The McGill Tribune Vol. 21 Issue 10

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M cG ILL

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P u b lish ed by the S tu d e n ts ’ S o c ie ty o f M c G ill U n iv ersity sin ce 1981

Tuesday, N o v e m b e r 6, 2 0 0 1

Issue 10

Martlet rugby bronzed in Ottawa Mark Kerr You don’t need to tell the McGill Martlet rugby team that the playoffs are a whole newseason.

After going 10-0 in regular season action, the womens rugby team had to settle for the bronze medal at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport champi­ onship that was held last weekend in Ottawa. The team secured third place with a 39-0 clubbing of the University of Guelph on Sunday morning.

“Naturally it is disappointing not to get at least into the gold medal round,” said coach Vince de Grandpré. “However, we had a really successful season.”

In the gold medal match, the University of Alberta manhandled the University of Waterloo by a score of 22-7 for its third rugby championship in as many years. St. Francis Xavier University and the University of Ottawa finished fifth and sixth respectively.

The bronze medal showing marks somewhat of a setback for the team that won the silver in the championship last year. In many ways, though, this year’s tourna­ ment is similar to last year. The Martlets breezed through the Quebec Student Sport Conference competition only to run into high­ er caliber teams at the Nationals.

“Our competition is not very good in the Quebec conference,” said de Grandpré. “Once we get to Nationals, the defensive pressure is greater. They’re big teams and they are right up on us.”

McGill kicked off the tourna­ ment Friday with a devastating loss to the University of Waterloo by a score of 12-8. The wet conditions, according to de Grandpré, ham­ pered the driving style of the Please see RUGBY, page 19

We shall remain the number one mack-daddies of rock and roll until the last glimmer of life escapes our smack-coated veins

Patrick Fok

Budget oversight puts pressure on AUS Jeremy Morris Unexpected problems have left the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) several thousand dollars short of its original budget estimate.

This means that departmental journals, special programs and STEPS Magazine are left scram­ bling for funding elsewhere.

This year’s financial concerns began when certain accounts receiv­ able, including a large bill from Busco Company of Chateauguay, were not paid last year.

Busco Company was a large bus transportation with which AUS had prior dealings. In the interim, Busco has gone bankrupt and the invoice was lost in the process.

Despite this, when Busco’s creditors demanded the bill be paid, a problem developed immediately at AUS. T h e c lo s e s t

AUS VP Finance Seth Offenbach said: “The departments understand that they are getting the wrong end of the stick. But we have to pay Busco Company $2000 before they sue us.”

The problem has been further compounded by the fact that AUS believed that it possessed a surplus at the end of last year that actually belonged to the Arts Student Employment Fund.

The Arts Student Employment Fund is a program run byAUS with Work-Studies McGill. It operates with the intention of creating subsi­ dized university jobs for Arts stu­ dents with first year professors.

At the end of the semester, money is handed over to Work Studies for the payment of salaries.

“People thought that they had $40,000 but about $35,000 of it belonged to the Arts Student Employment Fund (ASEF),” stated

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Offenbach.

The problem emerged last year when the AUS believed that the ASEF money was theirs , when in fact it was not. This meant that AUS had far less money than origi­ nally budgeted.

“We had to pay back the $35,000 to ASEF plus $10,000 in back taxes to revenue Québec plus several other miscellaneous bills.”

Ian Matthews, the AUS VP Internal Affairs said, “It’s a burden on this year and that’s because we are pay­ ing for the mistakes of previous years.”

One of the groups most affect­ ed by the slash in funding is STEPS Magazine, the official magazine of the AUS. The magazine’s Editor-inChief, Nicole Helsburg, voiced her concern: “For the 2000-2001 year, the magazine received just under $10,000 from the AUS; for 20012002 we're looking at $1,000. I

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This current AUS income shortfall must be made up in other ways.

“The average journal costs between $200-$300 per issue and they have been asked to fundraise $50,” said Offenbach. He then explained that he was developing plans with the various departments to raise money through bake and pizza sales.

Unfortunately, this fundraising means increased competition among groups for the already limit­ ed table space in Leacock Hall.

Nonetheless, Offenbach is hopeful that the situation will resolve itself.

“The budget for AUS this year looks good and I hope to leave AUS with a lot of money at the end of it.”

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2 News

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, November 6, 2001

D is cu s sin g P akistani Fo re ig n P olicy Carly Johnson

A day after Osama bin Laden called on Pakistani Muslims to rise up against Western forces in the name of Islam, the executive direc­ tor of the Human Rights

Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) spoke at McGill about the changing face of the country's foreign policy, post-September 11.

Addressing a packed hall at the McGill Centre for Developing-Area Studies Friday night, I.A. Rehman

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discussed his nation's role in what he called 'the unfolding of the Third World War.' "Pakistan has been placed in a very strange position. As an Islamic state — with alleged links to the Taliban — which supports the US, as strategic middle-ground being courted by both sides for its military worth, and as a nation whose own, often precari­ ous, political survival may hinge on the outcome of the ‘war against terrorism,’ Pakistan is indeed in unique position.”

Reham said Pakistan’s first problem will be defining itself in a world that asks everyone to choose sides.

“One of the major disasters [resulting from the September 11 attacks] is that we started talking in terms of ‘either-or.’ Bush has said you’re either with the United States or you’re against them. There is no place where I can take a different position. There is such a gung-ho atmosphere in the US that I can’t even stop or say ‘please may I say something,”’ he said.

Bin Laden's recent appeal to Pakistanis is no less clear cut: “The world has been divided into two camps: one under the banner of the cross... and one under the banner of Islam. Adherents to Islam, this is

your day to make Islam victorious.”

Given these two alternatives, Pakistan has made its stance abun­ dantly clear. President Pervez Musharraf has pledged his full sup­ port to the US in the fight against terrorism; the HRCP, for its part, has said the WTC attacks 'caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people,' and should be 'unreserved­ ly condemned.'

Still, Rehman worried Pakistan could be unfairly tagged a terrorist nation, pointing to reports that Mohamed Atta, a suspected leader of the hijacking teams, received $100,000 sent from Pakistan.

“We worry that some FBI or CLA agent could put the blame on

Pakistan... that something could be supposed, invented, presumed.

This is why we have said to the world, ’We are against terrorism.’”

But Pakistan's role is not the same as any Western ally's. If its support is real, it is by no means unconditional — particularly where US retaliation is concerned.

Rehman outlined the HRCP’s recommendations for dealing with the conflict, presented in a press release on October 7. They reflect a humanitarian concern for the wel­ fare of Afghani citizens and the preservation of civil rights, as well as a marked desire to protect Pakistan’s own interests at home.

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The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, November 6, 2001

News 3

Ombudsperson puts spotlight on student insights Clare McIntyre____________ The thirteenth annual report of the Ombudsperson for Students, which addresses issues of plagiarism, student-professor responsibilities and intellectual research protection, was recently presented at the McGill Senate.

The report makes several important recommendations based on the cases reviewed by the Ombudsperson during the 19992000 academic year.

Carol Cumming Speirs, McGill’s Ombudsperson for Students, hears complaints from students and attempts to mediate resolutions informally before recourse is taken through formal channels of dispute resolution.

"Most Ombudspersons come at the end of the dispute process. [...] The advantage of the McGill system is that you can intervene early, before things escalate," she explained.

The report’s recommenda­ tions are intended to provide solu­ tions to the most common com­ plaints heard by the Ombudsperson.

This year’s recommendations focus on violations of the academ­ ic contract, graduate student supervision, and the relationship between university research and private sector contracts, as well as issues of plagiarism and fieldwork, internships and student teaching.

The recommendations on pla­ giarism are intended to reduce delays in rendering decisions on plagiarism and to publicize what constitutes an offense.

Speirs explained that she used the problems encountered in an actual case when writing the rec­ ommendations.

"I took [a] case and extrapo­ lated out to principles —one is that the delay shouldn’t be long, and [the other is] that it should be publicized even more widely."

Other key recommendations focused on violations of the aca­

demic contract between students and professors. Speirs explained that professors are often unaware of their obligations to students, and felt that these should be clari­ fied.

"Not everybody is aware that it’s a student’s right to have a course outline which includes reg­ ular office hours, the method of evaluation, and what the content of the course will be, [as well as] when the student can review any assignment for which they received a mark."

Jennifer Bilec, Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Vice President of University Affairs, felt that stu­ dents were not sufficiently aware that the course outline is not only a requirement, but an academic contract between students and professor.

"How many students realize that the outline is an academic contract, and that if the professor changes it, they have to get express permission from the entire class?" she said.

Consequently, the report rec­ ommends that Department Chairs and Faculty Directors be reminded of these requirements and ensure that instructors comply with them.

The report also contains important recommendations con­ cerning graduate student supervi­ sion. Speirs explained that the stu­ dent-supervisor relationship is often by its very nature problemat­ ic.

"This area is always going to benefit from the services of an Ombudsperson because it is such a very close working relationship,' she explained.

"There are certain predictable tension points —[for example], if the professor is the source of fund­ ing, and the professor doesn’t feel they’re getting good value for their funding, or if the student feels that the professor is exploiting their sit­ uation and asking for more than is reasonable."

Emphasis is placed on the

need for what the report calls "supervision contracts" between supervisor and student. Speirs explained that the aim was to pro­ mote regular communication between parties. "[The recommendation deals with] getting the students and the supervisor to regularly review the expectations they have of each other," she stated.

Martha Crago, Interim Dean for the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, felt that these issues were already addressed by McGill policies.

"I have had a lot of concern [with this] over the last five years, and we have improved [them] for both graduate students and post­ doctoral students. There is a very good set of guidelines for what supervisors should be doing," she commented.

Student research and the private sector The report also addresses the relationship between university research and contracts with the private sector. Speirs explained that problems could arise when students were not aware of the nature of the contract they were signing.

She emphasized the need for transparency in drawing up con­ tracts, and the need for an increased role for the university in providing standard documents for these types of situations.

"In a situation where student research is under the auspices of private companies, [it is impor­ tant] at least to start with trans­ parency, so that students are not asked to sign confidentiality agree­ ments when they really have no idea what they’re signing," Speirs stated.

"The university needs to take some leadership in providing stan­ dard contracts and confidentiality agreements."

While research-related issues are generally of primary concern to

graduate students, Speirs noted istration.

"This is only the second time that provision should be made for that I have presented my recom­ undergraduate students as well.

"There should be provisions mendations to Senate," Speirs for all levels of students," she said. explained...The first time, all my "I did have a case last year involv­ recommendations were ruled out of order because half of them had ing an undergraduate student."

Bilec agreed that as under­ to do with administrative issues of graduate interest in research and my own office. The student rec­ internship experience grows, such ommendations suffered the same guidelines become more impor­ fate."

She is confident, however, tant and applicable.

"More and more emphasis that the Senate is seriously address­ these days is being placed on ing this year’s report.

"The Provost [Luc Vinet] has incorporating undergraduates into agreed that he will assign the rec­ research," she said. "[If] you increase research ommendations to the appropriate opportunity for undergraduate committees. If that is followed up students and you haven’t solved on, it will be a very significant this problem in advance, you change. I don’t think any of my could definitely end up with a real predecessors got an official recog­ nition for their recommenda­ conflict in future situations."

Crago explained that work is tions," she said.

She further commented that currently underway on two docu­ ments, which specifically address this type of recognition represent­ these' concerns. The university is ed an important step for the office working on both an agreement for of the Ombudsperson.

"I’d like to see the office students working with outside partners in research, and on new evolve," she explained, "and one guidelines on student involvement of the ways I thought it could evolve [was] to have a mechanism in research.

"What we’re working on now for addressing the recommenda­ is an agreement for students — tions.”

While the Ombudsperson undergraduate, graduate and post­ doctoral - who are working with makes recommendations based on non-university partners," she only a small percentage of stu­ explained. "This agreement has dents, she explained that the taken a long time because it has to importance of her recommenda­ line up with McGill’s new tions lies in the fact that where one Intellectual Property policy. student experiences a problem, "There will be changes and new others may later face the same dif­ guidelines about student involve­ ficulty.

"I used statistics, and many ment in research. We have a guide­ line on this as one of the research people said to me that they’re not guidelines, but we’re having to significant, that it’s not enough to update it and make it line up with make a recommendation on the basis of [those statistics]," she said. the new agreement.”

In the past, the "I think I have an answer to that, Ombudsperson’s recommenda­ and it’s that if it can happen to one tions have not always been taken student it can happen to another." seriously by the University admin­

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4 News

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, November 6, 2001

W o m e n , H e a lth Jean Mathews The Muriel V. Roscoe lecturer for the year 2001 is no stranger to the spotlight. Elizabeth May, the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, was greeted by a packed Leacock 232, on Tuesday, October 30.

The Muriel V. Roscoe lecture series has been presented every year since 1988 by the McGill Womens Alumnae Association, the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, and the McGill School of Environment.

The series aims to recognize the contributions of women in all areas of society, and to encourage debate on topics in which women have developed a special voice.

May was introduced to the audience by the director of the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women, Shree Mulay.

"This year when we met to think of who the next Muriel V. Roscoe lecturer should be, I think that we had no hesitation whatsoev­ er. For Elizabeth May, personal is political, and political is personal, and this is epitomized by the pas­ sion she has shown in many activi­ ties and movements," said Mulay.

"Elizabeth May has been on Canadian delegations to United Nations conferences, and speaks to schools, colleges and political groups aware of the importance of paying attention to our planet Earth.”

May was responsible for the creation of several national parks, drafting new legislation on pollu­ tion control measures, and sits on the boards of various environmental organizations.

Mulay concluded her introduc­ tion by announcing that May is the first holder of a Chair in her name, at Dalhousie University.

"In 1999, Dalhousie University received an anonymous donation to set up the ‘Chair in Women’s

and

Health and Environment’, on the condition that the Chair be named after Elizabeth May. I think this is a tremendous honour and recogni­ tion of the work that she has done."

May started her talk by thank­ ing the Muriel V. Roscoe committee for the honour of being given the opportunity to present the 13th annual lecture in the series. She moved on to elaborate on her work in the area of women, health and the environment.

"I started doing work in this area largely because I was asked to take on this path of setting up a chair in women’s health and the environment in Dalhousie University. I came to it, with very clear ideas of human health and the environment, but less of a clear sense of women’s health and the environment, and I think I’ve devel­ oped that clearer sense now.

"The notion of human kind as the top dog came out in the begin­ ning with the Genesis chapter, or rather its interpretation. This notion has been further strength­ ened by the industrial revolution, spreading the idea that as human beings we are not only superior to any other creatures, but through our technological prowess and inge­ nuity we can afford to live outside the environment. Ifwe are dumping tons of toxic substances into the environment, then that’s a problem for those funny litde green environ­ mental groups."

May went on to consider the similarities between humans and animals and the error in the belief that substances that kill fish in rivers are not going to affect us. She stressed the importance of being aware of the effects of our day-today practices on the environment, and in turn, the connection between environment contamina­ tion and our health.

"Increasingly, Canadians are beginning to see this connection between health and the environ­

th e

E n v iro n m e n t

ment. Although the public is begin­ ning to realize that their health is being affected by environmental contamination, in some of our institutions and regulatory systems, we still operate in two sides: there’s the department of health and the department of environment, and they both deal with different things, and act independently of each other. The most stunning example of this was in 1986, when Environment Canada’s scientists in the Great Lakes region decided to get the public concerned about toxic contamination, by pointing out in a 40-page booklet, called Storm Warning, that if deformed fish and birds with twisted beaks were being found in the Great Lakes region, then human health could be affected as well. The public never got the message because Health Canada got hold of this brochure first, and insisted that this was a vio­ lation of jurisdiction in the part of Environment Canada, to raise ques­ tions about human health." May said.

