The Concordian

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music festival

Hollerado talks about their latest tour and Juno nomination P.16

LIFE and ARTS picks for the High Lights festival and Nuit Blanche P. 8 & 11

They did it.

Students show up to make SGM a success.

Read more below, P. 3.

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011

life We bring you the best of Montreal’s fashion week P. 7

sports From the pros to the Stingers: talking to goalie Maxime Joyal P. 19

arts Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary takes the audience on a daring game P. 10 Volume 28 Issue 21

897 students make WHALE motions binding

Students show in droves to support call for day of action, reduction of quorum Evan LePage News editor

Defying expectations and ignoring rainy weather, 897 students packed into the Reggie’s terrace yesterday morning for a special general meeting, surpassing the 2.5 per cent of undergraduate students required for quorum, and making the two motions they passed legally binding.

An overwhelming majority of students raised their blue slips voting in favour of both motions, the first calling for a Day of Action to denounce the Ministry of Education’s proposed tuition fee hikes and the second reducing quorum for future special general meetings to 1.5 per cent of undergrads.

“I just want to say that today has been a very historical moment for Concordia,” CSU president Heather Lucas told the crowd after the vote. “You all have taken part in an amazing democratic process. Having you all here, I don’t have words. The sight of having everyone’s placards lifted up, that was fucking amazing.”

There were doubts leading into the event that quorum would be reached, but students erupted in cheers at the news that the 850th student had signed into the event, far surpassing the 795 needed according to CSU councillor Lex Gill.

Matthew Brett, communications coordinator for the WHALE event, called the attendance “remarkable, given the rain and given that the odds were stacked against us from the beginning.”

Brett thought that the success of the event sent a clear message to both the University’s Board of Governors and the provincial government. “The

Board in particular, I think they’re really going to start to shake in their dress pants,” he said. “Let’s just say that this event at least will keep them alert that if they continue to neglect the student voice we will continue to come to your doorstep.”

The Day of Action immediately followed the special general meeting so after some closing words and thanks from organizers and Lucas, a large group of attendees left the terrace to march through the downtown campus area.

The Graduate Students’ Association also managed to reach a substantially smaller quorum at their own meeting held inside shortly before the undergraduates’ meeting. All motions at that meeting were passed by attendees as well.

Much of the talk following the meeting was of Concordia students proving the allegations of apathy false.

“I think that Concordia students shook off the apathy label today,” said GSA councillor Roddy Doucet.

Brett agreed. “I think the students have never been apathetic at Concordia,” he said. “We always need to keep at this. I think the student voice is now out, loud and clear and it’s going to get louder in the coming weeks.”

Brett was referring to a city-wide student protest set to take place on Mar. 12 following the tabling of the provincial budget, the bigger step student organizations have been planning to fight tuition hikes.

“We’re definitely going to keep mobilizing toward March 12 to send a strong message to Charest that we stand with the health sector, labour sector, anti-poverty organizations, indigenous people against service fee hikes and basically charges that are targeted at middle-class working people,” Doucet said.

For her part, Lucas said “This is just a taste of what’s to come on Mar. 12 when we go to protest.”

The dream lives on in Martin Luther King III Brennan Neill Managing editor

His father spoke of a dream he had in 1963, but for Martin Luther King III that dream has become part of a legacy that is far from being accomplished.

“I think about what my father would say about this world we live in today. And I think about where his mindset would be because he, in his life, wanted to eradicate the triple evils; poverty, racism and violence,” said King to an audience of about 400 that had gathered in the Hall auditorium last Thursday as part of Concordia’s Black History Month festivities.

But as King continued to speak it became clear that, while many strides have been made towards his father’s vision, poverty, racism, and violence are still very much present in the world today.

What was most alarming to King was the violence that continues to exist in the world. He turned to the recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona which left six people dead and the rising homicide rates in the United States as examples. For King, the trouble began with the acceptance of a “culture of violence.”

“We’ve created a culture of violence, a violent society,” he said. “We’ve got to create a

See “Son of slain civil...” on p.5

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news 2

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Check out theconcordian.com for an exclusive photo spread from the Algerian demonstration in Montreal last weekend.

Got a news tip? news@theconcordian.com

City in brief Evan LePage

When angry students attack

About 50 students from Cégep VieuxMontréal stormed the headquarters of Quebecor in Old Montreal last Thursday, proceeding to throw smokebombs and committing other acts of vandalism. Premier Jean Charest’s office was also targeted. A student association from the Cégep indicated in a press release they targeted Quebecor to denounce its “libertarian ideology” and “anti-union” attitude, adding they were against tuition hikes. The company stated that the students ransacked a photo exhibit and destroyed some furniture, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,000 employees. The student association’s press release also indicated that actor and director Xavier Dolan could be contacted for further information, though that was revealed the following day to be an error.

ASFA wants a communications committee

A motion was passed at ASFA’s council meeting last Thursday to create an ad hoc communications committee to aid in the promotion of the organization’s activities. The idea was originally suggested by VP communications Natasha Launi, who indicated that she would like to have up to five students-at-large who could help market ASFA’s events by speaking to classrooms, developing ideas for posters and selling tickets, for example. Launi stressed that at the moment she does most of the promotion on her own. It was then decided that ASFA would promote the committee and officially fill the positions at its next council meeting. Launi expressed hope that the committee would eventually expand to even more members.

ASFA VP internal candidate sanctioned

In a judgment upheld by ASFA’s judicial committee on Feb. 9, ASFA VP internal candidate Tanya-Michelle Contente was given a three-day campaign ban for violation of electoral regulations. Contente had used the mailing server of Humanitarian Affairs, Concordia University (HACU), to promote her candidacy, but the JC found this to be unfair to her opponents because not all ASFA candidates have access to this server. A similar sanction had been imposed earlier on VP finance candidate Pier-Luc Therrien Péloquin for informing the ASFA council through the organization’s mailing server that he would not be present at the upcoming council meeting. ASFA CEO Nick Cuillerier confirmed that to date, there have been three contestations during the electoral campaign.

Most TRAC members have now been paid

Most members of Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia were paid as of Feb. 10, according to the union’s president Thomas Leonard, although one person whose contract wasn’t signed until Jan. 20 has yet to receive a paycheck. TRAC had filed a grievance on Feb. 8 with the Faculty of Arts and Science over the fact that its members had not received pay since they began work on Jan. 3. The office of the dean signed off on the grievance the following day. The main demands for TRAC’s grievance are the university respecting its collective agreement as well as working with the union in order to create guidelines that will ensure that TAs and RAs are paid in a timely fashion.

Campus

Chocolate wrestling denounced as sexist Administration, students voice displeasure to ASFA Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations may be hailing their Ultimate chocolate wrestling Valentine’s party held last Friday as a success, but both administration officials and students believe the event should never have happened in the first place.

On Feb. 11, ASFA VP communications Natasha Launi received an email from Dean of Students Elizabeth Morey indicating that both she and Dean of Arts and Science Brian Lewis strongly disapproved of the chocolate wrestling event to be held that night at PJ O’Hara’s bar.

The event featured four guys and four girls wrestling in a pool of chocolate in order to win prizes. It was created by Launi and Kyle Smith of the Stingers football team, with the help of ASFA’s VP social Allie McDonald. Proceeds from the night went to Concordia’s delegation at the Communication Games and the Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program.

Morey stated in her email that, after receiving complaints from students regarding the party’s promotional material, she decided to take a look at the event’s banner on ASFA’s

website, which featured two girls in sportswear wrestling in chocolate.

“Although the event also includes men, so it cannot be ‘technically’ called sexist, the image of your website will be perceived that way,’’ said Morey. “Should this receive widespread publicity, you should expect some very negative reactions from students.’’

Morey stated that the chocolate wrestling competition and the advertisement “cheapens and diminishes the good work” ASFA has done in the past year. However, Lewis never brought up the subject when he attended ASFA’s council meeting for the first time last Thursday, one day prior to the event.

“It is quite possible he had no idea of the event then, he might have only found out about it when the Dean of Students spoke to him about it on Friday,” said Concordia’s media relations director Chris Mota. “There was no question of the deans intervening or imposing sanctions. They were just generally disappointed.”

After reading Morey’s email, Launi took down the banner on the website. She had already put up new posters days earlier featuring a pool instead of the two girls due to complaints from students. She said she simply forgot to change the banner at the same time.

“I was so busy with redesigning the poster and going around putting up the poster after a group of girls had taken the old ones down that the banner on the website was overlooked,” she said. “It was not done on purpose and at the moment the poster was an absolute priority

for me.”

Launi admitted that her event was indeed a bit out of the norm, but defended it by pointing out that over 700 people from across the province were in attendance and many offered her positive comments.

“The event was the most attended of the year,’’ she said. “Students thanked us for creating the event and promised to come back to the next one.’’

She pointed out that all participants signed waiver forms. Furthermore, Launi received no negative feedback when she presented the idea at ASFA’s January council meeting. She confirmed that the event has still not received any backlash from councillors.

The student complaint that ultimately led to Launi changing the event’s posters earlier in the month came from Jessica Young, VP internal for the Concordia Association for Students in English. In her Feb. 6 email to Launi, Young stated that “I believe that the event as a whole is symptomatic of the deep and institutionally reinforced weaknesses that contradict ASFA’s policies.’’

Launi maintained that she never meant to hurt anyone, but indicated she herself felt hurt when she once witnessed girls ripping down the party’s poster, and hearing them say that that was the event “Jess’’ had talked about. But Young claimed that no orders came from her.

“I did not tell anyone to take down posters,’’ she told the Concordian. “But think that if students feel strongly enough to take down posters, it strongly suggests that

ASFA needs to rethink its promotion strategies.’’

Young emphasized that she was not angry about the event, but rather “the way in which ASFA failed to think about what kind of culture events like this promote.’’

A further complaint came from recent McGill graduate Liam OlsonMayes, who emailed Launi on Feb. 2 to express outrage at ASFA’s “deeply sexist event.’’ Olson-Mayes, who completed a degree in women’s studies and contemporary sexism, stated that the event’s sexist connotation was not diminished by the inclusion of man-on-man wrestling because “a man’s body can be on display without being reduced to a purely sexual object.’’

In a later email, he said ASFA’s event was “making life harder for those of us who are trying to both fight sexism and support people who have experienced sexual assault.

Please stop.’’

Launi defended herself by saying that as a girl, she would never wish to create a sexist event. She continues to maintain that the event was simply organized to have fun. The party succeeded in raising $4,000 for the student projects it supported, and Launi indicated that events a bit out of the ordinary are good for Concordia.

“This is how you create a community at Concordia and get people excited to be part of the university,’’ she said. “If students from across the province came to this party and thanked us for having a great time this must mean we’re doing something right.’’

HealtH

New clinic will offer free dental care Dental clinic named in honour of former McGill dean of dentistry Trevor Smith Chief copy editor A free dental clinic open to the homeless and low-income families of Montreal opened last week. The clinic is free, because in addition to providing better oral-hygiene care to those in need, it will also be offering McGill dentistry students the opportunity to volunteer and get hands-on experience.

The Jim Lund Dental Clinic, located in St-Henri, is equipped with two dental chairs and a state-of-theart digital x-ray machine to serve between 12 and 16 patients three days a week.

The initiative was made possible by the Welcome Hall Mission and the McGill School of Dentistry who raised around $350,000 to fund the clinic’s opening and operational costs. Cyril Morgan, CEO and director of Welcome Hall Mission, said that he hopes to eventually install a third chair, a second x-ray machine

and, ideally, be open five days a week, though he estimates that another $35,000 would first need to be raised. As it stands, Morgan projects that about 36 patients, who would otherwise not go to the dentist, will receive x-rays, cleanings and fillings each week.

Dr Paul Allison, dean of dentistry at McGill, said that the oral health and dental care of most Canadians is good. “But there is an important minority who suffer the double indignity of being those at the greatest risk of dental decay, gum disease, dental and facial trauma, oral cancer and other problems and at the same time being those that have the greatest difficulty accessing dental care.” He hopes that this service will promote better health and better confidence for the patients.

The clinic is named in honour of Dr. James Lund, the former dean of dentistry who passed away in Dec. 2009. Lund began the McGill dental outreach program to provide free dental care to those who could not afford it. In addition, Lund wanted to sensitize students to the health and social problems within society and inspire them to seek solutions.

Fourth-year dental student Shan Sun plans to continue her volunteering even after working at the Jim Lund Dental Clinic. “A lot of people say we are helping the under-

privileged population, but they are helping us as well,” she explained.

“These experiences won’t come in a private office.”

The clinic’s opening ceremony was held last Friday and was attended by donors, faculty and staff of both McGill and WHM as well as by the provincial health minister Dr. Yves Bolduc. Bolduc spoke on how oral hygiene is often not talked about but is still important, especially for those who don’t have regular access to it. He also commended WHM for

its many efforts.

The Jim Lund Dental Clinic is located in the same building as a thrift store and a food bank. The food bank, open on Fridays and Tuesdays, serves about 5,000 people a week.

Approximately 50 of those are university students, some from Concordia and McGill, according to Morgan.The food bank was closed on Friday due to the ceremony, so the WHM tried to give out extra rations last Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theconcordian Campus

WHALE brings out students, brings down apathy

Close to 900 students mark a day of action against tuition increases; denounce BoG

Professors say Conservatives trying to intimidate critics

Close to 900 students gathered on Reggie’s terrace for the CSU’s SGM and to denounce tuition hikes. Photo by David Vilder asking all members of the Board to resign. About 50 people from various student groups and programs facilitated the day’s activities.

For biology student Irmak Bahar, who had originally proposed the SGM idea at the CSU’s informational general meeting on Jan. 27, the day of action was nothing short of a success.

“I think that when you tell students about the issues and when you let them know there is hope, the possibilities are endless, and we’ve seen that today,” she said. “A special general meeting is the most democratic process we have at Concordia.

You’re speaking for yourself and get to vote.”

It is a possibility that more SGMs will be held in the future, now that the quorum required for such an event has been lowered from 2.5 per cent of the CSU’s membership to 1.5 per cent.

“I think the greatest things about lowering quorum are that it is not such a daunting task to facilitate an

SGM anymore, we can now work towards a more direct-democracy scenario at the CSU, and of course, we could actually host a meeting inside on campus now,” said the CSU’s VP sustainability and promotions Morgan Pudwell, another of the event’s key organizers.

This is good news for People’s Campus Coalition member Alex Matak, who felt that student apathy at Concordia had been dealt a serious blow yesterday by WHALE.

“Today restored my faith in students to stand up for their rights,” she said. “To be honest, I thought we would get 500 peole, but we had people who waited in the rain and who lined up in the Hall building and on the street. If that doesn’t say students are not apathetic, I don’t know what will.”

Students plan to hold a second day of action this Thursday during the Board of Governors’ monthly meeting.

The Concordia Student Union council respected the will of approximately 150 students who attended an Informational General Meeting last month and passed five motions approved by those students on issues ranging from fighting tuition increase to regulating credit cards on campus.

A sixth motion regarding the creation of an ad-hoc student centre and student space committee introduced by councillor Lex Gill, at the behest of the IGM attendees, was also passed.

While each motion was successfully passed with few dissenting, the discussion of the motions was one which highlighted tensions between councillors.

After all of the motions were introduced, independent councillor Ethan Cox moved that all six be passed omnibus but councillors

voted this down.

“Last month was bad enough, guys. You clearly went against the will of the students. Everybody knows that, it was demonstrated quite clearly at the IGM and quite frankly by the number of people sitting in this room right now,” Cox replied, referring to how the CSU council responded to the firing of Judith Woodsworth. “If you don’t approve every motion that was passed by our students who elected us at an IGM I will resign in protest from council on the spot [...] There’s no question that we have an absolute obligation to pass what was put to us by our students. The insanity of the people’s conception of democracy in this room is beyond belief.”

Councillor Menachem Freedman replied to his comments by asking the chairperson to request all councillors avoid “pejorative comments and rhetoric.” Freedman also explained why he voted against the omnibus motion, saying “We’ve never seen these motions before. I think it’s our responsibility to the students to hear each one of them individually so we actually understand what we’re voting on and passing.” This statement was echoed by multiple other councillors.

Tension among councillors

Two professors at the University of Ottawa say that the federal government has targeted them because of their propensity for criticizing the Conservatives.

Professors Errol Mendes and Amir Attaran were the subject of two enormous freedom-of-information requests at the university which they believe is part of an intimidation tactic and effort to use their information against them, the Toronto Star reported. These requests are done anonymously in Ontario but the professors believe that this is another example of the Conservatives’ effort to silence critical voices in academia. To try and prove it, they’ve offered to release all information if the person who made the request reveals himself or herself. Employment details, expenses and teaching records were requested but Mendes said the university will not release much of the information which is private or personal in nature, and therefore legally protected from release.

A Conservative spokesman said the requests were not made by the party.

B.C. radiologists may have missed deadly diseases

The GSA held its own SGM prior to the CSU’s shortly after. Photo by David Vilder

CSU passes all six IGM student motions Evan LePage News editor

Evan LePage

A study released last week has revealed that Ontario students with disabilities face increased financial obstacles in their efforts to pursue post-secondary education, the Cord reported. Commissioned by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, the study found that 81 per cent of the disabled students surveyed were concerned about the debt incurred during the course of their education, and half expected to have at least $20,000 in debt.

