The McGill Tribune Vol. 25 Issue 11

is M c G ill

NEWS: McGill: #1 in our hearts AND Macleans.

C u rio sity d elivers. Vol. 25 Issue 11

OPINION: Monty vs. T.O.: clash of the titans.

T r ib u n e P U B L IS H E D

BY

T H E

S T U D E N T S '

S O C I E T Y

O F

M C G I L L

A&E: W.O.W.-worth their weight in wax Tuesday, November 8, 2005

U N IV E R S IT Y

Martlets 3-peat as Q uebec so ccer champs D A V ID B LYE Som etim es, when two sides m eet on the field, it becom es clear very quickly which team is better. Other tim es, when two strong, wellbalanced team s m eet, the match is not about which one dominates the other, but instead about which squad makes the fewest mistakes and capitalizes on its oppo­ nents' errors.

Sunday night's Quebec University Soccer League cham pionship game be­ tween McGill and Université de Montréal definitely fell into the latter category.

In a game full of nearchances and hard defending, McGill finally wore down the Carabins' defence and scored the game's lone goal in the first m inute of extra-tim e, ending the tough, rain-filled

outing with a 1-0 victory at Molson Stadium.

But there w as little cele­ brating for a team that had all along expected to win the QUSL and earn a trip to the nationals, which start Thurs­ day in Edmonton. Captain and QUSL co-player of the year Shari Fraser felt that the Martlets could have played better.

"It was alright," Fraser said. "We got the job done, which counts in the end, but we know we can still play stronger. The first half was decent, but in the second half, we kind of crumbled under their pressure, but we held up. [Goalkeeper Victoria Villalba] came up with a cou­ ple good saves and we were strong in the back. But I'm happy we could come up with the win."

See OVERTIME page 22.

C A SA kicked out of the house SSM U council’s unanimous vote leaves students w ith o u t representation at the federal level JAMES G O T O W IE C The debate was short and sweet, unlike m ost discussions at Students' Society Council. After a mere 20 minutes, councillors voted Thursday to withdraw SSMU from the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, a federal lobby group.

Now an alliance of 18 universitylevel student associations, CASA repre­ sents the interests of roughly 30 0,0 00 students to various Cabinet ministers and

federal civil servants. SSM U's move means that McGill students now have no representatives in Ottawa to lobby on stu­ dent issues.

In presenting the motion to with­ draw, External Affairs Com m ittee Chairman Corey Shefman told Council that CASA was no longer right for SSMU. "CASA is sim ply unable to be changed to m eet the needs of our stu­ dents," he said. "CASA is, most important­ ly, not the CASA that we need today." He said that the association is unable to help

students in the fight for $4-billion in trans­ fer payments.

The issue is not a new one—Council considered withdrawing from CASA in March 20 04, debating for more than four hours over two sessions before ultimately deciding to remain in the organization. At the tim e, Martin Doe, a form er SSMU president and then-Board of Governors representative, argued that 40 per cent of M cGill's budget cam e from federal sources, and that lobbying those sources

n Nov. 11, we take a moment of silence to hon­ our veterans of worldwide conflicts. Despite hav­ ing such a designated date, remembrance and gratitude should not be neglected after the poppies fall off our coats. As conflict continues to wreak havoc, we must not forget that though many wars may have ended, m emory is forever.

O

See ALL page 3.

This Week in McGill Athletics M a r t le t

H o c k e y

A c t io n

F i t , N o v . 11 v s D a lh o u s ie 7:30 p m S a t ., N o v . 12 v s S a in t M a r y ’s 6:30 p m S u n ., N o v . 13 v s S a in t M a r y ’s 1 p m S a t . , N o v . 12 B a s k e t b a l l v s L a v a l ( W ) 4 p m ( M ) 6 p m T u e s . , N o v . 15 R e d m e n H o c k e y v s O t t a w a 7 p m w w w . a t h l e t i c s . m c g i i l . c a * a d v a n c e s t u d e n t t i c k e t s a t S a d i e ’s

news EXCLUSIVE

INTERVIEW

cover photo byVLADIMIREREMIN

- Sergeant

DEBBIE

BODKIN

Investigating genocide Canadian detective recounts her experience documenting abuses in Darfur Having already served in Kosovo and Chad, Sergeant Debbie Bodkin, a detective in the Intelligence Unit of the Waterloo Regional Police, spent six weeks in Sudan starting in late 2004.

Bodkin, 44, discussed her experience last Tuesday at the "Canada and Darfur" conference at Concordia, where she was one of the keynote speakers.

As one of 12 investigators with the UN Commission of Inquiry into Darfur, Bodkin interviewed victim s and witnesses in the vast Sudanese region, where conflict broke out in early 2003.

The interviews were compiled into a report and presented to five com m issioners, who concluded that while genocide is not occurring—they found insufficient evidence of intent to annihilate a particular race or group of people-violent acts in Sudan do constitute crim es against humanity.

What did you expect when you arrived?

I guess I was prepared for it because I'd been in Chad, so I had a good idea of what the victim s had gone through. I didn't know what it was going to be [like] in term s of safety, but the Sudanese government, who I truly believe were the ones behind the atrocities, knew our travel schedule so wherever we went, we didn't see any killings occurring.

What obstacles did you face?

Poor lines of communication amongst the other UN agen­ cies. They weren't allowed to talk to us because they claimed that they just couldn't be involved in the investigation in any way—they had to remain neutral. They weren't allowed, which was stupid in my opinion, to pass on nam es or locations or any­ thing to us. We were sent without any equipment, and yet [the UN] wanted a typed report. We didn't get that until the end of the m ission. We didn't get any briefing in term s of how they wanted the report put together, so each team did it in a differ­ ent manner. There was no consistency in term s of the three dif­ ferent team s submitting the report—they were each completely different. [The UN] also in the end only took what was written on paper, didn't ask about our experience or the difficulties we had with government. All of that was just kind of left out.

Who did you interview?

Everyone from rape victim s to [people] who witnessed their fam ily m embers being killed or raped or, occasionally, abducted We interviewed some of the government officials, some sup­ posed janjaweed mem bers, pretty much anyone who would show up. We would try to cover both from different areas around Darfur and from various tribes.

COURTESY DEBBIE BODKIN

While she was in Chad in August, Bodkin interviewed Mohammad's mother, who had fled the Darfur region.

"When we finished the interview, his mother asked the interpreter to ask me if I could please take Mohammad to Canada with me where he would be safe and not be killed. I would have loved to be able to."

What was a typical day like?

My partner and I were living in a UN guesthouse. We would get up around 7, have a quick breakfast at the house, and then our driver would show up and drive us to either our office or whatever village we were going to. We worked all day and we would just do interviews as soon as we arrived at a location.

Depending on where we were we would interview right until dark, or at least until sunset, and then get driven back to our house, have something to eat. Usually you're exhausted. You would fall asleep or when we did get the computers, we had to start typing up all the interviews we had done. We would type until about 11 o'clock at night but then the hydro would shut down. We worked seven days a week.

What person or story stands out most in your mind?

I think the toughest one for me to deal with then and still now was a lady who w as in her 30s. Her husband had been killed and then the janjaweed and government people raided her village. She w as gang raped over a course of about six days along with, she said, approximately 50 other wom en. She saw other young boys from her village killed in front of her. She cried throughout the interview, so it was very emotional. When she was released someone took her to a hospital—she doesn't know what it was that was done, but she said they removed things, so I presum e it was a hysterectomy. At the end of the interview I asked if she was concerned about her safety because people had seen her coming to talk to us, and she said it didn't matter because she wanted to die anyway.

How did these stories affect you?

I came back with post-traumatic stress. For a couple months I couldn't talk about it or read about it or do anything about it, which I found frustrating... Until I got some counseling on my own I wasn't able to function in regards to it, but now it's in my thoughts all the tim e. It frustrates me that nothing has happened, nothing has changed for the people. I just spoke to my inter­ preter and she said in the village where I lived, El Geneina, peo­ ple are now being attacked in the village, janjaweed are breaking into homes, so it's going on the sam e way as it has been for two years now.

Would you return to Darfur?

In a second, yes. ■ —Compiled by Jennifer Jett

CITY

W hen professors hit the picket line Université de Montreal professors strike over salary, benefits K A T H ER IN E SPIRGEN Dissatisfied professors at Université de Montréal went on strike Wednesday and Thursday over a longstanding salary dis­ pute with the university.

UdeM professors are seeking salary hikes to match the Canadian average for research universities, which translates into an increase of 11.5 per cent, or 7.6 per cent on top of a unionproposed annual raise of 3.9 per cent.

According to Statistics Canada, which was hired to gather and assess data for the professors' union, UdeM instructors are currently the lowest paid of any at Canada's research universities.

The universities, collectively known as the Group of Ten, include McGill, Q ueen's and the University of Toronto.

Former McGill provost Luc Vinet left last spring to become UdeM rector.

On Friday, after two days of strikes, the university offered professors a 3.6 per cent overall raise, 0.5 per cent of which would be dedicated toward raising salaries to levels comparable with those at other institutions. The Syndicat général des pro­ fesseurs et professeures de l'Université de Montréal rejected the proposal.

Louis Dumont, president of the union, accepted that it will take at least a year of progressive raises to bring UdeM salaries

in line with those of its counterparts. He derided, however, the 0.5 per cent university proposal as an unacceptably slow resolu­ tion of its complaints.

UdeM spokesperson Sophie Langlois said the university hoped to conclude negotiations as soon as possible. According to her, the administration is waiting for the union to present a counterproposal to the university's 3.6 per cent offer.

Langlois also argued that UdeM is limited in its negotiations by the amount of funding it receives from the provincial govern­ ment. Currently, she said, the university has little money available for pay increases.

The strike days have succeeded in airing union demands and putting pressure on the university, according to Dumont.

"It's a good tim e for colleagues to come together and to inform everyone why the professors are on strike/' he said.

UdeM students seem supportive of the professors' demands thus far. The professors' union has received at least five letters of support from student-faculty associations defend­ ing the strike, and Dumont hopes for more.

"We supported [the students] in last year's strike, so we're hoping that they will do the sam e for us," he said.

According to Dumont, the professors' strike may ultimately serve the interests of students as w ell. As he sees it, higher pay will attract additional professors and thereby allow the university

to keep class size at lower levels.

Strike at McGill unlikely The likelihood of such a strike at McGill remains minimal, as this university is one of the few in Canada without a professors' union.

Michael Smith, president of the McGill Association of University Teachers, said that a strike would be difficult to achieve without a union to defend instructors' rights. Still, he rejected the idea of unionization as unnecessarily confrontational. MAUT maintains an official policy against union formation.

According to Smith, prpfessor strikes reduce the quality of education by forcing class cancellations without proper compen­ sation later in the term.

"An association isn't just concerned with money or working conditions," said Smith. "It's interested in broader issues at the university, as well as the university's well-being."

The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill, the only TA union in the province, takes a different stance on unionization. According to Coordinator Lilian Radovac, unioniza­ tion could serve as a tool to improve education.

"Unions are the only mechanism in place that forces the university to negotiate," she said. "They give us the means to address problems." ■

the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05|

NEWS

news

3

ANALYSIS Continued from COVER

McGill is Canada’s No. I All options open but does it matter?

M cGill ties T o ro n to fo r 1st place in M aclean’s annual rankifigs JAMES G O T O W IE C

While sleepless nights for students are just over the horizon as exams approach, last weekend w as likely a sleepless one for university administra­ tors in the run up to the release of the annual M aclean's university rankings. But the top brass at McGill need not have w orried-for the first tim e in a decade the university cam e out on top, tied for first place in Canada with the University of Toronto. It's something the university has already started to trumpet.

Three of the top four news stories on M cGill's Web site highlight the school's place in various rankings, including the Times o f London's higher education supplem ent and Research Infosource's, a ratings company that ranks Canadian companies and universities on research spending. Add in M aclean's and the Globe and Mail's recently released University Report Card supplem ent, and it's not hard to get lost in the shuffle of who's rank­ ing who where. What does all this mean to stu­ dents, though? Does M cGill's ranking reflect the fact that it provides students with a good education or the fact that its professors can attract grant money?

Are students being served by the rankings culture?

The M aclean's rankings "touch on a number of different areas," says Jennifer Robinson, associate vice-principal comm unications. She said that the current ranking showcases, above all, McGill's exceptional student body.

"We have the highest entering grade of any university in Canada," she says, "and that's truly a reflection of the high quality of the students here."

Upon closer inspection, though, McGill is in the middle of the pack when it comes to library resources, class sizes and classes taught by tenured faculty, arguably things that better reflect the under­ graduate student experience.

Robinson acknowledged M cGill's showing in these categories, but said the university is improv­ ing.

"If you compare to last year you'll see that in many areas w e're moving forward," she says.

Do students care?

While much is made of a top-ranked school's place, whether students take them into account when choosing a school is questionable.

"I think it's more of a pride thing," said Philip Youssef, U2 Electrical Engineering, "It's more of an after the fact thing that you celebrate, rather than something that actually influences your decision."

Howard Tontini, M cGill's director of recruit­ ment, says that students do read the rankings, but agreed they probably don't influence application choices.

