title in 1993, the Blue Jays may beat out top teams for a playoff run Sports, eh Sam Gregory

sportseh@mcgilldaily.com

T

H&R Block offers special student pricing.

I take advantage of it every year. Best of all, they get students like me an average refund of $1,000.*

STUDENT TAX PREP

29

$

95

And FREE SPC card** hrblock.ca | 800-HRBLOCK (472-5625) © 2012 H&R Block Canada, Inc. *Average is based on all student returns prepared at H&R Block in Canada from January 1, 2011 to May 2, 2011 for 2010 tax returns. The average refund amount calculated for students was over $1,100 CAD. This amount cannot be guaranteed and varies based on each individual tax situation. **$29.95 valid for regular student tax preparation only. Cash Back service included. To qualify for student pricing, student must present either (i) a T2202a documenting 4 or more months of full-time attendance at a college or university during 2011 or (ii) a valid high school identification card. Expires July 31, 2012. Valid only at participating H&R Block locations in Canada. SPC Card offers valid from 08/01/11 to 07/31/12 at participating locations in Canada only. For Cardholder only.

Offers may vary, restrictions may apply. Usage may be restricted when used in conjunction with any other offer or retailer loyalty card discounts. Cannot be used towards the purchase of gift cards or certificates.

GET

20

D H !

E Y L V I L A WIT THE D INVO

he Toronto Blue Jays, the only Canadian MLB team, have the unfortunate geographical position of being in the same division as two of baseball’s powerhouses: the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. As a consequence, the Blue Jays usually resign themselves to finishing third (and, in recent seasons, fourth) in their division, trailing behind these two famous teams. With no possibility of a division title, fans have been deprived of a run in the playoffs for a very long time. But this may be about to change.

On January 30, the Toronto Blue Jays held their annual State of the Franchise evening where the club took questions from approximately 1,000 season ticket holders in attendance. According to the Blue Jays’ official invitation, the State of the Franchise is an evening for fans of the team to have their voices heard by John Beeston, Alex Anthopoulos, and John Farrell, the team’s president, general manager, and bench coach respectively. However, in reality, the State of the Franchise is usually more of a chance for fans to complain about trivial issues like ticket prices and paraphernalia availability.

This year, however, Anthopoulos was the first to say, “it’s just a bit more exciting this year.” Intermitted amongst the talk of hot dog prices, and where one can buy a baby-sized Blue Jays jersey, there was serious talk about what fans want most: the playoffs.

What has the management and fans most hopeful is the talented roster that only showed glimpses of their full potential last season.

The Blue Jays have one of the

best sluggers in MLB with Jose Bautista, who racked up 43 home runs last season. Ricky Romero, who barring injury will be the Blue Jays’ opening-day pitcher, won 15 out of his 26 games last season.

They are hoping that, with a little bit more support from their batters, Romero will easily reach the twenty win milestone this season.

Brandon Morrow, Brett Cecil, Henderson Alvarez, and Dustin McGowan will likely make up the rest of a starting pitching rotation that is already the envy of many teams on comparable payrolls to the Blue Jays. 22-year-old Canadian third baseman, Brett Lawrie, is another player to watch as he stormed onto the major league scene last season batting getting a hit on 29 per cent of his plate appearances.

The Blue Jays’ roster has a solid mix of youth and experience going into Spring Training next month. Another advantage for the team as they prepare for training camp is that their roster is a healthy one. In the past, the Blue Jays’ pitching staff in particular has been plagued with long term injuries, whereas this year the starting rotation is healthy heading Spring Training.

All in all, there are a lot of positives for the Toronto Blue Jays going into the 2012 season, and Beeston acknowledged these positives, asserting that in the next five years he expects to see the Blue Jays in the playoffs two or three times. Whether or not these promises will come to fruition, it is hard to deny it is an exciting time to be a Blue Jays fan, especially in comparison to the last 18 seasons of mediocrity.

Sam Gregory is U0 Arts student. .He hopes the Blue Jays can return to their early nineties glory. He can be reached at sportseh@mcgilldaily.com.

A WEEK OFF IS THE PERFECT EXCUSE! CONTACT COORDINATING@MCGILLDAILY.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION!

