The Concordian

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arts life

Celebrating 40 years with Montreal s Black Theatre Workshop p.10

Cup Cakes Sweet weekend at Montreal Cupcake Camp p.8

Will students topple the CSU s plan?

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

sports Saying goodbye to Stinger soccer all-star Matthijs Eppinga p.18

music 30 bands and four days later: Surviving M for Montreal p.15

life Where to get the most important meal of the day: breakfast p.6, 7 Volume 28 Issue 13

Editorial, opinion P. 21, 22

Students mobilize against the student centre fee levy Unofficial campaign questions transparency of project, management agreement Evan LePage News editor With the referendum date fast approaching, and many students left feeling their questions have gone unanswered by the CSU, an unofficial campaign opposing the student centre emerged and has been spreading their point of view in the halls, in the streets and online.

In under a week, a “Vote NO! to student centre FEE HIKES” event on Facebook has approximately 450 people listed “attending,” while the “YES for a Student Centre!!!” page has only 160 people.

Sibona MaDewa, creator of the event and a student very involved in the “No” movement, identified many issues and concerns about the opposing “Yes” campaign. She said that the CSU’s posters were misleading in that they tell students to vote yes for a student centre, when really they’re voting on a fee levy increase. “We get the student centre whether we vote yes or no, it’s just the case of when,” she said.

The CSU had already been grilled about the wording of the referendum question by their own councillors, and by ASFA members and other students about their decision to not reveal potential

locations. Both of these aspects have also been targeted by the “No” movement.

“Several years ago we voted no to the Faubourg, because we were told it was the Faubourg. And then in March we voted no to the $2.50 because we were told it was $2.50,” MaDewa said. “Now we’re being asked to vote on a location unknown and incremental fees up to $2.50, no longer just the $2.50. It’s the secrecy and the mystery [that we object to].”

Though she admitted it sounds like a conspiracy theory, MaDewa even asserted her belief that the location is the Faubourg and that “the school doesn’t want to pay for the renovations for the [building], they want [students] to pay and then they’ll eventually take it over.”

When asked whether the CSU had set its sights on the Faubourg, VP external & projects Adrien Severyns said, “We’re still studying the options and no contract has been signed whatsoever. So the allegations of the Faubourg are just rumours to this point.”

Those involved in the “No” movement also stressed the many issues they have with the student centre plans and agreement, but ownership stuck out as the biggest concern, one that they raised at an open sit-down Q&A with members of the CSU executive and the CSU’s lawyer on Monday.

“The lawyer said the 62 per cent ownership

See “‘No campaign...” on p.3

Frigo Vert financial situation “critical” Jacques Gallant Assistant news editor

Scaling back hours, losing staff and increasing the prices on certain products are only some of the consequences of Le Frigo Vert’s dire financial situation, as its annual general meeting on Nov. 16 made clear.

The food co-operative’s lack of funding can be attributed in large part to the failed attempt at increasing its fee-levy among undergraduate students during a referendum earlier this year.

The result of that vote coupled with other losses of income have prevented Le Frigo Vert from actively taking on other initiatives, such as a possible expansion to the Loyola campus, said collective member Gab Perry Stensson.

“Expanding to Loyola definitely remains a possibility, but we just don’t have the room to work with that right now,” he said. “We had a board member who did some outreach at Loyola

See “‘Cooperative...” on p.2

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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City in brief Sarah Deshaies

McGill student council debates drinking games

After it came out last week that ASFA and CSU cultural nights had been advertising “all -you-can-drink events” illegally, another student council has encountered potential legal ramifications associated with serving alcohol.

The Students’ Society of McGill University’s executive committee released a report mid-month to SSMU council that approved drinking games at Gerts, McGill’s student campus bar, the McGill Daily reported. The subsequent discussion among executive members and councillors was centered around whether the decision about drinking games was illegal and whether this would jeopardize SSMU’s liquor license. However, the debate was removed from the meeting’s minutes and executives told Daily reporters not to report on the issue. The liquor license is currently being negotiated with the university administration.

McGill charges its grad students for study space

McGill University’s faculty of arts will be charging $200 for graduate students to rent study space in the campus’ Ferrier building from January to August 2011, the McGill Daily reported.

Associate dean Juliet Johnson offered that space to arts graduate students in an email sent out Nov. 8. She said the decision was made out of “equity concerns” and to ensure that the study space would not go to waste. PhD student Emily Essert raised objection to the measure to principal Heather Munroe-Blum (McGill’s counterpart to Judith Woodsworth) at a town hall meeting last week. Munroe-Blum was entirely unaware of the decision. Essert called the move is inappropriate and absurd, saying “All grad students deserve a place to work. It’s not a privilege, it’s a necessity.”

Charest will stay in Quebec for non-confidence vote

Premier Jean Charest announced last week that he will postpone a trip to France in order to face a non-confidence vote the Parti Québécois is expected to introduce Wednesday. The PQ has planned the vote in response to the lack of public inquiry into the allegations of corruption in the construction industry tied to political party financing. Charest maintains that corruption investigations are best run by the police, and his trip postponement does not mean that an inquiry will be opened. A police investigation into construction and collusion is expected to begin making arrests shortly.

Squirrels terrorize humans; humans complain

Regular visitors to Lafontaine Park in Plateau-Mont-Royal have been complaining of the “brazen” attitude some squirrels adopt as winter approaches.

They told the CBC that the rodents get into strollers and bags, and eat snacks from children’s hands. Certified wildlife tracker Rob Baker explained that the squirrels eat up because of the encroaching winter, which this year is supposed to be especially cold. Since they don’t hibernate, squirrels build up a thick layer of fat to stay warm and fed. Experts say the blame lies squarely with people who feed the squirrels.

Continued from cover ...

Cooperative predicting a deficit of over $10,000 and noticed that there was an interest to have something similar to the Frigo Vert there, seeing as most services for students are downtown.”

Collective member Rachel Tremblay, who presented Le Frigo Vert’s budget, indicated that one of the main goals this year was to try to attract more volunteers in order to reduce the number of paid staff members.

“If we have to use paid staff, it’s really hard right now,” she said.

“We’ve already cut down to the bare bones, and now this year we’ve had to cut even more. We kept our operating expenses the same, but we did this by cutting $30,000 in wages. So that means we’re short-staffed.”

Tremblay explained that the funding of Frigo Vert’s educational programming, such as its anti-colonial thanksgiving, was maintained this year as the cooperative deemed it too important to cut. However, they are still trying to solicit volun-

teers for the activities.

The lack of dollars has meant that Frigo Vert has been forced to cut its morning hours and to close on Fridays. It has lost three employees partially due to budget cuts and it has been forced to raise the prices on certain items, such as its medicinal products, by 15 to 20 per cent. It is predicting a deficit of over $10,600.

Le Frigo Vert’s fee-levy among graduate students is now up for re-

newal this year, and the co-operative’s collective members are hoping for the best.

“We’re definitely fearful of losing the GSA funding, so we are trying to be as conservative as possible in order to still have a little bit of extra emergency funding,” said Tremblay.

“Hopefully we can learn from the campaigning we did last year, and hopefully the loss last year will help us mobilize a bit more.”

FINANCE

Co-op’s deficit balloons to an almost $30k surplus Bookstore will receive fee levy this year and pay off debt Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief Concordia’s Co-op Bookstore started its new financial year by turning over a new leaf and slowly erasing the red ink; documents presented at its annual general meeting last Wednesday showed that the Co-op’s balance sheet jumped from the 2008-2009 financial year’s deficit of $1,993 to a surplus of $29,624.

About a dozen staff, Co-op members and directors gathered

over People’s Potato food in the School of Community and Public Affairs building to look over the Coop’s end-of-year reports, including the financial report.

There are a few reasons for the surplus, according to the Co-op employee Jennifer Dufferin, who is in charge of the Co-op’s finances. “It’s hard to pinpoint one thing, because it’s definitely a multitude of factors,” she said. “I’d just say that there’s a renewed diligence and focus on our finances, which has been there for the past few years. [...] So we’re just on top of stuff right now, and it’s tightening everything up.”

Dufferin, who began her work at the Co-op about a year ago, also said that increased visibility on campus has brought in more students, and sales. The annual report noted an increase of $30,000 in revenue along with the near $30,000 total surplus.

Fifty-eight per cent of sales are generated by school supplies, followed by used books at 25 per cent.

The Co-op’s finances had been scrutinized in the past few years.

The group has incurred loans from an anonymous lender, the Concordia Student Union and both the provincial and federal levels of government.

The 2009 deficit was a jump over the deficits in past years, from almost $10,000 in 2007-2008 and $20,501 in 2006-2007.

Though last week’s report doesn’t show it, since it only evaluates financials from June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010, Dufferin said that their Revenue Quebec loan is paid off, with the a small amount remaining for Revenue Canada.

The budget for 2010-2011 set aside a total of $50,000 for debt repayment: $12,000 for money owed to the government, $18,000 for loans

and $20,000 for publisher’s loans.

“We will be out of debt in the next year,” confirmed Dufferin, who said one of her goals is to pay off outstanding debt. The continuing attention to finances is an “ongoing process.”

The Co-op was due to collect a windfall of money from the university administration this year. Last school fall and winter semesters, two campaigns were successful in securing both undergraduate and graduate student fee levies ($0.09 and $0.50 a credit). They will pull in an estimated $60,000 and $9,000, respectively.

This raises the Co-op’s projected revenue to $242,000, way above last year’s $138,450. Part of the money will go to update their computer system, website and provide subsidization for undergraduate membership fees, halving them to $5.

CAMPUS

Concordia windows damaged by vandals Projectiles fired from outside: police Morgan Lowrie Copy editor Police are still searching for the people responsible for acts of vandalism that damaged windows of Concordia’s EV and JMSB buildings last week on the SGW campus.

They have concluded that the windows were most likely cracked by some type of projectile launched from the street below the night before the incidents were reported.

“Only the outer pane of glass was cracked, which means it must have come from outside,” said Concordia spokeswoman Chris Mota.

The incident led to a few tense hours Wednesday morning.

Rumours flew around campus after police received a 911 call stating that windows on JMSB’s 14th floor had been hit by a projectile which some, including CTV’s Twitter feed, originally reported as a shot.

After arriving on the scene, police barricaded de Maisonneuve Boulevard. between Guy and Pierce

Streets, with siren-flashing cars guarding the entrance at either end.

An officer at the scene explained that this was a safety precaution, put in place in case the remaining glass should fall.

By mid-afternoon, rumours of a shooter had been dispelled and the snarled traffic became the main story. Impatient drivers negotiated around the roadblock as a crane finally arrived to repair the windows.

By the time the panes of glass were knocked loose from the 14th floor and shattered across de Maisonneuve, Constable Anie Lemieux had issued the statement that, although a full investigation would be held, the damage was probably due to vandalism.

“It may have been a pellet gun, or something thrown from one of the nearby construction sites,” she said. “We are still investigating the incident.”

The damage to windows at the EV building occurred earlier, possibly over the weekend, Mota said.

Maintenance workers noticed the cracks Monday morning.

It is not yet known whether the same people were responsible for the damage at both buildings.

Police have not charged anyone in connection with the vandalism.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theconcordian Continued from cover ...

“No” campaign not allowed to register, still picks up strong student support can be modified,” MaDewa said, noting her surprise. “It’s a target, it’s not set.” The 300-page student centre agreement between the CSU and the University only stipulates that the student union’s proportionate share of control of the centre could not ever fall below 50 per cent. If you add in the fact that the 20 per cent retail space would come out of the students’ share of the building, MaDewa says that students may not have the degree of control they’re being told they will.

Reinforcing this point, she said, is the fact that many important decisions need to be passed unanimously by the building’s board, which would likely seat two members of the administration.

“These are the promises you make but technically you can’t fulfill them without the “yes” of those two members,” MaDewa said.

The “No” movement entered the campaign late because it was “paper season” MaDewa said, adding that they were initially unaware of the procedure of how to begin a campaign. They were informed by ASFA’s chief electoral officer Nick Cuillerier about the need to register, but were unable to because the deadline had passed.

MaDewa claims, however, that after speaking with the CSU’s CEO Oliver Cohen, he had initially agreed to register them and reimburse their posters. Soon after, she said, he called back saying that he’d need an extra day to register them. During a third phone call, Cohen told MaDewa they would not, in fact, be allowed to register their campaign at all.

The fact that she says he denied ever agreeing to register their campaign angered her more than the refusal itself, MaDewa said. “He essentially said to us, no I never said that, I didn’t agree.”

Cohen did not respond by print time.

Severyns himself, at the helm of

Pier-Luc Therrien (left) and Sibona MaDewa of the “No” movement spoke with concerned student Ehsan Torkamanzehi. the “Yes” campaign, thought it was unfortunate that the opposition could not be registered. Though he acknowledged that Cohen was following procedure, he said that they should possibly consider reviewing the rules because “it’s very, very tough for us, who are registered and who are doing everything according to the book.”

“Whenever something happens, we can’t really report it,” Severyns continued. “Or when we do report it, there’s no official opposition to refer it to.”

Despite having their posters taken down, MaDewa said the Facebook group had already been created and as private students, and not an official campaign, they would continue to inform other students about their own views on the matter.

With the campaign picking up steam online, MaDewa pointed out that it is mostly independent students who are questioning the fee levy increase and student centre, while it is almost exclusively CSUaffiliated students and the executive members that have defended the proposal online.

Pier-Luc Therrien, VP finance of the political science student association and another student mobilizing against the fee levy increase, noted that both of the events pages have been flooded with “No” supporters asking questions about the student centre project. “But the CSU has been responding with indirect answers,” he said.

Ultimately, members of the “No” campaign have various opinions of the idea of a student centre, but they

all share the same opinion about this referendum.

“We’re not saying no to the student centre. We’re just saying we’re not going to fund something that we don’t know enough about.”

Many students who have expressed themselves online and on campus, like political science student Ehsan Torkamanzehi, would tend to agree.

“The nature of how they’re trying to push this through is not transparent, it’s completely deceptive,” he said. “In my mind, it looks to me that we’ve got a bunch of executives concerned about having some sort of legacy when they leave.”

Severyns agreed that a project of this magnitude would inevitably leave a “beautiful” legacy, but that it would be the legacy of “Concordia and the student body.”

Half of full-time students in Quebec live on less than $12,200 a year Jacob Serebrin CUP Quebec Bureau Chief (CUP) — University students in Quebec are in a precarious financial position, according to a new report by the province’s largest student lobby group.

“50 per cent of full-time students live on less than $12,200 per year, 25 per cent on less than $7,400,” Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec president Louis-Philippe Savoie said in French. “This data includes the amounts received in [government student loans]. Imagine the disastrous effect that raising tuition fees by the Charest government” would have on these students.

The report, released on Nov. 18, is based on a survey of 12,619

Nation in brief Sarah Deshaies

Call of Duty while on duty

The Department of National Defence is sending 500 copies of video games to Canadian soldiers in “lonely outposts” in Afghanistan as a moral booster. The order was issued by public tender last week, and will close in early December, though Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan will end July 1, 2011. The tender could be worth as much as $25,000 at an estimated $50 a title. Cmdr. Hubert Genest said that it is routine to send video games to Afghanistan, and that they need to be updated every few years with new editions. The games include some combat titles, like Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, and Gears of War, as well as Guitar Hero 3, Tiger Woods 2011 and The Beatles Rock Band.

Rise in the use of food banks

PROVINCE

New study finds that work plays the largest role in paying for school

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students.

FEUQ intends to use the report at the provincial government’s meeting of education partners in early December. There, university administrators and student groups will sit down with politicians to talk about the state of post-secondary education in the province, including the rate of tuition.

Student groups have criticized the meeting because the government has already announced its intention to raise tuition in 2012. Quebec’s second-largest student lobby group has already said that it will boycott the meeting.

The report covers the sources of student financing and cost of living, including how much students are spending on tuition, food and housing.

It shows significant differences between full- and part-time students.

While work is the biggest source of student financing, part-time students receive a much larger portion of their finances from working and take on less debt.

According to the report, the majority — 55 per cent — of financing for full-time students comes from work. Over 80 per cent of full-time students work an average of 18.8 hours per week. For part-time students the work is even more important, accounting for 83 per cent of their financing.

“The portrait of the lazy student is totally false,” said Savoie.

