vol98iss1

Volume 98, Issue 1

September 2, 2008

McGill

DAILY e id u G n io t a t n ie r o is D y il a D

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Daily editorial elections September 16.

Visit mcgilldaily.com/blog/1010 for info, or email coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

News

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Fire alarm prevents MUNACA strike vote

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McGill security denies hundreds of workers access to meeting, workers blame administration Jennifer Markowitz The McGill Daily

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fire alarm in Leacock Thursday afternoon postponed a special General Assembly called by McGill’s union of non-academic workers, preventing the vote to approve a strike that was expected to begin today.

The McGill University NonAcademic Certified Association (MUNACA) executive asked its members to evaluate the University’s most recent contract proposal. If rejected, the staff were then prepared to vote to give the executive the authority to strike or to use other pressure tactics if an alternative agreement with the University was not reached before September 1.

MUNACA, or McGill’s largest nonacademic staff union and represents about 1,800 library workers, technicians, nurses, and clerical workers, has been negotiating a new contract with the University since December.

McGill security guards barred at least 100 MUNACA members from entering Leacock 132 – filled to its 682 person capacity – in accordance with fire codes.

The meeting began late after an overwhelming vote to proceed with the agenda, despite the absence of those denied access to the room, most of whom were from Macdonald Campus, and had arrived late on a shuttle.

Members inside the meeting said that the executive had hardly introduced the University’s proposal before the fire alarm sounded, forcing an evacuation.

Huddled in the Leacock lobby, many blocked from entering resented that they would not be able to vote. Others members assured them that the executive was planning to integrate all members’ ballots into the strike vote.

According to Jamie Troini, a MUNACA member who sits on the union’s Mac-Council, a group of McGill security officers were waiting outside Leacock 132 “from the get-go.” Many speculated that the security guards’ presence was an administrative tactic meant to delay the meeting and prevent the union from reaching a strike vote.

The loss of ballots from shutout members was not expected to impact the outcome of the vote on the University’s proposal. MUNACA needed 500 votes to reach quorum on the proposal largely assumed to be rejected.

“It’s not exactly a generous offer to say the least,” Troini said of the contract proposal.

In public bulletins, the MUNACA executive said they compromised with the University on most non-monetary issues, but were still dissatisfied with the University’s offers on salary, summer Fridays, shift premiums, and employment security. Prior to the assembly, they had

Troini appeases shut out MUNACA members urged members to reject it.

Troini, who had climbed one of the benches lining the Leacock lobby, was trying to appease the group of denied workers as the alarm sounded, converting their complaints into cheers and laughs.

Security members pushed people outdoors. MUNACA members speculated that the fire alarm was “a big joke,” calling the situation hilarious.

“It makes sense that someone pulled the fire alarm,” one said.

“It was triggered on purpose, before

the voting occurred,” said another, who suggested someone affiliated with the administration was responsible for the interruption. “[The administration] has done everything in their power to prevent this vote,” she added.

Outside, MUNACA president Maria Ruocco officially postponed the meeting, assuring members that the executive would search for a larger room when they rescheduled. She cited orientation activities for first-year students as one of the reasons preventing the union from book-

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

ing adequate space.

“We will regroup and do what we have to do,” Ruocco announced, promising to send an email that afternoon with a rescheduled meeting date.

The crowd responded with an applause, but many remained suspicious, concerned that MUNACA would still be unable to find space large enough to accommodate all its members.

Others were disappointed and thought that the impact of their strike would be weakened by postponing it.

Students find shady jobs through CAPS Max Halparin

The McGill Daily

N News brief Put this in your pipe

Local dépanneurs are finding creative ways to meet the Quebec government’s requirement that as of May 31 vendors had to conceal cigarette packages in stores, with fines of up to $2,000 for a first offence.

Imperial Tobacco offered free installation of shelving to product retailers, but refused to offer Harri Kuldip, owner of Ventura’s dépanneur at the corner of Duluth and Clark, the service because the shop did not sell a high enough volume of the company’s products.

Instead Kuldip used foam core covers

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

as an alternative to metal shelving - saving more than $2,000. Montreal artist Jason Cantoro installed a silkscreen poster on the covers as part of his Cinqunquatre poster project.

With a $12,000 grant from the Quebec government, Cantoro has been placing posters in public spaces around the city since January.

“I don’t own it anymore; once it’s on the street, it’s everyone’s,” he said. “Art is often all about money – you have to buy, buy, buy, but I think it’s important to give people things for free.”

Cantoro considers the installation in Ventura’s dépanneur his finest piece so far, and likes how the icon of the barking dog works in the dépanneur setting.

“The German shepherd is there to protect [the dépanneur] from robbers.

That’s the idea anyway,” he said.

-Shannon Kiely

ine McGill students were abruptly fired after working two weeks of a summer telemarketing job at Downshire Capital, a Montreal financial company that used McGill’s Career & Placement Services (CAPS) web site to advertise for the positions in June.

The mass dismissal was triggered after a few employees, including McGill Law I student Kate Searle, asked for a simple written contract from Downshire Capital owner Dan Ryan. By that point, several promised paydays had come and gone without fruition.

“I just wanted something in writing, so I came with a contract, and [Ryan] was happy to sign something,” Searle said. Yet while Searle was still in the office, Ryan’s wife happened to phone and ask – over speakerphone – whether Ryan had “fired everyone yet.”

Searle notified other employees and later that day three other students, including Ilana Lowes, a recent McGill Humanistic Studies graduate, also asked for signed contracts.

“The next day, they fired the three of us, saying it was because of the contracts,” Lowes said. “The wife just laid into us about the contracts, basically threatening us – saying, ‘So sue us.’”

When the students returned the following day to collect their wages, they

were told to leave and that the cheques would arrive in the mail – which never happened. They instead received their wages in several ways, some in cash at the Second Cup at the intersection of Parc and Milton, some in personal cheques at various street corners along Ste. Catherine, and some received nothing until more than a month after being fired.

Further, Lowes, Searle, and other students who asked to remain anonymous, explained that students faced continual difficulties extracting their $15 per hour wages – such as receiving verbal abuse on the phone or email, and having to repeatedly phone their bosses to set up a payment time – only for these times to be canceled. “[Your boss] should be calling you to give us our pay, not the other way around,” said a U2 Science student and former employee who asked to remain anonymous.

Downshire Capital hired the students for a summer project after it partnered with another local company, TelTeck Solutions. Students said an outside representative came to the Downshire offices to tell them about a TelTeck product that monitored vending machine sales or hydro meters.

The students said they were told to make calls to a list of investors and banks from “Momentum Investor Relations on behalf of Telteck Solutions,” to inform the customers about the technology and the TelTeck stock – which trades on the

Pink Sheets, meaning it is not listed on major stock exchanges – and to doublecheck or record their email addresses.

Lowes and four other McGill students met with CAPS Director Gregg Blachford to voice their concerns.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation.

Businesses out there are shady, but we can’t monitor every single business,” Blachford said, adding that at first glance the job postings did not raise any concerns for CAPS. In retrospect, he said, they seemed strange due to their vague description and relatively high pay for working in a call centre.

Blachford said that CAPS must maintain a balance between increasing job opportunities for students and avoiding placing them in difficult work situations.

He added that each year, CAPS learns of fewer than five instances similar to these students’ experience.

All students who were interviewed explained that the job interview was extremely informal, and was more of a recruitment session. Students also complained of interacting with a series of bosses and managers, some of whom seemed not to know each other.

“We all had suspicions and knew something was off, but the money was good and they seemed like really nice people – other than the wife, she was vile,” Lowes said.

Downshire Capital and Telteck Solutions did not respond to The Daily’s request for an interview.

Making Connections

WELCOME STUDENTS!

Peoples Church of Montreal

A Family Church for 70 Years in the Heart of Montreal A member of the Associated Gospel Churches Pastors Rev. Frank Humphrey, Ph.D. Rev. Bryan Guinness, M.A. Peter Cooney, Ministry Director Philip Penalosa, Youth Intern

To Know Christ and Make Him Known

Weekly Student Activities and “The Alpha Program” Two Morning Services: 9:30 am and 11:05 am every Sunday, and Bible Studies; Evening Service 6:30 pm.

Sunday, September 7

A Welcome Lunch after the 11:05 am morning service Monthly Sunday Lunches with video series and discussion.

Weds.: CGEP, University Students and Young Adults group from 7 pm to 9 pm.

Weds., Thurs., Fri.: Cell group Bible Studies in different locations.

Thursday: Alpha (Finding out more about the Christian Faith) from 6 pm to 9 pm.

Opportunity to Teach Sunday School and Participate in Worship.

Corner of Union & Sherbrooke W.

2 blocks east of the McGill gates on Sherbrooke St. across from Faculty of Music/Pollock Hall

Telephone: (514) 845-9834 www.peopleschurchofmontreal.org email: peopleschurch@bellnet.ca

STUDENT INFORMATION The Scholarships and Student Aid Office will offer the Work Study Program for 2008/2009 with funds from the University and the McGill Alumni Association, grants from the Quebec Minister of Education, and contributions from the Arts and Science Undergraduate Societies.

What is Work Study?

McGill’s Work Study Program offers part-time, on-campus job opportunities to full-time degree students who demonstrate financial need. Eligible employers benefit from subsidized labour costs when Work Study students are hired.

How do I apply?

Applications can be submitted online through the Financial Aid Menu on MINERVA. For complete program details, please consult the Work Study website at: www.is.mcgill.ca/studentaid/workstudy.

mcgilldaily.com

Work Study Program

News

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Café Supreme to pump big money into Shatner 103 Restaurant renovations will extend into adjacent student lounge

Shannon Kiely

The McGill Daily

C

afé Supreme’s promise to renovate Shatner room 103 factored into SSMU decision last April to sign with the franchise.

The café committed to spend $390,000 plus tax in renovations to the floor, walls, kitchen, and counter in room 103 in the tender proposal obtained by The Daily.

“Improvement of student space is very important to SSMU, and renovations were very much a part of their proposal,” SSMU President Kay Turner said.

Café Supreme – a commercial franchise with over 100 locations across Canada and the Middle East ­– beat other proposals from commercial franchises and student-run café initiatives in a contentious 13-12 vote during the last 20072008 Council meeting, which lasted until nearly four in the morning.

While this year’s SSMU executive said it plans to follow through with last year’s Council decision to sign with Café Supreme, but lengthy rent negotiations are delaying the changeover until January.

SSMU VP Finance & Operations Tobias Silverstein was excited about Café Supreme’s plans for major design overhauls in Shatner 103.

“They want to create student space that is available and designed for students...somewhere inviting where students can meet and do group work,” he said.

About eight per cent of Café Supreme’s total start-up costs are allocated to improve SSMU’s adjoining student lounge.

Café Supreme also offered SSMU $5,000 annually in coffee and catering for events like Frosh and Activities Night in exchange for brand visibility.

Café Supreme Marketing Manager Aisha Al-Khabyyr said she hopes that the franchise will meet expectations of students looking for both affordable and ecologically and socially responsible food, noting the café will use ceramic plates and recyclable take-out containers and sell fair-trade coffee.

“We consider our food high quality and high end, but we keep our prices below what other cafés are charging for lower quality product,” she said. Café Supreme will try to adapt prices to fit student budgets, by offering combos with only half a sandwich to keep the price down, she added.

Faykil Ben, who managed the food outlet as a Caferama franchise, will run it without the Caferama branding until Café Supreme takes over and starts renovations in mid-December.

Caferama franchisee to lose restaurant Shannon Kiely

The McGill Daily

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aferama manager Faykil Ben will be left jobless come January when coffee giant, Café Supreme, moves into room 103 in the Shatner building.

Ben will loose the $400,000 he invested into the restaurant and its space when Café Supreme takes over for renovations in December.

“I put all my money into this place.

I’ll be on the street with my two kids and wife,” he said.

Fed up with serving sandwiches and salads under Caferama’s flag, Ben approached Café Supreme – along with Presse Café and Amir – in the hopes of better matching Shatner 103 food services to students’ tastes.

Ben, who informed Café Supreme president John Essaris about SSMU’s call for tenders for the space last March, claimed that his participation in discussions leading to Café Supreme’s bid should have been enough to secure him the position as franchisee for the new tenant.

But Café Supreme, now in the final

stages of negotiation with SSMU, is neither considering Ben as a potential franchisee, nor offering him any compensation for the takeover.

“We had no obligation to consider to consider Ben as the franchisee,” said Essaris. “We got tender status independently.”

Ben accused Essaris of taking advantage of his advice during the application process. “[Essaris] is making me lose everything,” Ben said. “[He] won’t even answer my phone calls anymore. We used to talk everyday, but now he just wants to get rid of me,” Ben added.

