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News

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

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TAs to demonstrate at Roddick Gates today Teaching assistants demand better conditions as University stalls contract negotiations ERIN HALE The McGill Daily

F

ollowing stalled and unfruitful negotiations with the University, McGill’s Teaching Assistants (TAs) will demonstrate this evening at the Roddick Gates.

Since October, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), McGill’s TA union, has been unsuccessfully calling for better wages and working conditions from the University. Its contract expired in June.

The union has been walking on eggshells since the end of their contract, but according to AGSEM VP External Natalie Kouri-Towe, TAs have had enough.

“We’re getting tired, we’ve been negotiating so long, and we’ve been trying so hard to play nice,” KouriTowe said.

According to AGSEM President Salim Ali, the union’s most pressing demand is for higher salaries. At 2,000, TAs are the largest employed group on campus, but Ali claimed their salaries only amount to six per cent of the University’s budget.

AGSEM is requesting that McGill raise its TA salaries to at least the average among similar universities, such as the University of Toronto.

AGSEM hopes to negotiate a raise in TA salaries to meet the average of Canada’s anglophone G-13 schools, a group of the top Canadian research schools. McGill’s TAs make about $22.40 per hour – according to Ali, one of the lowest in the G-13.

However, some TAs – who asked to remain anonymous – did not support the union’s emphasis on wages over other grievances, such as workload and inconsistent contracts.

“Some TAs have decided that since money can be squeezed from the school it is righteous for them to do so,” one TA wrote in an email to The Daily.

Some noted that the number of hours they request at the start of a school year frequently does not correspond with the level of work that professors demand. Inconsistent work standards and grading policies throughout departments further challenge TAs, they said.

Others argued that given McGill’s deficit, it is important to allocate funding to areas with a greater need, like education services, libraries, and infrastructure repairs, and not TA salaries.

Salary debates aside, AGSEM says it is also protesting TAs’ lack of representation on McGill’s governing bodies. The administration has repeatedly denied the union’s requests for seats on the Board of Governors and Senate, the university’s governing bodies.

“We have a right to represent what we believe in,” Kouri-Towe said. “We want the University to recognize TAs as professionals.”

“TAs are the most up to date and advanced in their knowledge field....

Just because we’re [also] students

at the University doesn’t mean we deserve the same kind of working conditions,” she added.

AGSEM asserts that TAs will not strike, despite rumours circulating campus. But at its General Assembly in January, AGSEM members request-

ed increasing pressure tactics.

Negotiations for the union’s last formal agreement with the University endured for over two years and culminated in a strike in 2003.

“We don’t want it to be another two years like last time,” Kouri-Towe

said.

McGill administration representatives did not return multiple requests for comment.

AGSEM members are rallying today from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Roddick Gates.

Rebecca Wild for The McGill Daily

Kerri Westlake, a volunteer at the SSMU bike collective, now open in the Shatner basement, helps fix a flat tire.

Bike collective gets rolling this week LENDON EBBELS The McGill Daily

A

fter nearly a year of planning and several location changes, the SSMU bike collective opened its doors on Tuesday to a pack of students anxious to fix their rusty chains, flat tires, and dead brakes.

According to Sara Todd, U3 International Development Studies, people can bring their bicycles to the collective – located in room B02 in the Shatner basement – and learn how to do repairs themselves with help from volunteer mechanics on shift.

“It’s about demystifying the bicycle, taking it apart, knowing how it works, not being scared of it,” Todd said. “It’s really cool to find out how simple the machine really is.”

The modestly-sized room has plenty of shelving space, a sitting area, and three stands for mounting bikes for repairs.

Less than an hour after the col-

lective opened, all three stands were occupied and the room was bustling with volunteers and curious students stopping by. One student’s bike had been run over by a sidewalk snowplough.

Peter O’Connor, U3 Engineering, brought his bike in after his brakes and derailleur – the gear mechanism – had rusted over. Currently a member of Right to Move, a bike co-op on the Concordia campus that charges $20 a year for membership, O’Connor said he was excited to see another bike service downtown.

“There’s such a load of people using bike services, especially in the spring and summer – so it’s good to have an extra service,” O’Connor said.

“I’m freaking pumped. It’s great.”

Before the co-op moved into its current space next to Gert’s, which used to be the SSMU IT offices, SSMU Council and volunteers had considered the kitchen in the subbasement, used by Organic Campus, and room 103, now set to be occu-

pied by Liquid Nutrition.

The bike collective has an operating budget of $4,700 each year that is funded by part of the opt-outable SSMU Environmetnt Fee, to which students contribute $1.25 per semester. Other student services are paid for from SSMU’s regular clubs and services budget or from special fee levies.

The non-hierarchical bike collective strives to differentiate itself from other bike co-ops and shops, said volunteer Kerri Westlake.

“We really want to make the space safe and accessible. I feel like sometimes bike shops can be really intimidating, and we want to move away from that,” Westlake said.

Though some volunteers know more about bike mechanics than others, Westlake said it’s easy to learn how to make repairs. Neither she nor Todd were familiar with bicycle maintenance before becoming volunteers.

Several other volunteers who have experience working in shops

and co-ops, like Jeff McMahon, a six-month Right to Move volunteer, led workshops earlier this semester to train more inexperienced volunteers. McMahon also stressed that the collective encourages beginners to use the service.

“Anyone can come in and learn,” McMahon said.

The collective plans on holding more workshops for non-volunteers as well, though plans have not been finalized.

Students are asked to make donations when using the service, and McMahon encourages donating used parts as well. The bike collective is now open Tuesdays and Fridays, 4:30 to 9 p.m. It will be open during the summer as well, with hours to be announced.