In addition, 40 per cent said that debt or other financial barriers had altered their “post-secondary pursuits.”

Campus

Council tensions run high during discussion of student motions, accountability

Nation in brief Study highlights disabled students’ financial woes

Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor “I don’t want to have to strip my way through school,” said anthropology and environmental geography student Adrianna Deciccio.

Although some might consider these words a bit extreme, Deccicio clearly expressed the frustration that the other 896 students felt when they congregated on the Reggie’s terrace under rain and snow yesterday afternoon for the CSU’s special general meeting. Apart from voting on motions and denouncing Concordia’s Board of Governors for lack of transparency, the students were marking a special day of action against the Quebec government’s imminent tuition hikes. The event was titled WHALE: Wintry Hot Accessible Love-in for Education.

“The day was phenomenal, more students showed up than any of us had expected,” said graduate student Matthew Brett, and the event’s communications coordinator. “We were facing bad weather, major underfunding, a short time-frame to draw in students; basically, everything was working against us, but we still managed to pull it off.”

Under the watchful eye of Montreal police and campus security, close to 400 students participated in a march through the street surrounding the SGW campus, chanting “Hell no, we won’t pay, for someone else’s severance pay.” They then proceeded into the EV building and marched through the campus’ underground tunnels, making their way up to the Hall building’s seventh floor.

Once back on the terrace, students could sign a Valentine’s Day card to the BoG, as well as a petition

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peaked when representative Stephen Brown said “I believe that by looking around, people are growing tired of your belligerence, Ethan. We all respect the will of the students. Personally I’m not going to sit here all night [...] while you berate us and pretend that somehow you’re more democratic than we are.” Cox responded with a point of personal privilege stating “I would like the chair to restrain members from personally attacking me please.”

A technical malfunction caused a break in discussion and actually served to calm council, with all motions passing relatively quickly afterwards, with a few minor amendments to the wording.

Notably, council passed a motion which mandates the CSU to call for the resignation of all external Board of Governors members. This stricter stance was rejected by a majority of councillors at the council meeting in January, where they instead called on only those board members who had exceeded their terms to resign.

Cox also followed this discussion with a motion of his own. He moved that any representative who does not comply with part of a motion which called on student representatives on the board of governors and senate, whom they listed by name, “to

represent forcefully and persistently to the bodies they sit on,” be asked to resign by the CSU. Some councillors and VP Loyola and advocacy Hassan Abdullahi vehemently opposed the motion, calling it redundant and unenforceable. Pointing out that those in question could not be forced to resign, Cox and supporting councillors responded that the CSU calling on them to do so would act as a symbolic fail-safe, pushing them to follow through on actions they have been mandated to complete.

After a lengthy discussion, Cox’s motion failed in a close vote, 10 to eight.

The meeting was well-attended by students at large, many of whom were at the IGM, as well as organizers of the WHALE day of action who spoke out in favour of the motions.

These students also spoke on behalf of WHALE and asked everyone at the CSU to increase their participation in the event and use all the resources available to them to increase awareness about it. With the strong support of certain councillors like Lex Gill, council approved a motion mandating the CSU to contribute $1,900 to the WHALE event, matching the Graduate Students’ Association’s contribution.

Health officials in B.C. have been reviewing thousands of complaints about two radiologists who were not qualified to review CT scans and ultrasounds, and thus could potentially have missed countless life-threatening diseases.

In fall 2010, the two radiologists both practiced in the Powell River and Abbotsford areas of B.C. despite lacking to credentials or experience to do so, the Vancouver Sun reported. Chair of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council Dr. Doug Cochrane will be leading an independent investigation into the matter. Despite learning about the issue in October, health officials reportedly only began contacting patients last week, citing a desire to not alarm or cause anxiety in the public. All of the over 900 patients are being contacted, and their scans are being reviewed. An independent review reportedly found 134 of those patients required more testing, 30 of them urgently.

Police not charged in kicking incident

A police officer in Victoria, B.C. will not be charged for an incident in which he kicked two men as they were being handcuffed. The officer in question was filmed kicking one man as other officers held him down following a fight in the street. He then kicked and kneed a second man as he and another officer struggled to handcuff the suspect. The province’s Criminal Justice Branch reviewed the incident and ruled that the force used by the officer was permissible and legal in that particular, unsafe situation. The spectator-filmed video of the kicks was posted on YouTube last spring and has received over 250,000 views since.

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theconcordian

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

World in brief Evan LePage

Malaysian govt takes aim at cupid

Fewer roses, cards or chocolates were likely exchanged in Malaysia yesterday after the nation’s government spent the weeks before Valentine’s Day denouncing the holiday as a “trap” and even performed “immorality checks” yesterday. Malaysia is officially a Muslim state and the government’s nationwide campaign called “Mind the Valentine’s Day Trap” pushed the notion that the holiday might encourage people to take part in sinful acts, AFP reported.

As a result, many states within the country carried out checks in hotels and other areas looking for couples having premarital sex. The head of the Malaysian Islamic Department told state media that Valentine’s is synonymous with “vice activities” and noted an old ruling which said the day was associated with “elements of Christianity” and they can’t “get involved with other religion’s worshipping rituals.” Nearly two thirds of the Malaysian population is Muslim.

Cockfight claims human casualty

The animals are fighting back. An illegal cockfight in California went drastically wrong (for the humans) a few weeks ago after a rooster stabbed and killed one of the spectators. The bird in question had a knife strapped to one of its legs and apparently stabbed the spectator, 35-yearold Jose Luis Ochoa, in the leg. The knife reportedly punctured an artery and Ochoa was declared dead at the hospital within two hours, according to the county coroner’s office. Some reports state that Ochoa could have survived had he immediately treated the wound, but when local sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene he, and the rest of the people partaking in this illegal event, fled the scene.

Brits set to okay gay ‘marriages’ in churches

Same-sex couples in the UK may soon have the opportunity to get ‘married’ in a church, as politicians will likely be releasing plans to enable it according to a BBC report.

Currently civil partnership ceremonies in England are restricted to secular settings, but the nation’s Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone will reportedly propose lifting the ban on religious settings for these same-sex ceremonies. Religious organizations would not be required to perform these ceremonies of course, and the Church of England has already said no same-sex ceremonies would be allowed in its churches. While civil partnerships were introduced in 2005 for legal purposes, homosexual marriage is still illegal in the UK.

Moby Dick captain’s real ship discovered

Moby Dick may have been a work of fiction, but author Herman Melville’s Ahab was inspired by a real captain named George Pollard, whose ship was just found off the coast of Hawaii. The boat, called the Two Brothers, was found by researchers from America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Although the boat itself had severely disintegrated, harpoons and a hook for stripping blubber form whales were also found, among other items.

The Two Brothers sunk when it hit a coral reef in 1823. While Pollard inspired the captain in Moby Dick, it was another one of his ships, the Essex, which inspired the plot as it was sunk after being struck by a whale.

tuition

Canada Student Loans demand increased by $311M Feds also require $149 million to write off unrecoverable loans Emma Godmere CUP Ottawa Bureau Chief OTTAWA (CUP) — According to a recent budget update report tabled in Parliament, the federal government will require millions of dollars to keep its Canada Student Loans Program afloat.

In supplementary estimates tabled Feb. 8, the federal government outlined it needs $149.5 million to write off more than 60,000 debts for unrecoverable student loans. In addition, the government is seeking an extra $311.2 million to meet the increased demand for national loans, a

need that has also been amplified by a forecasted decline in repayments.

“It’s troubling,” said Dave Molenhuis, national chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students.

“It’s not entirely unanticipated, but it’s definitely concerning that we’re continuing to move in this direction of more and more money being required for a higher number of students borrowing larger dollar amounts — and of course more government write-offs of bad debts.”

The requests for additional funding for the CSLP come only months after the Conservative government extended its national student loan lending cap by $2 billion back in August, when the program was at risk of breaching its $15-billion limit.

“We knew back in the fall ... that we would, in the not-too-distant future, run up against this ceiling again,” said Molenhuis, who noted that this is once again an ideal time for the government to consider changes to their CSLP legislation.

“We feel that not enough is be-

ing done to address this problem as evidenced by the fact that we have to make top-ups on the bad debts.”

A spokesperson from Human Resources and Skills Development explained that the 60,000 cases of bad debt only make up a small minority of borrowers — less than one per cent of the entire CSLP portfolio.

“The majority of Canada Student Loans borrowers repay their student loans on time,” read an email from the department. “Each year, only a small proportion of student loan accounts are deemed unrecoverable and are recommended for write-off.”

In terms of increased demand, the department explained that in 2009–10, the CSLP experienced a 10 per cent increase in students who borrowed over the previous year.

HRSDC is also estimating there will be an additional eight per cent increase in 2010–11.

“The Canada Student Loans Program is a statutory program and provides funding to all qualifying students, regardless of the number

who apply,” their email explained.

“For planning purposes, the Canada Student Loans Program spending forecasts are updated throughout the year and reported to Parliament.”

Molenhuis explained the CFS is continuing to keep an eye on the issue.

“In the wake of these top-ups for Canada Student Loans Program, we’ll be discussing with the political parties the urgency in the whole affair of dealing with this mounting student debt problem,” he said.

Along with requests for additional funding needed in other departments, the government is seeking an extra $1.8 billion in total in the tabled documents. Supplementary estimates are presented to update Parliament on government spending when predicted expenditures outlined in the federal budget have changed. Additionally, Parliament must approve any new spending.

The federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year is expected to be presented next month.

leCture

Working to find a place for anglophones in Quebec Professors push the provincial language narrative at Concordia seminar Adrian Saldanha Contributor Fifteen years ago, the Task Force on the Teaching of History suggested that Quebec’s historical narrative be more representative of the province’s English-speaking minority.

But what has actually changed?

“Quebec is a society in search

of its collective identity,” Concordia professor Peter Gossage said. “One which faces a number of challenges.

Namely, the difficulty of convincing a large and well-established English minority to consider itself part of a larger Quebecois society.”

Gossage was speaking at a oneday seminar last Friday at Concordia entitled “What place should anglophones have in Quebec’s collective narrative?”

He listed three possible narratives into which this elusively defined group can be integrated.

The first is the narrative of harmony which suggests that, despite the legacy of conquest, relations between the French and English have been quite good. The second possibility is one of struggle, where the two groups are trapped in constant bitter struggles with one another. Finally,

the last of the three is a narrative of solitude, which would suggest that for the most part, the two groups have existed in indifference of one another.

“None of these are sufficient,” he said however, explaining that in reality Quebec’s history is rife with elements of all three narratives.

Furthermore, the struggle the francophone majority had to face prior to the Quiet Revolution was not strictly one of language. “Classbased inequalities in Montreal have been conflated with the ethnic and linguistic relations in Montreal,” Gossage said.

Concordia Professor Ronald Rudin also spoke at the seminar.

With many francophones and anglophones of all opinions in attendance, Rudin, an anglophone, chuckled nervously as he listed all the areas

he explicitly wanted to leave out of his talk – namely the newest education bills – garnering a laugh from the audience.

Rudin spoke of how the exodus of Quebec’s English-speakers between 1966 and 1981 poses a problem for defining the idea of what an anglophone is. Prior to the Quiet Revolution, there was no anglophone identity that stood in contrast to a francophone one, he explained. Today’s English-speaking population includes groups like the aboriginals of Kahnawake and the Irish of Montreal and Quebec City.

Groups that would be “turning over in their grave at being called Englishanything,” according to Rudin.

“The pertinence of the concept of English-speaker is neither natural nor fixed, but constructed,” he added.

Campus

Queer Concordia seeks a two cent fee levy Funds would triple their budget, allow them to hire a part-time coordinator Evan LePage News editor Queer Concordia took the first step in an effort to make the transition from club to fee-levy group last week, with the Concordia Student Union council approving their referendum question to appear on ballots this March. The organization is requesting a two cent per credit fee levy largely for the hiring of a parttime coordinator, ideally someone with an expertise in counselling, who would allow them to keep the doors of their resource centre open to students on a more regular basis.

“Part of the reason why we’re seeking [the fee levy] is to have somebody to be able to keep a regular presence at our office,” said Joey Donnelly, a spokesperson for Queer Concordia. “We find that we’re usually the first stop where a lot of people go to when they have ques-

tions regarding sexuality, whether it’s academic or personal. A lot of people come to us as a first stop so we see that demand for our services and a need for a more visible presence of people who identify as queer.”

Donnelly said Queer Concordia is currently more of a referral service and works completely on volunteers, a model he called “unsustainable.”

The modest levy they are seeking, two cents per credit for an average of between 48 and 60 cents a year from full-time undergraduate students, would make a big difference in terms of their budget.

“It would basically represent triple what we receive right now from the CSU as a club,” Donnelly said, adding that while they currently receive approximately $4,000 from the CSU the levy itself would bring approximately $12,000 more to their budget according to their calculations.

The group is also in consultations with Queer McGill, a service centre with a budget in the area of $40,000, in order to establish a concrete plan for the finances. “We also realize that with extra cash comes extra responsibility and we wanted to ensure that [...] that process is done transparently and in an accountable manner,” Donnelly said. “We don’t want to

overextend our budget or ask for too much money where we don’t necessarily have plans for that money.”

Some councillors at CSU asked for clarification as to how the newlyfunded Queer Concordia centre would differ from the existing 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy.

Donnelly explained that they deal more with issues of sexuality, while 2110 deals more with gender and there shouldn’t be much overlap.

“We feel that we would be sister organizations with 2110, that we would complement each other really well.”

Largely however, councillors voiced strong support for the fee levy.

There is still some work to be done for the organization. Councillor Lex Gill successfully amended the motion to accept Queer Concordia’s question, pending their ability to prove they are legally incorporated and have a functioning board of directors, both of which are required in order to receive fee-levy funds, by the time ballots are in next month.

Donnelly said the group is currently engaged in the process of being incorporated as a non-profit organization and hopefully will have that taken care of shortly.

Once that’s completed, he said the next step is to organize a “yes” campaign and illustrate how this

centre can benefit all students.

“We think for 60 cents a year, for less than a cup of coffee or a bag of chips, to be able to have access to a space like this, plus have a group advocate for free safer sex products, I think it’s a win-win situation for everybody,” Donnelly said.

“Giving a chance for queer people to have a voice on campus, that’s what a person’s two cents is worth.”

Joey Donnelly addressed CSU council.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theconcordian

5

Continued from cover ...

Son of slain civil rights leader delivers a message of love, non-violence, and forgiveness society and culture of non-violence.

My father used to say, ‘We can swim the seas like fish, and we can fly the in the air like birds. But we haven’t learnt the basic human ability to get along like brothers and sisters.’ He said that back then, I can’t imagine what he would say today.”

King also spoke of the day he found out that his father, Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr., was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tenn. nearly 45 years ago and what it took to forgive the man that opened fire, James Earl Ray. “It would have been easy for me to embrace hatred,” explained King. “It’s so easy to embrace hostility or to carry around frustration and anger. What I am thankful for

is the spirit of forgiveness. I learned to dislike the evil act but still love the individual. We have to learn how to forgive. We would have a much better society if we were able to embrace forgiveness.”

With his parting words King encouraged everyone to find the “good that exists in each of us” and create the “best society that ever existed.” He pointed out that

all it takes for change is a “few good women and men, that were dedicated, determined, and dependable.” King then turned to the students gathered in the crowd.

“The world needs you, it needs your leadership,” he told them.

See our one-on-one with King at www.theconcordian.com

Photo by Faiz Imam

campus

ASFA silent on proposed fee levies Council prefers to not take a stance on upcoming feelevy referendum Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor Three student groups are vying to either create a fee levy or increase their current ones next month, but none of them will be receiving the official backing of the Arts and Sci-

ence Federation of Associations.

At last Thursday’s council meeting, councillors decided to not take a stance on the referendum question to increase the fee levy for CJLO, Concordia’s only radio station, as well as the questions to create feelevies for Queer Concordia and the Void Magazine, the only bilingual literary magazine on campus.

ASFA president Aaron Green, who personally supports all three fee-levy questions, had asked council to tell him what kind of position the umbrella organization should take, especially because some of the groups are initiatives of arts and sci-

politics

ence students. But the request was shot down by several councillors.

“I think it’s totally inappropriate for us to take a stance on fee levies of other groups,” said councillor Michaela Manson, who also sits on CSU’s council, the body that approved the three fee-levy questions that will go to referendum in March.

“I don’t think it’s a very good decision for ASFA to take a stance because fee levies are very diverse,” said councillor Khalil Haddad.

“There is a lot to be said about each organization and I feel it’s up to the students to decide if they want to increase the fee levies.”

ASFA’s VP external and sustainability Chad Walcott added that it would be difficult for ASFA to produce a general stance on the feelevies of very different groups.

Although the matter was dropped, Void Magazine editor-inchief Cole Robertson was still given the opportunity to address council and pass around the latest issue of the magazine. His organization is looking to create a fee-levy of two cents per credit which would cover the majority of Void’s operating budget.

“I would like to see ASFA supporting groups like the Void

because these are things that make the undergraduate experience at Concordia much better,” he said.

“But I also understand what you’re talking about.”

