Mount Allison’s
THE October 3, 2013
ARGOSY Independent Student Newspaper
Looking forward to next year’s Winter Carnival referendum since 1872
Vol. 143 Iss. 6
Women’s literature
U of T professor refuses to teach women writers Daniel Marcotte
Arts & Literature Writer
From left: Co-op co-ordinator Graham Muise, MASU VP External Affairs Ian Smith, and former MASU VP Michael Watkins pose with co-op bicycle. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy)
MASU Bike Co-op officially launches
After two years of planning and work, the Mount Allison Students’ Union Bike Co-op has officially launched. The launch was a brief event on September 27, led by Vice-President, External Affairs Ian Smith, and attended by the
MASU Executive, several councillors, and a few students. While the Friday event marked the official opening, bikes have been available for rent since the beginning of this academic year. At the site of the co-op shed behind the Athletic Centre, Smith thanked the various sponsors of the program, when he said that “the only part Mount Allison students have paid for was the shed.” On top of the donations from various businesses, “the rest of the bikes inside were provided by the RCMP.” The support from businesses included a donation from EOS Eco
Energy, a grant from Renaissance Sackville “covering the entire cost of the bikes”; a gift card donation from Mountain Equipment Co-op, which went towards accessories; and Consolvo Bikes in Moncton for what Smith called “incredible price on the bikes.” The five new bikes, bought from Consolvo, are of a high quality, and Bike Co-op Coordinator Graham Muise described them as, “so smooth.” Smith pointed to Michael Watkins, the MASU Vice-President, Campus Life two years ago, as the initial driving force behind getting the co-op funding through referendum. “I’m really excited for everything in
News
Science
Arts & Literature Sports
Cycles now available for public use Kevin Levangie
Political Beat Writer
MASU to host landlord fair:
Pg. 4
New organelle found in plants discovered: Pg. 8
Sackville Early Music Festival a success: Pg. 12
this project coming together,” Watkins said. He continued that two years ago, the RCMP provided the initial idea for the project: “They came to us one day, saying ‘We have all these bikes lying around that have come to us through various ways, […] do you want them?’” Upon hearing the announcement about the official launch, students flocked to book the bikes for the evening of September 26. Immediately following the launch, all of the functional bikes were in use. The service is open to all students, university staff, and residents of Sackville.
Soccer women still trying for a win: Pg. 17
I will admit that I occasionally enjoy literature by serious, white, middleaged, heterosexual males. Hemingway, Joyce, Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Faulkner— all of these authors have published works that I personally love, and were I a professor, I would certainly consider putting these on a syllabus. A syllabus, I might add, that would also include works by Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Mary Shelley, Alice Walker, Leslie Feinberg, and Sappho, to name a few. Not only because I believe that these writers are just as talented (and in many cases more so) as the others listed above, but also because I know that the messages contained in literature by women, queer and genderqueer writers, and people of colour are extremely valuable and crucial to our understanding of human society and the worlds that we inhabit and construct. Which is why I think it’s reasonable to be concerned when professors like David Gilmour of the University of Toronto state that they are simply “not interested in teaching books by women”, as he told Hazlitt last week, claiming he only teaches authors that he truly loves, none of which “happen to be Chinese, or women”. If that weren’t enough, he defended himself to the National Post by saying “there isn’t a racist or sexist bone in my body”. If this is true, then why does his list of the world’s “greatest authors” directly correlate with his own demographic, with middle-aged white men all making the grade? A common defence of Gilmour’s philosophy is that professors need to stick to an area of specialization in order to be successful educators, and that male authors are simply his chosen field. However, if a student of English literatures made this same claim and refused to take any courses except those
Continued... Pg.13
Inside... News Ship’s Log Opinions Science Culture Days Arts & Literature Entertainment Sports Pg. Humour
2 5 6 8 10 12 14 16 918
NEWS
October 3, 2013
Black Duck café back in business Owners reopen café after three week hiatus
Election results MASU positions filled in Fall election
Miriam Namakanda News Writer
The Black Duck café has reopened after a three-week closure. The hiatus was prompted by the Sackville Town Council’s decision to revoke their sidewalk permit. Co-owners Sarah Evans and Alan Barbour reopened their café, The Black Duck, on Monday September 30, to the relief of patrons after fears that the café may have closed for good. Barbour said that they closed shop to take time off and re-evaluate their business in Sackville after council’s decision to revoke their patio permit. A post on the Black Duck’s website states that the mayor and council received over a hundred letters from the cafe’s supporters. During the closure dozens of supportive notes were stuck to the cafe’s door. “Thank you so much for the outpouring of love and support!” said a previous post. On the site Barbour and Evans thanked their supporters and said they were “amazed” by the response to the closure. The Tantramar District Planning Commission declined comment on the re-opening of the Black Duck café. Although Evans and Barbour had eventually hoped to expand their café in a way that utilized all of the building’s space, they have had to do the opposite, and shrink the scale of their operations. Some of these ideas included turning the café into a restaurant, or utilizing the rest of the space above the café to make it an inn or hostel. However after the last two weeks these ideas of expanding have been abandoned after what
argosy@mta.ca
Kevin Levangie
Political Beat Writer
The Black Duck has reopened after a lengthy closure prompted by a dispute with the town council. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) Barbour describes as harassment and penalization from the Town Council. Evans and Barbour received information from the Planning Commission about their patio being non-compliant, this was followed by inspection visits and finally the permit revocation. Sackville By-Law 231 on street traffic, Schedule A, titled “Town of Sackville Sidewalk Cafe Operating Procedures” states that in order for an application for a sidewalk café to be approved it “must be separated from pedestrian traffic with an approved fixed and sturdy barrier.” Though the Black Duck did not have this barrier, they did put up a rope. It was still deemed not compliant by the commission as The Argosy reported on September 11. After numerous visits, during which the Black Duck was deemed noncompliant, the Town Council voted to revoke the patio at their September 9 meeting. As far as Barbour is concerned, it was not an issue of compliance. He believes the problem is not the by-law,
but stated that there is unnecessary attention given to his establishment and that the planning committee has many other issues that are not being dealt with. He claims that there was a sort of “political activity” that took a “concentrated effort” he believes is rare compared to other planning committee operations. Michael Fox, a Mount Allison University professor specializing in community planning, brought a different perspective. Fox said the planners are “simply putting forward what is approved [and] ... submitted by the Town Council.” In Fox’s experience, Sackville has had a “professional and fairly good planning commission”, noting that the commission has dealt with “five or six patios and by and large it is a straightforward process.” Feeling harassed, Barbour is no longer keen on growing his business in Sackville, and said he has brought forward complaints to the planning commission and By-law officers, and stated that they have prompted no action. Barbour also highlighted the
difficulty in sustaining a business in rural Canada, saying that without the patio his usual three full-time employs cannot be increased to six in the summer months. New Brunswick had a 10.7 per cent unemployment rate this past summer. Though there is need for employment opportunities all over the Maritimes, Fox warned that changes on the part of the planning commission will not reverse what he sees as the “larger economic issues of the day since 2008.” He pointed out that the Town Council has had no Economic Development officer for the past year. The Economic Development office is designed to support economic developers in the community while remaining familiar with the council and town by-laws. This role may have been helpful in averting conflicts like this which both Barbour and Fox agree could have worked out better if there was more communication and negotiation between both parties.
The Mount Allison Students’ Union Fall election and by-election has come up with four Student’s Administrative Council councillors. The elected are all first-year students, with two residing in the North Side residences and two residing in South Side residences. Daniel Murphy was elected to the position of first year representative. Murphy is from Huntsville, Ontario, lives in Edwards House, and is pursing an Honours degree in Biology. Dylan Wooley-Berry was also elected first year representative. Wooley-Berry is a Sackville native. He lives in Harper Hall, and is pursuing a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Liam St Louis was acclaimed South Side councillor. As no other candidates stood for the position, St Louis had to clear a yes or no vote by South Side residents. He is from Vancouver, British Colombia, lives in Hunton House, and is pursuing an Honours degree in International Relations and a minor in Economics. Ryan MacRae was elected North Side Representative. MacRae is from Stratford, Prince Edward Island. He lives in Harper Hall, and is pursuing a Sciences degree. Both of the geographically-based council positions were left open last year due to a lack of interest. The September elections, planned to only elect two first year councillors, were expanded to accommodate electing two more candidates.
NBSA director responds to STU tuition increase “A lot of challenges ahead for NBSA,” says Pat Joyce Simon Murray Newly appointed New Brunswick Student Alliance (NBSA) Executive Director Pat Joyce says that if the “unprecedented” tuition increase at St. Thomas University (STU) is allowed to go through he will be “going to government,” but insists all he can do for now is to wait. Speaking by telephone from Fredericton, former two-time Mount Allison Students’ Union President Joyce addressed the issue of the provincial tuition cap policy. “When universities are able to reject those recommendations and not face any consequences, that is definitely concerning,” he said.
STU came under scrutiny this past summer when it announced that it would ignore the provincial government’s tuition increase cap of $150 per annum and would instead opt for a $434 tuition increase for domestic students. This leaves the fate of STU and the issue of whether or not a university has the right to increase tuition up to the provincial government. In spite of set provincial policy limits, STU was able to increase their tuition above the tuition cap because the cap is a policy and not a law. Joyce did not indicate that the NBSA would be lobbying tuition caps policy to be made into a law and said that “[the NBSA would] wait to see what decision the government is going to make.” “The government cannot legislate this policy as they would be infringing on the university’s autonomy in running their business,” explained St. Thomas Student Union President Elizabeth Murphy.
Leaving the fate of this issue up to the province, Joyce insisted since coming into his position, “since [his appointment] we’ve certainly been ‘pressing the issue with government’ and making sure that the Department of Post-secondary Education, Training, and Labour is coming to “conclusions.” But he admitted, “I don’t know what the answer is going to be but regardless, a lot of the options on the table could set dangerous precedents which the students of NB will need to react to.” Joyce stated that individual student unions will have to take leadership before the NBSA can act. “When it comes to the reaction for whatever decision is made, that is the role of the St. Thomas student union.” He stated that STU’s student union must take action, as the NBSA would not want to “impose on the autonomy” of any of its members. “The board sets policy […] I’m here to help make their jobs easier
and to be the ‘boots on the ground’ in Fredericton,” said Joyce. He said that some of responsibilities include meeting with politicians, speaking with media, and policy research. Joyce said that St. Thomas’s tuition increase was entirely “unprecedented” both for the NBSA and the province in general and claims that this will be a learning experience for the NBSA, “we’ll base our future decisions or recommendations on what happens and take the opportunity to learn.” One problem which was highlighted by the tuition increase crisis was that universities can say that they’ve consulted students on issues such as tuition increases because they have a student representative sitting on the boards governing universities. Joyce said he did not believe that amounted to a substantive consultation. Joyce said the NBSA will be pushing a policy which would put university student unions in control of raising any mandatory non-
academic fees. Joyce added, “there is a role for student unions and the NBSA in making sure that we have strongly defined and well defined policies for things like what we consider to be acceptable or not acceptable tuition increases.” Joyce indicated that the NBSA also intends to lobby for better regulation and consultation for students when it comes to increases in tuition and ancillary fees, increased student financial aid, elimination of interest on student loans and more job opportunities for students during the summer and after they graduate, adding the issue of student retention in the province is a concern. Joyce commented that his hiring will “change the pace at which the organization operates” and that the future looks “bright” for the NBSA. But admits there are “a lot of challenges ahead.”
The Argosy
NEWS
www.argosy.ca
Successful Mt. A bone marrow drive This week in the World
OneMatch visits Mt. A seeking stem cell donors
Joanna Perkin
Al-Shabab vows attacks will continue
Kevin Levangie
Al-Shabab, Somali Islamic extremist group that has taken responsibility for the mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, has participated in numerous attacks around Kenya. Two small towns in Kenya, near the Somali border, have recently been attacked. The leader of Al-Shabab released an online statement, saying that these terrorist attacks on Kenya will continue until the Kenyan troops located in Somalia are withdrawn. Al-Shabab has also commented on the mall attack, saying that it was not only an attack on Kenya, but on the Western countries that were supporting Kenya’s military troops being in Somalia.
Political Beat Writer OneMatch’s bone marrow drive brought in 80 new registrants at the Mount Allison University Student Centre last Friday. This drive is part of a larger initiative to get Rod Wilson, of Amherst, NS, a stem cell match. Over 300 swabs were collected at a related event in Amherst. Cumberland News Now reported that the Dooley’s manager had been coping with non-Hodgkins lymphoma for years before it returned, leaving him in need of a stem cell transplant. Wilson’s wife, Robyn Wilson, said stem cell donation is “so easy and simple... and it could save someone’s life.” Before Wilson needed the transplant, Robyn didn’t know much about stem cell donating, “it’s unfortunate that it took this to happen to my husband to make me aware of it,” she admitted. Tessa Morris, an International Relations student and Ontario native, helped organize the Sackville drive. Morris reached out to the OneMatch network after learning through her parents that a family friend had been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome. After hearing the news, Morris emailed Donor Management Coordinator, Jessica Stergiou, hoping she could get more involved with the network back in Sackville. It happened that Wilson was seeking a donor, and volunteers quickly orchestrated a drive at Mt. A. The OneMatch Network in Canada is managed by Canadian Blood Services, though it is part of
Rod Wilson poses at the donor drive on Sept. 27. (Jessica Stergiou/OneMatch) an international network of over 20 million people. OneMatch helps patients who can’t find matches within their own families, which is about 70 per cent of all patients who need transplants. If a match can’t be found within the network then drives are organized to get more people registered and increase the chances of getting a match. Though millions are registered worldwide, last year saw “fiftythree Canadians donate stem cells to Canadians” said Stergiou, adding that “we have about 1000 patients in Canada alone that are searching for a match.” For some, it seems that a big challenge is misconceptions about stem cell and marrow donating. Mt. A Andrew Stone said “I don’t know as much as I should,” but went on to say that he recognized the importance of stem cell donations, adding that he would participate “in anything alleviating pain from people who were suffering.” Other members of the public worry about the evasiveness of the procedure itself. Stergiou noted that the chances of undergoing the procedure are rare. Also, it is an outpatient procedure even in the case of bone marrow injection, which is used for special situations if the blood transplant is not adequate enough. In
her experience, since donating allows you to save a life, Stergiou said that ultimately, “I don’t think you could put an amount, dollar (or) a pain tag on the value of that.” Participants who signed up at the event underwent a brief process involving swabbing their mouths and filling out information about their medical history, most participants will not get calls back but for those who do they will have to undergo one of two procedures to transplant their stem cells. Stergiou noted that the target groups are males and young people, because the stem cells of these groups of people have been found to produce successful outcomes. University campuses are then the most ideal places to register potential donors since there is a concentration of people between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five. A harder group to reach are ethnic minorities. Since patients are best matched with donors with a shared ethnic background it is hard to find matches for minorities. This puts a diverse country like Canada in a difficult situation. In November OneMatch will return to Mt. A for a bigger drive that they hope will reach even more people.