Marcelle Kosman, current SSMU VP Clubs & Services, said she was excited the collective had finally opened, and said students were looking forward to more bike-friendly weather.

“This fucking weather won’t stop being winter,” Kosman said.

News

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

Students object to counsellor’s firing

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Civil-rights lawyer denounces SPP GENEVIEVE THEODORAKIS News Writer

VANESSA KORTEKASS News Writer

M

cGill Student Services’ abrupt firing of longtime mental health counsellor Eric Widdicombe last month left his students shocked and searching for explanations.

Human resources gave Widdicombe just two days to leave his four-year tenure at McGill after learning that he failed the oral French portion of a test required by l’Ordre des conseillers et conseillères d’orientation et des psychoéducateurs et psychoéducatrices du Québec (OCCOPPQ).

“I was shocked,” Widdicombe said.

“There was very little concern for the impact of my termination on the students I saw. I had to write a letter for my clients to explain what happened.”

In October 2007, Widdicombe was informed that, in order to continue working at McGill, he had to become a member of the OCCOPPQ. In addition to various academic qualifications and professional experience – covered by his Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology from McGill – he still had to pass a standard French test.

Student Services revoked all of his benefits pending his January 17 test results -- the first opportunity Widdicombe had to write the test.

“I felt like I was being punished for something that is out of my control,” Widdicombe said.

“I worked very hard with a tutor, spent a lot of time and energy on this, and I’m surprised they could just let me go with little regard for the students I would see. I never thought that this would play out.”

But Executive Director of Services for Students Jana Luker insisted that the requirements of the OCCOPPQ exist to protect students.

“We trust they know more about accrediting psychiatrists,” Luker said, although she acknowledged that the effect of Widdicombe’s firing on his clients was unfortunate.

“To stop care is not ideal at all,” she said.

Fifteen to 20 of Widdicombe’s former clients had to face the consequences of his firing, including U3 International Development Studies student Nikola Philibert, a longtime client of Widdicombe’s.

“I showed up to my weekly appointment and the receptionist just said, ‘He’s gone,’” Philibert said.

Upon learning of Widdicombe’s departure, Philibert sent a letter of complaint to McGill Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Morton Mendelson and Luker, calling on them to hire Widdicombe back.

In Philibert’s letter to Luker, she wrote, “I did not get the impression that you completely comprehended the importance of putting the needs of highly vulnerable young people above policy issues….I am urging you to reconsider your decision and take into account the actual student’s lives you have affected and the ramifications your policies have.”

T

he Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) has done nothing to improve national security since its introduction nearly three years ago, according to civil rights attorney Julius Grey who presented his talk, “Is the Security & Prosperity Partnership a threat to our democracy?” at Concordia Tuesday night.

Grey explained that under the SPP, the United States’ unwillingness to compromise with other governments denies Canada the ability to develop a foreign policy or immigration policy of its own.

“A three-way security system equates to a U.S. security system,” Grey said.

Grey described economist David Ricardo’s assumption that free trade will bring prosperity to participants as a “myth” and argued that the presence of a stronger power in the agreement will receive more benefits than the other trading partners.

“A whole lot of unnecessary hysteria is created by a third power that we cannot control, and there is small chance that the U.S. will change,” he said.

He insisted that free trade among members of the SPP has served only the most wealthy – those in the top one per cent – and provides little to no benefits to the rest of the population.

Grey also argued that North America is less secure today than it was in 2001, and even the 1980s, despite legislation like the United States’ Patriot Act that infringe on individual rights under the guise of improved national security.

“In moments of panic, people believe that there is increased

Kyle Valade / The McGill Daily

Julius Grey argues that only the wealthiest citizens benefit from free trade agreements. insecurity,” Grey said, evoking the Canadian government’s decision to relocate Canadian Japanese citizens during World War II. “People realized by the end of the war that this was not the proper way to handle the situation.”

Despite terrorist attacks that occurred in Canada, such as the Air India attacks in 1985, Canada did not suspend the right of habeas corpus.

Terrorist attacks have not increased, but Grey argued that Canada’s partnership with the U.S. has had increasing implications regarding Canadian security policies.

Grey also criticized the effect of free trade agreements on outsourced production of consumer

goods at the expense of both labourers and consumers.

“People assume that we are better off based on this basket of cheap consumer goods. How have our lives improved since the 1980s? Aside from improvements in medical care, we have slightly better photography; we can flirt online with random strangers; we have all these new gadgets that lack intrinsic value,” Grey said.

In order to mend the effects of consumerism, Grey advocated for a decrease in free trade and capital devoted to consumer goods and an increase in social programs such as education and health care.

“If we don’t adopt solid mar-

ket practices and stop cutting social programs, infrastructure projects and cultural programs for consumer goods, our living standards will decrease,” he said.

Grey explained that the U.S.’s deficit incurred by going to war has not helped its citizens. Its deficits based on social programs make for an educated and healthy population that is not resilient to difficult times.

“A deficit based on consumer goods makes the hard times impossible to get through,” he said.

Citizens in Action, an advocacy group dedicated to promoting education and political action, organized the talk.

University reform Examining McGill’s upper echelons

Principal clarifies administration-governance divide KELLY EBBELS The McGill Daily

A

t the March 5 meeting of Senate, Principal Heather Munroe-Blum publicly clarified her vision on the relationship between administration and governance at McGill.

In response to a question from SSMU VP University Affairs Adrian Angus, Munroe-Blum suggested that it was ultimately the administration’s responsibility to set strategic priorities for the University, and that the Board of Governors and Senate are responsible for “providing advice in relation to strategy.”