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

21

Jackie Robinson in Montreal How the baseball legend got his professional start in a city that welcomed him KT Helin-Glick Sports Writer

A

t the corner of de Lorimier and Ontario, a secondary school athletic field sits inconspicuously amongst the buildings and bustle of HochelagaMaisonneuve. A small stone memorial is the only obvious indication of this place’s former life.

But the three short paragraphs on the bronze plaque indicate what this place has meant for Montreal, and for one legendary baseball player, Jackie Robinson.

Robinson spent only one year in Montreal, but that year was an essential part of what became a legendary career. Branch Rickey, the president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, broke Major League Baseball’s colour barrier by signing Robinson. What is known as the “Noble Experiment” was, in fact, a double-blind experiment – the decision was kept secret from the team and from the public until the day of Robinson’s signing.

Robinson was a vexed addition to the Dodgers. The challenges ahead required skills far beyond simple athletic ability. Rickey told Robinson that he needed a “Negro player with guts enough not to fight back” against the sure onslaught of racial antagonism. There were black talents who were more established than Robinson, namely Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, so the choice to sign Robinson was controversial even in his own League. However, Robinson promised Rickey that he would “turn the other cheek and let [his] play do the talking,” and became a member of the team on October 23, 1945.

Players on the Dodgers considered passing a petition against his playing. Spring training was held in the deeply-segregated Jacksonville, Florida, where Robinson was frequently made to leave airplanes, denied hotel lodging, and locked out of stadiums. But the real test remained after spring training and north of the border.

Before he became the general manager for the Dodgers, Rickey had been responsible for formalizing baseball’s farm team system, which affiliated Major League clubs with minor league “feeder” teams.

The idea behind this being that, when a player signed to a Major League team, they would first play for the farm team. The Dodgers’ farm teams included the AAA International League Montreal

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Royals, where Rickey determined that Robinson would begin his professional baseball career.

Given that the city would later lose the Expos due to extraordinarily low game attendance, it is hard to fathom the baseball ardor that raged in Montreal during the 1940s. But fans loved the Royals. Rickey hoped that, with Montreal’s combination of passion for the game and cosmopolitan tolerance, it would be the right place to foster integration.

The Royal’s season began on the road that year, and Jackie Robinson made his actual professional debut in a game against the Jersey City Giants. Robinson gave an amazing performance, record-

ing four runs, driving in three, and stealing two bases. The crowds in Jersey City were openly hostile, but, in Montreal, they were curious. When the Royals returned to Montreal two weeks later, the opening day attendance broke records at 16,000.

Robinson would become the International League’s Most Valuable Player that year. In contrast to the deep-seated racism that awaited him on every road trip, the Royals fans adored him. He proved himself to be both a civil rights hero and a masterful athlete.

Throughout his career, and even after he left Montreal, Robinson expressed appreciation for the people here, crediting

their enthusiasm and openness as the catalyst for his All-Star career.

After his retirement from the MLB, Robinson was interviewed on CBC’s Assignment, where he reflected on his time in Montreal, saying that “I’ll never forget after playing in Louisville, down in my own country, and receiving the kind of boos and jeers that I did, going back to Montreal... I think the fact that I played in Montreal, that I had many people sending me letters and prayers and wishing me well, had a great deal to do with the success that I did have.”

A few metres away from the plaque at Delorimer Stadium is Larivière. When the Stadium was still intact, the back entrance exit-

ed onto this street. On October 4, 1946, Robinson played his last game for the Montreal Royals, winning them the “Little World Series” title over the Kentucky Colonels.

When Robinson came through the stadium’s back door, he was bombarded with Royals fans.

Robinson tried to explain that he had a train to catch, and began running towards the station. The crowds dashed after him. Jackie’s friend Sam Maltin, who was working as a stringer for the Pittsburgh Courier, famously described the scene by writing, “it was probably the only day in history that a black man ran from a white mob with love instead of lynching on his mind.”

22 Photo Essay

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

VICTORIA

NICOLAS QUIAZUA

THE DAILY’S CHANGING Are

? y d a e r u o y

FOR STARTERS,

OUR ISSUES ARE GE

TTING SMALLER

But don’t worry

!

So you’ll get something new every time you visit!

THERE WILL BE JUST AS MUCH GREAT CONTENT, IT’LL JUST BE ONLINE!

BCIT navigates.

ANNUAL

GENERAL MEETING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) Advanced Diploma and Bachelor of Technology programs Geospatial technology is growing at a rapid pace, providing exciting opportunities for GIS professionals.