May explained that the Health department sees its role as the treat­ ment of disease, and Environment Canada sees its role as deciding how much pollution should be permit­ ted in the environment. May point­ ed out that the future of the envi­ ronment is vitally dependent on the integration of these two groups.

"We all know that dirty water and dirty air kills. We’ve seen asth­ ma rates increase globally by about 15 percent. This is not something mysterious that’s happening. Toxic substances are affecting our health.

Our use of pesticides globally has gone up fifty-fold since World War 2. All together synthetic chemicals, pesticides and carcinogens released in 1940 were 1 billion pounds. In Canada, between 1994 and 1996, we raised 1.45 billion pounds-that’s more in Canada in two years then the entire global output in 1940. Of this 1.45 billion pounds released,

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280 million pounds were carcino­ genic. There was a study conducted at Cornell University quite recently that estimated that 40 percent of deaths world wide are caused by pollution and other environmental factors."

May used the example of Sydney, Nova Scotia, to point out the dangerous effects of environ­ mental contamination on human health.

"Sydney has a community that is living with 700,000 tons of toxic wastes. There’s arsenic, cyanide, lead, and other toxins present in the soil in much higher quantities than has been proven to be safe for humans. The cancer rates in Sydney are markably higher than Nova Scotia and Canada. Despite the fact that cervical cancer in women in Sydney is 134 percent higher than in the rest of the province, and brain cancer, Alzheimer’s , and birth defects are higher in Sydney, no government has yet accepted the fact that living amidst these materi­ als is a health risk. Another study recently conducted, showed that birth defects in Sydneywere 25 per­ cent higher than in the rest of the province. When we look at all this, when we see the increase in cancers globally, shouldn’t we start asking questions?"

After explaining the link between health and the environ­ ment, May went on to link women

u

W om en’s bodies are, for all hum an beings, the

first environm ent. A nd that environm ent is no longer pristine.

55 to health and the environment.

"Women’s bodies are, for all human beings, the first environ­ ment. And that environment is no longer pristine. A human being’s largest exposure to toxic chemicals is in utero. And when the babies are born, we nourish them with moth­ er’s milk, which is now the most toxic human food. In a study con­ ducted in the Great Lakes region, it was found that women who ate as little 2-3 meals of lake Michigan fish a month, gave birth to babies who were born premature, ate less and had smaller heads. These chil­ dren also scored poorly on IQ tests.

Women are the heart and soul of the grass roots environmental move­ ment, anywhere you go. They’ll do whatever it takes to protect their children."

After the attacks continued from PAGE 2

“We have demanded the cessa­ tion of bombing in Afghanistan.

We want to allow the political process to function,” said Rehman.

This first issue is addressed at length in the commission’s report.

“HRCP reiterates its abhor­ rence of war as it does not solve any problem... It is necessary to ensure that the military operations in Afghanistan, if found unavoidable, are a brief as possible, cause no harm to civilian lives and do not go beyond the limited objective of dealing with terrorists.”

The recommendation is in keeping with Pakistan’s traditional defence of Afghanistan’s policies, and with its desire to minimize the influx of refugees from the neigh­ bor country. Pakistan is already home to around two million refugees, and could be greeted with at least a million more if US air raids continue.

Rehman’s other prime concern was with the potential suspension of civil liberties in the wake of an extended conflict, which he saw as both likely and undesirable.

“Civil liberties will come under the axe. From San Francisco to Jakarta, we will be coming under pressure,” he said. He cited India’s Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance of October 24, which stipulates harsher punishments for anyone remotely suspected of having links to terrorists, as “draconian” and freedom-suppressing. He urged the audience to protest the passing of a parallel Canadian act to be debated in coming weeks, Bill C-36.

“I heard in Ottawa the slogan that ‘no amount of injustice can justify terror.’ But I think we should finish the other half of that sentence. And that is, ‘not every­ thing can be justified in the name of fighting terror,’” said Rehman.

In suggesting methods for moving toward resolution of the conflict, Rehman praised both the secularization of state, and the importance of United Nations intervention.

Pakistan has been plagued by an antagonistic crossing-of-boundaries between religion and govern­ ment since it was created as a reli­ gious homeland for Indian Muslims in 1947. Now, said Rehman, “religion has nothing to do with politics; religion should have nothing to do with the state.”

Rehman also called for the increased presence of the United Nations in Afghanistan. “What we need is a UN centre in Kabul — an open city. Otherwise I don’t see this conflict ending over the next six months.”

If anything will bring an end to the conflict, predicted Rehman, it is a cooperative international force — including Pakistan.

“On September 11, the world didn't change - the design changed,” he said. “Never in histo­ ry has this kind of international coalition come into existence. Not in World War Two, not in Iraq. [In the war against terrorism], there is only one country out of this coali­ tion, and that is Afghanistan.”

The M cGill Tribune, Tuesday, November 6, 2001

Th e

Claire Stockwell, Andrea Grant and Becky Gluskin _______ Be it because of a big party, a new romance, a study session gone on way too late, or the discovery of Newton’s first law (inertia), we have all woken up in an abode not our own and had to face not-sopearly whites.

Perhaps you were one of the lucky ones with a well-prepared host and an extra toothbrush. But more often that not it’s the old fin­ ger and toothpaste routine. People will exchange various bodily fluids

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th re e

during a variety of social encoun­ ters but to use someone else’s toothbrush makes us cringe and squirm with disgust.

Let’s do some math ... The Canadian dental association rec­ ommends that you replace your toothbrush every 3 months or 4 times a year. We start brushing at 2, the average person lives to 74.

Taking the denture factor into account, let’s say 60 years of active brushing, times 4 is 240 tooth­ brushes, weighing (depending on the model) 5 g for a total of 1.2 kg.

That’s not a lot-- about the weight of the smallest iBook. Even when multiplied the 4 billion that have access to dental care, the number though large, is probably not statistically significant to the grand scheme of how much waste we produce. So why write about it?

Isn’t it trivial?

But that’s what we, the Mobius strip, want to highlight.

It’s not trivial. It’s representational

The D epartm ent of Anthropology

I s p le a s e d to sp o n so r a lectu re by

Prof. Sharon Hutchinson D e p a rtm e n t o f A n th ro p o lo g y U n iv e r s it y o f W is c o n s in - M a d is o n

Rs o f to o th

of the mindset of society: use something for a little while and then throw it away.

Let’s start with the basics, the obvious disposables— pizza boxes, diapers, paper, packaging in gener­ al; the not so obvious— toothbrush­ es, pens, magazines, clothes; the bigger things-computers, furniture (especially on June 30), cars and so on. Everything we use will at some point enter the waste stream, but in modern day society, the func­ tional lifespan of a product is decreasing so that consumption can increase.

So we’ve already reviewed the toothbrush’s environmental impact. Now Rethink. Not con­ suming is the best option, yet with Halloween and limited space in the Halitosis society, this would not be a viable option. Though the ques­ tion of real need’ often arises when discussing sustainable consump­ tion, some level of dental hygiene is necessary.

Reducing is always better than recycling because it uses less energy and fewer resources (not all materi­ als can be salvaged through recy­ cling). One replaces a toothbrush every 3 months because the bristles wear out and bacteria accumulate.

Therefore reducing the turnover rate is not possible. However it is only the head that needs to be replaced. So why not create a mod­ ular system with a removable, replaceable head?

Colgate has done just that

b ru s h in g

with their Replace ™ Toothbrush, available at most local pharmacies, for the same price as other Colgate and competitor toothbrushes.

Though not an economist, it would seem like one is getting two toothbrushes for the price of one.

It is a well kept secret in environ­ mental circles that being environ­ mental conscious often lowers one’s bottom line. No other major toothbrush retailer has a product like it. But what about the other brands with the flexi-heads and reach capabilities? According to our resident dentist, Dr. Melvin Gluskin DMD, "Basically all toothbrushes are the same. You don't need fancy grips and con­ tours to prevent cavities. The act of

brushing is sufficient enough."

For those not wanting to spare even the plastic for the handle and quadrennial head, Recycline, a Massachusetts based company, offers toothbrushes made from post-consumer plastics. You can send them the toothbrush back when you’re down and they will recycle it again into plastic lumber (the stuff they make patio furniture out of). Unfortunately, the tooth­ brushes are only available in Canada by mail whilst the mail back option is currently only avail­ able in the States. The brushes are also a bit pricier because of the exchange rate at USD17.50 for four.

In the Mobius strip, we want to think outside of the box. We want to question how and why we live the way we do through our three R’s: Review, Rethink and React. This means we use the methodology of exam­ ining the issue, reconsidering how the environment fits into the picture and then outlining how our hopefully inspired readers could go about implementing change. The we’ is a triad of McGill students concerned; with the environment and the lack of continual discussion of these topics in the student papers. We live IN the environment and we should be tak­ ing about it.

Mobius was a 19th century German mathematician and discoverer of the Mobius strip. His strip is a two dimensional object with only one face.

(Take a rectangular strip of paper: without a half twist, joining the two ends yields a loop, with a half twist it’s a one-faced object. Try drawing down the center of the loop and you’ll see what I mean. You can draw on both sides without having to cross an edge.) If I were writing an English essay, the Mobius strip would metaphorically represent the integration all aspects of the circle of our lives (the loop) on one common plane (sustain­ able consumption). But for the purposes of our column, it is also the famil­ iar 3R’s/recycling logo and we’re all about Rs.

“Gendered Violence and the Militarization o f ethnicity: A Case Study from South Sudan” Monday, November 12,2001 Arts Bldg., Room 160 12:30 - 2:00 p.m.

News 5

M cG ill The Department of Jewish Studies

W E L C O M E TO A L L

Call for Submissions:

BLACHER AND GLASROT FAMILIES MEMORIAL AWARD FOR HOLOCAUST RESEARCH

To change your Student Status to a Permanent Canadian residence CALL FOR AN EVALUATION LinaAspri Tel: (514) 878-3940 Fax: (514) 878-3938 http://www.immigration-prisma.ca email: webmaster@immigration-prisma.ca 1255 University Street, Ste 430, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3B 3B6

Established by Mr. and Mrs. Josef Glasrot, survivors of the Holocaust and residents of Montreal. Open to any McGill student, the award will be presented for excellence in research in Holocaust and related studies, and particularly on the history of the Ghettos in Warsaw and Kovno [Kaunas]. The award is adm inistered by the Departm ent of Jewish S tudies in cooperation w ith the Jew ish C om m unity Foundation.

Presentation of the Blacher and Glasrot Families Memorial Award will take place at the Closing Exercises of the Departm ent of Jewish Studies, in June 2002. The value o f the Blacher and Glasrot Families Memorial Award is $1000.

• The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students at McGill University.

• Students must submit 2 typed copies of their essays.

• Essays can be based on primary or secondary materials.

• Essay submissions must reach the Department of Jewish Studies Office, 3438 McTavish Street, by April 29, 2002.

• Essays must be accompanied by full contact information.

6 Op/Ed

The M cGill Tribune, Tuesday, November 6, 2001

O p in io n

E ditorial

Letters

EDITORIAL “In a democracy dissent is an act offaith. LH{e medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects."—J.W. Fulbright

A united affront James Empringham Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, Western powers have stressed the importance of presenting a ‘united front to our enemy. It is a campaign, of course, led by the politicians, but available signals such as presidential approval ratings which place George Bushs popularityat all time high levels, suggest that it isan idea people believe in. The thinkinggoes that visible dissension amongst our ranks is to be construed as weakness, in turn, working to boost the esteem ofenemies in Afghanistan. Normally trusted checks on government such as the media, even seemto have come to the tacit agreement that due to the severity of the current situation, established standards of objectivityshould be compro­ mised.

Here in Canada, thanks to our political system known as Parliamentary Democracy, we are all too familiarwith this phenomenon. In the Canadian sys­ tem, firmlyentrenched norms ofparty discipline require members of a party to vote and agree, publicly at least, with their party’s stance in the House of Commons, even if, and heaven forbid, they happen to disagree. In Canada, a united front is unfortunately the only one we know.

While no further evidence of this inane political practice was necessary, examples have proliferated in Ottawa since September 11. The most notable example though has been the Liberal Party’s handling of the antiterrorist bill: Bill C-36. The bill in question aims to come down hard on terrorism, granting new powers of preventive arrest to police, including the controversial right to detain suspected terrorists for up to 72 hours without a warrant. Some mem­ bers of the Liberal Party are righdy worried that the bill may unjusdy compro­ mise the civil liberties enjoyed by Canadians. Both Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal and Multiculturalism Minister Hedy Fry have publicly voiced their concerns. Jean Chrétien, the head of Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada’s response to dissenters? Keep it to yourself— or else.

In the October 31 issue of the Globe and Mail, one Liberal party member went on record — anonymously — as saying that Chrétien “read the riot act’ to Dhaliwal, for publiclyairing his concern. Other partymembers have publicly lobbied for Chrétien and Justice Minister Anne McLellan to include a “sunset” clausewhich would negate the bill’s effectiveness after a certain amount of time.

So far alternative proposals have fallen on deafears.

Perhaps Chrétiens actions can be explained by pressure being placed upon him by Bush and other high rankingWashington officials. Perhaps he knows something no one else does. More likely, however, he is merelyacting as his role of Prime Minister intends of him: To make a stand and stick to it — or appear vulnerable.

The convention of party discipline will ensure Chrétien and his henchwomen McLellan success in their stance. There will be diplomatic compromise over the contents of the bill, but it will be tabled before Christmas and every Liberal will vote in favour of its contents, and it will be passed, save some mild wrangling within the Senate. Sadly, no meaningful discussion will take place within the House of Commons because the Liberals have a majority of seats within the elected House and the Alliance, theTories and the NewDemocratic Party do not.

While Canada is the United State’s closest neighbour, the fact remains that Canadians on Canadian soil have yet to be affected by terrorist action. Amidst the fear and confusion understandably occurringsouth of the border, Canadian parliament could have served as a desperately needed forum for more objective discussion regarding a response to the events of September 11. Instead, under the reign ofChrétien, the proceedings in the House ofCommons remain sense­ less, a realityonly accentuated by the incredible fact that the House wasn’t even called to sit until a week after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It is unfortunate that federal politicians in our country work within a framework, in which dissent is mistaken for party squabbling, as opposed to a vital sign ofa healthy democracy.

Pfistory has taught us that sometime in the not too distant future, troops will have pulled out of Afghanistan, the imminent threat of further terrorist attacks will have been quelled andWestern governments everywhere will return to operating under a more democratic format in which opposition iswelcomed.

Everywhere that is, except in Canada.

"VU E A A r 'C ' I I I T D T R I I l \ ï P 1 l i t , 1V ilU. -vjr I L iL

Editor- in -C hief Rhea Wong A ssistant Editor- in -C hief Mike Bargav A ssistant Editor- in -C hief Neil Schnurbach Production M anager Ian Speigel

I i t \ il D I J 1 N iL News Editors Carly Johnson Omar Sachedina John Sciascia

Features Editors Raquel Kirsch Justin Renard Entertainment Editors Peter Koven Dan Zacks Science Editor Jean Mathews

Forum shooting

S to p th e P re ss

Two Tuesdays ago, a young man was shot three times outside my apartment building on Lincoln avenue at the corner of Atwater.

"One block from the Pepsi Forum,” said the news broadcast.

The man died.

The following night I attended a screening of a new film about Jack the Ripper at said movie com­ plex. As the film waded through its needlessly violent scenes the audi­ ence would actually laugh. The blood had only just been cleaned from the sidewalk that morning.

One block from the Pepsi Forum indeed.

Alan Rocks the Boat

The therapies they want not widely supported as the most crucial short­ term factor in reducing the impact of AIDS on individuals and economies. In 1998 the editorial of the New England Journal of Medicine found that "[they are] a diversion from more pressing needs and a threat to more cost-effective programs to combat HIV such as the targeted distribution of con­ doms".