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she said, McGill demonstrated an “avant-garde” approach to gover-

nance, but fell behind other universities in developing an academic administration “that would define strategic direction and actively manage the University’s functions.

“These matters – both the strategic direction and day-to-day management – fell to our governing bodies and resulted in the fusion of governance and administration that I inherited in 2003,” she said.

Munroe-Blum said the University had undertaken the restructuring efforts of the Board of Governors and Senate as a way of more explicitly defining administration and governance.

“More broadly, Senate serves as a forum for engagement with members of Senate as representatives of the community on the heart of our mission as a University…provid[ing]

assistance and support to the senior administration in its management of the University, by acting as a sounding board and as a source of institutional memory,” she said.

In an interview after the Senate meeting, Angus said Munroe-Blum’s comments pointed to the increased corporatization of the University structure.

“University governance is always premised on the idea of collegiality. ‘Advice’ is not strong enough to mean collegiality,” Angus said. “My concern is that the modernization is bringing more corporatization.”

Later in the Senate meeting, tension crackled between some Senators and the administration over Senate restructuring, when the body was asked to approve a change to the powers of the Senate Subcommittee

on Courses and Teaching and Programs. The change would allow the chair of the subcommittee – an administrator, Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Morton Mendelson – to unilaterally approve all minor and moderate changes in degree programs.

At the meeting, Angus, all student senators, and several faculty senators, voted against the change.

It ultimately passed, with an amendment mandating the change be reviewed in three years.

“This is another example of a corporate system, where you have deciders and decision-makers.

Senate voted to streamline the process,” Angus said.

The full text of Munroe-Blum’s response can be found online at mcgilldaily.com.

News

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

CAMPUS EYE

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PGSS election candidates spar at sparsely-attended debates Post-graduates head to the polls today SARAH BABBAGE The McGill Daily

T

Nicholas Smith / The McGill Daily

SSMU VP Finance & Operations Imad Barake (right) and VP External Affairss Max Silverman (centre) dance in Leacock yesterday, trying to convince students to “vote or die.” A guy in a squirrel costume (left) decided to join in the fun, getting his groove on, along with other SSMU officials (not pictured). Elections McGill had a mobile polling station – a laptop with poll clerks – where students could easily cast their ballots between classes. However, when asked how many voted during the 10 minutes of getting down to the beats of dance music on low-quality speakers, a poll clerk responded “four.” Another poll clerk quickly corrected it to “three.”

– Nicholas Smith

Kelford reprimanded for electoral violations Elections McGill bans web site, allows new site, then bans it hours later JAMES ALBAUGH News Writer

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J Kelford narrowly missed disqualification from the SSMU Presidential race this week, after Elections McGill ruled that his web site, notanotherstudentpolitican.com, violated electoral regulations.

Under Elections McGill regulations, each presidential candidate cannot spend more than $150 on campaign materials, which the electoral body says Kelford did – a violation that could have resulted in the end of his run for president.

Elections McGill’s Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Corey Shefman started his investigation last Thursday after receiving a formal complaint from a source Shefman refused to disclose. He consulted four different web designers to determine his valuation of the web site, which was created by Johnson Fung, a current candidate for SSMU VP Clubs & Services.

“They all agreed it couldn’t have been done in under an hour and it couldn’t have been worth less than $100,” he said.

Since Kelford had already spent $70 on paper campaign materials, pushing his spending over the limit, Shefman ruled that the web site had to be taken down and that Kelford’s campaign was prohibited from spending more money.

Kelford’s campaign manager, Andrea Merlano, re-created the web site using a free version of Adobe Dreamweaver, a web design program. Shefman initially agreed to allow the new web site – but just a few hours later Kay Turner, current SSMU VP Internal and opposing SSMU Presidential candidate, lodged a formal appeal with Elections McGill.

Elections McGill then quickly reversed its decision to allow the new web site in a second ruling, barring Kelford from any web campaigning outside of Facebook.

“It is quite clear that the expected sanction to be applied when a candidate violates campaign funding rules...is disqualification,” stated the Elections McGill ruling that Turner posted in a “note” on her Facebook profile accessed by The Daily. The ruling was not posted on Election McGill’s web site or sent to students through the SSMU listserv, as it was private, according to the CRO.

“The nature of a decision like this is not a public one,” said Shefman in an email to The Daily. “It was issued to the person who lodged the appeal (Kay) and to the candidate (RJ). They were free to do with it as they see fit.”

The ruling obtained by The Daily will be available at mcgilldaily.com.

Even though Elections McGill stated that campaign funding violations usually result in disqualification, Kelford did not suffer such a fate.

“Elections McGill agreed unanimously that it would not be in the best interests of the democratic process for RJ to be disqualified,” the ruling continued.

Kelford disagreed with the ruling, saying it was ill-informed.

“Most of the people discussing this have little to no experience with web design at all,” he said.

Furthermore, he claimed that Shefman had not shown the actual code to any of the web designers he consulted, only relying on the appearance of the web site.

“Anyone can make a site that looks like that,” he argued.

Kelford said he believed the removal of his web site would not affect the results of the campaign.

“I think I can win regardless,” he said.

Turner was ill this week and not available for comment.

joining an effective provincial lobby,” said Kaats, who said he would push for membership with la Fédération étudiante universitqire du Québec (FEUQ).

Thomas said the PGSS already has a strong working relationship with FEUQ. She would like to maintain the PGSS’s membership in the Canadian Federation of Students and work on building coalitions with other groups at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels.

The night concluded with an introduction of the sole candidates running for the other positions. Eric Pollanen briefly introduced himself as the candidate for VP Finance and described himself as “a man of action and few words.”

He was asked about plans to create more of a community for graduate students at Macdonald Campus, and what he would do about the current health care plan, but had no response to either.