Canada’s premier GIS program lets you complete your education with flexible options: > Study full time at our campus > Study part time entirely online anywhere

Apply online at bcit.ca/gis

The AGM of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, will take place on

Wednesday, April 4th in Leacock 26 at 6pm Members of the DPS are cordially invited.

The presence of candidates to the Board of Directors is mandatory.

For more information, please contact

chair@dailypublications.org

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

24

A beat heard ‘round the world Christopher Webster listens in on West African music at Club Balattou

S

eated around a wooden table in the headquarters of Productions Nuits d’Afrique, located on the first floor of Club Balattou’s office space, Zal Sissokho seems almost to be apologizing for the necessity of having General Manager Suzanne Rousseau as a translator. “My English,” he tells me, “is very bad.”

Later that evening, it became apparent that Sissokho does not need English, French, or any other conventional language to make his voice heard – his musical talents are far more effective. He is a master of the kora, a unique 21-stringed harp that is exclusive to the West African region. Born in Senegal, Sissokho belongs to one of three major families whose responsibility it is to uphold their cultural history through their own musical traditions. “They’re the ones who pass on from generation to generation the oral history” said Rousseau.

“They know your family, and your descendants, and where you came from, and what you did.”

Sissokho, and the host venue Club Balattou, certainly know how to put on an engaging show. The evening began with one of his fellow artists and collaborators, Fabrice Koffy, performing some original slam poetry. Accompanied by an acoustic guitarist, Koffy delved into topics such as the value

of an education and making the most of your opportunities, easing the crowd into the evening with his smooth-flowing Francophone rhymes. Displaying a well-honed ability to talk to and engage with the crowd, Koffy drew laughs and strong positive reactions from those attending.

The crowd could not have been more diverse. In front of me sat two young men of color, to my left, a group of fifty-something white women. Speaking on Club Balattou and the Nuits d’Afrique festival – conceived by its owner Mr. Toure´ – Rousseau stated that the crowd has always included, “different generations mixed together, of different social backgrounds, and of different cultures”. This mosaic of ages and cultures gave the intimate venue a feeling of openness, with everyone welcome to enjoy the performance in whatever way they pleased.

And everyone in the audience did just that when Sissokho and his supporting cast took the stage.

Around him were a keyboardist, a drummer, a bass player, and a supporting female vocalist, whose dancing undoubtedly inspired the crowd to get on their feet. After a quick introduction by Sissokho, the group launched into a melodic tune that instantly filled the club with a rich, vibrant sound.

Sissokho’s mastery of the kora is

Camille Chabrol | The McGill Daily spell-binding to watch, using only his thumb and index fingers to pluck the strings, with the rest of his hands holding the instrument, he created intricate melodies and complex rhythms while also contributing his own vocals.

He is far from the only competent performer, however, and all the band members offered their own component to the songs. This resulted in an interwoven tapestry of polyrhythms that balanced

Sissokho’s Senegalese roots with less traditional instrumentation.

Within minutes, a crowd of people had gathered on the dance floor in front of the stage, and the atmosphere was simply overflowing with energy and good vibes.

Rousseau watched the spectacle from a side table, a spot she has doubtlessly become familiar with in her position as general manager of Nuits d’Afrique – an annual festival, which currently

brings in hundreds of performers and thousands of spectators to Montreal every summer – for over twenty years. When asked about the future of world music in Montreal, she cannot suppress a grin. “It’s just starting to expand.

The roots are a strong and real music… It’s not something that goes out of fashion”. If Sissokho and Koffy’s performances are any indication, the genre is absolutely here to stay.

A “carte blanche” on the silver screen Montreal’s Goethe-Institut presents a film series curated by Guy Maddin Cinema Verite

John Watson cinemaverite@mcgilldaily.com

M

aybe you’ve heard of Guy Maddin. Some call him the David Lynch of Canada, others are appalled at the comparison. His deranged vision of the world, as showcased through his films, marks him as one of the unique and eccentric filmmakers in our nation’s history, and certainly one of the most internationally recognized in the world today.

Drawing inspiration from dead cinematic styles – mostly in the form of silent films from the German Expressionist, Soviet propagandist, and early Hollywood eras – Maddin’s films affectionately recreate, transform, and

repurpose the history of cinema.