Ben claimed he suggested that Essaris introduce hot meals on the Café Supreme menu, one of the innovations that the company proposed on its tender application to McGill.

Although Ben has rented the space from SSMU for four years as the Caferama franchisee, he said that he felt uncomfortable approaching SSMU councillors about his situation.

“I am a grown man and I don’t want to talk to students. I’d rather suffer my problems on my own.”

Students rack up new perks in the game room at 515 Ste. Catherine.

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Camille Mcouat for The McGill Daily

New New Rez at 515 Ste. Catherine McGill shuffles waitlisted first years to new luxury accommodations at the last minute

Kelly Ebbels

The McGill Daily

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n excess of first-year students requesting space in McGill’s residences drove the school to lease four floors of a downtown luxury student housing unit this fall.

Located three blocks from McGill at 515 Ste. Catherine O., the eponymous apartment building rents exclusively to university students in Montreal. It holds 440 fully-furnished rooms in units of three to five bedrooms, and features a gym facility, games room, and small movie theatre.

“It’s pretty much like Solin Hall, but if IKEA constructed the building,” said Julia Hubbard, U0 Arts and the founder of a Facebook group for residents of the new building. Solin Hall is an off-campus residence in St. Henri with a similar structure to 515 Ste. Catherine.

“It doesn’t feel like you go back to rez; it feels like going home to your own brand-new apartment,” Hubbard added.

McGill’s residence system guarantees housing to all first-year students who request it, but each year dozens are put on a temporary housing list while stu-

dents with secured beds accept or decline McGill’s residence offers. This spring the temporary list grew to about 200 students, forcing McGill to look for new housing arrangements, explained Janice Johnson, director of the Student Housing Office.

“I could have rented 100 or 200 apartments scattered around Montreal, but that wouldn’t have been the same experience for the students,” Johnson said. “We were lucky 515 was available to us.”

The McGill lease solves both the school’s last-minute space crunch and 515 Ste. Catherine’s ongoing difficulty with finding occupants; the building had been scheduled to open in fall 2007, but had been plagued with renovation complications, delaying the opening until this school year and leaving many rooms vacant.

The management of 515 Ste. Catherine approached the McGill market early in its development seeking collaboration and advertising opportunities at the school.

Alice Leduc, property manager of the building, said that she had anticipated the over-spills from McGill residences would likely fill the building.

“There is a good demand here in Montreal, but there aren’t that many places students can go,” Leduc said.

515 Ste. Catherine is run by Terracorp/ Aubon Real Estate, a development company that operates several other condominium and student-friendly apartment complexes in southern Ontario.

The building’s residents are largely from McGill, but also comprise students from Concordia, Université du Montreal,

Université du Québec à Montréal, and Lasalle College.

Students renting through McGill will pay $850 a month, $50 more than the building’s other residents. The extra fee pays for access to Floor Fellows, a Hall Director, and the residence council system that exists at all McGill residences.

The residence will be characterized as a MORE House under McGill’s student housing system, though it is not geographically close to the other groupliving buildings in the MORE system on des Pins.

Students on the temporary housing list may be forced in their first month of occupancy to share a single room two or three ways. Since wait-listed students were offered a space at 515 Ste. Catherine in early August, students placed in other residences have also opted to switch into the new building.

But the hasty arrangement and scramble to complete construction has left several loose ends. The 11th floor remains unfilled, and several floors still lack Internet, window curtains, lighting fixtures, and postboxes. The movie theatre remains out of order.

Some say that McGill should have anticipated the space problems earlier, so that the school would not be forced into high-pressure decisions about its student residences.

“It’s ridiculous that the University seems so ill-prepared to deal with its residences,” said Roland Lindala-Haumont, U2 Political Science and Canadian Studies and a Frosh leader of some 515 Ste. Catherine residents.

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News

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Federal candidates face-off in by-election When Liberal Lucienne Robillard resigned as the Westmount—Ville-Marie Member of Parliament after 13 years, the riding prepared for a by-election to find a replacement. Now, the by-election may be preempted if hints dropped by senior Conservatives that Steven Harper will call for a general election in the coming weeks prove true. Whether a preview of a local or national race, The Daily sat down with three of the eight candidates in what could be the first competitive election in this riding in 20 years.

Liberal

NDP

Green

Marc Garneau, who was expected to take the Vaudreuil—Soulanges riding in the 2006 Federal election, is back in the race for a seat in Ottawa. As Canada’s first astronaut in space, he is a strong supporter of research and innovation in science and technology. Joining him at the interview was noted orator and former Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff, now Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.

Anne Lagace-Dowson, with 20 years experience as a CBC, went off the air this summer when she turned to politics. A huge advocate of funding for the Arts and Information Technology, she’s been vocal against the recent Conservative budget cuts.

Claude Genest, one of the 200 Canadians selected for Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth lecture tour, is running in what he calls the greenest riding in the province. As the Deputy Leader of his party, he is hoping to capitalize on the largest campaign budget in his party’s history in Quebec.

McGill Daily: How do you think federal government funding is equipping universities and what would you do to change the funding structure?

Anne Legacé-Dowson: We’re seeing encroaching privatization on campuses...as a result of inadequate funding, which isn’t keeping with academic freedom. Programs have been reduced to the point that people who probably should be going to college and university aren’t able to.

McGill Daily: This riding has been Liberal for a very long time. Why do you feel it’s the Green Party’s turn to be in power?

Claude Genest: The other parties are not actually green. We have an unsustainable system...running on non-renewable resources. So if we’ve agreed that we must change, why aren’t we changing just as fast as we possibly can? The obvious answer is you can’t because you’re in bed with the corporations that are going to be threatened by these changes.

MD: How do you feel that inadequate attention to the arts needs to be addressed?

ALD: It’s so short-sighted that it boggles the mind. The cuts that Harper made to the arts two weeks ago, shows he doesn’t really understand how culture is generated. It’s generated at the base, then larger, more established institutions observe what’s going on at the base, they feed on that, and then they generate all kinds of income. An NDP government is completely supportive of the arts and of universities in this area.

MD: How is the Green Party going to put into action their policy for a greener environment?

CG: The way you affect change is carrots and sticks, incentives and disincentives, in order for it to work, and that’s why you get carbon tax and cap-and-trade.

McGill Daily: In the 2008 budget, the Government of Canada declared its intention not to renew the Canadian Millenium Scholarship Foundation.

Marc Garneau: The Conservatives are going to replace it by another plan which is comparable, because they recognize it would be a huge outcry if they did.

Michael Ignatieff: We need to make sure that Millennium Scholarship Funds are replaced with equivalent funding, not just some poor substitute. You look at aboriginal post-secondary education, and it’s not terrific. There are some immigrant communities where access to higher education is a barrier partly for cultural reasons, partly for psychological reasons. You get the grades, you get to go. That’s number one.

MD: Do you believe it’s important to allocate a lot of funding toward science and technology as opposed to other areas – not just at McGill, but in the economy as a whole?

MG: There’s some pretty good evidence to show that if you favour all areas of research in the country, the increase in knowledge has a benefit for the entire country. So we believe very strongly in continuing to do it.

We want to not depend necessarily on our natural resources, but focus on our brains.

MD: Why do you feel that it’s your party’s role specifically to ensure innovation in science and technology, not just in Montreal but in Canada?

MG: The Organization for Economic Development ranks Canada 13th in the world in innovation. Now, we’d like to be in the top five by touching on more than just research in sciences and technology, but also working with industry. University researchers are really good at doing research, but they’re not necessarily good at starting companies.

MD: Why do you feel that the Liberals Green Shift program for carbon trading will work better than the NDP’s cap-and-trade system?

MG: Well, the Liberals are also going to have a cap-and-trade system, and it’s a good model because it addresses the 500 or 700 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the country. We’re talking about coal generating stations, cement factories, refineries. The thing about the Green Shift plan is that it involves all Canadians. We’re going to give back the money from the carbon tax in form of credits for research and technology development. So we should have the motivation to develop the technologies that will allow us to reduce our greenhouse gases.

MD: Why do you see the NDP’s environmental plan for a cap-and-trade system as superior in theory to the Liberal’s carbon tax approach?

ALD: The cap-and-trade approach would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by putting ceilings on what’s allowed. Anybody who exceeds that ceiling has to pay fines and buy credits from those companies that don’t pollute, so it’s a kind-of carbon exchange.

[The carbon tax] is inefficient because it basically gives you a licence to pollute. If you’re prepared to pay the fines, you can continue to pollute. There’s no attempt to bring down greenhouse gas emissions.

MD: Canada doesn’t seem to have a clearly fixed end-date in Afghanistan. In light of the fact of a rising death toll of Candian soldiers, Canadian aid workers, and thousands of Afghans, how do you think the Canadian mission in Afghanistan needs to respond?

ALD: We need to be focusing on bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan through humanitarian intervention, not extending the military intervention. The only way to resolve these kinds of conflicts is to get people to sit down and talk. We’ve spent millions of dollars on military equipment that makes Canada into something new: a military intervener. This is not a role that Canadians want or are comfortable with.

MD: Do you feel that the proposed end-date of 2011 for the Canadian mission in Afghanistan is actually going to be an end-date?

ALG: I think we need to be getting out of there sooner. It’s a doomed mission.

MD: How do you feel the provincial and federal funding programs are equipping universities? What would you do to modify the funding provided?

CG: We do not want students starting their careers saddled with all these debts. We’re looking at a 50 per cent reduction in student loans right off the bat. That’s exactly the type of way to use this windfall we’re going to get from carbon tax. It’s essential we equip the universities to become the entrepreneurs and innovators for the new eco-century.

MD: The Canadian mission in Afghanistan has an unclear policy and a movable end date.

CG: Here’s our policy: no blood for oil. Everybody’s talking about how to extricate ourselves from Afghanistan. Nobody’s really talking about why we’re there in the first place. Okay, there’s a humanitarian component, I read the Kite Runner, I know what goes on there. Because we’re stuck in it, stick it out until 2011 and then gradually pull out.

MD: What would the Green Party envision for the future of Montreal’s economy?

CG: Everyone’s oblivious to all this wealth under our noses. If we would just stop wasting it. Pollution causes disease, and disease costs money. So every little action we take to benefit the environment has immediate and beneficial repercussions on the economy through health.

MD: What does the Green Party plan to do to further develop public transportation in this riding?

CG: Underneath the asphalt all over this town, three inches down are tram car tracks. We have hydro-electricity. Why isn’t the public transportation in this town running on electricity?

– all interviews compiled by Ali Withers

How to mark your X

Canadian citizens over 18 whose “ordinary residence” is in Westmount—Ville-Marie continuously from August 6 to September 8 may vote in the by-election. “Ordinary residence” is the place that is a person’s “dwelling place, and to which the person intends to return when away from it.” Students may choose whether their ordinary residence is the place they are living at while attending school, or the place they are living at while not attending school, such has their family’s address.

Eligible voters can register to vote and cast their ballot at the office of the returning officer, on the 10th floor of the Scotia Tower at Sherbrooke and McTavish, until 6 p.m. today. After 6 p.m. today, voting and registration can only take place at your polling station on polling day. Check your mail to find the voter information card or go to www.elections.ca to find out where to vote on polling day.

Wrecked

Daily Disorientation Guide

Get oriented To the freshly shipwrecked outsider, the geographical arrangement of Montreal’s indigenous peoples may seem mysterious and intimidating. Let this be your guide.

Wrecked

daily disorientation

McGill St Joseph’s Oratory Mount Royal

Montreal North

Old Port

A predominantly residential area where project housing isn’t far removed from blocks of luxury condos. The police shooting of Freddy Villanueva last month and the riot that ensued recently threw the neighborhood into the spotlight.

Little Italy

Don’t go to Little Italy only for homemade pasta and canoli ­– the neighbourhood will delight you for a lot longer than it takes to scarf down the two and a slice of portobello pizza. Little Italy is the only place in the city where you can find novelties like a thriving fig tree and a fresco painting of Mussolini. The portrait of the fascist leader is in the church of Our Lady of Defense on Dante Street. Nursed through the winter in the basement of its loving caretakers, the fig tree is by the Jean Talon Market, Montreal’s most vibrant outdoor grocery store.

Over the last 15 years, the presence of Italian vendors at the market has decreased, making room for Arabic, Indian, French, and Moroccan stalls.

St. Henri

A neighbourhood on the brink of gentrification.

Since rent is cheap, the area is rife with students and artists, but its rough charm stays front and center – even if there’s now organic, vegetarian food offered in the area.