Financial support from parents is the second-largest source of student financing, at 22 per cent. Sixty per cent of full-time students receive financial contributions from their parents. Twenty-three per cent of part-time students receive financial support from their parents, which accounts for seven per cent of financing.

Over 60 per cent of full-time students will go into debt. The average full-time student in Quebec will graduate with $14,000 in debt.

Student loans make up the majority of this debt, with 44.5 per cent of full-time students receiving them, compared to 23.4 per cent who take

out bank loans or credit lines and 22.1 per cent who take on credit card debt.

The survey also found that 46.6 per cent of part-time students will go into debt, with an average debt at graduation of $11,500.

The survey also looked at student backgrounds, finding that 27 per cent of part-time students have at least one child and that the parents of 45 per cent of full-time students didn’t go to university.

The report also includes several recommendations for the provincial government, including the adoption of programs to improve the accessibility of universities, help students balance family and studies, freeze tuition and improve the financial aid program by adjusting the allowable expenses and parental contribution.

The survey was conducted by Léger Marketing in 2009. Eight per cent of undergraduate students in Quebec participated. It has a margin of error of three per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Canadians are using food banks at the highest recorded levels ever.

The HungerCount 2010 survey released last week reported that almost 900,000 Canadians used food banks last March. About nine per cent of those people were using food banks for the first time. Children accounted for 38 per cent of people served by food banks. Food Banks Canada Executive director Katherine Schmidt says the results are an indication that the recession is not over for many Canadians. The group recommended that the government create strategies to prevent poverty and create housing.

Carleton tells students it will keep money until books are open

Carleton’s undergraduate and graduate student associations announced they will be taking legal action to get $7 million that university administration is keeping from student associations, the Fulcrum reported. Universities typically hold collected fees in trust until they are transferred for student groups. Carleton’s administration, concerned about financial accountability, says their transfer won’t happen until a new funding agreement is signed. Student groups argue that they are accountable to students, not the administration, and that the new agreement would give the administration the power to refuse new fee levies, and manage campus services. As of last week, $3.5 million had been released to maintain health and dental plans and campus clubs. Students say that they’ve had to dip into contingency funds to staff nine services centres.

In Soviet Russia, party eats you

A Soviet-themed party has ignited some controversy at a Toronto university, according to the Eyeopener.

The University of Toronto Russian Students’ Association created posters for their “Back in CCCP” party. The red posters were put up at Ryerson University and featured the sickle and hammer and red star, emblems of the USSR, or CCCP in Russian.

Paul Terek, president of the Ryerson Ukrainian Students’ Association, sent an email on behalf of the group to the RSA, saying that the posters are “offensive to descendants of all post-Soviet states” and recalled the Soviet Union’s harsh treatment of its people. RSA president Danil Shezelev said the party was meant to be retrothemed, and that he didn’t mean to offend anyone. “We didn’t throw a Siberian exile party.”

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theconcordian

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

World in brief Sarah Deshaies

Real life superheroes work to save Seattle

A group of masked “superheroes” have taken to the streets of Seattle to fight crime. The Rain City Superhero Movement says it is part of an American web-based group whose members are masked do-gooders, not vigilantes. The police say they are aware of the Rain City branch, some of who go by the names of Green Reaper, Gemini, Thorn, Thunder 88 and Phoenix Jones the Guardian of Seattle. Jones, 22, who wears a black cape, fedora and blue tights, was interviewed by detectives this month, and he is reportedly driven around by an un-costumed young woman. Jones apparently said that he doesn’t approve of people walking around with masks, but that everyone on his team has a military or mixed martial arts background, adding that they are “well aware of what it costs to do what we do.” Indeed, one was almost shot by police when he came running out of a dark area.

No word yet on whether any masked supervillains have announced plans to take over Seattle.

Well, that makes so much sense

South African police have charged a 15-year-old alleged gang-rape victim with underage sex, along with her accused rapists, who are 14- and 16-years-old. The girl was allegedly raped after being drugged earlier this month at a school, while other students filmed it on their phones.

Despite the footage, the rape charges were dropped because of a lack of evidence. South Africa’s Sexual Offences Act prohibits consensual sex with a minor. Advocacy groups say this is the wrong message to send to rape victims. South Africa has one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Some groups report that one woman is raped every 17 to 26 seconds.

Kabul: a nice place to raise your kids

Mark Sedwill, a NATO senior civilian representative, told a BBC children’s news show that kids are probably safer growing up in “family-oriented” Kabul than they are in London, Glasgow or New York City. The comments have provoked criticism, as wartorn Afghanistan and its capital are widely considered dangerous places to live, let alone raise a family. Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said that more than 1,000 children were killed in Afghanistan in the past year because of the current conflict, and that almost as many died of preventable diseases. The city of Glasgow, for one, is not happy. A city council spokesperson said it was “wrong” to include the Scottish city.

China sends Twitter user to jail

A Chinese woman will be serving one year in a labour camp for retweeting a message from her fiance. The tweet mocked nationalist youth who have recently held antiJapanese rallies. Cheng Jianping was seized on the same day as her fiance, Hua Chunhui, but he was released five days later. Twitter is blocked in China, but some users are able to bypass the governmental firewall.

Cheng is known to her followers by the online handle Wang Yi. She had already been detained last August after tweeting a message of sympathy for a detained democracy advocate.

PROVINCE

Bill 94 spawns discussion on freedom of Muslim women Speaker encourages audience to be curious about differences Renee Giblin Staff writer If Bill 94 is passed in Quebec, women will be required by law to reveal their faces in public institutions under the rights of gender equality and religious neutrality.

The departments of political science at Concordia and UQAM took the initiative to host a conference last week to debate the passing of this bill.

“Why is there a preoccupation

with this piece of cloth?” said Wendy Brown, the opening speaker of the conference.

Brown, who works in the department of political science at the University of California, is the author of several books examining Westerners’ fear of the Muslim community and of women’s rights. She pointed out that the issue is not about gender freedom but about co-habiting a place where some people may have different religious beliefs and customs.

Brown gave examples of women in Western societies baring their skin, having plastic surgery and wearing high heels. She said women are not choosing these attires because they are free. Rather, they are trying to attain a certain image dictated by a Western male-dominated society.

“There is an assumption that bared skin means equality,” Brown said as she posted a picture of Hugh

Heffner with three of his girlfriends on the screens behind her.

She added that she was not defending the use of the burqa nor was she condemning the way some Western women dress. She said she was addressing the issue of Western governments using the dress code of Muslim women as a scapegoat.

She said that by stating that Muslim women are not equal, it is implied that Western women are.

Therefore, she said it means the government feels it does not need to examine the treatment of women in their own country.

Not all audience members were convinced of her argument. During the question and answer period, one audience member asked her if the Western model was flawed and if she had a better model to follow.

Another audience member asked if there was a limit to how much Western societies should accept.

“Does that mean we cannot ask questions about who we are?” asked Daniel Salée, the event’s organizer.

Brown said she understands that it is difficult to accommodate differences into people’s lives, but she advocates the importance of trying to understand each other so different communities can live peacefully together.

She pointed out that it is important that all cultures reflect and question. Westerners need to stop believing they have a monopoly on adjusting to different communities, she added.

“Tolerance is not the same as equality,” Brown said.

She said tolerance sets boundaries and rules on societies that are thought of as “others.” Brown encouraged people to self-reflect on their biases and try to be curious about differences instead of fearful of them.

ADVOCACY

More work must be done for children’s rights: panelists Discussion emphasizes the numerous violations that children endure daily Shereen Ahmed Rafea Staff writer Child trafficking, labour, and exploitation are now, more than ever, major international concerns that need to be addressed, indicated a panel discussion on children’s rights held last Thursday at McGill.

The evening’s two panelists were Susan Bissel, who works at the New York office of UNICEF, and Nadja Pollaert, the director general

of the International Bureau for Children’s Rights.

Bissel began by raising some questions in order to emphasize the injustice that is happening to children. “How can there be an estimated 150 million children worldwide who are engaged in the worst forms of child labour?” she said. “How can it be that 250 million children under the age of five are alive right now and don’t have a birth certificate?”

Bissel followed each question with examples containing graphic details. “Those 150 million child labourers are outraged and urge attention, sweating it out, picking cotton, sexually exploited in brothels, fearing for their lives in diamonds and coal mines or picking rags in a heap of garbage.”

Other examples included sexual violations by corrupt police officers, children in armed combat, and

negative social norms such as child marriages.

The UNICEF official believes that we focus on the negative social norms and fail to recognize the good ones. She describes child protection as a grey area that needs to blend with health and education in order to become successful.

“If we create a world where equity is at its core, then we need to approach each and every child holistically,” she said.

Pollaert focused most of her talk on child trafficking, which she believes is a very important subject.

She says that nowadays, it is occurring more frequently than ever.

“Trafficking implies the use of force, fraud or coercion,” she said.

“It includes the exploitation of the victims. It is also child labour, organ trafficking, and it implies the displacement of the victim.”

Pollaert calls it a type of con-

temporary slavery, saying that the whole idea of someone illegally entering a country and then achieving freedom upon arrival is a myth.

“Children are bought in because the only way to get into the country is to be smuggled in,” she said.

“And then they have to work off the money.”

According to Pollaert, this happens because people don’t have legal access to the countries where they want to work, so they go to seek employment and a better life.

Other factors are poverty and lack of education.

Both panelists agreed on the importance of protecting children and ensuring that their rights are never forgotten.

“Child protection transcends national boundaries and renders complicit everyone everywhere, public sector and private sector, rich and poor,” Bissel said.

TECHNOLOGY

Conference tackles the collision of business and technology Andrea Baker talks information retention at Webcom Montreal’s ninth edition Michael Lemieux Staff writer “When you need some information, you search Google and you have it right away, but is that knowledge retained? Does it make us smarter?”

Andrea Baker, Director of Enterprise 2.0 for Navstar Inc., asked these questions during her lecture entitled “Boom! Goes the Knowledge!” which explored how Google and Facebook affect the way knowledge is accessed and retained.

Part of her speech was also devoted to the consideration of Facebook’s role in changing social trends when she talked about how “Gen Y’ers,” or “Millennials,” are constantly connected and how that affects the way businesses advertise and conduct work.

Baker was speaking at the ninth edition of Webcom Montreal, a bi-yearly business and technology conference in Montreal. According

to their website, the event is the world’s most important francophone conference on web 2.0.

The conference, which was held at the International Civil Aviation Organization building in downtown Montreal last Wednesday, featured a slew of industry professionals who spoke on a myriad of topics broken down into four themes: Enterprise 2.0, Marcom 2.0, Solutions 2.0, and Mobility 2.0. The 34 presentations and discussions were largely based on case-studies of instances where web and business collided, and the insights gained from these encounters.

“Webcom is aimed at decisionmakers and professionals in the In-

ternet and intranet, HR, internal and external communications fields,” said a spokesperson for Webcom.

Still, the discussions often entered the realm of things university students know a lot about, namely Twitter and Facebook.

The keynote speakers of this fall’s event were Jared Spool, the founder of User Interface Engineering, and Marsha Collier, author of numerous “For Dummies” books primarily about eBay. A spokesperson for Webcom praised the event, saying it was a “great success,” as indicated by the many presenters and attendees who tweeted approving remarks about the event.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theconcordian

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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ENVIRONMENT

Conference and world cafe probe the viability of biofuels as an energy solution Alternative energy sources are sustainable, give off no carbon dioxide emissions Sarah Deshaies Editor-in-chief Are biofuels the answer to all of our energy problems?

A group of people came together last Saturday at Loyola’s CJ building to discuss this question and the role of biofuels in today’s economy and society at a one-day conference entitled “Planting our fuel.” Biofuels are a range of fuels derived from biomass, a renewable energy source taken from organism like wood, waste and alcohol fuels. They are considered an alternative to fossil fuels.

The 30-something group was diverse, attracting students from Concordia and other schools, faculty members, government employees, members from Eco-Quartier and the general public. The first half of the day was devoted to brief lectures and a panel discussion, while the second half was a world café event, where groups discussed different points from the day’s talks.

The first speaker was Donald Smith, a professor at McGill University’s plant science department whose focus is on crop ecophysiology. He painted a bleak portrait of the current fossil fuel landscape in Canada. (“It’s a Saturday morning, I don’t want to depress you” he quipped.) While Canada has 0.5 per cent of the world’ population, it creates 2.4% of the global CO2, said Smith. And global

Concordia professor Adrien Tsang spoke about the need to update policy to keep up with changes in alernative energies. Photo by writer crude oil extraction has peaked, or will peak, within a few years. Canada, especially, he argued, will need to develop alternative sources of energies, like geothermal, wind and tidal power.

Bill Kovarik, the second speaker and a communications scholar and historian from Radfor University, Skyped in to recount the history of biofuels. The origins of its use goes back a while he explained; Kovarik pointed out that early cars ran on alcohol, until an oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859 in a bid to find better oil for lamps, leading to the creation of the oil industry. The benefits of using biofu-

els, he highlighted, are that they are a sustainable energy source and leave no net CO2 emissions.

The final panel was on the issues that could impact visions of the bioenergy future. Adrian Tsang, biology professor and director of the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics at Concordia, emphasized the need for changes in politics and policy in order to pave the way to biofuels. “We are an energy exporter, so there is no push” to make the transition,” he explained in reference to Canadia’s slow transition to biofuels.

Panelist Terry McIntyre, who

represented Environment Canada, said his main concern was that there are too many “old farts” and not enough young people engaged enough in the biofuels discusssion. Blaine Kennedy, an economist formerly at Sustainable Development Technology Canada, worried that overly simplistic analysis by businesspeople and journalists could negatively impact politicians and those drafting policy.

Organizer and journalism professor David Secko said the afternoon discussion was fruitful.

He said one issue that emerged from the event was how journalists

create a “sense of awareness on these topics for people so that they can get involved in the debate.” Another question that came up was how to engage the oil industry in the debate, as well.

“But a key issue to emerge for me was the suggestion that next step is to address how we honestly communicate about what biofuels can offer society, and to find clarity on how biofuels will affect our land, our water and our environment,” said Secko.

Participants were asked to design and suggest topics for a followup event. The results will be posted on pep.concordia.ca.

GAMBLING

Loto-Québec ventures into the online gaming market

Corporation hopes to move gamers into a “controlled environment” Sarah Moore Contributor

Realizing that it has become impossible to stop illegal online gaming, this week Loto-Quebec announced the launch of their own government regulated gaming website, espacejeux.com.

“Any attempt to make gaming illegal on the internet, as was the case with alcohol, doesn’t work,” said Loto-Quebec’s president and CEO Alain Cousineau at a press conference at the Delta Hotel on Friday.

There are currently over 2,000 unregulated, illegal gaming websites being used by Quebecers. It’s an industry that generates an estimated $1 billion a year. Cousineau hopes to move these users into a controlled gaming environment.

“This is our unique DNA, to channel the gaming offer on a controlled site,” he said.

Loto-Quebec worked with worldrenowned consultant and researcher Dr. Richard Wood in developing the website. He undertook an independent review of espacejeux.com, and

The espacejeux.com website is part of the government’s plan to move gamers away from illegal gambling websites to a controlled environment. his 23-page report is available at lotoquebec.com.

“Mr. Wood’s conclusions show that we are in the industry forefront in terms of responsible gaming,” stated Cousineau.

Dr. Wood, however, does voice concern about the use of credit cards being allowed on the Loto-Quebec website, which might lead some players to spend money they don’t have.

“If players so wish, they can set maximum playing time and spending

limits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis,” the registration process guidelines state.

If players don’t specify a limit when they register, they can spend up to $9,999 per week on the espacejeux.com website. Cousineau said that other limits will also be in place, such as a time out after every 60 minutes of play and a self-exclusion program. There will also be a complex four-step registration process to ensure that no one has two accounts

and no minors register.

Players must identify themselves, set their account parameters, agree to Loto-Quebec’s conditions and confirm their identities by providing a credit card number and a home address. They will then receive a letter at their home confirming their registration. This is designed to prevent minors from accessing the site.

“If a teenager goes through all that process he will then have to explain to his father why he [the

father] received a letter saying he just became a member of Loto-Quebec’s website,” Cousineau said.