"I think that people really rely more on word of mouth and reputation and on what they know and what they read outside of M aclean's rankings," he said. "But certainly they look at it."

Ann Dowsett Johnston, the M aclean's editor in charge of the yearly project, feels that the rankings help to highlight issues in higher education, rather than foster competition between schools.

"I think the ranking is actually a public policy piece," she said. "I think people are interested in it, but I don't think they choose their university on it. I hope they don't."

Dowsett Johnston belives that prospective stu­ dents rely more on the magazine's annual guide­ book, released in February, which contains more in-

depth information on each school, when making their decisions to apply.

Bragging rights or guide to improvement?

In the US, much has been made of the US News and World Report rankings, and the continual drive among schools there to move up the list.

Some schools have even been caught misreporting information in the 650-part questionnaire. Experts have said that universities are becoming more con­ cerned about their spots in the rankings instead of educating students; in the November 2005 college supplem ent of the Atlantic Monthly, the president of a large liberal arts college w as quoted anonymously lamenting the "distortions and deceptions that the rankings process engenders." But when it was sug­ gested that his school stop cooperating with US News, he replied that it would be suicide. Indeed, over 95 per cent of schools in the US participate in the US News surveys. "[The editors] will just plug in their own data, and w e'll drop ten places in the rankings!" the pres­ ident said.

According to Dowsett Johnston, this is not the case in Canada.

"We have a radically different ranking system ," she said. "Ours is much more of a continual dia­ logue with the universities."

Her comments are supported by the fact that only 40 per cent of Canadian university officials respond to M aclean's survey.

Dowsett Johnston criticized US News for con­ tinually massaging their ranking formula leading, in part, to the frenzied competition for rankings spots among institutions south of the border. But while there may be a lack of intense competition north of the 49th parallel, universities still pay close atten­ tion to the rankings.

"Do w e pay attention to rankings, do we notice them ? Of course," said Robinson. But she said that the aspects identified as strengths or weaknesses do not influence what the university focuses on.

"What drives McGill policy is not things like the M aclean's rankings. What drives policy at McGill is a commitment to quality."

Dowsett Johnston said that in the end, the rankings help students make informed choices.

The current crop of students "is way more alert than even five years ago to the reality of cuts in stu­ dent services [and] crowded classroom s," she said.

"They know they have to shop carefully. It's a much more alert consumer group." ■

JAMES GOTOWIEC It was always first in our hearts. Thanks to Maclean's, now it's first in everyone else's minds.

was not a waste of tim e. He urged councillors to take a long view.

"It's irresponsible to make these kinds of decisions based on short­ term frustrations," he said.

SSMU executives, however, have continually m aintained that CASA is an ineffective group and unresponsive to their demands for change.

Thursday night, Doe, now the Law representative to Council, announced that he had changed his mind.

"CASA has been good to us and good for us," he said. "CASA has had its tim e to prove itself, but has not and probably will not reform in order to become an effective organization."

Engineering Representative Liz Munroe asked councillors whether students should be consulted about the motion. Max Reed, vice-president university affairs, answered that it w as SSMU that w as the member of CASA, not students them selves.

"CASA does not in fact represent students at M cGill; it represents SSMU," he said. "Therefore, it is per­ fectly logical that SSMU C o u n cil... is making this decision."

Reed also argued that any future lobbying efforts should be directed toward the provincial government, as education is a provincial responsibili­ ty-

"I would rank the federal gov­ ernm ent last on a list of priorities for external bodies to lobby."

No councillors spoke against the proposal. Most said that the $45,000 SSMU pays in fees to the group could be better spent elsewhere, and Council ultimately passed the motion 26-0, without abstentions.

Shefman said he w as "ecstatic" about the unanimous vote.

However, CASA National Director Phillippe Ouellette said that SSM U's desire to leave the associa­ tion had taken him by surprise.

"I'm flabbergasted," he said, adding that he had been unaware of the problems SSMU had with CASA. Ouellette said that CASA is the only student lobby group that can claim to have regular dialogues with those in government, and he sug­ gested that SSMU could have brought up its concerns with CASA membership to press for change. He also criticized Council for not asking students about the issue directly, rejecting Reed's logic concerning SSM U's approach.

"SSMU is a member of CASA, and who does SSMU represent?' he asked. "No discussion appears to have been done within the McGill student body on this issue. It's really kind of alarming. It was a very sud­ den thing."

Looking to the future, Shefman said that all options are on the table with regard to federal lobbying, including joining the Canadian Federation of Students, hiring a lob­ byist to work on behalf of SSMU or even using the $45,000 to help establish an Ottawa office for la Fédération étudiante universitaire du Q uébec, SSM U's provincial lobby group. CFS lobbies both federal and provincial governments and has a membership of over 4 5 0 ,0 0 0 stu­ dents.

"We're keeping all our doors open,” he said. "We haven't made any decisions yet, w e're not leaning towards anything." ■

N E WS BRIEF Tremblay wins another term Current Mayor of Montreal Gerald Tremblay w as re-elected to a second term on Sunday, defeating challengers Pierre Bourque and Richard Bergeron by a wide margin of nearly 20 percentage points. With the results from all 402 polling sta­ tions released early Monday morn­ ing, Tremblay received 54 per cent of the tally, or 227,208 total votes.

Closest rival (and Tremblay's prede­ cessor as m ayor) Bourque won 36 per cent, with 152,562 votes, and third-party candidate Bergeron received 8.5 per cent, with 35,889 votes.

'Tonight, there's no longer an ex-city and ex-suburbs—tonight there's one Montreal," Tremblay said in Monday's Gazette. "Be assured that I will always be the mayor of all citizens.”

Trem blay, a form er Liberal provincial cabinet minister, had been endorsed by both the Liberal and Parti Québécois provincial parties, and led Bourque in the polls through much of the race. Plus, he had excel­

lent odds. According to the Gazette, Montrealers have re-elected every first-term mayor in the past four decades to a second term.

Tremblay's first election in 2001 w as assisted greatly by high levels of discontent among Montreal residents over the issue of merging sm aller m unicipalities into the City of Montreal, a move that Bourque had supported during his term as mayor from 1994 to 2001. As many as 15 m unicipalities have recently voted to demerge and regain their independ­ ence from the city.

Bourque gave a m elancholy concession speech Sunday night.

"I have to concede and congrat- ulate Mr. Tremblay," Bourque said in the Globe and Mail, which noted that Bourque was noticeably upset and tearful. "I didn't expect it at all. I expected to win."

Sunday was also municipal elec­ tion day across the entire province of Quebec, with voters in 780 munici­ palities electing more than 500 may­ ors and 2,500 city councilors.

—Robert Church

4

NATIONAL

news | 8.11.05 | the mcgill tribune CORRECTION: In the Nov. 1 edition of the Trib, the article "Actually, you look like shit" was written by Liz Allemang and “Getting back in the game" was written by Genevieve Jenkins. Whoops! Our bad.

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After months of the sponsorship scandal and subse­ quent inquiry dominating national headlines, Justice John Gomery released Phase One of his findings last Tuesday.

The report pinned blame on form er Prime Minister Jean Chretien, though several of his cabinet m inisters and cronies were also deemed responsible for the misappro­ priation of $ 100-million in public funds between 1997 and 2001.

Prime Minister Paul Martin was quick to unveil his plan of action in light of the report's findings. Martin pledged repayment from the Liberal Party of $1.14-m il­ lion to the federal government. Further retribution is expected: Martin ordered government lawyers to sue 31 people and companies to recover $44-m illion in public money.

Despite Martin's being absolved and taking swift action in light of G om er/s findings, Canadians are clear in their disapproval of Martin and the Liberal Party.

Five days after the release of the report, 71 per cent of those polled in a Clobe and Mail/CTV News survey said that Martin should be held accountable.

The poll found that Liberals would garner only 28 per cent of the vote, compared to the Conservatives' 31 per cent. Only three weeks ago, the Liberal Party sat comfort­ ably at 38 per cent.

Political Science Professor Richard Schultz said that, though the immediate drop in Liberal support may be a sign of a significant trend, it may also be a knee-jerk reac­ tion.

"It is more important to see what happens in the next two or three polls," Schultz said.

Though displeasing, Liberal McGill President Olivier Lavoie said that the fluctuation isn't of particular concern.

"It's more serious than a blip," he said, "but it does­ n't represent any substantive ideological shift."

Political Science Professor Eric Belanger said that the report would not have any effect on Quebec public opin­ ion.

"In Quebec, the damage to the Liberal Party's image has already been done," he said. "This image is likely to remain tarnished for a couple more years."

The negative press surrounding the Liberals during the inquiry has only triggered a boost in support for sov­ ereignty, Belanger said.

"This means the Bloc Québécois will be able to surf again on the sponsorship scandal for the next federal election."

Liberal Party spin doctors have been quick to point out that that the "culture of entitlement" which fostered the scandal is by no m eans specific to this administration.

"The Liberal party's ability to pull rabbits out of a hat consistently amazes me. A t this point, nothing will surprise me."

-Professor Richard Schultz

"The Liberal Party has no monopoly on irregular behaviour," Lavoie said. "If Canadians want to roll up their sleeves and get rid of political corruption, they need to do a hell of a lot more than vote against the Liberals."

Schultz said that while the impact of the findings on any upcoming election is unpredictable, it could result in another minority government.

"The best hope for the Liberals is that the anger will dissipate and that they will get a chance to drag it out until April," he said.

Though the Gomery report has, at present, stained their image, a Liberal comeback is not to be ruled out.

"The Liberal Party's ability to pull rabbits out of a hat consistently am azes me," Schultz said. "At this point, nothing will surprise me."

Phase Two of the Gomery report, which will consist of recommendations to the federal government, is tenta­ tively set to be released on February 1. ■ A copy o f Phase One o f the Gomery Report can be found at www.gom ery.ca/en/phasel report/.

CITY

FTA A protests hit home Montreal demonstrations coincide with summit D A N IEL AM IN

? M c G ill The Faculty of Arts Presents

A McDonald-Currie Lecture

T h e A r t of Slavery: H ow Masters and Serfs C reated C ulture in Im perial Russia Serf-era and provincial Russia heralded the spectacular turn in cultural h isto ry that began in the 1860s. P rofessor Stites w ill discuss th e role o f arts and artists in society s value system in the last decades o f serfdom and how the cu ltu re o f this flam boyant era offers new perspectives on the origins o f Russia s nineteenth-century a rtistic prow ess.

P ro fe s s o r R ic h a rd S tit e s D ep artm ent o f H isto ry G eorgetow n U n iversity,W ash in g to n, D .C .

Thursday, November 24, 2005,6:00 p.m.

R e ce p tio n to fo llo w Step hen Le a co ck B u ild in g R o o m

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8 S S S h e rb ro o ke S tre e t W e st F o r m o re in fo rm atio n co n ta ct th e D e p a rtm e n t o f R u ssian and S lavic S tu d ie s: T e l: ( 514 )

SEMINAR: “POPULAR MOVIES AND RUSSIAN AUDIENCES" Friday, N ovem ber 25, 2005, 2:00 A rts Building, A rts C o u n cil Room

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398-3639

A small but dedicated group of protestors braved the cold on Friday afternoon for a street carnival timed to coincide with the Sum m it of the Am ericas in Argentina.

The event, organized by a coalition of activist groups from around Montreal, was attended by about 200 people, many of them McGill students.

Protestors gathered to oppose last weekend's sum ­ mit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where the leaders of 34 North and South American countries met to discuss the future for a hem ispheric free-trade zone. Protests in that city erupted in violence in the first days of free-trade negotiations.

Following skepticism from several Latin American leaders, bilateral and limited multilateral agreements have become the focus of negotiations, which Prime Minister Paul Martin expects to resum e next year.

Mike da Cruz, U2 History and Classics, attended the protest because he thinks bilateral agreements will do more harm than good. “[Bilateral agreements] are undemocratic and hurt the poor," he said. "They're even worse [than the Free Trade Area of the Americas] because the US can strongarm poor countries into doing exactly what it wants."

While many opponents argued the FTAA would give too much power to wealthier countries such as the US and Canada at the expense of poorer Latin American states, its dem ise has only raised new concerns for pro­ testors. Some Latin American governments appear willing to sign bilateral free trade agreements, a possibility that worried those at the demonstration.

"While the FTAA vyas terrible, sm all countries negoti­

ating with the US don't have the sam e negotiating power.

The States has taken advantage of this," said event organ­ izer Marisa Berry Mendez, U3 International Development Studies.

The demonstration began at Square Dorchester at Peel and René-Lévesque. The demonstrators then took to the street, first heading up rue University and then contin­ uing through downtown. The group was led by a proces­ sion of bikes and followed closely by police. As they marched, demonstrators blocked off the streets to rush hour traffic, angering a number of drivers and amusing some pedestrians.

McGill students represented a significant portion of event attendance, with participation from such McGill groups as Oxfam McGill, NDP-McGill, Students Taking Action in Chiapas, the Grassroots Association for Student Power, and Midnight Kitchen. According to students, protesting the sum m it was also a way of demonstrating support for the poor in Latin Am erica, whom they think will be most harmed by free trade agreements.