CJLO’s station manager Katie Seline also said she respects ASFA’s reasoning, and said she was confident that a majority of students will vote in favour of increasing the radio station’s fee-levy from 25 cents per credit to 34 cents per credit.

“Of course we are hoping to have as much support as we can get and all of it is beneficial,” she said.

campus

“Let us snowboard”: students’ What happens in the Middle East - petition to university Concordia bans doesn’t stay there: students from using makeshift ski hill Bob Rae

Stability must not come at expense of legitimacy Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo Assistant arts editor

Foreign politics and daily life in Canada can seem a world apart. However, according to the Hon. Bob Rae, Canadians are mistaken in thinking events occurring across the globe do not affect their lives. “This notion somehow that foreign policy and domestic policy are different, are divided, that there’s somehow a world in which foreign policy or foreign politics takes place and that’s a very different world from the world in which we are living here in Canada, is completely wrong,” he said.

The liberal MP and foreign affairs critic spoke to a D.B. Clarke Theatre filled almost to capacity last Tuesday as part of the ongoing Henri Habib Distinguished Lecture Series.

Rae said the question that he is most often confronted with when talking to Canadians about foreign policy is “Why should I care?” In a line, his response was: “There is no peeing section in a swimming pool anymore than there is a smoking section in a restaurant,” he said. “You can’t put walls up around your country which will stop pollution from flowing.”

Moreover, he added, as evidenced by the recent turn of events in the Middle East, it can no longer be Canadian foreign policy to simply throw support behind the government whose rule brings about stability. He likened that tendency – that of turning a blind eye to undemocratic processes in exchange for stability - to President Roosevelt’s backing of the Cuban dictator Batista: “When one of his advisors said ‘That guy’s a real bastard,’ President Roosevelt is reported to have said, ‘Yes he is, but he’s our bastard.’ That’s an attitude we can’t afford.”

The tone of the event then became conversational, if only momentarily, as he and the dean of arts and science sat down in the leather arm chairs on stage. Dean Brian Lewis kicked off the Q&A period by asking Rae what he thought was the most pressing issue facing Canada in 2011. Rae, who at the start of the lecture described himself as a “recovering politician [who] has now fallen quite decisively off the wagon,” said the question of conflict was the most important one in the world today. He also slipped a bout of self-promotion into what had been a mostly non-partisan speech, saying “I think that what we need to do about it is to have a country which is more engaged, more effective, more on top of, more willing to yes, take risks in order to be an effective intervener in dealing with the conflicts - and that’s the kind of foreign policy I would dearly love to lead.”

Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief

First-year students C. W. Weinfield and Dave Sidio said that the idea behind building a mini ski hill next to their residences was for a fun activity to keep them and their friends occupied and get some “mad cardio” during the winter months.

But where students see a fun activity, the university sees a dangerous mound of snow.

Concordia forbade students from using the hill for skiing and snowboarding, prompting the students to circulate a petition asking the university to reconsider.

The hill was built in about six hours by a few first-year students living in residence on Saturday, Feb. 5. It measures about 15 feet high and is situated between Hingston Hall residence and the back parking lot at the Loyola campus.

The students say that Loyola residence life manager Rich SwamiNathan did not give them the permission to build the hill, but said “‘Just don’t kill yourselves.’”

But on Thursday morning, they were told to stop.

SwamiNathan said he was not available to comment on the situation, but university spokesperson Chris Mota said the decision was made because of liability issues and a concern for safety. Not only were

C.W. Weinfield (centre) and friends helped build this snow hill. Photo by writer they concerned about students, but also the safety of neighbourhood children who come to play on the campus. The fear is that there might be dangerous objects packed under the snow which could harm children. “We’re not in the business of running a ski hill,” she added.

Weinfeld said that students were willing to sign a waiver liability form in order to free the university of responsability. As for the safety of local kids, he reported seeing a parent and two children playing on the mountain one morning.

While the students acknowledge that liability is an issue, they can list a number of reasons why they should have a ski hill. For one, they consider the space their own backyard. They also malign the lack of campus life in the residential neighbourhood during winter beyond monthly cultural nights at the Hive.

Sidio and Paul Amiel said that

campuses in British Columbia set up rails for students to snowboard on campus; they feel that something similar should occur every year at Concordia.

Mota added that the university believes the mountain was partly built from a pile created when snow was cleared from the parking lot. To deter future ski hills, facilities management will now move the snow out of the way and then spread it out.

Weinfield and his friends have stopped using the hill, but are continuing to circulate the petition.

At the moment, a little over a dozen students have signed their names, but Weinfield remains upbeat.

“They’ve all been positive about it,” said the film studies student. “We haven’t had a single person say no yet.”

life

Write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com food

Val’s Bites: chewing on edible words An expert panel examines how the links between food and literature shape our society Valeria Nekhim Contributor Lesley Chesterman envies her dining companions. Whereas they can savour a free, multicourse meal replete with wine and dessert and forget about it the next day, Chesterman, as the Montreal Gazette’s fine dining critic since 1998, doesn’t have that luxury. “It’s much more pleasurable to eat and drink than to write about it,” she exclaimed.

A trained pastry chef and cookbook author, Chesterman was one of four speakers at The Taste of Words, a panel discussion held last Friday exploring the symbiotic relationship between literature and gastronomy. “Food is a language,” said Catherine Turgeon-Gouin, a McGill graduate student and fellow panelist who recently completed her thesis on national cuisine in La Belle Province. “People are really starting to express themselves through food and it’s a very exciting time now.” Made possible by the Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence Program of the French and English Departments of McGill University, the conversation also featured James Chatto, a food critic and writer whose works have appeared in publications including Toronto Life and enRoute, as well as Marcy Goldman, a recipe book author and creator of the online magazine Betterbaking.com.

The informal discussion at the McGill Faculty Club was moderated by Nathalie Cooke, an English professor at the university, and a proponent of the view that the way we write and talk about food influences our culture and shapes who we are. The editor of CuiZine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, Cooke got the ball rolling asking the invitees: “How do you translate the myriad

Four panelists weigh in at The Taste of Words panel. Photo by Tiffany Blaise sensations of food and wine into words?”

When writing a cookbook, Goldman said her strategy is using vivid language and metaphors to seduce readers and lure them into the kitchen. Both Chesterman and Chatto stressed the value of humour in all forms of food writing. “When you have people that take [food writing] too seriously, I cringe,” remarked Chesterman, who thrives on entertaining her audience. As a restaurant reviewer, Chesterman said she makes it a priority to avoid sounding pompous, so as not to alienate readers who cannot afford extravagant meals, but wish to live vicariously through her narrative.

Inevitably, the conversation quickly shifted onto the subject of food blogs, and their role in the evolution of food literature. As the author of food and travel books including The Man Who Ate Toronto, Chatto said his food blog altered his prose by allowing him to be as “goofy or as stupid as [he] wants” – something he can’t do when writing for someone else. For her part, Goldman likes the democ-

ratization of food writing inherent in blogs, but expressed her dislike of the dumbeddown language sometimes used. Chesterman spends a chunk of her day sifting through blogs, and while some are excellent she said, too many accept free meals in exchange for favourable reviews, threatening to compromise the integrity of genuine epicurean blogs.

Still, when asked what advice she would give to those desiring a career as food writers or reviewers, Chesterman advocates launching a blog. However, given the current proliferation of food blogs, she thinks developing a strong, distinguishable voice is essential. She also recommends finding a mentor and starting out as a freelancer because the market for staff writers is limited. As for whether culinary school is a must for a reviewer, Chesterman highly recommends it. “I would never tell someone interested in food criticism not to go to cooking school. It gives me clout with the chefs. And, if you don’t end up a food reviewer, at least you’ll know how to cook.”

For Chatto the answer is simple: to become

a food writer, one has to sit down and write.

There seemed to be a general consensus among the panelists that since the ‘90s, food writing has been continuously transforming.

For instance, Cooke pointed out a newfound interest in exploring Canadian food culture.

Style-wise, now it’s all about being short and punchy according to Chesterman.

Interestingly enough, the critic remarked that when she was starting out in the early ‘90s, food journalism was deemed unimportant and assigned to female staffers with zero interest in food. The results were abysmal.

Today, the opposite is true and people who actually enjoy cooking are behind the articles.

Looking forward, both Chesterman and Cooke see food literature becoming dominated by stories about local, sustainable approaches to eating and farming.

But how come, despite the explosion of food-centric literature and television shows, people are eating at home increasingly less? wondered Cooke.

“People are entertained by food, but aren’t motivated enough to get into the kitchen,” explained Goldman.

“How do we expect people to cook if they don’t know how to chop an onion?” replied Chesterman. Her solution is re-integrating cooking classes into high school curriculums so students graduate with basic cooking skills that will steer them away from unhealthy pre-packaged meals, and consequently curb obesity rates. “Get out in the garden – get your hands dirty,” urged Chatto.

Finally, Cooke asked Chesterman the question on everyone’s mind: how much influence does she really exert? “I’m not powerful enough to close a good restaurant, but I’m powerful enough to help a good restaurant get better and do better,” she responded. In fact, it brings Chesterman ineffable joy to witness a restaurant that previously went unnoticed, brimming with diners. And in case you’re wondering whether she get’s recognized, the answer is a big fat “yes,” which usually entails complimentary dishes. It’s no wonder Chesterman envies her dining companions.

business

Local hangout Kafeïn reopens its doors

Student-friendly café gets new look after being closed several months due to flooding Renée Morrison Contributor

Kafeïn, a bar and café that has long been a hangout for Concordia University students, has recently reopened its doors with a new look and shisha-free atmosphere.

Last summer, the owners of Kafeïn were in the middle of another busy season on Bishop Street when disaster hit.

The café went from being a lazy summer hangout equipped with a front terrace, fresh cocktails and a live DJ to a water-damaged mess.

During a major August rainstorm, a blocked drain in the building’s roof caused both floors of the café to flood with water. The bar, furniture, floors and equipment were left completely rotted and Kafeïn was forced to close its doors for the rest of the summer.

“I would say we had a pool worth of brown water come down” said owner Gaby Najjar.

“Almost everything had to be thoroughly cleaned, repaired or replaced.”

The owners, Gaby and his brother George, planned to get back on their feet as soon as possible after the flood. The former decided to

remodel the café, installing a brand new bar downstairs, new seating arrangements and painting the walls for a whole new look .

“I was taking on the whole project myself finding workers, designing, doing the finances,” said Gaby. “So I won’t be fully satisfied until I can see the vision that drove me for this project, but I’m hopeful and excited about what’s to come.”

Located right next to Concordia’s library building downtown, Kafeïn has been a haven for students studying or hanging out on break.

“The couches are comfy, you can just sink into them. It’s one of my go-to places to hang out at night,” said political science student Jessica Palis, “and I love the teas - especially the blueberry.”

With its unpretentious and admittedly ‘wornin’ décor, many students and loyal customers have grown attached since Kafeïn opened eight years ago. Within this social circle, Kafeïn found support, and friends helped with advice and decorating in order to get the café ready to reopen.

After several months of revamping, the café opened its doors again with a new look and its menu also had a makeover. They serve a large variety of paninis and salads that are between $5 and $7. They offer a meat-free chili and egg breakfast sandwiches from 9 a.m. until noon.

While the café used to be known as one of the spots in town to smoke shisha (flavored tobacco smoked from a water pipe), the owners have decided to stop serving it.

“It was our choice and I felt it was better for the business to re-invent ourselves,” said Gaby,

Kafeïn café on Bishop is finally back in action. Photo by Tiffany Blaise “But the government was also being harsh on us with the requirements and conditions [of serving shisha].”

Kafeïn will still act as an art gallery with exhibits and vernissages displaying local artists.

This month’s featured artists are Concordia painting and drawing student Adrienne Dagg, whose oil paintings can be seen downstairs, and painting and drawing graduate Alzbeta Jaresova whose work is featured upstairs. The artwork is generally displayed for a month and each piece has a price tag so it can be sold to clients looking to buy. Kafeïn invites artists to drop by to show off their work and possibly have their art hosted

by the café.

Adrienne Dagg’s work can be seen on her Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/adriennedagg Alzbeta Jaresova’s work is online on her website at www.jaresova.com Kafeïn Café is located at 1429A Bishop St. Monday thru Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Fridays from 9 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Saturdays and Sundays from 12 p.m. until 3 a.m.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/concordianlife

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

7

fashion

Montreal fashion field guide

Everything you need to know about the city’s top designers Savannah Sher Assistant life editor All of Montreal’s most stylish residents braved the snowy cobblestoned streets to Bonsecours Market in the Old Port last week for the 20th edition of Montreal Fashion Week.

When I told my friends, who are a pretty fashion-savvy bunch, that I was lucky enough to be attending, they were all curious about which shows I would be seeing. After giving them the names of the designers, however, I was met with blank stares. How is it that in a city that prides itself on its fashion sensibility, even the most well-reputed brands are relatively unknown?

Even self-proclaimed fashionistas who spend their weekends devouring the latest issue of Elle and browsing through style.com don’t really seem to know anything about the local fashion scene.

So after seeing the shows last week, I have created a quick guide of the Montreal designers (both established and up-andcoming) that I think are worth knowing.

Anomal Couture Designer Sonia Leclair was met with enthusiastic reactions from the fashion set after her first-ever runway show last Wednesday. The first model that walked out was rocking a severely high ponytail and dramatic eye makeup paired with a longsleeved paneled body suit fit for a Lady Gaga performance. The audience’s attention was piqued and they weren’t disappointed, as the rest of the show was filled with ensembles fit for a modern day superhero. Corset tops, bold shoulders and architectural details were featured, mostly in black with some injections of royal blue and gold brocade. Leclair, 28, launched her label in 2005 and has been steadily increasing her client base since then, selling her garments at her Etsy store and at Maskarad on Mount-Royal Avenue. She was a semi-finalist on the design reality show La Collection and this fall won the Pop Montreal fashion competition. Though she may be a newcomer, Leclair is definitely someone to keep an eye on for future successes.

military inspired styles in camel, navy and slate. They achieved the perfect blend of practicality and trendiness. The best thing about Soia & Kyo is that you can get quality and style at a relatively reasonable cost, with all their outerwear ranging between $200 and $400.

Marie Saint Pierre For two decades, Marie Saint Pierre has been a constant fixture in Montreal fashion.

Saint Pierre is one of Canada’s fashion icons and has shown her collections in both New York City and Paris along with Canadian cities. The designer has been honoured with countless awards and has always ignored trends in favour of timeless and streamlined pieces. She is known for sticking to a palette of black, white, red and grey and this season was no exception. Saint Pierre’s show was the last of the week, and it definitely left editors, bloggers and socialites with smiles on their faces. Though her aesthetic is strong and consistent, it never translates to boring. Sharp lines and Saint Pierre’s signature feminine touches of ruffles and soft silhouettes made for a mix of classic looks that are sure to be popular in the current minimalist trend.

Melissa Nepton Nepton gained the attention of the public in 2009 when she became the winner of La Collection, a reality show similar to Project Runway. All of her designs are extremely wearable and are made for the modern active woman. Practical yet stylish separates in cozy knit fabrics like wool and cashmere are the designer’s signature. All of her clothes are 100 per cent made in Canada and are carried by Simons department store as well as many boutiques. Her fall/winter collection featured a covetable palette of neutral designs that would work in any wardrobe. The easy draping and fine construction make for pieces that look refined yet effortless.

Rud by Rudsak Leather goods label Rudsak has become a local staple in recent years known for creator Evik Asatoorian’s sleek and timeless designs. Though their coats and accessories are gorgeous and extremely well-made, they have always been a little too mature for the 20-something crowd. That’s why the brand decided to introduce Rud (designed by Damien Lekatis, formerly of Hilary Radley).

Rud can be considered as Rudsak’s younger and slightly more rebellious sister. Their debut collection, which was shown last week, featured fitted puffer jackets alongside more edgy leather designs. Most of the models strutted down the catwalk to techno beats in all black, but there were appearances of khaki and stone grey. Details like fur accents and studs made the clothes fun and original.

The idea of the collection is to offer more affordable pieces without compromising the quality or workmanship. You’ll be able to check out the designs when they appear in stores in September.

Soia & Kyo Soia & Kyo was started 2004 and has since become an international success and also featured in many major magazines. The brand makes warm down jackets as well as designs in leather and wool. Every piece has something that sets it apart, whether it’s an asymmetrical zipper or oversized collar.

Because the label is based in Montreal, their coats are really designed to keep you protected from the elements. Their most recent collection featured double breasted

Barila Sabrina Barila only started her line in 2007 but has quickly become one of the biggest names in Montreal fashion. Barila’s use of colour and prints make her clothes popular with younger buyers but in every look there is a definite sophistication. For fall, Barila decided to embrace the ‘70s trend that was ushered in by Marc Jacobs (at Louis Vuitton and his own label) for spring. She used bold colours like crimson and teal interspersed with darker shades and played with longer hemlines and sleeve lengths. The rich hues mixed with fabrics like suede, faux leather and fur created a balance between daring and refinement. The show was a hit, even though a footwear issue caused several models to take their shoes off on the runway.