Instead of producing nostalgia for the industry’s bygone era, like in Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, Maddin’s films offer a hallucinatory, degraded, and perverted vision of the past that unabashedly recalls personal childhood experiences.

As Maddin’s work has always defied the restrictions of genre.

His latest effort, Keyhole, can best described as a surrealist, sadomasochistic gangster and ghost family melodrama. The film started making the festival rounds last year, but a wide release date has yet to be confirmed. In the meantime, you can get your fill of silent era vixens and degraded images at the Goethe-Institut’s “Carte Blanche to Guy Maddin.”

The Goethe-Institut, conveniently located a mere 15 minutes from McGill’s downtown campus, promotes German art and culture, while also encouraging artistic and

intellectual exchange between Germany and Canada. Their “Carte Blanche to Guy Maddin” is part of a series of events in celebration of the institution’s 50th anniversary. For the event, the Goethe-Institut will be screening eight lesser-known classic films from the German canon curated

by Maddin. The Goethe-Institut has described the selection as “an exciting, eclectic and savant list of obscure, silent German films and forgotten melodramas by the likes of Max Ophüls and Fritz Lang.”

Maddin, a Winnipeg native with Icelandic and Scottish ancestry, may seem an unlikely choice to curate a German film event. Yet Maddin’s oeuvres display a deep passion for, and familiarity with, German writing and film – some of his work could even be mistaken for. “When I watch the great German films, I get the absurd feeling I could have made them, if only I had lived in another time

and been blessed with the blunt trauma genius of the masters featured in this program,” Maddin wrote of his selection process for the Carte Blanche.

Aside from the already-mentioned works by Ophüls and Lang, the Carte Blanche will feature other, lesser-known films by popular German directors. One of the highlights is Nerves by Robert Reinert, a silent film from 1919 that was reconstructed from film fragments by the Munich Film Museum. Created right at the birth of the Expressionist movement, Nerves documents post-war Germany in its “nervous epidemic” of social madness. Similarly, G. W. Pabst’s Les Mystères d’Une Ame is a study of the psyche – following a man’s spiral into insanity through feverish nightmares – based specifically on Freud’s influential theories and made with the help of some of his collaborators.

The event will end its two-month run with screenings of Maddin’s Archangel and Careful, both made earlier in his career, and emblematic of his distinct style. The films are set in, and pay homage to, Civil-War-torn Russia and a mid-century German mountain village, respectively. Both explore questions of memory, history, the nation and, true to Maddin’s form, repressed sexuality and incestuous relationships.

The “Carte Blanche to Guy Maddin” is dark stuff indeed, but it is stuff common to the human experience. In the words of Maddin, “no matter where the German went with his camera, no matter who starred in his stuff, the blood always ran dark. . . There’s a literature in these films, without any of them being remotely bookish. It’s the blood of the Walsungs. I could drink it all!”

For the film schedule visit the Goethe-Institut website at www. goethe.de/ins/ca/mon/enindex.htm.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

25

Love, nymphs, and the occasional cliche Ariella Starkman reviews The Hazards of Love: A Folk Opera

“A

ll great truths begin as blasphemies” – George Bernard Shaw Wait a minute. I’m expected to watch the story of two lovers in a romantic nymph-infested forest, while the soundtrack of their relationship is provided by the indie band The Decemberists? Wait… Valentines Day is next week?

Initial heart palpations aside, I remained unsure if my cynical and yes, still single, heart could handle such enormous sentimental gestures this close to D-Day. I mean V-Day. Yet, I was assuaged of my fears when I discovered that this original piece seeks to redefine romantic cliches, traditional tropes of “happily ever after,” and their accompanying righteous heroes.

After two full years of writing, planning, and creating, McGill students’ James Campbell and Charles Harries proudly present, The Hazards of Love: A Folk Opera.

Upon entering the Players Theatre for my first time, I felt comforted by the recognizable indie instrumental ballads streaming from backstage and the dim lights illuminating the whimsical forest set. I concluded that Campbell and Harries had produced the perfect environment for The Hazards of Love, exactly what you would imagine after having listened to the album.

The production’s set, costumes, and lighting all work in tandem to engage

the viewer in the quintessential story of two star-crossed lovers, William and Margaret. It’s all very Journey meets Ariel the Little Mermaid meets Romeo and Juliet. In truth, the album was created with the intention of one day being adapted for the stage.,and it works well. Whatever I conjured in my (often hyperbolic) imagination while listening to the album was far exceeded by what was in front of my eyes. However, the Decemberists deeply evocative music and soulful lyrics – accompanied by the sexy forest sprites and a half naked actor – end up unintentionally prevailing over the dialogue in between songs.