"We're here to protest what's being done in our nam e," da Cruz said. "We're also here to stand in solidar­ ity with those in Latin American countries who are protest­ ing."

Most people at the protest also opposed increased Canadian involvement in free trade. Prime Minister Paul Martin spoke at the sum m it on Friday, saying that free trade throughout the Am ericas could be beneficial to workers in all countries.

"Canada isn't yet involved in the bilaterals," Mendez said, "so it is really important for us to get the word out before Canada tries to do something that w e're not okay with." ■

the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | news

CAMPUS

5

Q UO TABLE

SSMU sits for complaints Students’ Society execs take beef from students In response to a question posed by McGill Daily Coordinating Editor Josh Ginsberg, Mwotia expressed concern over the publication of Chudleigh's colum ns, call­ Students' Society executives sat for questions from ing for a better system for monitoring content within concerned students last Friday in an interactive event SSMU-funded publications through a designated media dubbed “Have Your Beef with SSMU." While on stage at board.

G erts, the execs addressed a number of broad issues "We have the Equity Committee working on the such as faculty-SSMU relations, international student fees, Tribune [issue], and w e're going to work o n ... drafting a the editorial autonomy of The McGill Tribune, the CKUT report," Mwotia said. "If one of our publications fucks up, referendum and the status of Gert's. we need to have a better feedback m echanism to make SSMU President Adam Conter, however, identified as sure shit is working." the most pressing issue the administration's recent restric­ Amal El Masri, external coordinator of the Women's tions on use of the trademarked name "McGill" by cam­ Studies Students' Association, expressed doubts about pus clubs. The university announced this w eek that clubs SSM U's response. formed after 1999 w ill be forced to remove "McGill" from "I think the response was comprehensive, but my their nam es., concern isn't exactly [SSMU's] response," said El Masri. “I wanted to publi­ cize a specific concern of the WSSA. My real interest right now is to see if SSMU will follow up on what they say, not specifically on a certain colum nist's piece, but on the Tribune's policy of publishing sexist con­ tent."

Many of the students who attended, however, seem ed satisfied by SSMU executives' responses, and by the free pizza and pop provided.

“I felt for the most VLADIMIR EREMIN part they did a really good job of addressing the ques­ SSM U execs responded to various complaints, including those about the Tribune. tions," said Arts Senator Malek Yalaoui. "Obviously they couldn't go into all the Leon Mwotia, SSMU vice-president clubs and servic­ complicated details of each question." es, and Roz Freeman, SSMU vice-president communica­ The turnout at Gert's, while an improvement over tions and events, joined Conter in emphasizing SSMU's last year, was limited to only a few dozen students. At interest in the matter, which they said was only recently least one executive, however, found the levèl of student brought to their attention. participation encouraging.

"Regarding the use of the 'M cGill' name in our stu­ "I definitely am happy," Freeman said. "I take [the dent clubs, I think that's very important," said Conter. low turnout] in a positive light to think that maybe [stu­ "That's new information that we have to make sure we dents] don't have beef with the SSMU. I don't want to look into a n d ... address properly." believe that it's because they're not interested, because W hile SSMU has yet to define its policy toward the w e've done a lot to increase interest in our Society." university's trademark restrictions, executives did discuss Conter, however, was more skeptical about the the issue of editorial autonomy in SSMU-financed publi­ turnout. cations. The McGill Tribune, which receives funding from "I would love to say I'm assuming that it's because SSMU but rem ains editorially autonomous, has come w e're all doing a great job," he said. "But I think we have under fire for its recent publication of an opinion column to recognize that w e're still in the midterm period and criticized as sexist and demeaning to wom en. The column people co u ld ... still be writing midterms or [reluctant to] in question, written by Brandon Chudleigh, w as published go talk student politics. It's not always the most popular on O ct 11. thing." ■

KAYVON AFSHARI

Spoken Word and Unofficial Truths

"I took Feminist Theory."

- S tu d e n ts’ S o cie ty V ice-President C lubs a n d Sen /ices Leon M w otia, resp on d in g to a qu estio n a t SSM U C oun cil Thu rsday a b o u t w hether m em b ers o f the C lubs a n d S erv ice s com m ittee h a ve the p ro p e r training in g e n d e r th eory to b e a ble to m ake d e cisio n s rega rd in g the future o f the Union fo r G en d er Em p ow erm en t

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Spoken Word is not an event only for the exposure of poetry and fiction; not only for those writers who entertain us. Non-fiction too deserves a voice.

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Why should the realm of independent criticism be overlooked in our literary circuses? As well as intoxication, let Spoken Word make room for sobriety, for those who take seriously the relations between idea and experience. There need be no shame in expressing oneself philosophically, whether the topic be objective or subjective. There should be no obstacle to the democratic privilege of independent opinion, no fear of the insights we may offer each other about the state of the world or the condition of the self.

H e a th e r M u n ro e -B lu m

Let Spoken Word signify an open forum bringing to life what the authorized media fail to represent: that wider community of active minds which refuses to be marginalized. However quiet or scarce those voices may be, no one should underestimate the influence of disarming candour.

Let's challenge what the masterminds of public opinion call realism by speaking out directly to those curious enough to taste unofficial truths.

invites students, faculty and staff to an open forum to discuss issues of relevance to the McGill community W e d n e sd a y , N o v e m b e r 16, 2 0 0 5 1 :0 0 p m — 2 : 0 0 p m

To participate in the new Independent Forum readings, or to suggest future topics, please contact LS. Cattarini at (514) 483-0934.

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new s | 8.11.05 | the mcgill tribune

CAMPUS

Liberated Bodies liberates your Molson muscles New clubs hosts ‘Feel G ood Day/ aims to prom ote healthy body image T R A C I JO H N S O N

that the event is open to everyone, including faculty and admin­ istrators.

After Feel Good Day, the club plans to offer workshops at The image is everywhere. Lindsey Lohan dazzles the • Residence halls to inform students about unrealistic body paparazzi with protruding shoulder blades; billionaire Mary-Kate images and to educate all genders about the dangers of eating Olsen flaunts hollowed-out cheeks; ads selling everything from trendy jeans to LSAT prep courses depict happy, successful and— disorders. above all-th in individuals. The message is clear: Thin is still in, and being slim will make you happy.

"There's so m uch pressure out there and it starts so Liberated Bodies, a newly formed campus club, aim s to dis­ young. Liberated Bodies is about unraveling these pel this and other body-image stereotypes formed by media and pop-culture forces. The group has declared tomorrow McGill's m yths and m aking people self-aware." first Feel Good Day, and its members will be on campus hand­ ing out inspirational m essages, candies and coupons for hot —Z a k Miller, Liberated Bodies vice-president external chocolate and biscotti at Café Delifrance.

"We just want to make people feel good about them selves," said Zak Miller, vice-president external. "We're promoting healthy 'W e want to go to the Residence halls because that”s where body images and also trying to raise awareness about eating dis­ the problems can start," Miller said. "It starts where there are orders." new pressures and new anxieties."

On Feel Good Day, students can drop by Café Delifrance to Cindy Bois, a nurse at the Eating Disorders Unit in Student redeem their coupons and stay for m usic, movies and other Health Services, also cited Residence life as a risk factor in the activities Liberated Bodies execs have planned. Miller stressed development of unhealthy eating habits. "Eating disorders start

during stressful periods, and being away from home for the first tim e is stressful," she explained. "Students can also be influ enced by new friends and roommates who maybe have an eat­ ing disorder, and then they don't know what normal eating is."

Bois was quick to point out that eating disorders are a prob­ lem everywhere, not just at M cGill, and are not exclusive to uni­ versity life. Multiple factors cause people to develop unhealthy attitudes about food, she said, arguing that Western culture in particular encourages girls to equate thinness with happiness and success.

"If you look at the media, the slim girl looks happy and healthy, and the heavier girl looks depressed and unhappy," she said. "In the media, being thin is the source of happiness, and girls start thinking that if they're not thin they can't be success­ ful."

After seeing many of his friends suffer from eating disorders in high school, Miller was surprised to find that there hadn't been a club like Liberated Bodies on campus until recently.

“I was surprised to find out that this w as new," he said.

"There's so much pressure out there and it starts so young.

Liberated Bodies is about unraveling these myths and making people self-aware." ■

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the mcgill tribune | 8. Il .05 | news

CAMPUS

No mocking this mock-up McGill plays U N for weekend of high school fun RO BERT CH U R CH Model United Nations conferences have long beencompetitive and fondly-remembered events for passion­ ate high school students everywhere, and this weekend McGill will host more than 1,000 student delegates at the 13th annual Secondary Schools United Nations Symposium.

From Nov. 10-13, McGill students will organize and run the SSUNS at the Delta Centre-Ville, with activities including a mock General Assembly, a keynote address by Allan Rock, Canada's ambassador to the UN, and tours of McGill and Old Montreal.

SSUNS, which is organized by the International Relations Students' Association of McGill University, is one of Canada's most visible and well-attended model UN conferences, and it attracts delegates from all over the globe. Each conference delegate is assigned a specific country and tasked with representing that country's con­ cerns regardless of their own personal views. Delegates are given their committee assignments in advance, and are required to study and prepare background material According to their Web site, IRSAM was formed in the 1950s by a group of students concerned with pro­ moting the values of the newly-formed UN. IRSAM exec­ utives choose the conference them e each year—the them e of this year's conference is "An Agenda for C hange..."

"Politics is inherently about change," said SSUNS Director of Public Relations Daniel Radmanovic. "It is about how change affects the behaviour of individuals and states, and how these actors can effect change pur­ suant to their interests. Our goal at SSUNS 2005 is for each delegate to gain a better understanding of the con­ cept of change and, perhaps more importantly, how they as active m embers of civil society can bring about such change."

According to Radmanovic, this year's conference will bring together roughly 1,060 high school students and their faculty advisors, more than 200 McGill student vol­

unteers and numerous professors who will serve as guest speakers.

IRSAM is not alone in targeting some of its activities to high school students. The McGill Debating Union recently organized a tournament that saw more than 200 young people descend on campus for a weekend of debate competition in which McGill student volunteers

V L A D IM IR E R E M IN

Over 1,000 students will represent the various states. acted as judges.

Paul-Erik Veel, vice-president of the McGill Debating Union and SSMU academic research commissioner, said that such events help younger students become accus­ tomed to university life. "[The students] love it," he said. "This year we had to turn away a lot of team s—we had 30 more team s than usual, up to 109. It first gives them a chance to see a uni­ versity, and learn more about it, but also gets them excit­ ed to get feedback from other people who are involved in debating. ... We'll of course talk to them and answer any questions that they have about the school."

According to Veel, organizing high school events can be a lucrative endeavour for university clubs.

"It's partially a fundraising event," he said. "A lot of universities use their debating tournaments for fundrais­ ing, and it can be pretty successful." ■

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Th’ MAKlbdwftdflhf <>, ■(wifi-: tL' I’m,,! .< Governor-General M ichaëlle Jean has again i • tti* raised the ire of Quebec separatists, this tim e by mak'n8 light of PQ leadership candidate André Boisdair's ,m m lm *l> past use 0f cocaine. At Ottawa's annual press gallery dinAllhrtsftft) Mill]*' ner_ w here politicians and public figures traditionally mock tffif* im g (*.1f ir them selves and others before the media, Jean played on 1 liflCCfth * the double meaning of the word "line,” then joked about ,, * serving "sandwiches and coke" at a lunch in Boisdair's honv i (W p Qur j ean's own sjster.( w h0 apparently didn't get the jokes, !*•; Ju iid u r sent a letter to La Presse charging her with "bad taste." • \l fU r « According to the Journal de Montréal, Ben Stiller has forced ■V, production on his upcoming movie to change places from Montreal to Vancouver. Apparently, Stiller prefers filming in Vancouver, even when it costs la belle ville the 500 jobs and $41 k’W million already dedicated to the project. • An Austrian man fe stie k m under the influence of several bottles of red wine jumped from I k 'i è a c v the fourth floor of a building in Graz, Austria, last Tuesday, while shouting, "I am Superman! Nothing can happen to me!" inton Fortunately, nothing did happen to him, as he snagged on a por­ d y ta l« v n tion of the roof and was spared serious injury. • Judge Walter Steed of Hildale, Utah, is fighting for his job after being revealed The « « t as a serial polygamist. Judge Steed has three w ives, all of Bad," whom are biological sisters, but his attorney has argued that practising bigamy—which is punishable in Utah by up to five i trajkjç its . • years in prison—is a private matter irrelevant to job perform­ ance. Hildale and the neighbouring town of Colorado City, t fe w lfw t Arizona, are renowned as the last openly bigamist settle­ (Î ments in the United States. • A thief in Southern t i f i t e u . my* California successfully raided the safe of a small-town Krill* lilt) JJ pizza parlour, but not before donning an apron and making him self a snack. Video from the restaurant Kipca t e him p v recorded the man arranging toppings and baking his H: v j ML , , own pizza, and it is now being used to identify

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Sources: AP, bbc.co.uk, ebexa, Journal de Montréal

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w h a t it m e a n s t o b e a w h o le p e r s o n , b y d o in g w h a t w e c a n to fix s o m e o f t h e w o r l d s b r o k e n b its .