Marie Saint-Pierre

Melissa Nepton

Soia & Kyo

Barila

Rud by Rudsak

Anomal Couture

To see all the images from fashion week, go to www.montrealfashionweek.ca

theconcordian

8 event

High Lights Fest brightens the winter

Nearly 10 days of activities and events to keep you entertained over reading week Emily White Life editor

While some students are lucky enough to be jetting off to a beach this reading week, the rest of us are stuck here in the snow. Thankfully, the Montreal High Lights Festival and its Nuit Blanche finale are here to keep us warm this winter break.

With a multitude of events and activities happening between Feb. 17 and 27, there is no shortage of things to do. The programming is divided into several categories which tackle everything from performing arts and wining and dining to free outdoor programs, a mixedmedia parade and the highly anticipated all-nighter.

This year’s focus is “Celebrating Women,” a theme that has been in the making for a few years but finally came to life with the Festival’s newest sponsor L’Oréal Canada.

“With them as the sponsor, it was a great fit,” said Caroline Johnson, a festival director of programming. “It is very motivating to have this as the program’s focus and it is interesting to show women in very maledominated fields.”

The event’s focus will be seen most in the Sun Life Financial Performing Arts section as well as the SAQ Wine and Dine Experience, where chefs and artists from all over the world have been invited to share their talents with a Montreal audience.

While some of these events can be a little pricey, many others are completely free. So, rather than letting this reading week skulk away, why not spend it playing tourist in our city?

(Note: Some sections of the festival go on “break” From Monday Feb. 21 to Thursday Feb. 24)

Quartier des spectacles glows red during the High Lights event last February.

Outdoor activities - daily One of the Festival’s main attractions is The BMO Bank of Montreal Celebration of Light.

This outdoor programming features dozens of free activities in and around the Quays of the Old Port and Old Montreal. With an ice slide, sugar shack, skating rink and ferris wheel to keep you entertained, you may need to return on several occasions.

February 17, 18 and 25 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

February 19 from noon until 11 p.m.

February 20 and 27 from noon until 6 p.m.

February 26 from noon until 3 a.m.

Fireworks - selected dates At 8 p.m. on Feb. 17, 18, 19, 25 and all night long on the 26, there will be fireworks overlooking the Quays. Not only is watching things explode in the sky fun, but it makes a great backdrop for the free outdoor concerts that will be taking place on the nearby stage.

High Lights event - Feb. 19 After creating this event for the festival’s 10th anniversary, the High Lights Event returns this year starring DJ Misstress Barbara.

Best known for her single “I’m Running” featuring Sam Roberts, Misstress Barbara will take participants along with her on a mixedmedia parade that runs from the JacquesCartier Quay, along the Old Port Promenade to the Café des Éclusiers. This moving event will include multimedia projections onto the surrounding buildings and urban animation.

The parade will kick off at 9 p.m. at the Jacques-Cartier Quay Festival lunch menus - daily While a big portion of the festival is dedicated to the culinary excellence of visiting chefs, most meals are out of reach of a student budget. However, there are several restaurants offering lunch menus for $12.95 that offer you the fine dining experience without the added cost. If you are willing to dish out a few extra dollars, you can head online to bit. ly/hgwcic where you can search by budget to find a restaurant.

Restaurants participating in the lunch menus are Tasca, Stromboli, Rumi, Prato Pizzeria et Café, Mogador, La Khaïma, Kashmir and Byblos le Petit Café. For more information

Winter enthusiasts celebrate last year’s Nuit Blanche in the Quays of the Old Port. about their chefs and locations, visit bit.ly/fu7bPc Nuit Blanche - Feb. 26 Probably the most anticipated evening of the entire festival is Nuit Blanche, a night filled with visual arts, dance, exhibitions, cinema, music, theatre sports and more. One of the biggest draws is that most of these activities are not only completely free but also have extended hours. The events are not confined to Old Montreal and the Quays of the Old Port but are spread across the downtown area, the Quartier des spectacles, the Plateau-Mont-Royal, the Mile End and the Pôle Maisonneuve.

For a list of programs head to www.montrealenlumiere.com and click the blue tab.

With so much to see and so little time, the festival has released a smartphone app on their website that you can download for free so that you can stay connected with what is going on.

You can also turn to page 11 for a list of events recommended by our arts editor.

Participants can also take advantage of the free shuttle service that takes you from one quartier to the next. Another bonus is that

Adults and children skate during last year’s festival. the metro will stay open all night, but if you are unable to make it home, over two dozen hotels are offering accommodations for half

the price. Rooms go on a first-come-first-serve basis and range in price from $67 to $179.

arts

Who’s ahead this awards season?

Check out our Oscars blog, Race to the Red Carpet at http://bit.ly/ gdOal5

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com

THEATRE

What happens at MainLine...

Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary raises the stakes!

Thea Fitz-James Contributor “Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary does for theatre what Tom Waits does for music,” stated Jeremy Hechtman, the director of MainLine Theatre’s upcoming production. While this accounts for the pulp quality of the show, this would only be true if Waits pulled his verses out of a hat, or rolled a die to decided whether to begin with the chorus or the bridge. With a giant wheel of fortune not only overshadowing, but dictating the sequence of events, Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary promises to be a wild ride.

Written by Chris Brophy, SDBS was originally performed at the 1996 Fringe Festival.

Brophy and Joanna Schmidt played all 15 characters, sometimes even trading characters with one another. Patrick Goddard, general manager of MainLine, found himself fondly remembering Brophy’s show while reviewing past Fringe plays in honour of the 20th anniversary of the Fringe Festival this past summer. He gave it “four highly appropriate title adjectives out of four.” It was at this point that Goddard and Hechtman decided to resurrect SDBS, but with a twist.

In the original production, the wheel of fortune only stood in the background as an overarching metaphor. This time, Hechtman and Goddard decided to literally use the wheel of fortune in the play to affect the narrative structure. Pushing what Goddard called the “theatrical insanity” of the original, they added the character of Blind Luck (played by Goddard himself). One part narrator, one part devil on the shoulders of everyone and literally blind, Blind Luck spins the wheel that decides which scenes will be played when.

All the 20 scenes of SDBS will be played, but in varying orders each night. Yet, Hecht-

Two actors play 15 characters in 20 randomly ordered scenes in Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary. Photo by Andrea Hausmann man explained that the story is still compreWhile this production of SDBS has five 20 years of Fringe has to offer. Its re-visitation brings new life to the original, just as the hensible: the characters are clearly defined and actors instead of two, they are not given any original offered a fresh look at the pulp fiction each scene has its own arc. So while a certain chance to relax. Hechtman described the genre. Hechtman, who saw the original SDBS narrative normalcy is willingly sacrificed, nothrehearsals as more drill-like than anything else; just after graduating from Concordia, can see ing is lost in this jumble of scenes. Hechtman working bits thousands of times, actors are how the production would intrigue any student described the show as pulp fiction, a referkept constantly on their toes, ready to jump who is attracted to the lurid world of pulp ence to the pulp magazines that were popular into a scene at a moment’s notice. Like the fiction, or is drawn to the seedy underbelly of throughout the early half of the 20th century. audience, the actors have no idea what is comThese magazines told lurid fictional stories, ing next in SDBS. This “keeps [the show] fresh, the city. On this same note, it seems the show usually involving sex and murder. Yet the focus and forces the actors to be in the moment” is ideal for anyone who enjoys the rush of the of the show is less on what happens, and more says Hechtman, suggesting that the actors unexpected, as each Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary on when it happens. Hechtman emphasized remain terrified throughout the performance. performance is literally a gamble. the random quality of the play, saying, “the It’s this energy, and not the plot, that drives the perfect night will be the one where the first show. The rush from the spontaneity replaces Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary opens Tuesday, thing to happen is the intermission. It was just the suspense of a linear narrative.

Feb. 15 at the MainLine Theatre. Tickets are too good to pass up.”

SDBS draws from the wealth of theatre that $23.

MOVIES

Facing the music after graduation Montreal film Shadowboxing explores the stasis of life after university Jasmine Papillon-Smith Contributor Shadowboxing is a post-coming-of-age film that deals with the stasis of graduation and the phenomenon of being driven but also directionless, and the temptation of settling for something less than what you want out of life.

Standing on the precipice of “real life” and having to deal with a future that has suddenly arrived, the main character finds he is unable to act. Making choices in the dark - sounds familiar to many graduates.

The film, predominantly made by Concordia students, has been in the works since 2007. It was selected to premiere Feb. 24 at Montreal’s 29th edition of Les rendez-vous du cinéma québécois.

RVCQ is a 10-day film festival where amateurs and professionals meet to share filmmaking experiences. It gives an accurate look at the variety of productions going on in both the French and English sectors. “[RVCQ] is a really good place. The North American market is kind of overcrowded [with] American content. It’s good that

Canada and Quebec are promoting and encouraging local work, and creating a place for Canadians to showcase it,” said Jesse Klein, writer and director of the film.

Shadowboxing is about Sam Eliot, played

by Robert Lamont, a college graduate who heads home to find his family life has gone awry. In trying to deal with his peculiar relationships, Sam ultimately loses a grasp on his own life. He chooses only to react to what happens to him, not knowing how to push forward. “We dealt with it [Sam’s stagnant character] by making his acting be only in his reacting,” Klein said.

Klein said the idea for the film came from his surroundings: an overwhelming number of people he was meeting were having difficulty in choosing their paths after school.

“Everyone who is lucky enough to go to college is put in a position to choose something at a very young age. It’s an element everybody deals with,” he said. “I think Sam is very much in the mindset that other people are after they graduate from college.

He’s driven but without the notion or idea of where to put that drive. And so he ends up being idle, and through that idleness ends up acting out.” Klein said he also found himself bouncing around after his graduation, unsure of what to pursue.

“It’s only now that I’m in graduate school that I’ve really committed to film,” he said.

The young director is currently doing a master’s degree at the University of Texas in

Austin. This isn’t his first experience traveling abroad; he started writing the script of Shadowboxing when he was studying in England and travelling through India. “[My experience abroad] was informative, and it was also good not to be in Montreal,” said Klein. “It gives you the proverbial distance, and allows you to think of people and relationships from a distance.”

Klein is thrilled that his film will be premiering in Montreal, saying it will allow for the cast and crew to attend.

Along with nearly 300 films, the RVCQ festival also features workshops, seminars,

classes, public discussion and exhibits. It also reserves a special place for historical Quebec films: this year, the festival will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Le Déclin de l’empire américain.

A decision as to the location for the American premiere of Shadowboxing will take place after the festival.

To see the trailer, head to www.bit.ly/ hSs3Tw. Shadowboxing will premiere Feb. 24 at Cinémathèque Québécoise. Student tickets are $7. Head to www.rvcq.com for more info.

Sam Eliot’s problems include cheating on his girlfriend, quitting his job and more.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/concordianarts

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

11

FESTIVAL

A smorgasbord of art Nuit Blanche has enough galleries and performances to keep you awake all night Valerie Cardinal Arts editor Nuit Blanche 2011 is so chock-full of events you’re sure to run into a performance, art gallery or free dance lesson at every turn. Here are a few of Val’s picks for must-see events during your sleepless night!

1. A Guerrilla-style night at Café Santropol The Café Santropol presents a night with the theme of feminism. The highlight is a live videoconference with the Guerrilla Girls in New York to discuss why there isn’t more art by women in major museums. The Guerrilla Girls are artists who bring attention to racism and sexism in politics, pop culture and more – and they do it all anonymously, taking the names of dead female artists and wearing gorilla masks in public. According to the Guerrilla Girls’ website, they consider themselves “feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger.”

There will also be a screening of Pepita Ferrari’s By Woman’s Hand, about the creation of the Beaver Hall Hill Group of women artists in 1920. Caroline Martel’s documentary about the role of women in global communications, Le Fantôme de l’Opératice will be screened, and the night will also include the performance of an unpublished play by Rébecca Déraspe.

This is event is free, at the Café Santropol at 3990 St-Urbain St. Time: 9:30 p.m. – 3:30 a.m.

2. Les Imprudanses’ annual tournament

In honour of Nuit Blanche, improvisational movement and dance troop Les Imprudanses presents four back-to-back competitions featuring 20 dancers at La Sala Rossa. Limited only by the style of music spun by the DJ and the rules of the referee, members of the troop create choreographies and compete to be the best. A delightful way to break out of the usual improv and theatre show, and transcend the language barrier.

the organizer of District 101 Espace Creatif.

This will be combined with a choreography from Patrick Lloyd Brennan. The performances on the hour explore the bourgeoisie’s recontextualized world. The exhibit will keep

running after Nuit Blanche.

This event is free, at the Dep[art]ment at 48 Notre-Dame St. W. Time: 8 p.m. – 3 a.m.

This event is free, at La Sala Rossa at 4848 St-Laurent Blvd.

Time: 10 p.m. – 3 a.m.

3. Nuit SPASM Is there a better place to be at on Nuit Blanche than Café Cléopâtre, surrounded by drag queens and watching mostly locallymade genre flicks? I think not. Café Cléopâtre showcases the best films of the 2010 SPASM Festival, which celebrates the best in francophone horror, action, comedy, trash and more.

Line dancers perform in the Montreal City Hall in the Old Port at last year’s Nuit Blanche.

This event is $5, at Café Cléopâtre at 1230 St-Laurent Blvd.

Time: 8 p.m. – 3 a.m.

4. Live Karaoke at Places des Arts Think you’re the next big thing in music?

Grab the chance to sing with an actual live band at the Places des Arts. The evening will be hosted by francophone comedians David Savard and Olivier Aubin. But don’t worry, there should be songs in English as well! Musical director Benoit Sarazzin will be on hand to provide some musical accompaniment.

This event is free, at the Place Deschamps wine bar at Places des Arts Time: 10:30 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.

5. Decadanse by the Art Matters Festival Get your pre-Art Matters on at the Dep[art]ment with the exhibit Decadanse.

It features new works by Sheldon Lawlor, a Montreal-based multimedia artist. He’s also

Last year, Montrealers croweded into the Place des Arts for some late-night entertainment.

THEATRE

Theatrical evolution: libretto, sci-fi story and bioplay rolled into one ambitious Concordia project Original production about Darwin and a cyborg promises to be captivating Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief Concordia’s theatre and music departments are collaborating on an ambitious original musical theatre piece based around the life of one of science’s most controversial figures, Charles Darwin. Darwin: Endless Forms Most Beautiful is a libretto, multimedia foray and science fiction parable, bringing live musicians and special effects to Loyola’s Oscar Peterson Hall this week.

You know Darwin from science textbooks as the father of the theory of evolution, a theory he developed after a long voyage around the world on The Beagle. The theory caused a lot of consternation back then, and it continues to do so today, as schools in North America vehemently ban the teaching of evolution in favour of creationism, the theory that God basically whipped up our planet within a few days and then took a day off.

Darwin: Endless Forms Most Beautiful has its feet planted firmly both in the past and in the future. A Cyborg (Cassandre Mentor) is about to undergo a major transformation, the next step in her evolution, so-to-speak. She strives to understand how it will play out by examining Darwin’s story, enacted by actors in period costume and accents.

Director Keith Turnbull places the Cyborg about 15 years from the present. To complete

the look, Mentor is about a foot taller thanks to leg extensions, with her voice amplified and treated for that robotic edge. Parts of her seafoam-coloured body transform. (Summing up the show’s design aesthetic, Turbull quips it’s got “your tweed jacket and your hightech.”)

If it’s starting to sound like a steampunk musical, you’ll be forgiven. Kyle Purves, who plays the young Darwin, admitted the show’s genre is “not easy to peg.” It’s not musical theatre, yet not quite an opera.

What it is is ambitious. The show features projections and extensive sound design, in addition to the complexities of Mentor’s costume.

Purves said the seven-member cast had to be on their toes throughout the preparation of what is essentially a “laboratory work,” with the bulk of the script coming in about two weeks before the final run-throughs. Ralph Denzer came up with the original idea, and wrote the music, while Concordia alumnus Ryan Hurl is the librettist. The show features six instrumentalists, and all the cast members are singers. The show itself has what Purves described as an “operatic aesthetic.”

As Darwin is a new work, the show has the advantage of the audience having no preconceived notions, but that in itself is also a challenge. The most difficult part, according to Purves, is the small cast having to tackle a changing script heavy in information.

“There’s so few of us, but we’re trying to make a bold statement.”

But the theatre student is optimistic: “It’s a test run, but it’s going to be a really grand test run.”

Speaking on the phone after a rehearsal on Saturday, Turnbull said he finds that Darwin is now part of the “geist of the times,”

meaning of the moment. “The thing with Darwin is that he’s pretty well part of the times now, because of the question of evolution.

There have been like a dozen Darwin films in the past five years.”

One movie that leaps to mind is Creation, the 2009 film with real-life Hollywood couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Emma and Charles Darwin.

The reason for this recent surge in popularity beyond the ongoing creationism debate, Turnbull said, is that people are being categorized more and more, a technique brought to

the forefront by Darwin and used on animal and plant life, and now, humans. “We’re all being studied under the microscope.” Our shopping habits are analyzed, our opinions are ranked in polls, Facebook calibrates ads based on our a/s/l. “I think people are starting to recognize the depths of what he started.”

Darwin: Endless Forms Most Beautiful will be performed at the Oscar Peterson Hall at Loyola Feb. 17-19 at 8 p.m., and 1920 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students.