Horace Karnes to serve nearly five years Former Mt. A student sentenced for sexual assaults Christopher Balcom
News Editor
Former Mount Allison University student Horace Karnes has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for three sexual assaults committed in Sackville. The sexual assault charges date back to 2009 and 2010. Moncton’s Times & Transcript reported that two of the assaults occurred in Thornton House, where Karnes was the residence’s secretary-treasurer during that year. The third occurred in an apartment off-campus. Karnes was arrested in November 2012. He appeared in Moncton Provincial Court on September 23 for sentencing. The thirty-one year old Karnes had previously pleaded
3
guilty to three counts of sexual assault and two counts of obstructing justice. An RCMP release stated that Karnes received four years in prison for two of the sexual assaults, and six months for the third. He will also serve four months for obstruction of justice charges. Karnes also received a ninemonth jail sentence for being unlawfully in a dwelling, and three months for failure to comply with an undertaking. Those charges will be served concurrently with his other sentences. Karnes left Mt. A without graduating in 2010. He continued to live and work in Sackville. Ron Byrne, Mt. A Vice-President, International and Student Affairs, claimed that the University was unaware of the incidents until they were notified by the RCMP that a former Mt. A student was facing charges. In the wake of the conviction, both the Mount Allison Students’ Union and the administration expressed their sympathy for the victims and
emphasized the need to continue improving safety at Mt. A. “There is obviously a lot of work that still needs to be done, and we’re incredibly happy that the administration has started to work with us on [improving student safety],” said Melissa O’Rourke, who is MASU’s president, adding that “it has reminded us of the urgency of improving safety and security.” Byrne highlighted important campus efforts including the Green Dot campaign, the S.H.A.R.E program, and the recent safety and security review in co-operation with MASU. “We all have to be vigilant. We all have a role to play to ensure that this kind of violence [is] eradicated,” said Byrne. “We have to continue to challenge and change the behaviours that allow for this kind of incident to occur.” The RCMP have said Karnes has been added to the sex offender registry for life and will serve two years probation following his sentence.
17 dead after bus bombing in Pakistan
A bus carrying government workers was bombed on September 27 in Pakistan. The province of Peshawar has been targeted for many bombings and gun attacks in recent years, which have been blamed on the Taliban. No group has taken responsibility for the bus bombing, where the bomb was planted on the back of the bus, and in which seventeen people have been confirmed dead. Police have said that the bomb was planted in the bus specifically to kill government employees. The BBC reported that more than seventy government workers were on board, of which at least thirty-four have been injured.
Teacher who raped teen released after 30 days
Stacey Rambold, a fifty-four year old teacher from Montana, was released after completing his 30 day sentence for the rape of a fourteen-year-old girl in 2007, who later killed herself. The girl’s mother has stated that Rambold’s actions and the fact that her daughter was raped by him was a major factor in her suicide. The AP reports that Rambold has been registered as a level one sex offender, meaning that he is considered to be low risk to re-offend. The judge responsible for the case, Todd Baugh, has been widely criticized for letting Rambold off with such a short sentence. He also prompted much public outrage for what many people, including the girl’s mother, are calling “victim-blaming,” after he described the victim as “older than her chronological age.”
UN reaches Syrian chemical weapons deal
The five permanent powers of the United Nations Security Council: Britain, France, Russia, China, and the United States, have finally come to a decision about how to deal with Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Reuters reported the council have drafted an agreement that would require Syria to hand over their chemical weapons, although they would not impose severe consequences if it does not comply. Since the conflict in Syria has begun, there was a deadlock within the Security Council, with Russia and China blocking Western-backed action. This changed once Syria began to use their chemical weapons, with the common interest now being securing and destroying Syria’s stock of chemical weapons. To ensure Russia’s support on this, the Western powers agreed to a resolution that was legally binding, but does not contain recourse that includes military force or sanctions if Syria does not comply.
92 abducted children rescued in China
Chinese police have rescued ninety-two abducted children, as well as two abducted women, from what is believed to be a huge trafficking ring. These children were believed by Chinese police to have been abducted from two specific provinces in China, but were sold throughout the country for adoption purposes, or forced into prostitution. BBC correspondents have reported that child-trafficking has been a serious and growing problem in China. Critics blame the country’s one child policy and lax adoption laws for the influx in child trafficking. This has created an underground market for buying children, who will either be sold for adoption or forced into prostitution.
Golden Dawn leader arrested in Greece
The Associated Press has reported that Greek police officers arrested the leader and sixteen members of an extreme right-wing political party on charges of forming a criminal organization. Golden Dawn holds eighteen seats of the 300 in Greece’s parliament, winning almost seven per cent of the popular vote last year. These arrests took place only eleven days after a left-wing activist was killed in Greece by an alleged Golden Dawn member. Golden Dawn has neo-Nazi roots, and has been suspected by government officials in Greece to have taken part in many violent attacks in Greece, particularly towards immigrants. This political party has had growing support, despite its reputation for violence. It is the first time since 1974 that a party leader and sitting members of parliament have been arrested.
The Corrections Richard Kent Editor-in-Chief
The photo of hay bales (Fall Fair, page 10) was taken by Nick Sleptov. Kelsey Lauersen’s name was spelled
incorrectly in “Students participate in summer research fair” and in the accompanying photo credit (Science, page 14). The Argosy regrets these and other errors. Errors requiring correction should be emailed to Editor-inChief Richard Kent at argosy@mta. ca.
4
NEWS
October 3, 2013
argosy@mta.ca
Mt. A student union to host landlord fair on campus Event offers students chance to weigh housing options Taylor Losier Features Writer
While it is common practice for students moving off-campus to sign their leases as early as September, steps are being taken to change that. On October 5, the Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) will be holding a Landlord Fair, to give students a chance to browse the buildings that are available to them in Sackville. The Fair, which will be held in Tweedie Hall from 11 am until 3 pm, was organized by VicePresident, External Affairs Ian Smith, assisted by Off-Campus Councillor Annie Sherry. This is the first year that the students’ union has held a landlord fair, and it is something Smith hopes will become part of the school’s culture. Similarly to the Clubs and Societies Fair held earlier in September, each landlord will be given their own table, which they are free to decorate with information about their buildings, as well as pictures. “It gives students an opportunity for an informal viewing of the main landlords in Sackville. There are no leases to be signed that day, so there’s no pressure for students,” said Smith. “It puts students in the driver’s seats.” There will also be information distributed for the students regarding the rental process, their rights as a tenant, as well as their rights
The Mount Allison Students’ Union will be holding a landlord fair on October 5 to educate students about their housing options. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) as a citizen of the Town of Sackville. In addition, there will be a representative from the Rentalsman Office in Moncton present at the Fair, in order to ensure that the landlords are at their best. “We’ve extended invitations to over fifty landlords, but the main ones will be coming,” said Smith. While, as of Friday, there are fifteen different landlords registered for the Fair, he is not discouraged by the low numbers. “Since the Fair is the first of its kind I didn’t expect everyone to jump at the experience. We do plan on holding a second fair next semester, and we hope that by then word will get out
regarding the opportunity.” Although some landlords have suggested moving the Fair to an earlier date, Smith says that, for the most part, he has received positive feedback regarding the initiative. “I am quite looking forward to it,” said Kathy Beal, one of the landlords who will be attending the fair in October. “I think this fair will give me and other landlords a chance to actually meet the students in person and show them the apartments that we have. I’m sure it will save a lot of leg work. We will be able to set up some viewings at that point and go from there.” Beal, who rents to forty-five students and
owns properties on Squire, Weldon and Main Street, hopes that the fair will reduce some of the communication required when entering the rental process. “We’re aiming it primarily at students who plan to move off-campus,” said Smith, although he emphasizes that the Fair is not a means of dissuading students from returning to residence. “The MASU fully believes in the best residence experience, and advocates for students to spend a minimum of two years in residence.”
Winter carnival levy goes to MASU referendum ... again Concerns raised over referendum policy Kevin Levangie
Political Beat Writer The recent Winter Carnival referendum has left some students questioning Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) policies about submitting an issue to referendum multiple times. Last year an increase of student fees by five dollars to fund the carnival was put to referendum, and students voted it down, with 54.2 per cent opposed, 39.4 per cent in favour, and 6.4 percent abstaining. This year’s referendum also failed to pass. Only 29.9 per cent of the student body voted, failing to meet the requisite fifty per cent plus one. Of those who did vote, sixty-four per cent were in favour and thirty-six per cent opposed. During the first Student’s Administrative Council meeting of the academic year on September 16, MASU Vice-President, Campus Life, Heather Webster put forward the motion to approve a Winter Carnival referendum question. After some debate, council approved the following wording: “Do you support a five dollar increase in student fees towards the cost of winter Carnival that would ensure that all events taking place during Winter Carnival are free of charge for students?” Natalie Brunet, a former Social Science Senator and a fourth-year student pursuing an Honours degree in International Relations, first
Bong Jovi preform at last year’s winter carnival. Students rejected a chance to expand the winter carnival budget in a second referendum. (Kory d’Entremont/Argosy) voiced her concerns about the second iteration of the referendum question through an Off-Campus Councilor, Annie Sherry. Brunet stated her problem was not with the idea of asking the student population for input: “Referenda are a really good idea. They are helpful because they are directly asking the student population whether they want something.” She went on to say, “If you’re going to have referenda they should be binding. Referenda are actually binding if we vote yes for them, so why is there no binding period if they are shut down?” Webster defended the choice to
resubmit the referendum question, saying, “I’m doing what students asked from me. A lot of them asked for a Winter Carnival, they want more variety in events, and people complain about our events now.” MASU Vice-President, Operations and Finance Josh Outerbridge and several SAC councilors suggested that a five dollar fee increase for everyone is a more economical way for students to pay for the series of events, instead of paying an entry fee for each event. Webster referenced last year’s quorum referendum in defending the decision to run the question again. She also stated that concerns about
referenda questions being asked multiple times were “brought up at council last week, and so I think that’s something that will be changing. We’re going to reevaluate that. [… T]here are definitely some things that need to change, and that would probably be one of them.” There is MASU precedent for repeating referenda questions. Last year the SAC twice put a referendum question forward concerning the lowering of the quorum for MASU meetings, only to have it defeated both times. According to the union’s constitution, any referendum in
which at least twenty-five per cent of members have voted is valid, and is “deemed binding if passed by at least a two-thirds (2/3) majority of MASU Members.” However, for a referendum to be considered passed by students it only needs a fifty-percent-plus-one approval. Referenda are to be “the supreme policymaking forum of the MASU. Policy approved by referenda may only be amended or repealed by subsequent referenda.” MASU is constitutionally required to hold a referendum on any increase of student fees, unless it is an increase because of inflation, up to four per cent.
The Argosy
SHIP’S LOG
www.argosy.ca
The Argosy’s weekly rundown: upcoming events EVENTS M e d i t a t i o n Yo g a
Thursday Oct. 3, 5:30 pm Chapel Manning Room Tu e s d a y s & T h u r s d a y s 5 : 3 0 p m 6:15 pm in the basement of the Chapel. All levels welcome. No charge.
Film Society- Byzantium Thursday Oct. 3, 7:30 pm. Vo g u e C i n e m a
Latin Dancing Society
Fr iday Oct. 4, 7:00 pm WMSC Multipurpose Room We e k l y L a t i n d a n c i n g p r a c t i c e s ; no partner required, no experience required, no coo r d i n a t i o n r e q u i r e d . We h a v e outside volunteer instructors.
Po l l i n a t o r Aw a r e n e s s Wo r k s h o p
Saturday Oct. 5, 2:00 pm Sackville Community Garden, Charles St. Facilitated by local plant enthusiast and Outdoor Educator Greg Osowski, this workshop will feature information on helping out our pollinator friends through habitat creation.
Rainbow F lag Raising Ceremoney
Monday Oct. 7, 9:00 am There will be a Rainbow Bake Sale in he Breezeway from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm.
A C O R N Wo r k s h o p
Monday Oct. 7 - 8, 9:00 am WMSC Multipurpose Room Planning for Success: Developing Yo u r F a r m B u s i n e s s P l a n . ACO RN i s h o s t i n g a t wo - d ay seminar with David Alexander of E ve rd a l e O r g a n i c Fa r m . Fo r m o re details contact Grow a Farmer C o o r d i n a t o r, L u c i a S t e p h e n a t lucia@acornorganic.org or by c a l l i n g 1 - 8 6 6 - 3 2 - ACO RN .
F e e d Yo u r B r a i n Pre s e n t e d b y M i c h ae l Fox
Tu e s d a y O c t . 8 , 1 1 : 3 0 a m Library Theatre D r. M i c h a e l Fo x p r e s e n t a t i o n “Sleeping with an Elephant: Can Sackville Become a Learning
Community?” Universities are certainly a significant asset to their communities, yet they present a unique set of planning and community development considerations and challenges, and an increasing number of threats and negative perceptions about off-campus behaviour especially in those near-campus neighbourhoods where students tend to concentrate. Everyone welcomed.
Catal y st Br ing a Fr iend Night! Tu e s d a y O c t . 8 , 6 : 0 0 p m Chapel, Manning Room
I m a g i n u s A n n u a l Po s t e r Sale
We d n e s d a y, O c t . 9 - 1 1 , 9 : 0 0 a m W M S C Tw e e d i e H a l l
Strasbourg Information Session
We d n e s d a y, O c t . 9 , 5 : 3 0 p m Everyone interested in studying abroad is welcome to attend an information session on The Strasbourg Program. The program is available for students that wish to study abroad in Fr ance f or a f u l l y e a r o r f o r o n e s e m e s t e r. If unable to attend, but wish to receive more information, please c o n t a c t D r. M a r k L e e a t m l e e @ mta.ca.
Movie Screening - “I Love Yo u P h i l l i p M o r r i s ” We d n e s d a y O c t . 9 , 8 : 0 0 p m Dunn Room 108
Relay for Life
Fr iday Oct. 18, 7:00 pm Mount Allison Quad The Canadian Cancer Society will honour cancer survivors at S a c k v i l l e M o u n t A l l i s o n’s R e l a y for Life. The Sackville Mount Allison University Relay for Life event is the only relay held in October and is organized by volunteers from both the university and the town. There will be entertainment, food and activities from 7:00 pm Fr iday night to 7:00 am Saturday morning. A special luminary candle ceremony is held at 10:00 pm.
to honour those who have been t o u c h e d b y c a n c e r . To p u r c h a s e a l u m i n a r y, p l e a s e c o n t a c t A m y Chase at aachase@mta.ca or for m o r e i n f o a b o u t R e l a y, c o n t a c t Ryan Reid at rareid@mta.ca.