T h a t ’s w h y w e r e m o r e c o n c e r n e d w i t h th e h e r e - a n d - n o w th a n th e h e r e a fte r .

W e a p p r e c ia te tr a d itio n , b u t w e liv e in th e p r e s e n t . L e t s ta lk a n d lis t e n to e a c h o th e r th is S u n d a y at 1 0 :3 0 a m .

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opinion

W hip It

Monty burns B R A N D O N C H U D L E IG H

Guest Soap

They are not flowers.

They are poppies.

M A TT CA M PBELL want to take a moment to reflect on Remembrance Day, a day during which Canadians pay tribute to those who fought and died for us throughout our short history as a nation. It's been 87 years since Nov. 11, 1918, the day that marked the end of the First World War, but on this day, we still rem em ber the costs of war and the sacrifices young Canadians made in the name of freedom . To do this, we sport red poppies, rem inding us of Flanders Field in Belgium, where poppies grew over fresh graves.

How is it, then, that a number of peo­ ple commented on m y poppy the other day by saying, "Hi, I like the flower on your shirt!" It sends an unnatural feeling through your body. What I thought to be an interna­ tional symbol maybe isn't so international after all. Is that perhaps the problem, or is it something deeper?

Indifference to war is one of thé mod­ ern sins we commit without even knowing it I think this was best demonstrated in an article printed in last year's Tribune, where a student, when asked whether or not she bought a poppy, stated, "No, I am not a fan of the fake poppy. It's cheap and I find it's rather tasteless. If anything, I would wear a real poppy. However, I generally refuse to wear poppies: le fs move on from the past and stop the yearly guilt trips on which we indirectly bash the war initiators for the slaughter of fam ily m embers we no longer

I

rem em ber—it's a m ere way of laying blame."

It's this kind of complacent attitude that rips through my gut like a knife. It's a perspective that makes me cringe and question my faith in humanity. Forget the democratic deficit on cam pus; maybe we should focus on a virtue deficit While I acknowledge that many students do pay respect to their elders and sport the poppy, I have little tolerance for the minority that doesn't This sentim ent—and, in particular, com m ents about how the poppy is "cheap"—should not be welcom e inside the Roddick gates, nor anywhere in this country.

I know it's an old cliché, but if there's one lesson to learn, its that those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it Someday, w e're going to have to think back—even to events that came before our tim e—to avoid repeating some awful mistakes. So I hope we can all take a few moments out of our day on the 11 th of November, on the 11th minute of the 11th hour, to commemorate those who fought and perished in the First World War and other wars.

Lest we forget. ■ M att Campbell is a U l Political Science and Econom ics student, and he will be hug­ ging a veteran on Friday.

s a McGill undergrad, you're inevitably dianized crap like chicken balls in red sauce— under a few im pressions. The admin Toronto is authentically ethnic. Sure, w e don't hates you. The Students' Society is use­ have regional "delicacies" like pea soup and less. Toronto is a shithole and Montreal is the poutine, but we have more than three Thai awesom est place ever. While I can't speak to and Indian restaurants. Maybe if I enjoyed eat­ the first two, the third, I can assure you, is ing overpriced steak frites or bland pasta— completely untrue. apparently all Montreal has to offer—every From the moment I got my frosh bracelet night, I'd have a different opinion. in first year, I've heard from no shortage of 3. Toronto has come to term s with its people who hate the Canadian mecca and Americanization and, as such, benefits from spew anti-Toronto venom. Though purebred cheap chain restaurants and mass-produced Montrealers inherently hate Toronto—after all, discount clothing. Capitalistic? Yes. But you what sibling isn't jealous of his bigger, more can't put a price on the availability of Taco Bell. cosmopolitan brother?—I find it most disturb­ 4. Please explain the following: Bars in ing that the anti-T.O. sentim ent is most preva­ Montreal are open until 3 a.m ., but the Metro lent among self-hating Torontonians. self-im plodes at 12:30. if a boozy patron w ish­ It was only natural that we experienced es to return hom e post-partying—without som e self-loathing upon im m ersion into coughing up cab fare or waiting for the crapMontreal. Initially, the new city w as an enticing tacular night buses—is it even possible? minx that could bend in ways our fair Ontarian Toronto—much maligned in these parts for its capital could not But after the charm wore off, lack of nightlife—has decent 24-hour bus and as the hydro bills set in, I became decreasroutes, not to mention a subway that operates ingty convinced of Monty's allure and found until the w ee(er) hour of 1:30 a.m . m yself longing for the comfortable fam iliarity 5. Whereas mayoral elections in Montreal and big-city am enities of Toronto. So for those centre on issues like fixing potholes, Toronto about to get up on their high horse for this politics are concerned with pertinent city mat­ one-trick pony, I would like to visit a few key ters (M el Lastm an's illegitimate spawn aside). advantages that Hollywood North has over And they can afford to be, since the city is Paris West. actually well maintained and the streets are 1.

If you want to fly to Raleigh-Durham paved more than once a century. Plus, unlike direct, you can. Have you ever checked out the Montreal, Toronto doesn't sm ell like horse direct flights departing from Trudeau? There's m anure on a bi-weekly basis. nothing. You can't even get your ass to New But even though most anti-Torontonians O rleans-a city with Acadian roots, no le s s won't be brought back from the dark side by without a layover. And, of course, you know my well-reasoned arguments, I'm comforted where most flights from MTL to th’e US are by the fact that it's nothing more than a phase. routed through—Pearson International, of After all, when it's tim e to get jobs and go out course. Might as well save yourself the trouble into the real world—and especially for those and start off in a legitimate city. who blindly embrace Montreal despite not 2.

With a Greek area that isn't confinedspeaking to a lick of French—we all know where a four-block stretch of cobblestone and about the action is, and it ain't up the S t Lawrence seven real Chinatowns—none of this Cana- without a paddle. ■

A

Funambulism

In defence of Ste. Cats-calls C R IS T IN A M ARKHAM

henever Montreal is boiled down to stereotypical catchalls, the list always includes the sam e things: poutine, smoked meat, creepy old men who will hit on anything that moves, underage drinking and chain-smoking pre-teens. To me, though, the most quintessential Montreal experience involves so much more than greasy fries and curd cheese—you haven't experienced Montreal until you've been accosted by the man yelling in front of a strip club.

This man's job is to stand in front of the bar at all hours of the day and attempt to lure people into the club with prom­ ises of lap dances and girl-on-girl action. His mother must be so proud. Love him or hate him, walking down Ste.-Catherine wouldn't be the sam e without his barrage of lurid entice­ ments.

However, the very existence of this staple of Montreal cul­ ture, this lynchpin of downtown nightlife, may be threatened.

For years, the Château du Sexe has generously pumped out decade-old dance hits and repetitive house beats for all of Ste. Cats to enjoy. But this past week, the Château was forced to shut down its outdoor speaker. The order didn't come from

W

police responding to a simple noise complaint, but from the Supreme Court of Canada.

For the past few years, the club and the City of Montreal have been in and out of courts over the issue. The club own­ ers argued that their freedom of expression was being impinged upon by a city bylaw that barred the use of sound equipment to amplify music, speech or anything else so that it can be heard outside a building. They claimed that the bylaw was too sweeping, in that it doesn't set a specific decibel level, distinguish between residential and commercial areas, or refer to the hour of the day or night when the noise is prohibited.

The owners also noted that they are being targeted sim ­ ply because their business is of a sexual nature, pointing out that the malls down the street broadcast their m usic with impunity. The Quebec Court of Appeals agreed with the Château, but the city petitioned to the Supreme Court, which found against the venerable Montreal institution.

In light of this decision, I have to ask: who is going to stand up for the rights of these poor, innocent sm ut peddlers?

If the Gap is allowed to entice customers w itkthe dulcet tones

of John Mayer, why can't the Château du Sexe seduce its clientele with the strains of Reel 2 Real's 1994 smash hit "I Like To Move It?" Were this going on in a quiet little cul-de-sac in Westmount, or across the street from a nursery school, I could understand it. But this is downtown Montreal! The city of music, life and general debauchery! What will they take away from us next? No more dancing on the tables at Queue-leuleu? No more impromptu karaoke in the line-up outside Café Campus? Worse yet, will they eventually insist upon the removal of my favourite man in the city, the belligerent stripdub barker? Who will I argue with on my way home from the Madhatter?

Call me sentim ental, but there are certain aspects of this city that I just can't do without. Montreal just wouldn't be Montreal without the bus drivers who pretend not to under­ stand my French, the traffic laws that are taken as suggestions and the tasteless and tacky skin bars on every corner. After all, if I wanted to live in a bland, unexciting cultural wasteland. I'd just move back to Toronto. ■

9

The

the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 ] opinion

McGill Tribune

EDITORIAL

Better off without “McGill”

Curiosity delivers.

Editor - in -C hief

Liz Allemang editor@mcgilltribune.com

"Names are an important key to what a society values. Anthropologists recognize naming as 'one o f the chief m ethods for imposing order on perception -D avid S. Slawson

M a n a g in g Editors

Jennifer Jett Andrew Segal seniored@mcgilltribune.com Pro ductio n M anager

Lara Bekhazi production@mcgilltribune.com N ews Editors

Robert Church James Gotowiec Niall Mackay Roberts news@mcgilltribune.com Features Editors

Genevieve Jenkins Lise Treutler features@mcgilltribune.com A&E Editors

Ben Lemieux Melissa Price arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors

David Blye Adam Myers sports@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editors

Lukas Bergmark Vladimir Eremin photo@mcgilltribune.com

cGill's reputation in the higher-education community has taken some hits recently, to the extent that it wouldn't come as much of a surprise if some campus student groups wanted to dissociate them selves from the school. Strangely enough, the process looks like it's going in the opposite direction: McGill is refus­ ing to acknowledge its connection with students.

On Thursday, Students' Society club and service executives were notified of a university directive stating that if their group was formed after 1999, they would be required to remove the name "McGill" from its official title. While these clubs are still allowed to use "of McGill" at the end of their nam es-TV M cGill, for example, can now be "TV of McGill" or just 'TV"-forbidding the use of M cGill's name in these groups is just another example of the administration's disregard for the students that are the university's lifeblood.

M cGill's Web site advertises the universit/s "full range of services for students who wish to enrich their McGill experience or require assis­ tance in a variety of areas related to their educa­ tional and personal pursuits." So, although stu­ dents' educational endeavours may still be high on the agenda, "personal pursuits" seem to have been cast willfully aside. Considering that it's not like the university even facilitates these opportuni­ ties for personal growth—it's actually student groups doing so on the university's behalf-this decision is even more striking. In effect, we stu­ dents are being told that our monetary contribu-

M

tio ns-the tuition and fees charged to support the university's aim s in research and reputation-are still good enough, but we and our own interests are not.

M cGill's administration seem s to be "impos­ ing order on perception" by withholding its name from student groups in a hamfisted attempt to avoid liability for those clubs' actions. But if McGill does manage to avoid any bad press that could possibly come from such ne'er-do-wells as (the form er) McGill First Aid Service or UNICEF McGill, it should also be forced to forego all of the good press. After all, why should McGill the institution receive any credit for student groups' charity work if it is to deny these groups use of the university name? In fact, perhaps clubs should even reject adding "of McGill" to their titles. Until McGill decides that student groups are worthy of refer­ ring to their own university in their nam es, the school should be denied recognition by clubs, as w ell.

More to the point, if M cGill's goal is to avoid blame by association, shouldn't the groups truly bringing the university sham e be the first to lose the privilege of using M cGill's name? It would seem sensible, yet som ehow unlikely that the admin will ask the football team to drop the uni­ versity name from its title. Funny how a double standard can arise when the university stands to gain financially from the student group.

With this new policy, student groups are being denied the respect and trust they deserve.

McGill needn't fear a poor reputation; it's too late for th at The stamp of public disapproval is already upon our institution, and the social and charitable groups most able to bring the university out of its dark days are being denied M cGill's name. ■

DARK H U MO U R In light of the unexplained disappearance of a certain Political Science professor, we have to ask:

C opy EDrroR

Traci Johnson copy@mcgilltribune.com

OFF

THE

BOARD

D esign Editors

Tiffany Choy Geneviève Friesen Spenser Sproul design@mcgilltribune.com

Politics? I don’t need no stinkin’ politics JEN N IFER JETT

O n u n e Editor

Marco Avolio online@mcgilltribune.com A dvertising M anager

Paul Slachta advmgr@ssmu.mcgill.ca Pubusher

Chad Ronalds O N LIN E AT W W W .M C G IL LT R IB U N E.C O M

C O N T R IB U T O R S

Kayvon Afshari, Daniel Amin, Mohit Arora, Tessa Blanchfield, Leila Brillson, Dave Brodkey, Elizabeth Campbell, Crystal Chan, Brandon Chudleigh, Vicky Lam, Cristina Markham, Julia Raponi, Katherine Spirgen T ribune O ffices Editorial. Shatner University Centre, Suite 110, 3480 McTavish, Montreal QC Tel: 514.398.6789 Fax. 514.398.1750 Advertising. Brown Student Building, Suite 1200, 3600 McTavish, Montreal QC H3A 1Y2 Tel. 514.398.6806 Fax. 514.398.7490

Has anyone else seen this? It was an eTalk Daily exclusive, perhaps its first. Speaking to an employee, an inebriated Ashlee displayed that effortless charisma so often upstaged by big sister Jessica: "Bitch, stop talking to me, I'm nice!"