This is not to say these drugs are not important or that high prices do not need to be addressed.

But to believe that this one matter must be dealt with without refer­ ence to pharmaceutical companies or alternative treatments, such as anti-mother-baby transmission drugs — which are available but not promoted so favourably by gov­ ernments — is blinkered. To argue that anti-retroviral drugs are the only correct course of action is dan­ gerous and wrong. In the short-run the availability of anti-retroviral drugs may benefit those with AIDS. However aside from the issues of user compliance and the likely deflection of attention from pre­ ventative and educative policies, there is a more crucial issue. If gov­ ernments are seen to disregard agreements when it suits them, how can their citizens be expected follow the lawof the land? In the long run few things are more important than that people trust that their rights will be upheld. If in doubt, please see Zimbabwe. So if Mr. Rock is interpreted to have set a precedent for the rest of the world, I for one will weep, not rejoice.

In considering the debates that range, and rage, across the world on the subject of prescription medi­ cines there is a crucial distinction to be made. Here in the West demand for medicines is high and growing.

There are plenty of people buying pharmaceuticals. On occasion there may be a supply shortage, as has been suggested in the recent case of ciprofloxacon, and in these situa­ tions companies other than the patent-holder may produce a limit­ ed quantity of the medicine to meet an unexpected demand. Elsewhere in the world the problem is not one -Michael Harrison of supply, but of demand.

U3 Canadian Studies Although many individuals would like to consume the medicines Oops! you missed available, few have the means to the point actually buy at the prices offered.

I just wanted to clear up a few The company who owns the patent things. Firsdy, you mistook my is willing to supply plenty, but noconfidence for cockiness. In retro­ one can afford them.

As the Tribune’s editorial of spect I realize that those who don't know me may have done this. It's October 22 made clear, the two are my first article, and I made a mis­ easily confused. Health Canada’s take in that regard. However, I feel decision to buy from Apotex was that as a fellowmusician, you must not as the article states "a precedent know that without confidence in for governments all over the world your abilities, you will get nowhere to bypass patent laws on life-saving in the music business. I feel confi­ drugs" and definitely not related to dent that I will not make any the AIDS treatment drugs which appearances on the Supersexe stage, are then discussed. If Alan Rock is where I will admit many a popstar taken at his word, the Canadian move was intended to be fell with­ wannabe will end up.

My article meant to highlight in existing laws and agreements the fact that to be a pop singer, you with pharmaceutical companies. really only need three things: A This is very much not the case in nice body, a decent voice, and the South Africa and Kenya.

In both these cases the govern­ "I’ve wanted to do this since I was three years old" Popstar attitude. ments have decided unilaterally -Guy Harling You were right on the money. that the most important factor is MAI Economics Popstars, like strippers, sell sex. A that treatments are available imme­ repackaged, tamed down for pre- diately at the price they want them. teens and MTV version, but sex nonetheless. Is there anything intel­ ligent about the Popstars concept?

Not really. Which is why my article was intended to be a silly recap of a Looking for some pretty pictures? silly experience and an even sillier concept.

Check out our photo gallery on -Hadiya Roderique U3 Psychology, the web at: Future Rockstar

www.mcgilltribune.com You'll be glad you did

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Tribune

Tribune

C o lu m n s a p p e a r in g u n d e r 'E d it o r ia l' h e a d in g a r e d e c id e d u p o n b y t h e e d it o r ia l b o a r d a n d w r it t e n b y a m e m b e r o f t h e e d it o r ia l b o a r d . A l l o t h e r o p in io n s a r e s t r ic t ­ ly th o s e o f th e a u t h o r a n d d o n o t n e c e s s a r ily r e f le c t t h e o p in io n s o f it s e d i t o r s o r it s s t a f f .

Tribune,

Please recycle this newspaper.

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The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, November 6, 2001

O p in io n

Op/Ed 7

E ditorial

P u m p kin s and seeds and co stu m e s... O h m y!

In the wake of the severi­ ty of the issues now dominat­ ing the press, it is time, per­ haps, in our own way, that is myself and my colleague, to address a slightly less severe issue: Halloween.

Being born on Halloween f am extremely biased towards this fruitful and magnificent tradi­ tion. In my own super4> egoistic and selfc aggrandizing way, I (and I hope along with my fellow October 31 brothers and sisters) have always felt a cer^ tain affinity to Halloween. As if I understand the day more completely than those who merely dress up for candy. 1mean, I was born today, that has got to count for something. Not really.

Nonetheless, since I ama Halloween baby I have been partying on October 31 for the entirety of my existence and therefore I will state quite emphatically that Montreal knows how to

celebrate October 31.

Let’s start with obvious KA party. Now, I’m not a fan of frats, but these guys do it well. Even though the cos­ tumes mostly borderline on unoriginal (how many princesses, Dracula’s and black cats do we really need), and the locations are sketchy at best, Halloween is a time when everyone can go all out, and man is it a sight to behold and to be involved in. Some of my finest birthday nights at university have started with or ended at the KA party. And when they end, it’s as tough a finish as ever.

As well as the university crowd there are those perky high schoolers, who, despite being prepubescent midgets for the rest of the year, really represent hard on Halloween, cruising around the ghetto and Montreal in their costumes.

When was the last time any­ body in Toronto wore a Halloween costume to high school unless for participation marks?

The real test comes with the adults, and even the Montreal veteran crew doesn’t disappoint. I ended up at a

H a p p y b e la te d

Jade Jones

Of all the major holidays, Halloween has to be one of my favourites. Dress up, get drunk and eat candy: how can you go wrong?

It is another holiday that has so deviated from its original source to sell out to those fat-cat capitalists who run the world. And to those fat-cats, I tip my hat to you on this one. Unlike other holidays, there is no deep-rooted guilt if I can't remember its significance. It's sad when I have to remember that Easter is about Jesus, not the Easter bunny. Sweet, sweet bunny who brings me so much joy with choco­ late, then spins me into a violent spiral of rage and despair when I realize that I ate my sweet bunny: all five pounds.

However, there is also a certain pressure that comes along with All Hallow's Eve, and that is the selec­ tion of the perfect costume. I feel that this pressure is more intensely felt by girls. This is because most girls feel like they have to dress like sluts on Halloween, and believe me I am no exception. Did you go to Le Swimming on Wednesday? How about KA? More hos than you could shake a stick at (I don't really knowwhat that means). Afewyears ago I attempted the cool over the slutty and dressed like Alex from A

Karaoke place on Saturday night full of mid-lifers, who, despite their age and wisdom, were decked out in Halloween gear in order to compete for top prize as the best costume.

In the words of the Croc Hunter: "what a beauty!"

Now, a great deal of Montreal’s Halloween fever comes from Montreal just being a liberal town where any excuse to celebrate is wel­ comed. I’m a Toronto kid and therefore have witnessed the epitome of restraint in cele­ brating Halloween most of my life in that other province.

However, being now of both worlds I can and will say that the energy that Montreal pro­ duces is unequalled and fur­ thermore such energy is conta­ gious, and it permeates all those who are unsure of Halloween’s significance. Of all the memories that 1attend to from my university experi­ ence, 1can, (with what’s left of a clear head from all those nights) definitively state that in regards to Halloween, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than good of Montreal.

I want to begin this week’s column by thanking all of those McGillians who have been so devoted to reading Fallacious Activities and to ask you to get in touch and give me feedback about the articles. Also, if you have any­ thing at all you’d like Ari and I to explore and write about, e-mail me at beautifulprincesserica@yahoo.ca.

Anyway, after the excessive bitching we’ve done recently, it’s time to discuss something a bit lighter: Halloween!

I have very fond memo­ ries of Halloween in Toronto.

Every year each child in the family would design a face which our father would attempt to re-create in a pumpkin we’d chosen a cou­ ple days before. I purposely drew my pumpkin faces with as much detail as possible, overseeing my father’s artistry and hoping to make him frus­ trated and let me have a turn with the huge carving knife.

He did get very angry when his half-smiling, half-frown­ ing fanged pumpkin’s mouth collapsed, but he never let me carve. Next, my siblings and I would scoop our hands into

the pumpkin’s juicy innards and retrieve as many seeds as we could find to be sprinkled with salt and placed on a tray for later. We’d bake them in the oven to become the per­ fect treat with an apple on a cool fall night. I’d sit sucking the salt off the seeds, picking into a giant bowl and choos­ ing only the ones with the perfect texture for chewing.

Costumes were a big deal back then too; my mother and I would search for the perfect one. I remember one year I had to dress as Mozart, and my mother actually invested in an expensive white wig that everyone mistook for granny hair. My mother would bundle me up so much on Halloween that you could­ n’t see my costume at all. I thought it would ruin my chances of getting good candy, but the houses in our neighborhood were always very understanding.

It is unfortunate that our area in Montreal is inhabited mostly by students and sur­ rounded by apartment build­ ings. In university, Halloween becomes seeing who can come up with the most

pimpin’ or slutty costume and stumbling around to various parties. I miss trick oi treating, and I miss trickor-treaters. Yesterday I saw a little boy dressed as a tiger in the early hours of the day, eager to display his costume. I knew he was one of the few children I’d see this Halloween, and I felt m almost envious. Back 2 . in Toronto we’d play O Ouija Board, trade fi) our chips for rockets, 0 and stay up all night O on a continuous sup- S ply of sugar.

V In light of my ? nostalgic trip down memory lane, I hope 3 everyone had a great Halloween this year and that you some­ how over the course of the evening stopped to remember those early Halloweens when it was about more than drugs, alcohol, and partying. This year, I know I did.

H a llo w e e n

Clockwork Orange. I spent the whole night explaining to people that I was NOT Michael Jackson.

In this column I thought I would do something in the spirit of Halloween: tell scary stories. What makes these stories so frightening is that they are real. What follows is a compilation of true stories I've heard from friends or experienced first-hand. Enjoy.

My best friend "Charity" liked this guy "Miguel" one summer. It sounded like he was into her too. I was sure they would hook up when I left for my cottage. When I returned, I asked her what had hap­ pened with Miguel.

Apparently he did like her.

They began to date. Temporary bliss. One day someone brought up guns in conversation. Miguel said that he used to carry one (first

warning sign). He said that he almost murdered someone once, but the only thing that stopped him was that he thought he would get caught (second warning sign). The reason he no longer carries a gun?

Because he found God and now gives out bibles on the sidewalk. Of course he does.

Needless to say my friend chose to find love elsewhere.

This summer my friend ‘Theresa’ and I lived and worked in Ireland for a few months. While I dated a man-whore during this time, my friend got asked out by a handsome Irishman named Steven.

Theresa prepared for the first date for hours, making sure that every­ thing was perfect. Steven was taking her out for dinner and drinks, so Theresa dressed accordingly: she looked beautiful. As we waited for

Steven to pick her up, time ticked by. After 45 minutes or so, we heard a honk outside our door. Steven showed up in a 24-seater tour bus (he was a tour guide). While I wet my pants laughing, Theresa had to awkwardly find her seat on the bus (should she sit behind him on the first row or to the left?) Of course parking downtown was a problem, so she had to walk for 20 minutes from the bus depot where they parked. That aside, the night went well, very well in fact. However, Steven, whose last name was ironi­ cally ‘McPhilme’ suffered from the curse of the Irish' (in his pants).

Let's just say that Steven filled no one that night.

Ladies, sadly it is not only us that suffer at the hands of men.

They do it to themselves as well.

Here are a fewtidbits from the juicy

life of my friend ‘Julian’. He went on a first date with a guy who took him to a smut shop. When the date was over, Julian's date decided to go to a strip joint — solo. Not dis­ couraged, Julian decided to try his luck with another man. This guy turned out to be a (young-looking) 39 year-old with two teenage chil­ dren (Julian's 19 himself). Keeping the faith alive, Julian went on yet another first date, this time with a man so conceited, he gave Julian an 8 1/2 x 11 glossy of himself as a parting gift.

I hope your life seems better now. Happy Hallow-izeen. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me at jadejones69@hotmail.com

Features B lo o d : A

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, Novem ber 6, 2001

m a t t e r o f lif e a n d

Dorota Nowodworski lood is the complex mix­ ture of cells and ele­ ments that courses through our veins, feeding our body with the essentials of survival. It can be hot, cold and blue, but over the past years, in the eyes of blood donation, it has taken a quiet role as a basis of intolerance.

This week Ottawa will see attempts at reconciliation being made as Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and Héma-Québec hold a conference entitled “Blood-Borne HIV and Hepatitis: Optimizing the Donor Selection Process Consensus” on November 7.

“This conference will explore current perceptions and expecta­ tions of the public, of donors, of recipients,” reports CBS media assistance representative Jirina Vlk. “This information will be used to develop a consensus statement that will guide future developments in blood donor screening.”

Queer McGill will stand as a key stakeholder with other leading Canadian and international author­ ities to discuss a variety of topics concerning blood donation.

“We’ll give Queer McGill’s position on the blood donation process, which is that it discrimi­ nates unfairly,” says Manuel Mendelzon, political activism coor­ dinator for Queer McGill, of the B

five-minute floor time the group will be allotted. “Basicallywhat [the screening process] does is screen out a group of people that are consid­ ered to be high risk and doesn’t look for high risk activity. Because the question doesn’t define what sex is, only whether they’ve had sex, pro­ tected or unprotected.”

Old prejudices continue to plague the present. Here on cam­ pus, Queer McGill has been active in the fight against biases against homosexuality. For the past six years, the support service organiza­ tion has been protesting the ques­ tion placed on blood donation questionnaires, which implies dis­ crimination against gay men.

Although the questionnaire used by Héma-Québec has been removed from its website, the CBS still posts theirs. The questions under inspection ask male donors whether they’ve had sexwith anoth­ er man, even once since 1977, and female donors if they’ve had sex with homosexual men.

Mendelzon believes that such questioning is archaic, and more importantly dangerous as well.

“Not only are [Héma-Québec and the CBS] losing a lot of safe blood from gay men that they could be collecting, but at the same time they are not screening for other groups that could also have the HIV virus and are reinforcing stereotypes about AIDS and that AIDS is a gay disease. The more

F ig h tin g w it h

you reinforce and institutionalize that stereotype, the more you’re telling heterosexual people that they don’t have to worry about HIV. “It’s not that our questionnaire or questions are discriminatory, it’s based upon high-risk activity,” says Vlk of CBS’ position. “If we’re tar­ geting men who have had sex with men, as we put it in our question­ naire, it’s because prevalence and incidence of HIV is much higher in males that have had sex with other males than in an individual having had exclusively heterosexual sex.”

The first case of AIDS was recorded in 1981. Shortly thereafter a tainted blood scandal occurred, leaving 1,200 Canadian hemophili­ ac patients with HIV. Faced with this horror, both Héma-Québec and its national counterpart, CBS, undertook stringent precautionary measures in prevention of future such tragedies.

The first AIDS blood-screen­ ing test was approved in 1985, a year after researchers first isolated the virus that causes the disease.

Prior to this, blood donor associa­ tions were forced to play a game of probability and statistics, disallow­ ing the acceptance of blood dona­ tions from high-risk groups. It was then that a stereotype was born as the disease of HIV and AIDS was at the time concentrated in the gay community.

The first blood screening tests came with the hope that the stereo­

Propaganda: a term usually associated with deception and padded truths. Yet as the US heads into conflict with the Taliban, the war of the word will be its most important front where print and television journalists play just as important a role as the military.

In its confrontation in Afghanistan, the US must be cau­ tious in how it chooses to portray itself in order to convince the world that its motives, intentions, both past and present, toward Afghanistan and the Muslim world RESTAURANT

T

f i N

D

O

O

h a s b e c o m e th e n e w to o l back the growing radical Islamic are a just and viable cause.