Concordia sociology and anthropology professor Sylvia Kairouz is working on a study to find ways to prevent and cure gambling addictions. Her study found that, in the past year, nearly 70 per cent of Quebec adults have spent money on gambling. She could not be reached for comment on Loto-Quebec’s new venture by press time.

life

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Write to the editor: life@theconcordian.com

Val s Bites

FOOD

Waking up to Fairmount Avenue

Photo by Tiffany Blaise

Mile-End eateries offer more than just bacon and eggs

me that Fabergé could benefit from a little breaking-in, because DJ and service aside, the food has the potential to make this novelty a real contender.

Brunch: $6-13 (plus tax)

Valeria Nekhim Contributor

The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery

This past summer I lived in Toronto. Wait — don’t lick the seals of your condolence letters just yet, because I actually have a lot of positive things to say about Canada’s financial capital. First off, the people are more courteous than in Quebec. They actually stop at stop signs and give pedestrians the right of way at — gasp — pedestrian crosswalks.

Hogtown also has a bigger Holt Renfrew and a spot called The Grilled Cheese, and we all know how I get weak in the knees at the mere mention of melted cheddar. All right, maybe “a lot of positive things” is pushing it.

Correction: Toronto doesn’t suck. Well, at least not all the time. Perhaps, then, this isn’t the best time to get to my actual point: breakfast/brunch in Toronto is abysmal.

Okay, you can mail those letters now.

Montreal, on the other hand, has a brunch gem on practically every street — especially Fairmount Avenue in Mile-End. There, I said it; we’re better than them. Now let’s talk pancakes.

Fabergé 25 Fairmount Ave. W., 514-903-6649, major cards accepted In a city jamming with institutions like Beauty’s, Dusty’s, B&M, and L’Avenue, the Montreal breakfast market can be a tough one to crack. But judging from the wait at Fabergé a few weeks ago, this brunch-only newcomer is evidence that there might still be room among the titans. Do I think Fabergé is on an equal playing field with the best of ‘em? No, I do not. Do I think it puts up a fair fight? Yes, I most certainly do.

For Montrealers, taste comes first and the food here delivers. The buttermilk pancakes topped with a blueberry compote rank among the best I have savoured. Being an omelette enthusiast, I was delighted by the bevy of customization choices, including wild mushrooms and feta cheese. Major points go to the accompanying fruit cup comprised of first-rate watermelon, banana and melon — not the reject fruit usually doled out at restos.

As far as potatoes go, theirs were perfectly mushy, but I advise them to go easy on the paprika.

As the name denotes, the house specialty is eggs in a nest. It features two fried eggs, each nestled in a hole carved out of baked cheese bread. The dish had me at

Fairmount newcomer Fabergé offers customizable omelets and other breakfast mainstays in a lounge atmosphere. Photo by Tiffany Blaise baked cheese, although superior quality bread would elevate it from an eight to a 10. What keeps me from embracing Fabergé whole-heartedly is a) the service and b) the atmosphere. For starters, why have a large lounge-like waiting area if you aren’t going to bother serving beverages? The space could be better used for seating diners. Second, it should never take more than five minutes to

get a juice and I hate having to search for my waiter, as nice as he was. I’m also rarely in the mood to have a serving of live DJ with my brunch, particularly after a late night.

And though I admired the comic book-esque renderings of Montreal’s architectural landmarks on the walls and ceiling and the splash of lilac on the velvet upholstered booths, the restaurant still felt a little sterile. Instinct tells

74 Fairmount Ave. W., 514-272-0667, cash only I had a eureka moment two summers ago when, while enjoying a bagel lox and cream cheese at Russ and Daughters, New York’s storied purveyor of smoked fish and other Eastern European delicacies, my friend said: “This is the best smoked salmon I’ve ever had, but if only it could be on a Montreal bagel…” Although I seriously contemplated it, I never forayed into the bagel exporting business (New Yorkers, God help them, love their tasteless bagels) but it was then that I truly understood how deep our loyalties to our city’s bagels run and how fortunate we are to have them. Opened in 1919 by Russian immigrant Isadore Shlafman, it has been at at its current location since 1949.

The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery continues to make all its bagels by hand using a wood-fired oven like those used in the good ol’ days. The deliciousness of a Montreal bagel ultimately boils down to the quality and quantity of flour, sugar, yeast, oil, honey, egg, malt and water. In my mind, Fairmount has one legitimate competitor: St-Viateur Bagel. However, after tasting them side-by-side, Fairmount emerges the clear winner. This is a point of contention between locals and the last thing I need right now is more enemies (sorry Toronto!), but the bottom line is that Fairmount’s are fluffier.

In the spirit of full disclosure, my experiment only compared the classic sesame, onion and blueberry kinds and there is a plethora of others, including chocolate chip and whole wheat. In short, you have to try for yourself and I beg you to visit the pint-sized bakery in person at least once, if only because the intoxicating aroma of fresh bagels is something every person should inhale at least once in their lifetime. There is no seating space, and it isn’t a brunch place in the traditional sense, but I guarantee if you pick up a dozen piping hot bagels, some spreads and some smoked salmon, you will feast like a king on a student budget. Furthermore, the bakery is a historic Montreal landmark. It is an edible shrine to Mile End’s glory days when immigrants were helping shape the city’s culture, one bagel at a time.

Bagels: Half a dozen: $3-4.85, one dozen: $6.75-8.95

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Cafe Comme Chez Soi’s desert crepe delivers with its authentic dough assortment of fruit. Photos by writer

CafĂŠ Comme Chez Soi

107 Fairmount Ave. W., 514-759-6241, cash only.

In an attempt to give credit where credit is due and avoid being blacklisted from virtually every dining establishment in Ontario, I must

compliment Toronto restaurants on their exquisite interiors. Each place I ate at boasted a dĂŠcor more elaborate and imaginative than

7

the next. But, any fashion gal will tell you that style without substance won’t get you far. That basically encapsulated my feelings towards Toronto restaurants. In fact, lately I find myself drawn to eateries with a few imperfections and wrinkles, rather than those that scream “botox.â€? Case in point: CafĂŠ Comme Chez Soi. It is outfitted with miscellaneous furniture pieces that are not only made to resemble remnants from grandma’s attic, but are likely the real deal, along with a splattering of trolls, painted skulls and other kitschy tchotchkes. It is small, even by local standards. Yet despite having to crouch to allow two elderly women to pass before reaching my table, and sitting a little too close for comfort to a 14-month-old, this dollhouse of a cafĂŠ emanated more effortless charm than any of the Toronto restaurants that try too hard to create a similar authentic warmness.

Open since late 2008, the menu at Comme Chez Soi is limited and un-inventive. Then again, who ever said brunch has to be inventive? So long as it is delicious, I will get my creative fill at dinner. To start, I ordered a cheddar cheese omelette served with a generous portion of smoked salmon, salad, potatoes and toast. The omelette was as feathery and cheesy as it gets, but alas, the salmon was overly greasy. Luckily the dessert crepe with grapefruit, banana, apple and kiwi made up for it with its old-fashioned doughy goodness. Service was a little slow and spacey, but maybe it is part of the cafÊ’s homey ethos.

Regardless, expect me back for dinner to sample their famous burgers and salty crepes. In a perfect world, the food at FabergÊ would be served in a venue like Comme Chez Soi, but that’s just me being picky. In truth, it could be way worse: I could be in Toronto.

Brunch: $3.75-12.50 (plus tax)

Photo by Tiany Blaise

(Above) Dishes at Cafe Comme Chez Soi are stacked with toast, home fries and fresh fruit or salad. (Top, to the right) Random items including skulls and trolls decorate Cafe Comme Chez Soi. (Right bottom) Blueberry bagel from Fairmount Bagel Bakery is a welcomes twist on a Montreal classic.

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theconcordian

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 RECIPE

Montreal Cupcake Camp delivers Fundraiser successfully raises money and blood sugar levels in the name of charity Felicia Di Palma Staff writer Montrealers are clearly passionate about cupcakes and about helping children’s charities.

This past sunday, 2,500 sugar lovers flocked to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel for the second annual Cupcake Camp Montreal, a fundraiser benefiting children’s organizations.

There were 20,800 cupcakes donated this year, up from the 3,500 that appeared at last year’s event. Putting a love for sugar aside, the fundraiser’s chief organizer Eva Blue and co-organizer Laura Carmosino said that the donations made to the children’s charities are the most important part.

“We raised over $31,000,” said Blue. “The best part for me was really about being able to do something so amazing with great people. It is a completely volunteer-run event and it would have never happened the way it did without them. It’s one thing to eat a cupcake; it’s another thing to help someone by eating a cupcake.”

The $10 entry tickets bought visitors a free drink and three cupcake tickets, with all of the proceeds going to two local charities, Kids Help Phone and La Tablée des Chefs.

By 1 p.m., the fundraiser’s starting time, there was a lineup of sugar-hungry people that streamed across the first floor of the hotel and up the stairs to the second floor.

At 1:30 p.m., the MCs, radio personality Anne-Marie Withenshaw and Radio-Canada’s Rebecca Makonnen announced that 500 people were waiting in a lineup that made its way down Mansfield Street.

The third floor was where the fun was had.

As the sugar-hungry approached the doors to the ballroom, the event’s main location, the first thing to greet them was the heavy aroma of frosting.

Tables and tables of sugary treats surrounded those in attendance. Among those judging the mini-desserts were CTV’s Todd van der Heyden, pastry chef Michelle Marek and Food Network stars Chuck Hughes, Nadia G and Ricardo Larrivée.

The thousands of cupcakes were divided into three categories of bakers: children, amateurs and professionals. Each group battled it out in taste and design contests within their category. The winners of each went up against each other for the ultimate honour, best cupcake in Montreal. There were also contests for best Montreal-themed cupcake, people’s choice and failcake, an award given to the worst of the worst.

Sugar lovers at Cupcake Camp Montreal look for tasty treats among the rows.

Apple Caramel Cupcakes

Felicia Di Palma Staff writer

Concordia student Alexandra Johnson’s caramel, apple and macaron cupcake was one of the over 200 flavours fighting to be voted ‘best taste’ in the amateur category at Cupcake Camp Montreal on Sunday.

Johnson is studying honours political science and completing a minor in diversity and the contemporary world, but her interests stretch beyond the classroom to the kitchen.

She didn’t participate in last year’s event so when she decided to take part this year, she set the bar pretty high for herself by baking 200 tasty treats with the help of her friends, Amanda Caruso and Alexandra Apkarian.

“Cupcake Camp Montreal was an amazing experience. I got to meet so many cool pastry chefs, bakers, pros, amateurs, and most importantly, lots of smiling kids holding cupcakes,” said Johnson.“I didn’t even care about the competition anymore as soon as I got there. From the beginning, my aim was really to donate my time and work for these charities.”

Johnson may not have won in her category but her cupcake was delicious, moist and not overly sugary. For a first-time contestant, it was definitely an impressive treat.

Her cupcake career does not end here. “Cupcake Camp Montreal, you will be seeing me next year!” Johnson exclaimed.

The cake (yields 12): Ingredients: - 1 1/4 cups flour - 2 tsp baking powder - 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp salt - 2 eggs, at room temperature - 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar - 1/2 cup granulated sugar - 1/2 cup vegetable oil - 2 tsp pure vanilla extract - 2 rome apples (about 1 pound), peeled and shredded

Preparation: 1. Arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Line a cupcake pan with baking liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth.

4. Next, whisk in the oil and vanilla.

5. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined 6. Stir in the apples.

7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan until almost full.

8. Bake until golden, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Optional: For an added treat, once cooled, scoop a little bit off the top of your cupcake and put in a filling. Johnson used Grenache’s “ah caramel!” filling for her cupcakes.

Caramel buttercream (ices 24): Ingredients: - 2 cups icing sugar - 1 cup butter - 1/3 cup caramel (homemade or spread) - 1/4 tsp vanilla extract - 1/4 cup whipping cream Preparation: 1. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about one minute 2. Lower speed to low and slowly add icing sugar so that it does not fly everywhere 3. Add caramel and vanilla, scraping down sides if needed, until incorporated 4. Add cream and whip until nice and smooth Head to www.theconcordian.com for look at the fleur de sel topped macaron shells which Johnson used as a garnish for her apple caramel cupcakes.

To have a look at more of Johnson’s recipes, check out her blog at bakinginhighheels. tumblr.com

Mario & Luigi cupcake by Vanessa Pampena voted people’s choice for Best of Montreal design.

Photo by Alexandra Britton

Photos by writer and Cindy Lopez

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/concordianlife

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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AWARENESS

Movember support grows on campus Students around Concordia show off their ‘staches to raise awareness Renée Morrison Contributor Men have found a better excuse than playoff season to skip shaving their faces this month: cancer. Movember, a cross between mo (for mustache) and the month of November, is recent trend in charity fundraising. The campaign calls on men to sprout facial hair as a way to raise money for Prostate Cancer Canada, an organization that supports those affected while researching a cure.

For third-year business administration student Jordan Biberkraut, raising awareness is important. That is why at the beginning of the month he pledged to grow a mo.

“Unfortunately, I have a lot of friends who have lost parents very early in their lives to many forms of cancer,” he said. “So I think [Movember] is a great opportunity for men to unite to find a cure.”

Biberkraut, who has been known to express himself through facial hair, sees growing the mo’ as an added perk to the project.

“Over the past two weeks I have had so

many people come up to compliment me on my moustache. Some people do know about the cause while others don’t,” he said. “It is always a conversation starter and a chance to raise awareness. I’m hoping that from my actions more people I know will think of doing something for Movember.”

Spreading knowledge is a crucial aspect to the campaign, since according to Prostate Cancer Canada, one in six men will develop prostate cancer, making it the most common cancer to affect Canadian men. Also, a man is 35 per cent more likely to develop prostate cancer than a woman is to develop breast cancer.

The Movember Foundation of Canada stresses the importance of awareness on their website: “We want everyone to know that most cancers are highly curable if caught in the early stages including prostate and testicular cancer. Movember aims to increase early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment, as this will ultimately reduce the number of deaths from cancer.”

The idea for Movember came up in an Australian bar in 2003 and arrived across the ocean in its official form in Canada four years later. Since then, Canadian men have been growing out their facial hair in increasing numbers to support the cause. At the start of the month, participants registered online at ca.movember.com with a clean-shaven face and began the 30-day transformation.

Movember spokesman Jesse Hayman has been a “Mo Bro” for three years, and is ex-

cited about the growth he’s seen in Canada.

“This year has blown us away,” he said.

“The enthusiasm has been inspirational. We expected major growth, but not necessarily of this magnitude.”

Hayman said their goal this year was to have 55,000 registrants and raise $10.4 million. With still a week to go, the Movember Foundation of Canada has surpassed these numbers, having nearly 115,000 registrants and raising over $12.7 million, a number that is increasing hourly. Though they have less registrants than Australia, they have raised more money then the founding country, and nearly three times the donated amount in the United States.

Biberkraut is not the only student on the Concordia campus to take the initiative; a few other brave and hairy students have taken on the challenge, including five executive members of Concordia’s Finance Investment Students’ Association.

“In all honesty, I think I look ridiculous with a moustache” said FISA senior analyst Julian Tsang, “but I’m still going to go to job interviews rocking it, since the cause is just.”

Ladies may not be able to grow a full moustache of their own, but joining the project as a Mo Sista is as easy as helping to raise funds, planning Mo parties, or simply giving a Movember man a well-deserved pat on the back.

“Girls offer moral support,” added Tsang, “I would probably have shaved it off by now if it weren’t for them.”

At the end of the month, participants will show off their full-fledged moustaches on their Movember page.

For the men out there sacrificing their smooth cheeks, and every girl who’s been supporting them, Hayman shares a message of encouragement: “A big thank you is definitely in order to the wicked Mo Bros and Mo Sistas. Our growth this year is due to the effort each and every one put into this campaign. We are truly changing the face of men’s health.”

More infromation Though it is very rare to be diagnosed with prostate cancer before age 40, the Movember Foundation of Canada recommends going for regular check-ups. Men in their 20s should get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, have their blood pressure checked every two years, cholesterol every five years, dental health checked annually, and for testicular cancer if there is a family history.

They offer a number of resources and tips on their men’s health section. Visit www. ca.movemberfoundation.com/mens-health for important information.

To support Biberkraut or the FISA executives visit their Movember Pages at www. ca.movember.com Biberkraut is also organizing a Mo-party at O’Haras Pub, 1197 University St. Nov. 29 with some friends who are also growing their ‘staches out for the cause.