Ashlee's little adventure now joins other instant online classics like "Jon Stewart Tears Up Crossfire" and "Kanye West Makes Mike Myers Extremely Uncomfortable."

9. Cleaning the McLennan library out of any book even rem otely related to your Five hundred w ords into m y diatribe, how ever, I research paper topic, leaving behind only poorly-bound graduate theses and the realized that the only students w ho would have panting polemics of crazies who claim to the slightest interest in S S M U w ithdrawing from lay out a plan for world peace in a succinct C A S A are the people w ho m ade the decision in 120 pages. The cursing of procrastinating students like me echoes through the the first place. Fuck, I w as even boring myself. empty stacks—the other day, I actually saw a tumbleweed rolling across the fifth floor stacks. est interest in this issue are the 26 SSMUshies 8. Checking your e-mail. All six accounts. Then who made the decision in the first place. My dia­ skimming the 25 most recent entries in your tribe inevitably degenerated into the usual "SSMU friends' LiveJoumal accounts. Considering starting should inform students, and students should your own blog. Deciding against it. Checking inform them selves," and, really, nobody wants to Facebook, because you totally forgot that it existed read that. Fuck, I was even boring myself. Hence, and someone's birthday might be coming up. the top 10 things more important to the average Then checking your e-mail again. student than SSMU politics: 7. Downloading songs you would never admit 10. Watching Ashlee Sim pson stum ble around drunkenly in a Toronto-area McDonald's. to anyone that you listen to.

was going to rant about the Students' Society's recent withdrawal from its national lobby group, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, and how councillors made this momentous deci­ sion with just 20 minutes of debate and without even bothering to consult the students they repre­ sent, thereby leaving them with no representation at the federal level.

Five hundred words into it, however, I realized that the only students who would have the slight­

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6. Calling your landlord to let him know that, by the way, that gas leak is becoming really strong and—cough, cough—could he, um, maybe come look at it soon? , 5. Trying to make a meal out of what's left in the kitchen-nam ely white rice, peanut butter and bread crumbs. Racking your brain trying to remem­ ber why you bought bread crumbs to begin with.

4. Conducting in-depth analyses of Brandon Chudleigh's column in search of new and more sensational ways to be offended.

3. Speaking of Brandon, maintaining the illu­ sion among your friends that you get laid more often than eggs in a coop full of chickens, when it's really been two years, three months and 19 d aysnot that you're counting.

2. Job hunting. All right, none of us impend­ ing graduates has actually started, but that's not what we tell our parents, is it?

1. Stretching each dollar as far as it will go.

Gee, it sure would be nice if Finance Minister Ralph Goodale relaxed restrictions on the Debt Reduction in Repayment program. Average stu­ dent debt is what now, about $25,000? McGill stu­ dents should pressure national politicians into action. But that would require some sort of feder­ al représenta— Oh, wait. ■

The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Students' Society of McGill University, in collaboration with the Tribune Publication Society. Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@mcgilltribune.com, and must include contributor's name, program and year, and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic, or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.

10

opinion | 8.11.05 | the mcgill tribune

Letters to the editor Ooh, a letter war!

Natalie Kouri-Towe—and by extension QPIRG—seem s to have a curious definition of democracy ("See, QPIRG does engage students," Letter, 0 1 .1 1 .0 5 ). The onus should not be on McGill students to win a spot on Q PIRG's board of directors to protest its support of—for example—a •group that condones the Intifada in the Middle East. (A brief perusal of its online database reveals a library of vir­ ulently anti-Israel propaganda. Among Q PIRG's "links" is the SPHR, an organization that has brought overtly antiSem itic speakers to its m eetings). The onus should be on QPIRG to recruit its own support like any other partisan organization-openly, without privileged access to our fees.

If you want our support, earn it: divulge what axes you are grinding and persuade us to contribute. As it stands, QPIRG is holding McGill students hostage and forcing us to ransom ourselves from its political agenda using our own fees. This totalitarian practice must stop!

Genevieve Atkins U3 Sociology & Anthropology All's not fine with Klein While I do appreciate Jonathan Klein's denunciation of Kevin Trudeau and other "conspiracy theorists" who ignore the facts in, order to propose "paradigm shifts to expound their nonsense," ("Kleinium : Handle science with care," 0 1 .1 1 .0 5 ) Klein's conception of the social sciences is slightly misplaced. He argues that writers and theorists in the social sciences can have their postulates accepted without evidence on the prem ise that they m erely sound reasonable and further that this is not they way it works in the natural sciences.

In fact, work in the two fields is closer than he may think. Social scientists not only must propose a rational hypothesis, but this hypothesis must also be consistent with the empirical data that is available.

Where Klein is correct, although he does not explicit­

NOTHIN G

RHYMES

W ITH

ly address it, is that the natural sciences usually have the benefit of controlled testing. That is, you cannot put human beings and whole societies into test tubes and lab­ oratories the way you can with chem icals. At least not ye t..

Kayvon Afshari Tribune News Writer U2 Political Science Arts writers do journalism good job Jonathan Klein's article seem s to m iss some essential points about the nature of journalism . Yes, it is common for journalists to have an arts-related background; howev­ er, one of the things about journalism that frees it (as much as possible) from bias is that it is not exclusive.

Journalists can come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, including science. In fact, major news agen­ cies generally hire reporters with a background in science to report on science-related issues, as they are able to do so in the most clear and accurate way.

Even if an arts-educated journalist does report on sci­ ence news, they generally have a basic enough under­ standing of science to know that we arrive at scientific knowledge by means of the scientific method and the ver­ ification of hypotheses. Also, journalists usually have a great deal of training and experience in the science of research. They know how to inform them selves in order to place an issue in context and then to report on the facts as well as the controversy or difference of opinion that may surround the story. Journalism is "investigative," after all—a good reporter is not content to rely on superficial assum ptions and generalizations!

Which leads me back to Klein: he mentions the dan­ gers of the media giving voice to people who expound "nonsense," but does not make any mention of a specific instance where the media coverage of one of these move­ ments has led directly to harmful misconceptions. Where is the "empirical evidence" to back up his theory? Instead, he makes generalizations and fails to recognize other vari­

ables that may cause people to buy into quackery. It's easy to blame the media, but unless there are facts to back up such an accusation, the argument doesn't have much weight.

Caroline Olechowski U1 English Literature Cristina on the mark In her article, "Inside the juvenile mind of a football player," (2 5 .1 0 .0 5 ), Cristina Markham's comparison of the behaviours of the McGill football players who participated directly or indirectly in the hazing incident to "bullying" is right on.

Markham's article indicated that there were team mem bers who stood idly by—and actually cheered from the stands—while the rookies were humiliated, and the vic­ tim likely interpreted the presence of the "uninvolved" players as part of the intimidation. The veteran players probably felt more powerful, when people were around cheering them on. The behaviour of the onlookers could also be interpreted by the victim as approving of the event However, the veteran players have no right to force new recruits—who made the team based on talent and skill— into degrading acts.

As a social work practitioner who has worked with young offenders for the past 15 years, I am aware that youths who bully may be charged with "forcible confine­ ment," an offence which can carry a sentence of 10 years in prison. These charges could have been brought against to the McGill football players, had the victim so decided.

Congratulations to Cristina Markham on her excellent article, and bravo to the McGill administration for its coura­ geous decision to cancel the remaining football season.

Even though the decision may have been difficult to make because of the potential for sanctions from Canadian uni­ versity football's governing body, it was the right one.

Hanny Chung M aster o f Social Work '05

SUDOKU

2 9 4 2 6 8 3 4 3 9 7 1 5 7 3 6 2 6 6 5 7 1 1 3 9 4 7 4 6 Think you got everything right, smart guy? Make sure to check out the solution to the puzzle at www.mcgilltribune.com

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Tf SO I

Bishop's Fellow ship Evenings o f prayer, fellowship, an4 conversation for university stucjents o n personal, moral an4 faith concerns with Bishop T ony M ancini.

Refreshments Monday Evenings.

Newman Centre

6.30 - 8.30 pm

5484 Peel For more inform ation: 598-4106 Email: 4aniel.cere@ m cgill.ca

CH A TTER B O X

campus SILHOUETTE-

Innocence

Hail, Sir W illiams!

Retiring English professor shares his love of learning and languages

McGill

A sym bol o f judicial e r r o r s McGill Law students and the international cam­ paign to free the wrongfully convicted LISE T R E U T L E R n a utopian world, everyone is innocent. In an ideal court of law, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. In our world, innocents are often "proven" guilty and sent to prison. This is where Innocence M cGill, the 58th Innocence Project chapter to appear in North America since 1992, factors in.

Following in the footsteps of Toronto's York University law school, Osgoode Hall, where the first Canadian chapter of the Innocence Project was founded, McGill student Robert Israel got down to business in January 20 04 by asking several of his criminal law class­ mates about their interest in starting the first such chap­ ter in Montreal.

'The idea," he says, "is that [wrongful conviction] is one of the clearest issues in law. To remove som eone's liberty is one of the most serious things a state can do.

[When an innocent person is convicted], it's a clear viola­ tion of rights, and there is virtually nothing being done in Quebec about it."

An initial group of ten McGill law students, including Israel, that founded Innocence McGill spent a full year

I

putting together all the necessary pieces and learning as much as they could about the international movement.

However, it was only in February 2005 that the group became active. The tim e span of preparation is no sur­ prise when you consider that 10 students had to put together a wealth of reference material, gain commit­ ment from sponsors like the McGill Alumni Association and find both lawyer and faculty advisors.

Presently, the faculty advisor for Innocence McGill is Patrick Healy, a professor in the Faculty of Law backed by an im pressive CV, including membership in both the International Association of Penal Law and the International Association of Prosecutors.

Healy, along with two full-tim e criminal lawyers, serves as an advisor to the group of 16 that is Innocence McGill. The students order court transcriptions, question­ naires from witnesses, police reports and just about any­ thing that could be used as evidence to prove one's

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GO

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WHAT...

innocence of a crim e. As member Christine Mainville says, "We m eet up with advisors only when we need help."

As Innocence McGill is officially less than a year old, and it often takes years to complete a single client's process from the starting inquiry to exoneration, it's im pressive that the group currently has a roster of eight cases in review, each "at various stages of the process," says Rachel Sham ash. The 16 current members divide them selves into team s for each case, with each member typically working on two to three files at once. For poten­ tial clients, the intake process begins with an extensive, 30-page questionnaire which is reviewed by the group.

"Right now, w e're focusing on factual innocence," explains M ainville. 'To take a client, we need new evi­ dence. Without new evidence—especially post-conviction DNA evidence—even if someone might be innocent, we'd have to turn them down."

But in a society obsessed with justice for victim s of crim e, does anyone ever express shock or criticism for Innocence M cGill's mission?

"No, never," says M ainville. "Most people agree that [being incarcerated when innocent] is one of the biggest injustices that can happen to a person."

"We're in a very supportive environment," adds Shamash.

And despite their infancy, the group has received their fair share of publicity since the start, including a pro­ file of the group in the March 2005 M cGill Reporter, an October article in Québec's Le Soleil and last week's CBC Daybreak interview with Healy and student member Simon Seida, who handles much of the media-related work.

Participation in Innocence McGill is restricted to law students and, as many of the current m embers are grad­ uating this June, the group will be recruiting new mem­ bers come January. That's not to say those currently involved are looking to sever ties with the project after their degree completion. "I'd like to keep in touch with the project," says M ainville, suggesting the possibility of form er members becoming advisors once they're estab­ lished crim inal laywers.

After all, participation in Innocence McGill can only be a rewarding experience. Shamash cites the exhilara­ tion felt with "the chance to work on cases that may lead to uncovering a wrongful conviction," and Mainville adds that the knowledge and experience gained during work with the group is invaluable. So while many student-run groups are based solely on pleasure and/or socializing; in Innocence McGill, not only do the members become tight-knit, but they learn something no textbook can teach and experience the joy of aiding truly deserving people.

To find out more about Innocence McGill, visit their Web site at m cgill.ca/innocence, or check out the Daybreak interview with renowned reporter M elissa Kent at cbcxa/daybreakm ontreal

WHO...

WHEN...

nglish professor David Williams is perhaps best known for his lectures in the popular 200lever course, "English Literature and the Bible." Originally from Boston, Williams has obtained dual citizen­ ship in Canada and the US, studied in Scotland and moved to and from Rome twice on sabbatical. He is the author of several books—two on Chaucer, and, most recently, one intriguingly titled D eform ed Discourse on the Grotesque. After alm ost 40 years at M cGill, Williams is scheduled to retire at the end of the sem ester and plans to head south—on a temporary basis, at least—to Florida. He m aintains, however, that his home will always be in M ontreal.

E

The biggest change at McGill since I started here in 1967... is the size.