A RT S & M U S I C C a n a d a C o u n c i l Wr i t e r s Reading
Thursday Oct. 3, 4:30 pm O w e n’s A r t G a l l e r y C a n a d a C o u n c i l Wr i t e r s R e a d i n g featuring Julie Bruck and Susan G l i c k m a n O w e n s A r t G a l l e r y. The author of six collections of p o e t r y, m o s t r e c e n t l y T h e S m o o t h Ya r r o w ( 2 0 1 2 ) , S u s a n G l i c k m a n i s also a novelist (The Violin Lover, 2 0 0 6 a n d T h e Ta l e - T e l l e r , 2 0 1 2 ) a n d c r i t i c . J u l i e B r u c k ’s t h i r d collection of poetry with Brick Books, Monkey Ranch, won the 2 0 1 2 G o v e r n o r G e n e r a l ’s Aw a r d f o r P o e t r y.
E n s e m b l e D i r e c t o r ’s Retreat
Saturday Oct. 5, 9:00 am M a r j o r i e Yo u n g B e l l C o n s e r v a t o r y A day of hands-on professional development designed to reinvigorate your directing, build skills, and connect with fellow directors from across the Maritimes. Sessions include Jazz Ensemble, brass workshop, and woodwind workshop.
Ghost of Violence - Atl. Ballet Theatre
Tu e s d a y O c t . 8 , 5 : 3 0 p m Convocation Hall Ghosts of Violence is an award winning multi-media production and cornerstone of Atlantic B a l l e t T h e a t r e o f C a n a d a’s national initiative Celebrate Courage. Celebrate Courage is a ground-breaking national program of Atl. Ballet Theatre of Canada developed to build awareness and dialogue on intimate partner violence in communities large and small across Canada. This is a “ballet with a conscience” to raise awareness of violence in relationships. Events start at 5:30 with refeshments, opening remarks, and discussion; performance begins at 7:00 pm followed by Q&A.
Roman archaeologist presents annual Crake Lectures Leading classical archaeologist Dr. Barbara Borg of Exeter University will present new research on Roman tombs in two public lectures October 17th and 18th as this year’s Crake Lecturer in Classics at Mount Allison University. Author of the recently-published Crisis and Ambition: Tombs and burial customs in third-century CE Rome, Dr. Borg has published widely on the both the Greek and Roman world, in fields varying from geo-archaeology to the relationship between ancient images and texts. Currently she is working on a book on second-century CE Roman tombs. The first presentation is entitled “Family matters: the long life of Roman tombs” and will take place in the Wu Centre, Room 113 of the Dunn Building at 4:30 pm on Thursday October 17th. Her second lecture, “Cooks, Christians and other mortals: new research on the Roman catacombs,” also takes place in the Wu Centre, Room 113 of the Dunn Building at 4:30 pm on Friday October 18th.
S P O RT S Wo m e n ’ s B a s k e t b a l l - A w a y Fr iday Oct. 4 - 6, exhibition
M e n’s B a s k e t b a l l - A w a y Fr iday Oct. 4 - 6, exhibition
Wo m e n ’ s S o c c e r - H o m e Fr iday Oct. 4, 5:00 pm Mt. A vs. U de M
M e n’s S o c c e r - H o m e Fr iday Oct. 4, 7:15 pm Mt. A vs. U de M
Wo m e n ’ s H o c k e y Fr iday Oct. 4 - 6 U d e M To u r n a m e n t
Wo m e n ’ s Vo l l e y b a l l - H o m e Saturday Oct. 5, 9:00 am E x h i b i t o n To u r n a m e n t
M e n’s R u g b y - A w a y
Saturday Oct. 5, 12:00 pm and 2:00pm Mt. A vs. UNB
Wo m e n ’ s R u g b y - H o m e Saturday Oct. 5, 2:00 pm M t . A v s . D a l AC
Golf
Saturday Oct. 5 - 6 ACA A C h a m p i on s h i p s a t Crowbush, Hosted by Holland College
X-Countr y - Away
Saturday Oct. 5, 12:00 pm ACA A M e e t a t S t . An n e
Fo o t b a l l - Aw ay Saturday Oct. 5
Mt. A vs. St. FX Lacrosee - Home
Sunday Oct. 6, 1:00 pm M t . A v s . DA L
Wo m e n ’ s S o c c e r - H o m e Sunday Oct. 6, 1:00 pm Mt. A vs. UNB
M e n’s S o c c e r - H o m e Sunday Oct. 6, 3:15 pm Mt. A vs. UNB
SUBMIT to the SHIP’S LOG If you have a non-profit event that you need to publicize, The Argosy can help. Submissions mucst include the event’s title, time, anad location, along with a brief description. The Argosy reserves the right to edit submissions for length and style. The deadline for submissions is one week prior to publication. Submit an event to argosy@mta.ca {Fine Arts Society Presents}
Fundraising BBQ
Wednesday October 9, 11-2pm In front of Gairdner Hotdogs $2
OPINIONS A THE
RGOSY
w w w. a r g o s y. c a
Independent Student Newspaper of Mount Allison University Thursday October 3, 2013 volume 143 issue 6 Since 1872 Circulation 1,700
62 York Street W. McCain Student Centre Mount Allison University Sackville, New Brunswick E4L 1E2
Telephone 506 364 2236
Email argosy@mta.ca
THE ARGOSY is published by Argosy Publications, Inc., a student run, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization operated in accordance with the province of New Brunswick. THE ARGOSY is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national co-operative of student newspapers. ISSN 0837-1024 The Underbridge Press is a student-run publishing organization at Mount Allison University.
editorialstaff
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Richard Kent
NEWS EDITOR Christopher Balcom
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR SCIENCE EDITOR Norman Nehmetallah Allison O’Reilly FEATURES EDITOR SPORTS EDITOR Tyler Stuart Alex Bates OPINIONS EDITOR HUMOUR EDITOR John Trafford Ian Malcolm ARTS & LITERATURE ONLINE EDITOR EDITOR Madison Downe Julia McMillan
productionstaff PRODUCTION MANAGER Julie Whitenect
PHOTO MANAGER Nick Sleptov
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Emily James
PHOTO EDITOR
COPY EDITORS Susan Parker, Kimberly Sayson
ILLUSTRATOR Lisa Theriault
writingstaff
NEWS WRITER Miriam Namakanda
POLITICAL BEAT WRITER Kevin Levangie FEATURES WRITER Taylor Losier
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER Cameron McIntyre SPORTS WRITER Benjamin Foster SCI/TECH WRITER Martin Omes
ARTS WRITER Daniel Marcotte
operationsstaff BUSINESS MANAGER Megan Landry
CIRCULATIONS Sam Shury
OFFICE MANAGER Charlotte Henderson
IT MANAGER James Isnor
contributors
Owen Beamish, Célina Boothby, Michelle Kidd, Adam Cheeseman, Oliva White , Simon Murray, Joanna Perkin, Sam Moore, Austin Landry, Noel M. Candles, John Kelly
publicationboard
Marilyn Walker (Chair), Dave Thomas, Dan Legere, Filip Jaworski, Charlotte Henderson, Megan Landry, Richard Kent
disclaimers and copyright
The Argosy is the official independent student journal of news, opinion, and the arts, written, edited and funded by the students of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of The Argosy’s staff or its Board of Directors. The Argosy is published weekly throughout the academic year by Argosy Publications Inc. Student contributions in the form of letters, articles, photography, graphic design and comics are welcome. The Argosy reserves the right to edit or refuse all materials deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for print, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles or other contributions can be sent to argosy@mta.ca or directly to a section editor. The Argosy will print unsolicited materials at its own discretion. Letters to the editor must be signed, though names may be withheld at the sender’s request and at The Argosy’s discretion. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Comments , concerns, or complaints about The Argosy’s content or operations should be first sent to the Editor-in-Chief at the address above. If the Editor-in-Chief is unable to resolve a complaint, it may be taken to the Argosy Publications, Inc. Board of Directors. The chairs of the Board of Directors can be reached at the address above. All materials appearing in The Argosy bear the copyright of Argosy Publications, Inc. Material cannot be reprinted without the consent of the Editor-in-Chief.
October 3, 2013
argosy@mta.ca
Dignity trumps telling a story Photojournalists sometimes go to far
Claire Henderson-Hamilton Last Saturday, radical Islamic militants entered a high-end mall in Nairobi, Kenya and opened fire on innocent shoppers, killing fifty-nine and leaving 175 wounded. Shortly after the attack, The New York Times published a series of photographs taken by one of their photojournalists, Tyler Hicks. Carrying with him only a small camera, Hicks, having been nearby, rushed to the site of the shooting. He then spent two hours inside Westgate Mall, capturing the massacre as it unfolded. Many of the twenty photographs in the series show graphic scenes of victims, traumatized and rushing away, or lying on the floor, bloodied and motionless. To say that the photos are haunting is an understatement. These photos are unembellished, but they are also raw in another sense. They expose much more
than the brutal consequences of the shooting. They reveal victims in their most vulnerable state: in the starkest moments of agony, or worse, dead. In a piece for The New York Times, Stanley Gazemba, a Kenyan citizen, describes the day of the massacre as being “like a movie, except it involved real people.” He admitted that, like many of his fellow Kenyans, he felt the urge to witness the shooting for himself and head over to the mall. Hicks may have felt that same need. However, unlike some of his fellow citizens who showed up to donate blood, his photojournalist’s instincts led him to snap shots of the victims. What Hicks and many others seem to forget is Gazemba’s distinction: that is, the horrific events they witnessed were happening to real people. Would he ever think of taking a picture of his loved ones, if they were the ones lying on the floor? The victims are not playing a role and their agony is not put on for the camera. It is genuine, and that is what makes them so vulnerable. The duty of a photojournalist has been debated on an ethical level for years now. For example, people questioned why Kevin Carter—whose photo of a starving Sudanese girl bent over on the ground in front of a stalking vulture won him a Pulitzer Prize—did not help the child reach the United Nations feeding centre she was headed to, instead spending twenty minutes photographing her. Others argued that thanks to the photo,
people became aware of the Sudanese crisis. Is a photojournalist’s duty fulfilled when awareness is raised on a particular issue through his or her work? On the contrary, the need for such basic human sentiments as empathy and respect trumps the need for social awareness. In reality, this is not even the problem surrounding the Nairobi shooting. This tragedy did not require photography to gain wider awareness. Too regularly, we read of shootings in the news. People do not need a photo of a dead man lying in his own blood to grasp the terrible outcome of a massacre. Instead, the issue with Hicks’s photos is the gratuitous exploitation of a person’s life for shock value, just like it was with Richard Drew’s famous photo, “The Falling Man,” taken during the September 11 attacks in New York City. These photos undoubtedly affect viewers. A photojournalist is, above all else, a human being. A respect for the dignity of those vulnerable victims, whether injured or fallen, should be prioritized over a need to record tragedy. As with the Nairobi shooting, such photojournalism desensitizes us not only to violence, but also to those human faces. We should consider that sometimes, words can suffice in getting a message across, especially when the cost of an image is a person’s dignity.
Education in the Nova Scotia election The Liberals are clearly the best of the three options Benjamin Foster Education is a big issue in the upcoming Nova Scotia elections, where the New Democratic Party (NDP) looks to stay in power. Since being elected in 2009, they have cut $35 million from the classrooms and 650 teaching jobs. Statistics Canada reports that the province has the thirdlowest funding per student in Canada. Bullying has been another topic NDP leader Darrell Dexter has been getting heat for because of increasing occurrences, and the death of Halifax teenager Rehtaeh Parsons. When the parties released their education platforms there were many similarities, but a few major things stood out. Things such as capping class sizes, putting a stop to the massive bullying problems, spending more on special needs, and focusing more on reading and writing in the early years of schooling were in each platform. These are all great, but you have to look past these things, and at the differences between the platforms. Starting off, the NDP government needed a great education platform to gain back some of the popularity they lost over a term that was less than magical for the province. All the NDP promised, however, is that they will improve all of the things that they have been doing wrong. They had just as many words putting down the other parties’ platforms as they did for their own promises. The NDP has not tricked the people into believing they did a good job since 2009, so why would we believe that they are going to fix the problems they caused? Ironically, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) and Jamie Baillie promised the most change in their platform. They want to put more accountability and higher expectations on students. This is great. From my own personal experience in high school, the system is set up so
that the students who do not want to work hard or are not quite as smart as others get through without much trouble. When you hit the real world and university, life is not as fair. Nova Scotian kids are not prepared. The worst thing about the PC’s platform is that they want to cut school boards and put money back into the classrooms. President of the Nova Scotia School Boards Association Jamie Stevens explained why. “There might be some savings in this model, but at what cost?” Stevens said. “The rural voice will be further diminished and fewer boards, each with more administration, will not necessarily provide savings.” Nova Scotia would not save that much money, if any at all. Finally, we get to the Liberal Party led by Stephen McNeil, favoured by many, including myself, to win the election. They want to improve a curriculum that has not been reviewed in twenty-five years, and most importantly, cut the tax off provincial student loans for all students. As a university student with a student loan, I’m obviously biased, but think of all the opportunities this cut would create. Students are stuck with debt for years after university because of interest. New graduates with debt can barely s u p p o r t themselves and that means no money to start a family. And if you have money, you can even get further education. This is what Nova Scotia should want for their residents. Nova Scotians will hit the polls on October 8
to elect a new government to lead them for the next four years. Hopefully we all have smartened up from last time and will vote for who will make the changes we need. For me, that is the Liberals and Stephen McNeil.