Staches on campus

To be featuref on the Concordian website, send a pic of your mo to life@theconcordian.com

Jordan Biberkraut grows a handlebar stache for men’s health, a cause he sees as important.

Photos by Derek Bramscombe

arts 10

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Write to the editor: arts@theconcordian.com CAMPUS

More than just another Shakespeare play Who/Nani/Qui breaks down the wall between people Jacqueline Di Bartolomeo Assistant arts editor Traditional theatre is usually a linear process: playwright writes play. Director picks it up.

Director casts actors. Actors learn lines. Actors perform lines. Cue standing ovation. Rinse and repeat.

“Who is the actor?” isn’t a question the audience is even supposed to ask until the end. The whole point is for the performer to disappear into their character.

Here’s the thing: Who/Nani/Qui is not traditional theatre. In fact, the play, a collaboration between Concordia’s theatre department and members from the Collectif MOYO, turns the very notion on its head. “We started with nothing,” said Junior Padingani, who acts in and helped choreograph the piece. That meant no parts to rehearse, no lines to learn – all they had was the title. From that, the actors developed their own characters, based on their interactions with each other. Some end up performing their perception of one of their colleagues; others perform an aspect of themselves. In both cases, the actors are centre stage.

For actor Rio Mitchell, part of the appeal of the play was its lack of definition. “When we started the play it wasn’t a play at all,” she said.

“It wasn’t just taking the same old script and remounting Romeo and Juliet.”

Mitchell and Padingani met at Concordia in “Performing and Other,” an experimental class taught by Rachael Van Fossen. In the play, they share a storyline. In reality, this meant they spent hours getting to know one another in order to develop it. “A large chunk of show, not just our storyline [...] is based on the sharing of personal stories,” Mitchell explained.

They leaned towards each other as they spoke about their experiences. Sitting one next to the other, the actors seemed like yin and yang:

Mitchell is a blonde, curly-haired Calgarian with a wide smile. Padingani is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. French is his first language.

Consequently, he weighs each word spoken in English. He has two small scars, one on each side of his face: soccer accidents, he explained.

For Mitchell, Who/Nani/Qui is very much about dichotomy. “It’s a story of a microcosm of a group of people that tell this story of their interactions and their relationships around these hot button subjections, like: you’re black. I’m white. I’m a woman, you’re a man. I’m gay, you’re straight.” she explained. It’s about their “different abilities, different gender associations, all of these differences, really fleshing it out and talking about it.”

“Talking about it” allowed both parties to overcome personal struggles. For Padingani, it was his dislike of gay people; for Mitchell, her understanding of herself as a gay woman.

Padingani explained that the difficulty was a lack of understanding. He looked Mitchell in the eyes as he said to her, “You help me a lot. That love that I have from you helped me to understand a group of people. There is no more wall.”

In their second scene together, one of Padingani’s lines is “faking, faking, faking.” Mitchell replies, “yeah.” She said the line nearly brought her to tears. “It’s kind of hard, knowing that I faked so much for so long,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m a girl. I should be with a boy.’”

All this evolved under the supervision of Van Fossen; the play is her brainchild. The idea came from her collaboration with Ally Ntumba, of the Collectif MOYO, on a previous play. Both the writing and the direction of the play are credited to her. However, as she explained, the ensemble “has collective ownership of the piece that we’re putting out.”

Collaborative theatre has been the focus of her work since the 1990s. “As an audience member, there’s something about knowing that the performers in a piece have some kind of direct relationship to the material that makes it a very powerful experience for me,” she said about her decision. “As an artist and as a person, I am drawn to creating theatre that builds relationships.”

Graphic by Phil Waheed

Who/Nani/Qui runs Nov. 25-28 in room 2-270, on the seventh floor of the MB building.

For box office information call 514-848-2424 ext. 4742.

THEATRE

Black Theatre Workshop enters its fourth decade as the heart and soul of a community

Theatre company produces A Raisin in the Sun to commemorate anniversary Lee-Ann Mudaly Contributor

Black Theatre Workshop is celebrating its 40th year as the heart of the black Montreal community. From humble beginnings to renowned work and success, its cast and crew remain as humble and determined as when they started out.

The company was created one night in the ‘70s, when a few Caribbean immigrant students, including founding father Clarence Bayne, gathered in the basement of a fellow student’s apartment to discuss the radical black politics of the United States. Bayne explained, “Some of us came together and said that if I’m going to live in this country, then it’s going to reflect me and I’m not just going to do and say as the Romans do.” That meeting would lead to a decision that would impact Montreal culture. That night, over a few beers and to the sounds of jazz, BTW was conceived.

Since that night, BTW has been the voice of that community. Until the end of the 1990s, they produced plays that were a reproduction of a form of Caribbean expression called the Carnival Arts. Calypso in the Flesh, one of their most significant productions of the ‘70s, included stringing together a number of different types of calypso songs to tell a story, as well as dancing and singing.

By the turn of the century, BTW had become immersed in a tug-of-war between the black Montreal community and the Caribbean community over which productions should be shown. This resulted in a shift towards staging productions such as Afrika Solo and Stockholm(e) that focus more on African issues.

Bayne said that over the decades, BTW has become a living social and cultural element in the Canadian cultural landscape. As Garvin Jeffers, a founding member of the Quebec Board of Black Educators, put it, BTW is “the soul of the black community.”

When asked what play best represents the beat of BTW, Bayne answered, “Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. It resonates in the memory of the Black Theatre Workshop and of its founders.” That’s why they chose to re-launch the production on Nov. 24 for the first time in 30 years.

“The story still relates today, but not only for our youth, but for all to remember, that it’s not about being oppressed, but about us being inno-

vative, creative human beings,” Bayne explained.

“When there is a mountain in your path, dig a tunnel under it, a road around it or build an object to fly over it.”

Concordia graduate Tyrone Benskin is the art director of A Raisin in the Sun. He was first hired

by BTW in 1981 and has returned to work for them over the years. He agreed with Bayne that the play is still relevant.

“After 50 years it still remains a historical play in its own right. It was the first time an AfricanAmerican artist produced and directed on Broadway, changing the established view of the big-eyed, smiling and tap dancing characters.”

He called A Raisin in the Sun the first “AfricanAmerican, everyone play,” meaning that everyone can relate to it, no matter their background.

The play revolves around the story of the black Younger family as their ambitions intertwine and clash in the south side of Chicago.

Benskin is optimistic about the troupe’s future.

“Though the company has faced darker days over the years, Clarence Bayne has kept BTW alive,” he said, adding that “a home for BTW would be nice [since] we’re currently nomadic.”

Bayne said they have a youth program that allows children to learn about black culture as a way to keep the culture going in future generations.

Benskin suggested that viewers go see A Raisin in the Sun with “fresh eyes,” and not to go in with the anniversary or the 1961 movie in mind.

He added that the production is “old school”: audiences should expect a three-act play, extending over two-and-a-half hours. As Benskin sums it up: “This is our story, this is who we are. Come and share this with us.”

A Raisin in the Sun plays at the Centaur Theatre from Nov. 24 to Dec. 5. For more information, visit www.blacktheatreworkshop.ca.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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LITERATURE

Concordia grad nominated for two Quebec Writers Federation Awards Doug Harris’ YOU Comma Idiot is the result of 10 years’ hard work Valerie Cardinal Arts editor Doug Harris has been many things in his life: filmmaker, screenwriter, commercial director, video producer. No matter what he does, Harris has always been a reader. When he attended Concordia in the early 1980s, he and his friends would trade books back and forth.

“If we really liked books, we’d read them again, and if we really liked them we’d lend them to friends and it was a community of readers going on,” he explained. That’s why Harris was worried, when 10 years ago, he suddenly stopped enjoying books.

“I was always the guy who, if I opened a book, I would finish the book and then I wasn’t finishing books,” he said. Harris asked himself, “Why don’t I try to write a book that’s as engaging as possible?” He decided to write a novel, in part to set a challenge for himself.

Ten years later, Harris has published YOU Comma Idiot, “The story of a bunch of Anglo Montrealers in their late 20s who don’t do a lot in life and the summer that changes the lives of all of them.” His novel has been nominated for best fiction at the Quebec Writers’ Federation awards this year, as well as best first book along with fellow Montrealer Larissa Andrusyshyn’s book of poetry Mammoth.

Harris had no prior experience in novel-

When Doug Harris realized that the passion for litterature had left him, he challenged himself to write the novel that would keep readers hooked until the end. writing. He graduated from Concordia’s communications program in 1983. A year later, he wrote and directed Remembering Mel. He considers himself “lucky” to have had that opportunity at the age of 24.

Harris sees no parallel between YOU Comma Idiot and his experience making

Remembering Mel. “What you learn when you do movies is that you’re just a part of the process, you’re a cog in the wheel. You write a wonderful scene, and then it’s at the mercy of actors, it’s at the mercy of weather, it’s at the mercy of budget, it’s at the mercy of all the elements that can just come and fuck up

a good scene,” he explained. “Maybe people don’t read as much as they used to but when you write a scene, it’s your scene.”

Harris then began to make commercials and now runs Hot Spots Productions, a Montreal-based video production company.

His experience in the advertising world lends YOU Comma Idiot one of its defining features: it’s written in the second person. “I had gotten in the habit through TV commercials of writing notes in the second person,” he explained. “I basically found that voice was much more what I was setting out to do in the first place.”

Harris said that being nominated for a QWF award is “certainly unexpected, but a great surprise.” The award has also been beneficial in boosting the book’s readership. “I’m getting a little more attention, a little more chance of people reviewing it or mentioning it,” he shared. “I mean, ultimately, when you write, you hope to be read.”

Harris doesn’t feel any competitive edge towards the other nominees, because they’re all hoping for the same thing. “It’s been fun.

You get to meet other people and they’re trying just as much as you to get noticed, so what can you say but best of luck to everybody?”

While Harris would consider writing another novel, he wouldn’t write about something if he wasn’t interested in the subject.

“It’s a real big, long thing to do and it takes a lot of your life,” he said. “So I’m only going to do it if I’m into it.”

In the meantime, Harris has being kept busy promoting YOU Comma Idiot. “Suddenly now I’m being asked to do readings and I’m going to this, and I’m going to that.”

Harris’s final sales pitch for his book?

“YOU Comma Idiot, the perfect Christmas gift this year. Assuming, of course, that you come from a dysfunctional family.”

THEATRE

Dark Owl: A play about a family trying to move forward Find out what’s holding them back in this Table D’Hôte production Amanda Dafniotis Staff writer All families have their secrets. Some face them, while others repress them and sweep them under the rug. Sometimes secrets are so dark they can haunt people for a very long time: they can become their very own dark owl.

Dark Owl, written by Laval Goupil and translated from its original French by Glen Nichols, is about an Acadian family who has stopped communicating, and that must finally face its deepest secret.

Director Jessica Abdallah, who studied theatre and development at Concordia, and is now a workshop leader at the department, believes that “theatre is about communication, it’s about the public, it’s about trying to spark dialogue.”

The production features some well-known actors on the Montreal scene, including Liz Burns, Gilles Plouffe, Lea Rondot, Dan Jeannotte, Catherine Lemieux and Holly GauthierFrankel.

The play, put on by Montreal’s Table D’Hôte Theatre, explores an interesting concept: bilingual theatre. The actors in Dark Owl constantly switch languages and manage to make the transitions smooth.

“Being in Montreal, living in a community which is multicultural, multilingual, I feel audi-

ences should be challenged more,” explained Abdallah.

Following the dialogue may be challenging at times for those who aren’t well-versed in the two languages, but this approach is refreshing, and adds to the story.

In Montreal, people often blend both languages, to the point where it is barely noticeable. We have become accustomed to it, so why should theatre be any different? If you are an anglophone who doesn’t understand a word of French, fear not. This is the theatrical equivalent of Bon Cop, Bad Cop. MainLine Theatre on opening night was filled with people of all ages.

From students to seniors, everyone seemed to be laughing.

The acting in Dark Owl is convincing, and the chemistry amongst members of the family is clear. Together, they experience moments of tenderness and moments of complete chaos.

Siblings laugh together, but they also hurt and taunt one another. Those complexities are beautifully explored onstage.

Amandine, the youngest of the sisters, is a crowd-pleaser. Lemieux plays her with no fear of veering off into the ridiculous. She yells, dances and uses her body to show the emotions of her character. Gauthier-Frankel, who plays Flora, the eldest, is best-known in Montreal as her burlesque alter-ego Miss Sugarpuss. She shows that she can turn down the burlesque and do drama as well.

The set is well-orchestrated, with solid lighting and sound. Props add to the overall feel of the piece without being distracting. There are wooden doors on the floor, and the footsteps of the cast make the doors creak from time to time, punctuating the dialogue and actions.

When family patriarch Utrope (Plouffe) delivers his monologue, a light is set on him, emphasiz-

ing the importance of what he is saying. His children hang on to every word, just as the audience does. The mother of the family, played

by Burns, enters the scene from a hallway near where the audience is seated, challenging the conventions of a typical stage.

However, the emphasis is on allowing the audience to embark on an emotional roller-coaster with the characters. Every time a character says the words “dark owl” all cast members flinch and react simultaneously. This hooks the audience in, and pushes them to try to figure out what exactly dark owl refers to. The audience wants in on the family’s dirty little secret from

the beginning and they are kept waiting.

The ending of Dark Owl is ambiguous, leaving the audience hanging, though more details about the family’s secret are revealed. The ending is very dramatic, out of place compared to the rest of the play. “You are going to leave here wanting to talk about it,” warned Abdallah.

Dark Owl is sure to get you chatting, regardless of the language.

Dark Owl runs at the MainLine Theatre until Nov. 28. For more information and to buy tickets, check out www.mainlinetheatre. ca.

Dark Owls examines the inner workings of a dysfunctional family, from moments of tenderness to utter chaos.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

COMEDY

theconcordian

Rock Bottom showcases the best of the indie comedy scene Barfly lets anglophone comedians show what they’re all about Kevin Gallagher Contributor For decades, anglophone comedians in Montreal had only two venues to hone their craft: Comedy Works or Comedy Nest. This shocked standup comedian George Hamilton Braithwaite when he moved to Montreal in 1994. After all, this was the home of Just for Laughs, the largest comedy festival in the world.

“Either you worked for one club or you worked for the other club,” said Braithwaite.

“You weren’t allowed to do both clubs and [the owners of the clubs] stopped any outside shows.”

Today Braithwaite is taking advantage of the increased opportunities the landscape has offered up. His new show, Rock Bottom, gives young up-and-coming comedians a chance to work a room for 40 minutes as a headliner. The series kicked off last week at Barfly, the intimate and unpretentious bar on St-Laurent Blvd.

This Thursday night, comedian Kris Dulgar will headline Rock Bottom. Braithwaite feels this hole-in-the-wall is perfect for comedians that interact with the room, like Dulgar, during their routines, giving the audience a very personal standup experience.

Dulgar performs for both French and English audiences. He doesn’t write different material for each crowd but translates his jokes. “When your jokes work in front of a complete Quebecois crowd and then an anglo crowd, you’ve got something magical,” said Braithwaite. “You’re actually making jokes about human relations rather than cultural references or city references, which is popular right now in American comedy.”

Dulgar is an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago whose family moved to Montreal when he was 12. Dulgar attended a French high school, and he was teased and ridiculed because of his dark complexion and because his first name sounds like a Quebecois swearword.

Rock Bottom, a show created by George Hamilton Brathwaite (above), allows up and coming comedians like Kris Dulgar to get stage time so they can hone their craft. Photo by Susan Moss Clever and quick-witted, Dulgar used humour and credits Braithwaite for providing venues for tions of the mainstream clubs. to diffuse the mockery he faced from his francohim to get stage time. “We have to thank [BraithHis goal then and now is to create more opphone classmates. He discovered his talent for waite] a lot for what he has done for the scene,” portunity for comedians to work their material. comedy and began to study standup perforsaid Dulgar.