Convincing the world of the segment of its populations. For the necessity of American retaliation coalition to last and to succeed the against the terrorist al — Qaeda net­ US must be able to disseminate its work after the devastating hit on intentions toward Afghanistan, American symbolism is not the dif­ Islam, and the whole Arab world.

In this, the US has been suc­ ficult part. Foreign governments have rallied to the side of the cessful thus far. The constant United States, unified in disgust stream of images from the media and fear at the capabilities of terror­ and the government’s quick response has garnered an unprece­ ist networks.

The difficult part for the US dented support for some sort of will lie in the maintenance of this military action. However, as the war world coalition especially within progresses to the point where the Middle East. Countries who ground troops may be sent in and must with one hand support US images will arrive from the front­ actions and with the other hold lines of starving Afghan refugees STUD EN T S P E C IA L S

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type may be disproved. However, even with the advent of new testing methods, blood donor associations continued to apply a selective screening process due to the fact that tests had high error rates.

Since the 80s, these error rates have been reduced significantly.

The newest test being applied to donated blood is termed Nucleic acid Amplification Testing, or NAT. “NAT significantly reduces the window period, the time between initial infection and when the virus is first detectable in the blood, from previous antibody tests,” explains Vlk. The test detects low levels of viral genetic material and does not require the presence of antibodies as other tests do. NAT was first applied to hepatitis C testing in 1999. It was not directly applied to HIV screening, as HIV’s window is much smaller. Even now NAT has still not been licensed as a Health Canada test, but is being intro­ duced as an investigational project.

André Roch, associate general director of public affairs at HémaQuébec, explains that there are many tests done on collected blood, three specifically for HIV including NAT as well as other transfusion transmissible infections such as hepatitis B and C, and syphilis.

These tests are thorough according to Roch, but are not without vice.

“Even NAT, the most sensitive testing, still has a window period.

That window period, a lot of the time, is cov­ ered by the ques­ tionnaire, which is the first screen­ ing. We don't doubt the good faith of the peo­ ple but they sometimes don’t know if they have hepatitis C or HIV, and if they are in the window period then we won’t detect them.”

With such a short window period, it could be less controversial to collect all blood and simply do the testing after that time. However, Roch dismisses this possibility.

“We collect fifty percent of the platelets in the blood that’s donated everyday. The platelets are trans­ fused most of the time within 24 hours because they only last for five days. Having the blood sit for a week before testing cannot be done because most tests won’t work after 72 hours. And also we need the product in much less time than that.”

Héma-Québec and CBS hope that the conference to be held this week will aid to better the donor selection process in the eyes of the public and at the same time ensure the safest blood supply possible for Canadians. Until then, the bloody war continues.

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in m o d e r n w a r f a and of the casualties of war, public opinion will be harder to maintain.

The hope is for military action to be swift and accurate, getting at the heart of the Taliban and the terror­ ist networks.

The US will need to push this plan for a swift military campaign especially to countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and others.

Pakistan for example, who has long been one of the only countries to recognize and support the Taliban government, is pushing for a speedy solution in Afghanistan, as right wing opposition continues to organize anti-American protests and the voices of opposition grow louder from within the govern­ ment.

The US must try to impress upon these governments that they are assisting in a viable cause rather than aiding and protecting American will. However the main challenge doesn’t lie in convincing the ruling governments, the hardest part will be in convincing the peo­ ple they govern.

This will not be an easy task considering the view of the current <9*1>

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view of the United States in the Arab world. According to a recent article in The Economist, countries like Iran have been voicing a critical view of American society and its foreign policy that has been ‘hostile to a fault’ for many years now.

They see a double standard: America supports Israel when its citizens are killed, yet cares little when Arab women and children die.

Please see NEW, page 11

»• * ».

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 6 November 2001

Features 9

Th o se w h o tell it.

A n d those w h o tell the truth

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Personal webpages: Raising the eternal child Clare McIntyre Anyone who has spent even a modest amount of time on the Internet will agree that the some­ what bizarre genre of the personal webpage has become a standard in self-expression and in communica­ tion with the world.

Peoples online pages cover the spectrum from the boring to the bizarre, and their purposes are just as diverse. A Google search for the term ‘personal webpage’ turned up over 368,000 sites, beginning with the homepage of “Sandy Cummins: Christian Freelance Writer.” But Sandy is just one among many — more and more people are putting themselves out there by putting their lives online.

The biggest question that any­ one who reads these sites will be left asking is why? What would moti­ vate someone to put his or her life online? High school courses in com­ puters are increasingly focusing on the Internet, and some webpages seem to have emerged from that basis. But not everyone took World

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of Computers as their grade 11 elec­ tive — there must be other reasons.

Maybe it’s vanity; maybe it’s a sim­ ple desire to establish contact with other people or maybe it’s a message they have for the World.

Peter Pan’s homepage (http://www.pixyland.org/peterpan/index.html) is a perfect exam­ ple of the personal webpage as a ‘vanity’ webpage. It’s the ‘home on the web’ of Randy Constan, who calls himself a “Guitarist, Inventor, Engineer, [and] Eternal Child,” and is devoted to his life, personality and interests.

The Eternal Child indeed — at 47 years old, Constan doesn’t just admire or have an interest in Peter Pan. He actually thinks he is Peter Pan. The site comes complete with theme music from the Disney movie, somewhat scandalous pic­ tures of Constan dressed in a wide array of costumes (many of them pink and frilly), and a lengthy open­ ing text in which the author explores his own life philosophy.

The motivation for Constan’s page is stated loud and clear, “ [this page] is intended to reach out to

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searchers, he does not make stupid puns, and he does not degrade his sub­ ject matter through casual put downs.

Bell’s opinions on the beauty landscape often run 180 degrees from common views — he sees casual hatred ofattractive women everywhere in the media and is clearly angered by it. Sometimes his opinions ring with insight and truth, and other times it seems like he’s made a mistaken con­ nection between two subjects and has let his anger get ahead of him.

Bell reveres supermodels ultimate in perfection, and he brings an alter­ native viewto the body image debate, but he isn’t presenting a new opinion so much as a different facet of the old

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Bell is focused; to say that he has tunnel vision around his subject is putting it mildly. Bell is not out to inflame or glorify, however hewants to celebrate the beauty that he sees around him as a gift to humanity.

Bell is also an accomplished painter and sketch artist, as well, and he has put many of his pieces on dis­ play on the site.

Agreat number of these websites are centered on the discussion of famous cult films by enthusiastic fans.

By far the best of these sites is one called "And you call yourself a scien­ tist?” hosted by a woman named Liz, www.penrithcitynsw.asulusrpages/RI CK/liz. (or go to Google and search for the above mentioned tide).

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Super Greg is a little less clear on the motivation behind his web­ site, though he does announce his belief in the Super Greg concept, and his page is just his way of shar­ ing it with “all home boys and home chicks.”

But it seems that there’s no end in sight to this journey, mainly because there’s no end to the num­ ber of sites. Who is Tommy (www.dpf.com/boyslife.html)? And why is he online dressed as a baby and lying in a crib, when he appears to be at least 35 years old? “To say ‘I love diapers’ is certainly true,” he advises visitors, “but that tells you very little about the ‘real’ me who lives inside those diapers.”

Pages like these are a reminder that many of these sites have little to do with the person behind them, and rather tend to be collections of rants, raves, photographs and other oddities. Their sites are provocative and sometimes disturbing in their views, which implies a desire to gen­ erate attention and response, whether positive or negative.

It appears that people’s specific motivations for putting their lives

A Never-never-land honeymoon

online are just as diverse as the pages and the people themselves. For these people, the World Wide Web has provided an outlet for their selfexpression. They all have some­ thing to say, and the Internet has given them a golden opportunity.

Of course, the crucial question remains; is anyone listening?

And that's a fact: Websites aim to speak the gospel truth

T h é great blessing and curse of the Internet is its ----;------------ freedom from David Schanzle editorial censor­ ship and the fact that it makes content essentially free.

From the intelligent and insightful to the bizarre and paranoid, many have used the web to publish opinions that are too long, bizarre, narrowly focused or badly written to be put in print.

One of the most idiosyncratic of these sites is www.bodyinmind.com which is Dwayne Bell’s philosophical discourse of on the nature of female beauty. He does not pander to porn

224 rue M ilton M ontréal (Q u é b e c ) H2X 1V6

other like-minded souls, potential new friends, and others who believe in diversity, while having some fun.”

Well, that’s innocuous enough.

He goes on to admit that when he began his website, he was looking for something else as well. That’s right, you guessed it, Tinkerbell!

Luckily for Constan, the media attention his site has received (it won a ‘Webby award in the ‘Weird’ category for 2001) drew him to the attention of a woman who lived not far from his home, and his search has ended. His site now includes photographs of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, together at last.

And then there’s Super Greg (http://www.supergreg.com).

Accompanied by little to no explanatory text and fewwelcoming words, Super Greg, a DJ, announces himself to the world photographically. His page consists of an array of pictures of himself and what we can assume to be friends of his, and includes a 30-second clip of a ‘classic performance’ by the man himself, entitled “Da Number One.”

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She clearly loves the bizarre and the profound, yet she treats every film on its own terms, with an essaythat is only as long as it needs to be. Content and budget are not as important to her as tone and intent.

She praises flawed films like It’s Alive for its daring and pans a filmlike I Still Know What You Did Last Summerfor its laziness. All throughout she lets her enthusiasm for film show and she never lets popular opinion dic­ tate her tastes.

Many of her discourses are on films that you probably have never heard of, yet others are attempts to a the popularityofveryinfluential weird movies such asAlien.

Some of her reviews are enter­ taining in their own right, like her bashing of theJaws ripoff, Orca or her discussion of why Rabid is such an effective and classic film.

Her site also includes a series of shorter pieces detailingthe pseudo-sci­ ence used in most sci-fi films, and col­ lections of humourous dialogue from some ofher favourite films. It is incon­ ceivable that anybody would have access to her opinions if Liz did not have the Internet as she is often writ­ ing about films that have long since been forgotten by almost everyone

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else.

The site www.culturenotes.com contains a series of essays and articles written by Alan Stein on the world today. His subject matter ranges from schoolyard banning of dodge ball to murder weapons in Japan.

His standpoint is that of a bemused observer watching the absurd ways in which we try to pacify the world yet he is not angry, and his agenda isn’t really clear until you have read a dozen or so pieces. What this site really provides is a broad and diverse worldview that serves as a refreshing counterpoint to the narrow focus of the previous two sites.

Stein sees politics, business and political correctness as coming from the same culture that tries to solve seriously complex problems with sim­ ple solutions The common element in these three sites is the enthusiasm and seri­ ousness that their authors bestow upon their subjects. They are in effect information processors, collectingdata on the world and presenting it to us in a palatable form, allowing us to view ideas and insights that we would never chase under our own efforts.

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The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 6 November 2001

D o n 't ju s t c o m e o u t — 41

Features 1 1

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The fact that people feel embarrassed of who they are is ridiculous. I know this couple where the one guy will not let the other come out to people because he fears that people will find out that they are gay and together and that his chances at having a career in the entertainment industry will be ruined. (Hello...Ricky Martin!

He’s so gay it hurts!)

What the hell is wrong with societies, especially in the US and Canada that claim to be so progres­ sive and modern, that people are still being discriminated against because of their sexuality? Why is sexual orientation still an issue?

It is depressing that people still have to ‘come out.’Why must it be assumed that everyone is straight and that being gay is an ‘abnormal’ or ‘deviant’ behaviour?

Even I can’t pass judgment. Up until about a year ago, I was petri­ fied to tell people. I was so afraid of what they would think, what they might do, and God forbid that they would tell anyone else! It doesn’t help that there are still savages who participate in gay bashing.

There are so many issues and stereotypes tied to being gay, from fearing parental rejection to being connected to AIDS, it is no sur­ prise that millions are petrified to reveal something as harmless as their own sexual identity.

I have hardly mastered the ‘art’ of coming out. I am still stuck wad­ ing in waist-high waters of homo­ sexuality, waiting to unclip my damn suffocating life preserver and jump into the deep. Basically, I'm in a lull period of coming out.

I've told my friends (the

important ones at least). I have confirmed it for my parents and really only my extended family.

Some past high school friends are left.

I put off coming out in an unhealthy way, as telling my friends was rough enough, and telling my mother practically killed me.

Although I felt temporarily trau­ matized, now I couldn't be more glad.

My dad knew I was gay when I was still a young'un. It was obvi­ ous since I was trying on my mom's high heels and running around the house with her cheering me on. Hypocritical as usual, I was mortified when he came out to me; I refused to believe it.

My confusion showed when I asked him "Does this mean you'd rather see a man in a Speedo than a woman in a bikini?" At the inno­ cent age of 11, it was like gagging on a raw chunk of meat I couldn’t even force myself to swallow.

The last girl I was ‘with’ got fed up and accidentally forced me to come out over the phone, or as she put it, "is this me pulling you out of the closet?" There was major drama, especially after she tried to pretend nothing ever happened.

Another girl, an ex-cokehead/rehab junkie, a friend of 12 years, cried like a baby and told me she had never seen me as a sexual person. That was a big old lie as she had been trying to get in my pants since age six. She still demands to know if I am still gay and not "just fucking with her."

There's that unique feeling that goes along with coming out, almost euphoric, as if you’ve just been liberated from...well...a stuffy closet. I decided that when I came to Montreal I would just be ‘straight’ with it and not be embar­

rassed of who I am.

I was nauseated last year when, as if to confirm my greatest insecu­ rities, rumors were circulating that I was gay, some twitty girl asked me what I would do, “now that my reputation was so tainted.”

It was as if I had been brain­ washed by a straight society to think that I had this big, dark secret. Every relationship I had was confined by the fact that I could never tell the truth about myself and show people the REAL me. I was so reluctant at first, finding it hard to actually say “I’m gay,” and even the actual coming out was in fact difficult.

One girl and I played 20 ques­ tions; another finally caught on when she realized I had been hook­ ing up with ‘people’ over the last two years and not ‘girls.’ I was like an average teen caught up in highschool drama, so concerned with my image and what people would think of me. And for some reason, I saw being gay as a seriously shameful issue.

I did manage to come out just this past month to my poor, cursed mother via e-mail. It just so hap­ pened that she read that e-mail on

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October 11, National frickin’ Coming Out Day. Holy God I felt like a pathetic cliché.

Yes, it is good that homosexu­ als can feel support in knowing that others are coming out on the same day but I think it also adds to the treatment of coming out as some­ thing that needs special treatment.

Every damn day should be coming out day!

Although she read the e-mail, she delayed actually discussing it until I forced the issue. During that time in between her reading it and me bringing it up in conversation, my dad, who had been encouraging me for the past year to come out to her, told me that she probably was­ n’t ready and that I was just “look­ ing for confrontation.”

My mom’s reaction was more disappointing than this year’s win­ ter accessories line at the Gap, Apparently, she was “very sad,” might have wanted grandchildren and would not have chosen this lifestyle for me. As if it were even a choice. Why would anyone choose a lifestyle that is still frowned upon by society in general and con­ demned as wrong?

I was shocked that the woman with two gay siblings, a gay best friend and a gay husband would have such issues with my sexuality.

Thankfully, after sobbing and bat­ tling it out with her over the phone and receiving many guilty e-mails from her for the next few days, things have begun to calm down.

It is practically impossible to describe how good it feels to come out. It is letting go of insecurity and releasing secrets and negative, suppressed energy. You will be amazed at how many people end up already knowing about you or who end up not thinking it’s such a big deal.

There’s such a warm, fuzzy, confident and free feeling that comes with post-outing. Plus, the cookies that my mother sent (lowfat of course) reaffirmed her uncon­ ditional support and love for me and were symbolic of us making covenant. We'll see how long that lasts when I bring home a boyfriend...and just to shake her up a bit I'll make sure it's a man who's at least as old as she is!