The Argosy
OPINIONS
www.argosy.ca
Doing unto others? The line between funny and offensive can be a thin one Richard Kent Editor-in-Chief
The September 19 edition of The Argosy contained an article titled “STDs. {Student-typical disorders}.” Many perceived it as funny and in good taste. Unfortunately, not all of our readers shared this assessment: other readers, including some with learning disabilities, felt that The Argosy had, consciously or not, targeted them as members of a marginal group. Both The Argosy’s acting ombudsperson Filip Jaworski and I met with a few concerned individuals following the article’s publication. Some of the people we met with were
gentle: They wondered where the line was between ‘funny’ and ‘offensive’, and asked us to be sensitive. I suggest that determining whether something is ‘funny’ varies on context, and should be left to the individual. Others were angry: How could The Argosy, a publication with relatively strict ethical standards, print an article that seemed to suggest those with legitimate learning or social issues needed to get over themselves? That they were faking it? It did not occur to us at any point prior to publication that the article could be so deeply upsetting to some of our peers. A close review of the article revealed that our editing process could have been more careful. The section captioned “OCD: Obsessive Cat Dependence” had one line bearing a little too much similarity to actual obsessive-compulsive disorder. While it was certainly not our intention to belittle those with OCD, I understand that seeing that in The Argosy could have been hurtful. I know that learning disabilities can
Is Rouhani for real? be challenging at the best of times. One reader told me that he had faced a lifetime of discrimination, bullying, and indifference from peers and educators, based solely on behavioural and learning challenges that no young person could reasonably be expected to solve. He told me he realized that The Argosy had not intended to make fun of him, but that he felt attacked and disrespected all the same. For that, I apologize. This paper will never ask forgiveness for simply hurting someone’s feelings, or for printing something that is not in ‘good taste’. Free speech allows us to do what we do, and when we are at our best, we use it responsibly to critically examine the world around us and to reflect on ourselves. Sometimes, meaningful insight is mean, and I would not have it any other way. But sometimes, we hurt those who do not deserve it. Any part that The Argosy has played in perpetuating the stigmatization of any marginal group was and remains inappropriate. We will be more careful in the future.
The social media ‘undo button’
New California law betrays online uncertainty Mitchell Gunn California Governor Jerry Brown has recently signed a law that requires social media sites to allow minors the option of removing any of their posts that they later come to regret. Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest will now be legally mandated to provide options for permanent post deletion— at least to California citizens under eighteen. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems almost fitting that a story like this comes out around the same time as Harper Havoc, the first big residence party of the year here at Mount Allison. Thanks to the latest scandal surrounding NSA surveillance programs, paranoia about the things we post online coming back to haunt us has reached a fever pitch. People are starting to realize that when you put something on the internet, you can’t know for sure who is going to see it. Of particular concern to the California government, however, are future employers and personal connections. The rationale behind the law is that teens that make mistakes— and, for whatever adolescent reason, post pictures or descriptions of said mistakes on social networking sites— should not have to spend their lives with the stigma of these mistakes staining their reputation. Ignoring the fact that most major social networks already allow any of their users to delete anything they have posted, this new law almost seems as though it is trying to remove the consequences for what kids and teenagers post online. If we show these teenagers that they can repeatedly make mistakes like this and then just delete them at the click of a mouse, it
Drunken and embarrising photos have been known to show up online. (Photo Illistration by Nick Sleptov/Argosy) will teach them that nobody ever has to know if they step out of line. Real life is not like this. Unfortunately, mistakes can sometimes have serious repercussions, and we do not have a universal ‘undo’ button. We can’t just edit our lives and forget everything we’ve done wrong. And this is all to say nothing of the potential legal ramifications: consider the vast increasing concerns over cyberbullying and the rising number of charges laid for harassment on the Internet. An angry, bullying post is certainly a mistake that an adolescent poster could regret, and the potential resulting criminal record is certainly a stigma that could hinder his or her future. Under this California law, should we be trying to exempt bullies from these damaging consequences? Of course, this argument could easily be criticized as obeying the letter of the law and not the spirit, but it demonstrates how we as a society are still trying to decide how we view the Internet. Namely, do online interactions follow the same rules as in real life, and should they carry the same penalties? For example, earlier this year it was revealed that one Justin Carter, a nineteen year old living in Texas,
7
has been imprisoned for months due to a sarcastic comment on Facebook. When another commenter called him “crazy” for his opinion on a video game, Carter responded by agreeing that he was “messed up in the head” and “going to go shoot up a school.” Tasteless as it may have been, Carter’s very next comment explained that he was only joking. Regardless, someone reported the comments to the authorities and he could be facing up to eight years in jail for “making terroristic threats.” So, with this in mind, it seems clear that both legislators and society as a whole need to seriously reconsider how the Internet is viewed and the interactions that take place there. We cannot simultaneously give teenagers carte blanche for their online behaviour and send one of them to jail for a sarcastic Facebook comment. The Internet is still somewhat of a new frontier, at least from a legal point of view. Governments all across the world are trying to establish boundaries for what is and is not acceptable online behaviour. As these examples demonstrate, there is definitely a long way to go.
With any luck, cooler heads will surely prevail Tessa Dixon The world breathed a tentative sigh of relief when a groundbreaking phone call between the respective leaders of the United States and Iran opened up their first direct line of communication in thirty-four years. In a recent interview with CNN, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sparked international interest when he declared that the Holocaust was “reprehensible and condemnable.” This is in stark contrast to the disposition of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who often dismissed the Holocaust as a hoax. During the United Nations’ nonaligned movement conference, Rouhani maintained his pleasantly shocking standpoint on nuclear weapons, pleading that “we have now an architecture of treaties, norms, and forums that aims to achieve this agreed goal. Yet, thousands of these weapons continue to pose the greatest threat to peace. Steps for de-targeting, de-alerting, or reducing the number of nuclear weapons are not a substitute for their total elimination.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned President Obama that Rouhani is nothing but “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and that his charm is a façade. So, what is the West to do? If there is any hope for peace in the Middle East, the United States would be wise to accept Rouhani’s olive branch and hold on tight. As a democratically-elected president, Rouhani is responding to the desires of the Iranian people, and to ignore his extended hand would be a crushing blow to the people and future foreign relations in the Middle East. If Iran was in fact using this newfound shift in government as a ruse for a sinister scheme, they would be setting themselves up for disaster. The United States would surely retaliate in full force, using every economic and military advantage they have.
However, releasing eighty political prisoners may not be the sign of a man bent on war. Should he renege on his word, Rouhani would lose the chance of rebuilding Iran and would be forever scrutinized. The world is reaching a turning point and the new Iranian president knows this. The West and the Middle East have equal right to be skeptical of one another. Only actions and time will tell whether or not this pivotal moment will come to fruition. Secrecy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program has strapped the country with economic sanctions that are crippling its economy. Massive falls in oil revenue and industrial demand has contributed to the 8.5 million unemployed Iranians. Should talks of Iran’s nuclear program reach understandable results for both parties, Obama has hinted toward the removal of Americandriven sanctions. “The test will be meaningful, transparent, and verifiable actions which can also bring relief from the comprehensive international sanctions that are currently in place,” Obama said. Rouhani is walking a dangerous road. The world is tentative and so are his people. Trying to form a relationship with a former enemy and pleasing both moderate and conservative citizens is a huge undertaking—and he has only been on the job for four months. However, transparency with international communities will give Iran the opportunity to flourish economically. Rouhani is vying for social equality, and Iran could be the model of potential in the Middle East. Prosperity plays a big part in providing the means to create a society that has the structural and international footing to accomplish these goals. Iran has taken the first step, removing nuclear authority from the Supreme National Security Council, which is often swayed by conservative hardliners, and has placed it in the hands of the moderate Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. A month ago, a friendly relationship between the West and Tehran was incomprehensible. Now, as a testament to the power of democracy, new leadership prevails.
Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani has warmed relations with the United States. (Government of Iran/Wikimedia Commons)
SCIENCE Honours Profile Robyn MacLellan
October 3, 2013
Valve announces console Gaming giant expanding into untapped market Martin Omes Science Writer
Robyn MacLellan using a pipette in her Flemington lab. (Allison O’Reilly/Argosy)
Allison O’Reilly Science Editor
Robyn MacLellan is a fourth-year biochemistry student completing honours research under the supervision of Suzanne Currie, who is currently on sabbatical, and Tyson MacCormack. MacLellan’s thesis is entitled, “Elasmobranchs as models of stress: the effect of hypo-osmotic stress on the chemical and molecular chaperone systems of the spiny dogfish shark (Squalus acanthus).” MacLellan conducted most of her research for this project over the summer in the Mount Desert Island Biological Lab in Salsbury Cove, Maine. Elasmobranchs are a subclass of cartilaginous fish that includes sharks, skates, and rays. The animal that MacLellan is focusing on for her research is the spiny dogfish shark, which falls into this subclass. MacLellan looked at stress, specifically hypo-osmotic stress, on these sharks. MacLellan exposed specimens to an environment with seventy percent seawater. These specimens were attached with an arterial cannula (a piece of tubing surgically inserted into an artery) to draw blood without causing unnecessary stress. Blood was taken at four separate times over forty-eight hours: at time zero (before salinity dropped from one hundred percent seawater to seventy percent), time three (upon completion of salinity drop to seventy percent), time twenty-four, and time forty-eight. After all necessary blood samples were taken, the specimens were euthanized and tissues were collected for further analysis. In the blood samples, MacLellan is looking for heat shock proteins, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), and urea concentration. Elasmobranchs are known as osmoconformers, meaning that when they are exposed to a change in salinity, they try to cope with the new stress by conforming their internal osmotic pressure to that of the seawater. TMAO is an osmolyte that significantly contributes to the sharks’ osmotic pressure constant, and is known as a cellular protectant.
MacLellan is trying to determine if, during a stressful event, the dogfish sharks dump TMAO and urea concentrations out of their cells while inducing heat shock proteins. TMAO also indirectly promotes proper protein conformation—in the face of stress, proteins can denature (an unfavourable process), and if the specimens are dumping TMAO, they are losing that protective system. If they are dumping TMAO, heat shock proteins will be induced to cope with the potential of protein denaturation. MacLellan’s project is relevant due to its implications for climate change. Seawater is being gradually diluted due to melting polar ice caps—sea animals, now more than ever, are facing the threat of diluted seawater. Spiny dogfish sharks have been known to travel into estuaries and brackish water for breeding and to escape predators. MacLellan aims to learn how they cope with this, which could provide further insight into how other organisms could potentially cope as well. Her research has implications for human health as well. Heat shock proteins are a highly conserved protein family, meaning they are present in most animals. By learning how animals such as elasmobranchs cope with stress, comparative studies can be completed in the future. MacLellan explains that Currie was the reason she chose Mount Allison to pursue her studies. While still in the twelfth grade, MacLellan booked a campus tour that included the chance to talk to a professor. After meeting Currie, MacLellan was really struck by how passionate she was for teaching, her students, and her research. This experience made MacLellan realize that Mt. A was a close-knit community that was right for her. Now that she is working for her, MacLellan says that as a supervisor, Currie is “fantastic” and is a “great resource.” “She expects you to work independently and to learn things for yourself, but is always there when you have questions.” MacLellan says that this independent learning method works best for her.
argosy@mta.ca
Since March of 2012, gaming company Valve has been rumoured to be in development of a Steam-based piece of hardware. This past week, it delivered three huge announcements, which included the announcement of the long-rumoured ‘Steam Box’. Officially called Steam Machines, the hardware will run on the new operating system under development called SteamOS, which is a Linuxbased operating system designed to play Linux games and stream Windows and Mac games, along with other media from your computer, to the big screen. SteamOS will allow you to stream over your own home network onto your TV using the
Steam Machine. Valve also unveiled a controller to go along with the SteamOS and Steam Machine. The Steam Controller includes two circular track pads that will appeal to gamers who are used to inputs associated with PC gaming and will allow for “a far higher fidelity input” than having toggles like other console controllers. It will also include a highresolution clickable touch screen and sixteen buttons, two of which are on the back. Before the Steam Machine hits the market, Valve will produce its own prototype device to test out the SteamOS, but it will only be made available to 300 Steam users. To get your hands on the free Steam Machine, you will have to complete an ‘eligibility quest’ on Steam before October 25. This requires you to make ten Steam friends, create a public Steam profile, and play a game in ‘big picture mode’, among other achievements. Valve did not share any details about what the device actually looks like or its internal specs. They also
were vague on the timing, saying only that the devices will ship sometime this year. However, since SteamOS is an open source, ambitious gamers can build their own box to run SteamOS once it is released to play PC games on their TVs. The advantage of SteamOS compared to a PlayStation or an Xbox is that the specs can be interchanged. There will be upgrades on the system that will be similar to upgrading your computer. However, the Steam Box is a media player built for a TV while a PC can do pretty much anything that requires a screen. So while it is tempting to think people could gradually migrate to a Steam Box when it’s time for a PC upgrade, the question is whether or not they would be prepared to axe the benefits they’re accustomed to. This brings up major questions for PC gamers. Do they even want to play on the TV? Is this a waste of money for Valve? Or is it a godsend package to PC gamers who have felt underwhelmed with all the console news over the past few months?
New organelle discovered by French scientists
The tannosome produces a bitter taste in plants Nick Sleptov Photo Manager
There are some scientific papers that get massive media attention and spark heated debates, becoming the topic of conversation for weeks. However, there are also papers of enormous scientific value that do not get the attention they deserve. While the majority of people were buzzing about cancer research, zebrafish, and Alzheimer’s disease, most have missed a wonderful event—the discovery of a new plant organelle. It is always exciting when such discoveries happen in established and seemingly ‘researched enough’ fields. So, what is the new organelle, who discovered it, and why do we care? The new organelle, named tannosome, is responsible for the production of condensed tannins in vascular plants. Condensed tannins, also called proanthrocyanidins, are present in the majority of vascular plants and serve multiple functions. They are important for protection against herbivores due to their bitter taste, and they provide defence against UV radiation and pathogens. For many years, researchers had proposed that tannins originate in the endoplasmic reticulum of plant cells. However, no ultrastructural studies had been performed to investigate this question. This is why a French research team decided to investigate the problem. Scientists had already known that structurally condensed tannins are polymers of catechins. Catechins themselves are a broad family of aromatic compounds, meaning that they have ring structures that resemble benzene. Since all aromatic
Tannosomes are an organelle found in the cells of plants. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) compounds in plants are produced in chloroplasts through the shikimate pathway, the research team decided to examine chloroplasts of many different plants for a possible site of tannin production. They found that not all chloroplasts were the same. Some were classic ‘textbook’ chloroplasts, while others appeared to be more swollen and circular in appearance. Not only did those chloroplasts look different, they also released vesicular structures in cytosol (intracellular space). Further examination revealed that those vesicles were sectioned at regular intervals into small spheres filled with material that turned black upon staining from osmium tetroxide. Those were the tannosomes and these vesicles packed with the tannosomes ending their journey by penetrating into the vacuole. Why do we care? First, this finding demonstrates the fact that even some
of the most studied areas still retain a lot of surprises. Second, tannins are major components of wines and teas, adding bitterness in taste and contributing to viscosity. Perhaps in the future, we could be enjoying a glass of wine or a cup of tea made from plants with modified tannins. This has the potential to make those drinks taste better, add more health benefits, and possibly lead to developing new varieties. What is next? Now that we know where the tannins are made, we can start learning more about the way they are polymerized. This can lead to a number of applications, from smoother wines to the invention of novel biodegradable materials. I am sure that the French research team is ecstatic about the former and hopeful about the latter. Their work has just started, but the possibilities are only limited by imagination.