In New York, for example, it is easy to find four mances on The Tonight Show and Late Night In 2004, Braithwaite changed the fate of anglo or five gigs a night, seven nights a week. But with David Letterman. comedians in Montreal and started his own for 11 of the 17 years Braithwaite has been a “I never pigeonhole myself,” said Dulgar of show called “On the Main,” at Kandybar on comedian in Montreal, finding four or five sets his routine. “People see a brown comedian and Saint-Laurent. The show then moved to bar Ola week was almost impossible. “This craft is all expect brown material but I do so much more iviera on Rachel, changing its name to “Comedy about stage time,” said Braithwaite. “We finally than obvious racial jokes. I tell jokes about off the Main”. Ironically, it was Ernie Butler, the have enough rooms where were are creating a politics to sex and relationships, everything, man. owner of the Comedy Nest, who once banned great crew of comedians.”

My material isn’t necessarily ‘clean’ and doesn’t Braithwaite from his club, who gave the show Check out Rock Bottom featuring Kris Dulrelate to the 35-45 year old suburban crowd with his blessing. Finally Braithwaite and other young gar at the Barfly, 4062 Saint-Laurent Blvd. Nov. the minivan and kids.” comedians had more opportunities to run their 25. The show is pay what you can at the door Dulgar has been doing standup for six years sets without the time limits and loyalty restricand starts at 10 p.m.

The Rialto Theatre’s newly restored interior welcomed close to 300 dance enthusiasts to its second Swing Ball last Thursday. The night’s big attractions were a free one-hour swing dance lesson from the Cat’s Corner dance school and the 19-piece Ballroom Blitz Big Band. DJ Alain Wong was also on hand to spin some tunes during the band’s break. Attendees were given a discount for wearing fancy dress or period garb matching the theatre’s 1930s style. The next Swing Ball will be Christmas-themed and takes place Dec. 23. Call The Rialto, 5723 du Parc Ave., at 514-272-3899 for tickets. Photo by Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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CINEMA POLITICA

The dreams of The Girls of Phnom Penh Director Matthew Watson tells a moving story of human resilience

interested buyer. “These girls practically have a bounty on their heads,” said Watson. “If their virginity is worth, say, seven hundred dollars, then, tragically, the temptation is there for the parents to sell the daughters, and often it’s a one-off; they’re not selling their daughters into prostitution.” What is intended as a one-time transaction, however, often serves as a gateway to a life in Cambodia’s massive sex industry.

While Watson’s first film, Cambodia: The Virginity Trade (2009), was an informative documentary on the Cambodian sex trade, The Girls of Phnom Penh is a beautiful and intimate portrait of the girls trapped by the system. “I really wanted to just show people how these girls live, and how they’re basically ordinary girls,” he said. “They’re quite normal girls, but in quite awful situations.”

Sadly, the awful situation in which the girls are ensnared is all too normal in Cambodia.

Culturally, women who are not engaged in the sex trade in one form or another are not expected to be out at night; a woman encountered during a night on the town, whether she is ostensibly a waitress, a karaoke singer, or anything else, is almost unavoidably also engaged in prostitution of some kind.

“When men go out at night, they’re basically surrounded by these girls who are all working in the sex industry, and it just sort of feeds on itself. It’s perfectly normal for a man to go out with his friends any night of the week, have a few drinks, and then sleep with a prostitute.” Watson becomes agitated thinking about his filming experience. “My crew slept with prostitutes all the time, that just shows how... and this really, really upset me, but it’s just so normal for men, for all men out there, to sleep with sex workers,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be as normal as it is.”

After filming, Watson and his colleagues were able to raise the money to help Srey Leak, Cheata, and Me Nea out of their debts, and send them to a school where they are now studying to become beauticians. A special charitable fund, called the Cambodia Fund, has been set up to help girls in the same circumstances, and is now officially registered as a British charity. Donations can be made through www.thegirlsofphnompenh. com.

Race Capet Staff writer Cambodia is a land of dreams deferred. The enthusiasm of liberation from France in the 1950s fueled a vibrant cultural renaissance, exemplified in the 1960s by the heady optimism of the Khmer rock era, a new musical movement. In the ‘70s, Khmer rock was suppressed by the Khmer Rouge, who killed onefifth of the country’s population and brought the nation to ruin and collapse. It has been thirty years since the fall of Pol Pot’s regime, but the dreams of a prosperous, modern country have still not been fulfilled.

Director Matthew Watson introduces us to three teenage girls—Srey Leak, Me Nea, and Cheata—who have dreams of becoming beauticians and falling in love. But these three girls, chatting by day about music and boys like their 16- and 17-year-old counterparts anywhere in the world, work at night as prostitutes in a karaoke club in Phnom Penh.

They work to support their families, who, according to Watson, often depend completely on the money they are earning. For that reason, the girls defer their dreams again and again, night after night.

The poverty of the country falls particularly heavily on the shoulders of young girls. “The daughters aren’t seen in the same way as the sons, very sadly, and it’s almost like it’s the daughter’s responsibility to earn a living for the family, more so than the boys,” said Watson, speaking from London. This is an aspect of Cambodian culture called “chbab srey”, or “the role of women.”

The concept becomes a particular danger to young Cambodian girls on account of another common cultural belief in Cambodia and many other Asian countries: “These men genuinely believe that having sex with a virgin girl gives them special powers, and extra health, and extra luck if they gamble, and might make them live longer,” explained Watson. Consequently, men save up for months to be able to buy a girl’s virginity, which can fetch as much as $1,200 from an

Despite their involvement in Cambodia’s sex trade, Cheata, Srey Leak and Me Nea live their day-to-day lives as average teenagers and very close friends.

The Girls of Phnom Penh is screening in room H-110 on Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. To learn more, please visit www.cinemapolitica.org.

CINEMA POLITICA

Bangladeshi Hijras: cultural outcasts in their own society Two Concordia grads explore the Hijra phenomenon in Call Me Salma Valerie Cardinal Arts editor Aude Leroux-Lévesque and Sébastien Rist didn’t expect to fall in love with Bangladesh. Leroux Lévesque had been sent there as a result of an internship with the social organization Alternatives in 2008. When Rist came to visit, they decided that their first documentary should be set in the South Asian country.

“I spent four months in Bangladesh and I really enjoyed being there. The country is fascinating,” said Leroux-Lévesque. “There are tons of stories you could tell.”

When they returned to Canada, the two graduates of Concordia’s communications program threw themselves into research about a mysterious population in Bangladesh: the Hijras.

According to Rist, Hijras are “mainly this group of men who want to live in a certain way as women.” They do not only count the transgendered among their ranks; many are transvestites or even just gay men who have no interest in being women.

“In Bengali, there’s no word for gay. So if you say you’re gay, you’re a Hijra,” Rist clarified.

“We’ve realized that there are men who are probably just gay or slightly effeminate who are forced into the Hijra culture.“ When they returned to Bangladesh, they ended up at one of the three community centres

in Dhaka, the nation’s capital, teaching English to a group of Hijra. “The best way to know the Hijras is to offer English courses, or just to help them out,” stated Rist. They fully immersed themselves in the culture of Hijras, and waited six months before starting to film.

Pinky, a group leader at the centre and one of the film’s characters, introduced them to Salma, their documentary’s main focus. “Salma, being the youngest, really stood out,” said Rist. “It was everything we needed. An attitude, she stood out from the others, and she had a crazy story too.”

Salma had been raised as a boy, but was born a hermaphrodite. She had arrived at the centre about a year earlier after having run away from her small village, where she was shunned and beaten by her father for wanting to be a girl.

The Hijras have to deal with a strange duality within Bangladeshi culture. They’re seen as disgusting and strange. At the same time, people believe they have special powers from God. They make a living by dancing in the market and blessing newborns.

According to Leroux-Lévesque, Bangladeshi culture is very traditional. “You don’t talk about sex, you follow those traditions that have been going on for hundreds of years,” she said.

Hijras are seen as strange because they represent the complete opposite of that culture. “They wear colourful clothes and they walk down the street and they strut their stuff, they smoke, they swear, they drink. They do everything that you’re not really supposed to do in the community,” stated Rist. Hijras are seen by many as a third gender. “We are neither men nor women, we are sexless beings,” explains Salma in the film.

According to Rist, many people are scared of the Hijras because of their association with “prostitution, stealing, [and] begging,” and

because most Hijras are from the lower class.

“There’s a big lack of knowledge in Bangladesh about their situation,” said Leroux-Lévesque.

Rist mentioned that every one or two months, a Bangladeshi will add him on Facebook to ask him questions about Hijras. Recently, he has been asked what doctors are doing to cure people of being Hijras. “People are miseducated, there’s a lot of gossip and people just want to propagate the wrong message for their own means,” he said.

Despite the society’s perception of Hijras, Leroux-Lévesque and Rist see them “as these beautiful females that are super cool, super caring.” Rist said that after a few months, he and

Leroux-Lévesque forgot that the Hijras were men in women’s clothing. “They have this feminine aura, it’s crazy…you can’t see it, but you feel it.”

Through Salma, Rist and Leroux-Lévesque hope people come to understand a little more about the Hijras of Bangladesh. As Rist said, “No matter what your race, colour, gender, orientation, class, whatever, at the end of the day we’re all the same people. We all fart, we all laugh, we all joke around with our family. We all love.”

Call me Salma is screening in room H-110 on Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. To learn more, please visit www.cinemapolitica.org.

Salma and another young Hijra head to Dhaka’s market to perform for money.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010 SPOILER ALERT

theconcordian

Brain-eating tentacles

Apparently, that’s all Skyline has going for it Jessica Wei Staff writer

Man. I love special FX - you know, the cool, hip, fresh way of saying “effects�. Like when I’m sitting in a dark movie theatre for 92 minutes watching glowing blue tentacle monsters reach out of the sky to grab and eat the brains of innocent civilians to badly-synchronized sounds of crushing metal and high-pitched screams. I eat that shit up. Of course, when Skyline, a movie that features those things and nothing else came out, you can only imagine my absolutely boundless excitement. So all you have to do is sit back and rest easy knowing that those blue tentacle monsters aren’t after you, ‘cause I got y’all covered – I saw Skyline so none of you ever have to, not that you would want to... ever.

Okay, so here’s the plot: there’s a group of really good-looking people waking up after a huge party, and they’re all kind of foggy. But, there’s a weird blue glow coming from the windows and they’re pretty sure it isn’t from the all of the Quaaludes dropped the night before. So when Jared, one of the super handsome guys (played

by Eric Balfour) opens the blinds and becomes enchanted by this glow and his skin suddenly turns scaly and zombie-esque, they have a pretty good reason to start freaking out. He turns back to normal, though, so that’s good.

This story is mainly about Jared and his girlfriend, who are visiting L.A. from out of town - which validates the seediness of all the other characters, as well as the one awkwardly placed “I hate L.A.� joke. There are other good-looking people, like a really vapid brunette chick and a bitchy blond waif, but they gradually get picked off. So yeah, don’t worry about them. Well, except Donald Faison’s character, Terry, who is the only non-Caucasian cast member so they introduce him with really shitty rap music and he’s the only one who’s got a gun (just in case the viewers forgot he was black). He’s good

Graphic by Valerie Brunet

for a quick line, but his brain gets punted like a football, so.... not really that important.

It turns out that these blue orbs of light come from these huge octopus-like creatures that lure humans in and then drill tentacles through their heads. That’s basically it. And yeah, they try to milk about a drop of emotional merit out of the pregnant girlfriend moment when some other girl lights a cigarette in her presence. Sure, they’re being encircled by population-destroying tentacle monsters, but secondhand smoke is the silent killer.

There’s also some old guy who thinks he’s

really bad-ass because he drives a nice car and has a mustache, but again, really, it’s kind of just about these blue aliens and their desire for human brains. Oh, and we never actually find out where they come from or anything.

Probably not important. And, I know, I know, where are all the other people in the world? Isn’t anyone else doing anything about this? Apparently L.A. can’t defend itself against aliens, and neither can the piddly little government fighter jets that eventually get swatted away.

In the end, the pregnant girlfriend is the last one remaining and she’s screaming and quiver-

ing on the surface of this huge monster with all the other victims and you see their insides getting sucked out like they’re on the steam table of some Prince Edward Island lobster buffet. So it’s really just 92 minutes about a couple who try to make it out alive and then do, but just barely, because they wanted to really ambiguously set up a sequel. Bam. Credits.

And, really, I mean, who even needs things like proper story arcs when you have special FX? Leave that shit for Steven Spielberg and James Cameron.

EXHIBIT

Surprising variety of artists at Art MĂťr Gallery Three floors and seven rooms of art to start a conversation Amanda Dafniotis Staff writer Since its founding in 1996 Art MĂťr Gallery has been bringing together both artists alike and, sometimes unsimilar. The latest batch of artists in the spotlight of the Plateau gallery is no different. But RhĂŠal Olivier Lanthier, the gallery’s director, believes that one of Art MĂťr’s most appealing features lies in its diversity. “We cover older artists like Melvin Charney, emerging artists like Michael Patten and Bevan Ramsay, as well as mid-career artists like Lois Andison and Orest Tataryn,â€? he explained. Like most galleries, Art MĂťr has ample open space, which allows the various pieces to speak for themselves against a simple white wall.

There is everything from traditional pieces like sculpture, photography and painting, to more modern mediums like neon lights, video installations and 3D printed drawings.

Some artists are minimalist or detailed in their work, while others are dramatic and abstract. “You are sure to find something that talks to you,â€? said Lanthier. Those who visit Art MĂťr vary from curious passersbys to connoisseurs looking for the perfect addition to their collection.

Melvin Charney is an internationally

recognized and seasoned artist. Des Arbres is Charney’s latest exhibit: a series of snapshot photographs assembled into panoramas.

They are photographs of his vacations and document nature at its finest. Charney allows the viewer to see what the lens was unable to capture in one shot.

Born in Stoke, Que., Guillaume Lachapelle lives and practices his art here in Montreal.

The Art MÝr gallery is presenting Machinations, Lachapelle’s newest collection, a series of miniature works which are all incredibly intricate. Machinations allows an up-close examination of various places, focusing on details that would otherwise go unnoticed.

His most striking piece is a miniature library, built into the wall of the gallery, which beautifully outlines all the shelves and books of all different sizes. On the exterior of the library is a fire escape which leads nowhere. Not only is Lachapelle’s collection aesthetically pleasing, but it is also thought-provoking as it makes the viewer wonder what Lachapelle is trying to draw our attention to.

Orest Tataryn is a Toronto-based artist who works with neon lights, word play and colors.

Thought Sculpture is Tataryn’s newest exhibit, which appeals to those who appreciate edgier and more contemporary works. He explores how text and color can come together in an unusual and artistic manner, making it feel commercial, but still aesthetically appealing.

Thought Sculpture is reminiscent of a city’s neon nightlife. Tataryn’s art work can definitely be a conversation piece.

Guylène Lefort’s exhibit “DualitĂŠ (ClichĂŠs de la mĂŠmoire)â€? will also open at Art MĂťr this week on Nov. 25 and deals with the dual concepts of the visible and the invisible.

The current exhibits run until Dec. 18 at 5826 St-Hubert St.

Des Arbres uses narrow views of different parts of trees to create the bigger picture.

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music

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

15

Write to the editor: music@theconcordian.com FESTIVAL

Andrew Guilbert Contributor

I’ll take cream and sugar with my Wilco

M for Montreal

Wilco’s latest release will be in coffee bean format. The alt-country rockers have paired up with Chicago coffee brewer Intelligentsia to release their very own “Wilco Selects”brand. Band members Pat Sansone and John Stirratt personally selected the beans, which come from the Sidama region of Ethiopia and are grown by the Homecho Waeno co-op. According to the band’s website, the coffee “has a light and silky quality, like fresh whipped cream, that beautifully compliments the ever-present note of citron, juniper berry and vanilla. As it cools, the cup blossoms into notes of confectioner’s sugar, rosehips and soft raisin, resonating on a pristine finish with a touch of milk chocolate.”

Pre-orders for the beans, sold at $21 a pound, are being taken on their website until Nov. 28.

Apple & Apple: Cue the “long and winding road” puns

After years of waiting, Beatles fans were finally able to purchase the fab four’s music on iTunes as of last Tuesday. All 13 studio albums, as well as the Red, Blue and Past Masters compilations are now available for download. There is also a $149 box set comprising every studio album, the Past Masters compilation and a video of the 1964 Washington Coliseum Show, their first U.S. concert. With the Beatles now having joined the iTunes catalogue, there remain but a handful of big artists, including AC/DC, Tool, and Bob Seger, who are still holding out on the digital media store giant.