Catch a live show at the Corona Theater (2190 Notre Dame O.), where the stunning interior often rivals the performance. The Corona’s exquisitely painted walls and ceilings make it easy to imagine its days as a silent movie theater in the early 1900s.

Westmount

The City of Westmount is an affluent neighbourhood where the mansions soar almost as high as the grocery prices. Find pretty boutiques selling fierce eyewear and Venice Beach-worthy swimsuits on Sherbrooke O. between Claremont and Victoria. The stretch is also home to Montreal’s only Ugg boutique. The city’s wellgroomed park, library, and conservatory are well worth devoting an afternoon to.

West Island

When you fly out of the Dorval airport, take a look at the amount of backyard pools marking the landscape.

This is suburbia.

MacDonald Campus students should stay west long enough to grab an after-school pint at Annie’s (76 St. Anne), a classic suburban bar in St. Anne de Bellevue.

Notre Dame de Grace Notre Dame de Grace, also called NDG, is one of Montreal’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, with residents from across Asia, Italy, and the West Indies.

Sherbrooke West makes the competition between a Tae Kwon Do gym and a Yoga studio look harmonious.

You can smell the Ponki doughnuts baking at Polish Boulangerie Wawel from the Indian restaurants serving daal down the street.

Further south, Italian grandparents proudly tend to fruit trees and vegetable gardens on side streets off of industrial St. Jacques and Upper Lachine. Scenes from the 2006 Quebec film Bon Cop Bad Cop were filmed at one of the many motels that line the strip, where you can rent a room for an hour. Or more.

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

daily disorientation

Wrecked

Castaway cuisine Roasted jungle rat and coconut milk just not cutting it anymore? Well, if you’re looking for some new culinary experiences to wash that memory out of your taste buds, you’re in luck....

Café Santropol

Shaika Café

Romados

3990 St. Urbain

5526 Sherbrooke O.

101 Rachel E.

Relax on one of Montreal’s prettiest garden terraces with a giant sandwich in one hand and a cup of fair-trade coffee in the other. Delicious homemade cream cheeses feature prominently in almost every sandwich. The triple deckers will probably be more than you can handle, but you won’t find it hard to linger in this comfortable, funky cafe.

Sandwiches named after the surrounding side streets are stuffed with homemade hummus and veggie pate, roast turkey and asiago cheese. Free live music plays on weekend nights and local artists can also showcase their talent.

Loyal patrons line up for grilled Portuguese chicken covered in Piri Piri and served with fries and salad. It’s always crowded and with only a handful of window side tables, you’ll have to hold strong if you want a seat. Their lesser-known custard tarts – called pastéis de nata – are worth getting really, really fat for. Call in advance to pre-order and skip the line.

Khyber Pass

La Selva

Yuukai

Posters of Afghan landscapes and traditional costumes adorn the walls of this colorful restaurant, where heaping portions of lamb and beef steeped in Afghan seasoning come piping hot out of the kitchen. Vegetarians should start with pumpkin borani and then hunker down with a beautiful plate of eggplant, cauliflower, and spinach.

A Peruvian couple dishes out a $15 table d’ hôte of their national cuisine at this cozy restaurant. The starter salad comes complete with corn and avocado, and the trout is grilled with a special crisp salty topping. Delicious.

Creative offerings like the maki rolls filled with scallop tartar, or sushi pizza served on a crunchy rice patty, make splurging on a good bottle of sake to wash them down worth it. A back room, which accommodates 16 at a massive wood table, is perfect for a parties.

La Paryse

Pains de L’Inde

Chez Doval

302 Ontario E.

2027 St. Laurent

150 Rue Marie-Anne E.

Funked-up diner decor and friendly service make this burger joint the perfect place to pass a cold Montreal afternoon.

The three vegetarian options they offer almost upstage traditional juicy beef burgers. The poutine’s worth a try.

Arguably one of the best Indian spots in town, the small space is comfortably packed most weekend nights. Although the few-frills interior is nothing special, if good food to share with good company is what you’re after, you’ve found an affordable niche to settle into. Their vegetarian and meat thalis are the most succulent samplers on offer, and a good bang for your buck.

Servings of authentic Portugese grilled fish and chicken are made complete by a Fado singer and gruff waiters. But beware, smoke from the indoor brick grill could cloud the view of your neighbouring tables.

6 Duluth E.

5658 Parc

862 Marie-Anne E.

Apportez Votre Vin Bid adieu to overpriced wine lists and hit up the SAQ on your way to these restaurants.

La Louisiane

Le P’tit Plateau

5850 Sherbrooke 0.

330 Marie-Anne St. E.

Lunch Much? The best places to refuel midday.

The Cajun kick runs through every dish on the menu – even the breadbasket comes complete with spicy cornbread muffins.

Sip a mint julep to take the edge off firecracker shrimp and dinosaur beef ribs. If you’re feeling adventurous, order the deep fried alligator.

This higher-end BYO-wine bistro sets the bar for creative accompaniments to beautifully cooked meats and fish. Save it for when you’re ready to splurge, for or when your parents come to visit.

Dinner Hour Even if you can’t afford the wine list, the food at these restaurants makes sobriety taste oh so good.

EDITORS’ PICK

Chez José 173 Duluth E.

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

Cram into this itsy-bitsy restaurant with other die-hard fans – if you can find a spot – and drool over Chez José famous seafood stew, or pick from gazpacho, empanadas, omelettes, and homemade pastries instead. You can’t miss the electric blue leopard print exterior and pink mannequin legs hanging off the upstairs balcony. It’s easier to land real estate on the sidewalk terrace if you’re a party of two or three, so choose you dinner companions wisely.

Get yer grog

Wrecked

daily disorientation

Yo ho ho... Everyone likes to relax on the poop with a bottle o’ rum now and then. So here are some of the best places around Montreal to take a break from hauling lines.

EDITORS’ PICK

Miami

3831 St. Laurent A real dive: Miami is small, shady, probably home to Norway rats, and, oh yeah, awesome. It is the inevitable final destination for any McGill-Daily-related social gathering. If you’ve had a few, their disproportionately heavy pint glasses make you feel like your beer is bottomless, and the bizarre collection of knick-knacks above the bar just keeps getting more interesting. Plus, pool is free on weeknights, and the friendly owner has been known to give his female clientele complimentary “Miami Promotional Drinks.” Also, the back room of the bar is a dubiously legal smoking room (think of it as a terrace with a roof), so nicotine-fiends should take note.

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

Blue Dog Motel

Thomson House

345 Mont-Royal E.

3598 St. Laurent

3650 McTavish

Steal a seat by the open window to watch the world flow by on Mont Royal. Order mojitos or pick from a variety of beers on tap. Small circular tables let you get intimate with your drinking mates, under the watchful eyes of mounted ostrich heads. For real.

This sea-blue addition to the St. Laurent barhopping circuit opened last spring. A killer soundsystem and a free keg on Sunday nights sweeten the deal, but the real appeal is its close proximity to other St-Lo mainstays Blizzarts and Korova.

A short walk up MacTavish, the grad building Thomson House is a more like a pub than a bar, offering a full menu and a warm atmosphere. A good place to study or talk with a friend over a pint. But, if you’re an undergraduate, you can’t just sail in, be sure to bring a grad student along.

Cock ‘n’ Bull

Dieu du Ciel

Green Room & Main Hall

1944 Ste. Catherine O.

29 Laurier O.

5390 St. Laurent

Furl your sails and pull into this cove for Arts and crafts Mondays, bingo Tuesdays, karaoke Wednesdays, and cheap beer. A favourite of Solinites!

One of Montreal’s finest brasseries, Dieu offers a fleet of outlandishly-flavoured beer; must-haves include the Elixer Celeste and the Rigor Mortis. And for the daredevil in you: there’s one that tastes a like a juicy strip of bacon, but we’ll leave it for a surprise find.

The Green Room has a bar at the bow, and a comfortably intimate dance space at the stern. And there’s no cover. Expect to see dolled-up hipsters and awkward shufflers dancing sideby-side. It’s conveniently located below Main Hall, a former concert space that now holds its own all-you-can-dance parties, like Faggity Ass Fridays, which benefits Head & Hands’ peer-based sex education program.

Foufounes Electriques

Else’s

Korova

87 Ste. Catherine E.

156 Roy E.

3908 St. Laurent

Long-time wave-maker in the city’s punk scene, Foufounes reliably plays solid pop punk and hosts shows as well. They tout a burger joint too, which is worth the trip alone. Thursday nights offer an unbeatable $5 cover that includes four beers and a coat check.

A fine anchorage with a serious whiskey menu, delicious hot cider, and a smoky, relaxed ambience. The tunes ain’t bad either. The catch? Else’s license requires patrons to buy food.

Its makeover gave it a “so hip it hurts” vibe, but Korova is still a great place to get drunk and get on down with your bad self. The various theme nights – a different mix of music types each night of the week – give Korova a bit of something for almost every taste.

Blizzarts

Upstairs

Peel Pub

3956A St. Laurent

1254 McKay

1196 Peel

Do you study the Vice “Do’s” with scholarly intensity, love Justice, and split your allowance between cocaine and American Apparel? Then Blizzarts is the bar for you.

Less bar, more jazz club, but their ‘Jam Sessions” Mondays tend to be a good time if you’re into drifting with the current, or just want a change. And there’s hookah to boot.

Guys, seriously, just stop going here. If you absolutely have to make out with a froshie, hike up to rez.

Bily Kun

daily disorientation

Arrrrt!

Wrecked

Marooned on the island, Montreal natives and castaways alike often find themselves seized by creative impulses. Those recently washed ashore can appreciate the city’s vibrant collection of paintings, photos, and installation pieces at the following spots across town.

EDITORS’ PICK

Belgo Building 372 Ste. Catherine O.

Belgo is an inconspicuous office building on Ste. Cat’s, about a block from the Musée d’Art Contemporain, but inside is a whole ‘nother story. Home to more private galleries than you can count on your hands, Belgo is surprisingly open to having non-buyers visit. Some notable favourites are Skol and Optica. Make sure to check gallery times though, their schedules mostly work on some art world logic that we’re not in on just yet.

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

Gallerie Gora

Parisian Laundry

279 Sherbrooke O.

3550 St. Antoine O.

4296 St. Laurent

So conveniently close to McGill, Gora exhibits a variety of contemporary art forms, from painting to photography to video and installation. Stop by the second floor gallery for a good starting point on your artistic tour of Montreal.

Though the grandeur of the space has the potential to overwhelm the artworks, Parisian Laundry’s artistic director Jeanie Riddle has struck a balance between the two. The space boasts three levels – including “the bunker” – and showcases mostly large, cutting-edge artworks from hot artists. The walk from the Atwater Metro is worth it. Plus, you can explore St. Henri while you’re in the ‘hood.

Created in 1973 as female-friendly space for the “[discussion of] the difficulties related to exhibiting their work in a professional context,” this gallery often boasts some of the art scene’s most daring exhibitions.

The Museums

Le Cagibi

Vav

5490 St. Laurent

1395 Rene-Levesque O.

Le Cagibi is one of Montreal’s most beloved cafés, located in an old pharmacy and crammed with mismatched vintage furniture. Adding to its charm is the constantly rotating display of local art adorning the walls of the back room.

Concordia’s mostly undergrad, student-run visual arts display. It’s the gallery McGill students wish we had.

The biggies are the Musée des Beaux Arts and the Musée d’Art Contemporain. The former has an extensive – and free – permanent collection, though its more pricey visiting shows tend to over shadow it. The MAC is free on Wednesday nights, while the Beaux Arts is half price. What are you waiting for?

Tunes and tomes Cheap Thrills Forgot to pack adequate reading material before you set out on the high seas? Agonizing over which CDs you’d bring if you were stranded on a desert island? You’re in luck – Montreal is full of hidden gems to satisfy all your reading and listening needs.

La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly

2044 Metcalfe

211 Bernard O.

A small store full of personality at the top of a crooked purple staircase, Cheap Thrills offers CDs and records – both new and used – concert tickets, and a small, quality selection of used books.

Attached to the Montreal-based graphic novels press of the same name, this colourful boutique offers all kinds of beautifully bound visual treats. There’s also an additional choice selection of “traditional” novels and books, from classics to new fiction from local publishers. The store also hosts creative workshops and concerts.

The Word

Le Point Vert

S.W. Welch

469 Milton

4040 St. Laurent

225 St. Viateur O.

This hole-in-the-wall has been a fixture in the McGill Ghetto since 1975, and boasts an excellent selection of poetry, literature, and classics. For generations of McGill students, this place has felt like home. Also check for used textbooks around the start of term.