Graphic by Katie Brioux

theconcordian

12 CINEMA POLITICA

Politics, rage, paranoia in the 1970s Cinema Politica brings Peter Watkins’ most controversial film to Concordia Valerie Cardinal Arts editor British filmmaker Peter Watkins was preparing to leave the United States in 1970, after spending months writing a documentary about the civil war he knew would never be filmed, when four students at Kent State University were killed by police open firing on a Vietnam war demonstration. The shooting was a turning point in the making of his most controversial film, Punishment Park.

The pseudo-documentary takes place in 1970, 20 years after the Internal Security Act has been put in place. The law allows the government to immediately apprehend anyone they consider to be a threat to national security. Those targeted include draft dodgers, artists and political agitators. Instead of a trial by jury, the accused are put before a tribunal, which already sees them as guilty. The accused are then given a choice: serve a long prison sentence or spend three days in Punishment Park.

Watkins follows two groups, one on trial and one already serving time in Punishment Park. Once in the park, participants must reach an American flag 53 miles into the desert within three days while evading the authorities to win their freedom. The dissidents fracture into three groups; the militants, semi-militants and pacifists. The film charts their progress, and shows even peace-loving people will resort to violence if placed in a lifeor-death situation.

Watkins has stopped giving interviews about his films. In an email to the Concordian, he wrote this was “basically due to the obvious lack of interest within my profession to challenge the media crisis, or to discuss this essential aspect of my work.” For decades, Watkins has been speaking out against what he calls the Monoform, an established narrative and format that TV and cinema uses to communicate their message.

Punishment Park is terrifying because it’s so convincing – if you weren’t told it was a

In Punishment Park, participants are left without food and water to fend for themselves in the brutally hot California desert. pseudo-documentary, you would think it was real. Watkins’ use of non-professional actors really pays off. No one sounds like they’re reading lines; every single dialogue is immediate and urgent. At the tribunal, accused and accusers shout at each other in a tense political frenzy. In fact, according Watkins’ 2005 self-interview, most of the dialogue was improvised.

“In the film you have two categories of ‘performance’: those who were expressing their own opinions, and those who opposed their own personal convictions - who were role playing, if you like,” he explained.

In one of the most effective scenes of Punishment Park, a young guardsman opens fire on the dissidents in the park after they

Encino Man Daniel Spinali Staff writer

Everyone I know has a guilty pleasure of some kind. For some, it’s a certain kind of book and to others, it’s a certain kind of food.

For most of my friends, it’s a movie or actor.

No matter how bad the actor is or how many times they have seen the movie, they will never turn away from them. In my case, that actor is Pauly Shore and the movie is Encino Man. A young Sean Astin stars as Dave Morgan, a high school “loser” in Encino, Calif. His

one goal in life is to finish digging a hole in his backyard to make a pool for an epic post-prom party that will theoretically make him the most popular kid in school. While he is digging with his friend Stanley “Stoney” Brown (Pauly Shore) in his backyard poolhole, he finds a prehistoric bowl, which leads to a large chunk of ice. They start to excavate the ice, and within it they see a man, who they decide to thaw out.

When the boys return from school, they check the garage, but find that the caveman is missing. They begin to think that they have lost all chance of becoming popular at school until they discover handprints on the

throw rocks at the police in desperation, killing two of them. “Take pictures of this, they’re going to kill us,” shouts one of participants, before the shooting begins. Afterwards, the stammering 18-year-old guardsman tries to explain himself: “The gun went off, it was an accident, I didn’t want to kill anyone.”

Watkins’ film remains little-known, seldom screened and almost undistributed. Its original run in New York City was only four days long. “The Hollywood studios refused to distribute the film, for fear - as they frankly told us - of retribution from the federal authorities,” he said.

Whether you like it or not, Punishment Park is sure to get a reaction, which is exactly what Watkins wanted. “Punishment Park

takes place tomorrow, yesterday or five years from now,” he wrote in a 1972 open letter to the press.

In his self-interview, Watkins stated, “What remains most important about Punishment Park, in my own opinion, is that the film allows young people the possibility to express themselves, freely and with force, within the framework of an important social metaphor.”

Even 40 years after its release, Punishment Park remains shocking and frightening.

Punishment Park will be screened at Cinema Politica on Feb. 21. For more information, check out cinemapolitica.org.

Link (Brendan Fraser, above) is one cool caveman. Photo via chucksconnection.com

windows of the house. As it turns out, the caveman has defrosted and is very much alive. They clean him up and give him the name Link, short for Linkavich Chomofsky, and the backstory of being a foreign exchange student from Estonia, so that they can enrol him in school and use him in their plan to become cool.

They bring him to school and Link becomes the talk of the town. Dave and Stoney still think that he is their ticket to fame and popularity, yet after only one day at school, Link has received multiple offers for dates, become a member of the computer club and befriended virtually everyone in the school.

At the same time, Dave and Stoney are still referred to as the dork squad and people wonder why in the world Link would hang out with two losers like them.

This movie is the perfect example of early ‘90s teen comedy that was, of course, universally panned by almost every adult who saw it. Regardless of that fact, I think that everyone should watch this movie once, at least to have an awesome ‘90s flashback.

Encino Man Directed by Les Mayfield, 1992 Starring Pauly Shore, Sean Astin and Brendan Fraser

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

13

SPOILER ALERT

Valentine’s Day throwback Jessica Wei Staff writer

Ladies. Valentine’s Day, am I right? Men, take a break. Girls, pour yourselves a tall mojito and settle back. If you weren’t with your significant other on Valentine’s Day, then hopefully you were with some other lonely hearts. Or maybe you just stayed at home and studied, which is cool too. But me, I invited Ashton Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Dempsey and some other A-listers over to my living room and we rang in the most dreaded day of the year together.

Or - I just watched Valentine’s Day, drank a strange mix of colourful and unconventional liquids and ate discount Hershey’s Kisses by myself, hallucinating celebrities. Your call. In any case - that day? Kind of sucks. But why not live vicariously through people who know love enough to star in a movie named after V-day? So yeah, I watched 2010’s Valentine’s Day, so you never have to - not that you would ever want to.

Okay, you know that saying, “The British do everything better than Americans and, kind of, Canadians?” Oh wait, it’s not actually a saying? ‘Cause it probably should be.

Let’s count them out. They have given us the English language, candy (Don’t believe me?

A Cadbury Curly Wurly is like a chocolate caramel explosion in your entire mouth - no joke), vintage shopping, celebrity tabloids

and dentistry - okay, so maybe not dentistry.

But movies? Hands down, 100 per cent. Like when Love, Actually came out and we loved it so much we had to get the prettiest people on the continent and recreate it, shove in product placements for Blackberry, and slap Garry Marshall, the king of rom-coms, in the opening credits as director. There’s even a scene running through an airport!

Ashton Kutcher is in love and newly engaged. Tobey Maguire is dating a sex-line operator. Jessica Biel is inexplicably single and bitter. Eric Dane is a gay football player. Patrick Dempsey is two-timing Jennifer Garner.

Everyone else is either in love or advising the poor saps who are. Unless they’re Jamie Foxx, whose only role is being the racial minority (along with Queen Latifah and George Lopez, who are also painfully stereotypical depictions).

If this isn’t clear enough after an hour and 44 minutes in, he emphasizes it by shouting, “I am the chocolate!” after Biel demands her fifth candy enema. Foxx is also super supportive of minorities, judging by his lines after Eric Dane’s character officially comes out: “What does this mean? Will there be more house music played in the locker room? [...] I stand behind you, Sean – metaphorically.”

Adorable, right? Man, don’t we all love love? And Taylor Swift? Because she’s not only in the movie as, surprise surprise, a ditzy cheerleader, but her song is played twice during the movie. And, girlfriend, does she work that role, seriously. This is her first film, right?

Because she BECOMES the blonde bimbo, you know? Oh, wait.

Ending comments: if you hate Valentine’s Day, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you not to watch this movie. If you love Valentine’s Day, whether you’re in a relationship or not, and

you’re just really down with the chocolate and pink sweaters - don’t watch this movie.

As for me, I’ll go back to rummaging through my medicine cabinet for a night cap. Thank fucking God it’s over.

Graphic by Phil Waheed with

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Regenerative medicine explains why this type of medicine promises to change the way medicine is delivered. It does not treat a system but to overcome disease or disorder. Prosthetics promotes healing but causes further injury whereas Regenerative medicine promotes healing without causing further injury. Dr Molly S. Shoichet’s research focuses on the central nervous system (brain and spinal chord) where regeneration is more complex. She will describe two strategies to promote repair, one based on endogenous stem cell stimulation and the other on stem cell transplantation, spinal cord injury, stroke and blindness will be discussed.

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profile

Snailhouse to release seventh album in May 2011

One-man band craves musical collaboration as much as selfdirection and autonomy Katelyn Spidle Music editor

After 16 years in the business, Mike Feuerstack is no newcomer to the Canadian indie scene.

However, Feuerstack, better known under the moniker Snailhouse, is still playing in small towns and in modestly-sized venues.

While an artist’s inspiration and goals may change with time and experience, Feuerstack assured that he’s still the same person he has always been. “I try not to worry too much about who the audience is in advance,” he said. “ Obviously you want to reach as many people as possible, but when I’m making music, my policy hasn’t changed. I’m just trying to make it as good as possible.”

Feuerstack is one of those under-rated musicians who has managed to slip under the mainstream radar in spite of the substantial amount of material he has released, either individually or collaboratively. He has nonetheless maintained a faithful following and has been lucky to work with some successful Canadian artists who double as his longtime friends.

Since the mid-’90s, Feuerstack has been the guitarist for the Ottawa-based, Juno awardwinning band The Wooden Stars. At the same time, he has been making music as Snailhouse.

His solo work, for which he has released six records, has featured collaborations with other notable Canadian artists like Julie Doiron, who contributed vocals on the 2001 album The Opposite Is Also True. Also, Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara not only played drums on the same album, but also produced his last album, Lies On The Prize.

The latter was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in 2008.

Lies On The Prize was the only Snailhouse album to ever gain any critical recognition.

With regards to the music that he has

Mike Feuerstack wiill release his seventh album in 16 years this May. Photo courtesy of the artist produced over the years, Feuerstack believes that it’s just gotten better. “It’s aged, like a fine wine,” he laughed. From his first release in 1994, Fine, until Lies On The Prize, Feuerstack admitted that his style of music has developed.

“It’s become at once more subtle, and also more approachable or easier for people to take in.”

The musician noted that it has become increasingly difficult to get noticed in today’s market. “There’s a lot more music now that is available for people, and a lot more ways to make music available for people,” he said. “So I think it’s pretty saturated. Listeners are not as eager to check things out, but at the same time

there’s kind of a nice side of that where the stuff that you put out has to be pretty good in order to get attention.”

This isn’t something that seems to worry Feuerstack, however. In fact, he seems content with the medium level of fame that he has acquired. With a new record entitled Sentimental Gentlemen coming out in May and a regular spot on the bill at various small-scale Canadian music festivals, such as Sackville’s Sappyfest, Feuerstack is arguably a staple in the wider Canadian indie collective.

Like many artists who have “been around the block,” so to speak, Feuerstack has self-

released two albums under The Snailhouse Institute for the Recording Arts. The label, he assured, was more of a means to an end than a business venture, since the project dissolved after the release of A New Tradition EP and The Opposite Is Also True. “I wanted those two records to come out and I didn’t have any collaborators who were offering what I needed to put them out, so I just put them out myself,” he explained. However, “I always wanted to have collaborators and partners to help me bring [my music] to the people. I expend enough energy making records and touring. I don’t necessarily want to be dealing with distributors and all that stuff.”

Interestingly, the musician requires that he be able to exercise a high level of autonomy as much as he feels a strong need for co-operation, collaboration and community. This is why Snailhouse music has been an important musical outlet on top of his ongoing work with The Wooden Stars. The former allows him to experience both. “The Wooden Stars is a collaborative effort,” he said. “It’s four people who have more or less equal say in the direction things go.” he said.

As Snailhouse, “even though I have collaborators, things have happened under my direction [and] my artistic vision. The collaborators that I work with are there to help me to make the record that I want to make.” In Feuerstack’s opinion, this difference causes Snailhouse music to come out sounding completely different than the music he makes with The Wooden Stars.

Being Montreal-based, the singer can understand why the city seems to breed artists. “It’s friendly to artists and it’s a place that you can get by fairly cheaply but still be in a big, international city. I think that that attracts artists of all kinds.” However, he did not choose to live there to be part of the scene. “I sort of ended up there for reasons more personal than professional,” he admitted. “Even though I have lots of musical friends there, I don’t necessarily feel like it’s the musical community that is the reason I’m there. [...] I really love the city and I plan on staying.”

Snailhouse will play with The Luyas at La Sala Rossa on Feb. 24.

profile

Omaha sheds one member and adopts new name Local group is new on the scene, but growing crowds and new recordings prove that they’re fitting in nicely Matthew Campbell Contributor After a botched attempt at being in a band called Motorcrashes, bass player Tara Dupuis rallied fellow Concordia students Alex Millaire and Ryan Clarke from the now-defunct band to form the trio now known as Omaha. This, according to Dupuis, has proved to be a better situation for everyone. “It seems to be a better dynamic,” Dupuis admitted. “[Now], everyone’s on the same page.”

As for why Motorcrashes dissolved, Dupuis explained, “It’s kind of complicated. I ended up leaving for the summer and things were going in different directions for different members.”

Even though the group is Montreal-based, none of its members are actually from Quebec.

Dupuis is from the Prairies, while guitarist and vocalist Millaire is from Ontario. Clarke, the band’s drummer, is from British Columbia. “We all met through Craigslist,” Dupuis said laughing. “[Craigslist auditions] can be interesting because you can go through 20 bad

Concordia students Tara Dupuis, Alex Millaire, and Ryan Clarke of Omaha. Photo by Tara Dupuis auditions before you get one good one.”

Since they re-formed into their current band this past September, Omaha has already played several shows and is in the middle of recording some new tracks. “Our new stuff should be ready in a few weeks and up on MySpace,” Dupuis revealed. “They’re live-off-the-floor takes and then we’ll add the vocal tracks, but it’s cool because you capture the room energy

and a more live and pure sounding recording.”

Although Omaha is recording new tunes, the band isn’t planning on releasing any albums just yet. “All our songs are just going to be online releases,” Dupuis said. “We’re not sure if there’s going to be a physical format yet, but we’ve been toying with some ideas like making a vinyl, and posters to sell with online editions.” Dupuis admitted that a tangible com-

pact disc is always cool to have, but doesn’t think it’s a must for bands these days. “I don’t think CDs or vinyls are all that necessary for the advancement of a band,” Dupuis said. “It’s kind of more an accessory.”

Individually, the bandmates have many different influences. But collectively, the band’s sound draws inspiration ranging from grunge music to desert rock. “All of those genres kind of weave their way into our music and is the common thread that holds our set together,” Dupuis said. Consequently, “We’re definitely on the louder side of things,” she continued.

“We do like our volume.”

When it came to naming the band, the threesome haphazardly decided to call themselves after one of the largest states in the midwestern United States. “We really needed to name the band because we had a few shows coming up,” Dupuis said. “We were kind of just throwing ideas out and that one stuck.”

The next few months should be exciting, with a show booked later this month at Barfly as well several local gigs scheduled throughout the months of March and April. But all the hard work is paying dividends for Omaha.

“Our fan base is definitely building. We’ve been working really hard and playing a lot of shows,” Dupuis said. “We’re definitely gaining momentum, and our crowds are getting bigger.”

Omaha will be playing at Barfly on Feb. 18.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/concordianmusic

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

15

local

Montreal begins plans for rock ’n’ roll museum

A team of local music industry leaders get together to promote the province’s rich music history Cora Ballou Staff writer

Names like The Beau Marks and Les Megatones might not be familiar to today’s music fans, but come summer, Patrice Caron and his team at Le MusÊe du Rock ’n’ Roll are going to make sure that we get to know these Canadian music pioneers. With a large-scale exhibition and a subsequent tour in the works, the Rock ’n’ Roll Museum will be bringing the genre’s history to contemporary music fans. But for those who wish to get a taste of what’s to come, the group will be hosting four fundraising efforts to help get the project off the ground, starting this Thursday at Le Divan Orange.

Though the idea of opening a museum may be, as Caron put it, a “daft� idea, the members’ passion for music and their combined experiences in the local scene makes preserving the province’s heritage a personal affair. “I’ve written for fanzines in the past and I always tried to write something pertaining to our rock history. But I noticed that a lot of people didn’t have any knowledge about the local scene.

For most it seemed that before Arcade Fire there hadn’t been anything else,� explained Caron. “So we decided to start a small-scale museum that would feature the birth of rock ’n’ roll. But when we started to research the topic we found so much information that we decided to expand the project to a full-scale museum.�

But to get the ball rolling, Caron and his team are busy getting the word out. “The fundraising event is of course about getting a little bit of money to help finance our first show, but really it’s about letting people know that this is happening,� said Caron. This first exhibition, which will run from June to July, will be held in St-Henri’s Corona Theatre and will focus on the birth of rock ’n’ roll in Quebec.

A music historian of sorts, Caron’s head is full of obscure facts about the province’s rock past.