Alex DeGuise introduced himself as the candidate for VP University & Academic Affairs, and said he, too, wanted to get people more involved in the PGSS. “This is a research-intensive University and given that we are the ones doing the research, we have a lot of clout. But we haven’t represented ourselves or the University as well as we could have.”

The current PGSS President

he Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Annual General Meeting (AGM) last night at Thomson House met with lacklustre attendance and tame debate between candidates for next year’s executive.

The first to address the room of about 60 post-graduates were presidential candidates John Ashley Burgoyne and Roland Nassim. Burgoyne is the current VP University & Academic Affairs, and Nassim is the current VP External & Governmental Affairs.

All but two of next year’s positions – the President and the VP External – have been acclaimed.

Burgoyne and Nassim each acknowledged their similar platforms, while stressing a difference in focus and approach.

“Where we differ is focus,” Burgoyne said. He argued that PGSS needed to change the way the graduate student union presents itself to students.

“So many students don’t know the PGSS exists. I want to make it the first place students turn when they have a problem,” he said.

Nassim also said he wanted to work on better representing everyone in the PGSS, and introduced his plans to update the constitution, prepare five and 10-year plans for Thomson The Quebec student House, and lobby McGill for a waive of graduate movement is probably the most tuition fees. strong and powerful in the Both agreed that they country, and we are not taking would like to improve relations with SSMU and part at all. support the Association – Adrian Kaats of Graduate Students PGSS VP External & Governmental Affaiirs candidate Employed at McGill (AGSEM), the union of Amy Cox then introduced the PGSS Teaching Assistants.

The debate then moved on to Education Fund referendum questhe VP External and Governmental tion. The proposed fund would Affairs debate between Adrian distribute money that PGSS already Kaats and Melanee Thomas. The has in the form of $2,500 bursaries two disagreed over what levels of to 20 graduate students in finangovernment they should be lobby- cial need. The amount distributed ing: while Kaats favoured a Quebec would be matched by McGill.

Kaats brought up that the fund approach, Thomas argued for a fedhas been opposed by SSMU because eral focus.

“The Quebec student movement it sends the message to the govis probably the most strong and ernment that students are capable powerful in the country and we are of dealing with funding problems not taking part in it at all. I would themselves.

Despite this opposition, Cox said like to change that,” Kaats said.

Thomas pointed out that lobby- she was confident the motion will ing the federal government is more pass.

“It would be irresponsible of us lucrative because they have greater to withhold money we have, that we taxation ability.

“The bulk of my political experi- know we could be using to help our ence comes from Alberta, where I’ve membership, based on an ideologidealt with probably the [country’s] cal principle,” she said.

Much of the AGM’s agenda was most hostile government towards cut, as the meeting failed to reach social programs,” she said.

The candidates also disagreed quorum.

Voting began this morning and over lobby groups.

“We must strongly consider will continue until March 25.

“

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Features

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

Shots in the dark: travelling through the city at night

By Kyle Valade

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wo of the photographs were taken from the inside of an abandoned warehouse in Detroit. A man named Bobby gave us a tour and showed us how to avoid falling through the floor. Of course, this building is placed just outside the “classic Detroit skyline” that you would see on postcards and in magazines.

Heading out west, the underpass can be found in Seattle. But zoom out and head south half an hour down I-5 – depending on the traffic – and you have another picture: the freighters lined up on the water, with a boxy little building in the front.

East from there, about 30 hours down the I-90, you’ll eventually come to Chicago and the El, where the last shot was taken. Get onto I-94 and drive east four hours, and you’ll be back in Detroit – 10 hours from Montreal.

Clockwise from the top left: warehouse detail, Detroit; freighters, Tacoma; the El, Chicago; warehouse interior, Detroit; underpass, Seattle

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Features

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

So you want to be a

DAILY editor Y

ou’re a sharp young thing, a little bored in class and eager to spread your fledgling journalistic wings. What to do? Why, become an editor at The McGill Daily, of course! Because we hope you’re interested in joining the non-hierarchical team, here’s a handydandy guide to how to become a Daily editor, how the election process works, and what the different positions involve. This is intended only as a brief introduction, so to learn more email coordinating@mcgilldaily.com, or swing by our office (room B-24, in the Shatner basement) to talk to an editor.

the Basics

Where and When

Unlike most student newspapers, our editors are elected by Daily staff rather than hired by a committee. And to run for an editorial position, or to vote in the election, you must be Daily staff.

To be Daily staff, you must have written six articles, taken six photos, drawn six graphics, written two features, come in for six production nights, or some combination thereof. Even if you’re not staff yet, you’ve still got time before the election – email an editor to get involved.

The Daily requires all editorial candidates to submit a one-page application. It can be anything you want: your qualifications, why you’d be good at the job, or even a page of photography or artwork. Email your application to coordinating@mcgilldaily.com by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, March 28. Feel free to include samples of your work.

Any staffer who wants to vote in the election must attend the candidate rundown on Tuesday, April 1 at 5:00 p.m. in the Daily office (room B-24, in the Shatner building basement). There, each section’s outgoing editors will give an impartial outline of each candidate to the rest of the voters. You’re not allowed to hear what editors have to say about you or the other folks running against you, but don’t worry – nobody’s going to bash you. The idea is to give staff members who haven’t necessarily had a chance to meet each other the chance to learn more about each candidate.

Finally, the election itself will take place on Wednesday, April 2 at 5:00 p.m. in the Daily office. At the elections, each candidate is interviewed by an outgoing editor – talk to an editor to get a better idea of what you might be asked.