The Argosy
SCIENCE
www.argosy.ca
9
Ancient oxygen discovery rewrites history of life on earth Photosynthesis evolved earlier than thought Allison O’Reilly Science Editor
A study led by a scientist in British Columbia suggests that we need to reshape the way we think about how life evolved on earth. In a study released last Wednesday by biogeochemist Sean Crowe, it was found that oxygen appeared in the Earth’s atmosphere up to 700 million years earlier than what was once thought. Before publication of the study, scientists believed that photosynthesis evolved in singlecelled organisms approximately 2.7 billion years ago. Photosynthesis is the process used by plants and similar organisms to convert light energy (typically from the sun), into chemical energy. Oxygen is produced during photosynthesis. Early photosynthetic organisms were thought to have given rise to a time period known as the Great Oxidation Event, which was believed to be the first time the
atmosphere began accumulating a significant amount of oxygen. This event was dated as approximately 2.3 billion years ago. This event led to the evolution of more complex multicellular organisms that can survive in oxygen-rich atmospheres. If confirmed, this study will be significant because it suggests that life forms able to produce oxygen may have arisen a lot earlier than previously thought. Crowe, who is an assistant professor in the department of earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences and the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of British Columbia, claimed that others have found traces of oxygen in samples that are older than 2.3 billion years (before the Great Oxidation Event). Unfortunately, the chemical signals were never strong enough to analyze. This is due to the fact that the oldest samples that were analyzed were often from the bottom of the ocean, which aren’t in direct contact with the atmosphere. The soils that were analyzed in the study date back to 2.95 billion years ago. They were found in KwazuluNatal Province, South Africa. Crowe collaborated with colleagues at the University of Southern Denmark to test the samples for oxygen. The process used to test for
oxygen is a more sensitive technique than previous tests, and involved looking for chromium atoms. These isotopes are sensitive to reactions using oxygen. The heavier form of the atom, chromium-53, is slightly more soluble when oxidized than the lighter chromium-52. Over time, soils that have been oxidized should show depleted levels of chromium-53 due to rainwater washing it away. Sea sediments, where products of weathering typically end up, are enriched in chromium-53. The tests showed low concentrations, but enough to analyze. T h e oxygen levels detected in the samples were only a 10,000th of present day levels, and a 200th of the levels that followed the Great Oxygenation Event. Through computer modelling, oxygen levels during this time were shown to
The Rotten Loggers in Jasper
Mount Allison students study decomposing sub-alpine trees
This may provide a challenge, as 3 billion year old rocks are hard to come by (at least ones that have not undergone significant alteration).
Environmental News Olivia White
Adam Cheeseman Students from both the GENS 3401 and GENV 3701 class at Mount Allison have been busy completing environmental science/studies research projects. This includes a group of students who call themselves the ‘Rotten Loggers’ research group. These researchers are studying the rates of decay for Engelmann spruce in subalpine areas. Their goals are to understand whether or not decomposition rates for Engelmann spruce are increasing, decreasing, or remaining constant under the influence of climatic variations. This group spent two days collecting samples from decomposing and live logs in their study area near Hilda Creek Rock Glacier in Jasper National Park. Before sampling began, the team developed a classification system to qualitatively define stages of decomposition based on physical characteristics (i.e. amount of bark, presence of moss). Through the use of this classification system, it was possible to collect a diversity of samples at different stages of decay. Once the dead samples had been collected, live Engelmann tree cores were collected from trees near the decayed logs. These cores are being used to typify the radialgrowth pattern, or signature, of how the trees have been growing at the site over the past few hundred years. After arriving back in Sackville,
be five times higher than the amount that can be generated without the help of photosynthesis-capable organisms. The team wishes to test its findings further on other rocks from different parts of the world.
Students in the ‘Rotten Loggers’ group in Jasper National Park. (Adam Cheeseman/Submitted)
these researchers have worked extensively in the Mount Allison Dendrochronology (MAD) Lab using dendrochronology methods to determine the growth signatures of the live and dead samples collected from the study site. “Everything is going well with the project so far; we’re currently cross-dating [pattern matching] our samples,” said Robyn Snook, a member of the Rotten Loggers team. “There hasn’t been a lot of research in this area so we are pretty excited to be able to take part in it.” This research has many practical benefits to the field of alpine
research and dendrochronology. By understanding the changes in decomposition rates as a result of a changing climate, it is also possible to gain knowledge relating to issues with nutrient cycling and other important ecological processes in sub-alpine ecosystems. All members are very excited to disseminate their primary results and conclusions at the Atlantic Canadian Association of Geographers (ACAG) conference in Moncton, New Brunswick later this month. Adam Cheeseman is a fourth-year environmental science student. Check out The Argosy for more Jasper coverage.
Members of the environmental science community were shocked when the chairman of the New Brunswick Energy Institute resigned after admitting to false claims of having a doctorate in environmental science. Louis LaPierre said in a letter to the provincial government that he takes full responsibility for his actions and apologizes for any embarrassment he has caused to people who placed their trust in him. Concerns were first raised when a Radio-Canada report raised questions about LaPierre’s academic history. LaPierre claimed to have a PhD in ecology from the University of Maine. Upon further investigation, it became evident that this was not entirely true. LaPierre does hold a PhD, though it is in education, not science, and it is from Walden, an online university based in Minnesota. Colleagues and other members of the environmental science community expressed deep concern over the impact his resignation has on the credibility of many of the projects LaPierre was a part of. Ian Jones, a biology professor at Memorial University, said the resignation is a “tragedy” for environmental assessments in Atlantic Canada. LaPierre was a powerful figure in many environmental evaluations in the region. His involvement was so extensive that it would be difficult to go back and re-evaluate their integrity. “I think the public needs to consider what else was compromised in the array of important environmental processes that were largely controlled by this individual,” said Ian Goudie, a wildlife biologist who worked on a project that was chaired by LaPierre
while he worked with the Institute for Environmental Monitoring and Research. Though these academics and many others are concerned over the credibility of LaPierre’s work, the New Brunswick Government doesn’t seem to agree. New Brunswick Energy Minister Craig Leonard contends that the controversy does not tarnish the work LaPierre did for the province as chair on the New Brunswick Energy Institute. Premier David Alward also agrees that the contentions over LaPierre’s credentials do not undermine the work he and the institute have done, and that it is premature to be ordering reviews of the institute’s reports. The news of LaPierre’s misrepresented academic credentials adds another piece of momentum to the ongoing debate of shale gas exploration in the province, an issue he had been advising the provincial government on for the past few years as chair of the institute. Leonard said that science was never an aspect of LaPierre’s job during the NB Energy Institute’s research on shale gas. This is a major shift from comments the government made last year touting the integrity and importance of LaPierre’s scientific reputation. Premier Alward noted on January 31 that “Dr. LaPierre is an internationally-recognized scientist.” Whether the government will choose to call for reviews of the New Brunswick Energy Institute’s work under LaPierre has yet to be seen. LaPierre’s controversial resignation will no doubt cast an air of caution around the integrity of any work he has been involved with during his career.
10 CULTURE DAYS
October 3, 2013
Downtown area comes alive with music and art Julia McMillan
Arts & Literature Editor
A jazz trio at the Scotia bank, an improv comedy group at the Salvation Army, and an accordion player in front of Mel’s Tea Room are not sights one expects to see in Sackville on an ordinary Friday afternoon. Last Friday was not ordinary. On September 27, artists of all kinds lined the streets and occupied local businesses as part of the fourth annual Culture Days event. The activities were coordinated by Commerce professor Rosemary Polegato and her students in the Arts and Culture Marketing course. Culture Days is a national movement intended to celebrate Canada’s flourishing artistic communities. In Sackville, the student-led event works to unite the town and the university communities through cultural engagement. During Culture Days activities, the downtown core comes alive as students bring their music and artwork to the public in an interactive way. Ten Sackville businesses participated in Culture Days, transforming their spaces into expected and unconventional venues for student artists. Because the artists used establishments as their platforms, community members experienced local talent without changing their daily routines. “Culture Days is all about giving accessibility to the arts—to everyone, to all Canadians,” explains Polegato. “There is a formal definition for Culture Days: to increase awareness, engagement, accessibility and participation of all Canadians in the cultural lives of the community. And that just seems like a fantastic thing
Community canvas encourages collaborative art Tyler Stuart
Features Editor The mayor, a CTV reporter, Mount Allison students, community members, and a dog gathered around an easel outside Royal Bank of Canada and helped Sackville express itself on canvas. They passed the paintbrush around, adding different colours and textures to their piece of art. The Sun shone in the top right corner. A streak of yellow cut through blue splotches that peppered the canvas. After contributing, the artists discussed their communal efforts. Some artists didn’t use the paintbrush. At one point, a dog contributed to the canvas with a painted paw.
argosy@mta.ca
for Mount Allison students to be involved in.” Business owners are also enthusiastic about their involvement in the annual event. Fog Forest Gallery owner Janet Crawford has participated in Culture Days in Sackville since its inception in 2010. She looks forward to the activities each year. “I love it! It is something I want to be associated with because I think it is absolutely essential that we spend as much time as possible getting the word out there,” said Crawford. “There is no way to better do that in a community than actually having people right there, in your face—in the bank, in the post office, in the grocery store, in the streets.” Students from all artistic disciplines, including drama, music, fine arts, and English participated in the Culture Days activities. Second year Fine Arts student Corrine Mayber set up a makeshift art exhibition in Mel’s Tea Room to showcase one of her linocut prints. Mayber said she was thrilled to be part of Culture Days for the second time. “It is a really great way for people in the community to get out and see what other people have been up to,” she said. “I think I’m going to come back and do this every year if I can.” This year’s Culture Days theme was “Culture Me Happy,” a play on the phrase ‘colour me happy.’ It was intended to reflect the diversity of both the artistic community and the people in Sackville. The theme was developed by students in the Arts and Culture Marketing course. Businesses involved in Culture Days 2013 included Canada Post, Fog Forest Gallery, Jean Coutu, Joey’s Pizza & Pasta, Mel’s Tea Room, Royal Bank, Salvation Army Thrift Store, Save Easy, Scotiabank, and Tidewater Books. Approximately eighty Culture Days events were celebrated all across Canada between September 27, 28, and 29. Commerce professor Rosemary Polegato said that the painting, entitled “Sackville Expressions”, was meant to reflect the diversity of art and people in the Sackville community. While many of the artists at Culture Days performed for an audience, the Community Canvas took a more collaborative approach last Friday. “We wanted to get people involved in making a piece of art, rather than just watching it,” said third-year Commerce student Alicia Kenny. Kenny was one of the students facilitating the creation of the painting. “What impresses me is it seems to be student-driven,” Moncton-bases CTV reporter David Bell said. Sackville mayor Bob Berry, who participated in the painting, said he was pleased to see people expressing themselves in town. “It’s just another one of those things that Mount Allison University contributed to this town, and it contributes a lot.”
The Community Canvass aimed to showcase the eclectic nature of Sackville residents (left, Nick Sleptov/Argosy).Students in the Arts and Culture Management course facilitated various cultural activities (top left, Nick Sleptov/Argosy). For one hour, Culture Days participants danced, acted and played musical instruments on the streets for members of the community (right, Nick Sleptov/Argosy).
The Argosy
CULTURE DAYS
www.argosy.ca
Caroline Koveski
Second-year Sociology student Dancer at Save Easy “Improvisation is, I think, the truest expression of yourself because when you’re improvising, you don’t have any time to stop and think about the image that you are portraying. It is really just who you are.”
Greg McLaughlin
Fourth-year Drama student Comédia del Arté student “We do this kind of stuff in class all the time, but we don’t get the same kind of response from people. So to have people laugh and interact – which is really important to this style of theatre – is great to see.”
Michael C. Duguay
Student in Arts and Culture Management Course “It’s good to remind the community that the students are more than just people who butt in front of them on the sidewalks, that they have lots of skills and talents that people don’t always get to see if they’re not checking out the students’ GPAs and how good their essays are. It’s an opportunity to see some of the skills that the students have.”
Robert Materi
Second-year Music Student Trombone player at Fog Forest Gallery “For the public, not everyone knows what culture is about. Like the art gallery: many people would just walk by this building—I know I have before. It’s just being able to know that these buildings exist, and that all the artwork, and all this music is all around us. Culture Days lets people know its there, and allows people to see it.”
Jordan Bedard
Media Group Member Arts and Culture Marketing Course “It’s really nice to see the different variety of different talent that Mt.A has to offer and how the Sackville Community reacts to it. A lot of people seem really interested in going to see all the shows and it’s really nice to see.”
11
ARTS & LITERATURE
October 3, 2013
argosy@mta.ca
Sackville Early Music Festival celebrates the past Performances send audiences back in time
Daniel Marcotte & Julia McMillan
Arts & Literature Staff
This year’s installment of the Sackville Early Music Festival attracted crowds of students and Sackville residents last weekend with a series of incredible performances that aimed to enthrall and educate its audience with the help of several Renaissance and Baroque composers. Since 2007, the Festival has operated in conjunction with the Centre for Artistic Achievement, and organization founded in 2004 that seeks to foster appreciation and recognition of classical music and art. Featuring seasoned performers such as the talented Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc, as well as Linda Pearse and Gayle Martin of Mount Allison’s own Department of Music, the Festival delivered an exceptional lineup of concerts dedicated to the celebration of early music. Suzie LeBlanc – “The Wedding Day” A humble yet passionate crowd gathered in the Mount Allison chapel on September 27, a fitting venue for a concert dedicated to the theme of love and marriage. Entitled “The Wedding Day”, the program featured a selection of Baroque and Renaissance music performed by Suzie LeBlanc (vocals), Alexander Weimann (harpsichord/ organ), and Nick Halley (percussion). LeBlanc has gained international fame with her captivating vocals and
The Sackville Early Music Festival is a celebration of Renaissance and Baroque music that features world renowned performers like Suzie LeBlanc. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) lively personality. Specializing in Early Music, LeBlanc has collaborated with many well-known musicians and continues to be active in both recording and performing. As LeBlanc is of Acadian heritage, the evening was refreshingly bilingual, and featured two short Acadian songs, the first of which was traditionally played for the bride to help her “shed a few tears” as LeBlanc explained onstage, whereas the latter was a more upbeat and celebratory number. The addition of percussion to many of the pieces was a more contemporary choice that added a unique “folksy” and casual flair to the performances. The program was assembled much like a traditional wedding, with more serious and religious songs by Rossi
and Monteverdi comprising the first half, then moving to dances and traditional songs in the second half to represent the merriment following the wedding ceremony. This method also ensured that the audience could witness the full range of LeBlanc’s and Weimann’s musical capabilities, from deep, resonant hymns to the playful, jaunty Tarantellas of the evening’s conclusion. Choeur Louisbourg and Orchestra The Choeur Louisbourg also performed as part of the festival on September 28, at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church. The choir, a favourite of Sackville Early Music Festival audiences, performed a repertoire of Baroques pieces by Henry Purcell and Antonio Vivaldi. The group
was directed by Monique Richard, and accompanied by a small, but striking orchestra featuring violins, an alto violin, a cello and alternating violoncelle and, a harpsichord and alternating clavecin. The use of relatively uncommon period instruments gave the performance an authentic musical aesthetic, enabling audience members to be transported to the Baroque era. The choir’s strong and resonating voices filled the church, complimented by its excellent acoustics. Baroque music is characteristically methodical, and adheres to strict rules of counterpoint featuring ascending and descending melodies filled with densely layered harmonies. The choir respected the conventions of the pieces with
careful, yet passionate intonations that conveyed strong emotions of praise and spiritual revelation. ¡Sacabuche! – “Venetia 1500” Both the concluding event for the Sackville Early Music Festival and the opening concert in this year’s Performing Arts Series, “Venetia 1500” is a project that investigates the music and culture of Venice in the 16th century. In addition to a series of songs and pieces performed by eleven multitalented vocalists and instrumentalists, the concert featured several poetry readings and spoken-word historical contextualization that situated the audience deep within the heart of Venetian society. Armed with traditional instruments of the Renaissance including a shawm, lute, theorbo, Baroque violins, and a trio of sackbuts, ¡Sacabuche! filled Brunton Auditorium with the sounds of Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli, in addition to three short pieces composed specifically for the event by Kevin Morse of the Department of Music at Mount Allison. Though many of these pieces celebrated and explored the rich culture of the Italian Renaissance, the concert also explicated the darker history of Italian anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Venice, and showed respect to those persecuted or ghettoized during this period by performing a small collection of traditional Jewish and Turkish folk songs. Because the concert functioned not only as an enjoyable evening of Renaissance music but also an academic look into the history of Venice, it left the audience feeling entertained and educated and served as a perfect finale for the Sackville Early Music Festival.