Feeling lost at sea? With magazines and newspapers from all over the world, Le Point Vert will get you oriented and informed in no time – or at least entertained.

This bookstore may not be on the Main anymore, but it’s still got the same relaxed, browser-friendly atmosphere. Plus, now you can grab a bagel once literature has tired you out.

Atom Heart

Inbeat Records

364-B Sherbrooke E.

3814 St. Laurent

A small boutique down Sherbrooke with a friendly staff and a collection of new CDs covering the indie/alternative/ electronic rock side of the music world. Also check here for concert tickets.

A shiny store right on St. Laurent, Inbeat carries vinyls and new CDs featuring hip-hop, house, and disco classics.

Librairie Michel Fortin

L’Échange

3714 St. Denis

713 Mont-Royal E. & 3694 St. Denis

Whether you’re longing to communicate with the natives, or plotting an escape to far-away places, Michel Fortin specializes in books for learning languages.

The various locations around the city sell used CDs in addition to a larger stock of francophone books.

Looking for books in French? You can get them used in a number of stores all along St. Denis between Laurier and Sherbrooke. Also drop by the Librairie Henri-Julien (4800 Henri-Julien); crammed ceilingto-floor with books, this place is full of interesting finds.

Shanty time!

You will soon find that even Montreal natives can be affected by their secluded island lifestyle. Thankfully, long-time inhabitants have discovered a myriad of ways to expend energy and avert cabin fever (not to mention boredom, the silent killer). One method popular among youths is to attend large musical gatherings. Sneaking yourself into these other-worldly jamborees may at first seem a daunting task. Island-dwellers covering themselves in skin-tight pants and other dirty, colourful apparel will indicate the way. If you maintain safe distance, they will eventually lead you to musical performances – “shows” or “gigs” in the local vernacular. Bear in mind that while different music genres have their own rituals and strict unwritten codes, most locals will be open and welcoming. Below are some of Montreal’s most frequented concert halls.

Those looking to appreciate some of the world’s most famous troubadours and revel in the energy of the hordes should look for four of the city’s larger venues: Métropolis (59 Ste. Catherine E.), Club Soda (59 Ste. Catherine E.), Le National (1220 Ste. Catherine E.), and La Tulipe (4530 Papineau). Less conventional “independent” bards often perform at smaller-scale locations along Montreal’s main artery, the cryptically-named Main. Locations include the Green Room (5386 St. Laurent), Sala Rossa (4848 St. Laurent), Casa del Popollo (4873 St. Laurent), and Club Lambi (4465 St. Laurent).

The diminutive and mostly francophone Divan Orange (4234 St. Laurent) is also a well-known spot.

If you’re looking into something more specialized, there are plenty of niche-oriented locales around. Upstairs (1254 Mackay) and Dièse Onze (4115A St. Denis) dependably feature jazz performances, while at the other end of the spectrum, L’Escogriffe (4467 St. Denis) and the second-floor dungeon Zoobizarre (6388 St. Hubert) pander to Montreal’s punks. Islanders are also known to flock to free Sunday bluegrass shows at Barfly (4062 St. Laurent), as well as the little-known but legendary hillbilly night at Wheel Club (3373 Cavendish).

The aspiring insider, however, would best head to some of the city’s intimate loft spaces, where young locals not only live, but often create art and perform music. Friendship Cove (215 Murray) is a fixture in the south of Montreal island, while new hotspot lab.synthèse (435 Beaubien O.) occupies more northerly territory.

There’s nothing quite like unintentionally stumbling upon an exciting show, but if you want to find out about performances ahead of time, make sure to scout out The Montreal Mirror (also online at montrealmirror.com/listings/music.html), as well as montrealshows. com, blueskiesturnblack.com and casadelpopollo.com. Now go on and shake that island fever out of your system.

Cinema Banque Scotia 977 Ste. Catherine O.

Wrecked

EDITORS’ PICK

daily disorientation

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

A little bit of down time at Casa del Popolo.

A cinematic escape Do you identify with Tom Hanks in Castaway? Or is Titanic more your bag? Maybe the old Swiss Family Robinson series really gets you? Well, here are a few choice places to rent these gems of the shipwreck genre. Or maybe you can catch a ‘wrecked flick in theaters – let’s face it, the theme never gets old.

Cinema du Parc

AMC Forum

3575 Parc

2313 Ste. Catherine O.

The theatre formerly known as Paramount, this massive downtown multiplex, is where to go when you want the latest blockbusters on the biggest screens. Tickets are $5 on Tuesdays, but buy early - they sell out quickly.

This is the place for semi-independent films, including foreign movies and documentaries. It’s dingy and comfortable, has student rates, and if nothing else, Cinema du Parc offers a welcome relief from shitty corporate mega-theatres.

Like its sprawling, multi-theatre layout, AMC offers a diverse range of films, from Hollywood blockbusters to less mainstream titles. If you have time to kill on a weekend morning and feel like spending it in a dark room, AMC has early matinees for much lower ticket prices.

Francophone cinema

National Film Board of Canada

Le Boîte Noir

1564 St. Denis

4450 St. Denis & 380 Laurier O.

For the latest in Quebecois and francophone cinema, Ex-Centris (3536 St. Laurent) or Cinematheque Quebecoise (355 de Maisonneuve E.) are your best bets. Many of the movies they screen also have English subtitles. If you’re looking to catch major Hollywood titles with French subtitles or dubbing, there are also plenty of major cinemas across the city that are sure to satisfy your needs.

From the latest in animation to divergent documentaries, the NFB aims to promote all the greatness of Canadian film.

For an alternative to flaky Hollywood blockbusters, check out their listings to see what’s making waves in the Canadian film industry. You can also visit their Cine Robotheque (303 de Maisonneuve E.), where a giant robotic arm dips into the archives and plays your movie picks through personal viewing stations at the unbeatable price of $3 for two hours.

The only video rental place we’ve seen that shelves movies according to auteur theory. An initial membership fee will give you access to the store’s enormous and diverse rental collection.

This place means business. When you open a membership, be sure to bring proof of your Quebec residency, like a lease or a Hydro-Québec bill. La Boite Noire also offers a convenient movie delivery service.

Movieland

Redpath Library

3575 Parc

3459 McTavish

Theaters Sometimes you just can’t beat the big screen.

Alphabetizing seems to be beyond this mediocre movie rental store. The movies are grouped by category only, and the selection is so-so. But hey, it’s close to rez.

Though you’ll probably forget about it more often than not, the McGill Library has a not-too-shabby movie catalogue.

You can take out movies for free at the Redpath loans desk, but watch out for the 5-cents-per-minute late fee. That’s where they get you.

Rentals If going out in public just isn’t for you tonight.

daily disorientation

Reclaiming your booty

Wrecked

McGill may be the real pirates when it comes to your bank account, but follow this treasure map, and you could dig up a doubloon or two.

Used books

Thrift shops

Groceries

To reduce the cost of books each semester, buy worn-in volumes. The McGill Bookstore (3420 McTavish) and the Word (469 Milton) offer a selection of used textbooks. This means that they buy books back from students, too. Also, for many required readings, check out other used bookstores around town. See our section on books and music for a few places to start exploring. For the ultra-frugal scholar, all course materials are also on reserve at the library.

Avoid over-priced vintage fripperies and antique stores and score deals on clothes, furniture, home accessories and more at thrift stores. The Salvation Army (1620 Notre Dame O.) and Fripe-Prix (7250 St. Laurent) have even lower prices than Value Village.

Segal’s (4001 St. Laurent) has some of the best deals in town and offers a free delivery service. Marche Lobo (3509 Parc) has a wide selection of quality fruits and veggies at remarkable prices. Also, the Quebec outlet grocery store chain Super C has a reputation for super cheap prices; one is conveniently located only blocks from Solin Hall at 147 Atwater.

Yard sales

Dollar stores

Textbook rebate

While the weather’s still nice check out some of the many yard sales around town. If you’re not seeing flyers and balloons in your neighbourhood, check cragislist.ca for ads.

From hangers to temporary tattoos, Dollarama (5642 Parc) and Maison Dollar (4089 St. Laurent) have pretty much everything you could want for a dollar!

When tax season comes around next April, remember that full-time Canadian students can receive an $80 tax rebate – a small compensation for the amount you’ll spend on books.

Research studies

Opt-outs

Freebies

If you need some spare dough and don’t have time for a consistent job, pop some pills or operate a robotic arm in a wellrewarded research study. Browse through classifieds at mcgill. ca/classified and check the Employment/Services heading to see which studies you are eligible for.

You can choose to opt-out of either SSMU health or dental care if you’re already covered under another plan. Visit aseq. com during the change of coverage period – September 17 to October 1 – and follow the instructions for the $186.40 fee to be credited to your student account. If you choose to reclaim the $19 McGill Student Fund fee, which goes towards the libraries and the Shatner building, visit room 1203 of the Brown Building.

For absolutely free finds check out the “free” section of craiglist.org; your neighbours’ stoops for unwanted furniture, dishes, appliances, clothes, and more; and dumpster dive for the cheapest eats: check out wikihow.com/dumpster-dive for tips.

Textbook-trawling Now that you’ve washed ashore, you might as well learn something – say, from a textbook. You can buy them here:

Haven Books

The Word

Paragraphe

2074 Aylmer

469 Milton

2220 McGill College

This SSMU-owned bookstore is a good place to find used textbooks, but the prices are set by the students selling them, which means that your savings depend on your peers. Haven has had some problems, too. Despite SSMU’s efforts last year, the store doesn’t carry many new textbooks or course packs.

Still, it’s certainly worth a visit. You never know.

Small and cramped, but a superb independent bookstore to buy or sell used textbooks and other good reads. Near the beginning of each term, they kindly post a list of in stock texts to help you decide whether you need to throw down your anchor and step in.

A larger independent bookstore that sells new books, often at better prices than the McGill Bookstore. Some profs will order required course books here instead. It also has a decent selection of magazines.

The McGill Bookstore

Online

Libraries

3420 McTavish

This behemoth carries the latest edition of every book and course pack you need, but its prices are about as convenient as those 20-foot waves crashing down on your poopdeck. Think of it as a necessary evil – the majority of your course materials will probably be waiting for you here. If you need a break from the madhouse that is the bi-annual textbook rush, head to the bookstore, the café, or the computer store on the second floor, which offers good prices with noticeable student discounts.

That new internet thing The Gutenberg Project (gutenberg.org) catalogs books in the public domain and offers free e-books of works published before 1923 in their original language. Amazon, eBay, and other online bookstores may offer good prices, but be wary of shipping costs, especially if they’re coming from the U.S. For a quicker, more local way to save some cash, look on the McGill classifieds (mcgill.ca/classified). They’re bursting with students looking to get rid of their old course material, and when you meet up to make the exchange, you might even get some free advice about the class.

Here, there, and everywhere If a book is required reading for a class, it should be on reserve at the appropriate library. Find out which one at mcgill. ca/library. If you want to save money or only need to read a small portion of the book, renting them for a short while – often about two to three hours – is a good option.

g n i g a l l i p t o n , s Paper

Wrecked

daily disorientation

Few stories of people marooned on islands end well. Robinson Crusoe had his run-in with cannibals and Tom Hanks wound up talking to a volleyball. When you find yourself swimming in a sea of notes and readings this year, you may feel like you’re stranded on an island, like Robinson and Tom. And, well… you are. But if you switch up study locales when cramming, you may be able to stave off the insanity and cannibalism that can accompany with solitary island life.

Birks Reading Room & Islamic Studies Library

McLennan-Redpath Complex

Marvin Duchow Music Library

3520 University; 3485 McTavish

3459 McTavish

527 Sherbrooke O., third floor

Natural light? Stained glass? Hardwood floors? Texts on every estoteric religious topic imaginable? How divine! As a bonus, the librarian at Birks runs a tight ship and provides a well-stocked jar of Werther’s Originals for overworked students.

Need a break from all that sunshine and fresh air on lower campus? Set sail for the McLennan-Redpath Complex! Breezy and sunny it isn’t, but the McLennan-Redpath Complex is the spot for 24-hour studying during exams, borrowing movies from the reserves desk, and accessing the internet via one of the dozens of computers in the Cyberthèque.

Quick. You’re stranded on a desert island. What album could you not live without? Thankfully, you didn’t need to choose because this island is home to the MDM Library, where you can borrow and burn all the CDs you need. But burning CDs is illegal, so maybe you should just take advantage of Duchow’s extended hours during exams and get some work done.

Schulich Library of Science & Engineering

Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec

Concordia University EV Building

809 Sherbrooke O.

475 de Maisonneuve E.