When I cam e here, my largest class size was 25. It doesn't bother me to lec­ ture to a big audience, but you really don't get to know the students. That's the disadvantage; there's not much intimacy. The advantage is that you're educating more students.

My favourite thing about McGill is... that it's in Montreal. That's a big plus, obviously. Also, the students are very good-especially the undergraduates. I know what goes on in other universities, and I would say the students are the jew el in the crown of McGill.

I think teaching Intelligent Design in schools is...fine. I think it's shocking that the scientists have become so overwhelmed that they can't even look at a theory. That's what Intelligent Design is, a theory.... I think it's disturbing that science has become so ideological, which it shouldn't be.

One of the main opportunities on campus students overlook... is the library.

I guess 1see a lot of students there around paper tim e, but the library is very, very good resource. Another thing students don't always take advantage of is the extensive schedule of free scholarly events on cam pus.

Montreal is like New York in that... you can't exhaust the cultural activities.

You can't go to all the concerts, you can't go to all the theater productions and you can't go to all the festivals. For its size-M ontreal is maybe a fifth of the size of New York-it has so much to offer. If you speak French, Montreal has wonderful theatre. One of the best productions I've seen recently is Les Reines.

If I hadn't become a professor I would... have liked to be an ad man. Most advertisem ents are so stupid they're unbelievable, but I'd have liked to try my hand. Advertising is literary because, of course, you have to write, and you can make more money.

One of my hobbies that I would like to pursue more... is studying languages.

I've started to study Hebrew, and I would like to get good at that—good enough to read scripture—if I don’t die first. I also speak Italian and can read Latin and Anglo-Saxon.

The country I would most like to visit is... Ethiopia. I'm very interested in Coptic Christianity and Coptic churches. In Ethiopia, the Coptic Christians were Christians before Europeans were Christians, and many of the churches there are built into the sides of a mountain.

After I retire, I'm going to... finish the third book I'm writing on Chaucer. I'm also going to be teaching at a university called Ave Maria in Naples, Florida during the winter sem ester. ■ —Compiled by Traci Johnson

WHERE...

Bronfman, room 151

CONTACT... mcgillrotaract@yahoo.ca

Talk by Joyce B o ye , president of Ghana International Health Foundation in Canda

McGill Rotoract

Nov. 10 at 6 p.m.

McGill Snowbash 2006

IRC

Jan. 13th-15th, 2006

Mont Ste. Anne

mcgillsnowbash06@ gmail.com

Charity Auction

SUS in support of Head and Hands

Nov. 10 at 7 :3 0 p.m.

Gert's Bar

398-6979

Advertise your event! For o n l/a toonie you can get a listing in the print and on-line editions of the Trib. Drop by the SSMU Office (Shatner building, Suite 1200) to pick up a form.

Deadlines are Fridays at 3 :3 0 p.m. For more information call 39 8.6 789 or e-mail calendar@mcgilltnbune.cqm •

.........

features Beyond

definition

G e n o cid e and w a r crim es in the W e ste rn imagination G EN EV IEV E JEN KIN S e are inundated with images of war crim es on a regular basis. The horror of the exhaustive terror of genocide haunts our culture in film s such as Hotel Rwanda and Schindler's List. Daily updates of Saddam Hussein's trial in the US appear on popular Web sites alongside fashion faux pas and the latest celebrity news. Our cultural imagination is filled with pic­ tures of desecration from the Second World War and has expanded to encom pass the horrors in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Any illusions of a peaceful world that the US and Canada may have harbored before the Second World War have van­ ished. In their place, we have Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein starring in only a few of the many genocidal scenes: My Lai, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Nanking and Turkey. This list is far from exhaustive.

We have problems defining war crim es and genocide; we have deeper dilem m as creating laws to enforce just punishm ent for the perpetrators of these atrocities.

W

Problems of Definition Though Shakespeare might have said that which w e call a war crime by any other name would be as bad, w e've moved into a tim e when sim ple definitions no longer exist TTiere are legal problems in defining the crim e and the crim inal—after all, who should be accountable for the estim ated 8 0 0 ,0 0 0 Rwandan lives taken in only three months in 1994? Surely no single person can be blamed for so many deaths.

So we widen the scope. In the case of Iraq, we bring seven of Saddam Hussein's cronies to trial and accuse the entire group of their role in the torture and murder of over 140 Iraqis in 1982.

But is this any better? And where do we draw the line? Will George W. Bush ever be dragged to a court of law and blamed for the more than 2 ,0 0 0 US lives lost in Iraq because he sanc­ tioned the war? Will US soldiers be held responsible for the lives of civilian Iraqis that they have taken? As we move away from attributing the blame to any one person, do we move any closer to resolution of the world's ills?

Struggling to find a suitable definition of a crim e against human­ ity in her article "The Road from Rom e: The Developing Law of Crim es Against Humanity," Margaret M cAuliffe deGuzm an w rites, "A crim e against humanity, therefore, is sim ply an inhum ane act committed in the context of a widespread or system atic attack against civilians where the perpetrator is aware of the connection between his or her act and the wider attack." While this sounds perfectly valid, applying the definition in a search for those responsible may be nearly impossi­ ble.

"The focus of trials on the indi­ viduals responsible for ordering or carrying out acts of mass violence leaves three categories of persons and groups largely untouched," argue Laurel E. Fletcher and Harvey M. Weinstein in their 2002 article "Violence and Social Repair: Rethinking the Contribution of

I

Social Justice to Reconciliation." Fletcher and Weinstein assert that, “unindicted perpetrators including community members who directly or indirectly profited from the event; states outside the area of conflict that may have contributed to the outbreak of violence by their acts or om issions; and, the bystanders who did not actively participate in violence, but who also did not actively intervene to stop the horrors," are those excluded from the per­ secution of individual trials.

Why should all three of these groups be allowed safety from the system ? Some would argue that the indictment of the leader is a lesson for the entire group, but it doesn't seem ade­ quate. On the other hand, an international tribunal is hardly able to round up all those individuals who bore witness to a crime against humanity. Active intervention, as Fletcher and Weinstein call it, is a lot to ask of the average person.

Personal Accountability Though we may delight ourselves with the vision of gen­ erosity in Schindler's List, we also know that it's an exception to the rule of terrified and uninvolved citizens. Though we preserve the ideal of a Good Samaritan in Western culture, few people are willing to put their own lives at risk in order to expose a crime against humanity. Though the fact that our culture is so saturat­ ed with stories of war crim es and genocide may help us to bet­ ter recognize them in the future, it doesn't determine our own degree of involvement. We invent excuses and redefine our own situations in order to convince ourselves that we are justified in apathy. Prevent Genocide Intenational, a Web site established in 1998, notes, "During June 20 05, CNN, FOXNews, NBC/MSBNBC, ABC, and CBS ran 50 tim es as many stories about Michael Jackson and 12 tim es as many stories about Tom Cruise as they did about the genocide in Darfur."

The cycle of interest from the media and the public is vicious. Most people care more about Michael Jackson's trial than about the m ass murder underway in Sudan, so most news networks will run more stories about Jackson. It becomes impos­

sible to tell which came first: the media overplay of Jackson or the public's excessive interest in him. We see what we want to see in a world in which stations vie for ratings and view er num­ bers.

Social Death Claudia Card's article, "Genocide and Social Death," focus­ es on the detriment of genocide on a social rather than individ­ ual level.

"It is social death that enables us to distinguish the peculiar evil of genocide from the evils of other m ass murders. Even genocidal murders can be viewed as extreme m eans to the pri­ mary end of social death," Card writes. "Social vitality exists through relationships, contemporary and intergenerational, that create an identity that gives meaning to a life. Major loss of social vitality is a loss of identity and consequently a serious loss of meaning for one's existence."

Al Qaeda's attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and those onboard the plane that crashed in Som erset County, Pennsylvania, then, should be seen as an act of genocide and it received an appropriately strong reaction. On the other hand, the US (and Canadian) round-up of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War had genocidal intent and the slaughter of Native Am ericans in the settlem ent of North America w as geno­ cide. At the tim e, few people objected to these atrocious acts of social death; more recently, history has been reexamined and we have come to see the events for what they were. Perhaps our historians have contributed more to our understanding of genocide than have the major news networks today. After all, few historians allow their studies to be interrupted by the pub­ lic's delight in the Michael Jackson trial.

Demoting "Manliness" Outside mainstream media, outside historical discourse, in the real world, it may be tim e to move beyond definitions. We're clearly not coming any closer to a solution because w e never really strike at the root of the prob­ lem . National governments have their own interests to pursue and wars are bound to continue; how­ ever, the way we look at war should be changing. In their 20 04 book State Crime: Governments, Violence and Corruption, authors Penny Green and Tony Ward w rite, 'Traditionally, war was defined as an heroic, masculine enterprise. Killing 'honourably1 in war w as seen as a praiseworthy act and sharply differ­ entiated from crim e. There was always a large gap between the heroic mythology of war and its ugly reality. The disillusionm ent and anomie this gap induces is one of the reasons why war crim es occur."

Essentially, Green and Ward believe that the soldiers in Vietnam, for instance, felt them selves deprived of the glory of war and immersed in its "ugly reality."

The sooner we strip away the glossy coating from the idea of a soldier—that he or she is in fact heroic for killing others—the sooner we end the soldier's disillusionm ent and plainly portray war for the unfortunate occurrence that it is. ■

the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | student living 13

Remembering: to define gratitude T h e r e ’s no o th e r w ay than to w itness the h o rro r of the past LIS E T R E U T L E R n May, I flew to Poland to participate in the largest March of the Living, the largest because of the 60th anniversary commemoration of the end of the Second World War. As one out of 18,000 hearts from across the world, I marched the three km from Auschwitz to Birkenau in silence. I stood in the rain and heard dignitary after dignitary speak. I attended m y first Shabbat and I learned to sing Oseh Shalom with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists and agnostics. Among those people, I found fam ily, and together with them , I found a new understanding and commitment to ending war crim es and geno­ cide.

Weeks after I returned home from Polish soil and recovered from jet lag, I still had nightmares. While m indlessly re-watching film s I'd seen dozens of tim e, I saw the images burned into my m ind: Majdanek, and the monument filled with the ashes of thousands; the very barracks where a Birkenau survivor I'd met had slept; the greenest grass I'd ever seen, so out of place on the death camps' grounds.

How many footprints am I walking over? What's buried in the ground beneath my feet? Who left their stories here?

And how, with so many words, can this witness tell a story of hate that has yet to fully end?

I

Fragm entation She returned from Poland, herself, yet not the sam e person she was when she boarded the plane to Krakow on May 3 . The things she beheld, the people she met and loved instantly and the emotions she felt—from the high­ est of highs to the lowest of lows, sobbing without control—she continued to sense all pieces of her journey, fragmented, each day. Though she took three days to fully unpack—most often at four o'clock in the morning, when her jetlagged sense of tim e reminded her it w as early afternoon in Poland—she filled her mind with facts. Facts were safe, permanent—and for her, holding tight to what she'd learned was her first priority.

And so she recorded: the sketches cam e first, along with the nightmares.

She never needed to reflect on colour while working, but truth be told, now she did not even think in colour. All her thoughts were grainy, black-and-white images, even though she had been there herself.

Alone in her apartment, m essy with her new roommate's still-packed boxes, she could not find the logic in isolating herself to work. She telephoned many in the days following her return to speak through tears and describe her journey, but she, the one who was there, never felt like she adequately artic­ ulated a single aspect She stumbled over and over, trying to create the over­ whelming sense of feeling she had experienced, trying to describe what she had seen and been a part of. Words, she fe lt despite her intensely intimate relationship with them as a writer, could do no justice; not one held enough meaning.

The only words she ever felt truly comfortable using were unbelievable and gratitude.

breathing—to avert a panic attack on the ground where so many innocents had m arched to their deaths 60 years earlier, she will try anything. She breathes slow­ ly, but the tears do not stop.

She re-read one of her many journal entries: "First a wall of photographs of Polish soldiers. And a plaque about the sacrifices they made and how it still w asn't enough to push back the Nazi troops. I cried. I stood straight across from that wall and I cried my eyes dry. I couldn't move. I just stood, my hands over my mouth, my tears staining my face—that's Grandpa. That's Pawe?

Gliniecki up there, on that wall, represented in that plaque. What he gave u p not just a career in m edicine, but his whole way of thinking... Atrocities alter minds permanently."

In her bedroom she inhaled, picked up the phone, dialed the 10 digits required for a long-distance call and heard her grandfather's gruff greeting soft­ en to hidden excitement when she announced herself. And she stopped cry­ ing.

After only moments—for her grandfather was always concerned about her bills and never stayed on the line for too long-she floated to her computer and wrote. She was a writer, after all, and she had many truths to tell.

M arching on Still today, everything—both the beauty and the horror—whirls through my mind. I don't imagine I will ever fully comprehend everything I saw at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek or Belzec, in the Warsaw ghetto or the memo­ rials, or what I heard from survivors of camps and uprisings. As a child, I knew all heroes had to wear capes and keep their powers secret. As an adult, I know that heroes walk the sam e streets we walk and that as the World War II gen­ eration ages, it is up to younger witnesses to take every resource and every opportunity w e have to devote ourselves to the fight. This is not a memory; this is not a history book on anti-semitism. Conditions and situations may have changed in our world, but not enough. I, however, along with the hundreds of friends I found in Poland, have changed more than I ever could have imag­ ined.