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One aspect that continually surfaces from al-Qaeda is the Taliban, and their supporters are the references to the historical record of the West’s involvement in the Middle East. In his recent video release, bin Laden refers to several injustices against Muslim people including references to the Crusades and the partition of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Using this type of rhetoric mis­ directs focus away from real issues of cause and effect by directly appealing to other emotions, often to feelings of injustice and hate.

The recent video release of bin Laden that calls for a jihad against the enemies of Islam seeks to show him as a martyr fighting against impossible odds. The videos effect is easily seen in the streets of Pakistan as thousands of supporters chant slogans in televised support of the Taliban and bin Laden. He has even been compared in a recent article in The Gazette to revolution­ ary Che Guevara.

While his words seem to be affecting the view of the US in

some Arab minds, the threat or instigation of violence from Osama bin Laden has only served to inflame the Americans’ resolve. In the US, through media and govern­ ment, the focus has been placed on the tragedy of September 11 to gain support for its batde against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Yet while the events of September 11 in themselves were a tragedy, the con­ stant focus by media outlets that replay those now-familiar images have led to a type of unfettered patriotism where critical voices are viewed with disdain.

While support for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden are not at the point where it threatens any coun­ try or the current military actions, the US will need to maintain the view that it is involved in a fight against evil; all to keep domestic support and hold a balance within the coalition in the coming months in order to convince the world that what it seeks to do is not only just but that it can be a successful accomplishment.

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a r t s & e n t e r t a

nm ent Tuesday November 6, 2001

Aerosm ith rocks, period O ld s c h o o l b a n d b r in g s d o w n th e h o u s e w ith s e x - c h a r g e d M o ls o n C e n tr e p e r f o r m a n c e Lea Jacobsen “Do you want to hear da old shit,” Steven Tyler shouted to the revved crowd at the Molson Centre on Halloween night, “Or da new shit?” Their response was a nearly unanimous “OLD SHIT!” These were my sentiments as well. Actually, if by some chance I ever got the privilege to see Aerosmith perform many of their greatest songs at the time of their release, Halloween or not, I proba­ bly would have been very scared.

This is mainly because I was six, and Tyler could have easily been mistaken for a monster or goblin.

There comes a time in a great band’s career, after you’ve had your first sextuple platinum album in the seventies, monopolized the MTV viewers’ choice awards by the eight­ ies, and made a guest appearance on The Simpsons in the nineties, when a fine line is drawn between the sta­ tus of ‘legendary,’ and that of ‘old.’

I set out to their concert last Wednesday night, determined for the band to prove to me which side of the line they occupied.

I was sure that, once you’ve released over 20 albums over four

decades, no band can please every­ one.

Some are bound to think Aerosmith is hopelessly retro and behind the times, while others will condemn the band for selling out into trendy oblivion. Personally bordering on the latter, since some of Aerosmith’s “new shit” includes commercial hits from movie sound­ tracks and other tunes that may fit in all too well with the MIX 96 variety, 1 admit that I showed up last Wednesday predisposed to thinking Aerosmith had worn itself out.

Once the band began to play, however, any such debate became pointless. Aerosmith rocks, period.

This band is living proof that good rock-and roll transcends trend and time. The point is, (writer slaps herself on the wrist for making silly prejudgements) I was wrong and stupid; Aerosmith is fucking immortal.

So the question remaining now, is where anyone can possibly have so much energy to continue rocking for so long? Superhuman powers? A possibility. Genius?

Necessary. Drugs? Maybe that too.

But as the show went on, I began to realize what this factor

really is: Steven Tyler is a paragon of teristically mobile microphone unbridled sexual energy. Fittingly, stand. There was also sex with the the performance was a rampant dis­ stage floor (singing ‘pink is my favourite crayon’), sex with the other band members when they shared a mike, sex with his guitar handle, and finally, sex with an American flag he received from the fans, which he immediately wrapped around himself while moving his hips suggestively.

Most importantly though, sex with the audience.

Figuratively, that is.

The band seemed to have a genuine interest in gratifying and interact­ ing with their fans. This included eating a rose he received from a girl in the audience, then spit­ ting the petals into the air, grabbing another’s cell phone and serenad­ ing the lucky person on the receiving end, and the classic: letting a play of virtual sex. Throughout the young woman climb onto the stage show, the lead singer exhibited to kiss him.

Then, not surprisingly, like the rough sex-for-one with his charac­

oversexed rock-and-roll stars that they are, the band repeatedly brought the Molson Centre to their feet in orgasm—particularly during ‘Dream On,’ ‘Eat The Rich,’ and ‘Cryin’.

I guess they must have known the importance of delay in sexual gratification, so I shall forgive them for making us wait forty minutes for them to appear after the open­ ing act, and for the weird-looking, naked cyber chick who occupied the large screen as the band was get­ ting ready.

Also, as the band was taking the floor, I may not have been the only one disillusioned at the sym­ bolism when the American and Canadian flags literally and inten­ tionally merged into one as they waved on a large screen. But what­ ever... soon they started playing ‘Love in an elevator,’which remind­ ed me that this isn’t a political forum, it’s Aerosmith.

Last Wednesday night, Steven Tyler and his band’s interaction with their fans gave the term ‘over­ sexed,’ even for rock stars, a new meaning. Even more impressively, there were no reports of any Viagra needed.

Verdi's epic makes love to operatic ears Jean Mathews March 1842, Teatro alia Scala, Milan—after bringing out two operas that failed to click with the public, Giuseppe Verdi’s final attempt was a smashing success.

Nabucco, which was played 57 times this year, was singularly responsible for launching Verdi’s operatic career. The crowds leave the theatres fully satisfied, yet crav­ ing more. Fast-forward to November 2001, Salle WilfridPelletier, Place des Arts—nothing has changed.

On November 3rd, L’Opéra de Montréal premiered their second production of Verdi’s Nabucco at Place des Arts. The opera is inspired by the biblical tale of Nebuchadnezzer (Nabucco), King of Babylon. The setting alternates between Babylon and Jerusalem.

As the curtains rise, the temple of Solomon, in Jerusalem, is pre­ sented in all its magnificence. Set Designer Claude Girard and Lighting Designer Guy Simard use their collective prowess and limit­ less imagination to create a visual symphony that the eyes won’t soon forget.

The Hebrews are seen coloured in woe and they question their fate at the hands of Nabucco, who has just conquered Jerusalem. Zaccaria, the high priest, played by Stefan Szkaforowsky, uses his beautiful bass voice to raise the spirits of the Hebrew choir, announcing that

Fenena, Nabucco’s daughter, is now their hostage..

Ismaele, nephew to the king of Jerusalem, played by Louis Langelier, enters the scene to dra­ matically shatter the collective hope, bringing news of the ruins that remain of the grand city, under the rage of Nabucco’s men. Zaccaria entrusts Ismaele with Fenena, and leaves with the Hebrew choir.

It is now that the first of many twists is discovered, as Fenena and Ismaele, left alone, profess their true love for one another. In pristine Italian that flows like the fast and furious waters that explode into waterfalls, Fenena, played by Michelle Sutton, relates the story of their first meeting in Babylon, where she had helped Ismaele escape from prison.

As they are leaving, the two lovers are stopped by Abigaille, Fenena’s sister. She thickens the plot by revealing her love for Ismaele, and offers to grant salvation to his people in return for his love. Every opera has one character on whom the spotlight of the audience’s eyes are shining, and Abigaille, played by Susan Neves, was clearly the favorite that night. Demonstrating breath-taking control of her sopra­ no voice, Abigaille used her fantas­ tic abilities to sucessfully seduce the ears and had them showering all attention on her throughout the show.

Torn between love and loyalty, Ismaele declines the offer, just before Nabucco storms the temple.

Played by Gaétan Laperrière, Nabucco was perhaps the only fig­ ure on stage who dared to contend with Abigaille for public admira­ tion. And a good attempt of it he made. Singing in tongues of arro-

Reaching for divinity

gance and grandeur, reaching for divinity with every solo, Nabucco established his position of power as firmly in the minds of the audience as in those of his Hebrew captiives.

Interupting Nabucco’s song, Zaccaria revealed Fenena, and then the dagger at her breast. Stage Director Robert Tannenbaum clear­ ly won the praise of the audience, creating wonderfully tense moments highlighting the intricate dynamics between the many char­ acters, and at the same time shed­

ding light on the dark turmoil and inner anguish that the characters were suffering from, as they attempted to realize their often con­ flicting roles.

Driven by the irrational pas­ sion that often resides in controver­ sial love stories, Ismaele attacks Zaccaria from behind, throws him to the ground, and returns Fenena to her father. In one of the most comlicated moments in the opera, Ismaele looks at the face of Nabucco, victory and power in his eyes again, with Fenena at his side, and then turns around to look at the fallen Zaccaria, and his fellow Hebrews, the dark light of betrayal and death shining on them all.

Nabucco orders that destruction of the temple. The curtain falls for Intermission...

Verdi’s Nabucco is best known for the moving chorus of the Hebrew slaves. Chorus Master Yannick Nézet-Séguin artfully por­ trays the collective emotions of more than 20 singers, branding in the minds of the audience the pain and suffering of a conquered land and a landless people. Va Pensiero, the patriotic chorus crying for liber­ ty, which has become something of a second national anthem in Italy, was as much of a success that night as it was 200 years ago, when it inspired the Milanese people, under Austrian domination, to fight for freedom. Verdi’s funeral in 1901 would not have been quite so meaningful, if the crowds who gathered had not spontaneously

commenced singing the Hebrew’s chorus.

Verdi’s style can easily be picked out in the music for Nabucco, with its undying rhythm, the brilliant sense of drama, the successful marriage of stunning psy­ chological interaction between the characters inherent in the script, and the powerful music that threat­ ens to dominate all other senses.

The hardest task of all, for the audi­ ence, is to decide which stimululs to concentrate on when, as the viewer is often found caught in a violent storm of beautifully realized ideas.

As the curtains rise and fall, Nabucco is rumored to be dead, Abigaille rises to power and plots to kill Fenena and Ismaele and the audience loves every moment of this journey with many twists. If the plot were revealed in full, then perhaps some may not go see the opera. That is surely not acceptable.

Thus, we part here — with its extravagant sets, talented cast and time-less music, L’Opéra De Montréal’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco is wine for the eyes and ears.

L’Opéra de Montréal will show Nabucco at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier Place des Arts on Novenber 5, 8, 10, Id, and 17 at 8pm. It is sung in Italian, with English andFrenchsub­ titles.

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday,November 6, 2001

Th e

c h e e s ie s t b a n d

A&E 13

a ro u n d

T h e S trin g

C h e e s e In c id e n t c o n q u e r s c lu b s o d a gets very little radio airplay, and every night.

Scott Medvin “We definitely go into the comes from a hippy mountain town show with a planned setlist every on the other side of the continent.

The String Cheese Incident is a night. The process takes a long The band seemed to know that band on the cusp of fame, riding time. Travis, our drummer, will they had the command of the the crest of the jamband wave that write it and then we’ll all look at it crowd, and they played two sets has been left lonely since Phish and add some things. We want to that kept the dance floor moving all went on an indefinite hiatus. make sure that every­ These five guys from Boulder, one has a chance to CO play bouncy rock 'n roll with a sing and that the sets twangy bluegrass tinge—a collage begin and end really of American music colored by the strong. Maybe we’ll likes of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatts, throw some bluegrass and Earl Scruggs. Just when you in. It’s kinda like paint­ expect the square dancing to break ing touch-ups into a out, listen closely and you might show. But once you get just hear a sound with the sem­ up there...anything blance of Jerry Garcias finger-pick­ can happen on stage." ing in the mandolin playing of The last time the Michael Kang.

String Cheese Incident This ambidextrous band can played Montreal, they turn on an afrobeat, reggae, or folk had a hard time filling groove in a second—they’ve shared the dance floor at the stage with Femi Kuti, Bunny Cabaret. This time, Wailer, and Bob Dylan. Along with they arrived on a their substantial repertoire of origi­ Wednesday night, and nals, the Incident also has excellent they showed that, as taste in covers ranging from Herbie Kyle said—-"anything Hancock’s ‘Chameleon’ to Paul can happen." This Simon’s ‘Under African Skies’ and time, they sold out Cheese strings... you make my heart sing... the Grateful Dead’s ‘Shakedown Club Soda.

Street.’

But they went beyond selling night long. They opened the show I had a brief conversation with the place out; there were people with a bluegrass tune, ‘Lonesome Kyle Hollingsworth, keyboardist outside begging for tickets, offering Fiddle Blues,’ before launching into for the String Cheese Incident. almost double the face value for a a fifteen-minute version of ‘Miss Despite the lousy cell phone con­ chance to get in. I could not tell you Brown’s Teahouse.’ Later in the set, nection, Kyle was able to convey the last time I saw this happen in acoustic guitar player Bill Nershi some of the things that the band Montreal for a band who releases debuted a new ballad that led per­ does to put together their show their albums on their own label, fectly into a ragin’ fiddle jig. Nershi

Queen of Spades is a regal treat Raquel Kirsch It was one of those unusually chilly autumn nights. The wind blew fervently as it threatened sev­ eral times to lift me straight off the street and into the abyss.

But inside Place des Arts, the heat was indisputably on. Les Grands Ba'lets Canadiens de Montreal were about to perform one of their most lavish ballets in recent history, The Queen ofSpades.

I was surely not the only curious party in attendance. The red-car­ peted lobby was filled to the brim with danceophiles, toting their offi­ cial programs and 3-dollar 7-Ups from the mini-bar.

When the curtains rose, the audience was treated to its first taste of th e

Tchaikovsky score that would carry the audience through the show. A soldier came on the scene in a graceful leap.

Based on the 19th century story byAlexander Pushkin, the tale is set in Stalinist Leningrad.

Hermann, a young soldier, dreams of becoming a member of the Russian social elite. He learns through a friend of a countess who holds the secret to winning at Faro, a card game played at upscale hous­ es of ill-repute. Finding the count­ ess becomes an obsession, for he believes she holds the key to his suc­ cess. This adaptation explores Hermann’s destructive passion for gambling, women, and the elitist lifestyle he ultimately will never achieve.

The actors were very emotion­ al in their portrayal of the char­ acters, in typical Russian style. The visual effects, the somber lighting and dark costumes contributed to the sad mood that reflected the tragedy of the story.

The technical merits of this ballet were outstanding.

Artistic director Gradimir Pankov and choreographer Kim Brandstrup paid extraordinary atten­ tion to even the minute details. Bourrés were executed with sharp controlled movements, and the pirouettes were

effortlessly spun. Dancers engaged in series of small precise moves rather than a few sweeping motions.

Technical prowess was particu­ larly strong in the scene of the Countess’ death, where Stephana Arnold’s character went through a chilling, marionnette-like descent from her chair to the ground where she lay.

Props were at a minimum, relying on a few pieces of furniture to complement the scene. The woodwork came alive as dancers glided over the tables and slid around with the chairs. Special effects were achieved with a large screen used as an interlude between scenes. It added a veritable moder­ nity to the piece, and allowed the company to be expressive without sacrificing their classical sense.

This was not your typical Degas painting of a ballet.

Costumes were mainly based on imperialist Russia, which reflected the time period. The men were in army uniforms, the women in lowkey garb—long coats, loose flowing dresses and topper hats. White frilly tutus were reserved for only one scene, during which the Countess has a flashback to her days as a dancer.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens are usually known for their perenni­ al classic, The Nutcracker, and their fairy tale productions are generally very strong. But with this more modernist, theatrical ballet, they have opened the door to a more varied and non-traditional future.

added some slide guitar to a funk groove laid down by Hollingsworth organs in a jam which twisted itself into ‘Sittin’ On Top of the World,’ a high-paced bluegrass standard that had the crowd happy for the set break.