The narrative of the album’s lyrics already provide an exciting plot full of pregnancy, abduction, and a needy, yet evil, stepmother. Campbell and Harries were left to connect the narrative in between the album’s songs. The result was surprisingly sappy, considering the press release promised to challenge cliches surrounding romance stories. Yet, I can’t blame them entirely. I mean, they are composing an original play that discusses cumbersome familial duties, questions and concerns of love and commitment, and the anxieties often incurred by young adults. Not exactly the “anti-fairytale.”

For someone typically adverse to romance – or anything related – I was pleasantly surprised to find

myself relating to the challenges the characters faced. I immediately recognized the potential for profound connections with the audience.

Overprotective mother? Got one! Did you really mean “I love you?” Been there! Feeling lost in a hopeless place?

Last weekend! However, in the first act, the earnest attempt to reassess these romantic cliches with dialogue was, truthfully, a little cliched itself.

Even the conversation between the two lovebirds came across as banal on occasion. It was reminiscent of dialogue from well-known traditional romances like Casablanca or 10 Things I Hate About You. Nonetheless, as the second act began, the dialogue was suddenly transformed into truly expressive theatre. Was I Jim Carrey in The Grinch?

One week until Valentines Day and my heart of ice was quickly beginning to thaw? William and Margaret fought for each other and subsequently made me root for them – yes, they’re a fictional couple – but I rooted for them all the same.

It may be cliched. But that’s just fine.

The Hazards of Love: A Folk Opera posesses a captivating soundtrack, a romantic setting, and a passionate cast who showed me, and the rest of the audience, that love is an “interwoven complex of things,” which may make it hazardous, but also makes it worth it.

Happy Valentines Day y’all.

Victor Tangerman | The McGill Daily

Keeping warm since 1983 Ungava Duvet will tuck you in at night Anqi Zhang

The McGill Daily

W

hen Ungava Duvet first opened its doors 29 years ago, St. Laurent wasn’t the clubbing hotspot that it is today. Desiree Archer, the coowner of the linens (among other things) store at the corner of St. Laurent and Pins, remembers those days: “I’m sad to see a lot of family stores go – clothing stores and grocery stores... It’s more trendy now.”

Ungava Duvet, however, is not one of those family stores that has been relegated to the past tense – it is alive and vibrant.

Still, some things have changed with time. The development of

St. Laurent as a street, and the Plateau as a neighbourhood, has led Ungava Duvet to cater to a different demographic. “We get more younger people now, but the loss of the old clothing, fabric, and grocery stores means that our older clientele no longer frequent this area.” She added that many of these new customers are McGill students just moving into new apartments or residences in the fall. This has also led to a change in the types of products they stock. “For students, we bring in new lines of sheeting and bedding.”

The client base is not the only thing that has changed for Ungava Duvet in the past 29 years.

“Originally we made every item we sold on the premises. Every

futon, every sheet, every duvet,” asserted Archer proudly. While this level of production is no longer feasible, the store still makes its own duvets, and sells Montrealmade futons. Maintaining this kind of local supply chain not only supports jobs in the community and in Montreal, but also allows the kind of low pricing to which Ungava Duvet has attributed its success and longevity. “This isn’t a cute little boutique,” said Archer, noting the price that goes along with that image. Some browsing confirms that yes, that queen sized goose feather duvet is really 69 dollars, and yes, there are bins filled with pillowcases, sheets, and other knickknacks that go for a mere five dollars.

The price and emphasis on quality may be factors in what keeps patrons returning to Ungava Duvet, but to attribute their success to dollars saved on a rug, or years a sheet set can endure, would be an oversimplification – and an oversight. The draw to Ungava Duvet is not entirely tangible. It’s something about how the lampshades, bedspreads, and curtains splash colour around the store, how the brandless cushiony pillows crammed into wooden shelving look so fresh and crisp. It’s the feeling that this store doesn’t quite belong on the corner of Pins and St. Laurent, best defined to most students by its proximity to Tokyo and Toonie Chow. It’s how much it doesn’t look like the bedding sec-

tion at Ikea or your local Home Sense.