A quiet spot with 24-hour access during exams, Schulich is the perfect place to get some late-night studying done.

Exposed brick gives the place an extra dash of je ne sais quoi, and on one of your breaks, you can sweet talk an Engineering kid into building you a coconut helicopter that’ll have you off this island come Thanksgiving.

Finding McGill’s libraries a little overcrowded during exams? Jump ship and drift on down to the BANQ. At 33,000 square metres, the BANQ is home to databases of book, periodicals, maps, CDs, and the largest French-language collection in North America. Most importantly, it’s quiet, filled with natural light, and connects directly to Berri-UQAM Metro.

Caféo

Other cafés

Montreal is rife with cafés and coffee shops, but the folks at Caféo seem to have blended music, comfortable seating, friendly staff, and tasty food into a cramming oasis. And when your readings are done, there’s beer on tap.

You’re never far from a café in Montreal, but if you need some hints to get started, there are some treasures that stand out in this sea of caffeine. For starters, try out Café Pi (4127 St. Laurent), Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent), Café Noir (44 Mont-Royal E.), and Café Olimpico (124 St. Viateur O.).

And of course, if the sleep deprivation that often comes with student life leaves you unable to walk anywhere east of Parc, the 24-hour Second Cup (3498 Parc) and Tim Hortons (674 Sherbrooke O.) are always close by. Good luck, and sucks to your ass-mar.

4177 St. Denis

CKUT Radio

1455 de Maisonneuve O. Pay a neighbourly visit to those folks in the west. The 11th floor crow’s nest of Concordia’s EV Building provides couches, food, and some seriously stunning views of Montreal.

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

Straight from the parrot ’s mouth The McGill Tribune

North, east, west, south – they’re directions, sure, but they also stand for what you’ll be interested in around campus and Montreal. That’s right, the news!

You can get the good local stuff in print, on the radio, on TV, or online.

3674 University

Shatner 110

This student-community radio station broadcasts its strong signal at 90.3FM and online at ckut.ca. Tune in for great music you’ve likely never heard before, and a plethora of shows tackling culture, politics, and news – like the popular show Off the Hour, weekdays at 5 p.m.

The Tribune is SSMU’s official newspaper (for now), and provides the latest on campus news and culture every Monday.

It’s also the only place to get your undergraduate sports writing fix. Their office has windows.

TV McGill

The McGill Daily

Shatner B-23

Shatner B-24

McGill’s only student-run television and film production wizards offer up their goods mostly online. Log on for favourites like Cooking While Drunk and the SSMU election coverage. Check them out at tvmcgill.com.

The Daily began as a daily sports rag in 1911 and has prevailed to this day as the only independent student newspaper on campus. After winning a life-or-death referendum last year, The Daily will continue to publish its politically and culturally progressive paper every Monday and Thursday. Oh, and our office in the Shatner basement has no windows. So now you know, come visit!

As the artsy Arts publication, Steps offers poetry, short fiction, magazine-style journalism, photography, and art, Praxis leans toward the radical-politics side of the ship with short essays and comment pieces. If the Red Herring still exists in physical form this year, you can find their quasi-offensive humour mag on a stand near you or at redherring.com.

McGill Reporter

Le Délit

Local press

The Daily’s French sister publication brings you its take on Quebec politics, the student movement, and Montreal culture every Tuesday. It shares the same dank, windowless space as its English sibling.

The National Post, Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Le Devoir, La Presse, and other big names are always around. For the business class’s perspective, turn to any of these reliably national corporate daily papers. Be sure to check out the especially raunchy accounts of student protests in the local conservative favourite, The Gazoo.

Shatner B-24 If you need to restore your faith in the overall greatness of McGill’s admin, pick up this Alumni-sponsored propaganda rag every other Thursday. The Reporter specializes in puff pieces about McGill policy planning, academic research, and soft-as-soft-serve-ice cream interviews with McGill personel.

Steps, Praxis, Red Herring

daily disorientation

Wrecked

The powerful

Principal Munroe-Blum Captain of the McGill galleon, Heather Munroe-Blum is working on bringing money to the school. A big fan of publicprivate partnerships and philanthropic donations, our figurehead still has a couple hundred million to raise for her baby, Campaign McGill. Don’t expect her to be jumping ship anytime soon – she was recently reappointed for a second fouryear term.

A group of privateers rule ship McGill with an iron hook. They have a taste for evicting groups from campus spaces, unilaterally hiking student fees, and restricting campus protest.

Provost Masi Anthony Masi has a whole lot of power; as Provost, he’s First Mate to boss HMB, he’s the man behind McGill’s budget, and he helps shape the University’s academic priorities.

That’s awesome, if you think the helmsman should set the course he steers.

Deputy Provost Mendelson As the University’s first Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning), Morton Mendelson’s purpose is to mend “student life” concerns. He meddles with the mess of red tape impeding student life on campus – room bookings, the use of “McGill” in club names, and residence life.

BoG and Senate The Board of Governors is the University’s highest governing body. The corporation-dominated group includes only two student voices and is infamous for holding closed meetings.

Professors, administrators, and student politicians sit on the Senate – the body responsible for making all the big decisions concerning our campus lives.

Mutinies and storms These issues are sure to wake you in your sailors’ hammock. And maybe send you running for your rum ration.

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

Campaign McGill

University control

General Assemblies

The ambitious $750-million capital campaign launched last year has surpassed its halfway mark, but we’re still waiting for over $200-million from private interest groups to wash up on McGill’s shores. With the majority of funds allocated to attracting top faculty and graduate students, undergrads can only hope some of the big bucks will flow their way.

For a while now, McGill has been taking the wind from the sails of almost much everything on campus that students could characterize as “fun”: outdoor events, indoor events, stagings of naval battles, events with alcohol, events without alcohol, and any group or club that uses “McGill” in its name.

But hey, do a week’s worth of excessive paperwork and you’re in the clear.

In a word, last year’s GAs were problematic. While we’re sure the days of organized walkouts are behind us, the SSMU executive needs to make some changes if GAs will be an effective mechanism this year.

Montreal North

Tuition and ancilliary fees

Elections

After the investigation that followed the shooting of teenager Freddy Villaneuva by police in Montreal North failed to follow police protocol, a peaceful demonstration protesting his death erupted into a violent riot. Rioters wounded a police officer in the leg, set eight cars on fire, and looted 20 stores.

At the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police last week, criminology researcher James Drennan said the riot exposed tensions between minorities and police.

Investigations and hostility ensue.

After a 13-year freeze on in-province tuition, Quebec Premier Jean Charest allowed universities to raise it $50 every semester starting in Fall 2007, resulting in a total increase of $500 by 2012. While many student groups have strongly opposed these unfavourable winds, universities are raising international tuition $1,000 a year with little organized opposition, except at Concordia. Charest did, however, cap ancillary fee increases. McGill’s are $15 a year, the highest in the province.

An election to set the course of the U.S. is only two months away and the Canadian Prime Minister has called Parliament “dysfunctional,” hinting at an election by the end of the week.

In Quebec there is an unstable provincial minority government that could erupt into an election at any time, and challengers to Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s administration will be campaigning strong until the election in November 2009.

Wrecked

Mutiny?

daily disorientation

The island of Montreal is divided along more fronts than just the biguns and the littluns. A plethora of activist bands offer opportunities for you new castaways to ditch your apathetic stance. You don’t even need to dip into student politics to stay afloat in the big issues of the day. Just venturing around the sandy bays of McGill, you’ll find hundreds of socially-conscious island fugitives in their home-grown McgGill tribes. For those who are a little bolder, established niches of activism around Montreal will gladly have you rally with them as they try to set the entire island on fire.

On Campus

QPIRG

GRASPé

More campus activism

With funds from students fees the Quebec Public Interest Research Group offers shelter from the storm for budding McGill activist groups taking a stand for social justice. They work for a variety of social justice and environmental causes, and support working groups like the McGill Global Aids Coalition, the Queer Team, and Tadamon, a Lebanese solidarity collective. QPIRG also has an impressive progressive library and media collection, and organize Social Justice Days and Radical Frosh. ssmu.mcgill.ca/qpirg

The Grassroots Association for Student Power (GRASPé), advocate for stronger student control over the University, and a smaller corporate presence in research development and student life. They’re known for their attention-grabbing demonstrations like last year’s die-in against military advertising and an occupation of principal Heather Munroe-Blum’s office to protest rising tuition rates. Other groups advocating for student tuition include: the Canadian Federation of Students at education-action.net, La Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec at feuq.qc.ca and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) at casa.ca.

The Black Students’ Network, Queer McGill, Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students’ Society, and Union for Gender Empowerment also offer shelter to all shipwrecked souls at McGill while fighting against discrimination on the island at large. If you’re looking for more wide-reaching projects, you almost can’t turn a corner without bumping into a McGill club affiliated with a larger, mainland NGO forcing their baked goods at you to fundraise for their initiatives.

Groups like Medecines Sans Frontier McGill, Oxfam McGill, Engineers Without Borders McGill, and Santropol Roulant for Students are some more well-knowns. Set your sails for Activities Night on September 11 in the Shatner Building.

Santropol Roulant

Urban Ecology Centre

Apathy Is Boring

This meals-on-wheels deal established by two McGill graduates over a decade ago draws volunteers from all over the island to bring tasty food to people with disabilities, the elderly and others in need. They also have a bike collective in the warmer months and support sustainable gardening. Volunteer recruitment sessions are held every other Saturday morning at 4050 St. Urbain. For more information check out santropolroulant.org.

UEC advocates for sustainable urban development with projects like improving air quality, rooptop gardens, a Green Lab, mass composting, and other initiatives to develop the city in more ecologically friendly ways. Join in the fun by calling 282-8378 or stopping by their office at 3516 Parc.

The Montreal branch of this national non-partisan organization aims to engage and inform youth about their role in politics and democracy. With plenty of online guides, workshops, and consulting services for oganizations they aim to engage the disengaged. They’re also present in the community with regular concerts and art events. Find out why democracy is sexy at apathyisboring.com.

STELLA

Social Justice Committee

RECLAIM

A group well-known on the island for over a decade, this groups aims to support and inform sex workers for their own safety and dignity. They also educate the public about the realities of sex workers to combat discrimination and promote the decriminalization of sex work. Email stellacoordo@videotron. ca for more info.

The SJC seeks economic and political change in the developing world through education, advocacy work and engaging in policy work at the international and national level. Find out how you can join a sub-committee or become a volunteer in one of their many projects at s-j-c.net.

Reading Council for Literacy Advance in Montreal is a non-profit which provides free and confidential literacy instruction to English-speaking adults in Montreal through one-on-one tutoring and computer assistance. The group also promotes literacy issues in the community as a whole. Visit reclaimliteracy.ca for more info.

Off-Campus

Know your island: Montreal politics As one of the few cities in North America with political parties at the municipal level, Montreal’s political field has recently been dominated by Gérald Tremblay and his party Union Montreal. When the provincial government merged all the cities on Montreal Island in 2001, Tremblay swept to power over former mayor Pierre Bourque, leader of Vision Montreal, by promising the smaller merged cities an opportunity to demerge at a later date. After Tremblay failed to live up to his promise, Quebec Premier Jean Charest, declaring a similar revision, partially delivered on Tremblay’s unkept word. Yet despite losing a chunk of his constituency through Charest’s de-amalgamation actions, Tremblay defeated Bourque in a rematch in 2005, leaving the latter’s party in shambles. But as most of the smaller demerged cities still lacked political leverage, Tremblay was able to directly appoint members of the Executive Committee, the body that makes most municipal decisions.

The only opposing force in the city seemed to be the unions, until Richard Bergeron, fed up with the two rival parties, emerged in 2005 with a progressive platform to drastically increase public transit, reduce private automobile use, and generally make the city environmentally sustainable. With nine per cent of the vote, Bergeron and his party, Project Montreal, laid the foundations for a more competitive run in 2009. Expect to hear much more in the upcoming year.

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

daily disorientation

Wrecked

Hi-tech on the high seas McGill puts a treasure chest of technology at our fingertips, but things can be difficult to access if you don’t know they exist. Perk up your ears, because here’s everything you need to know: Although you can log into all of the school’s sites separately, the McGill portal (my.mcgill.ca) is a one-stop shop for nearly everything you need.

Minerva handles course registration and tuition payments and the library page can process renewals and reserves. Don’t forget to frequently check your McGill email account – you’ll need to know if the school is threatening to put you on probation for not paying those fees that slipped your mind.

There’s also WebCT, a system some teachers use to distribute and collect assignments, as well as share material. It’s almost universally hated for being slow and for crashing two minutes before your assignment is due, so pray you’re not stuck using it.