When the band came back out, they managed to completely embar­ rass themselves for about three min­ utes by belting out the worst ver­ sion of ‘Oh Canada’ that you could possibly imagine. I don’t knowwhat was worse—the out-of-key voices or that the only words they knew were the ones in the title. They quickly redeemed themselves by playing ‘Texas,’ an autobiographical song about the tour bus getting pulled over by the cops who search it completely and find a big bag of magic mushrooms. The lyrics rung true for those in the crowd who had been harassed at the border. I also particularly liked this tune as I had requested it during my interview that afternoon. Thanks, Kyle!

This was only the beginning of

what was probably the best set I’ve seen the String Cheese Incident play. Actually, I’ve seen them more than half a dozen times, and this is the only time I really enjoyed myself. At numerous times during the second set the band segued out of one song into fullfledged jams that had a life of their own before melting into a completely different song.

The set ended with ‘Shine,’ and the band barely had time to breathe before they returned and treated the crowd to an allout rock ‘n roll ver­ sion of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Crosstown Traffic.’

Again the band left the stage, but the cheering crowd would not stop. Drummer Michael Travis returned to the stage and began to play some rhythm on his kit. After a few more minutes, guitarist Bill Nershi came back on stage and told the scream­ ing audience, "We just can’t say no!"

The String Cheese Incident then treated their fans to another debut, this one a bluegrass instrumental.

Before the applause could start, the band kicked up ‘Good Times Around the Bend,’ played solidly for a few minutes, and then left the stage exhausted. This show was a good time, and it was good times around the bend for those who traveled to see this band. Many of these fans are on tour with the Cheese—they travel from town to town catching every show.

Hopefully, they’ll remember this Wednesday night in Montreal as among the best.

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1 4 A&E

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday,November 6, 2001

Tindersticks Can our love...

Beggars Banquet Sometimes I wonder why I even bother writing music reviews—when Rolling Stone can do it so much better! Take their description of Tindersticks, an apparent English R&B-Soul band from Nottingham, for instance: "The orchestral moodiness of the band and the smoky-blue vocals of Stuart Staples intermingle like two sleepy dancers on a dilapidated ball­ room's dance floor. His quavering baritone glides atop the bravado of Latin-style trumpet, sweeping vio­ lin arrangements, classical-thenloungy piano and shimmery organ effects. The result is a stunning blend of smooth beauty and crafted campiness." Wow...see, that's what marks the difference between a mediocre writer and a great writer—a great writer describes the trumpet as "bravado of Latin-style," when I would've used the phrase, "candy-cane bubbling of Estonianpolka."

But before I throw in the hat and drown my sorrows in cheap booze while decrying the "tough racket" of the music review busi­ ness, perhaps I can mention a few things overlooked by my esteemed colleague. While Tindersticks recalls Moody Blues-orchestral col­ orings overtop of simple and direct R&B guitar and organ flourishes, there would have been a real danger of all these elements collapsing into a quivering heap if it weren't for the sheer power of the aforementioned Mr. Staples’ voice singing those sweet, soulful lyrics. The voice itself is minutely intriguing in its fauxtremble—reminiscent of Don­ ovan's voice if it were in a lower reg­ ister—and its lazy, sweepy pro­ nouncement of words. But com­ bined with the affective and decep­

PIANO MAGIC Son Del Mar 4AD So you’re Spain's best (and, after Almodovar, second bestknown) film director, Bigas Luna, and you walk into a Barcelona record store and hear a track from Piano Magic’s 1998 album Low Birth Weight and you dig it.

Naturally you ask them to write the score for your next film, what with you being the artsy type really in to music and they being all cultured and in to film. The result is six unti­ tled sections running about 40 min­ utes of ambient score music with a slew of acoustic pick-up instru­ ments and some very ridiculous sea-

tively simple lyrics, everything seems to fall into place. Songs like ‘Dying slowly,’ where the repeti­ tion of "I've seen it all and it's all been done/ I've been with every­ one and no-one/ so many squan­ dered moments/ so much wasted time/ so busy chasing dreams/ I've left myself behind" leads one to agree with the conclusion of "so this dying slowly/ seems better than shooting myself." Oh yes: songs about love lost, and the possibility of losing love forever, combined with the fascination of standing on the edge of despair and fantasizing in that never-never-land of possibil­ ity—all backed by warm semi-distorted tube guitar, organ, the light touches from the drums, and strain­ ing, singing strings. The whole aura of the album is such that it allows one to experience that strange para­ dox of reveling in decay, where the destruction of love and self seems inevitable—and yet, in this inevitability, perhaps finding mean­ ing and hope.

-Eric Warwaruk

Lit Atomic BMG Ah, Lit. Power chords. Fun lyrics. Guys with weird hair. You’d think with an album called Atomic, it would be something ground­ breaking, but remember, it’s Lit. The boys that brought you ‘My Own Worst Enemy’ are back again with yet another fun, quick-paced release. Lead man Popoff croons about everything and nothing as we bob our heads pseudo-punk rock style. Critics can knock the band, sound recordings and pitch-shifted church bell samples. About half the score is centered around the viola playing of James Topham, Piano Magic’s newest member. , The band is reknowned for their revolving door O membership policy. Over 30 members have passed through in the last three years including Darren Hayman (Hefner), Pete Astor (The Wisdom Of Harry), and David Sheppard (State River Widening). “Son De Mar” translates as "the sound of the sea" but also carries the sense "born of the sea" making it all the more won­ derful as you close your eyes to enjoy the washing over ofyour body amongst the waves. The band’s attempts to make form of the afore­ mentioned ocean wave samples, Mediterranean countryside cricket noise, village church bells and looped stream bubbling is saved only by the massively dense monotimbral combinations of bells, ethe­ real synths or guitars. Son Del Mar stars Jordi Molla, Leonor Wading and Eduard Fernandez and was "very well received" back in May

but anyone who listens to Atomic can’t deny that it’s a fun disc to lis­ ten to. Tracks like ‘Everything’s Cool,’ even though the main struc­ ture sounds like every single Lit song, still makes you smile. Lit even dabbles into the unplugged world with ‘Happy In The Meantime,’ though it still is made of sing-songy power chords on an acoustic.

Almost a ballad, ‘Happy In The Meantime’ provides a nice break with some violin and orchestral per­ cussion. But Lit stays true to their style and goes back into their usual approach. So if you’re looking for something to put you in a better mood, this guilty pleasure of an album is just what you need.

- Andre Legaspi will.i.am Lost Change BBE/Fusion III The third installment of BBE’s The Beat Generation series showcas­ es the layered, jazzy production of will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas. It maintains the standard set by Jay Dee’s Welcome 2 Detroit and Pete Rock’s PeteStrumentals by combin­ ing a mixture of instrumental and vocal tracks into a cohesive package that far exceeds the sum of its parts.

While there are a couple of standouts, notably the album’s opener ‘Ev Rebahdee’ (featuring Planet Asia) and the title track itself, this short LP is a piece of work that requires a start-to-fmish listen in order to truly appreciate.

Like the last BEP full-length, it spans a variety of musical styles and has the potential to appeal equally to beat junkies, jazz listeners, soul lovers, and generally anyone who digs dense, quality, hip-hop-orient­ ed production.

From the crooning of Terry Dexter to the rugged rhymes of Mike Myers (no, not that one), this is another attempt by will.i.am to open the minds of those who tend not to stray outside of specific musical boundaries. "I’m trying to bridge the gap to those close-mind­ ed people who think hip-hop is only a certain way because they’ve when it was previewed at the Cannes Film Festival. The sound­ track was recorded over five days at Woodbine Street Studios, Leamington Spa with John -Rivers once the favored recording location of Dead Can Dance. Piano Magic are currently working on a new album, for release on 4AD later in 2001.

NIKKI SUDDEN Waiting On Egypt/The Bible Belt 2CD Secretly Canadian As a founding member of the much-lauded ‘70s group Swell Maps, Nikki Sudden, together with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, helped define a newform of musical freedom and experimentation which helped usher in the post­ punk revolution. After the demise of the Swell Maps at the dawn of the 80s, Sudden began releasing solo albums and collaborating with Dave Kusworth as the Jacobites, and with Rowland S. Howard (the Birthday Party, Crime & The City Solution).

Setting modern malaise and 1982 dark melancholia to the Rolling

just been listening to it for so long," he explains. In doing so, the live sounds of such assorted instruments as the sitar, cello, kalimba, and moog bass are incorporated, in addition to some tight program­ ming that you would be hardpressed to hear on any average release.

The mandate of The Beat Generation series is to bring the sounds of the world’s foremost pro­ ducers into the spotlight by letting them do their thing unhampered by

the limitations established by record company executives. The results so far are a little different, in the name of diversity, but still pret­ ty damn good. Look out for future releases by names like Marley Marl, DJ Spinna, and Puestlove to broad­ en the range of your hip-hip con­ sciousness.

-Chris Little

ill

Wednesday, November 7 Greyboy at Le Swimming: Greyboy’s latest release, Mastered TheArt (Ubiquity), is another superb showing from this stalwart of the instru­ mental hip-hop, funk, and jazzy breaks scene. Greyboy also has a reputa­ tion as a brilliant selector and tonight he mixes rare groove, hip-hop, and funk in a set that should absolutely not be missed. The tax is a ridicu­ lously reasonable six dollars so there are no excuses: lace-up the dancing shoes, light a blunt and enjoy. Look for an interview in the next issue.

Thursday, November 8 Kenny Bobien, Ivana Santili and a host of other Killer DJs at Therapy: Kenny Bobien’s soulful house is reason enough to make the trip to the newly renovated Jello Bar. Throw in the regular cast of characters and the stellar line-up of guests and you’ve got one sweet night.

Puppetry ofthe Penis auditions at Club Soda (286-1010): Are you capable of contorting your penis in impossible ways? Would you like to learn the "ancient Australian art of genital origami?” Would you like to travel around the world showing off your manhood to anyone stupid enough to pay money to see it? Then this audition is for you! Size doesn’t matter, but flexibility sure does.

November 10th Slayer at Metropolis: SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! Metal may have become a crappy alternative/generic MTV thing in recent years (see CrazyTown, Linkin Park) but these gods of speed-metal still play it in its most furious, misanthropic form. Whether tastelessly glorifying war, necrophilia, the Holocaust (‘Angel of Death’) or bleeding fetuses, they still remain true to their thrash roots, pleasing the masses of white trash who will no doubt be en masse at this show. Cannibal Corpse T-shirt optional, but recommended.

Ongoing...

The Cinemania Film Festival at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (to November 12th): This awesome film festival continues. Take some muchneeded time out of your study schedule and check it out.

Stones and T. Rex, Sudden made some of the most raw and inspired albums of the time—now re-issued on Secredy Canadian. The label’s reissue campaign includes Sudden’s entire recorded output from the 80s and covers ten full-length albums.

These include each of his eight proper full-lengths from that time period plus the classic The Ragged School (the collection which Twin/Tone used to introduce Sudden and the Jacobites to American record buyers) and the ultra-rare Italian-pressed Crown Of Thorns LP. Each of the ten fulllengths have been fully re-mastered and come with new liner notes, and non-album B-sides, EPs and previ­ ously unreleased material. This par­ ticular number of the set features Sudden’s first two albums (from ‘82 and ‘83) and an additional eleven tracks. Also available for the first time are some of Sudden’s commer­ cial videos as enhanced CD content, and an audio recording of a 1987 live performance in Augsburg, Germany, with Rowland S. Howard. Many of the ten titles have been unavailable and unreleased on CD. If you are at all interested in

rock and roll, investigate.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Output 64 CD Enduro A fewmonths back I heard the Input 64 compilation, an amazing collection of original music com­ posed for video games of the Commodore 64 computer (the best personal computer system suited for gaming of the time). Though those compositions stood well on their own, they were obviously too fun and beatworthy for re-mixers to ignore. Laden with instrumental compositions acting as a perfect bed for vocals, the result, Output 64, seems to complete music that was­ n't incomplete to begin with. A few mixes chop the sounds up into tech­ no or electrodisco tracks.

Plundersonics use their track as a bed for some cool blasé storytelling while others even set the '80s sounds backward in time. Great music, classic entertainment and wonderful memories nicely re­ mixed into one essential record for anyone who ever loved PolePosition.

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday.November 6, 2001

Kickin' it w ith the Allie Pyper Welcome to a world where the party never stops. Sweet thumping beats lure barely clad bodies and flesh slicked with sweat to dance in a chaotic electronic tango. Lights flash, glitter sparkles and energy

crackles... as the DJ finally drops the track, the crowd explodes. This is the world of electronic music.

Most of us have had some expe­ rience with electronic music.

Whether it was dressing up in fun fur pants in grade nine for that one rave you attended to rebel against your parents, or it was getting dragged out during frosh week to some club whose name you can’t remember because of all those damn cheap shots where something you’re sure wasn’t hip-hop was play­ ing... More than likely you’ve encountered it.

The rave and club scene in Canada reached the height of its popularity in the summer of 2000 when Connected was thrown in Toronto, and over 12,000 people were counted in attendance. Since then the scene has somewhat imploded upon itself, thanks to both negative media coverage and getting ‘too big, too fast.’ It’s been a long, bumpy road for electronic music culture in Canada. From shady beginnings in illegal warehouses to parties so big that the Toronto police force actually tried to outlaw raving completely last summer, there is one man that has been along throughout it all.

His name is Alex D. You might run into him every now and then at parties. In his mid 40s with a dis­ arming grin and backward baseball cap, he doesn’t fit any sterotype asso­ ciated with the rave scene. You can always spot him though: by the cam­ era that’s bound to be hanging around his neck, and the shirt he almost always wears out bearing the words "Dancing is not a Crime." He is the founder and editor of Canada’s only national electronic music mag­ azine, Tribe. He has become a celebrity within a subculture. Tribe magazine itself has a circulation of over 100,000 in cities all over the country and it’s website alone gets over 2.9 million hits a month. Alex D took some time out to speak with Trib about his magazine and the sta­ tus of electronic music culture with­ in Canada.

T r ib e

TRIB: Hey Alex as always a pleasure to see you. Can you start of by telling me why exactly you start­ ed Tribe magazine?

Alex D: A couple of reasons, but mainly because there was no other magazine covering electronic music in Canada or DJ culture at the time. There was nothing at all. I was working in a different career and I just figured before I get too old to even think about starting a magazine about DJing and electronic music I wanted to give it a shot.

My goal was just seeing if I could do it. I had no experience at publishing, I started off by just bor­ rowing a camera and winging it, and you know what? I’m still doing it today.

TRIB: After eight years of publishing Tribe, why do you still do it? Is it the satisfaction of see­ ing the magazine fresh off the print knowing it’s all come together? Or is it someone coming up to you at a party and saying something like ‘I really liked that issue’...does that happen a lot?

Alex D: It happens all the time!

It’s not so much a specific issue as my editorials getting a lot of com­ ments. People will say something like ‘I really agree with what you said’ or more likely ‘I really don’t agree with what you said or you know you get it all wrong.’ But they’ll talk to me about it. People will stop me on the subway and say ‘Hey your Alex D, you do Tribd" and then they give me the thumbs up sign, it’s like ‘Hey you STR still partying after all these years and so am I." Again it’s the community aspect.

TRIB: Now you’ve been in the scene for quite a long time, what’s your opinion on the use of drugs within it?

Alex D: I think the media has affected the scene far more than the drugs have affected the scene. I think the media for the most part have shut down the rave scene as we once knew it in Canada with such a focus on the drugs. Drugs are avail­ able in all parts ofsociety, they’re not necessarily an electronic music phe­ nomenon, they’re a youth phenome­ non.

There are just as many drugs in a high school or a college or a uni­ versity per capita as there would be say in a nightclub or a rave. Drugs are a thing of youth, they are a right of passage with young people within many culture and ours as well. I think people grow out of it and they move on eventually but it’s some­ thing they’re going to do whether they listen to DJ’s or live bands or polka.