After each candidate for each position is interviewed, there’s a round of voting for that position. Results for all positions are announced at the very end.

the

Positions

Coordinating editor Coordinating News editor News editors (3) Commentary & Compendium editor Features editor Coordinating Culture editor Culture editors (2) Mind & Body editor Science + Technology editor Photo editor Graphics editor Production & Design editor

Meetings Maybe you’ve never been involved with The Daily before, but you’re interested in an editorial position. That’s cool – with a bit of effort, you can probably still become staff before the election. Start attending section meetings, where editors pitch assignments to contributors. The News team meets Mondays at 4:30 p.m. in the Shatner cafeteria; the Photo and Graphics folks meet Mondays at 5:30 p.m. in the Daily office; Culture meets Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. in the Daily office.

The other sections don’t have meetings, so if you’re interested in contributing to Commentary & Compendium, Features, Mind & Body, Science + Technology, or Production & Design, send the section editors an email (check mcgilldaily.com).

Helpful tips The best thing that you can do to get ready for an editorial position is to start coming into The Daily’s production nights. Every Wednesday and Friday, from mid-afternoon until the wee hours of the morning, we put this rag together in Shatner B-24. This is when we edit stories, draw graphics, lay out pages, discuss our editorials, and have a stressful-but-wholesome night of fun. Coming to at least a few production nights is an absolute must for anyone interested in an editorial position. Talk to an editor if you have any questions.

Attending Daily editorial board meetings is another necessity. Every Monday at 6:00 p.m., we meet in the QPIRG-McGill offices at 3647 University. At our edboard meetings, we plan out that week’s issues, reflect on past triumphs and failures, and discuss the newspaper’s direction. If you’re a staff member, you have full voting privileges, and we strongly encourage you to come along.

It’s also a good idea to sit down the editor currently occupying the position you’re interested in for a chat. Ask her about the position, any tips she has for getting prepared, and her suggestions for next year. Don’t be intimidated – our editors are mostly social outcasts anyway, imprisoned as they are in the Shatner basement’s windowless hell.

Noelani Eidse / The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

A user’s guide to shaping The Daily DPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

HYDE PARK

R

unning a referendum campaign takes a lot of time, energy, and money, but it has its perks: students have actually sat down to read through the constitution and bylaws of the Daily Publications Society (DPS) to figure out what is going on. We’ve even received some questions about the possibility of a student-initiated referendum as well as the legality of the referendum currently underway. With the DPS’s Annual General Assembly (AGM) just around the corner – and while we still have your attention – we’d like to take a few minutes to break down some of the institutional mechanisms of the DPS. First things first: the DPS constitution clearly states in article 16 (11e) that referenda “reducing or eliminating membership or fees” are inadmissable. So how is the current referendum even possible, if a No vote would end the DPS membership fee altogether? This referendum is a reaffirmation referendum – it explicitly asks if students will continue paying the fee rather than if they would like to end it. These sorts of questions are not listed as inadmissable by the constitution. What it requires is that any questions about the fee will have to explicitly include the reasons that the papers exist.

Who could bring a referendum forward? At present, only members of the DPS Board of Directors can do so directly, but student-initiated referenda with the same consequences as the current one are also made possible in article 16 (4). Six of the nine voting members of the Board are elected student representatives, who are obliged to act on behalf of any student requesting a referendum by presenting it to the Board. While it does allow

any student to initiate a referendum like the current one, the mechanism in place is certainly indirect: it doesn’t allow students to bring forward referenda without the Board’s majority vote. For this reason, board members are discussing amending the constitution at the next AGM to make direct student involvement easier and setting up clear mechanisms to do so.

Since this is still in the discussion stage, new ideas are more than welcome. The AGM is open to all DPS members – all undergraduate and graduate students – and in addition, Board members can be reached through the email address listed in the masthead of The Daily and Le Délit. This year’s AGM will vote in a new crop of student reps to the Board and likely consider some amendments to the constitution: you are more than welcome to attend, run for a director position, bring up questions and ideas, and vote.

We should mention that the AGM is not where decisions are made on editorial staff or the content of the papers, but if you are interested in shaping The Daily’s design, subject matter, or editorial stances, you can do at the level of the editorial board by becoming a staff member. Staff have voting rights equal to any editor, and all you need to become staff is contribute to the paper six times – to get started, email an editor or attend a weekly contributor’s meeting advertised in the paper.

As the semester draws to a close, both papers are looking to the DPS membership for new blood – people to take on editing and design, write stories and bring forward new ideas, and help shape the papers as an institution by sitting on the Board next year.

If there was ever a time to get involved, this is it.

You can reach the DPS Board of Directors at chair@dailypublications. org.

15 Admin to McGill First Aid: not in our name Commentary

MARK ABRAMS

HYDE PARK

Y

ou may have heard that the University administration is trying to control whether SSMU clubs and services can use the word “McGill” in their names. McGill claims that they don’t want people to confuse student-run groups with the University itself. Students, it seems, are not actually part of McGill. Silly us.

As Director of McGill First Aid Service (MFAS), I know that student use of the McGill name has been a concern for a while now. There are, however, some aspects of this issue that really get me going. One administrator, who shall remain nameless, has said that she didn’t want people to confuse MFAS with paramedics, or people with actual training.

To straighten this out: MFAS runs at a First Responder level. On every shift, we have at least one Canadian First Responder, trained by the Canadian Red Cross. Moreover, the minimum amount of training necessary to be on shift is Canadian Red Cross Standard First Aid and CPR-C. As far as training goes, I’d say we’re good. In fact, MFAS is bettertrained than McGill Security, medically speaking.