The main McGill site has tons of information scattered about, like contact details for all staff and what to do if you encounter problems with your computer. For technological tragedies, ICS (mcgill.ca/ics) and NCS (mcgill.ca/ncs) can give you all the help you need.

SSMU’s site (ssmu.mcgill.ca) is updated haphazardly and goes down intermittently, but is sometimes necessary to check out.

Computer labs dot the campus. Unfortunately, many labs require you to be a student of a certain faculty or department to log on. The main Science computers in Burnside allow anyone to sign in, and give free printing credits to science students. There are many Engineering labs in Trottier, as well as a shiny new 24-hour access Arts lab in Ferrier. Libraries, too, have some computers, which are available to all – for finding books, not Facebook!

All you MacBook hipsters (and other laptop users) can also use wireless internet, now available across most of campus. Set it up now, before you need it, and discover a great way to stay awake through Professor Monotone’s 8:30 a.m. class.

Defeat scurvy: eating green Off Campus

The People’s Potato

Frigo Vert Frigo Vert is a collectively-run, non-profit, anti-capitalist health food store near Concordia that sells relatively inexpensive and frequently local and organic food. Find bulk and vegan products that are hard to come by elsewhere. A neccessary membership costs $20, but results in slightly cheaper prices. (2130 Mackay; Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.)

Classifieds To place an ad via email: ads@dailypublications.org phone: 514-398-6790, fax: 514-398-8318

The cost McGill Students & Staff: $6,70/day; $6.20/day for 3 or more days.

General public: $8.10/day; $6.95/day for 3 or more days.

150 character limit. There will be a $6.00 charge per contract for any characters over the limit. Prices include taxes. MINIMUM ORDER $40.50/ 5 ads.

For only $10 extra place your ad on our website!

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

Similar to the Midnight Kitchen, but located at Concordia University. (7th floor of 1455 de Maisonneuve O.; 12:30 to 2 p.m. on weekdays)

Nadja Popovich / The McGill Daily

This ship’s-a-sinkin’ When your on-board first aid kit leaves you high and dry, there are a boatload of professionals ready to answer any distress signal.

For physical injuries or illness, call Health Services at 3986017 – they run a clinic just for students in the Brown building.

You can also contact McGill First Aid at 398-5212. They’re a team of trained student volunteers who can get you ship-shape in no time.

For mental health issues call McGill Mental Health Services, also located in the Brown building at 398-6019.

The Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students’ Society offers support groups and referrals, and runs a helpline at 398-8500. The Shag Shop, also located in the Brown building, sells a slew of fun sex toys and contraception for dirt cheap prices.

If you’ve been harassed or discriminated against, issue a

McGill-related complaint to Provost Anthony Masi at 3984177. SSMU affiliates should contact the SSMU Equity Commissioner, through the SSMU office, at 398-6800.

McGill’s ombudsperson deals with more general complaints and can be reached at 398-1946.

The Nightline folks are always there to listen and look things up for you – like where your exam is tomorrow, or what to do once you’ve slept through it. They don’t judge. Call on weekdays between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. at 398-1716.

Walksafe and Drivesafe will help you get home safely in any situation. Call them at 398-2498 and 398-1716.

You can call McGill Security in an emergency at 398-3000, or with general questions at 398-4556.

Lose your telephone to the briny deep? You can also reach security at any of their call boxes, located under the blue lights on main campus and in almost every elevator.

On Campus

Midnight Kitchen

The Midnight Kitchen Collective serves by-donation vegan lunches every weekday at 12:30 p.m. on the third floor of the Shatner building. Bring Tupperware or use the Plate Club, also located in Shatner, to borrow a dish.

Gorilla Composting Gorilla Composting, a student composting group, collects your fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grinds, and more in a bin in the Shatner basement. A bin and a membership can be purchased for $5, but non-members are still welcome to drop off their organics – just don’t leave plastic bags behind.

Architecture Café The almost-student-run café in the Adams building has $2 vegan zaatars, and they also serve Santropol fair-trade coffee for 60 cents if you bring your own mug.

Surf spots Shipwrecked pirates might want to resort to surfing as a mode of transportation.

Surfing the web, that is. Here are three oases in Montreal’s online archipelago: Spacing Montreal, an offshoot of the Toronto magazine Spacing, is a frequentlyupdated exploration of our city’s urban geography. Topics such as transportation, architecture, and neighborhoods are discussed by a roster of more than 20 bloggers. spacingmontreal.ca Buried deep within the message boards of Stille Post is one of the most comprehensive online guides to Montreal’s live music and nightlife scene. Concert and club nights are listed on a calendar and accompanied by the event’s time, price, and address.

Bookmark it! stillepost.ca/calendar/montreal/month.php Midnight Poutine is the go-to web site for Montreal curiosa, news briefs, and concert reviews. Though a super-slick layout and frequent updates make this site a quintessential starting point, readers seeking a grittier, more avant-garde perspective on Montreal may want to click on by. midnightpoutine.ca

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

19

Made for the rich, tested on the poor Subjects in the developing world face exploitation during clinical trials

Paula Kyriakopolous Sci+Tech Writer

T

he developing world is a fine place to run a clinical trial.

Lower costs, easier recruitment of patient volunteers, and less stringent regulations on human testing are pushing many pharmaceutical companies to send their tests to developing countries. As drug corporations profit, poverty-stricken test subjects pay the price.

A shocking example of this is the death of 49 Indian babies in clinical trials.

A number of the trials, performed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in New Delhi, were designed and funded by Western Pharmaceutical companies. Some Indian politicians have expressed concern, suggesting that the trials targeted impoverished and illiterate parents who did not understand the risks that their children would face.

Money and time provide motivation for drug companies to subject children to such unreasonable risks. It costs millions of dollars and takes several years to test the safety and effectiveness of many medications before they can be brought to the market. With lower costs and a large population of sick subjects, trials in developing countries are cheaper and faster. For many people without healthcare in developing nations, any treatment, even if experimental, is better than none.

Because so few have healthcare, thousands

of volunteers can be recruited in a matter of days in India. In the West, recruitment usually takes months.

In the rush to outsource drug testing to developing nations, the basic rights of test subjects are often overlooked. Such was the case in India, where the trials defied the international authority on the ethics of clinical trials – the Declaration of Helsinki.

The declaration states: “in any research on human beings, each potential subject must be adequately informed of the aims, methods, anticipated benefits and potential hazards of the study” and that “the doctor should then obtain the subject’s freely given informed consent.”

However, to give informed consent, a subject must understand exactly what the trial entails.

Those testing on behaf of drug companies in developing countries often overlook the importance of patient understanding.

Many parents of the 49 children who died in India were not aware of the risks their children faced, and it is likely that other outsourced trials also fail to properly educate test subjects as well.

Some maintain, however, that even if patients give informed consent and know what to expect, there is only so much they should have to endure in the name of science. According to the Declaration of Helsinki, “considerations related to the well-being of the human subject should take precedence over the interests of science and society.”

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

Kathleen Glass, director of the Faculty of Medicine’s Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill agreed. “Some say anything can be acceptable as long as you inform the subject, but I believe there are limits to the risk someone can take on,” Glass said.

The risks to subjects appear even more unfair given that they will probably never have access to the drugs after the trial. The drugs are marketed to consumers in the West, and are usually far

too expensive for the impoverished test subjects in the developing world. Sonia Shah, the author of The Body Hunters: How the Drug Industry Tests Its Products on the World’s Poorest Patients, sees this unequal access as unjust.

“They are being subtly coerced into taking on risks to create benefits that other people will enjoy. That is the very definition of exploitation,” Glass said.

Many of the pharmaceutical compa-

nies’ decisions to carry out unethical tests are made behind closed doors. Shah said that positive changes may be possible if the public is better informed.

“A likely salve will be greater transparency, which is something that is happening. At least we can start to know more about these trials so that non-governmental organizations, patients, journalists, and others can play a role in helping protect trial subjects,” she said.

New catalyst sheds light on solar energy Jackie Grom

Sci+Tech Writer

P

lants have us beat. Every day, trillions of them convert sunlight into stored energy, because they, like us, still need energy when the sun doesn’t shine. Finding a way to mimic plants and convert sunlight into stored energy has been one of solar power’s biggest challenges, but new research suggests that sunlight may not slip through our fingers for much longer.

Hydrogen gas is the most promising potential form of energy storage, given that it can be burned to produce energy like gasoline. So far it has been hard to make. Researchers have struggled to get water to break into hydrogen gas cheaply and easily, though this remains an energy-consuming process. Recently, however, Drs. Daniel Nocera and Matthew

Kanan of MIT have developed a process similar to that in plants, an important advancement in the generation of hydrogen gas.

Nocera and Kanan have found a cobalt catalyst that facilitates the production of oxygen gas from water and electricity.

Although creating oxygen isn’t the same as creating hydrogen, the two processes are connected. Now that oxygen refinement is cheap and easy, hydrogen refinement should soon follow. If solar energy can provide enough power to efficiently produce hydrogen gas, the result would be independent, uninterrupted energy with little to no carbon footprint – an alluring alternative to problem-riddled fossil fuels.

Dr. Cortlandt Pierpont, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Colorado at Boulder, suggests that though using cobalt to oxidize oxygen is nothing new,

this is a step forward for the alternative energy industry.

“It has been known for a long time that cobalt can be used in oxygen oxidation,” Pierpont said. “The innovative part of this research is that the oxygen oxidation occurs under a very low overpotential.” In other words, oxygen generation takes very little energy, a requirement for making hydrogen production commercially viable, Eisenberg explained.

“This opens a whole new line of research,” he said.

Other catalysts have been used to extract oxygen from water, but they all have their limitations: some are made of costly precious metals, require lots of energy, or work only under harsh conditions, like strong acidity. Nocera and Kanan’s cobalt catalyst, on the other hand, is cheap, abundant, and works under everyday conditions.

Additionally, the catalyst recreates itself

during the process, allowing it to withstand the intense conditions required for the reaction.

Does this mean that we are ready to go solar? According to Dr. Richard Eisenberg in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester, we still have a long road ahead of us.

“The idea of making oxygen from water is really one of the major catalytic challenges in solar energy conversion, and in that sense it’s a first rate development on a really important problem,” explained Eisenberg.

But does it solve the solar energy problem? “The answer is no,” he said.

Dr. Harry Gray from the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, also acknowledged that this is an achievement for water electrolysis. However, it still needs to fit into a larger picture to be truly significant. “The real step is to

incorporate this into a larger photosynthetic system,” Gray said.

We still need to overcome to make this happen? The limitation of developing an inexpensive and efficient catalyst for hydrogen production, the gas everybody really wants to get their hands on.

For now, the oxygen catalyst can only accept low levels of current and has yet to be hooked up to solar cells that will provide the electricity for the reaction.

These hurdles aside, once the hydrogen is produced, there is still the problem of hydrogen storage and distribution.

According to Eisenberg, it is difficult to store hydrogen because it cannot be efficiently converted to a liquid form.

“We have a tremendous infrastructure for moving petroleum around. If we were distributing hydrogen it would be a very different kettle of fish,” he said. “The whole infrastructure would need to be built over a period of time.”

20 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The User’s Guide to The Daily

volume 98 number 01

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

coordinating editor

Jennifer Markowitz coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Justin Vernon news editors

Shannon Kiely Nicholas Smith Ali Withers features editor

Claire Caldwell commentary&compendium editor

Max Halparin

coordinating culture editor

Leah Pires

culture editors

Josh Frank Braden Goyette science+technology editor

Lindsay Waterman mind&body editor

Nadja Popovich photo editor

Stephen Davis graphics editor

Ben Peck

production & design editor

Will Vanderbilt Robin Pecknold copy editor

Whitney Mallett cover design

Ben Peck, Ben Peck web editor

Adam Granduciel le délit

Maysa Phares redaction@delitfrancais.com contributors

Ian Beattie, Angel Chen, Kelly Ebbels, Cara Hanley, Camille McOuat, Sacha Plotnikova

The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the 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 Pierre Bouillon Geneviève Robert

advertising & general manager treasury & fiscal manager ad layout & design

dps board of directors

Angel Chen, Lawrence Monoson, Drew Nelles (chair@dailyproductions.org), Maysa Phares, Perrin Valli, Eric Van Eyken

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

All contents © 2008 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 Imprimeries Transcontinental Transmag, Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

A

s McGill’s oldest and bestknown student publication, The McGill Daily is the hub of campus news, culture, ideas, and debate.

If shit’s going down, you’ll hear about it here first.