In a dizzying soliloquy of names, places and genres, he sketched the landscape of 1950s

The Clover Boys, along with other Rock ’n’ Roll bands from Quebec in the ‘50s will be featured at the Rock ’n’ Roll Museum. Photo courtesy of Patrick Caron music. According to Caron, the birth of rock in the province began with Elvis Presley, who was featured on the Quebec charts 100 times in the first 10 years of his career. From this rose the first francophone and anglophone Quebecois bands, who adopted Presley’s rockabilly swagger. “Presley was the Eminem of rock ’n’ roll,� said Caron. “He brought black music to the white kids.� Soon local bands began to form, which the museum team has arranged under three categories: anglophone, francophone and African-American.

Through the forthcoming exhibit, the team will attempt to show these three facets of early Quebec rock. With a recreation of a famous venue that has since been shut down, and video

footage courtesy of Radio-Canada, the exposition promises to be a multimedia affair.

Yet this project was not created solely to entertain the public, as Caron explained. “The people who were part of this scene are getting older and a lot of them have given their stuff away. So we’re trying to start some sort of archiving system. There hasn’t really been an initiative to organize Quebec heritage so we’re trying to help facilitate the sharing of historical information.�

By creating a database and putting information on the web, the group hopes to get a more cohesive inventory of Quebec’s rock history.

Not to say that acquiring artifacts has been a

boring task. From original albums to old guitars, Caron admitted that “when you get a really unique object, the rock lover in you can’t help but get really excited. It’s like touching history.�

Which is why the preservation of cultural heritage is so important. And with the upcoming exhibit and the blueprints for a future museum, le MusÊe du Rock ’n’ Roll hopes to do just that.

Fundraiser Le Divan Orange Thursday Feb. 17 at 9 PM. See website at www.museedurocknroll.com for more information or go to their Facebook page to share your pictures, stories and recordings.

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16

theconcordian

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

mixtape

SIDE A: (Honeymoon phase) 1. “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” - Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not - 2006 2. “Fancy Footwork (D.I.M. remix) - Chromeo - Fancy Footwork EP - 2007 3. “Heartbeats” - The Knife - Deep Cuts - 2003 4. “I Wanna Make It Wit Chu (acoustic)” - Queens of the Stone Age - Desert Sessions Volume 9: I See You Hearin’ Me - 2003 5. “Always Where I Need To Be” - The Kooks - Konk - 2008 6. “Just Like Heaven” - The Cure - Galore - 1987–1996 7. “Engine Heart” - Mirah - You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This - 2000 8. “Is This Love?” - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 2005 9. “La Ritournelle (Metronomy Mix)” - Sébastien Tellier - Politics 2004 10. “Yours to Keep (Ft. Neneh Cherry)” - Teddy Bears - Soft Machine - 2006

Love Mixxx

By Shannon H. Myers

Love was in the air last week as stores displayed their most romantic, erotic, or redcoloured merchandise in honour of Valentine’s Day sales. Skip the monetary exchange and make something for your loved one, like, say, a mixtape. Here’s an example to get your creative juices flowing.

To listen, visit 8tracks.com/the_concordian/love-mixxx

SIDE B: (It’s for real) 11. “Love You Madly” - CAKE - Comfort Eagle - 2001 12. “Fell in Love With a Girl” - The White Stripes - White Blood Cells - 2001 13. “Love Rollercoaster (The Ohio Players cover)” - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - 1996 14. “Let it Be Love” - Plants and Animals - La La Land - 2010 15. “Bold As Love” - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love - 1967 16. “This is Everything” - Tegan & Sara - Under Feet Like Ours 2001 17. “Love, Love, Love (Love Love)” - As Tall As Lions - As Tall As Lions - 2006 18. “Fuck it, I Love You” - A Brighter Beat - Malcolm Middleton 2007 19. “You Are The Best Thing” - Ray LaMontagne - Gossip In The Grain - 2008 20. “Deputy of Love” - Don Armando’s Second Ave Rhumba Band - Don Armando’s Second Ave Rhumba Band - 1979

Quick Spins

Retro review

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Sub Pop; 2011)

Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil (Polyvinyl; 2011)

Cowboy Junkies - Demons (Latent; 2011)

Daniel Johnston - 1990 (Shimmy Disk; 1990)

Mogwai’s seventh studio album, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, can stand alone as proof that this Scottish group has staying power. In the 16 years since the band formed, its sound has undergone a steady evolution. Their increased tendency toward producing mostly instrumental, electronic music is exemplified in this dense body of work. Heavily distorted and synthesized vocals are splattered across a few tracks, but are most notable in “Mexican Grand Prix.”

Intermittent are even-tempered progressive rock tunes like “George Square Thatcher Death Party” and “San Pedro.” Mogwai made excellent use of layering techniques, which has resulted in songs that begin as soft as down feather and whose climax takes on the aggression of a rabid beast. Tracks like “How To Be a Werewolf,” “Death Rays” and “Letters to the Metro” will roll into your consciousness as would a thunderstorm across a calm, unsuspecting lake.

Deerhoof’s style of music is not for everyone.

Sure, half of the lyrics are in Japanese, and the other half are so incoherent that they might as well be. Also, lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki’s high-pitched vocals could easily be mistaken for those of a child. But these eccentricities are what keep listeners coming back, as much as they may scare people off.

Something that Deerhoof has always excelled at is consistently pushing their sound forward, while always sounding unmistakably like themselves. From the space-y experimentation of Friend Opportunity to the career encompassing riffage of Offend Maggie, Deerhoof really hasn’t offered us anything that has failed to keep fans excited and naysayers clasping their ears.

Deerhoof vs. Evil comes at a time in the band’s career where it stands as less of a singular work than an interesting new piece of an already large and impressive art-rock catalogue.

Cowboy Junkies’ sound is a hybrid of blues, folk and alternative rock that is sprinkled here and there with grungy guitars. In other words, if Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain had a daughter who possessed a soothing voice, it would sound something like the Cowboy Junkies’ latest album: Demons. Vocalist Margo Timmins tops the complex musical arrangement off with perfectly mastered vocals. These offer an unexpected and almost pop-y feel to both the acoustic folk sounds and the distorted bluesy ones. The only drawback is that Timmins’ voice is almost too perfect, and when it is not spiked up by a bluesy or a distorted lead guitar riff, it can come off as being almost cheesy. Demons is an easy-listening record. The blend of genres and the layering of styles really show that Cowboy Junkies are the grown-ups in the Canadian indie family.

Trial Track: “Mexican Grand Prix”

Trial Track: “Behold a Marvel in the Darkness”

Trial track: “Ladle”

Since 1981, Daniel Johnston has produced countless recordings in the form of EPs, singles, compilations and full length albums. 1990 was his 12th LP, released, as the title would suggest, in 1990. His rise to fame was slow-coming and rocky as a result of his lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder. In the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, the singer claimed that 1990 was originally meant to be entitled 1989.

Unfortunately, his frequent in-and-out visits to the psych ward severely delayed the album’s completion. The resulting tracklisting features a compilation of studio sessions, home recordings and live performances. Many titles off of this record bare witness to his deluded thoughts patterns, including “Devil Town,” “Don’t Play Cards With Satan,” and “Spirit World Rising.”

Johnston can even be heard choking back tears during a live, a cappella performance of “Careless Soul.” Although his singing and guitar skills are questionable to say the least, Johnston’s childlike honesty and untainted naivete has blessed him with the ability to write lyrics that are simple, yet universally accessible.

8.0/10

7.5/10

8.5/10

-Katelyn Spidle

- Trevor Smith

Trial Track: “Some Things Last A Long Time”

- Lea Choukroun

- Katelyn Spidle

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com

17

Q&a

Andrew Guilbert Sad news for Bad News fans Popular Montreal hip-hop artist Paul Frappier, better known by his stage name “Bad News Brown,” was found dead in Little Burgundy early last Saturday. Though the cause of death or a motive are unknown at the time of this writing, according to one police official, there were “clear traces of violence on his upper body.” The 33-year-old Frappier, who had shared the stage with such hip-hop legends as De La Soul, Nas and Ice-T, got his start busking around Montreal. He was known for his use of harmonica over hiphop beats. He released his last album, Born 2 Sin, in 2009.

A rumour to whet your appetite It seems that some overeager fans have been circulating the rumour that the original Guns N’ Roses lineup may reunite to play a oneoff show at next year’s Super Bowl. The rumour spread quickly after being reported at KentSterling.com. But before anyone gets too excited, Axl Rose tweeted: “Contrary to anyone’s claims there are no concrete plans, nor were there ever for a tour and certainly not to replace anyone in the band, beyond a collection of random ideas thrown out by various individuals without any real foundation.”

Feel Good Inc. closed for business Platinum-selling cartoon band Gorillaz may be no more, according to a U.K. newspaper.

The men behind the music, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, had reportedly clashed numerous times during their last tour, which was in support of Plastic Beach. Now it seems that they’ve both decided to go their separate ways. In the words of one band insider, “there’s been a massive argument that has basically ended things. Jamie’s gone abroad to be with his girlfriend, while Damon is busy with his opera and with the return of Blur.”

Museum to show off the family jewels The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow will be hosting the first official, allAC/DC exhibit. Next autumn, the museum will become a mecca for fans that want to catch a glimpse of the huge collection of memorabilia that will be on display. Items of interest include concert programs, fan letters and costumes, including Bon Scott’s leather jacket and the prototype for Angus Young’s iconic schoolboy uniform. “It is the first and only fully endorsed exhibition to bring to life the history, creativity and power of one of the world’s greatest bands, and to link this history to the experience of their music,” museum curator Tim Fisher told the Scotsman newspaper.

In other rock-related museum news…

Frank 2, the guitar used by Eddie Van Halen during Van Halen’s 2007-2008 North American tour, has been donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The guitar will be part of the museum’s Division of Culture and the Arts.

Frank 2 will join the ranks of other prestigious instruments in the Smithsonian’s collection, such as Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet and Prince’s “Yellow Cloud” guitar.

Hollerado playing a show in China. The band toured through the country for a second time after winning a contest in 2009. Photos courtesy of the band

Hollerado receives Juno nod, set to play Canadian Music Week This local band’s busy schedule will be taking them farther away from home as they move out into mainstream view Mathieu Barrot Staff writer

On the heels of what can only be described as a memorable year, the Montreal-based indiepop group Hollerado are currently finishing up their tour with Gang Of Four before heading over to Toronto for Canadian Music Week and the Juno Awards. Two performances, one of which will be at the 11th annual Independent Music Awards, will keep them in Toronto until the end of March. After attending the Juno Awards - having recently snagged a nomination in the “Best New Group” category - they will be headed back out on another tour, this time with Tokyo Police Club. On top of this, they are in the process of writing songs for a new album and recording a new music video. The Concordian caught up with lead singer and guitarist Menno Versteeg while he was on the tour bus between gigs.

The Concordian: Hey Menno, I hope I didn’t wake you up.

Menno Versteeg: Half and half. We’re in the van driving. We played Chicago last night and it was fantastic - really cool city. We’re heading to Minneapolis now.

You were nominated for a Juno? That’s fantastic.

Yeah, it’s crazy. We’re pretty stoked about

it. We didn’t see it coming. Just to be nominated is really cool.

You were nominated for “Best New Group” yet you have been playing together for five years.

We were told that to be eligible you have to have never been nominated for a Juno before. You could be playing together for 20 years and still be nominated for “Best New Group.”

How does the rest of the band feel about it?

Everyone is excited. We are excited to go. Neil Young is going to be there. I doubt we will get the chance to meet him, but you never know. [We’re looking forward to] the actual performances as well. There are a lot of really good people that will be playing at the show. Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene are playing so it should be a really cool night.

Was there anyone in the band that was overly excited about the Juno nomination?

I think our parents were the most excited.

I mean, it’s just a mainstream legitimization of all our hard work, which is not something that we were seeking, but it’s kinda cool when it does happen. It’s just a cool experience. We are so lucky. We get to do a lot of really cool things, [like] travelling and playing with bands that we grew up listening to. This is just another interesting experience that we are really lucky to be able to have: going to the Junos and just celebrating Canadian music.

And you are working on a new music video as well?

Yeah we are making a new one with the same guy that [directed] “Americanarama” [Greg Jardin]. We should start filming this month. It’s going to be for the song “Got To Lose.” The idea is really cool too. It’s still

along the same lines as “Americanarama” in that it will be shot in one take, but this time it will have a lot of umbrellas.

Is Hollerado still running on that $250,000 you won at Ottawa’s Live 85 Big Money Shot Contest in 2009?

Nope [laughs], putting out a record costs a lot of money. Then also we spent a lot of it, I want to say frivolously. We really just wanted to spread the wealth around. We threw a lot of parties where we gave away free beer. We would buy like 10 kegs and just have all of our friends there. We would also fly bands across the country to come play with us and stuff like that. Just because no indie band deserves a quarter of a million bucks [laughs].

We figured we had to spread it around a little bit.

You also used some of the money to tour China for a second time, right?

Yeah, we did a second tour of China, which is definitely not a money-making venture. After the first tour we thought there was a chance we could make some money, but no. I mean, it was cool and we were packing the venues, but when you translate the ticket price into our money, it’s like people are paying $1.50 to go to our show. So there’s no way you are ever going to make money. People don’t buy CDs either and if you want to sell a T-shirt, even if we sold it at our cost, it would be the equivalent of them paying $100 per T-shirt. We ended up just giving away CDs or selling them at ¥10, which is about $1.75 in our money. [Even] that was pricey for them.

China is still so great and I really want to go back.

This interview has been condensed.

Look for the Concordian’s coverage of Canadian Music Week on March 15.

sports

Check out how the Stingers women hockey played against McGill and Carleton this weekend online at theconcordian.com

Write to the editor: sports@theconcordian.com

BasketBall

Weekend of wins puts Concordia in top spot Two injured Stingers make key baskets in victory over Laval Kamila Hinkson Sports editor How much can happen in just a minute? It’s a saying we often use but don’t usually take to heart.

At the Concordia Gym last Friday night, it took the Stingers and the Laval Rouge et Or “just a minute” to turn what began as a close game into a classic nail-biter.

Evens Laroche, in his first game back after being out with an ankle injury, scored with six seconds left to give the Stingers an 87-85 win.

“I’m at 90 per cent, but I still feel good. It was an important game and I came in and did the best I could,” he said after the game. His best amounted to 14 points and seven rebounds.

Going in, both teams had 9-3 records and each boasted two of the top four scorers in the conference on their roster.

The win put Concordia in a tie with Laval for first place, and after beating UQAM on Saturday night, the Stingers are now in sole possession of first.

“The mood before the game was that it’s a playoff game,” explained Kyle Desmarais, who scored 19 points. “We’ve got to win the rest of our games if we want to finish first.”

Concordia got off to a slow start in the first quarter. Laval had a 19-7 lead when head coach John Dore called a timeout with about five minutes left to play.

What did he say to his team to get them

Evens Laroche evades three Rouge et Or players on his way to the basket. Photo by Faiz Imam going?

“Focus, calm down a little bit […] they got off to a really good start, and just to tighten up on defence a little, help each other a little bit more and play well together,” he explained.

The Stingers got back into the game and led 22-21 by the end of the first.

Laval took the lead after Étienne Labrecque hit a three-pointer, but Laroche answered back with a three of his own to put Concordia back on top. The Stingers wouldn’t relinquish their lead until seven minutes into the third quarter, when Laval’s Jean-François Beaulieu Maheux made two jump shots in a row, giving them a 57-55

lead.

Laval led for the rest of the third and into the fourth until Stinger Decee Krah, who led the team with 27 points, attempted a three-pointer but missed. He recovered his own rebound, and passed to Morgan Tajfel, who hit his three and tied the game.

Tajfel, who broke his nose last week in a win against UQAM, had to wear a mask to protect his nose.

“The mask kind of impedes my vision but if I’m out there, I’ve got to play the same way,” he explained. “So I was open, took the shot and it went in.”

With 59 seconds left in the game, the Stingers were ahead but Marvin Vebobe, who was fouled

by Tajfel, sank one of two shots to make the score 84-83.

After being fouled by Xavier Baribeau, Laroche made one of two shots and gave Concordia back its two-point lead.

Laval, trying to run down the clock, passed back and forth before getting the ball to Beaulieu Maheux, who attempted a three-pointer but missed. Vebobe grabbed the rebound and put it up to tie the game at 85 with six seconds left.

Concordia was awarded possession of the ball at half court. Stinger Jean-Andre Moussignac inbounded the ball to a wide open Laroche, who went for the layup, turned around and watched the ball fall into the net, giving the Stingers an 87-85 lead.

With just three seconds left on the clock, Jérôme Turcotte-Routhier passed across the court to Labrecque, who took a three-point shot that would have won the game for the Rouge et Or. The crowd erupted into cheers when the shot went just wide.

According to Dore, the plan for the next night’s game against UQAM was to “win,” which they did with a score of 76-66.

Desmarais and Krah led the way once again with 23 and 21 points respectively.

The Rouge et Or have three games left while Concordia has only two, and it may prove to be harder for Laval to get back into first than for Concordia to stay there. Two of their three games are against UQAM, a team that has given them trouble this season.

The Stingers will play McGill, who has beaten them in their last two meetings, for the last time this Saturday, Feb. 19. The game starts at 8 p.m.