The atmosphere at Ungava Duvet is light and friendly – much of which has to do with Archer herself. “We really enjoy what we sell,” she told me, before noticing my runny nose and offering a tissue. “See? We have everything!” she joked. Balancing customer requests deftly with this interview, she was eager to share her knowledge of the area and the history behind the store. The sort of pleasant conversation Archer offers is something rarely achieved in a commercial environment. Ungava Duvet seems almost to have its own personality, a rare feat among larger, chain stores and a sure factor in its volume of returning customers.

Need something to do over reading week?

(Cause, I mean, who actually spends the week reading?)

Write for culture!

Come to our meeting Tuesday, at 5:30 p.m. in Shatner B-24

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and Prince impressions!!!!!

26

Crendelson’s office moved to night club Nob Squad activists reveal balloon replacement Zee Lo Green and Jacques Nicholson The McGill Daily

O

n Friday, Deputy Blowvost, Student Life and Learning.

Felix Crendelson had trouble accessing his office, due to Nob Squad activists temporarily using it as a restroom. The Widely Beloved Blowvost struggled to find space and eventually relocated operations to the nearby club James737.

The Blowvost, initially frustrated by the inconvenience, has settled quite comfortably into the new location. Crendelson cited it as a more “lively” and “exciting” working environment. With the new location, Crendelson has taken to devoting 15 per cent of his day to performing a Prince act.

James737’s manager, Tether SexyCat Hunro Spoon, prides her business on being the most excellent in the entire Chestmount

The Crossword Fairies The McGill Daily

neighborhood and Crendelson’s Prince act as an asset to the McGill and Chestmount communities.

“If anyone here is watching the Blowvost act, I will politely ask you to leave. There is not such thing as an inclusive Prince act,” said Hunro Spoon.

Known nob squadder and former premiere journalist of the Rue Miltonic Leftie Monologue Quithen Weldman expressed his anger at James737’s undemocratic policies: “I am completely dismayed at the club’s fascist regulations… how is it that students are not permitted to their own Blowvost’s performance!”

Other students have given positive feedback on Crendelson’s new office. Zachariah Qburgh, U3 Slander and Libel Studies student, expressed his general approval of the Blowvost’s new location and Prince dance. “The Blowvost’s act

makes doves cry. I would die for you, Crendelson.”

In protest, nob squadders have erected a stand-in Crendelson made of laytex and permanent marker that have tactfully placed in his former office. Nob squadders struggled to blow up the balloon due to the nasty fragrance of activist excrement.

Weldman made numerous enlightened comments on the utilitarian aspects of the Crendelson’s effigy.

“Ok, so this effigy thang… it does more student consultation than Felix Crendelson does” Crendelson was unavailable for comment. However, he did post an open letter to the McGill community.

“Dear comrades, we are all gathered here at the James737 club to commemorate the occupation of our beloved Fortress James. But now there’s something else, the James737. Let’s Go Crazy!”

No falcons were harmed in the making of this crossword Across

1. Chowder morsel 5. Annex 10. Ultimatum ender 14. ___ hoop 15. Caterpillar, for one 16. Second person possessive 17. During 18. Fevers 19. Ablutionary vessel 20. Time vs frequency graphs 23. Talking bird 24. Winter carriages 28. Feline verb 32. “Snowy” bird 33. Publicity, slangily 36. Unwholesome adverb 39. Clinch 41. Patchwork poem 42. Be a snitch 43. Stringy 46. Enemy 47. Conjure up 48. Kind of nerve 50. Kahnawake, e.g.

53. Middle English shackles 57. Factoid checker 61. Sub station?

64. More likely 65. Connecting point 66. Enthusiastic

67. Middleweight fencing weapons 68. Sixth month of Hebrew calendar 69. Allocate, with “out” 70. Commemorative marker 71. Memorial Day solo

Down 1. Gorge 2. Uncomfortable mattress?

3. Roswell crash victim 4. Zany 5. Banned orchard spray 6. Pe___gic (related to teaching) 7. Mind altering substance 8. Cricket rounds 9. Cold-y voice 10. 20/20?