TRIB: Now just to touch on that, you said the media has kind of destroyed the rave culture in it’s own way and we’ve certainly seen the rave scene shrink in its popularity com­ pared to the summer of 2000. Did it just get too big? What happened?

talking trash w ith A

—

Alex D: Well I think the nature of these kind of cultures is that they follow a curve. They’re very exciting when they’re underground and new and no one knows about them.

Then they reach a point where they cross this magic line where people start talking to their friends about it and it reaches this growth stage where it just explodes where more and more people just keep coming until it reaches a point where it loses its coolness appeal I suppose. It loses that underground feeling when it becomes mainstream.

The reason people originally started going to these parties was that the mainstream people weren’t going to them and then when that happens eventually you’ll see a dras­ tic drop, and the culture is driven back underground again. That’s the case within Canada at least, having spoken to a lot of the promoters across Canada, the feeling tends to be that growth aspect is over and that it is now past plateauing and is going back down again. It’s kind of a weird stage, no one really knows what’s going to happen. That’s one of the main reasons the scene in Canada has been dying down,

A&E 15

another is that we have had a lot of targeting by police. The police have gotten a lot of mileage out of the rave scene to promote their own careers and whatnot, it’s really easy for them to make accusations against sixteen and seventeen year old kids who are pretty harmless, rather then actually charging them. Just to accuse them to get into the head­ lines. It’s far easier of them to do that than to go out and catch criminals and they get just as much press doing it. It’s good for them and it’s bad for us, a lot of that went on last year and the year before and it’s very difficult. The police made it very

hard for promoters to find space to throw a party and that’s certainly another factor that came into play.

While the culture of electronic music within Canada may remain unsure the fate of Tribe magazine is not. As Alex D wrote in his last edi­ torial "TRIBE started out covering the ‘warehouse party scene back In the early ‘90s, and our ears are fine­ ly tuned to listen for the thump, thump, thump of beat’s coming from back alleys and buildings in the early hours of morning. We will see you there."

Pick up your running shoes and dance. It’s not a crime.

Radio M c G ill

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A n n u a l G e n e ra l M eetin g Wednesday November 21,2001 atThompson Hall 3650 McTavish between Penfield & Pine. Food and Music start at 5 pm. Meeting starts at 6 pm.

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2002

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The McGill Tribune, Monday, September 17, 2001

F o u r tim e s a c h a rm ?

M a rtle t s o c c e r te a m Andrew Hennigar Not even the pouring rain could stop the Martlets soccer team as they won two playoff games this past weekend to capture the Quebec Student Sport Federation Championship and move on to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championship in Ottawa this Thursday.

The McGill women squashed Concordia 4-0 on Friday night and then got by a gritty Laval team 1-0 on Sunday night to claim league honors.

Friday’s game against the Concordia Stingers was everything the fans expected it to be. Although Stinger coach Anmar Awad claimed last week that his team would show up to play a more offensive game on Friday, they employed their familiar defensive tactics.

McGill got a pair of goals from Eva Melamed, and singles from Amber Allen and Josée Busilacchi on a penalty kick.

The Concordia game was merely a precursor to the main event of the weekend. Sunday night the rain returned just in time for the QSSF final between McGill and Laval. In the Martlets’ tough­ est test so far this season, the team showed why they are now league champions for the fourth straight year.

wins

Q u e b e c title

again, hoping

The final was a fitting match as crossbar and the Rouge et Or goal­ McGill and Laval have been the keeper was forced to make several class of the conference all season, fingertip saves. sharing time at the top of the table.

In their own end, the McGill As she has done 24 other times this defense, were often bent, but season, Allen, the nation’s top goal refused to break. Although Laval scorer for the second straight year, made several attacks in the Mardet ran in on a partial breakaway and penalty area, leaving players and scored to put the Martlets up 1-0. fans anxious, they failed to produce Allen’s goal in the twentyfirst minute came off a lob pass from fellow striker Eva Melamed.

The emotion of the game was evident as both teams played very physi­ cal soccer.

Scoring chances in the remainder of the first half were limited with neither team asserting control over the play. The Martlets failed to capital­ ize on a second scoring opportunity in injury time when usually deadaccurate Busilacchi missed a penalty kick.

That error, however, would be forgotten at the end of the contest, as Allen’s goal would prove to be enough to win.

The second half McGill's Nicole Shepherd receives a throw in brought even more emo­ tion and physical play. many legitimate scoring opportuni­ The Martlets were threatening ties. Goalkeeper Sacha Liben was throughout the halfcoming close to cool under pressure showing why putting home the insurance marker the team only gave up four goals all as midfielder Sophie Labromhit the season. The final minutes of the

to

co n q u er at

nationals

game were frantic at both ends, highlighted by Amber Allen’s shot off the post in injury time.

After the game, McGill Head Coach Marc Mounicot expressed great satisfaction with the outcome.

“This was a 16 game process,” he commented, “it’s a relief to win.

We played hard all season but this was by far our toughest game. I am proud of my own girls and I have a lot of respect for Laval. They played tough but there has to be only one winner,” he empathized.

Allen, the lone goal scorer was also delighted with the outcome and was quick to lay credit on the whole team for the win.

“I’m more happy to be part of a great team that was able to win than I am that it was me who scored,” she insist­ ed.

For Allen, Sunday’s game marked her last at the Molson Stadium, as she will finish her MBA in the spring.

As they look to this weekend’s national championship, the Martlets know that the real season is just beginning.

“We still have a long road ahead,” Melamed assured. That long road runs to Ottawa this week­ end and Melamed, a native of the capital, can hardly wait.

“The key for us is to get going early,” she explained, “for the past three years that has been our prob­ lem. This time we have to be well

prepared and get the job done.” She went on to say.

For his part, Mounicot will start his preparations with a phone call, “The first thing I am going to do is call my friend who coaches at St. Francis Xavier and get as much information as I can about Dalhousie so we can prepare our game plan,” he said with a grin.

The Martlets will open the tournament against defending CIS champions, Dalhousie who beat St. Francis Xavier in the Atlantic con­ ference final.

Senior defender Ashlee Gentry has one plan for next weekend.

She confidently stated, “I’m not leaving Ottawa without a gold medal! I’ve had an awesome time playing for McGill and this will be the cherry on the top. We’re going to have to play with a lot of heart but this team can win it.”

Along with the league crown, several Martlet players received individual accolades on Sunday.

Gentry, Allen and Melamed, along with rookies Sabrina Dufour and Nicole Shepherd were named to the first team QSSF all-star squad.

Victoria Lowerson, Alanna Maloney, Sophie Labrom,and Josée Busilacchi received second team honours. Melamed got the addi­ tional nod as league MVP.

Redmen soccer cham pionship hopes dashed Ed Glucksman And with three kicks it was over.The McGill men’s varsity soc­ cer season ended last Friday night as a resultof a lost penalty shootout against l’Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières in the Québec semi­ finals. After one- hundred and twenty scoreless minutes of soccer, the game was quickly decided as the Redmen missed their first three penalties. The new Quebec Student Sport Federation champions in turn scored all three of their spot-kicks, ending hopes for a McGill appear­ ance at this year’s Nationals at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

First year coach Adam Mar, although understandably disap­ pointed, tried to stay positive and keep matters in perspective.

“A lot of other teams in the league are losing key players after this season,” said Mar. “Over twothirds of this young team is return­ ing. I can’t complain about that.”

Mar pointed out that Friday’s loss and subsequent elimination

was again the result of insufficient offensive production.

“The game would likely have been won by either team had they just once found their way to the net,” he remarked.

Whereas most Redmen players are only temporarily hanging up their boots for the off-sea­ son, goalkeeper Eddy Zuppel and defender Robert Baird will not be eli­ gible to return next September. Also, centre back Rudy Glueck is likely to return home to his native Austria at the end of the school year. The 30-yearold played a solid season in his only fall at McGill and claims-------------to have thoroughly enjoyed his stay in Canada.

“This [season] has been a won­ Last but not least, the Redmen derful experience for me,” enthused may possibly lose the services of Glueck. “The spirit of the team was Cameroonian midfielder Guy Anaba Anaba.

“I’m about ninety percent sure to be mov­ ing home after this year,” com­ mented “The Magician”.

Both team­ mates and fans alike will miss Anaba Anaba’s presence. His extraordinary technical ability has entertained the Red ‘n White followers for three straight sea­ sons. In slow moments late in the season, Anaba Anaba provided the -heartbeat and just unbelievable, even compared to inspiration for a sometimes-stale teams I’ve played for back home.” McGill offense.

The Redmen can take comfort in the fact that they lost to the best team in the Quebec conference.

Last Sunday, UQTR went on to win the Provincial Championship, beating UQAM by a score of 2-1.

UQAM reached the final by elimi­ nating Concordia in a penalty shootout in their semi-final match up.

The season will be remem­ bered as one that had a certain amount of success despite moments of dubious play, especially in their opponent’s end. Next year’s squad will need to work on more consis­ tently finding the path to the goal as well as simply creating more offensive opportunities.

A few months ago, Adam Mar had to sculpt an almost entirely new team out of nothing; now after a season of adjustment his task gets more interesting for the 2002 sea­ son.

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 6 November 2001

Sports 17

Redmen triumph over Concordia in Mud Bowl M c G ill earns firs t p la y o ff w in in Jeremy Kuzmarov His uniform caked in mud, Redmen star running back Nick Hoffmann looked like the work­ horse he was for the Redmen in Saturday’s Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference semi-final match-up against cross-town rival Concordia.

Despite a bout of fumblitis in the first half, Hoffmann, who rushed for 136 yards on 20 carries, scored the lone touchdown of the game on a six-yard jaunt in the sec­ ond quarter, and helped to set up Anand Pillais game winning 34yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter.

The powerful back’s ability to eat up yards in the swamp, which passed for a field at Concordia Stadium at Loyola campus proved to be the difference in McGill’s 118 playoff triumph.

The display was far from pret­ ty, but a playoff win is a playoff win, and the Redmen will hold their heads high as they challenge Laval on the road for the Quebec playoff crown next week.

“Hoffmann played great for the second straight game, and the O-line won the battles in the trenches,” said Redmen quarter­ back Josh Sommerfeldt. “Most importantly we showed courage and heart. The conditions were tough, but we persevered. We played like men.”

Heading into the contest, the Redmen were riding a tremendous high.

Trailing Laval at home last week in the last three minutes, Sommerfeldt orchestrated a miracle 108-yard drive to catapult his team to victory in the waning moments of the game.

Such heroics were unnecessary on Saturday.

Concordia upset McGill in a heart-breaking 11-10 game last Sunday to win the QSSF league championship. Because there is no National championship for men's rugby in Canada, this is the top honor for a Quebec team. Mike Bucci had the team's last try of the season. The Redmen will nowwork in the off-season to seek vengeance on Concordia next year.

Two nine goal victories for Martlet Hockey Going into the weekend ranked fourth in the nation, McGill beat UQTR 9-2, out shooting them 41-26. Sophie Acheson and Ashley Cranston both had a pair of goals and an assist and rookie Justine Keyserlingk put the winning goal in

years — tra ve ls to Laval fo r Q u e b e c C h a m p io n s h ip

McGill, which lost to Concordia in the Shaughnessy Cup game two weeks ago, was in the dri­ ver’s seat from start to finish.

Sommerfeldt, though only 8 of 18 for 132 yards on the day, got the job done by protecting the football.

He threw zero picks, in contrast to Stingers' pivot Hugo Fortier's two.

Bruising fullback Marc Freer, also had a banner game on offense.

Besides setting up some big Hoffmann runs with his blocks, Freer also caught three passes for 57 yards.

“We knew with the field con­ dition our running game would be critical,” commented Redmen Head Coach Chuck McMann.

“Hoffmann and Freer came through, and so did the O-line. I give credit to Josh for maintaining his footing, and holding onto the ball in treacherous conditions.”

Despite playing without star lineman John Macdonald and Steve Young for a third straight week, the net. In another high scoring game, St. Mary's was pummeled 9-3 by a goal-happy McGill team.

Véronique Lapierre scored an amaz­ ing four goals and assistant captain, Sarah Lomas had two with an assist.

The Martlets are now 10-1 and will face Bishops this Sunday to hope­ fully lengthen their winning streak.

A round the Horn Tough loss ends Redmen Rugby's season

5

McGill’s defense, quietly establish­ ing itself as one of the most formi­ dable in the nation, was utterly dominant.

Stinger starting pivot Jon Kronemeyer was knocked out of the game early with bruised ribs by the hard-hitting goons in Red n’ White, and his back-up Hugo Fortier was inef­ fective.

Tackle-guru Mike Mahoney, who broke Olivier Lefebvre’s alltime school record with 97 on the season, and his cohorts on D did a bang up job of keep­ ing the ball out of the end-zone, and shutting down the Stingers’ run­ ning and passing games.

McGill was aided by the lame foot of Concordia kicker Rob McCallum, who missed four field goals, which could have made a difference in the game.

“It was a total team effort out there, and the defense stepped up big,” said McMann. “It’s hard to make out the numbers, but guys like Mahoney, Steve Colwell, and Andrew Cook were all over the field. The guys came ready to play today, and made the hits and big plays when needed.”

A glimmer of hope pervaded among Stinger fans late in the fourth quarter.

After taking over on their own two-yard line, Stingers quarterback Hugo Fortier, who was 12 of 31 for Tennis unable to pull out a win in Toronto

Both the men's and women's team sent one team of doubles and a single to Toronto over the week­ end. Jeff Rosenblatt had a close match, but ended up losing 7-6, 75. Unfortunately, identical scores were the result of Rosenblat's pair­ ing with Dskar "boom-boom" Handvick in doubles action. On the women's side of the court, Redmen Hockey Kathy Robinson-Cohen lost 6-2, 6Luc Valliancourt and the 0 to York and she and her partner Redmen Hockey team shut-out were also unsuccessful against Queen's last Friday in an easy 4-0 Toronto's doubles team. win. Paul Thériault, Bruno Lemire, Can-Am Challenge: no chal­ Doug Orr and Greg LeBlanc each lenge for McGill swim team contributed to the score with one goal apiece. Unfortunately McGill With the men's team placing coudn't pull out another win against RMC on Sunday. For the second and the women's finishing first time since 1973, RMC skated first, McGill was the overall winner off the ice victorious against the of the Can-AM two-day meet. The Redmen snapping a streak of 26 women had a total of 1105 points to defeat Laval, Montreal and the wins and 3 ties. men came second to Dartmouth

194 yards, completed a number of passes, and drove his squad across the mid-field marker.

But a brief two and out, fol­ lowed by a Strachan Hartley inter­ ception on a pass that had more hang-time than a Vince Carter spe­ cial, sealed Concordia’s playoff fate.

“It was an easy pick. After practicing on turf all week, I felt like I was in a quagmire out there, but all of us adjusted,” said an ebul­ lient Hartley, a fifth year senior and McGill co-captain. “Mahoney’s a monster on D, and Jason Manzano among others stepped it up a notch today. We hung in there, played hard, and did what we had to do to win.”

For the first time in a long time, the Redmen have a strong chance of playing deep into November.

Saturday’s playoff win was McGill’s first in five years. The road to the Vanier Cup goes through Quebec City next week, where the Redmen will face a Rouge et Or team fresh off the heels of a resounding 48-12 trouncing of Bishop’s in the other semi-final match-up.

The Redmen have defeated Laval twice this season at home.

The challenge will be ousting the 1999 Vanier Cup champions on the road, where Laval will have a thunderous backing of support at PEPS Stadium which regularly packs more than 10,000 rabid Rouge et Or supporters within its confines.

Despite never having beaten Laval in Ste. Foy, the Redmen are not intimidated.