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Why we moved out of our treehouse a while ago

Folk legend Joan Baez was injured last Wednesday after slipping and falling 20 feet from a treehouse platform at her Woodside, Calif. residence. The 69-year-old “Diamonds & Rust” singer sleeps on the platform, purposely built without walls, all summer long so that she can nap among the birds. Baez is currently resting in a secure location according Nancy Lutzow, who runs Baez’s production company.

Will their chemistry work on television?

My Chemical Romance is hoping that their latest album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys will make for good TV. Frontman Gerard Way expressed his interest in the album becoming a “10part BBC mini-series.” This is not the first time the Jersey-based rockers have thought about crossing mediums. The band had previously entertained the notion of putting their last album, The Black Parade, on the big screen but ultimately decided against it, saying, “it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t a movie, it was an album.” Of the current mini-series concept, Way said “I would love that so much more than a movie. A lot of things that inspired me as a kid were those very things.” Danger Days hit North American store shelves on Monday.

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Photos by LP Maurice and Shannon H. Myers

Katelyn Spidle & Hannah Jung Music edtior, Staff writer We made it! After seeing 30 bands in four days, the fifth edition of M for Montreal has come and gone. With so many fantastic performances, it would have taken up too much space to cover every band that played. So for your viewing pleasure, we’ve picked a few highlights. To see a full slideshow, go to www.theconcordian.com/music

PHOTO #3: Vocalist and drummer Owain Lawson of Black Feelings took centre stage in this punk-experimental performance. The Montreal trio was one of the heavier acts that played during the festival, but their sound was nonetheless accessible enough that it caused an instant and unstoppable wave of head-bopping that spread across the crowd at the Just For Laughs studio.

PHOTO #1: Iceland’s own Lay Low, whose name is Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir (left), performed on Wednesday night in her first-ever visit to Montreal. Although many audience members did not appear to recognize the singer, she is quite the celebrity in her home country.

Her debut album went gold in Iceland and she even played a leading role in a film by Hilmar Oddsson (a fun fact for those of you who are familiar with Icelandic directors). Sigrúnardóttir played her catchy folk-indie tunes with a threepiece band.

PHOTO #4: Those who stuck around to see Quebec City’s Dance Laury Dance got a surprise treat: lead singer Max Lemire (above) announced that everyone was going to be on TV! That’s right, Gene Simmons had the performance filmed for an episode of his reality show Family Jewels. Whether these people were fans or not, the crowd certainly appeared to be fans of a television camera twirling around the room.

Together, the musicians looked like a washed-up heavy-metal band from the ‘80s whose music sounded just like any other contemporary mainstream rock group .

PHOTO #2: M for Montreal veterans We Are Wolves raised both the energy and the decibel level at Café Campus when they wrapped up the first night of performances. The Montreal electro-rockers have been playing M since 2007 and it was obvious that their set was expected to be a highlight for many faithful show-goers.

Lead vocalist, guitarist and bassist Alexander Ortiz (above) lost his fur cap soon after this shot was taken.

PHOTO #5: R&B duo Random Recipe rocked the house with their clever rhymes and fantastic ability to interact with the audience. Frannie (left) belted out some impressive notes and strummed an on undersized guitar, while Fab (right) beatboxed and rapped. The charismatic pair mesmerized the crowd, who sang and danced along to their beats. Watch out for this group - they’ve been getting a lot of attention this year and after this M for Montreal performance,

it became obvious why.

PHOTO #6: Damien Robitaille sang with the kind of charm that can make housewives dreamy and teenagers giggle. Unlike many of the bands that afternoon, he really got the crowd going by gleefully making the crowd repeat his lyrics back to him. The best part of his act, and indeed the whole afternoon, was when a gold bra was thrown onto the stage, and the delighted Damien proceeded to dance with it.

PHOTO #7: This adorably candid group from Winnipeg was one of the first acts of Saturday afternoon. The audience could not help but fall in love with Les Surveillantes as they awkwardly squished to the middle of the stage between the two microphones. Les Surveillantes captivated audiences with their witty lyrics, raw confessionals and banjo-supported harmonies. Right to left: Danielle Burke, Denis Vrignon-Tessier, Eric Gosselin and Jérémie Gosselin.

PHOTO #8: Through their sequin vests, sprawl of instruments onstage and haphazard choreography, Misteur Valaire found a way to turn the Metropolis’ lukewarm audience into a blissful dance party. The members of Misteur Valaire pranced around the stage and engaged in every musical genre, from electronica to rock to rap. The white-suited boys stole the show, so much so that it would have been fair to rename the whole event M for Misteur Valaire.

theconcordian

16 MIXTAPE

SIDE B:

SIDE A:

Morning Music Shannon H. Myers Staff writer

As darkness creeps into our morning routines ever so gradually, it becomes more and more difficult to drag our asses out of bed. A little music never hurt any situation, certainly not this one.

Start your day off right with a little help from your friends; Sufjan, Julie, Alexi and

Ben. These gorgeous and unobtrusive tunes will weave into your consciousness and get you ready to take on your day. Good morning!

1. “Wake Up” - The Arcade Fire - Funeral, 2004 2. “Inní mér syngur vitleysingur” - Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, 2008 3. “Devastation” - The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, 2007 4. “Never As Tired As When I’m Waking Up” - LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem, 2005 5. “Fake Empire” - The National - Boxer, 2007 6. “Dollar Signs” - Snailhouse - Lies on the Prize, 2008 7. “Today” - The Innocence Mission - Small Planes, 2001 8. “Open Bay” - Sharks Keep Moving - Sharks Keep Moving, 1999 9. “Gone Sugaring” - Mirah - You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This, 2000 10. “Chicago” - Sufjan Stevens - Illinois, 2005

11. “Wake Up” - The Ditty Bops - The Ditty Bops, 2004 12. “Misplaced” - The Acorn - No Ghost, 2010 13. “Now That I Know” - Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow, 2005 14. “Morning Yearning” - Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun, 2006 15. “Buildings & Mountains” - The Republic Tigers - Keep Colour, 2008 16. “Everything” - Jehro Jehro, 2006 17. “On The Road” - Angus & Julia Stone - Down The Way, 2010 18. “I Woke Myself Up” Julie Doiron - Woke Myself Up, 2007 19. “We Are The Sleepyheads” - Belle & Sebastian The Life Pursuit, 2006 20. “All My Days” - Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence, 2006

To listen, visit www.8tracks.com/the_ concordian/morning_music

Quick Spins

Retro review

Electric Wizard - Black Masses (Rise Above Records; 2010)

Alter Bridge – AB III (Roadrunner Records; 2010)

Working for a Nuclear Free City- Jojo Burger Tempest (Melodic; 2010)

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way (Columbia; 1969)

Electric Wizard’s 2000 LP Dopethrone was nothing short of a classic. Buried in walls of fuzz and mantra-like in its repetition, it is considered by some to be the heaviest album of all time. Electric Wizard’s albums have all been good (even after switching to a more accessible twin-guitar sound), but it was Dopethrone that made them legendary.

Unfortunately, Black Masses is not up to the standard. The riffs are still repeated endlessly, but rather than either pounding the listener into the ground as they did on Dopethrone, or creating a fantastic B-horror atmosphere like they did on We Live, the album just drags. The hooky yet vacuous riffs, which would work if the songs were quick and catchy, only make the entire exercise more futile. The highlight is the third track, “The Nightchild,” as it’s the only instance where the shtick works. Though there are some decent moments throughout, often created by the now trademark dual guitar work, Black Masses is a dull, soporific listen.

If you’re reading this review, chances are you’ve heard of a band called Creed. They rose to mainstream success around the turn of the century, but perhaps the most significant of Creed’s accomplishments is that their breakup in 2004 gave birth to Alter Bridge. The band’s lineup is essentially identical to Creed’s, but with Myles Kennedy replacing Scott Stapp on vocals.

Now three albums into their career, Alter Bridge has emerged as a giant of modern rock music. Their latest album, AB III, takes their music to a new level and although is it not as accessible as their previous efforts, it’s well worth the few listens it takes to really appreciate each song. Don’t be intimidated by the album’s 66-minute length because the excellent musicianship will keep you listening from beginning to end.

Typically, Kennedy and guitarist Mark Tremonti steal the show, ending the album in an epic vocal collaboration on “Words Darker than their Wings.” This is what all modern rock music should sound like in the 21st century.

This hefty album is about as full as it could be of pop hooks and electronic bleeps and bloops. It’s a borderline eclectic collection of “indie” sounds presented in a slightly overstuffed package. Clocking in at nearly 90 minutes it’s not the kind of record you’ll be able to grasp on the first listen, especially with the final track “The Jojo Burger Tempest” lasting 33 minutes on its own.

While sounding like a 2010 version of Brian Wilson going synth happy, the band succeeds in creating interesting music through their diverse palette of tone. The infectious psychpop of “Silent Times” will have you bouncing along just long enough to be caught off guard by the loop-heavy “Autoblue.” The album’s sound varies enough to make it the perfect house party mixtape, but it is also coherent enough to avoid listener frustration.

These Brits will keep you dancing and hold your interest with their mixed bag of sonic goodies. As a whole, Jojo Burger Tempest is a large helping of tasty experimental pop.

In a Silent Way is the result of a day’s jam session in New York City, which was then cut up and arranged by legendary producer Teo Macero. As Davis’ first electric effort, this LP forever changed jazz and paved the way for his infamous 1970 release Bitches Brew.

“Shhh/Peaceful” begins with a two note bass line resonating through drummer Tony William’s jazzy shuffle. Davis, of course, takes lead, stringing little melodic ideas together with total clarity. The band creates texture that conjures images of a dark, smokey nightclub with the greatest man in jazz leading you down the rabbit hole.

The band improvises on the other side of the record with blue notes over a driving groove from the rhythm section. Like side A, this is a kind of jazz take on sonata form. Its improvised exposition is bookended by relaxed chordal vamping by John McLaughlin and Herbie Hancock. In these two tracks Miles again showed the world a new kind of jazz.

Trial track: “The Nightchild”

Trial Track: “Words Darker Than Their Wings”

Trial Track: “Silent Times”

Trial Track: “Shhh/Peaceful”

4.0/10

9.0/10

7.5/10

-Alexandre Perrault

- Robert Flis

- Colin Harris

- Colin Harris

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/concordianmusic

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

17

AWARDS

Montreal celebrates local music at GAMIQ Award show’s purpose is to give bands exposure... but does it accomplish this goal?

Katelyn Spidle Music editor The Quebec Indie Music Awards, known as GAMIQ, were held Nov. 14, to celebrate the range of local talent found here in Montreal. Five hundred people crammed into Studio Just For Laughs for the presentation of 20 awards and for a series of wicked live performances. For $5, the audience got to see We Are Wolves, Sunny Duval, Dramatik, Le Kraken, Royaume des morts, Trigger Effect, Fred Fortin, Death Boat and House Band.

The award show was founded five years ago by Patrice Caron, who now acts as the president and executive producer.

“GAMIQ was put together to make space and give exposure to those bands that make the city and the province what it is. The Maritimes and B.C. have similar award shows, so it only made sense for Quebec to follow the same trend.” Caron strongly believes in providing an opportunity for lesser-known bands, especially bands in more niche categories, to be recognized for their music.

“Heavy metal, punk hardcore, world... these [genres] barely get noticed by other organizations. For us, this is a reason to show the range of music we have here in the province of Quebec,” he said.

Caron went on to explain how bigger award shows only give attention to mainstream-sounding bands - the “big sellers,” as he called them. This leaves smaller groups

Bernard Adamus (above) stole the show, taking home four out of 20 awards. Photo by Richmond Lam behind.

“We have bands who can tour only in [Quebec] and make a living from it,” he said.

One such band is Bernard Adamus.

Although most winners walked away having won only a single award, this group in particular stole the show. The French country-blues quartet took home four of the 20 awards, including Artist of the Year, Song of the Year,

Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Folk/ Country Artist of the Year.

Frontman Bernard Adamus, the guitarist, vocalist and band namesake, shyly admitted that with seven nominations, he wasn’t very surprised at the amount of trophies they won.

However, he does not believe that winning these awards are going to help the group to break outside of Quebec.

“Honestly, I think that outside of Montreal, nobody knows about GAMIQ [...] it’s the biggest local scene award [show], but I don’t really think [that] it’s going to help [the bands],” Adamus asserted.

Nonetheless, he remains confident that it is important that such an award show exist to recognize Montreal’s local music scene.

BACKSTAGE PASS

Touring across Canada with Derelict What it’s like to hit the road in Canada as a metal band

Eric Burnet and Max Lussier Contributors Hi, Eric and Max from Derelict here. We hail from Montreal and we’ve been doing the DIY underground touring thing for a while now.

We’ve crossed Canada three times and zigzagged around endlessly on mini-treks. From the sleepy towns of Northern Ontario to the endless miles of Prairies and back to the busy streets of Toronto, we’ve seen quite a bit. Spending endless hours in a van might seem tedious, but for us, the thrill of the experience is everything. Here are our tips and thoughts on touring Canada as a metal band.

Eric : A lot of Canadian metal bands talk endlessly about where they’re going to go on their first tour, but it never materializes. The reason for this is that bands looking to cross the vast wilderness that is our great country face multiple daunting challenges.

The first is the question of distance. Driving from Montreal to Quebec City for a Friday night gig is one thing, but what about making the 24-hour haul out to Thunder Bay? Not only are there vehicle issues to consider, but financial ones as well. The small payouts received by underground bands need to be carefully calculated in order to cover gas on a Canadian trek. In our experience, the best cities to play metal in are most definitely the smaller ones. Even though everybody says we’re lucky to come from Montreal, we realize that it’s hard to compete with major tours that also come through town.

But if you hit a small town that doesn’t get many bands coming through, the crowd really goes nuts. They’re so happy that we’re there and it creates a really great energy. We’ve formed longtime bonds with the fans, and this for me is the best part of touring.

Montreal heavy metal band Derelict (from left: Eric Brunet, Jordan Perry and Max Lussier) give tips on touring across Canada. Photo courtesy of artist The second issue with touring Canada as a metal band is booking the tour. It may seem silly, but you can’t just call up a bar in, say, Red Deer, Alberta, and say “Hey guys we really need a show” and expect to play a worthwhile gig out of it. There aren’t a lot of professional booking agents that are looking to book metal acts, because the potential for revenue is really low. We’re a death metal band which means we play some really heavy stuff that is definitely off the mainstream circuits. So in reality, booking a tour requires endless amounts of collaborations, favour trades and networking in order to make sure that the shows not only happen, but are decent. The great part is that people who book our kind of band are usually doing it for fun, because they like the style of music and they want to help bands out. So in the end, we usually get to work with some pretty sweet people.

Next up is food. Tying into the finances once again, if you try to feed a band out of roadside fast food dives for several weeks at a time, you will be facing a) financial ruin, b) a host of gastro-intestinal unpleasantries that we shall not go into and c) a serious lack of nutrition that will definitely catch up with you and effect energy

levels, mood, etc. So, buy a barbecue and an electric cooler. Learn to cook and buy lots of vegetables. Your body will thank you.

The last big challenge is your own materialism. If you pack four giant travel bags with everything you own and then try to live in a van, you will hate yourself. Limit it all to one gym bag or backpack. Live like a hippie. You may smell worse, but you’ll feel freer and more relaxed throughout your trip.

Max: And so we’re off! After having prepared our luggage, gear and sleeping bags, we are ready to set sail and see what the road has to offer us.

The first time I toured Canada was one of the best times of my life.

When your passion is playing music and you are given the opportunity to live this passion, it’s a dream come true. Heavy metal doesn’t quite pay the bills yet, but it’s something we love to do. If living through our music means living like hippies on the run, then so be it.

It can be very hard sometimes when you’ve done a mini-tour over the weekend in Ontario, driven the equivalent of about 20 hours, played two shows, met about 50 new people and come

back to unload your gear, only to work at 9 a.m. the next morning. You start your week on four hours of sleep and a lack of adrenaline. Not fun.

On tour, the main objective is to keep a positive attitude. There are times when you have limited access to luxuries, such as a shower, but you must remember where you are and why you’re there. Despite being sleep-deprived, I am playing shows in front of people all over the country and travelling in a way many people only dream of doing. I have met so many people and seen so many different places by playing music. Due to the nature of our travelling, we see Canada from many different perspectives. And because of the sheer amount of people that we meet, we often see things from a local point of view.