Now, I know exactly what the administration is thinking, and it’s the same excuse they’ve been using for years: liability. I’d like to put this to rest. Since we are a 100 per cent volunteer organization, trained to give the care that we do, we can’t be sued. According to the Civil Code of Quebec, Part 1471: “Where a person comes to the assistance of another person or, for an unselfish motive, disposes, free of charge, of property

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

for the benefit of another person, he is exempt from all liability for injury that may result from it, unless the injury is due to his intentional or gross fault.” Period. End of story.

It’s true that there’s always a possibility a volunteer will make a mistake. That is why MFAS has four-hour monthly training sessions where we review skills and treatments, as well as do monthly evaluations. Those who don’t pass their evaluations are taken off shift immediately until they pass that evaluation. McGill, we’re with you on this one, and we don’t want anyone messing up either.

However, in a worst-case scenario, we’re all protected as volunteers.

Moreover, SSMU is insured and, according to their Memorandum of Agreement with McGill, indemnify the University from any and all liability.

McGill, we at MFAS feel offended you don’t trust us. I can’t tell you

how many parents and students alike have come up to me at events like Discover McGill, residence move-in days, and so on, and thanked me for being there “just in case.” I feel personally insulted that you are giving MFAS and other groups such a difficult time trying to be a part of the McGill community. McGill has a motto, “Grandescunt aucta labore” – “By work, all things increase and grow.” Why won’t McGill stand behind this? No matter how much I, or anyone else, work to put this issue to rest, the only thing growing is my disrespect for a University community that actively excludes students. My question is this: if the tens of thousands of students (and their parents) we care for trust MFAS every day with their lives, why don’t you trust us with a name?

Mark Abrams is the Director of the McGill First Aid Service.

Manosij Majumdar floods The Daily letters section while editors hastily assemble ark

Letters Vote Yes for your sworn enemies Sirs, To my dear fellow sensible and pragmatic people on campus who think The Daily is a dirty pinko rag staffed by unwashed dreamyeyed hippies high on hashish (I was going to write say ‘hallucinogens’, but ‘hashish’ has more h’s and I’m an alliteration-addict) who wouldn’t know the real world if it chewed their toes off and deserve to die, die, die and send to a gulag so they know what baby-eating Christ-hating Communism’s really like... vote Yes for The Daily.

We need someone to bash and

love to hate, and if your idea of expressing your opposition to a newspaper’s ideals are to help shut it down, you need to check your principles. Daily, I may not agree with a word you say, but I’ll defend to a fee your right to 1 say it.

1 Voltaire, just in case the paraphrased plagiarism police get all perturbed.

Thanks, Manosij Majumdar U1 Chemical Engineering

A blatant violation of The Daily’s Letters Policy Sirs, Adam. Seth. Enos. Cainan.

Mahalaleel. Jared. Enoch. Methuselah.

Lamech. And Noah.

There, I said it.

Thanks, Manosij Majumdar U1 Chemical Engineering

Kevin Chambers for VP Re: “The Daily’s Endorsements 2008” | News | March 10, 2008 Sirs, I fail to see how you can so condescendingly dismiss Kevin Chambers as merely “amusing.” One does not need to be part of the SSMU Old Guard to be taken seriously, do they?

His organizational skills are proven, his ideas are sound, and he was the only candidate for VP Internal who said in his interview that the position should be apolitical. That is the most professional statement any of them made – far more professional than reciting the tiring trite of catchphrases like “mobilization,” “social justice,” “dynamic” et al. our other student politicians are so fond of repeating. We need an administrator in this job, not another Sound Bite Sam(antha).

If anyone deserves the URL of notanotherstudentpolitician.com in this election, it’s Kevin Chambers.

I’m not saying this because I think Irish people are cool, and I’m not saying this because engineers rule, but because Kevin’s the man for the job. And he’ll go without pants to prove it, too.

Thanks, Manosij Majumdar U1 Chemical Engineering

Auditor excitement audible pt. 1 Re: “The Daily’s Endorsements 2008” | News | March 10, 2008 I’d like to commend The Daily’s Yes endorsement of Chamberlain and Hodge as the SSMU’s auditors.

It is extremely important that students have a fair and unbiased view of their society’s finances, especially given the raft of corporate scandals that have taken place in the recent past. Thanks!

Aneerudha Borkotoky U3 Management

Auditor excitement audible pt. 2 Re: “The Daily’s Endorsements 2008” | News | March 10, 2008 I would like to thank The Daily for its strong endorsement of the referendum question for the nomination of SSMU’s auditors. It is imperative that students have an accurate, fair and complete view of their student society’s finances. Hopefully in the future, we will reach quorum at General Assemblies to pass this measure there. However, it is important that our finances are transparent and audits have been an integral part of this in the past and I pray that it will remain so.

Adrian Angus U3 Canadian History SSMU VP University Affairs

Mail epistles to letters@mcgilldaily. com from your McGill email account.

Keep letters to 300 words or less, please.

Culture

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

16

The Tammany Hall of the Montreal night?

Caitlin Manicom kicks off The Daily’s four part series on cultural tastemakers in the city with a look at the music scene

I

ncest is a dirty word in most contexts, but if we’re going to talk honestly about the way Montreal noisemaking works, it’s absolutely necessary. Questing for the key musical tastemakers of the city, I continuously came across the same individuals who have managed to get their talented paws into both the honey and the cream, from promotion to creation.

Daniel Seligman, for example, had a show at CKUT, managed Stars, runs Danagement – a publicity company for several local musicians – and founded Pop Montreal.

Like most people who make it their job to influence Montreal’s musical tastes, he ascended his throne through personal connections. He was, in fact, recommended to me by a man with similarly protean talents, Andre Guerette.