For information about the March o f the Living Canada, in general, past yea rs' docum ents, or to apply for the 2 0 0 6 M arch, visit www.marchoftheliving.org

"Never again" has turned into "again and again:" A gain and again, the response has been too little and too late. Genocidew atch.org

A M E R IC A N EA G LE O U T F IT T E R S

W itness to evil She slept a lot that first w eek back, thanks to her body's cries of Central European Sum m er Tim e. In the past she had always jokingly called herself a big fan of sleep. But now, every tim e she felt the once-calming lull, she grew afraid. She feared closing her eyes; all she saw w as image after image of ter­ rifying sites from the camps burned into her memory. More than that, she feared not closing them , for now she understood how crucial memory was.

She, like every other participant in the 2005 March of the Living, finally knew the absolute value of generations alive today witnessing with their own eyes the evil that was once allowed to reign and that the most important thing to do after seeing such sites was to remember. She believed, still, that no mind w as capable of creating such horror despite the w alls she'd touched and the lingering air of fear she'd felt in the gas chambers.

The black-and-white mem ories followed one another continuously.

There she stands, inside the gas cham ber at Auschwitz. She finds it hard to breathe and harder still to stay standing. She sways. Everything she had ever heard about the gas cham bers and crematoria suddenly grows inadequate. Yes, she feels it She senses the cold hate and the fear as her eyes dart from claw mark to claw mark on every wall.

Later, she runs and collapses against a stone wall as fast as she can. The rain is not heavy enough to prevent her from lighting a cigarette to control her

LIVE YOUR LIFE

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the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | a&e 15

a&e FILM

Crazy for Cinemania Film test has som ething fo r everyo n e CRYSTAL CHAN The Cinemania film festival is a slice of heaven on earth for cinéphiles. The non-profit film fest screens at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1 369 Sherbrooke O .) and offers a daz­ zling array of French m ovies catering to every possible disposi­ tion.

This year, Cinem ania features an exciting lineup of film s encompassing all genres, as well as many special guests. Past attendants include the likes of Isabelle Huppert (/ Heart Huckabees) and Ticky Holgado (Am élie). This year is no excep­ tion; expected guests include the directors of several of the fea­ tured film s.

The most remarkable aspect of the festival is the way it par­ allels our city itself: It creates a perfectly harmonic sense of bilin­ gualism, introducing many previously unsubtitled m ovies to an Anglophone audience for the first tim e. As Line Beaucham p, the Quebec minister of culture and communications, describes it, Cinemania invites "francophone, anglophone and allophone movie buffs to celebrate their love for the seventh art together."

If the eyes are windows to the soul, then Cinem ania fare is soul food. The Tribune had the opportunity to speak with Maidy Teitelbaum, Cinem ania's founder and director, about the festival.

Speaking of surprises, the festival has seen many guests from the film world in the past. Which ones are you particularly excited about this year?

We're very pleased that acclaimed director Radu Mihaileanu will be present for the opening film , his very own Live and Becom e. It received five stars in the Gazette—it crosses all bound­ aries; it deals with race, religion and ties from one culture to another. We have another film called Cold Showers whose direc­ tor [Antony Cordier] will attend. It's about the coming of age of three very attractive 17-year-olds.

French cinema is very broad, and yet it's easy to compartmen­ talize it into one genre. What kind of diversity does Cinemania look for in choosing films?

We love diversity. We have thrillers, drama, comedy...

Diversity defines our festival. We love to show big cross-sections-first-tim e directors, and on the other hand we have Alain Corneau, who is a world-class, award-winning director who's coming to present his film Words in Blue.

You created this festival 11 years ago. What was your inspira­ tion?

I was inspired by a festival in Florida. I wanted to bring that type of festival to bilingual Montreal. It w as one of the first cases I had encountered of French film s subtitled in English, and I thought, 'Wow! This is a full body of work that doesn't get tapped, and I would love to share this with the Montreal cultur­ al community.' So, with m y determination and tenacity I worked to make it a reality. This is our goal-every year we throw away the bad film s and let the cream come to the top, and bring the best of French cinema of that year to Montreal.

Showcasing French films with English subtitles is a key part of the festival. You are drawing French cinéphiles in with your independent films, but also catering to the English viewer. It would have been so easy to just create a "pure" French film experience. What made you decide to ensure subtitles?

Well, I noticed that very few film s from other countries were shown in Quebec. All these international film s would screen without subtitles, and I felt unable to appreciate them . It became my agenda that the whole community should have access to all these film s in their own language. Hence, in Cinem ania, all the Quebec film s now are released with subtitles in English. There are several film s in our program that were already screening in France, such as When the Tide Comes In and Little Jerusalem , without subtitles, and w e're screening them now with [the cap­ tions] so that everybody can enjoy them —it becom es all-inclu­ sive.

Which films are you most excited about this year?

I'm excited about all of the film s. For those who love thrillers, 36 quai des orfèvres is a wonderful—a little violent—but wonderful thriller with Gerard Depardieu. The director was in the French police force, and he tells the story firsthand. It's very excit­ ing; filmed in a raw way. Then we have The Ring Finger (L'annulaire), the prem iere. It stars a very new and up-and-coming, beautiful actress called Olga Kurylenko. An unexpected, off­ beat dram a-a little David Lynch and Wong Kar-Wai in feel, and full of surprises.

What do you think would encourage people to attend Cinemania?

I think the festival offers a great atmosphere—there's a café where you can discuss the film s with guests in a Q&A session afterwards. Cinem ania offers a complete experience. The festival embraces everyone, no matter what your film tastes—there real­ ly is something for everyone. For Anglophones, it can also be a wonderful way to improve your French. It's not just an entertain­ ment tool; these film s are eye-opening and initiate discussion.

Come out and enjoy! ■

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CANVAS

Not dumb enough? Go clubbing! kay, don't misinterpret us from the start. It's all well and good to appreciate different sounds and styles, not necessarily originating in North America—but this grime thing is out of control.

The second that VICE magazine championed The Streets and became their North American distributor, every hipster party this side of the Mexican border was suddenly pumping Dizzee Rascal, Kano and Wiley. Female offshoots, like teen-ass Lady Sovereign or popular dancefloor presence MIA (with Diplo production, her beats definitely classify as grime) are just as omnipresent. What is it about this electronic music that well-to-do North American white folks dig so much? Why is it that Dizzee Rascal's North American shows are primarily over­ flowing with Air Force Ones and trucker hats? Why does this simple production and mediocre music get such a big crowd response?

Grime is primarily a new type of music. Emerging from the clubby and upbeat UK garage (or two-step, a variation of break-beat), grime exploded with a vengeance. Anthems such as Lethal B's "Pow" were allegedly banned in UK clubs because of their ability to incite club-goers to riot. In compari­

O

son to its cheerful R&B-infused predecessor, grime carried guns and its own vicious code of law.

North American hip-hop, at its most aggressive, doesn't particularly cater to the dance floor. That type of fist-pumping enthusiasm just isn't present in their music. One cannot "juke" to Lloyd Banks like they can to MIA's crunchy beats.

Grime has been marketed differently than recent North American hip-hop. Labelled as both hip and hard, it makes its appearance in pretentious magazines like VICE and Blender.

It's rising during the decline of dance m usic and the return to more analog sounds—perfect for the breed of Linen Chest rock and rollers who want to shake their skin and get down at night.

It's also missing the deeply ingrained racial history of American hip-hop. Perhaps this is why it's so accessible to young North Americans—it doesn't carry the connotation and implications of American hip-hop, which, at its hardest and most threatening, can be alienating.

What's disturbing, however, is that dance floor aficiona­ dos have yet to stop shaking their booties long enough to arrive at the realization that the way of grime is wholly, empir-

LEILA B RILLSO N and BEN LEM IEU X

ically counter to our conception of good music. How long will it take before people snap to and realize that the objectifica­ tion of women in Seal Paul's lyrical schem es and m usic videos is not sardonic or tongue-in-cheek, but a commercial ploy to attract the maximum number of sexually overcharged contem­ porary Neanderthals? And how long before people realize that while her legendary forerunners Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor, MIA couldn't cany a tune to save her life were it not for her redundant, skull-crippling DJ counterpart? The only type of person who could conceivably enjoy her lyrics is one with skull contents that can be described by what Einstein referred to as one of the only two infinites.

What's to be done about this? How much longer will club-goers subject them selves to this conceptually uninterest­ ing, lyrically inept sea of dreck which, when exceedingly close to the speakers, might actually render you dumber by osmo­ sis? When people finally decide to make a statement about the direction that increasingly mind-numbing dance grooves have been moving in for the past five years, what do you think it will be?

You guessed it "Pon the replay." ■

16 a&e | 8.11.05 | the mcgill tribune

PREVIEWS

FOOD

The end of ramen noodles H o w to dine o u t for p o cket change LIZ A LLEM A N G and BEN LEM IEU X Eating cheap in Montreal is no m ean fe at We've all had those "low down, dirty, slum m in"' months—hiatuses from our limited student wealth when we're forced to subsist on 99-cent pizza and the mouldy remains of cheese in our roommate's rat traps. However, when it comes to laying on the charm with prospective honeys, your average festering, slime-ridden block of poisonsprinkled cheddar just ain't gonna cut it.

The good people of Véhiculé Press have stepped into this often unmanageable situation, offering readers a gamut of easy, inexpensive eats. The Z006 edition of Cheap Thrills is an easy-to-use guide to fine, low-end din­ ing and also serves as a veritable / Ching for the culinarily inexperienced.

Cheap Thrills covers all the eateries across Montreal that boast meal offers at less than $15 (before tax or tip).

Though restaurant reviews are ordered alphabetically, all the entries are indexed by specialty—extending beyond simply ethnic nomenclature and into sub-categories such as "burgers," "bakery restos" and "late night," as well as into neighbourhood categories. The book fea­ tures reviews of downtown favourites, but also educates readers on the cultural background of the obscure yet enticing Uyghur cooking. Each review is a page long, includes an overview of best picks on the menu (and the occasional cautionary tale), ambiance of the establish­ ment, average price of a m eal, accepted modes of pay­ ment, wheelchair access, alcohol options and handy directions for users of public transportation. Many of the restaurant sum m aries include a brief history of the estab­ lishm ent's inception, current ownership and gastronom­ ic ambitions.

The guide is far from your average foodie compila­ tion. Rather than tired and contrived epicurean fodder that praises abstract cooking and million-dollar decor, the reviews in the book are highly accessible. Trendy hot spots are few and far between in Cheap Thrills—rather,

Dunn's Famous (1249 M etcalfe) One of Montreal's staple delis, Dunn's offers a variety of appetizing and inexpensive dishes. Their meatball spaghetti sauce, savoury smoked meat and cheesecake are legendary, but this open-'round-theclock marvel has some of the best-kept secrets in town. The hamburgers are thick, well seasoned and cooked to juicy perfection, their signature smoked meat egg rolls make a fine off-kilter snack and the nachos are guaranteed to put any of Montreal's fauxMexican restaurants to m iserable sham e.

Frites Alors! (3497 St-Laurent) Reputed as serving up the best fries in town, Frites Alors is worth a quick venture up the Main. A sm all selection of burgers and fast-food meals is available, but the fries are the obvious centrepiece of the whole affair. Thin, mid-sized and cooked to a golden crisp, Frites Alors' potato confections are guar­ anteed to satisfy the most dire of French fry cravings.

Excellent with mayo and the house ranch sauce.

Shed Café (3515 St-Laurent) This is one of the few restos on the trendy Sherbrooke/Prince-Arthur strip of the Main that maintains above-average food quality and reason­ able prices. Though the service has often received less than lukewarm reviews and the Shed was the subject of much controversy a few years ago over a shabby and undignified tax evasion schem e, every­ thing about their cooking is top notch. Their menu features a slew of tasty pasta dishes, all of which are prepared with the freshest of ingredients, a veritable myriad of delectable pizzas and a rather unusual, but extremely enticing, "customize your salad" option.

One of the few places in town where you can

We all know that Montreal is absolutely teeming with the arts. This week is no exception. However, you will find no plays, movies, art exhibitions, book launches or Indonesian gamelan orchestra perform ances in this week's pre­ view s. This is because an inordinate number of awesom e concerts are slated for this week, which is saying something, considering the number of awesom e concerts the city usually offers. Plus, this issue comes out on my birthday, which m eans I make the rules.

Coheed and Cambria, with The Blood Brothers, dredg and mewithoutYou—Metropolis—59 Ste-Catherine E —Nov. 10—Doors open at 7 p.m.

Coheed and Cambria, for the uninitiated, are basical­ ly a concept band. All of their recordings to date tell the enigmatic story of the band's namesake characters, and they've released several comic books to accompany the narrative. Mixing Iwistingly intricate guitar work with heavy riffs into complex, multi-part compositions (like Tool, but completely different), their m usic underscores the urgency and vague morbidity of the story. The rest of the bands keep up the punk/prog, finger-twisting work. Well, The Blood Brothers are just decent, straightforward hardcore, really, but you gotta injure fellow audience m embers sometim e.