BasketBall

Familiar slow start turns into offensive outburst for the Stingers Women’s basketball win against Laval, lose to UQAM the next day Kamila Hinkson Sports editor The women’s basketball team came into their final meeting with Laval last Friday having beaten the Rouge et Or three times already.

For the last six seasons, the Laval Rouge et Or have finished in first place in the Quebec conference. But this year, the team hasn’t been the same, and currently sit in fourth place out of five teams.

Laval took the lead 10-2 early in the first quarter, and it seemed like they were en route to upsetting the Stingers at home.

But after outscoring Rouge et Or 21-13 in the fourth quarter, Concordia walked away with a 65-60 win.

The Stingers trailed Laval at the end of every quarter until the last one.

“We weren’t ready at the start, which has been a fairly consistent problem for us this year. But we settled down and we played really good defence down the stretch, and we out-rebounded them pretty bad - so we played just well enough to keep it close, and then in the fourth quarter we started doing a lot better,” said head coach Keith Pruden after the game.

Anne-Marie Prophete scored the go-ahead

basket with four minutes left in the game, and from there the Concordia offence took off.

Three-pointers by Alex Boudreau and Prophete gave the Stingers a 59-54 lead, and the Laval team, conscious Concordia was establishing an offensive rhythm, took a timeout to slow things down.

But it didn’t do much to disrupt the Stingers’ offensive flow – the Rouge et Or called another timeout two minutes later, after Kendra Carrie made two baskets, one with seconds left on the shot clock.

Prophete added another two points to the score after she let go of a shot that fell into the basket at the moment the shot clock expired.

Adding to the suspense, the Laval coaches, players and fans were all crying foul as the ball was up in the air, claiming Prophete had travelled prior to taking the shot. But the two points counted and the Stingers widened their lead to 65-57.

Elyse Jobin made a three-pointer for Laval and cut into the Stingers’ lead, but they were able to hold the Rouge et Or off to win the game.

Stinger Nekeita Lee had a productive night. She went on an offensive tear in the first quarter, making four baskets in a row.

Lee also registered two rebounds, an assist, and a steal before fouling out in the third.

Kaylah Barrett netted five of the eight points she scored during the final quarter, and also had eight rebounds.

Marie-Michelle Genois was Laval’s top scorer. She finished the game with 20 points to add to her team-leading total of 176.

The Stingers were back at the gym by 2

p.m. on Saturday afternoon to prepare for their 5 p.m. game against third-place UQAM. Pruden noted that compared to Laval, the Citadins have a distinct style of play.

“They’re not as big, they play faster, they’re more aggressive when they rebound, it [will be] a different kind of game tomorrow,” he explained.

The Stingers kept the score close in the first quarter and trailed by two points going into the second. But the Citadins took the lead three minutes into the quarter and the Stingers never recovered. They lost by a score

of 76-66. Barrett and Prophete had 12 and 11 points respectively.

The Stingers are now in second place behind McGill, who clinched first place Friday night with a win against UQAM. Concordia is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. At this point, they could finish anywhere from second to fourth place.

The Stingers will play the McGill Martlets this Saturday, Feb. 19 at the Love Competition Hall. Game time is 6 p.m.

Alex Boudreau dribbles towards the outstretched arms of Marie-Pascale Nadeau. Photo by Faiz Imam

Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/concordiansport

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

19

hockey

McGill defeats Concordia to earn Corey Cup Eric Begin scores Stingers’ lone goal in loss Simon Tousignant Staff writer The Stingers suffered a 4-1 loss to the McGill Redmen Sunday afternoon at Ed Meagher arena to surrender the Corey Cup for the eighth time since 2002. Concordia also dropped their Saturday afternoon game 5-2 against the Carleton Ravens.

The Corey Cup was created in 1988 by Ronald Corey, who was then the president and governor of the Montreal Canadiens. For 23 years, the Stingers have faced off against either McGill or UQTR in a battle for supremacy between Montreal’s university-level hockey teams.

The game was no easy task for the Stingers. McGill, the second-ranked team in the country, has been dominating the OUA East conference this year and has only suffered two regular-time losses in 28 games.

The Redmen imposed their presence early in the first period as an undisciplined Stingers team offered them a 5-on-3 opportunity for over a minute. However, Concordia goaltender Raffaele D’Orso stood strong to keep the score blank.

Five minutes later, at 10:32, McGill opened the score. Coming off the rush, Marc-Andre Dorion fired a rocket past D’Orso’s left shoulder to give his team the lead. Jean-François Boisvert and Guillaume Doucet assisted on the tally.

Just over two minutes later, the Redmen doubled their lead when Doucet pulled a

Stinger Francois Lanctot-Marcotte is caught off-balance as a Redman skates away. Photo by Cindy Lopez great forehand-to-backhand move in front of D’Orso to beat the Stingers goaltender on a breakaway.

McGill took a three-goal lead late in the frame when Boisvert beat D’Orso with a one-timer in front of the net. Simon MarcotteLégaré made a good play behind the net and was able to get the puck to his teammate for the goal.

Although the Stingers had four penalties, they were able to stay perfect on the penalty kill. D’Orso stopped 17 shots and was not to blame for the McGill goals.

An energized Concordia team came out for the second and their efforts paid off. Just

over three minutes in, the Stingers reduced McGill’s lead to two after Eric Begin surprised Redmen goaltender Hubert Morin with a hard slap shot from the right half-board. Alexis Piette had the only assist on the play.

However, with only 4:34 remaining in the second frame, McGill bumped their lead back to three. Christophe Longpré-Poirier grabbed a rebound in front of the net and forced D’Orso to make the first move before he beat the goaltender to his left, making the score 4-1.

The third period was rather uneventful as the Redmen completely shut down the play. They put on an impressive display of defensive hockey to limit the Stingers to only

six shots on net in the frame.

The Stingers pushed to come back but were stopped each time. When the tight play of the skaters wasn’t preventing the Stingers from entering the offensive zone, Redmen goaltender Morin was blocking every shot.

McGill played a perfect game on the penalty front, remaining disciplined throughout the game while Concordia was sent to the box six times.

D’Orso made 37 saves while Morin stopped 27 of the 28 pucks he faced.

The Stingers had to play without three of their regular six defencemen: Kiefer Orsini, Jesse Goodsell and Lyle Van Wieren. As a result, forwards Begin and Marc-Andre Element had to take shifts as defencemen.

“We were playing with one of our top right-wingers on the back end,” said Stingers coach Kevin Figsby. “And I still thought we handled the game pretty well. Apart from the first eight minutes, I thought we dominated the play,” he said.

Figsby said the loss was not all bad, as the Stingers will now meet UQTR in the first round of the playoffs. “...To be brutally honest with you, we were hoping to get a matchup with UQTR too. So am I upset? No. We went in wanting to win today’s game and we played as well as we could.”

On Saturday, Francois Lanctot-Marcotte and Kyle Kelly scored for Concordia in a 5-2 loss to Carleton. The Ravens’ Jeff Hayes was the first star of the game with a four-point effort.

The Stingers open the playoffs this Wednesday as they face the UQTR Patriotes in Trois-Rivières; the puck drops at 2 p.m. The Stingers will be at home Saturday for the second game of the best-of-three series.

profile

A conversation with Stingers goalie Maxime Joyal The hockey star on the pros, the team, and practicing with the Habs Adrian Saldanha and John Stocks Contributors It is easy to spot Maxime Joyal on the ice during a Stingers practice – and not just because he’s the goalie. The 24-year-old economics major is also clearly the happiest guy on the ice – constantly laughing, heckling teammates and starting mock fights. The netminder spoke to the Concordian about playing pro, practicing with the Habs and coming back down to earth.

you’re making $30,000-$35,000 that’s good.

You’re one of the best paid players.

So I told myself I was going to go back to university, get a degree, so that even if I went back [to the pros] I would have something to rely on. I didn’t want that kind of life, without knowing what I was going to do the year after. So I talked to Kevin Figsby, the coach here, and he talked to me about the program, and it was a great option.

Any regrets?

No, not really. It was always my dream to play pro hockey, and I lived it. I don’t have the regret to say I should have done it. I did it, and I came back to university, and it was a great choice.

Concordian: How did your hockey career start?

Maxime Joyal: I started to skate when I was around three or four, played up all the levels, played midget AAA then Junior Major, went pro for half a year, then came back to Concordia, and it’s my fourth year here.

How does the workload compare?

Actually, the workload was less [when I played pro] than here. We played more games [in the ECHL], but basically we practiced in the morning, went to the gym and were done by 1 p.m. doing nothing for the rest of the day. [With the Stingers], we’re practicing every day, and then we have class either before or after, and games on the weekends.

The school gives us a lot of work. I’m busier here than I ever was in pro.

What is the best thing about playing hockey?

It’s the adrenaline that the games bring, to be under stress, making the team win. It’s a good feeling.

How did you get to practice with the Habs?

Two or three years ago I spent two months practicing with them every day during the last half of their season. It was a great feeling to be a part of the team – my favourite

team when I was a child. At first I was getting on the ice with the injured players, then any practice when Carey Price or Jaroslav Halak weren’t playing. During the playoffs I did every optional practice with them at the Bell Centre.

What’s next for you?

I’m graduating this year with a degree in economics, so I’ll try to get a job after that, and maybe play some hockey in a semi-pro league. You can get paid $400-500 a week and still work 40 hours at a normal job. The team with my rights right now is Sherbrooke,

so I’ll probably go there. Sometimes you have to go on. I know I won’t make a living playing hockey any more, so playing semi-pro is still a great league to earn some money still playing a great level of hockey. I’m still open to a contract in Europe or the East Coast, but now that I have a degree I know I don’t have to make a living off that any more. Hockey only brings you so far, and then you have to find a job like everyone else.

This interview was compiled by Morgan Lowrie and has been condensed.

What was it like playing pro?

I signed with the Elmira Jackals of the East Coast Hockey League. I was one of the youngest players there. All the U.S. players finished their degrees before playing in the league, so they were 24, 25-years-old. When you’re pro the guys have families, wives and kids. Still, it was special. I learned a lot from them.

What made you decide to come back to university?

There were Canadian guys that were there that were 31, 32 years old with no degree, no education, wondering what they were going to do after their careers. In the East Coast you’re not making millions like in the NHL. If

Photo by Cindy Lopez

opinions Write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com

EdiToRiaL

Having a whale of a time for student rights Where were you Monday at noon?

Nobody really expected for today’s Special General Meeting to pull in the necessary number of students to make the meeting’s agenda valid.

Mainstream media most likely doubted students would make it, as well. Even we doubted it was possible.

And yet, despite the rain, slush and overall cold greyness of the day, students rallied to bring in numbers that crept just a tad above the required quorum of around 795 students. The total, measured at 897 as this goes to print, is no clear victory, but it did the trick.

All in all, the day was a success. We’re sure that someone high up in the university administration and the government took notice; whether they’ll let this event influence their decisions any further remains to be seen.

But beyond the almost 900 students who showed up is another glaring figure: what happened to the almost 29,000 to 30,000 or so students who were eligible for the CSU’s SGM but did not make it out? If you were not there, what happened to you?

Students are angry, annoyed, anxious and pissed off about a lot of things: homework, unfair teachers, not getting a date on Valentine’s Day. But what ranks highly in many Concordia students’ minds are the following two issues: how does a mysterious Board of Governors run the university and allow high-ranking administrators to walk away with huge sums of money, while the government continues to threaten to raise the price of tuition with the agreement of university leaders?

You can bet these questions have been percolating in nearly everyone’s minds over the last few weeks and months. But how many people actually got up and did something about it? While a small group of students rallied with their banner down Guy Street in the cold after the successful SGM came to a close, students inside the warm glass confines on the MB build-

heard.

No matter the outcome of the tuition hikes, or the Board of Governors’ ongoing drama, go out and try to do something. Because almost nothing will look worse to the tyrannical BoG and the relentless government than seeing a minority of students parade down a cold street while the majority sit tight indoors with their books.

ing looked down on them. One student muttered to another over their books on the third floor, “Don’t these people have midterms to write?”

Yeah, those kids in the streets definitely do have midterms to write. They’re students just like you are, but they’re taking time out of their busy schedules to actually do something. If you were that student in the MB building, or in the Hall building, or whatever building, why didn’t you drop what you were doing to join in?

Now, who will actually act on these hangups remains to be seen. But hopefully, with this rally

LETTER

Re: ASFA candidates look like beauty pageant contestants.

First off, I personally know both these candidates. Yes they are quite good looking, but should that be a crime? Almost every candidate in Concordia election history has basically the same plan when making posters: put a picture of themselves (in case people may recognize their face from class or something), and a few campaign points. Everyone does it. Why blow up on these people just because they are good looking? If they were ugly, and had the exact same posters, with the same size photo etc, would they be criticized?

I doubt it. Perhaps you have not ventured into the JMSB building, but most of their candidates have only TWO “promises.” Campaign posters should not be about communicating all your plans and such if elected. That’s what debates, open forums, and the like are for. In fact, all ASFA candidates are required to write “executive summaries” that are available to anyone interested in reading them, both on the ASFA website as well as at the various polling booths. Voter turnout has always been a problem in student politics, and visual posters like these are one way to get student’s attention. For the ones more interested in the intricacies of the election, all they would have to do to find out more about the candidates is read the executive summaries, a fact men-

tioned in another article in this week’s issue of the Concordian, written by Evan LePage.

I understand this is an opinions piece and the writer is entitled to say whatever she wants, but that does not make it right. The writer goes on to criticize the candidates saying “none of [the ideas] appear to be particularly innovative or realistic.” Yes, maybe to the writer. Among the candidates’ goals are fighting tuition hikes, financial transparency, more electives at Loyola, leadership seminars, winter frosh, internship programs, and many more that are both potentially attainable and quite desirable. Sure, ASFA may not have all the power to actually do these things, but electing candidates that are motivated to try is something we should all want to do.

If the writer is going to criticize the electoral process, then go ahead and do that. But don’t throw out likely false accusations, and criticize students for doing what virtually every candidate in Concordia electoral history has done. That being said, I encourage all ASFA students to do the required research before choosing a candidate, and to do their best to get out the word about the election, so we could finally reverse the trend of low voter turnout that has plagued us for so long.

Jamie Gewurz Former Concordian sports editor

setting a good example and tone for the half of the winter semester remaining, more students will be tempted to throw in their hats and rally.

This is not the end of the student movement for the semester. Students will be out at the upcoming BoG meeting, the upcoming senate meeting and the eventual rally as the provincial budget is announced in March. There are Open to Question sessions you can head to if you care about the university’s academic plan. And there are always opportunities like CSU council meetings where you can come out and make your voice

Last week, the Concordian published an opinions piece by writer Kelsey Pudloski that criticized students campaigning for office on the Arts and Sciences Federation of Associations executive. The story was picked up by websites Jezebel, Yahoo, Gawker and even a weekly student newspaper at Yale. We’re not proud to say, though, that the attention to the story was overwhelmingly negative. You hear that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but readers and commenters were largely against Pudloski’s story. The main criticism was that, because Pudlowski criticized two female candidates and not any male ones, the story was sexist and biased.

At this paper, we strive to publish opinions with which not everyone may agree. That’s why we run pro and con columns that present both sides of the debate on prostitution and allowing bottled water. It’s partly why we advocated for tuition increases for programs like MBAs. Earlier this month, an opinions piece supported WalMart supercentres. But rarely do we hear from people on topics as vehemently as the voices we heard last week.

While the vast majority of the editorial staff disagreed with Pudloski’s opinion piece, we respect her argument that candidates sometimes do not do enough beyond putting up posters to grab uninterested voters’ interest. But the story was flawed; the terms of her argument were not appropriate, and we did not do our job as editors by not vetoing references to “sparkly crowns and sashes” and “beauty pageants” which obviously unfairly target the female candidates in the ASFA race. For this, we apologize to our readers and the candidates.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

21

Write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com poLiTics

Attack ads hurt voters most It’s time for a higher standard of debate

Michael Penney The Muse (Memorial University of Newfoundland) ST. JOHN’S (CUP) — As the federal government prepares to table its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Canada’s political heavyweights have begun throwing punches over corporate tax cuts and stealth fighter jets.

While party leaders have stated they would like to steer away from an election, new attack ads produced by the Conservatives imply the possibility of a political showdown.

The ads focus on the leadership deficiencies of Michael Ignatieff, including his time living outside Canada. This demonstrates the escalation of negative attack ads, a technique already perfected by our neighbours to the south. Playing dirty seems to be part of an accepted platform in American politics.

Republican spin-doctors like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove wrote the playbook on negative campaigning as a cornerstone of electoral politics. The approach is basic but brutal: Use any conceivable trick at a party’s disposal to drag the reputations of political opponents through the mud. It revolutionized the perception of political marketing and set a new tone in the competitive process that is at the very core of Canadian federalism.

Plenty of examples demonstrate how Canadian politics have been influenced by this strategy, one used with varying degrees of success.

During the 1993 federal election campaign, the Progressive Conservatives were trailing considerably in public opinion polls.

Worn down by a series of unpopular moves orchestrated under Mulroney’s watch, the Tories decided to respond by smearing Liberal leader Jean Chrétien.