Creative Corner “Centipede” by Noel M. Candles Helen was still young enough that dreams were not clearly separable from memory. Her mother was a babysitter, but told other grownups she was a caregiver. It took a lot out of her. She said this to other adults, “It takes a lot out of you.” Helen thought what was taken out of her mother must be hidden beneath, because nothing had gone missing from her mother’s outside except the bad moods. Though Helen was too young to have words for that. Fall, a PA day. Her mother took the daycare to the woods. Sometimes they were allowed to leave the path. And romping Helen tossing handfulls of leaves found an eye to elsewhere in a tree stump. She stopped running. She kneeled to look into it. A centipede, black and leggy, slipped from the hole, smelled the air, disappeared into the leaves. Helen began to notice. A lone ant climbed the rotting bark. A daddy longlegs floated on its thin brown legs. Two slugs coiled together on a leaf. Creatures teemed on every surface, every fold of leaf and log. Helen parted the rustling leaves to find the centipede. A thread of worm moved in lunges by graybacked pillbugs, earwigs, rove beetles, proturans, pseudoscorpions, uncoiled millipedes, thousands of mote-sized springtails. She saw things it seemed impossible to see. She may have seen the protozoa, tardigrades, bacteria, swarming in their droplet seas. And when she blinked she saw the spring peeper, perched nearby, small as her finger, its lungs pulsing, as she caught sight of the very last legs
of the centipede sliding deep into the leaves. The forest seemed changed. The details explosive. “Helen!” her mother called. Helen feared a massacre. If she lifted her black boots she knew she’d see hundreds of bodies crushed together. She needed to be on the path, where she could see what she stepped on. She could not take a step. Her mother waved her over. “Helen, come here.” Other children stood with her mother by the stroller. They all watched her. A wind brought more leaves sailing down. “Helen,” the old mother flared up, “Helen. Right now.” Tears and snot plugged the pipes of her face. All the other times Helen ran and galloped and stomped through the woods, what worlds ended beneath her boots? Constellations of tiny dead things swirled incoherent, collecting their eyes on her. Anger. “Helen. I’m going to count to three. One.” She would have to clear a path in the leaves to the trail. “Two.” She was terrified to be left alone. “Three.” She knew no words to say it, no child’s language of mercy came to her lips, no means to despserately convey the important thing: that the other children must stay on the path, they
Tyler Stuart must keep their eyes on their feet. She heard boots plowing through the leaves. The rustle. Sticks breaking like bones and exoskeletons. Her mother gripped her roughly by the arm. Animals like hidden beads were all around them. Helen resisted being pulled. Her mother picked her up by the hips and Helen went happily slack. For the rest of the walk Helen clung to the stroller. The other children kicked leaves by the path, yelling at the sight of gliding snakes. Helen was petrified, watching the ground between her boots. Moss, roots, ants on pebbles. It was hard to be delicate when the stroller jerked her forward but Helen managed not to step on anything. She had a long time out on the stairs at home. But Helen felt deep relief to be in a place where the floors were bare. The others left. Helen played cars on the kitchen tiles. Her mother ran between the counter and the stove pot with handfuls of vegetables. She paused for a moment to watch her mother, and saw a leggy black ribbon step out from under the oven. A centipede. Like the first had followed her. It’s hard to say how but Helen was changed by that centipede, the accident of her mother’s foot, which fell precisely to crush only the centipede’s head. The writhing body frenzied to escape its own crushed brain. Even supperless and alone Helen couldn’t stop screaming.
“Before Us”
Grass garnishes the strip between Two roads cutting through the country. Like a lawn, it gleams and welcomes Passersby to keep their drive. A tree stands alone in the strip— Beautiful, Like a hair on a naked dog— Beautiful now That its neighbors are cut. Beautiful then Because we were not here, In the naked streets and stores, Nor there, in the woods, where The same beauty stood before— A coat.
“On Honey”
Class begins: The professor’s smoke Fills our lungs, Pulls our eyelids. He speaks through A netted veil. He inhales the sweet We regurgitate. Class dismissed: As the smoke lifts, I hear my mind Begin to buzz.
The Argosy
ARTS & LITERATURE
www.argosy.ca
Continued from cover covering male twentieth century writers, they’d be told to pack their bags; there is a reason that academic institutions require distribution credits. Furthermore, excluding over fifty per cent of the world’s population from academic study based solely on personal preference is not only a failing grade in representation, it’s
also blatant ignorance. After all, the role of education is to help students broaden their perspectives and explore new ways of thinking that we may not have considered or even bothered to examine before. How can students expect to achieve this if their professors aren’t open to it either? The unfortunate and paradoxical reality is that sexism still exists because individuals like Gilmour aren’t reading literature by women and are thus still unaware of their privilege and biases. Don’t worry David—I’m not asking
you to stop loving Henry Miller or Philip Roth. I’m asking you to consider why you love them so much. I’m asking you to step outside your box a little and teach some literature by non-white, non-heterosexual, non-cis male writers, because I promise it will be well worth the experience for both you and your students. As Harper Lee once said, “The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think.”
A ballet with a conscience Ghosts of Violence puts spotlight on violence against women Julia McMillan
Arts & Literature Editor The issue of relationship violence will be centre stage during the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada’s production of “Ghosts of Violence.” The critically acclaimed ballet will be performed at Convocation Hall on October 8. The free event is produced as part of the company’s national Celebrate Courage initiative to end violence against girls and women. The Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada premiered “Ghosts of Violence” in 2011 in an effort to bring the issue of domestic violence to the spotlight, and raise awareness and understanding around the complex problem. The ballet is an innovative, multimedia production written by famous Canadian playwright, Sharon Pollock. Pollock, along with community partners and choreographer and artistic director, Igor Dobrovolskiy, will host a pre-show discussion at 6:40, following opening remarks by Robert Campbell at 6:30. The discussion is intended to create an inclusive and educational dialogue surrounding issues of domestic and relationship violence. The performance is scheduled to begin at 7 pm. Although the ballet is sure to be moving on an artistic level, CEO of Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, Susan Chalmers-Gauvin emphasizes that the performance is primarily about raising awareness around relationship violence against women. “By exposing this issue to people at a young age, we hope to play a role in breaking the cycle. Intimatepartner violence against girls and women, including dating violence, has enormous social and economic costs for society,” said Chalmers-Gauvin. The ballet company believes that discussion and education are imperative to the promotion of social change. Prior to the performance, students will have the chance to educate themselves on issues of intimate partner violence by visiting booths and exhibits set up by the by community service providers and the Mount Allison Students’ Union. The booths will be available for viewing an hour before the event, at 5:30 pm. Melody Petlock, Mt. A’s sexual harassment advisor and coordinator of S.H.A.R.E (Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Education), was instrumental in bringing this event
13
Artist Profile Ruthie Payzant Julia McMillan Arts & Literature Editor What if the Disney fairy tales we know and love featured very different characters than the ones we’ve encountered, like a chubby princess with a big nose, or two princes who fell in love? How would our ideas about society change? These are the questions fourth year fine arts student Ruthie Payzant wants to answer through her art practice. Payzant, primarily an illustrator, is currently working on projects that re-vision the traditional fairy tale. She is in the process of writing and illustrating an original, modern day children’s story meant to reflect themes of tolerance and self-acceptance. She is also simultaneously researching the history of the fairy tales we know today, and using that information in a separate project, wherein she then traces the evolution of fairy tales, both stylistically and morally, through her artwork. As someone who grew up loving Disney princesses and folk tales, the artist now recognizes problems in the classical narratives that she wishes to change. “I want to draw attention to the issues with the fairy tales and our culture’s representation of it. I want to update it by addressing issues like body image and sexuality. I think the genre has gotten out of date,” said Payzant. She adds that fairy tales effectively
convey life lessons because they change the way people think at an early age. “I like the idea of introducing these things when we’re younger. I like the idea of children being able to read fairy tales of two princes, and understanding that that’s okay,” Payzant explained. Introducing methods of conduct and ideology through fairy tales isn’t a new practice. Payzant has been avidly researching original versions of fairy tales, and notes that most of the earlier stories dictated how women ought to act and present themselves in society. She found that in tales by the Grimm Brothers specifically, women were represented as passive, domestic creatures, and that any other method of conduct was viewed as unacceptable. Payzant instead uses her own fiction and illustrations as a pedagogical mouthpiece for more progressive and empowering ideas. This feminist angle of re-working classical fairy tales represents a long awaited change in the modern entertainment industry. Payzant hopes that her work will help bring that shift in ideology to the forefront of contemporary culture. “Young girls growing up face so much pressure. I’d like to say, ‘look at this princess, she’s got a big nose and she’s a little chubby, but she’s still beautiful!’ The younger we introduce these things, the easier it is to accept them growing up,” Payzant said. The fourth year student, who will graduate in May, plans to pursue a career in design and illustration and hopes to work with large companies like Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks.
The Atlantic Ballet Theatre will perform Ghosts of Violence on October 8 as part of an initative to end violence against women. (Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada/Submitted) to campus. She also emphasizes the importance of being informed about domestic and relationship violence. “I think we do need to continually be aware of these issues. As we develop as critical thinkers, we learn to understand power and power dynamics, but we don’t always think of it in the context of our personal relationships as much as we could. I think this event will really afford us the opportunity to keep that awareness and have a new way to frame it,” she said. Petlock believes that presenting issues of violence through art is an important way to raise awareness and student engagement.
“This is not necessarily the kind of material that most people would feel that comfortable with, so to put it into a cultural context sends this message in an appealing way,” said Petlock. “More traditional ballets are based on myths, legends, fairy tales, and [‘Ghosts of Violence’] is taking that idea and turning it into something real and relatable.” “Ghosts of Violence” will also be performed at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton on Friday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m. To learn more about the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada and the Celebrate Courage project, visit http:// atlanticballet.ca.
Payzant’s illustrations re-vision traditional fairy tales by making them more relevant to contemporary audiences. (Illustrations by Ruthie Payzant/Submitted)
ENTERTAINMENT
October 3, 2013
Godspeed responds to Polaris Quebec collective displeased despite winning award
Cameron McIntyre Entertainment Writer
Montreal-based post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s reaction to their success at the Polaris Prize gala was mixed, to be kind about it. They didn’t have an easy short list to compete with either, beating out new albums from Colin Stetson, Tegan and Sarah, METZ, and Young Galaxy. The band released a public reaction to the coveted Canadian music award on the Internet afterward. The Polaris Music Prize, a notfor-profit organization, gives a yearly award to “the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history,” according to its mission statement. The jury for the award is a panel of selected music critics. Choosing not to attend the gala, the collective expressed gratitude for the award but also expressed their shock at winning. The band, who always choose to speak as a collective rather than as
individuals, also made a handful of comments regarding the gala itself, including their opinion that “holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do.” They went on to say that “organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all.” And finally they remarked that “asking the Toyota motor company to help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, IS FUCKING INSANE, and comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise.” While their position is admirable and understandable, the band does come off as a little naïve. It’s just how organizations exist—nothing about that is going to change in the near future. Organizations such as the Polaris Music Prize throw events to make the masses happy, collude with major business to benefit both parties, and can often be riddled with contradictions. Needlessly pointing to hypocrisy has never been the most flattering of actions for the pointer, even if it is warranted to a degree, as it is in this case. However, some of their complaints are justifiable; the competition that the gala puts between Canadian artists
every year is unnecessary. The awards elevating an artist above the rest is questionable, especially when that artist is most likely already in the upper echelon of monetary success, and the collective’s accusation that the whole event was nothing more than a “quick money” grab for musicians did have a ring of truth to it. Objectively weighing a body of music against another is beyond even the not-for-profit Polaris Music Prize organization, and their $30,000 assertion can come across as laughable. The album, entitled Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, despite being somewhat cobbled together due to its decadelong production process, fits and flows with itself as if it were the original plan. Separated into four movements, Allelujah! continues Godspeed’s trend of intensely politically-motivated music, being specifically directed at the 2003 Iraq War. Although the album would have had more impact had it been released during the height of the conflict, the echo of discontent it provides is still extremely relevant due to the current geopolitical circumstances in the Middle East. Godspeed You! plans to use the $30,000 they were awarded to “to try to set a program so that prisoners in Quebec have musical instruments if they need them.”
argosy@mta.ca
Mixed Tape Best Enjoyed Before Noon - Ian Malcolm Each week, the Argosy asks a member of the Sackville community to create a mixtape playlist on a theme or topic of their choosing. Some people think earnest folk or bleating country waltzes ensure a good morning, but those people have spent their whole lives lying to you. Play some of the jams below and your morning will get a whole lot weirder. “Resolution” — Bugseed (Diamond in the Rough) Do you like jazz but hate falling asleep with your mouth open during the middle of a Charlie Parker solo? If yes, Bugseed’s your man, fusing ‘serious’ bebop with grainy hip hop drums, with a result that even your pot-smoking uncle would approve of. “Perfectly” — Ryan Hemsworth (Still Awake) Cutting-edge beat music assembled in miniature. I hate the term ‘pocket symphony’, but it’s the only one that does it here. Hyperactive sampling keeps it on the right side of the line between ‘uplifting’ and ‘car commercial feel-good jam’.