As far as experiences go, touring has changed my life. I can’t imagine the last couple of years without my days on the road.

Derelict is composed of Eric Burnet, Max Lussier and Jordan Perry. Check them out at www.myspace.com/derelictmetal.

Touring Obstacles Distance – make sure to have enough gas and a good van!

Money – calculate how much you’re going to get paid. You need to eat!

City size – best to hit up small towns where show-goers will be excited to see you Booking – find your niche and exploit it. Talk to the right people and always be ready to network Food – fast food is quick, but expensive.

Camping equipment is key!

Packing – one bag is plenty, unless you want your bandmates to hate you for taking up all the room in the van.

Sleep – get ready to drive for hours, do a show and then get up bright and early to work your day job.

Attitude – if you stay positive, all will go well.

The thrill of the show – the hardest part is not playing all the time. Who wants to go to work when you could be on stage?

sports

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

18

Write to the editor: sports@theconcordian.com PROFILE

Vaarwel to number nine

Matthijs Eppinga in a one-on-one battle against a McGill player during the season. With six goals and an assist, he led the team in points this year. Photo by Stephan Jahanshahi

A look back on Matthijs Eppinga’s time at Concordia Christopher Palma Alfaro Staff writer When Matthijs Eppinga decided to spend a semester at Concordia, it was strictly for academic purposes – playing soccer was a bonus.

Nonetheless, the Dutch exchange student has left his mark on Concordia soccer and on Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

Last week, he was named to the All-Canadian second-team, becoming the first Stingers to receive this honour since Ammar Badawieh in 2003. The week before, he was named to the Quebec Conference first team All-Star.

If you ever meet Eppinga, you will see right away that he is a humble man. It’s always about the team and never about him. If you tell him that he is the best player on the squad, he will immediately argue that one person does not make a team.

“It’s nice to get recognize for the achievements,” acknowledged Eppinga, “but [soccer] is a team sport.” He also had high praise for the team’s coaches. “Lloyd [Barker] and his assistants are very good guys, I enjoyed working with them.”

The Concordia men’s soccer team finished the season with a record of two wins, eight loses and two ties, an underperformance in Eppinga’s opinion. “I would have preferred reaching the playoffs as a team, it’s a lot more satisfying because you reach something together and you celebrated together,” said Eppinga, who found the back of the net seven times this season.

“For sure we should have been in third or fourth place, we weren’t anything less than McGill, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and even Montréal,” he said, but pointed out “the capabilities of this team didn’t completely come out.”

Despite their results, he enjoyed playing for the team and found the level of play to be only slightly lower than the NCAA soccer second division where he played for two seasons with Franklin Pierce University and won the National

Championship in 2007.

“Some teams were comparable to this league but I think, in general, that the NCAA DII, especially our conference the North-East Ten, was a bit of a higher level,” Eppinga explained.

The Stingers’ number nine is now finishing his semester abroad. The exchange student from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, is spending the remainder of his time in Montreal, at least for now. Next semester, he will be back to his homeland to finish his bachelor’s degree in international business.

As a requirement for his program, Eppinga had to spend a semester abroad, and chose Montreal as his destination. The first time he had set foot in Montreal was this summer, visiting one of his former teammates from Franklin Pierce.

It was then that he fell in love with the city, its people and its atmosphere. “[Montreal] is a very liberal city. In that perspective it looks a lot like Holland. Holland is very open-minded as well and I don’t think you can find that in a lot of countries,” said Eppinga.

“It’s the whole atmosphere in Montreal which I really like; I think it’s really enjoyable.”

Concordia was the only real option in Montreal for the Drachten native, as other universities that were compatible with his program did not

take exchange students.

At the beginning of the semester, he met many interesting people because of the international exchange student introduction and calls this his favourite memory from his time here.

“My first couple of weeks here, we had a lot of international exchange introductions, and we met a lot of international exchange students. I met a lot of nice people and good friends; we hang out all the time together. That was my best memory from Concordia,” said Eppinga.

At the end of the season, Eppinga had to manage a heavy soccer schedule and a full course workload, though it is probably easier when you like what you do, like he does.

His childhood dream was, like many kids around the world, to be a professional soccer player but realistically he knows that it is extremely difficult and only a chosen few can have that luxury. He still wants to keep playing at a decent level but doesn’t want to put all is money on soccer.

That is why at 16 he decided to focus on his studies and secure his future with a sound education.

What does the future holds for Matthijs Eppinga? He is currently on the Flevo Boys roster in Holland, a semi-pro team that he intends to keep

playing for. But he wants to do a masters’ degree, as well, and he might have to leave the team if he does it outside of Holland.

Either way, he has already figured out what he’ll be doing in the near future, after his last exam. “[I’ll] probably go out for some drinks with my friends and celebrate my time here.”

Getting to know... Matthijs Eppinga 1. What’s your favourite TV show and why?

I like Entourage a lot, Entourage and The Office actually. Entourage is just very entertaining to watch, a lot of crazy stuff happening. The Office is completely hilarious, the sarcasm and the stupid jokes are very entertaining.

2. How many languages can you speak?

Well I always say three, basically Dutch, English and German, which is very similar to Dutch. I can read it and understand it, but speaking, not so much.

3. What is something no one here knows about you?

I am the outcast of my family since my parents and brother all have dark hair and dark eyes.

4. What’s your favourite place in Montreal and why?

Me and my friends go to the Sports Station to have a beer and have a good time, watch a sport or just drink.

5. What cartoon character best describes you?

(Laughs) That’s hilarious. The character... should I ask somebody and see what they think? It’s hard to say it about myself.

People might have a better view of me.

(Calls a friend who gives him an answer) Dennis the Menace, I guess.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/concordiansports

19

HOCKEY

Defensive breakdown sinks the Stingers “We just didn’t look like we wanted to play today:” coach Les Lawton Kamila Hinkson Sports editor Former Stinger Lisa Jordan was in town for a visit this weekend to face her old coach, Les Lawton.

Jordan, who graduated in 1996 with a B.Sc. in exercise science, is now at the helm of the Saint Mary’s Huskies and brought her team to Montreal for three exhibition games this weekend, a trip which culminated in a visit to Ed Meagher Arena.

The Stingers lost to Jordan’s Huskies 6-4 this weekend in the non-conference game. The two teams have been hosting each other at alternating universities every year for over 10 years.

Despite the loss, Concordia still holds the all-time record which stands at 8-6.

Stephanie Peck got her first start of the season and was able to keep the Huskies off the board during the first period.

Despite firing 12 shots in the first at Jillian MacIsaac, who started again for Saint Mary’s, the Stingers couldn’t put one past her. Skating down on the right side, Erin Lally had a chance late in the period, but couldn’t get enough on the shot and MacIsaac quickly covered up.

The game would remain scoreless until fiveand-a-half minutes into the second period, when defenceman Carla Little scored on Peck during a four-on-four situation. Six minutes later, Saint Mary’s assistant captain Courtney Schriver made a long lead pass to captian Kyla Thurston, who skated past the Stingers defenceman and scored to give the Huskies a two-goal lead.

But the Stingers wouldn’t be down for long.

Alexandra D’Ambrosio scored Concordia’s first of the night and her first of the season 11 seconds later to cut the lead to one.

For the rest of the period, the two teams would trade goals.

With 7:27 to go in the period, Holli Monahan

Concordia’s Holli Monahan takes a shot that is stopped by Saint Mary’s goalie Jillian MacIsaac. Photo by Faiz Imam picked up the puck at the Saint Mary’s blue line.

The other players had already cleared the zone, which left Monahan alone with MacIsaac, and she scored to tie the game at two.

Less than a minute later, Joanie Dubois scored for the Huskies on a shot that glided past Peck and into the net to regain the lead.

Danielle Scarlett scored her first goal of the season with about three minutes to go to even the score again. But 30 seconds later, Sarah Maynard beat Peck to give the Saint Mary’s the one-goal lead again.

Lally had another good chance to tie up the score but was stopped by MacIsaac. The period ended with the Stingers trailing 4-3.

Jenna Currie opened the scoring in the third and extended the Huskies’ lead to two goals.

Concordia had two opportunities to get back into the game on the man advantage when Schriver took penalties for cross-checking and then tripping, but the Stingers were unable to

capitalize.

With five minutes left in the game, Concordia’s Keely Covo took a shot that rang off the inside crossbar and came out again to notch her second goal of the season and bring the game to within a goal.

But Saint Mary’s would strike again. Chelsea Osbaldeston’s shot made it through the traffic in front of the net and gave the Huskies the lead they would hold until the end of the game.

After the game, coach Lawton mentioned the lapses on defence as a key reason for the loss.

“We looked like we wanted to score goals from our end of the ice rather than defend our end of the ice.”

Exhibition games are often where teams will try out new lines and give players who don’t usually dress a chance to play, like Brianne Alfred.

Lawton named her as one of the players who provided an offensive spark for the team. Alfred

is recovering from a concussion and had only played in one game before Sunday.“I thought I played pretty well, for the second game of the season. I could have had a bit more ice time, but I’ve been juggled around on lines. It’s tough, getting out there.”

But overall, Coach Lawton wasn’t happy with the effort.

“I thought we were flat, [we] didn’t play with [as] much emotion as we should have played with, so it was a disappointment from my point of view. […] We’ll have to work on the mental part, I think we have the skill level to do very well, but we just didn’t look like we wanted to play today.”

The Stingers are on the road this week; they play the Ottawa Gee-Gees Saturday, Nov. 27 at the uOttawa Sports Complex. Game time is 2 p.m.

HOCKEY

Stingers winning streak comes to a crashing halt after a trip to Ontario Concordia suffers two tough losses on the road Simon Tousignant Staff writer The Stingers were beaten twice this weekend and saw their winning streak stop at four games.

They were outmatched 8-2 by the Brock Badgers Friday before losing 6-4 to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks on Saturday.

After a goalless first period, Alexandre Monahan opened the score on the powerplay for the Stingers. Dominic Martel and Jesse Goodsell assisted on the goal. The Badgers answered with three straight goals to take the lead. Michael Blundon, assisted by Eric Begin and Daniel Michalsky, brought the Stingers back to a one-goal deficit with another powerplay tally before the end of the second frame.

However, Brock dominated in the third, scoring five goals. Badgers forward Matt Abercrombie had a spectacular night, notching two goals and three assists. Stingers goaltender Maxime Joyal had a hard night, allowing eight goals on 28 shots.

In the second game of the weekend, Concordia offered better opposition but remained on the losing end. The UOIT Ridgebacks had a strong first period, scoring three goals in the first 10 minutes. The Stingers finally got on the board nearly 11 minutes in when Eric Begin scored an unassisted goal. However, UOIT took its three-goal lead back when forward Luke Van Moerkerke scored a powerplay goal with less than a minute remaining in the first.

Things looked up for the Stingers at the start

Emile Bouchard, Kiefer Orsini and Jesse Goodsell, pictured here during a game earlier in the season, all tallied points for the Stingers this weekend. Photo by Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux of the second, when they scored two goals in the first three minutes. First, George Lovatsis got on the board with assists going to his linemates Marc-Andre Element and Daniel Michalsky.

Then, just a minute later, Emile Bouchard scored his fourth goal of the season with the help of Eric Begin and Lyle Van Wieren. However, Ridgebacks winger Josh Vatri gave his team a two-goal

lead six minutes later.

In the third, Monahan gave the Stingers a chance to come back in the game when he scored his second of the weekend four minutes in. Kiefer Orsini and Dominic Martel picked up assists on the goal. But it wasn’t enough, as UOIT secured the win with just over five minutes remaining in the game when Jeremy

Whelan beat Stingers goalie Sheldon Baerg to collect his second point of the night.

Joyal had another bad game and was pulled after the first period. He allowed four goals on 20 shots.

The Stingers will host the Lakehead Thunderwolves next Friday Nov. 26 at Ed Meagher Arena; the puck drops at 7:30pm.

editorial

21

University will be the real winner if student centre fee levy increase passes Students should be staggered by referendum to stagger fees If you build it they will come. That seems to be the attitude of the CSU when it comes to the proposed student centre fee levy increase.

That if this bloated, over-priced project is approved, everything that is wrong at Concordia will magically be fixed. We’re told this will instantly create campus culture and our Maclean’s ranking will improve.

But a building isn’t going to transform our commuter campus, it’s not going to change our reputation overnight. Instead, this white elephant will, at best, be a student office building with the occasional visit of an event that the Concordia administration doesn’t want in the Hall Building, and with students footing an enormous bill.

“

... students are being asked to buy the space they have already been given.

Do we really expect that Concordia students will forsake the 24-hour library to study in this new student centre? Walk there for a coffee rather than stop at the many cafés along the way? (While we may not know where the building will be, it will be at least some distance from the Hall building.) Will students get on the shuttle from Loyola and stop off at the student centre instead of going home? We doubt it.

There is no question that Concordia needs more student space, but this is not the answer. At $2 a credit (that’s $60 a year if you’re taking five classes per semester), the student centre building fund is already the largest fee

Graphic by Sean Kershaw

levy Concordia students have ever paid. If this increase is approved and the fee rises to $4.50, a student taking five classes a semester will be paying $135 a year. And this fee won’t be even going away after the student centre is built. The purchasing and construction of the student centre is set to begin when the student union raises $10 million, but the proposed cost of the building is over $50 million.

Even with the university putting up almost 40 per cent of the building’s cost, the CSU will be taking on long-term debt and this fee levy will stay around to pay for it. And let’s not forget maintenance and taxes.

Even with the high cost, it’s not clear how much students actually stand to gain from this new building. What is clear though, is that the university stands to gain a great deal. While students will gain space in the new building, they will have to give up space they currently enjoy. Places like the seventh floor of the Hall Building will become university space if this plan goes through. Students are being asked to pay $135 a year, for the foreseeable future,

LETTERS

Re: Student centre Some arguments heard on campus make it seem as if this project is pulling the wool over the eyes of students. I understand that a location cannot be defined at this date toavoid unwanted price hikes, a fundamental of negotiation. I trust my CSU councillors andexecutives, and my university, to act in my best interest as a student. The question on theballot is an incremental fee levy to finalize the creation of student centre, a gatheringplace for students by students.

A student centre would be an amazing legacy to leave behind for years to come forfuture students. Our SGW campus is a very scattered campus, and the introduction ofa centralized building for students to congregate and form a community in my mindwould be fantastic. Maclean’s magazine each year evaluates the many different aspectsof Canadian universities to form a ranking, where reputation and the amount of studentservices play as factors. Undoubtedly the creation of a student centre at Concordia would, in the long run, increase the value of our school.

Recently, space has been revoked by the

administration for three CSU clubs, and many more are already without a place to call their own. I feel as though fighting for student space is a crucial task we as student must undertake, and that the enhancing upon existing space with a space we can control and actually call our own is the next step.

When I hear counter-arguments concerning student control of the building, I do see both points of view. That being said, I feel as though we as students DO in fact have the power to influence our new building to be a proper student space. If in fact our rights of control of this building were to be encroached upon, I trust that students as a community would make a stand, similar to the student strike of 1999 when student space was under attack. But that’s just it, we need to stand as a united community of students, as previous years have done, to gain and regain student rights and space from the university.

A common area such as a student centre could provide such a place to congregate, socialize, politicize and if necessary mobilize.

I will vote yes to the student centre because I believe in my peers and my university.

Alex Gordon CSU and ASFA councillor

so the university can take over prime real estate in the Hall Building.

Essentially, students are being asked to buy the space they have already been given. If Concordia wants to turn students out of their buildings, they should foot the bill. We feel that the recent actions by the university which saw three clubs kicked out of their offices to make space for “classrooms” - in a windowless space that only fits 10 people - were pressure tactics designed to make students willing to accept the promise of more student space at any cost and to create fear among student groups so that they will crave the sense of security that would come from a written agreement, no matter how unfavourable.

We are sure the university would have preferred to have students pay for this through ancillary fees, where they wouldn’t have to deal with messy things like referendums, but the provincial government capped those a few years back.

We have heard nothing from the student union on this issue, they have failed their

most basic job - fighting against unfair actions by the university.

Instead, we have seen the student union prove that there is no level too low for them to sink to on this issue, whether in stifling opposition or writing an intentionally unclear question. Let us not forget that, following their campaign to find out what students want out of a student centre, they returned with the exact same plan Concordia students have rejected twice before. In fact this plan, with its cost projected as over $50 million, is even more expensive than the proposal that students decisively rejected last year. And given these decisive rejections, over and over again, it seems that dirty tricks are the CSU’s only option if they want to drive this through.