Guerette holds his own as one of Montreal’s most important show organizers, as well as exercising his creativity with his band, AIDS Wolf. As one-third of the influential label and booking organization Blue Skies Turn Black, Guerette is singlehandedly responsible for the company’s scouting and promotion endeavours in the city. He also organizes the monthly Mandatory Moustache nights that showcase obscure musicians who otherwise might not have their work heard.

A Mandatory Moustache virgin, I attended one of his shows – a comeback after an extended hiatus – for the first time last month. Held at Club Lambi, the line-up included electro madmen GHETTONUNS and thrash pop oddballs Think About Life.

A pay-as-you-can mandate ensures that Mandatory Moustache nights are always a success, with doors wide open to anyone with an interest in hearing something new.

Accessibility is of vital importance to Montreal tastemakers such as Guerette and Seligman because it draws musicians to the city.

“Montreal’s economic depression [up until the early nineties] fostered and nurtured a creative community,” states Kristiana Clemmens, a music coordinator at CKUT. Similarly, both Guerette and Olivier Lalande, Nightlife Magazine’s music editor, cite lax municipal laws and cheap housing as an attraction for artists of all kinds. Yet as neighbourhoods with thriving artistic communities such as Mile End and Griffintown undergo gentrification, one has to wonder: where will all the musicians go? For the time being at least, they’re continuing to make their presence heard loud and clear.

When asked which Montreal group he considers the most influential, Guerette modestly states that

intense interest and attention of musicians and promoters spurred the DJs’ need to innovate and create their own tracks,” states Thurston.

But he does offer that their “often hard, loud, and wild variations on dance floor hits...promote the late night habits of the hedonistic land of Montre-Hell.”

Don’t forget about indie pop

Caitlin Manicom / The McGill Daily

Mark James Murray (A.K.A. Merk Meny) spins at Blizzarts on Tuesdays. “suggesting AIDS Wolf would be weird,” and lists several less experimental acts. But he’s justified in suggesting that his band deserves recognition. Although they have received scathing reviews from the indie know-it-alls at Pitchfork, AIDS Wolf helped to introduce the nowprevalent noise and no-wave genres to Montreal.

“There was a time when we couldn’t even sell out Sala Rossa.

Four or five years ago, we were the one weird band,” claims Guerette.

Now, it seems that Montreal has new experimental and noise bands crawling out of the grungy woodwork every week; Thundrah, Les Georges Leningrads, CPC Gangbangs, Think About Life, and Cousins of Reggae are just a handful of the more widely-played acts.

Succumbing to peer pressure Liam Thurston, one half of the Cousins of Reggae duo, shifts seamlessly from Cousins’ aggressive noise – seemingly devoid of any cohesive beat – to the world of painstakingly beat-oriented Peer Pressure dance music.

In fact, no discussion of Montreal tastemakers would be complete without mentioning club culture.

Musical niches are consistently prone to fluctuation: most scenes strengthen, weaken, and then all but disappear. Although he wrinkles his nose in distaste, Nightlife’s

Lalande cites club culture as the promoted.”

As Peer Pressure has evolved one “scene” that has remained coninto something more than mere stant for the past three decades.

Several DJs, such as Ghislain “antics,” it’s become a central part Poirier, Megasoid, and Sixtoo, of Montreal music and its hedonistic who have played at every art-relat- underground. The parties thrown ed event I’ve attended this year, by DL Jones, Shay, and Melanie deserve mention. That said, it is showcase the talents of local DJs the Peer Pressure crew, founded affiliated with the Peer Pressure

by Thurston and DL Jones, who crew, namely Hatchmatik, A-Rock seem to collectively run Montreal’s glitzy, druglaced electro underThe concept of a scene is ground. totally artificial. When you talk According to Lalande, “The concept of a scene about a scene, you are talking is totally artificial. When about an accident. you talk about a scene, – Oliver Lalande you are talking about an accident,” he argues. But Music Editor, Nightlife Magazine for all their hipster-appeal and off-the-chart cool ratings – they have been omnipresent and Mark Meny, as well as inviting in The Mirror’s “Top 10s” for the Montreal acts that have made it last two years – Peer Pressure have big outside of the city, like We Are created a very real scene of their Wolves and Chromeo.

“Whether it’s electro, Baltimore own. Their widespread popularity and tight-knit community has noth- beats, or techno, the Peer Pressure boys play very high energy, hyper ing accidental about it.

Eloquent and thoughtful, music. Hands are always in the Thurston took the time to offer his air and the DJs don’t ever bring it reflections on Peer Pressure: “Peer down,” says Jonah Leslie, owner of Pressure as a pervasive vibe, name, Old Gold, the trendy boutique that and collective identity started as an outfits much of Peer Pressure and after-party circuit. We would rent their entourage.

Although frequently derided as friends’ lofts for a night, rent the sound equipment necessary to feed a scene characterized by excessive the bruised ears of our following, drug use and American Apparel and set up the bar that would keep lamé, Peer Pressure DJs do play them hydrated during the antics we an important, creative role. “The

“

Grandiose tones, falsetto voices, and the orchestral, epic melodies belonging to The Besnard Lakes bear little resemblance to the frenzy whipped up by dance-scene DJs. Still, one can’t deny the relevance of indie rock in a city known for acts like Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre, and Patrick Watson.

They’re cited by nearly every music promoter I interviewed as the most important noisemakers of 2008 for their most recent album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, which echoes and complicates Montreal’s staple indie darlings. Recorded with members of several local bands – Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Stars, et cetera – this album is a true amalgamation of Montreal sound. Again, it’s an indication of the incestuous nature of the musical community. Yet up to today, there seems to be no threat of tainted offspring; The Besnard Lakes have conserved their signature melodic sound despite the various influences at play.

