the DEBATE 3
the newspaper University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly
March 3, 2011
Vol. XXXIII N0. 1
Munk Centre Research Group GC hopefuls talk reviews G8 pledges platforms at KEY FINDINGS Elections Townhall
The G8 Research Group, based at UofT’s Trinity College and the Munk School of Global Affairs, has released an Interim Compliance Report outlining the progress of G8 countries in complying with the key promises they made during last June’s summit in Muskoka. Formed in 1987, the G8 Research Group is a large network of scholars, professionals and students aiming to give an independent analysis of the G8 and its accomplishments, or lack thereof, over time. Their regular compliance reports rely entirely on publicly available materials and information. To help focus the latest report’s findings, 18 specific commitments deemed to be the highest priorities were selected for analysis out of more than 70, among them health care funding, food and agriculture, terrorism, and climate change. The findings assess compliance
Canada placed first in compliance with stated goals, tied with the European Union, followed in second place by Russia.
Canada scored -1 (no action taken) on its commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Commitments on Health Care Funding were most neglected, with most countries taking no action. Overall compliance was highest for terrorism- and securityrelated areas.
up to February 8th of this year, and are presented on a scale from +1 (full compliance) to -1 (no action taken). This time around, Canada has found itself at the top of
the country rankings, having followed through with most of their stated commitments, despite conspicuously taking no action towards their pledges on the reduction of mid-term carbon emissions. In second place, somewhat surprisingly, was Russia, which usually ranks between sixth and eighth. “Russia is the outlier in these findings,” explains G8 Research Group chair Netila Demneri. “The average compliance of the rest of the countries has not deviated much from their historical interim trends. On average in the last five interim reports, Canada, the UK and the EU have scored within the first three places.” As a group, the G8 achieved a score of +0.41, up from +0.33 this time last year. As Demneri notes, the findings also show that “the compliance gap between members has decreased compared to previous interim reports, which means that G8 members are being more com-
MART´IN WALDMAN
MARTÍN WALDMAN
MARTÍN WALDMAN On Monday night, Sid Smith hall hosted a sparsely attended town hall meeting for the upcoming Governing Council student governors. A chance at winning an iPod shuffle in an end-of-night raffle was not enough to lure more than a small handful of attendees to
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the event, besides the mediators and candidates. Led by Antonin Mongeau, alumni chair of UofT’s French club (EFUT), the meeting quickly turned over to the town hall panel, composed of ASSU president Gavin Nowlan, The Varsity Continued on page 2
UTGA, 2.0 General Assembly picks up steam at latest meeting
HELENE GODERIS
MARTÍN WALDMAN
Students from the Faculty of Music warm up for their lobby concert of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, arranged by Faculty Professor Richard Marsella (pictured leaning contemplatively at the piano).
The UofT General Assembly convened for its second meeting on Tuesday night. A large and diverse group of people filed into OISE’s main auditorium to update the goals and action plans outlined in the inaugural meeting, and keep up the momentum that had been gathered. The Steering Committee, UTGA’s administrative branch,
had organized the latest meeting and presented the assembly with draft proposals of organizational practices and procedures, as well as a basis of unity and a set of overarching principles for the assembly itself. The agenda and draft proposals were to be discussed and approved in the first hour of the three that had been scheduled, leaving the bulk of the meeting for discussions and presentations by working Continued on page 2