Since the first issue rolled off the presses in 1911, The McGill Daily has evolved from a daily sports results handout to a twice-weekly comprehensive newspaper that informs, subverts, and entertains.

The Daily and its sister publication Le Délit Français are funded by a direct student levy: $5.00 per undergraduate student each semester and $3.35 per graduate student per semester. This means, first of all, that this is your paper.

We are here to represent you and your issues to your community. The fact that we are funded directly by students also makes us completely autonomous – we are the only independent English language newspaper at McGill. We are not tied to the University, nor any students’ association, no one but students at large.

So you can count on us to provide all the information you need and to keep the powers that be accountable for their actions.

Look for us on stands across campus every Monday and Thursday, or better yet, come join us. You’ll get a tonne of newspaper-related experience and you may even get free stuff. Come on by our Shatner basement bunker (B-24), give us a call (398-6784), or visit our table during Activities Night.

How The Daily works As soon as you pay your student fees, you become a member of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), the autonomous, not-for-profit organization that operates The McGill Daily and Le Délit. Every year, McGill students elect six members to the DPS’s nine-member Board of Directors, which takes care of financial and legal matters at the papers.

The students-at-large are joined on the board by three editorial representatives. All DPS members (most students) are entitled to attend board meetings, address the board, and collect signatures to initiate a DPS referendum. To find out the date and location of the next meeting, call 398-6790.

Daily editors and staff As a member of the DPS, each student can contribute articles to The Daily and become a staff member. You become a Daily staffer by contributing six published articles, photos, or graphics, or by helping out for three production nights.

Each spring, Daily staff elect an editorial board from among the ranks. Because The Daily is a democratic, non-hierarchical organization, editors have no more voting power than do staff. Think of the editors as the gentle wind in the sails of The Daily ship rather than the all-powerful hand of God. If you would like to take part in our weekly meetings, the staff and editors of The Daily meet every Monday at 6 p.m. in the QPIRG building, 3647 University.

News This is the section that puts the “news” in “newspaper” – it’s what separates us from the animals. We aim to provide accurate and hard-hitting coverage of what we can cover as well as (or better than) any one else can about McGill, Montreal, Quebec, and some federal issues. The tone is usually distant and kind of terse, but the news comes in a variety of formats: full-out stories and investigative pieces, briefs, directly transcribed interviews, and news analyses – where we try to break it down for you when we feel that the truth just is not getting out.

Culture If your passion for knowledge and self-discovery expands beyond the institutionalized confines of our feeble-minded bourgeois society, a good idea might be to go exploring in the marginal areas of our present culture and dig up some revolutionary discoveries. If you are sick of the insipid dogmas of past and present anti-alternative, convention-stricken, museum-fabricated, un-progressive, reactionary art, then feel free to drop us some juicy diatribes on your current state of dissent against the prevailing authorities. In other words, if you like film, theatre, music, or anything artsy, write for the Culture section.

Features The Features section comprises the salacious centrefold of every issue. It’s got the longest, most probing articles in the whole darn paper. Within the section, you will find in-depth, critical analyses of the issues that matter. As well, you’ll happen upon humourous schemata, personal profiles, gonzo journalism, strong political stances, critical thinking about power and privilege, and the odd mewling savethe-whales tale.

See, the letters in this paper fall from your hands. more than another? That’s L&D magic, baby. Although we lay out our paper on computers, these computers need to be turned on, and thus we need real people to assist in the graphic and design area.

Especially illustrations. Our robots don’t draw well and become surly when told they will never fully “understand” the range of human emotions.

Compendium

Formed through the convergence of the Life and Sports sections, Mind&Body is about more than just synergy. It’s about fitness, health, food, feng shui, and sex.

And you know, sports.

This is our multi-purpose page of facts, games, ephemera, Dick Pound news, and other pop-culture artifacts that we’d like to bring to your attention.

With crosswords, snippets from our copious archives, and revealing extracts of real life, Compendium will slay your thirst for roadkill from the blogosphere served up fresh on a platter for your conspicuous consumption. Also, there will be comics.

And blood.

Science+Technology

Letters to the Editor

Mind&Body

The most recent addition to The Daily universe, this section tackles the rapidly shifting worlds of both science and technology. Science+Technology will give you the down-low (or “d-l”) on everything from mind-controlled video games to where to book rooms in Space hotels.

Photography It has often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. At The Daily, we believe that a photo is worth 1,200 words, or 1,400 if we’re short of copy. We have photos that go with stories, photos that go on their own, photo essays, any old kind of photos. We really, really like photos. And by proxy, we like those who take them. This could mean you!

Layout and Design Layout and Design is the invisible hand that guides you through the newspaper. Does one story jump out at you

The Letters to the Editor section provides a forum for readers to express their ideas about Daily content without any fear of persecution, be it military or judicial (although you may be rebutted).

The Daily promises to print every letter it receives from DPS members, provided they are not deemed to be sexist, homophobic, racist, libelous, or otherwise oppressive.

Letters must be sent from your McGill email account, signed, and include your contact information, year, and program at McGill. (We will not print your contact info). All letters must be under 300 words. We may edit submissions for brevity and clarity, or – if letters are too long – simply not publish them. You can email letters to letters@mcgilldaily.com or drop them off in our office.

Hyde Parks Named after the famous soapbox in London, where townsfolk would voice

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

their opinions on the issues of the day, The Daily’s Hyde Park lets students and members of the McGill community express ideas on any topic that excites them, enlightens them, or turns them on.

Hyde Parks can be up to 500 words and can cover a wider variety of subjects than the Letters to the Editor section. Unlike Letters to the Editor, we make no guarantee to print Hyde Park submissions. Email potential submissions to commentary@ mcgilldaily.com.

Comments and Editorials Editorials are unsigned statements of opinion that are approved by the voting staff of The Daily. They reflect the position of the newspaper on pertinent issues of local, national, or international importance. Comment pieces are the opinions of individual staff members.

There are also columns, which are regular reflections and criticisms penned in a more personal voice by The Daily’s witty columnists. Columnists are encouraged to present a wide variety of opinions and viewpoints in order to stimulate discussion and debate both in The Daily and on campus. Their views do not represent the opinions of the editorial board. So all of you budding Andrew Coyne types, now is the time to apply.

Canadian University Press The McGill Daily is a founding member of the Canadian University Press (CUP). Modeled after the Canadian Press, CUP was the first nationwide student newswire in the world. CUP now has over 100 member papers from coast to coast, and all member papers participate in a daily exchange of news, sports, arts, and more. This means we have the latest scoops on national issues from student journalists across the country.

Which we in the newspaper biz like to call “convenient.”

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Welcome Ashore

21

Ahoy, matey! Whether you spent the summer traveling the Seven Seas, working for an evil ship captain, or are just feeling a bit washed up after Frosh – the fact is you’re back on solid ground, and we’re here to help you through the year ahead. Before the seemingly endless winter sets in, we encourage you to take a gander through this issue’s Disorientation Guide and get acquainted with what McGill and Montreal have to offer.

If this is your first day on the island, think of us as your compass to cultural, political, and otherwise news-worthy events happening on campus and around the city – and know that we won’t be doing any more tacky themed issues throughout the year, because they get annoying. Fast. (Arrr…)

Let’s go over the basics. Alongside Le Délit, our French language sister publication that occupies the same office as us in the Shatner basement, the McGill Daily is the only fully independent and autonomous student newspaper on campus. We seek out, thoroughly research, and carefully evaluate stories of importance to the student community. We focus on stories and issues often ignored or neglected by mainstream media. And unlike many media outlets who make impossible claims to pure objectivity in their reporting, we don’t bother hiding our biases – they’re listed in our Statement of Principles, which you can find below.

Also, students are the only ones steering this ship. That means the Daily needs you like fish need gills. We need you to come to meetings, write stories, take pictures, pitch ideas, and even read this thing. You may as well; as soon as you’ve paid your student fees, you are a member of the Daily Publications Society. Even if you decide not to join us on the production side, we print every letter members send us, so long as it’s not sexist, homophobic, racist, libelous, or otherwise hateful. We want you to use the Daily as a forum for the issues and debates that matter to you.

We’ll do our best to help you navigate the waters that lie ahead. With the TA strike behind us, another one – MUNACA, the union for University’s non-academic workers – seems to be looming just around the corner. Both groups have accused the administration of being completely apathetic toward the quality of campus life, and we’re tempted to agree. Revoking clubs’ and campus groups’ right to use “McGill” in their names has become a yearly threat, and room booking and event-planning for students is nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, young buccaneers, we’re bracing ourselves for an election-heavy season, and whatever else the high seas might send our way. Take comfort in knowing that whatever happens this year – whether you lose your fishing rod, have a fight with the deck crew, or just feel like McGill is making you walk the plank – we’ll be here, tossing you a lifevest and doing other nautical-y shit.

Editorial

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

Daily editors – bathing in natural light, hard at work on the first issue. And such great direction in the photo! shows how cannabinoids stimulate the body’s production of TIMP-1, which helps healthy cells resist cancer invasion. Viewed in this light, the police’s war against marijuana seems downright criminal.

Letters Re: “McGill students arrested on 4/20” | News | April 30, 2008

Russell Barth Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis

Recent science from Germany

P.S.: The global food crisis is eas-

Smoking for science

ily and quickly averted through the industrial production of hemp, but Big Oil would never stand for it.

Maybe because if the U.S. were to sow just 10 per cent of its current farmland as hemp, they wouldn’t need to buy any foreign oil.

More letters were received for this issue than could be printed.

They will appear in the next issue.

Please send us your letters to letters@mcgilldaily.com, so long as they are not hateful in any way.

Holy crap, the BC Human Rights Tribunal is way over the line Peter Hurley

HYDE PARK

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ournalists, comedians, and pastors, among others, have been brought before the British Colombia Human Rights Tribunal for exercising their human right to free speech. This star chamber has the power to force people to pay fines, publicly repudiate their own beliefs, and even to send them to jail if they refuse or cannot do those things. All this is done without respecting basic human rights such as the right to face one’s accuser or the right to freedom of speech.

The vagueness of the B.C. Human Rights Code and the Administrative Tribunals Act means that if you read the Third of the Ten Commandments aloud in, for example, a church, you could be brought before the Tribunal for condemning those who have left any of the Abrahamic religions. The Third Commandment reads: “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth gen-

eration of those who reject me.” I should note that I’m an athiest and I don’t believe in the Ten Commandments, but I have a big problem with being told I can’t say them aloud.

Freedom of speech is not an arbitrary claim to be balanced against the sensitivities of certain groups and the need for a sensible discourse. Freedom of speech is an absolute right and the bedrock of human liberty. Without an absolute protection of free expression, I cannot advocate for the remainder of my rights – this is fundamental to citizenship in a modern democracy.

Many of those who spoke with “hatred and contempt,” such as a gay-bashing minister, were speaking about me and the values I hold. They might wish me harm or think me damned after my death, but I don’t want to see them be tried for thinking or saying that. If a minister is banned from condemning homosexuals because it is an unpopular viewpoint, I can’t be secure in my own right to voice unpopular viewpoints. Their liberty is my liberty.

Only if they can show hatred and contempt for me, am I secure in my right to show contempt for their small-minded,

stupid beliefs and ideas.

You can only fight bigoted, dated ideas with more and better ideas. Banning some ideas from the public discourse is fundamentally wrong. Particularly at universities, we have a duty, if we are to call ourselves academics, to approve and approbate ideas on their merits, not on the whims of some tribunal or some politician who wishes to pander to a group that feels victimized. The only way to fight injustice is to be able to confront your adversaries on the public square and call the oppressors what they are. Using force to oppress them is hypocrisy of the worst sort, and endangers the freedom that those originally victimized are ostensibly seeking.

There exists no right to not be offended, and there exists no right not to be confronted with uncomfortable or ugly ideas. There exists only the right to speak back and unmask hypocritical piety. Or better yet, to ignore and crush them with a deafening silence.

Peter Hurley was The Daily’s Web editor last year. His favourite right is that which allows him to party.

The Daily’s Statement of Principles According to The McGill Daily’s by-laws, the editorial board must print The Daily’s Statement of Principles near the beginning of each publishing year.

2.1 The fundamental goal of The McGill Daily shall be to serve as a critical and constructive forum for the exchange of ideas and information about McGill University and related communities.

2.2 Within this optic, the staff of The Daily recognizes that all events and issues are inherently political, involving relations of social and economic power. Further, we recognize that at present power is unevenly distributed, especially (but not solely) on the basis of gender, age, social class, race, sexuality, religion, disability, and cultural identity.

We also recognize that keeping silent about this situation helps to perpetuate inequality. To help correct these inequities, to the best of its staff ’s abilities, The Daily should depict and analyze power relations accurately in its coverage.