“Slowjam” — Four Tet (Rounds) Do yourself a favour and listen to a song without drums. Here, layered guitar samples flutter in and out of focus, building to a sunny guitar conclusion. “633 Sundance” — KIHN SERPENT (TRANESPACE) A lonesome alarm clock blip slowly grows arms and legs and shakes itself awake, resolving into one of the better alarm clock songs of the last dozen years. Paired with a morning walk, the sun-drenched synth tones levee out a too-optimistic day. “Walkabout” — Atlas Sound ft. Noah Lennox (LOGOS) Listening to this for the first time feels like uncovering a sublimely dusty and timeless pop song. Plus it’s the perfect speed for clicking your heels as you walk. ‘Buoyant’ describes this one to a tee. Ian Malcolm is The Argosy’s humour editor.
Argosy’s Media Reviews
Love Is All You Need is frustrating to watch. The plot focuses on businessman Phillip (Pierce Brosnan) and Danish hairdresser Ida (Trine Dyrholm) as they travel to southern Italy to see their respective children, Patrick (Sebastian Jessen) and Astrid (Molly Blixt Egelind) get married. Phillip is a cantankerous widower of twenty-five years, and Ida comes home from her cancer treatment to find her husband having an affair just before heading to Italy. Over the course of the film the two become close and find happiness—sort of. This film could have been great: Pierce Brosnan is great at playing an angry Pierce Brosnan; Trine Dyrholm is great as Ida; the scenery is often very interesting. But the film telegraphs every plot development far in advance, in such a way that it is plain to see how the film will end by the twenty-minute mark. Watching the characters go through the motions that you knew would happen all along is frankly very boring. Love may be all you need, but you won’t find it in Love Is All You Need.
Jessy Lanza’s debut, co-written with Jeremy Greenspan, is the kind of straight-up synth pop you should play at 4:00 am when the party is mostly over, the place is a mess, and everyone is wearing those half-smiles that betray a pleasant buzz and a good night. You should play it after you’ve lost your favourite earrings and smoked too many cigarettes. The production evokes Greenspan’s great work with the seminal Canadian electronic duo Junior Boys. Lanza’s heavily processed voice blends perfectly with the music, shifting through the liminal space between foreground and background as just another achingly sweet layer. Things start soft and sensual on Pull My Hair Back, flirting with danceability on “Fuck Diamond” before committing to it on “Keep Moving.” Happily, the remainder of the album continues in that vein, climaxing on the title track, which features the most charmingly forthright hook I have heard this year. Go get this album.
- Sam Moore
- Richard Kent
Susanne Bier
Love Is All You Need
Jessy Lanza
Pull My Hair Back
On the opening track, Bill Callahan sings (speaks): “The only words I’ve said today were ‘Beer’ and ‘Thank you’.” This record sounds nice, but that’s not the point. Bill is the poet laureate of our generation. And if there is any discrepancy,
Pat LePoidevin’s American Fiction, released about a month ago, speaks to the slow, celebrated death of summer known as autumn. An acute lyricism and honesty are intertwined with a meagre, yet happy, triumph. There is also a very distinct small town feel that LePoidevin bleeds out from the laid back, slow-to-escalate indie sound, down to the small towns each song is named after. The personal exploration of individuals in LePoidevin’s lyrics comes with a brisk, cold touch working to frame and set what he explores in a specific time. This lens allows him to give a touching reflection of the ‘American Dream’, sometimes letting him cut to the core of what it is to live as times change. This album is an autumn essential as it is guaranteed to keep getting better until the last leaf falls. - Cameron McIntyre
Read that lyric. - Michael Duguay
Bill Callahan Dream River
Pat LePoidevin American Fiction
The Argosy
ENTERTAINMENT
www.argosy.ca
15
The film industry could do without Baz Luhrmann
Moulin Rouge! (left; Wauquiez/Wikimedia Commons) is Luhrmann’s (right; Eva Rinaldi/Wikimedia Commons) only film to be nominated for an Academy Award. It was unsuccessfully nominated for 2002’s Best Picture.
Baz produces empty spectacle Austin Landry A case just can’t be made for Baz Luhrmann’s career as a filmmaker. There’s no reason based in reality that it should continue. The style he infuses into his films, which worked only for his flamboyant Moulin Rouge!, does not translate well to any of his other works, particularly this year’s The Great Gatsby. Let’s take a brief look at the moderately successful career of a director who is a bit overrated but more importantly needs to realize that it’s time to cash in his winnings
and graciously bow out of the moviemaking business. Luhrmann’s first directorial effort, titled Strictly Ballroom, plays as a mockumentary following a ballroom dancing competition in the director’s native Australia. The subject matter is treated so seriously that it becomes comedic. That said, Strictly Ballroom’s more pressing problems involve the camera. Luhrmann revels in the freedom his camera offers and seems to become almost intoxicated with the possibilities it offers him. He would do well to note that more camera movement does not a better movie make. Perhaps if he took a class on the great director Yasujirō Ozu, who has made a number of masterpieces without any camera movement at all, he’d start to understand the error of his ways. Moving forward in Luhrmann’s
career, he decided to attempt an ‘update’ of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which he tried to transpose Shakespeare’s original words to a modern day world. Such an audacious project is definitely possible to pull off, but I believe it first requires the filmmaker to understand the source material, and there’s not a lot of evidence in this movie that makes a convincing argument for that. With the exception of a couple supporting characters, none of the actors in Romeo + Juliet understand how to deliver their lines, nor, I think, do they fully understand the meaning of the lines they deliver. Luhrmann puts a lot of thought into the soundtracks he includes in his movies, and if he didn’t waste so much effort distracting his audiences with bloated set designs, close-ups, dizzying camera movements, or
Emmys run as expected, despite Breaking Bad snubs Key Breaking Bad players leave Emmys empty-handed Cameron McIntyre Entertainment Writer
Last week, the Emmys came with the predictable host of notable and surprising winners and losers. This year in television saw Breaking Bad intensify into one of the most pulse-pounding series of all time and the emergence of a whole new format for television with Netflix’s House of Cards. Old standbys like Modern Family and Mad Men made appearances in the nominations and winners categories. A notable winner was Anna Gunn, who won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Skyler White in Breaking Bad. The supporting actress win was slightly controversial because of the flak she received for playing the role from The New York Times earlier in the year. Many believe the criticism to be justifiable though, as they consider the character she plays to not be a particularly likeable one. The emotional response that her character, as well as the entire show, generates is accounted for in its writing though, and Gunn’s win goes to show that it’s not always the dazzling heroine who rides off into the sunset with the award. The show in general fared particular well in its final stint at the Emmys, but did not dominate
as was predicted. Bryan Cranston lost out to Jeff Daniels’s portrayal of Will McAvoy from HBO’s The Newsroom in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series category, while the show itself did take home Outstanding Drama Series in a stacked field. Breaking Bad went on to lose out to Netflix’s House of Cards in Directing for a Drama Series and Showtime’s Homeland in Writing for a Drama Series. However, there was no domination, as the vast majority of the multiple category nominees netted an award or two but rarely more than that. In comedy, ABC’s juggernaut Modern Family netted itself the Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series awards, while the remainder of the awards were split between NBC’s 30 Rock, HBO’s Veep, CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, and FX’s Louie. In the Miniseries category, Behind the Candelabra was the only consistent winner of major awards and the same was true of The Colbert Report in Variety. The night included performances by Elton John and Carrie Underwood, who covered the Beatles’ seminal single “Yesterday.” This of course was meant to tie in to the homage to the Beatles’ American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show fifty years ago, which, combined with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, highlighted television’s cultural impact. On a controversial note, the traditional ‘in memoriam’ montage included Glee’s Cory Monteith, who passed away earlier this year. His lack of a nomination in his short career led critics to question his inclusion in the reel, but the decision was defended by executives of the award show.
poorly-delivered dialogue, the songs could succeed as counterpoints to the onscreen conflicts. In Luhrmann’s Australia, the director set out to make the Australian Gone with the Wind, with middling to ineffective results. Gone with the Wind succeeded in winning its audience’s hearts and record-breaking grosses on the principle of presenting oldfashioned melodrama on a grand scale. Australia set out to do the same but simply didn’t tell it anywhere near as well. It attempted to infuse mystical elements into its story, but those made it more formulaic in its execution than the material that inspired it. Having just recently revisited F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, which some argue is the ‘Great American Novel’, I went into the latest Gatsby screen adaptation with quite a few reservations. However,
I knew it was possible that the movie could succeed in its own right, not just as a faithful adaptation to the novel. No scene in the movie convinced me that it could do even that. To me, the most important aspect of the novel The Great Gatsby is the way it expresses its characters’ inner conflicts. That’s all but lost onscreen in a production that puts enormous detail into set and costume design, which cannot cloud the fact that the man who helmed the project thinks he will be forever secure by adapting only the classics of all classics, from Shakespeare to Fitzgerald to Gone with the Wind. My money is on a Ulysses musical as Luhrmann’s next project, if no one attempts to talk him down from it. Austin Landry is the president of the Classic Film Society.
Avengers adapted for TV ABC debuts Whedon and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Sam Moore This week, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired its first episode. This was the first time that Marvel Studios has tried to tie its successful film series to the small screen. Initially, I wasn’t sure whether it needed to exist. Television has changed a lot over the last few years. Shows like Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and Breaking Bad have in many ways changed how people view the medium. Companies like AMC, Showtime, HBO, and now Netflix have forged a new image for television—one where it doesn’t play second fiddle to movies. Shows are not only better written and produced than in the past, but they are distributed in different ways. With services like Netflix and HBO GO, people can watch just about all their favourite shows when they want, where they want. As television has taken this leap forward over the last few years, it is the basic cable networks that have fallen behind in many ways. While shows like American Idol, The Voice, and NCIS still retain the highest viewership on television, none of them have the mindshare that shows such as Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad do. Over the last few months, it’s plain to see that more people have been talking about every little twist and turn on the road to the end of Breaking Bad than how American Idol continues to hemorrhage judges.
So I was a little worried when I heard that Marvel and Joss Whedon, who up until now have been doing a stellar job of adapting the comic book universe to film, announced that they would be creating a television show based on S.H.I.E.L.D., the Marvel universe’s clandestine government organization tasked with handling superhuman affairs, in partnership with ABC. Whether or not there is room for this show in the television zeitgeist remains to be seen; it had the largest opening for a television drama in four years, with over 12 million viewers, so its chances are pretty good. The show is good. Like, really good. Clark Gregg is great as Agent Coulson (spoiler for Avengers fans: he’s alive); the supporting cast performs well; and Whedon’s writing is, as usual, quick and smart. The plot picks up after 2012’s The Avengers, with Coulson and a handpicked team of S.H.I.E.L.D. specialists dealing with the fallout after the alien invasion of New York. The cat is out of the bag: the public knows about superheroes like Thor and the Hulk, and it’s up to Coulson’s team to make sure things don’t get worse. Though the pilot showed enormous potential, there was a definite layer of polish missing that shows like Game of Thrones and House of Cards have in spades. The few scenes that used digital visual effects, and there are very few, looked pretty rough, especially in comparison to the material that the show draws from. While I understand that making twelve hours of content at the same quality as The Avengers would make this the most expensive TV show ever, it seemed like something more could have been done to make the few action scenes in the show seem less cheap.
SPORTS
October 3, 2013
argosy@mta.ca
Seawolves shock Mounties with 49-12 win
The University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves are hoping to join the Mounties as the fourth team in the ACAA conference for the 2014-15 season. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy)
Women drop exhibition match against Seawolves Michelle Kidd The Mount Allison Women’s rugby team took on University of New Brunswick Saint John (UNBSJ) Seawolves this past Sunday on Park Street Field in exhibition play. The opposing team traveled from Saint John to play in their third and final game of the fall,
challenging the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) for a spot in the league for the 2014-15 season. The Seawolves came out with a strong side, dominating a younger Mt. A team in scrums, and finding holes in their backfield. The Mounties adjusted their line-up and began playing a more defensive, organized game. However, they could not recover from their halftime deficit, and UNBSJ came out on top with a 49-12 victory. Sydney Phelan and Sydney Mann scored tries for the Mounties, with Mann adding two points with a convert. Although the Mt. A side suffered a
tough loss in an injury-riddled game, forward captain Whitney Callaghan stayed positive. “It was a good chance for our new players to gain some valuable experience. We will take the loss as an opportunity to grow, and work on our skills for our upcoming game against DalAC,” she said. The team had an opportunity to show off their rookie side, with big tackles from Erin Bonisteel and Michelle McLaughlan, who both made their first ever appearance for the Mounties on Sunday. Other promising new faces to watch for this season include Dael Taekema, Kelly Foran, Cat Bannon, and Anna Gores.
Better Know a Mountie Tyler Ferdinand Benjamin Foster Sports Writer
Tyler Ferdinand’s Mount Allison golf career ended Sunday at the same course where he started the game as a child. “[I] started playing when I was five years old. My dad took me and my brother to a putting lesson at Northumberland Links. We liked it so we started playing full time the next year.” Even though he was never part of a championship team, as Holland College has dominated the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) golf circuit for years, he is still proud of what the teams have accomplished in his time. He was impressed by the amount of players that are on Mt.A’s team this year as it’s always been a struggle to put a complete team together. Ferdinand has had his fair share of personal success on the course as well. He shot his best score of his life this summer, a one-under-par 71 at his home course at Northumberland.
Throughout the years he won multiple tournaments on the McDonald’s tour, a tour that includes five different courses that juniors can compete at. He also won low net in his first ever tournament at age thirteen, and has finished runner up several times. He made the cut at the Nova Scotia Amateur this summer finishing tied for forty-seventh, which was played at his home course. This was Ferdinand’s fourth season on the team, making him the “grizzled vet,” as he put it. When asked about his best memories about his time playing golf for the university, he had much to say, but some of the stories you would have to ask him about yourself. “I’ll keep this ‘PG,’” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good times and memories dating back to the days of Corey Potier, Alexander Lepage and props to all of them for putting up with me. We always played on homecoming day, so when we got back we all got a few drinks together. They were some prime times!” Golf is not the only sport Ferdinand played as a child. He participated in baseball, badminton, track and
field, and was a hockey goaltender for years. As he put it: “if there was a sport in Pugwash, I played it.” He played AAA hockey for years and got offered tryouts by teams in the Canadian Hockey League and Junior A, but things never quite worked out for the athlete. When he is not playing sports, he is studying commerce in his fifth and final year of university. He is also helping coach hockey while enjoying the limited time he has left at Mt. A. He is already evaluating his options for next year as well. Ferdinand is currently looking at joining the Forces or getting into the business world. “I really want to do something in the music business,” he said. Ferdinand compares his game to that of Luke Donald. They both focus on ball striking because they both lack distance in their games. But he is also a big Tiger Woods fan because he admires his will to win, calling it “insane.” Whatever Ferdinand does he has already proved to everyone that he will succeed and make everyone’s lives much more enjoyable while he’s doing it.