11. Blue 12. Go a-courting?

13. Be mistaken 21. By way of, briefly 22. Convene 25. “Good ___!”

26. Not goodbye 27. Class 29. First word of “The Raven” 30. A question of timing 31. Slow, musically 33. Deduce

34. Green 35. Scale units 37. At the summit of 38. Boor 40. Like many cottages 44. Trifling 45. Communicate silently 49. Baby swan 51. Ming things 52. Blow 54. String quartet instrument 55. Eventually become 56. Stitches eyes shut, in falconry 58. James Bay tribe 59. Command to a dog 60. Scots word for Ghailig 61. Beaver’s work 62. Apple picker 63. On, as a lamp

The McGill Daily | Monday, February 13, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 101 number 32

editorial 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com

EDITORIAL

Community health in community hands

coordinating editor

Joan Moses

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Henry Gass news editors

Queen Arsem-O’Malley Erin Hudson Jessica Lukawiecki features editor

Eric Andrew-Gee commentary&compendium! editor

Zachary Lewsen culture editors

Christina Colizza Fabien Maltais-Bayda

science+technology editor

Shannon Palus

health&education editor

Peter Shyba sports editor

Andra Cernavskis photo editor

Victor Tangermann illustrations editor

Amina Batyreva production&design editors

Alyssa Favreau Rebecca Katzman copy editor

James Farr web editor

Jane Gatensby le délit

Anabel Cossette Civitella rec@delitfrancais.com cover design

Sergey Tsynkevych Contributors Niko Block, Tara Brockwell, Jon Booth, Camille Chabrol, Edna Chan, Matthew Crawford, Louis Denizet, Jeff Derman, Alexia Jablonski, Andrew Komar, Rosanna Marmont, Tamkinat Mirza, Emma Mungall, Ian Murphy, Leon Mwotia, Nicole Pacampara, Nicolas Quiazua, Trevor Rajchgot, Nastasha Sartore, Alice Shen, Annie Shiel, Dan Smith, Colleen Stanton, Ariella Starkman, Meredith Toivanen, Sergey Tsynkevych, Juan Camillo Velasquez, John Watson, Matthew Watson, Stephanie WIlliams, Thomas Witte, Snow Monica Wright, Anqhi Zhang

The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the Daily Publications Society, an autonomous, not-for-profit organization whose membership includes all McGill undergraduates and most graduate students.

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318

Boris Shedov Letty Matteo Geneviève Robert Mathieu Ménard

advertising & general manager

sales representative ad layout & design

dps board of directors

Anabel Cossette Civitella, Marie Catherine Ducharme, Alyssa Favreau, Joseph Henry, Olivia Messer, Sheehan Moore, Joan Moses, Farid Muttalib, Mai Anh Tran-Ho, Aaron Vansintjan (chair [at] dailypublications.org)

The Daily is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian University Press.

All contents © 2012 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

In December, the Quebec Health Ministry released a proposal to create three supervised injection sites in Montreal. One of these sites was to be located in the Ville-Marie borough and operated by Cactus, a local not-for-profit organization that assists people who use intravenous drugs. Last week, however, Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay stated that he will not allow Cactus to operate this facility. Tremblay claimed that these facilities should be run through hospitals or health clinics instead of community organizations. The Daily finds the Mayor’s decision highly disconcerting.

While a health facility may seem like a natural location for a safe injection site, a site of this nature would be unlikely to achieve the same participation rate as a community based facility would, as the latter would likely be more accessible for individuals facing drug addictions. According to Cactus, 93 per cent of those who use intravenous drugs do not use the health-care system. In addition, some people who use intravenous drugs could feel uncomfortable entering a health facility because Quebec’s health insurance system would document the individual’s visit.

Cactus’ facility was partially based on the model of Insite, the highly effective supervised injection facility in Vancouver. Since 2003, Insite has operated in Vancouver’s downtown lower east side providing clean injection supplies and medical supervision to individuals with drug addictions. The facility creates a supervised space for addicted individuals to inject pre-obtained substances. In 2010, Insite averaged over 500 injections per day with 221 overdose interventions and over 5,000 referrals to drug rehabilitation programs. Insite has seen no drug related fatalities in nine years of operation. According to Anna Marie D’Angelo, Insite’s senior media relations officer, the facility would likely not have achieved these results without allowing visitors to be pseudonymous.

While Insite is partly operated by the Vancouver Coastal Health Organization, individuals’ visits are not documented by health insurance providers. This is the same plan Cactus’ facility would use. Given Insite’s success in Vancouver, Tremblay would be foolish to prevent the creation of a similar facility in Ville-Marie.

27