2.3 As an autonomous student newspaper, relatively free from commercial and other controls, The Daily can best serve its purposes by examining issues and events most media ignore. In particular, it should deal with the role post secondary education plays in constructing and maintaining the current order. It should also assist students and other groups working for change in a critical framework, with the aim of empowering and giving a voice to individuals and communities marginalized on the basis of the criteria mentioned in section 2.2. The Daily’s methods should be both educative and active, and determined democratically by its staff.

2.4 Finally, we recognize that The Daily must remain accessible to the student community it comes from, and should abide by an ethic of fairness while maintaining its autonomy.

Write a column for The Daily.

Send three sample 500-word columns and a short letter of intent to commentary@mcgilldaily.com by September 21.

Questions? Send ‘em to that same email. Yep.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

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Wide urban spaces

Spacing Montreal explores the changing landscapes of a multi-layered, multilingual city Whitney Mallett

mon feature of many neighbourhoods throughout the city.

Another highlight of the blog is its “Avant-Après” section – updated almost daily – where two photos of the same location are juxtaposed against each another to show the city’s development over time.

Whether it’s three, 53, or 103 years, the changes are clearly expressed through visuals. The section further explores the animated quality of the city rather than representing it as an unchanging landscape. “This is a really big part of what Spacing is doing, taking a look at historical Montreal not as a calcified museum object but as something that was as living and dynamic as Montreal is today,” says DeWolfe.

Spacing makes connections across space as well as time, helping readers understand Montreal’s development by putting it in context. Articles from its sister site, Spacing Toronto, as well as pieces written by Beijing corespondants about the Chinese capital city, add extended perspective to the site. Regardless of whether the articles relate to Montreal or another city, they further dialogue by exploring the relationship between people and their urban environment.

Spacing Toronto has been around for almost five years, and has provided the template for Spacing Montreal. Spacing Magazine provides hosting support for both cities’ blogs, and facilitates their technical and financial aspects. However, Spacing Montreal does retain editorial independence: “It’s almost like a franchise,” says DeWolfe.

He explains that the blog has been bilingual since its creation. Being a spin-

The McGill Daily

“I

f you erase the people of downtown America, the effect is bizarre, not to say disturbing... the familiar urban landscape without a soul in sight: streets empty, buildings empty, yet everywhere there is evidence of recent life and activity.” – Julian Biggs This quote comes from the synopsis of 23 Skidoo, a short from the National Film Board archives recently posted on the local blog Spacing Montreal. Haunting footage of an abandoned Montreal in the late 1960s drives home the point that a city is not merely a backdrop for our daily lives – it is the dynamic relationship between the space and the people who share it.

The phrase “urban landscape” often evokes the image of vacant metropolitan scenery, and it’s this static perception of the city that Spacing Montreal is trying to fight. The blog is dedicated to exploring the interactions between humans and their built surroundings. “Our goal,” says contributing editor Chris DeWolfe, “is to provide a critical conversation on streets, parks...everywhere people come together and share.”

The conversation is already lively.

“It’s not a one-sided thing, people are contributing to the entries that we post,” says DeWolfe. “We have a regular block of readers that post comments on almost everything.” Since its launch a little over a year ago, Spacing has attracted 2,500 viewers per day. DeWolfe notes that there seems to have been a pent-up demand for the blog; although other web pages touch on similar issues, Spacing stands This is a really big part of what apart as a frequently-updated site Spacing is doing: taking a look focused exclusively at historical Montreal not as a on shared urban calcified museum object, but as space.

“People have something that was as living and always been condynamic as Montreal is today. cerned with the – Chris DeWolfe city,” says DeWolfe, Spacing Montreal “but I think what’s happening now is that suddenly information has become off from a Toronto based magazine, more accessible. People who might oth- however, the majority of contributors are erwise have had only a passing interest anglophones. At times, the blog flows in Montreal or other cities see a blog like seamlessly from English to French withSpacing and are able to have an outlet for in a single article. An English post may quote another news source in French, for their interest.”

From public art to public enemies to instance. “We tried to avoid the whole public services, the blog broaches a range translation aspect where you have two of subjects. “We cover a lot of things that separate discussions going on, and we aren’t necessarily recorded in the main- just sort of throw it all together,” says stream press, or we try to give another DeWolfe. This approach is fitting for a bilingual city, because Montreal cannot angle to it,” notes DeWolfe.

One of my favourites was an article be translated; it is a city that is simultaneon neighbourhood bylaws restricting ously both francophone and anglophone. drying laundry on outdoor clotheslines. Nonetheless, the blog still predominantly The blog explored the environmental and features English writing, and dialogue on socioeconomic implications of this com- the urban environment would almost cer-

“

courtesy of Guillaume St-Jean/ Spacing Montreal

tainly benefit from the addition of more francophone voices.

The appeal of Spacing’s “Language & Signs” section, which highlights quirky and unique happenings around town, is largely to do with duality of French and English in our city. Signage is one of the most visible representations of language, and our urban space is chock-full.

“Montreal is a very multilingual, multicultural city, so you have these overlapping layers. On one hand there are commercial and cultural aspects, and on the other hand legal and political aspects.

All of this is visible in the city’s signs,” explains DeWolfe.

Looking ahead at the future of Spacing

Montreal, DeWolfe hopes that the blog will gain the influence and steady body of contributors that Spacing Toronto has achieved. “Blogs still don’t have the same authority as print publications,” DeWolfe notes. He adds, however, that Spacing Toronto has a certain influence. “People pay attention,” he says.

Spacing Toronto has also attracted a large number of contributors who specialise in unique issues, from city hall to trees. The younger sibling still needs to consolidate a broader base of writers for this to achieve this. DeWolfe adds that Spacing Montreal should cover politics in greater depth.

Although its sister site can certainly

provide a good example for Spacing Montreal to emulate, hopefully the blog will not become a mere imitation of its Eastern relative. A conversation about Montreal’s urban space should strive to maintain the valuable uniqueness of the city itself.

Spacing Montreal will face some changes this fall as many of the current contributors leave to pursue other projects. DeWolfe, however, confirms that the blog will definitely continue. Look out for their call for writers this fall if you are interested in entering in the conversation on Montreal’s urban space.

Visit www.spacingmontreal.ca for more information

Culture

The McGill Daily, Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Slouching towards Montreal A summer spent searching for the spirit of the city Ian Beattie

The McGill Daily

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student painting like the plague, but like a fool I still did it, and for four bleak months I paid the price. Painting is something one should know how to do before getting paid to do it, or else one ends up watching helplessly as paint bubbles on walls, poorly secured ladders come crashing down, and cement facades collapse on heads. But it was those mornings on the way to my painting sites, which were all in Outremont, when I began to have some idea of what summer in Montreal meant.

I was struck by the ubiquitous presence of the colour green. Green in any shade is a hard colour to come by in the winter months of Montreal, but during the summer it was suddenly all over the place. It dominated the tree-lined streets of Outremont, but nowhere was so completely conquered by green as the Outremont parks. Being, as they are, playgrounds of the rich and famous and their dogs, parks in the borough are touched with a splendour not seen in the parks of the rest of Montreal.

Parc Outremont boasts a bronze statue of a cherub spouting water, and Parc Beaubien’s fountain is so high, powerful, and impractical that it soaks anyone

hen my friends and I encountered a bachelor party of aging McGill graduates at the Old Dublin bar last spring, they saw in us the younger versions of themselves. They were excited that we had just finished first year and excited that we were moving to the Plateau, but the detail that most moved one thirty-something reveller was that a few of us planned to stay the summer in Montreal. “Listen,” he told me, leaning over the table so any slurred words wouldn’t distort his message, “this is going to be the best summer of your life.”

The best summer of my life. Quite a challenge. In truth, I felt a stir of apprehension as I bade farewell to Upper Rez and headed down the mountain towards the parts of the city where Real Life was waiting. Deciding not to go home hadn’t been easy, and I felt pressure to prove to myself that the decision had been a good one. I needed to enjoy myself, experience wondrous new things, meet scores of new and exciting people, and hopefully learn to speak French on the way. It’s going to be okay, I told myself, because this is it: the “Romantically, and famed summer in Montreal. somewhat obviously, I hoped The only thing that troumy summer in Montreal bled me was that I didn’t have a clear picture of what that would carry a hint of an meant. I knew it had someearly Leonard Cohen song, thing to do with street fairs or the eerie city glimpsed in on St. Laurent, drink specials and open terraces at every bar, Ryan Larkin’s film Walking. and gorgeous, nameless women cavorting around in the sunshine. Topping it all off would be the world-renowned Montreal Jazz downwind for metres. However, Parc Festival, putting to shame every other John Pratt, where within a half an hour party one could ever go to, and involving I – in my paint-covered state – was queslittle to no music actually recognizable tioned by two different Outremont busias jazz. Would all that really be so great? nessmen about my reasons for being there, Everyone seemed to think so. But roman- takes the cake for opulence. Situated on a tically, and somewhat obviously, I hoped gentle, pine-tree quilted slope, it boasts my summer in Montreal would also carry not only an artificial brook, but three a hint of an early Leonard Cohen song, or separate ponds at different elevations.

In addition to being green, Montreal the eerie city glimpsed in Ryan Larkin’s in summer is full of people milling about film Walking.

All such hopes crumbled, of course, at any time of day or night. Coming home on the day that my summer really start- from work, I would pass Hassidic famied: my first training day of work, when I lies congregating along Hutchison, and faced the grim realization that summer in clouds of shoppers and café-goers made Montreal for an 18-year-old was going to walking along Mont Royal’s too-narrow be the same as summer anywhere for an sidewalks impossible. Bars and 18-year-old, because an 18-year-old has venues seemed to never empty. I to have a job. It was a chilly, gray, driz- went to the dingy backroom of zling day in late spring. It also happened Miami Bar at two in the mornto be the same day that a very dear friend ing on a Wednesday left Montreal forever. I had no interest in and was unable to being carted across the city to Place St. get a seat.

If street fesHenri at eight a.m., no interest in whether latex paint can go on oil paint or if it’s the tivals were the other way around (I’m still not sure), and reason for so many being I just wanted to run back home, change people out of my paint-covered clothes, and be around, that is all that I would on the next train home to Toronto. them Everyone I knew told me to avoid thank

“

for. Far from being the high points of the Montreal summer, they seemed to crashland on St. Laurent and for a few days scare away what I snobbishly considered the true spirit of the city, replacing the Plateau’s tranquility with drunken tourists and foul smells emanating from every gutter.

The Jazz Festival did eventually arrive, in all of its sordid glory, and the big story this summer was that Leonard Cohen, the secular patron saint of Montreal, would be returning for a concert for the first time in, well, a really long time. Tickets were two hundred dollars, and far, far more if you had to buy them secondhand. The concert, according to all the rich people who went, was mind blowing, but penniless student painters like myself had to take pleasure this summer in the singer’s more constant presence in the city, the one that drifted down from apartment windows no matter where one went, it seemed.

This summer, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Leonard Cohen’s music really does haunt Montreal. The same night as the concert, I even heard a rough-edged but extremely thorough rendition of “Suzanne” performed by a homeless man in Parc Mont-Royal who claimed to have been the city’s first bike messenger. I found Ryan Larkin’s ghost, too, in the form of a pair I met in front of Copacabana who said they had seen him there almost nightly until his death, brooding in a corner alone over his failure to create one last beautiful film.

As the summer closed out, I had come to think of Montreal as a leafy, sunny paradise for the young. Street festivals came and went, and I took advantage of the cheap eats and sunglasses, but preferred to retreat northward to the colourful circus of Jean Talon Market, eastward to swim in the outdoor pool at Parc Laurier, or, once, down to the Champlain bridge to watch the fireworks festival.

It would be wrong, however, not to mention that midway through August, an uglier side of the city reared its head as North Montreal broke into raciallycharged riots following a

police shooting of an unarmed 18-yearold. Violence, it seemed, was part of the Montreal summer too. I thought I had observed and felt something unique, which I had identified as the personality of Montreal. Was my own experience – idyllic, serene – in any way representative of what summer in this city is really about?

Having lived it, I can recount anecdote upon anecdote about the Montreal summer, but truly evoking its personality it is too daunting a task. I can say, however, that it is more than the often-heard descriptions of Montreal as a synthesis of Europe and North America, a slice of Paris with a tinge of Brooklyn.

During the summer months, Montreal reveals itself as a summation of infinite parts, a city that is entirely new and different from any other. If one is an 18-year-old looking to have the best summer of one’s life, I would say that Montreal is a good place to try.

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

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