In Daniel Seligman’s eyes, Montreal continues to be such a fertile music centre primarily because artists, no matter how successful, “reinvest in their communities and take pride in their city. Many of the bands that have achieved some degree of success stayed in Montreal.”

Drawn & Quarterly – Mile End’s resident graphic novel store – hosted a free show by the local Handsome Furs last weekend. As an eager crowd filled the crevices between book shelves and display tables, the small room reverberated with creative energy. A tiny girl, swaying precariously on her mother’s shoulders, clapped along with drum-machine beats and messy bass.

Squished between bodies, I suddenly understood exactly what Seligman meant.

No particular tastemaker or musician makes the loudest noise; while hierarchies are not totally obliterated, Montreal’s huge variety of music niches proves that choosing sounds is a job for performers, promoters, and audiences alike.

Keep reading The Daily for a look into the people behind the art, literature, and dance scene in Montreal.

Compendium!

The McGill Daily • Thursday, March 13, 2008

Lies, Half-truths, & Poppin’ wheelies

19

Tales on two wheels RUPERT COMMON

B

ike theft in Montreal is more rampant than leprosy in leper colonies. The man who sold me my first stolen bike explicitly told me that he robbed someone. He said that he stole it from somewhere near Atwater.

It’s a pretty sweet bike; it has dual suspension, which is great for jumping off curbs and rolling up next to artsy chicks that have baskets attached to their rides.Then again, I don’t really care to use my bike to do tricks; most people that mountain bike after age 15 have obscenely hair legs and like stickers way too much.

As it stands, my current bike is the second one that I have purchased through illegal means. The process is straightforward. A bikeless bi-ped walks the streets of Montreal and sees an unkempt fellow with a shiny bike. The unkempt man approaches the bikeless human and says something like, “Do you want this bike, man?” The person responds “Yeah dude, how much?” to which our street merchant replies, “$25.” The cheap student pauses, looks left to right, looks the man up and down, and thinks to himself “This bike is stolen, but I don’t care, so I should pay this man, pronto, then peace the scene and spray-paint the frame yellow.”

Upon buying the bike, I did not realize that I had entered a virulent cycle of theft. What I did realize was that I had just experienced my first trip to the “Black Market,” and felt pretty good about it. Contrary to popular belief, the “Black Market” is not a single place in which Sumerian clerks barter human lungs and hollow-

tips. You may be shocked to learn that the “Black Market” is actually a term applied to the world-wide underground economy of prohibited goods and services. Whatever though, I’m pretty sure there are Black Markets that roll through towns on Sundays and provide tax free goods at low, low prices.

Where else would I have bought that pukka shell necklace for my soul-mate?

A few months ago, karma caught up to me when a thief nabbed my roommate’s bike, along with the front wheel of my own bicycle.

I had also made the mistake of buying a helmet. I thought that I could justify my buying of the thing because “I didn’t care if I looked like a complete loser,” but it turns out that I do. The combination of the recent thefts and my unwearable helmet made me decide to give up the whole bike game.

Almighty Zeus had other plans for me. The very week I retired from cycling, a green bike appeared on the curb next to my house. Much like I would do to an abandoned child, I abducted the bike, and took off its wheel. With the help of my Al Borland-like roommate, I was back in action, rolling to school happily for the rest of fall.

Despite fate spinning me a wonderful polypropylene Tour De France shirt, the Montreal winter proved fatal for my bicycle, although it was not mangled into street-side modern art by ruthless snow removal machines, my bike became rusted and non-functioning from the snow. Once again, however, a nomadic street person approached me with a bargain, and within a week of my loss, I rode home on an even better bicycle.

Unfortunately, someone stole the

Duncan Stockwell Links / The McGill Daily

seat. Who steals a seat? The only explanation that I can think of is that they just want to smell it.

Known as “snarfing,” the act of smelling seats has its roots in the 1950s, when old-ass men would loiter around the local candy shoppe or swimming hole, only to inhale the butt odours from the warm seats of young lasses.

After the disheartening experience of losing my seat, I was forced to ride without one. I was initially okay with this – standing up when you ride looks doper anyways – but my quads would get sore, and one time I sat down and was nearly perforated. Not wanting to sustain any lasting damage to my anal tissue, I took the seat from my old, ruined bike, and replaced the one now being

smelled. I then partook in some theft of my own. This involved robbing my ex-roommate’s stolen bike – now being stored at my apartment – of its gel cover, which makes sitting down much more pleasurable. I placed this cushy accessory onto my new bike with dual suspension. All was fine, until my stolen seat cover got stolen. Coincidentally, the theft occurred while me and the gang were playing some baseball in the sandlot and drinking soda pops.

I couldn’t quite see, but a shady looking gentleman seemed to be freebasing something in the dark recesses of a nearby alley. My gut tells me he was snarfing.

Just the other night, I was walking up Milton Street with some friends and a man offered to sell

CAMPUS EYE Condiments

Middle-class college students pose as urban gang members to promote on-campus democracy.

us a bike. Although he claimed that he “did not steal it,” we all knew that he did. Upon our refusal, he offered us an empty McGill backpack. It was the kind that kids in Engineering buy at the bookstore, you know, with special pouches for floppy discs and chess pieces.

Walking home alone with my new backpack, I witnessed a girl riding her bike through campus in the early hours of the morning. Upon making a left turn, she signaled with her hand. No traffic was around, and I was the sole spectator. At first I was like, “What a square,” but then I remembered that I often practice signaling, just so that when the time comes I can be confident. So I guess it’s not a big deal.

Mariel Capanna / The McGill Daily