“We beat them twice, and we can beat them again,” said Hoffmann. “It’s going to be a hard game. We need to stop their highpowered offence, and have a good balance on O. We need to execute and we can’t make mistakes.” with 1062 points. Now ten swim­ mers have qualified for the CIS Nationals.

Frank-Tindall Classic produces three exciting Martlet B-ball games Bringing their pre-season record to 4-5, McGill lost in over­ time to Queen's 71-70 and to Brock 71-69. Cheeka Mitchell had an impressive 21 points and 10 rebounds on against Queen's and Maude Vallières scored 17 points.

Sunday's game versus St. Mary's gave the Martlets their only win of the weekend with a score of 69-63.

The team will face the College of St. Francis this weekend in an exhi­ bition game in New York.

Winnipeg no match for Redmen basketball The Redmen Baskteball play­ ers won their sixth game of the pre­ season against Winnipeg last Please see Horn, page 18

Prognosticator KuztnaroVs Game Notes

Trib Game Ball - Nick Hoffmann - For the second straight week, Hoffmann, who led the league in touchdowns and tied David Fleiszer's 1969 McGill record with nine, was the go to guy on offense. He scored McGill's lone TD. Wearing in the House - 2000 McGill All-Canadian and recordbreaking receiver Ben Wearing , a reserve on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, was in attendance at Concordia on Saturday. He took advantage of some Bomber offdays to visit his family and old team­ mates. He had this to say of his experience on the Bombers so far: “It’s an adjustment from the college game, and I’m not contributing as much as I’d like, but I’m learning a lot. Players like Milt Stegall and Darian Gordon are great guys, the best I’ve played with, and Khari Jones is the league MVP. We’re going to be tough to beat in the playoffs.”

Pearl Gem - A dandy stat fished out by McGill sports com­ munications officer Earl Zukerman at 4 A.M on Friday, on the eve of the game - Josh Sommerfeldt led the Quebec conference with 1,657 yards passing, becoming the first McGill player to accomplish this feat since .... Jamie Crawford in 1984. Sommerfeldt was also sixth in the nation in passing.

Redmen conference all-stars Offense - Steve Ceolin - widereceiver who was leading the con­ ference in receptions and yardage with 23 and 290 respectively before breaking his leg a month ago against Laval. The Trib wishes him well in his recovery.

Patrick Lanctot - The senior from Verdun was third in the league in receiving with 378 yards, and 21 catches with one touch­ down.

Defense “The First Prime Minister of Defense”, John Macdonald — the wily fifth year veteran notched 28 tackles in six games, including six sacks before he went down with a shattered knee in practice.

Macdonald is hoping to dress for the Dunsmore Cup next week — and he became the all-time McGill leader in tackles for loss breaking Dallas Cowboys long-snapper Randy Chevrier’s old school mark.

He has 31.5 in 33 career games.

Mike Mahoney - No surprise here. Mahoney had one of the most dominating seasons in the long and storied history of the franchise with a record breaking 97 tackles. He was named the confer­ ence defensive player of the week three times, and became the first Redmen ever to earn a CIS player of the week honour.

18 Sports

The M cG ill Tribune, Tuesday, 6 Novemberr 2001

C h e e rle a d e rs : m o r e th a n

a song and

attract two new men in the fall to said. “Once a guy tries to do some ment as a problem.

Szasza, one of the original male give the team four men out of 27 of the stunts and skills, he really cheerleaders at McGill, came upon cheerleaders in total. gets a feel for how difficult and how If you were in attendance for a the team innocently enough. football game this fall, you would T h e a R u th e rfo rd “I happened to see a have been dazzled by extreme acts video of what they [the of athleticism: strong passes by cheerleading team] did and I Sommerfeldt, bone crunching tack­ thought ‘wow, that looks les by Mahoney, and thrilling dash­ really cool,”’ said Szasza of es by Hoffman. However, athleti­ being introduced to the cism was not confined to the play­ sport through his roommate. ing field.

“Then all the movies were For you see, the male cheer­ coming out showing how leaders are often overlooked. You neat it was.

I thought ‘what notice few men among their more the hell, I have a chance, let’s numerous and boisterous women give it a try.” counterparts. For many, however, As with any activity, the men cheerleaders are not there will always be few thought of in athletic terms. detractors.

Sitting in the “The biggest misconception of stands of the football game cheerleading for men is that it’s so there is some hint of com­ wimpy,’” said Colin Szasza, one of ments but for the most part the four male cheerleaders, after the it does not phase the male football game two Saturdays ago. cheerleaders.

“It is a lot of work. There are many “You don’t notice it that times that I go home after practice much,” said Szasza. “Most and I am in pain. As a cheerleader of the time you just have to you are doing a lot of work.” laugh because they don’t Having men on McGill’s know what they are talking cheerleading team is a relatively about.” new happening. Last year during The men don’t have the basketball season, co-ed rou­ “Move the ball down the field and score six more!” much time to notice the snide tines were introduced. According remarks, with attention on execut­ Van Zyl has her own explana­ athletic it really is.” to second year coach Lesley van ing various routines and encourag­ tion for such a small turnout by Van Zyl, a recent McGill grad­ Zyl, three men participated. Of ing fans to cheer for the home side. uate, went on to add that there were men for the team. these three, two returned this According to Szasza men contribute “I think that a lot of guys don’ t a lot more men interested in partic­ September. The team was able to realize what it encompasses,” she ipating, but saw the time commit- to the team primarily in the way of strength for lifts.

It is not to say, however, that the women on the team are inca­ pable of lifting —that could not be OKI R M )\ farther from the truth. When watching the team’s routine, it becomes apparent that for the most part, women support the pyramids and other high aerial stunts.

With the team now co-ed, additional stunts that are done in Mark Kerr

■ M il S i IS P

sS i

dance

pairs have been added. A man is teamed with a woman and the two do various lifts. Because of such an uneven ratio of women to men, however, the pair work is not as common. Both van Zyl and Szasza would like to see that changed in the future. van Zyl, over her four years of being involved with McGill cheer­ leading has seen an improvement in quality of the teams and in turn the acceptance by fans and players.

“Over the past four years, we have worked from being a team that did not really get a lot of respect from the school and athletes to one that is stunting at a high, competi­ tive level,” said van Zyl. “It gets a lot more respect from the athletes and therefore, from the fans and the school.”

Speaking of respect, the coach of the team is quick to caution against categorizing the girls according to the common Hollywood portrayal.

“You can say we look dumb or we act dumb, but there is no possi­ ble way that we could be here cheer­ ing and be dumb,” answered van Zyl when she was questioned about the stereotypical view of cheerlead­ ers as being ditzy.

The team will be looking to redeem itself with the football team at Nationals this year in Hamilton on Vanier Cup weekend. Last year, the team struggled after an integral athlete on the teamwent down with an injury.

Bringing home the gold would go a long way in proving to the McGill community that cheerlead­ ers, to paraphrase Szasza, are not simply singing and dancing in a nice uniform.

M ore around the horn continued from PAGE 17

Saturday. Fred Bernard was the team's high scorer with 17 points.

Now with a 6-1 record, the Redmen look set to bring on the regular season.

Chuck McMann: coach of the year

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Rookie football Head Coach Chuck McMann was named QIFC coach of the year after leading his team to a 4-4 record.

While this mark was inferior to that of Char l i e Baillie last y e a r , McMann had to deal with the loss of two key play­ ers.

Ben

Wearing, now with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Randy Chevrier now with the Dallas Cowboys both graduated last year. Despite the loss of these key stars. McGill was able to advance to the conference finals for the first time in four years.

The M cGill Tribune, Tuesday, 6 November 2001

M a r tle ts w in George Hadjis_____________ In what was definitely one of the most exciting volleyball match­ es of the year, the McGill Martlets outlasted the Laval Rouge-et-Or team by a score of 22-25, 31-29, 25^22, 19-25, 16-14. Smash after smash, this McGill team would not be outdone in this epic five-setter.

“Laval is traditionally a very strong team, a team that we need to respect a lot,” commented Head Coach Rachèle Béliveau, “It was a tough win.”

The opening set saw the home team stumble out of the gates. They had a tough time getting into a rhythm, thanks in part to the strong serve of Laval’s Nancy Labrecque. The Martlets did show signs of improvement as the set progressed by show­ ing flashes of the teamwork they are capable of.

This teamwork was the ticket to the team’s success in this match.

“The girls were very aggressive at the net and they were communicating much more than usual,” said Béliveau, who seemed almost surprised.

In the exciting second set, Julie Héroux displayed her many talents: serving, diving, smashing and most importantly, leading her team by example. Anne Robitaille and Shauna Forster also played extreme­ ly well which inspired their team­ mates. After wasting a four-point lead, the Martlets fended off three set points to take the marathon sec­ ond set and tie up the match.

There was no let down for the girls in red and white in the third set. The Martlets kept pounding the Rouge-et-Or with great smash­ es and hard serves. The Martlets also wore down the Rouge-et-Or with their tremendous height

b a rn b u rn e r

advantage. The visitors, however, almost made a miraculous come­ back. 11, they managed to bring it within two. All hopes of a come­ back ended when Julie Héroux’s powerful shot bounced inside the line to make the score 23-20.

The fourth set was a rather for­ gettable one for the home side. The

visitors came out with a surprising 12-5 start and never looked back.

The Martlets did fight back to within one but could not go that one step further.

Both teams came out rejuve­ nated for the fifth set. It ended up being the tightest set of the match with neither team ever getting more than a two-point cushion to fall back on. With the score tied at 14, the defining moment came. A phe­ nomenal cross-court smash by Shauna Forster gave her squad the

R ugby w o m e n continued from PAGE 1

the Martlets. The high scoring Martlets, who had 637 points in the regular season, managed only one try, that coming from LeighAnne Barlow. Stephanie Lynam added three points off of a penalty kick.

Needing a win to ensure a birth in the semifinal, McGill rose to the challenge several hours later by knocking off the host University of Ottawa by a score of 59-0.

Jessica Young, one of five McGill players named to the All-Canadian team at the Thursday’s banquet, led the way with three tries. Jessie Matiaszuk and Julie Brisebois both notched two tries while Mandy Brunet, Aviva Lavallee-Roberts, Anita Boray, and Patricia Jaworski all scored one each.

The first loss of the tourna­ ment proved costly because the Martlets had to face the defending champions from Alberta in the semifinal instead of the gold medal game. In short, the road to gold

victory.

On Sunday, McGill faced Sherbrooke and took a difficult 3-1 loss.

“We didn’t play as good against the Vert et Or, but I know we can beat them,” said Béliveau. “But with so many injuries, games are much more difficult for us and our performance level has been inconsis­ tent.”

Injury has cursed the Martlets this season, as one of their best hitters and veterans, Liz Jamieson is forced to play defense because of a bro­ ken finger.

Béliveau can’t wait for Liz to get back up to the net where she is need­ ed.

“Liz is our best hitter and without her, our hitting up at the net is lacking.

Until she comes back, it will be tougher to win games.”

As for the future goals of this injury-prone team, winning the Quebec division and making play­ offs is where they’re aiming. This goal will be tougher to attain than previous years as the quality of play of the other teams in McGill’s division has slowing increased. As Béliveau puts it, “It will end up being a battle of four teams. Laval has a secure place because they’re hosting, so it will be between Sherbrooke, Montreal and us to get that crucial last spot to get to the playoffs.”

th ird

best

could get some bigger girls that could handle the rain just in case it happened but I don’t really want to do that. I want to play a wide-open game. That’s my style of coaching.”

Another possible solution to getting over the hump at Nationals would be to schedule more exhibi­ tion games against teams of higher capability, de Grandpre, however, has already tried to do that over the past several years but has run into difficulty due to time constraints.

Regardless, the Martlets’s aim to end the University of Alberta women’s rugby dynasty. They’ll just have to wait one more year.

Note: At the CIS banquet held on Thursday at the Ottawa Congress Centre, five McGill Martlets were honoured as AllCanadians. Joining Young were Although next year is a long Stephanie Lynam, Julie Brisebois, way off, De Grandpre does not Leigh-Anne Barlow, and Patricia envision any drastic alteration of Jaworski. The five players were McGill school record. the team.

“I don’t really want to change our style,” said the coach. “We

became a lot more difficult.

“Our backs were to the wall on Saturday,” said de Grandpre. “The girls were really up for that game.

They wanted to come out and give it to Alberta.”

The flying Martlets put up a stiff fight against the reigning champs, allowing Alberta only a four point lead up until the last ten minutes. The Pandas pulled away in the end though to win the game 17-3.

The coach of the Martlets knewthat the players, after compet­ ing at such a high level, would not have trouble with Guelph.

“We are definitely the silver medal team,” argued de Grandpre.

“Unfortunately we lost that first game.”

44 9 4 I H t >4 44 i

Sports 19

Keep on keeping on R e d m e n v o lle y b a ll te a m e m b a rk on a p ro m is in g season Sarah Wright A team chalked full of charac­ ter and diverse ethnic background (namely Kingston, Jamaica; Tehran, Iran and even Sussex, New Brunswick) didn’t have the stamina and power needed to contend with Laval last Saturday.

“We expected to do a lot better than we did against them today,” said head coach, José Rebelo, adding: “we did fairly well against Laval last week and we were hoping to better our standings today.”

McGill was shut-out in three games against their rival Laval.

With 25-17, 25-19, and 25-22 decisions, the Redmen didn’t put up much of a fight until the third game. The Rouge et Or’s kills were more powerful, the blocks were bet­ ter timed and the serving was more consistent. Unfortunately, the lack­ lustre performance in the first two games proved to seal McGill’s fate as a bad case of cement-feet seemed to be plaguing most players.

Saturday’s loss was compound­ ed by a 3-0 loss to l’Université de Sherbrooke on Sunday. The Redmen dropped the games 25-14, 25-15, and 25-22.

The usual high level of energy displayed by the Redmen was not present on the court last weekend thus it was evident that energy level will be the determining factor in the team’s success this season.

Hope springs eternal The word success, however, really hadn’t been a part of the Redmen volleyball team’s vocabu­ lary until last season when it was finally recognized by McGill as a fully sponsored team.

“We’re just better,” coach Rebelo said in response to the team’s growing number of achieve­ ments. “We have the same guys this season, but we just have more expe­ rience and we know each other’s moves.”

Indeed, with a better, more experienced team, coach Rebelo has a lot of depth to work with when deciding on which players to give

court-time to. He was substituting players constantly to try and get the right mix of talent for the situation they were in.

“I’m trying to get the best out of everyone. I’ve got players who are better hitters, better blockers and better in the back row.”

Unlike many teams who rely on their starting six to carry them, the Redmen have more depth with which to operate.

“Our starting six are either really strong in offence or they’re really strong on defense. We don’t have many players who have both, so I can use my bench to compen­ sate and get the right people on the court for all game situations,” Rebelo commented on his team’s talent.

Some players to watch include Regan Morris, a senior from Fredericton, New Brunswick who showed great consistency in his passing and an awareness of his teammates positions enabling him to deliver the ball right to their hands.

Kyle Pushkarenko of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is also turning heads through his powerful hitting and blocking, denying Laval on several occasions.

Coach Rebelo argued, howev­ er, that no one player is expected to lead the team.

“Everybody has something special in them; it’s hard to pick one player who carries out team, because it really is a full team effort to win games.”

With only two regular season games under their belt, the Redmen have lots of time to make up for lost ground. Playing with different strategies against different teams, the volleyball team is eager to take on the Quebec division.

Coach Rebelo has a lot of con­ fidence in his players’ capabilities, and hopes to achieve at least a sec­ ond place finish in their division, the minimum placing required to make the playoffs, the team’s ulti­ mate goal.

Yo u ’ ve been studying hard all sem ester. You deserve a break! Come and enjoy our M cGill specials at Indianas.

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