We are disgusted by this total betrayal of their duties.

If that is not enough reason to vote against this backdoor tuition hike, there’s more. Independent fee-levy groups, who have no ties to the CSU and instead deal with the university directly -- such as the Concordian, the Link, CUTV, People’s Potato, Frigo Verte, the Co-op Bookstore, and CJLO -- have no idea what will happen to their space if this levy goes through. Will they be forced to move into this new building? To university space or CSU space? These groups have not been notified or consulted.

What about the tiny amount of student space at the Loyola campus? Will the GLounge be shut down? What about the Hive?

We are also deeply concerned by the increasing involvement of developer Jonathan Wener in pushing this project forward. Given the level of secrecy surrounding any potential property deals, we find it disturbing that the majority owner and president of Canderel, a property ownership, management and development company with extensive activities downtown, in one case right across the street from the EV Building, has taken such an interest in seeing this fee levy go through.

It may be the case that Wener has noble intentions, an alumnus using his experience to help students get a good deal. But because we do not know what, if anything, Wener stands to gain, the potential for a conflict of interest are staggering.

Once again, Concordia students should reject this bloated, overpriced project that stands to benefit everyone but students.

What did you think of this paper?

The Concordian welcomes your letters to the editor, and any other feedback.

Letters to the editor must be received by Friday at 4 p.m.

The Concordian reserves the right to edit your letters for length, clarity and style.

Send your letters to: opinions@theconcordian.com Your friends at

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theconcordian

Concordia’s weekly, independent student newspaper.

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 Volume 28 Issue 13.

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 Aeron MacHattie Chief copy editor copy@theconcordian.com Trevor Smith Morgan Lowrie Copy editors Jill Fowler Production manager production@theconcordian. com Jennifer Barkun Francois Descoteaux Vincent Beauchemin Lindsay Sykes Production Assistants Board of Directors Tobi Elliott Ben Ngai Richard Tardif directors@theconcordian.com Editorial 7141 Sherbrooke St. W. CC.431 Montreal, QC H4B 1R6 514.848.2424 x7458 1HZVURRP

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STAFF WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS: Renee Giblin, Michael Lemieux, Shereen Ahmed Rafea, Sarah Moore, Valeria Nekhim, Renée Morrison, Felicia Di Palma, Lee-Ann Mudaly, Amanda Dafniotis, Kevin Gallagher, Race Capet, Jessica Wei, Colin Harris, Cora Ballou, Shannon Myers, Hannah Jung, Alexandre Perrault, Robert Flis, Andrew Guilbert, Christopher Palma Alfaro, Simon Tousignant, Alex Woznica, AJ Cordeiro, Faiz Imam, Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux, Derek Branscombe, Matias Garabedian, Sean Kershaw, Phil Waheed, Valerie Brunet

opinions

Write to the editor: opinions@theconcordian.com VOTING

Issues come and go, but low voter turnout is forever Concordia students have to break the tradition with this referendum Andre-Joseph Cordeiro Staff writer In the next few days, courtesy of our Concordia Student Union, we will have the opportunity to vote in a referendum that will determine future plans for the university, including funding for the controversial student centre.

Hopefully, more than 10 per cent of you show up.

Low voter turnout seems to be a real tradition of Concordia elections. Regardless of association level (ASFA, CSU or other), Concordia students continue to proudly not care about voting on issues that will affect their place of learning. All of the time, effort and cash put towards running an election seems to have little effect on the voting population at Concordia.

Look at last month’s ASFA by-election. Only 393 students voted, out of about 17,000 arts and science undergraduate students. Even with an aggressive Facebook campaign, along with in-school advertising, just under 3 per cent of eligible students made their voice heard. The CSU election in March showed slightly better numbers. About 3,200 students cast their ballots, but that’s still less than 10 per cent of the student body.

The kind of student empathy is inevitable and understandable. Student politics has proven repeatedly to be a real time waster. The administration makes a decision, student groups protest, the administration does nothing. And students have to go back to writing papers and taking exams. Deep down, most of us do actually care about the fact that we are getting screwed, but it

Graphic by Katie Brioux

seems futile when our administration does not even consult the students. The very institutions set up to defend our rights act more like puppet governments; spouting messages of anger in the student media and failing to do anything else.

To put things in perspective, most students’ journey through Concordia ends after three or four years. The very groundwork of our decisions means almost nothing to us in the end. The very new buildings we now occupy are the result of negotiations and credit fee increases voted for by students who are now alumni.

It does not help the fact that most candidates are not selected on record of accomplishment in matters of student life policy. Instead, it is a popularity contest, on who is more photogenic, and more eloquent as a speaker. Is the leadership of our school really based on how many friends someone has on Facebook?

Pierre Elliott Trudeau is regarded as one of, if not the greatest, prime ministers of our country.

He was articulate and camera-friendly, but he also stood for something. He believed in certain ideals, and worked hard to make them a part of Canada. Real government is about co-operation and hard work. More importantly, it is about standing up, in the face of the opposition, to defend what is right. When students look to their student government leaders, shouldn’t they see Trudeau, Churchill, or Lincoln?

If we had a charismatic and strong leader who was able to mobilize students to get active, and at the minimum, just vote, our political system would be more effective.

While it seems that the voting process is ineffective, and the choices we are presented are limited, that does not somehow negate our obligation as citizens of Concordia. The system is far from perfect, but in order to make it better, we can longer just moan about how everything is going to the toilet and then fail to exercise our democratic right.

CAMPUS

In defence of moderation Popular student politics at Concordia have been dominated by the radical fringe for too long Alex Woznica Staff writer This week, Concordia students have the opportunity to vote in a referendum proposing a raise in the fee levy for the Concordia student center.

Unfortunately, it seems likely that most students at Concordia will not take advantage of this right and opportunity. Recent elections at Concordia have been characterized by extremely low student participation, and this referendum will probably not break that trend. The low turnout can be attributed in large part to the ailing state of popular student politics at Concordia. This, in turn, can be explained by the fact that the political agenda at Concordia has, in recent years, been hijacked by individuals and groups promoting radical and unrealistic anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist ideologies.

To fix the situation at this school, Concordia students, who in their majority surely

subscribe to the same sort of moderate political beliefs as most Canadians, must take back control from the radical-leftist fringe.

From individual students to student-funded groups such as QPIRG, anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist sentiment seems to prevail at all levels of student political discussion. The first problem with promoting these ideologies at Concordia is that like most universities, Concordia is, and has always been, a capitalist institution. It awards degrees that facilitate participation in the capitalist economy, and it frequently, and often to its benefit, engages in partnerships with capitalist corporations.

As well, it should be noted that, by and large, the students at Concordia who seem to so enjoy railing against the capitalist system and its trappings are able to attend school in such large numbers because of the general wealth and need for specialization created by the existence of this system in Canada.

To pretend that Concordia is “under siege” from the forces of capitalism and corporatism ignores the fact that Concordia is an inherently capitalist institution, and that every single student, by virtue of paying tuition and attending classes, has already signified their support for and participation in this system.

Not only are the sentiments expressed at Concordia often not based in a firm understanding of reality, they are also delivered in a way that leaves much to be desired. Instead of relying on sound facts and logic, the proponents of anti-capitalism and anti-corporatism at the university all too often resort to the use of buzzwords and meaningless slogans.

Many of these are borrowed, some might say

misappropriated, from much more serious and important historic causes such as the civil rights movement in the United States and the struggle against apartheid. If such individuals and groups wish to be taken seriously, they must rely on fact and logic, and less on big words and out-dated demagoguery. While it may be fun to play the part of the romanticized 1960s student-protester, that character comes from a time and place that is very different than Montreal in 2010, and it is a mistake to fool oneself into thinking otherwise.

Popular student politics at Concordia has been dominated by a radical, anti-capitalist, anti-corporatist fringe for too long. Those advocating such causes and beliefs are a small minority of the student population, and it is unfortunate that their voices are allowed to take up so much space in the political discourse at Concordia. Concordia surely possesses a “silent majority” of students with more realistic and moderate political views, and they would be wise to speak up a little more often. Concordia’s reputation as being a “radical” university only exists because the “silent majority” of moderate students have not done enough to counter that reputation by making their voices heard.

Everyone at Concordia and in the academic world in general would be better off if more people of different points of view made their voices heard. No matter how one defines progress at Concordia, it can only be achieved by a healthy political discussion involving diverse points of view.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

23

The Etcetera Page

You might not know the name of the male lead in I Love You, Beth Cooper, but you should. Actor and comedian Paul Rust has the web a-buzzing, and his tweets are ones you definitely want to follow @paulrust.

Follow us at @TheConcordian.

Q: How will you be voting on the proposed fee levy increase to fund the student centre and why?

- So Prince William, I guess our summer in Cairo MEANT NOTHING?!!!

- We all tweet, but do we REALLY know each other? I’ll start. My favorite websites are Gmail and YouTube. I like Twitter, too. Now you!

- Notice how Letterman whispers in guest’s ear when they enter? My dad always says Dave’s saying: “Act funnier than me, & you’re off my show.�

Stacey Chin - third-year accounting “I would say no because I [wouldn’t] use the student centre.�

Arnaud Rivard - first-year software engineering “I didn’t know about the referendum at all. I really wasn’t aware of it.�

Catherine Berthiaume - third-year liberal arts and Spanish translation “I will definitely be voting because I think it’s important but I will need to read up on it before making a decision on how I vote. I think they should have advertised it better.�

Complied by Eva Kratochvil

Up close with Shahbaz Haider, bassist for a Prog metal band called “Lethal Vaccine�.

Photo by Faiz Imam

Graphic by Phil Waheed

Horoscopes Aries - March 21 to April 20 They don’t call you mellow yellow for nothing, Aries. You just love to chill out and watch a movie. But when you get a burst of energy, watch out. You’re unstoppable. Just maintain a balance.

Taurus - April 21 to May 21 If you’re feeling vulnerable this week, don’t let it get to you. You may want to try laying low and getting ready for the end of semester that is fast approaching. It’s better to keep your head in the game.

Gemini - May 22 to June 21 You’ve got a lot on your plate right now.

It’s easy to let things get out of hand, but by Sunday, you’ll have less to do and you’ll feel less overwhelmed. Just hang in there and all will be well.

Cancer - June 22 to July 23 You’re feeling very social this week, and your mood and sense of humour are at their best.

Go ahead and hang out with your friends,

entertain them with your clownish antics and they’ll love you.

Leo - July 24 to August 23 Try to be as productive as possible this week.

Things are going to get hectic very soon, and the more you get done now, the less you’ll have to do at crunch time. You’re quite good at procrastinating.

Virgo - August 24 to September 23 Watch what you say at home. You don’t want to offend your family or roommates since you have to see them every day. Things can easily get awkward, so don’t let your mouth run off on you.

Libra - September 24 to October 23 You’ve made a talent of being able to juggle several things at once. But watch out because one more task could make the entire thing collapse. Take it slow and steady, you’ll get it all done.

Scorpio - October 24 to November 23

You’re in demand and you love it. The extra attention feels great, but don’t let it get to your head. Your friends will notice your growing ego, so keep an eye on that and don’t let it get out of hand.

Sagittarius - November 24 to December 21 Spend a little time on yourself this week.

You’ve been a bit overwhelmed with group work at school, and you need space to breathe.

Go off the radar for a couple of days to boost your juices.

Capricorn - December 22 to January 20 You’ll need to express your feelings at some point this week. Try to be tactful because when you’re in a certain mood, it’s easy to dismiss others. Just take a breath and talk slowly so you don’t offend.

Aquarius - January 21 to February 19 Later in the week, invite your friends over.

You’re a great entertainer and there’s something about you that puts people at ease.

Embrace this, it’s a rare quality in people.

Pisces - February 20 to March 20 It’s easy for you to make friends. If you see someone sitting all alone in class, go ahead and talk to them. They may just be too shy to speak to others and you’ve got a knack for bringing people together.

You share a birthday with...

Nov. 23: Miley Cyrus, Kelly Brook, Vincent Cassel Nov. 24: Colin Hanks, Katherine Heigl, Alain Chabat Nov. 25: Christina Applegate, Amy Grant, Barbara Bush 1RY 7LQD 7XUQHU 1DWDVKD %HGLQJĂ€HOG Peter Facinelli Nov. 27: Bruce Lee, Bill Nye, Michael Vartan Nov. 28: Ed Harris, Anna Nicole Smith, Jon Stewart Nov. 29: Don Cheadle, Howie Mandel, Jonathan Knight

* TUES 23

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 +WORKSHOP +THEATRE +THEATRE +THEATRE +THEATRE +THEATRE +VISUAL ART +FILM SCREENING

MB S2.455 Dealing with Difficult Situations in the Classroom Le Dieu du Carnage Théâtre du Nouveau Monde Monument National Champ de Mars: A Story of War Segal Center Blithe Spirit Segal Center Studio Passages MainLine Theatre Dark Owl Melvin Charney, Orest Tataryn, Lois Andison, Bevan Ramsay, Guillaume Lachapelle Art Mûr CJ 3.306 Abed's Silent Fight

9h00 ongoing until Dec 11 ongoing until Dec 4 ongoing until Dec. 12 ongoing until Nov. 27 ongoing ongoing until Dec. 18 17h30

WED 24

+TALK CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition & Michael Enright: "How Will We Die? Euthanasia and The Politics of Death" 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler 19h30 Soliloquies Launch and Poetry Open Mic (hosted by CASE) Trois Minots (3812 St. Laurent) 20h30 +LAUNCH Centaur theatre +THEATRE Black Theatre Workshop's A Raisin in the Sun 19h30 MainLine Theatre +THEATRE ongoing until Nov. 28 Dark Owl +IMPROV 20h30 Comedyworks (1238 Bishop) Improv Madness +VISUAL ART 10h00 UNVEILING OF ADAD HANNAH PROJECT - “LEAP” EV Building Room 8.775 +MOVIE Premieres: Burlesque, Love and Other Drugs, Tangled

THURS 25

+MUSIC +THEATRE +THEATRE +COMEDY

Alexandre Desilets+David Martel Who/Nani/Qui Dark Owl Rock Bottom feature Kris Dulgar

FRI 26

+MUSIC +STINGERS +STINGERS +STINGERS +THEATRE +THEATRE +MOVIE +STORYTELLING

TONSSTARTSSBANDHT+Black Feelings+Grand Trine Men's basketball home opener vs. McGill Women's basketball home opener vs. McGill Men's hockey vs. Lakehead Dark Owl Who/Nani/Qui Premiere: The King's Speech, 127 Hours War Stories - Times you just had to get up and fight

SAT 27

+MUSIC +TALK +STINGERS +STINGERS +STINGERS +STINGERS +POETRY +THEATRE +THEATRE

NO JOY+Ducktails+Grimes+Metz Professor Norman Cornett invites you to 'dialogue' with Helene Dorion Men's hockey vs. Lakehead Women's hockey @ Ottawa Women's basketball @ Bishop's Men's basketball @ Bishop's CATHERINE KIDD Dark Owl Who/Nani/Qui

SUN 28

+MUSIC +LITERARY SOIRÉ +THEATRE +THEATRE

fun+Steel Train+The Postelles Imagine Montréal, new fiction here and now Dark Owl Who/Nani/Qui

MON 29

+CINEMA POLITICA

The Girls of Phnom Penh and Call Me Salma

Cabaret Juste Pour Rire MB building, room 7.720 MainLine Theatre Barfly

20h00 ongoing 22h00 22h00c

Il Motore Concordia Gymnasium Concordia Gymnasium Ed Meagher Arena

20h00 18h00 20h00 19h30

MainLine Theatre MB building, room 7.720

22h00 ongoing

Mini-Main

20h30

20h00 Casa Del Popolo Galerie Samuel Lallouz (1434 Sherbrooke west) 12h00 14h00 Ed Meagher Arena uOttawa Sports Complex 12h00 Mitchell Gym 18h00 Mitchell Gym 20h00 20h00 New City Gas ongoing MainLine Theatre MB building, room 7.720 ongoing

Casa Del Popolo Bains St-Michel MainLine Theatre MB building, room 7.720

20h00 ongoing until Nov. 21 ongoing ongoing

H-110

19h00