The Mounties are looking forward to welcoming the UNBSJ team into the ACAA next year. Mann commented that “it gave us a hint at what our league will look like next year if they join and bring some heavier competition.” When asked about his team’s bid to enter the ACAA next season, Coach Jamie Hare of the Saint John side was enthusiastic. “I’m excited, we’re excited. I just hope we can keep interest up and get enough girls out to practice next year,” Hare said. The team has been struggling to keep numbers up since last fall when the club was first formed, despite highly skilled players.
Many of their players are current or former New Brunswick provincial players, and also compete in the senior NB women’s league in the summer. The Mounties look to continue their regular season winning streak when they take on the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus Rams on October 8, at 2pm on Park Street Field. This game will likely be the determining factor on who gets home field advantage in the ACAA finals in November. Michelle Kidd is the beat contributor for the Women’s Rugby team.
Mount Allison captures first lace at ACAA Cross Country Meet Janet Robinson Press Release
Arielle Fitzgerald of the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus (Dal AC) and John Beninger of Mount Allison were the top runners at the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) Cross Country Meet hosted by Mt. A on Saturday, Sept 28. Fitzgerald finished with a time of 19:34 for the five kilometre event, while Beninger finished the eight kilometre event with a time of 26:48. In the women’s division, the next four finishers behind Fitzgerald were Mt. A women: Marya Peters, Courtney King, Cassidy Langley, and Claire Henderson-Hamilton. This finish gave the Mt. A Women a first place finish in the team competition. Second place was Dal AC, and coming third was Université SainteAnne.
In the men’s division the top four times were split between Mt. A and Dal AC, but the Mounties were able to capture the next four positions to give them the team victory. Dal AC finished second, and Université Sainte-Anne finished in third. Coming in just behind John Beninger was Mountie runner Jonathan Craig for second place, while Dal AC’s Logan Grant and John Yool were in hot pursuit, finishing in third and fourth position. Coming in fifth and sixth position, and combining to give the first place team finish to Mount Allison, were Colin Rennie and Austin Landry. The next cross country meet will be hosted by Université Sainte-Anne on Saturday, October 5. Janet Robinson is the Business Manager for the Mount Allison Athletics Department.
The Argosy
SPORTS
www.argosy.ca
Tips to kick your meal plan back into shape Key vitamins and nutrients that your diet could be missing Célina Boothby This week your biggest bodily issues (that maybe you didn’t even know existed) are explained and broken down into why it happens and what you can do about it! Iron Man Iron is one of the main deficiencies in many people’s diets and the leading cause for people to choose that “comfy couch with a bowl of popcorn watching Orange is the New Black for five hours a day” option. If this sounds alltoo familiar, you may be lacking a fundamental mineral that can boost your energy levels and give you the power to get up and get physical. If you are woman with a heavy menstrual cycle or an avid vegetarian, you are at the most risk of the sluggish effect. Ensure red meats are introduced into your diet more often or even fish and poultry. If you don’t agree with meats, then soybeans, lentils, spinach, and fortified cereals should be on that grocery list. Lastly, orange juice is known to assist in the absorption of iron so don’t be afraid to get your juice on in the morning! Calm, cool, and collected Refined carbs, refined carbs, and refined carbs. These little devils that contain white flour (like cookies, breads, and cereals) are stripped
of any nutritional value and cause blood sugar levels to skyrocket. Once this occurs, excessive insulin is released to counter-react the sugars and you may feel anything but calm, cool, and collected. Hello jitters! It doesn’t even end there. Once your blood sugar plummets again you go right back to feeling like a dead slug with no inhibitions. This is a vicious cycle that too many of us allow ourselves to get trapped in. So, remember to stick to unrefined carbs like brown rice, whole-grain pasta and bread, or even quinoa and amaranth! These whole grains will help you keep naturally balanced between calm and energized. Sharpest tool in the shed A lack of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12 may not be the sole reason you failed that calculus test, but they may have a contributing factor! Omega-3 is loaded with DHA, which promotes healthy neuron firing. This comes in handy when writing tests and your attention and memory are vital contributors. Vitamin B12 is linked to confusion and numbness. How to fix this? Again, fish comes up as a hot contender. Eat salmon, mackerel, trout, and tuna to ensure you stay sharp, clear, and in control (especially around mid-term season). Bloated like a balloon? Are cramps cramping yours style? Stay tuned for next week’s article to hear how these adversities can be tamed. Until then, take this advice seriously and challenge yourself to implement a few of these points! Stay healthy folks! Célina Boothby is Mount Allison University’s Health Intern.
17
Mounties lose at Acadia Mounties drop to last in AUS with 40-9 loss to defending league champs Benjamin Foster Sports Writer
The Mount Allison Football Mounties traveled to Acadia to play the Axemen Saturday night and did not leave with the result they had hoped for. In a physical game where receivers were dropping passes out of fear of opposing defenders, and both coaches were getting angry with the officials, the Mounties came out on the wrong end. The final score of the game was 40-9 for Acadia. Mt. A lost out on key opportunities early, and were not able to recover. The Mounties got all three of their field goals in the second quarter. Each time they were close to getting into the end zone but failed to get across the goal line. Acadia was very efficient and played good defence in the second half. The Mounties failed to grow on the momentum from last week’s first big win. Acadia was able to pick apart the defence allowing forty points and 408 yards of offence. The real difference in the game was Acadia being able to capitalize on their opportunities. Mt. A wasn’t able to score a touchdown despite being in scoring positions many times in the first half. Looking at the statistics for the game, you would think that the game was not decided until the final minutes. Mt. A had 325 yards of offence, comparable to the 408 Acadia tallied. Brandon Leyh once again threw more than fifty times. This game he completed twenty-six
of them for 278 yards passing. Jordan Botel has not been getting as many carries this season and ended up with less than fifty yards for the third straight game. Mt. A’s offence has been very pass heavy through four games, focusing less on their running game that includes 2013 East-West Bowl attendee Botel. Te Nguyen set a career high with two interceptions in the game. The next game between these two teams should be an exciting one after all the hard hitting. Mt. A will be looking to avenge this loss on October 26 when Acadia comes to MacAulay field. This could be an important match-up for the Mounties. Last season, the Mounties were able to play in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) semi-finals, which came down to the last game of the regular season. One positive for Mt. A from the game is that Dakota Brush caught his first AUS pass. He is in his first year and adds size to the young receiving core at six-foot, three inches. Rodreke Joseph (also at six-foot three) was once again the best receiver on the field for the Mounties, but suffered a head injury from a huge hit in the second half. The first-year wide receiver from Toronto, Ontario, has been very explosive for the Mounties, and has paired well with both Brandon Leyh and back-up quarterback Alex Field. The future of Mt. A receiving certainly looks bright. This is the third game this season that Mt. A has failed to score in the second half, a trend that must stop if they want to stay in the race for the playoffs. Saint Mary’s Huskies beat the St. Francis Xavier (St. FX) X-Men Friday night to make a three-way tie for the lead in the AUS. This puts Mt. A last, but they remain only one game out of a playoff spot. The AUS is up for the taking as every team is competitive with each other thus far. Next Saturday, Mt. A travels to St. FX for the second time this season. Kickoff for the game is 2 pm.
Mounties still looking for first win Mounties will look to salvage season Sunday against UNB Owen Beamish The Mount Allison University Women’s soccer team was in tough this weekend as it took on two of the best teams in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS). On Saturday the Mounties travelled to Moncton, where they took on the second place Moncton University Aigles Bleus. Mt. A lost that affair by a final score of 2-0. On Sunday they were looking to bounce back as they took on the Cape Breton University Capers (CBU) on MacAulay field. The Capers, donning their orange kits, currently sit in fifth place in the AUS. They entered the contest undefeated with three wins and three ties. Cape Breton bolsters an impressive attack, with two of the top five leading scorers on the roster. Karolyne Blain leads the league with seven goals, while Chelsea Currie sits tied for third with four goals. The Mounties came into the game as underdogs, as they are in ninth place in the AUS and were looking to pull off an upset. Unfortunately, the Mounties fell behind early and were hemmed in most of the first half. Cape Breton was able to pressure the Mounties for most of the half and control the tempo. They
Despite retaining many athletes, the departure of coach Barry Cooper has been detrimental to the Women’s season. (Nick Sleptov/Argosy) opened the scoring in the eighteenth minute and then scored again during the thirty-fifth and thirty-eighth minute. The Mounties best player for the half was Cassie Suche, who was running hard and had a great half of soccer. The Mounties fell behind by a total of three goals going into the half. The second half saw some better
soccer from the Mounties. After an early goal in the fifty-third minute, both teams failed to score another and Mt. A fell by a final score of 4-0. Overall, it was a disappointing loss for the Mounties who could not contain the Cape Breton offence, and could not generate any of their own as they failed to score in the shutout. Mt. A now sits at 0-7-1 on the
season and continue to press for that first win. Despite the Mounties poor record, they have not had a terrible season. They’ve played hard and it always takes time to adjust to a new coach. Many of their games have been close and they just have not been getting those bounces that can be key in AUS soccer. The Mounties will look for that first
win next week as they play two home games. On Friday night they take on Moncton in a rematch from this past weekend, and on Sunday they take on the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds. Owen Beamish is a sports correspondent for The Argosy.
HUMOUR Across
1- Heels; 5- Simmons rival; 10- Board on water; 14- Came down to earth; 15- Rare delight; 16- Rent-___; 17- Hokkaido native; 18- Astrologer Sydney; 19- Choir member; 20- Exigency; 21- Shrove Tuesday; 23- This ___ stickup!; 25- Fashion monogram; 26- Adjustable resistor;
1- James of “The Godfather”; 2- That’s ___!; 3- Take a meal; 4- Workroom; 5- Pertaining to the mouth; 6- Humorist Bombeck; 7- The back end of something; 8- Behind time; 9- In danger; 10- River to the Moselle; 11- Home of the Bruins; 12- Darn it!; 13- To’s partner; 22- Pleased;
argosy@mta.ca
Answers will be posted to The Argosy’s website. 31- Gold standard; 35- Bard’s nightfall; 36- Recess in a wall; 38- More urgent; 40- Career golfers; 42- Young boy or girl; 44- Depilatory brand; 45- Gannet; 47- Diciembre follower; 49- Compass dir.; 50- Gymnast Comaneci; 52- Contradicts; 54- Jazz org.;
56- Baby food; 57- Receipt; 62- Greek peak; 66- Like candles; 67- Wombs; 68- Rewards for waiting; 69- Sponsorship; 70- Hazardous gas; 71- Stumble; 72- “___ quam videri” (North Carolina’s motto); 73- Sturm und ___; 74- Cravings;
24- Nine-digit ID; 46- Baseball team; 26- Workout count; 48- ___ roll; 27- Wading bird; 51- Utterly senseless; 28- Name on a bomber; 53- Like bad cell coverage?; 29- Dull pain, often in the head 55- ___ Is Born; or back; 57- Droops; 30- Inanimate object; 58- Turning point; 32- Oysters ___ season; 59- Dissolve, as cells; 33- Stadium used for sports or 60- Mother of Helen of Troy; musical events; 61- Golf club which can be 34- Itty-bitty; numbered 1 to 9; 37- Zeno of ___; 63- Regal address; 39- Numbered rds.; 4- Whirl; 41- Sorrowful; 65- Cairo cobras; 43- Meat fat; 66- Itsy-bitsy;
(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission
Our enhanced smush-scan technology ensures that your information will remain safe from the prying hands of your enemies! When you gently mash the surface of your face against its touchscreen, the iPad 4s™ will recognize you as its owner by assessing your unique combination of cartilege squishiness, breath repugnancy, and mole distribution! Totally safe, because it’s not like anybody can steal your entire face! Right? Riiiiight?
1. What assignment are you currently putting off right now? 2. How are you possibly going to pay for all this school? 3. When was the last time you were consciously aware of the process of breathing? Are you very good at breathing? 4. Are you very good at anything? At all? Hmm.... ANSWERS: Oh come on, you knew what you were getting into.
Down
October 3, 2013
The Argosy
HUMOUR
www.argosy.ca
Tater Tot Casserole: What is it made of? Is it even edible? Or has the Jennings Staff injected it with weird hormones that make you violently crave more? And why do the tots on top always disappear first? While the obvious answer is that they are eaten, some eyewitnesses report having seen these tots flee from the premises, leaving behind a skid of grease...
The Flemington Skylight: Inside room 116 of the science building, a skylight is lodged in ceiling. But, being on the ground floor, there is no sky to be seen... What is its purpose? Was it used to drop misbehaving students into a fearsome pit? An entryway for phantom profs? Recent evidence suggests that it serves as the entrance to series of mystifying obstacles, such as temperamental garden plants, giant chess, walls of fire, and trolls——all guarded by a cranky dog.
19
The Library’s Forbidden Section:
In the depths of the Ralph Pickard Bell Library, hidden in the back of the thunderous and ominous “white floor,” you will find an entire section that is enclosed in a cage. What are they hiding in there? Twisted experiments from past students? Perhaps the frozen body of Charles Frederick Allison himself, waiting in suspended animation? Or, worse—— scandalous photos of the Mt. A professors?
Athletic Centre Time-Warp:
No matter how late you are for practice or free swim, as soon as you step foot onto the deck of the Mount Allison pool you are shot back in time, ensuring your punctual arrival. While no complaints have arisen on account of this strange phenomenon, some wonder whether this means that a black hole or a rift in the space time continuum has opened under the AC, and whether or not it could threaten the whole school…
Breaking Bad TWO THE FORD LEGACY
An ambitious mayor with a few too many gold chains and a less than sterling reputation... An alleged video that just won’t go away——and no, it’s not the football one. For more plot-twists than you can shake a small glass pipe at, tune into Toronto city council every Sunday night!
Fr e eOr i e n t a t i o n&St a t i o nTo u r-CHMAOf f i c e s-Ev e r yTu e s d a y-4p . m. Co n t a c t o u rPr o g r a mmi n gDi r e c t o rf o rmo r ei n f o r ma t i o n-c h ma _ p r o @mt a . c a