They decided to highlight Chrétien’s facial deformity in a televised ad. The ad got signifi-

Karl Rove was instrumental to George W. Bush’s electoral success. Photo by Flickr cant coverage and appeared on a number of news broadcasts, creating considerable uproar among Canadian voters. Leading Tory strategists like Allan Gregg faced harsh criticism over their Republican-styled tactics.

In the 2006 federal election, the Liberals released a series of attack ads in an attempt to paint Stephen Harper as a right-wing extremist. They used a series of questionable quotes — often taken out of context — that focused

on his desire to increase military presence in major Canadian cities, and his personal inclination to rid the health care system of women’s abortion rights.

A party’s survival depends on donations money and subsidies received from party funding. We shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars from the public purse to squeeze out negative ads that attempt to push wedge issues instead of legitimate policy discussion. If

political parties want to change public perception and sway voters, it should be done with some basic decency and accuracy.

Let’s ensure that political advertisements focus on the substance of national concerns and not the personalities of our political figures. Public policy is the framework of our society, and negative campaigning should be removed from the political blueprint.

oLympics

Let’s play the blame game VANOC and PQ just can’t get past lack of French at 2010 Olympics opening ceremonies Chris Hanna Opinions editor

Many francophones were offended by the lack of French at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but anglophones should have been too. It’s easy to point the finger at La Belle Province when it does some anti-Canadian, anti-anglo things, but the Olympics’ opening ceremony last year should have highlighted the best of the country from east to west and everything in between.

In his new book, Vancouver Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong said there would have been more French at the opening ceremonies if Gilles Vigneault had allowed them to use his song “Mon pays,” an unofficial sovereigntist anthem.

Of course, that pathetic excuse gives plenty for members of the Parti Québécois to guffaw at. Culture minister Christine St-Pierre called Furlong’s comments “juvenile and naive.”

The PQ is hard to please, though. The Olympics were a year ago, and short of building a time machine for an opening ceremony do-over, there is not much else VANOC can do other than apologize.

Vancouver was voted as the host city for

the Winter Olympics back in 2003, giving VANOC about seven years to come up with something incredible that would represent the culture of all of Canada.

But who is most at fault here? Is it VANOC for thinking Vigneault, a known Quebec nationalist, would let them use his song? Is it Vigneault for not allowing them to use “Mon pays?” Is it the Parti Québécois, who probably would not be satisfied even if the entire Olympic Games were exclusively in French?

VANOC should have planned better.

Language has always been a hot-button issue in this country, where we have not one, but two official languages. VANOC got Garou to sing Jean-Pierre Ferland’s “Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin.” As a back-up plan to a Quebec nationalist anthem, that was a little weak. Furlong said there was a big production planned with Vigneault’s song that would have represented Quebec perfectly. So when rights to the song weren’t granted, those plans were just dropped?

Vigneault had the right to forbid VANOC from using his song. He told Le Devoir that organizers apparently wanted to only use parts of it and Vigneault did not feel they would be doing the song justice. But other reasons he gave for not allowing VANOC to use his song were down right rude, unpatriotic and shameful. The CBC reported that he told organizers he did not want his song performed in a place where the Canadian flag would be flown or anywhere that suggested Canada included Quebec. Politically, he is entitled to his opinion, but geographically, Quebec is still a part of Canada, and somewhere down the line there will need to be some cooperation and give-and-take on both sides for us to have at least some unity.

Members of the PQ seem as though they

are trying hard to instigate a language war with the rest of Canada. The two Olympic weeks united the entire country like no political event had in years, yet politicians are trying to create a divide between the people.

Whether you are from Rosemère like Alexandre Bilodeau or from Calgary like Christine Nesbitt, when a Canadian wins a gold medal,

he or she wins it for Canada. Not Quebec or Alberta, or any other province or city they identify with most.

The Olympics should be about sports and Canadian athletes and even though the expensive and controversial “Own the podium” program was funded in part by taxpayer dollars, politics have no place in these celebrations.

VANOC should have planned better and included more french. Photo by Tiffany Blaise

theconcordian

Concordia’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 Volume 28 Issue 21.

Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief editor@theconcordian.com Brennan Neill Managing editor managing@theconcordian.com Evan LePage News editor news@theconcordian.com Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor Emily White Life editor life@theconcordian.com Savannah Sher Assistant life editor Valerie Cardinal Arts editor arts@theconcordian.com Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo Assistant arts editor Katelyn Spidle Music editor music@theconcordian.com Kamila Hinkson Sports editor sports@theconcordian.com Chris Hanna Opinions editor opinions@theconcordian.com Owen Nagels Assistant opinions editor Jacob Serebrin Online editor online@theconcordian.com Tiffany Blaise Photo editor photo@theconcordian.com Katie Brioux Graphics editor graphics@theconcordian.com Trevor Smith Chief copy editor copy@theconcordian.com Morgan Lowrie Sofia Gay Copy editors Jill Fowler Production manager production@theconcordian. com Jennifer Barkun Francois Descoteaux Lindsay Sykes Production Assistants Board of Directors Tobi Elliott Richard Tardif Ben Ngai directors@theconcordian.com Editorial 7141 Sherbrooke St. W. CC.431 Montreal, QC H4B 1R6 514.848.2424 x7458 (Newsroom) 514.848.2424 x7499 (Editors) 514.848.2424 x7404 (Production) Francesco Sacco Business Manager business@theconcordian.com Marshall Johnston Advertising advertising@theconcordian. com Business and Advertising: 1455 de Maisonneuve W. H.733-4 Montreal, QC H3G 1M8 514.848.2424 x7420 (Office) 514.848.7427 (Fax) STAFF WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS: Adrian Saldanha, Valeria Nekhim, Renee Morisson, Thea Fitz-James, Jasmine Papillon-Smith, Jessica Wei, Daniel Spinali, Matthew Campbell, Cora Ballou, Andrew Guilbert, Shannon H. Myers, Trevor Smith, Lea Choukroun, Simon Tousignant, Marissa Miller, Eva Kratochvil, Sean Kershaw, David Vilder, Faiz Imam, Cindy Lopez, Camille Nerant

poLiTics

theconcordian

Thankfully, our prime minister is not a rock star Harper and Obama’s relationships with the people are complete opposites Marissa Miller Staff writer It’s not that there aren’t interesting things going on in Parliament - we just don’t know about them.

The reclusive Prime Minister Stephen Harper maintains his power by keeping things private.

His crew of cabinet members are a secret alliance party, deciding the fate of our country behind closed doors. Taxes, infrastructure and social policy are topics are open to public discourse, and Canadians who care about these issues are proactive enough to look into it themselves.

Is anyone really complaining, though?

It is refreshing to have a discreet government.

It reflects our humility, and the trust we inherently place in our politicians. They don’t need to pull the ostentatious Lady Gaga-esque stunts to win our vote. As long as we get to keep our medicare, low tuition, gun control, and fair drinking age, most of us remain pacified.

Then again, perhaps we don’t crave a more dynamic, outspoken government because we have the one down south to follow like a celebrity tabloid. American politics have a way bigger budget to dedicate to political campaigns, so they naturally become giant, entertaining marketing schemes.

There are also practical reasons for us to be so enthralled with American politics. The U.S. president, the so-called leader of the free world, makes decisions that resonate on an international scale. Our trade economy is so closely reliant on the States’ that if they crumble, we crumble.

Twitter, the fast-growing social network that allows Little Johnny to campaign for sixth-grade president, as well as country leaders to summa-

rize their political platforms in 140 characters or less, is becoming a vital self-promotion tool.

These catchy daily declarations speak volumes about our politicians. While Obama posts about how his former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, couldn’t have been a better BFF, Harper posts a stern and official-sounding statement following the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

McGill political science professor Dr. Elisabeth Gidengil suspects that American politicians act more like celebrities because their campaigns are much longer.

“The candidates are able to spend huge sums of money to promote themselves, and the major media outlets have more funds to devote to covering the campaign,” she says. “Plus, a presidential candidate is much more a person

Graphic by Sean Kershaw separate from his party than is a Canadian party leader.”

American politicians campaign not only before their term, but during it as well. Obama must persistently prove that he can fix the damaged economic infrastructure that Bush left behind.

Harper must be doing something right, considering we routinely rank in the top 10 of the least corrupt nations in the world, while the U.S. sits at the 22nd spot, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index from 2010.

Silence is golden, and Harper exemplifies that statement perfectly. It’s great not having to confuse my prime minister for a loudspeaker with no “off” button.

mannERs maTTER

Laptops are more distracting than helpful in class Some students’ typing is louder than profs’ lectures Emily White Life editor I do not know what bothered me the most.

Your screen’s bright light shining in my face, or the angry tapping of your fingers on the keyboard? Maybe it was the blatant disrespect you clearly had for both the professor and the person you were sharing desk space with: me.

Don’t get me wrong. I think laptops are great additions to classrooms and thousands of students, faculty and staff log onto Concordia’s network every day. Why wouldn’t they? With a laptop, note-taking is more efficient, you can Google the terms you don’t understand, Facestalk your friends, chat with your boyfriend and go on Skype with your roommate.

Okay, maybe some of these are less advantageous to your studies than others, but for the most part I can tolerate them. At least, I can when the lights are on. But when our professor dims the lights and excitedly puts on a film, keeping your laptop open is just plain rude.

Not to mention that by the speed and ferocity of what you were typing I would have

Graphic by Arnaud Pages

assumed you were instructing a lifesaving procedure, not adding photo captions to your weekend getaway.

As hard as I tried to not let your lack of manners affect me, I could not keep the sound of your typing from infiltrating my brain. With each crash of your fingers onto the letters of your keyboard my patience evaporated.

It was only once the credits rolled, the lights flashed on and class was dismissed that you shut your computer down and I could once again feel at peace. With the pain you put me through in that half hour, I promised myself I would never sit next to you again.

Ever.

In fact, you scarred me so badly that now

not only will I avoid you, I will avoid sitting next to anyone with a laptop.

So to all you loud “typers” out there please note that manners DO matter. While you may not notice how angry your keys currently sound, your classmates do and I can tell you that they do not appreciate it. Rather than use those fingers for Facebook chat, why not use them to close the lid of your Macbook pro.

Which manners matter to you? Write to the editor (opinions@theconcordian.com) for a chance to be featured in our Opinions section!

23

theconcordian

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Etcetera Page

Comedian Rob Delaney’s tweets are mostly “NSFW.” Heck, his Twitter pic might even make some uncomfortable. He’s been called one of the funniest people on Twitter and was recently featured on Funny or Die, talking about romance on Valentine’s Day (his perfect date would be a $27 dinner with Jennifer Hudson, before she lost the weight.) Follow him on Twitter @robdelaney and follow us @TheConcordian.

We caught up with students at the Whale gathering on Feb. 14 and asked them why they thought the rally was such a success.

Erika Ricupero - first year urban planning “I think it was successful because everyone wants the same thing, we all want the cheapest education possible. It’s our right and we all want to pay the cheapest tuition possible.”

- If a chick takes me back to her apartment & she doesn’t have at LEAST two cats, I’m outta there.

- “Manuscript” is probably the classiest place to hide the word “anus.”

- My wife claims to “love the Lord of the Rings,” yet she never laughs when I call her “Bilbo Saggins.”

Kyle Curlew - first year anthropology and sociology “A lot of students showed up and it really went against that idea of Canadian apathy, that Canadians really don’t care when things happen, they just let it slide all the time. That’s pretty much the case with a lot of protests in Canada so the fact that so many people came today and were able to make something legally binding is really great.”

Brandon Donnelly - first year geography “I think it’s really good that the students are getting together to raise the issue and do as much as we can. We don’t really have the political sway to change things, but we’re coming together to do something about it anyway.”

Compiled by Eva Kratochvil

A hawk perches over a streetlight in the downtown core. Photo by Vincent Yip

Horoscopes Some call it Spring Break, others call it Reading Week. One of those sounds a lot more exciting than the other. Regardless, the week of Feb. 21 is a much-needed break from the winter semester routine.

Aries - March 21 to April 20 There’s nothing more relaxing than sleeping in. Your early mornings in the last six weeks have really taken a toll on your energy level. Sleep in a little, and you won’t have to call it a night at 7 p.m.

Taurus - April 21 to May 21 Procrastination is that friend everybody warns you about. You shouldn’t hang around with that guy, he’s a slob. This week, focus and don’t waste precious hours Facestalking your friends’ friends’ vacation photos.

Gemini - May 22 to June 21 Time is money, and you of all people know that you don’t have a lot of either one. Make the most of it, try to pick up an extra shift at work, and really ask yourself if another shopping spree is the right thing for you to do.

Cancer - June 22 to July 23 You need a change of scenery. There’s no reason for you to be cooped up in the library the entire week. You need a break, and, strangely enough, some people want to hang out with you. Try not to talk about your studies.

Leo - July 24 to August 23 Your wild personality just can’t be tamed this week. You’re out and about and generally don’t care what people think, but always remember to be polite. No one likes a rude loud mouth.

Virgo - August 24 to September 23 Whether you’re going away or staying put this week, be mindful of the people around you. You’d be surprised at how much surrounding yourself with the right, positive people affects your mood.

Libra - September 24 to October 23 Pyjamas, bed, television. Bam! The best combination for any day of the week.

Seven days straight of eating in bed and keeping your remote close to you to make sure you don’t accidentally do a situp is just

what you need to unwind.

Scorpio - October 24 to November 23 How is a week off for you any different than a regular week? Your weeks are funfilled, mostly, and your light work load make Spring Break/Reading Week just another week.

Sagittarius - November 24 to December 21 You generally get along with most people, but your feelings for someone are becoming all too obvious. You’ll need to change, or hide them more effectively. You don’t need to constantly build walls around your emotions.

Capricorn - December 22 to January 20 Try not to get sucked into a routine during Reading Week. Remember, it only lasts a week, and you won’t want to need a week after it to get back into your groove.

Aquarius - January 21 to February 19 You need to plan things to do, places to go and people to see, otherwise you’ll get too comfortable and won’t want to do

anything. Commit to things and they’ll be harder to ignore.

Pisces - February 20 to March 20 Even with a week free of lectures, there aren’t enough hours in a day for you to do everything you need to do. You’re used to this by now, but it’s still frustrating for you to have so much to do.

You share a birthday with...

Feb. 15: Matt Groening, Chris Farley, Galileo Galilei Feb. 16: Kim Jong-Il, Ice-T, Vera-Ellen Feb. 17: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paris Hilton, Michael Jordan Feb. 18: Molly Ringwald, Dr. Dre, Count Alessandro Volta Feb. 19: Seal, Smokey Robinson, Nicolaus Copernicus Feb. 20: Rihanna, Charles Barkley, Sidney Poitier Feb. 21: Ellen Page, Kelsey Grammer, Rue McClanaha

* TUES 15

EVENTS AT A GLANCE HELP PROMOTE CONCORDIA EVENTS! ALL EVENT LISTINGS ARE ADVERTISED FOR FREE SEND YOUR IDEAS TO EVENTS@THECONCORDIAN.COM PLEASE LIST NAME OF EVENT, LOCATION, AND TIME +CONCORDIA +MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC +CONCORDIA +CONCORDIA

McConnell Building Atrium Application Information Fair La Sala Rossa Biffy Clyro + Moving Mountains Casa Del Popolo Eamon McGrath + Pretty Expert + Goodnight Webcams Le Divan Orange Flack N' Birds DOWNTOWN: Hall and SGW Library, LOYOLA: Vanier Library & SP building ASFA General Election lobby of the Molson building CASA Elections

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+TALK +FREEEEEEE! +MUSIC +MUSIC

David Pilgrim "Using objects of intolerance to teach tolerance" The Really (REALLY) Free Market! Presented by überculture Rich Aucoin + D'eon + Pete Samples Enrique Iglecias

EV 1.615 7th floor Hall Building Il Motore Centre Bell

20h30 10h00 - 16h00 20h00 22h00

+STINGERS +FUNDRAISER +DE-STRESS +MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC +MUSIC

Women's hockey vs. Carleton {warehouse} magazine & Plan Canada Art of Living Club Volunteering Nature Retreat Baths + Starslinger + Braids Bon Jovi Glass Passenger + Li'l Andy + Elgin Skye + Debra Weiss + Max Kelly Morcheeba Hey Rosetta! + Gramercy Riffs

Ed Meagher Arena Java U Café (4065 St-Denis) 2030 Mackay Il Motore Bell Centre Le Divan Orange Imperial de Quebec Cabaret Mile End

19h30 19h00 18h00 20h00 22h00 22h00 22h00 22h00

+STINGERS +STINGERS +STINGERS +TALK +MUSIC +MUSIC

Women's hockey @ McGill Women's basketball @ McGill Men's basketball @ McGill Professor Norman Cornett dialogues with Nicole Brossard Akron/Family + Delicate Steve Les Handclaps + Le Couleur

McConnell Arena Love Competition Hall Love Competition Hall 1434 Sherbrooke west,suite #200 Il Motore Le Divan Orange

14h00 18h00 20h00 12h00 20h00 22h00

SUN 20

+MUSIC

Viviane Audet + Chloe Lacasse

Divan Orange

20h30

MON 21

+MUSIC

Yann Tierse Midterm break begins!

Metropolis

22h00

WED 16

THURS 17

FRI 18

SAT 19

+CONCORDIA