LUKAS BERGMARK

Yeah, don't order food that costs less than a dime. the focus is on the food, as it should be. The recom­ mended joints are comfortably homey, though options for the adventurous abound. There is an all too prevalent tendency to stigmatize inexpensive cuisine as filthy swill appropriate only for livestock and rubes. Cheap Thrills lays waste to the myth that cheap dining cannot be fine dining.

Though readers' taste buds will be tempted by the multitude of hidden gems that are delightfully foreign to the mac 'n' cheese palate, there are several featured hole-in-the-wall restos that will no doubt ring a bell. Café L'étranger, a quiet favourite among the McGill crowd, makes a cameo among Iranian delights and takeout deities. Even with touches of familiarity, Cheap Thrills encourages the most seasoned custom er to try some­ thing different ■ For more information on the Cheap Thrills series, or to sug­ g est your favourite dive for the next edition, check out www.cheapthrillsguide.com.

Six cheap ways to avoid cooking Though overlooked in the otherwise impecca­ ble Cheap Thrills, we feel these are some of your best bets in the way of ghetto-proximate eateries.

compiled by Melissa Price

indulge in a truly classy meal for the price of two vis­ its to McDonald's. Easy choice, if you ask me.

Au Pain Doré (various locations, including 556 Ste-Catherine E.) On the bakery chain of command, Au Pain Doré concoctions are m iles above the club pack of potato rolls from Provigo that you're probably used to. In first year, I rem em ber seeing a woman eating an Au Pain Doré baguette while riding her bike. Their bread is apparently so good that it is worth risking one's life over. Sandwiches are stellar—packed with rich fillings, the right amount of grease and perfectly toasted.

Desserts are also well worth a try, particularly the crèm e brûlée.

Mex-I (3820 St-Laurent) The resta business is so depressingly volatile that success is often defined as not going bankrupt in your first year. On a street filled with fusion menus that are overpriced and unnecessarily complex in nature, months-old Mex-I—which serves dirt cheap Mexican comfort food—is an underdog worth rooting for. The Decor is pared down and the menu simple (read: a chalkboard describing the various tacos available). Everything we've tried has been delicious­ ly artery-clogging.

Shish-Taouk (3633 St-Laurent) Those of us in our final and victory-lap years fondly recall a tim e when Sara's held a prized loca­ tion on the Main. Since its ghetto fab hub has been transformed into a poutinerie, w e have had to look elsewhere to satisfy our late-night pita cravings.

Shish-Taouk offers w hat is arguably the best Lebanese takeout in the McGill vicinity, and its friend­ ly service, as well as generous dollops of garlic sauce, keep us coming back. ■ —Liz Allemang and Ben Lemieux

Wintersleep, with The Ladies and Gentlemen—Green Room—5386 St-Laurent—Nov. 11 —Doors open at 9 p.m.

With songs titled "Snowstorm," "Assembly Lines" and "A Long Flight," not to mention their nam e, Wintersleep sound soft and forlornly melancholy before you even hear the band play a note. The m usic doesn't even come close to disappointing. Their songs are quiet but strong, rhythmic and wrapped in a ghost of a voice; they sound like a cloudy grey dawn on a cold morning, and if that sounds pretentiously poetic, it's because you haven't heard them .

Nine Inch Nails, with Queens of the Stone Age and Death From Above 1979—Bell Centre—1260 de la Gauchetière—Nov. 11—Doors open at 6 :3 0 p.m.

This being the first tim e that industrial rock deity Trent Reznor has graced us with his presence since 2000's tour for The Fragile, one would think that tickets sold out in approximately seven nanoseconds. Surprisingly, you still have the option of shelling out $50 for a crappy stadium seat, from which you can squint to discern Reznor's black-dad figure on the darkened stage. Don't worry, it will probably get easier once he starts yelling. And yell he can, just as adeptly as he can bleed out monstrous­ ly angsty stamp-rock, QOTSA can make thick waves of sludgy stoner chords flood stadium s, and the guy from Death From Above can beat the shit out of his drum kit The threat of teary-eyed goths hoisting lighters to "Hurt" might actually be worth it The Tiger Lillie s—Usine C—1345 Lalonde-Nov. 1 3 Doors open at 8 p.m.

Whoa, somebody left these guys alone for way too long, locked in a room with some opera records, a German* cabaret, the seedy underbelly of the 19th century and a schiz­ ophrenic cross-dressing performance artist The result? Songs about junkies, bestiality and turning tricks, sung in mounting operatic falsetto, backed by gypsy rhythms played on instruments ranging from upright bass to a pot and a metal spoon. They dress in lederhosen and full-out Victorian peri­ od costum es, and their show alledgedly involves an inflatable sheep. They're obviously completely nuts; why wouldn't you go see them?

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the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | a&e 17

MUSIC

Chicks with discs W om en on W a x play for keeps (and fun to o ...)

LEILA BRILLSO N None of the founding m embers of Women on Wax are particularly concerned with being highly politi­ cal—they just want to make people dance. However, when DJ Jasm ine, DJ Rue and Cyan hauled their records and equipment through the snow on an icy February evening to their first Women on Wax event, they were shocked to receive a mere

$10.

LEILA BRILLSON

W OW : Hey, apparently breasts don't interfere with awesome DJ skills.

"The bar was packed," DJ Rue explains. "But all we got paid was $10. Between the three of us. To split."

So began Women on Wax, Montreal's only completely fem ale, entirely electronic DJ collective. It was the aforementioned unequal and squarely unethical practices that WOW w as established to defy.

Founded by the dance-floor friendly DJ Jasm ine and the techno/electroplaying Cyan, Women on Wax attempted to create a much-needed space for fem ale DJs in the electron­ ic m usic community.

Adding to their eclectic compo­ sition is the drum- and bass- inspired DJ Rue, hailing from Chicago.

"The club scene in general and the electronic m usic scene in gener­ al is very male dominated," says Rue. "There is a competitiveness that has grown from that, and there is definitely an intim idation factor.

There is the assumption that, as a

fem ale, you don't know what you are doing."

The trio has horror stories aplenty—from unwanted adjusting of mixer settings by male onlookers to blatant sexual harassment—yet the ladies remain undaunted.

Since their $10 gig, the collec­ tive has only gotten bigger. The group focuses on different types of electronic music, presenting talent such as turntablist Killa Jewel, CKUT DJ Tashish and, tomorrow night, Lesbians on Ecstasy's DJ Lynne T. Their regular night has now moved to Salon Daome, a plush lounge on Mont Royal, and includes circus acts by fem ale perform ers. The goal of the night is simply to have a good tim e.

"I was thinking, 'Wouldn't it be fun to play with all w om en,"' Jasm ine reflects, "and not have to worry about the politics?'

Indeed, it would be fun to play with all wom en, but the m embers of WOW are inevitably forced to con­ front the ascribed political aspect of their work. None of them fails to rec­ ognize the gender segmentation that their night sim ultaneously protests and enforces. Cyan and Jasm ine joke about proposed "Dicks Only" nights, but the play on words isn't far from the truth, and Women on Wax seek to remedy this flagrant discrep­ ancy.

Cyan explains, "Part of the rea­ son we started doing it was to bal­ ance out what we saw as a lack of

space for women to play in the city.

I don't think we are trying to be 'fem ale DJs,' but we are trying to raise the profile of the talent in the city that happens to be female."

The Women are aware of the paradox a fem ale DJ faces. A woman who presents herself as a "female DJ" automatically becomes a charm­ ing novelty that is separated from a normal DJ. "But I am," says Jasm ine. “I am fem ale and I am a DJ and I wouldn't want to use it together as my sole identity and be marketed as such.

But I can't go out and play without recognizing that."

And recognize it they have. The night appeals to fem inists, electronic m usic fans, fellow DJs, those with a nice sleep in on Thursday mornings, fans of Cyan's radio show on CKUT, drum and bass enthusiasts, circus performers or basically anyone who wants to have an enjoyable tim e on a W ednesday evening—of either gender. The key ingredient to any WOW event is not the solely fem ale perform ers, but the exceptional tal­ ent.

"Ultimately," Rue explains, "pol­ itics aside, the m usic speaks for itself." ■ Check out Women on Wax Wednesday Nov. 9 at Salon Daome, 141 M ont Royal £ Also, tune into Cyan's CKUT 9 0 .3 radio show Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.

Read tom orrow’s news today— subscribe to the online edition of the Tribune.

Register at www.mcgilltribune.com.

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the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | a&e ! 9

THEATRE

Fast forward, rewind Musical provides analysis of the fall of a marriage TESSA B LA N C H FIEL D Jason Robert Brown's one-act musical The Last Five Years chronicles an irrevocably doomed relationship from the first date to the ensuing divorce. The couple, Jam ie and Cathy, played by Brandon Orenstein and Britt Ori, respectively, move separately through tim e—Jam ie for­ wards, Cathy backwards. The only moment at which their temporal paths cross and they interact with each other is during their wedding; a fascinating narrative device that underlines the abandonment both feel at the collapsing end of the relationship. Both actors show off their acting and vocal skills with dynamic performances and seem comfortable on stage.

The play opens with a lamenting Cathy finding the "Dear John" letter left by Jam ie. As your sympathy for Cathy's heartache builds, the mood abruptly shifts and your spirits are lifted as Jam ie returns, triumphant and elated, from his first date with Cathy. The shift in tim e requires a unique transition from melancholy to lively tunes, as well as some clever set design in order to make clear the separation of the characters. This was slightly confusing at certain tim es when both actors were

onstage but still temporally distant; however, the effect should be much stronger with full set.

McGill students and co-directors Heather Rose and Jam ie Pohotsky chose the play because they noticed a lack of musical theatre at McGill. In selecting the musical, Rose didn't want to be forced to compromise the pro­ duction because of funding. The two wanted something that would be suitable in a simple and small set to allow an easy transition from one scene to the next. The direc­ tors succeed in offering the audience a complete picture of a complicated relationship. Although the performance I saw was a preview, with an incomplete set and no cos­ tum es, the directors clearly established a sense of tim e and a comfortable rhythm. The play evokes both hope­ fulness and helplessness as the manipulation of tim e shows one character as ecstatic and the other as tragic.

Overall the play offered a few laughs, good songwriting, and a modem look at an age-old story. ■ Catch The Last Five Years at Players' Theatre, third floor o f the Shatner Building, Nov. 10-12 and 17-19 at 8 p.m ., Nov. 13 and 2 0 at 2 p.m. Call 398-6813 for ticket information.

Orenstein and Ori play a couple whose marriage is unraveling.

REVIEWS

compiled by Ben Lemieux

i i i i i i n i i M i i V f f s i . ' mmhmi Young Canadians. No Escape.

Young Canadians' final release, No Escape, is a compilation of the best of the band's 26-year career. A his­ torical note: Young Canadians were previously known as the K-Tels until their first album was met with such acrid criticism that it forced a name change. Unfortunately, nobody took the hint and the band continued making flop after flop for more than a quarter-century. It seem s fitting that the opening track of No Escape is called "I Hate M usic," as there seem s to be no other rea­ son for a band so copiously slandered to press on other than to claim bloody vengeance on m usic itself.

In truth, Young Canadians are not quite as awful as one might think. They play generic, chord-less punk rock with cheery m elodies and anarchic lyrics, much like one would expect from any eighties punk outfit. The overall sound quality takes a turn for the worse on som e live recordings, which occasionally include lewd audience shout-outs and sounds of bottles being thrown—followed by expletives from the band. Nevertheless, this CD would make a great addition to any fan's collection, assum ing of course that Young Canadians had any fans in the first place.

-Eliza beth Cam pbell

At the end of the day, what will you hang on to?

FROM TH F D IR E C TO R OF

DOA War on 45. War on 4 5 is a collection of punk/reggae activist songs written in the early 1980s. Though the album was originally compiled in '82, lead vocalist Joe "Shithead" Keithley decided that since the world is still "no clos­ er to ending the stupidity of war," its message is still pertinent today. The album , first released in 12" 45RPM vinyl, features the underground hit of Starr David's "Wad' and the intense track "America the Beautiful." Although overwhelm ingly punk oriented, the band shows a true reggae pacifist style with songs like "War in the East." Honestly, the real attrac­ tion I had to this EP w as the politically-driven motive for its re-release. Not being a punk m usic fan, I have to say that the constant screaming got to m e, and som etim es the repetitions grated on my soul. My favourite songs w ere actually the covers—Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" w as an excellent track; I'm actually surprised 1 like it. Overall, this CD caught my attention and made me think, and isn't that the entire point?

—Tessa Blanchfield

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IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE NOVEMBER 9

Koushik. B e With. It's rare to see a 26-m inute album as m ean­ ingful and lined with such dazzling potential as this one. Young, low-

key beatmaker Koushik Ghosh manages to demon­ strate in this grouping of three separate EP's—Be With, One in a D ay and Battle Tim es-a remarkable panache for creating a distinctive and quite individ­ ual blend of hip-hop. Koushik's soundscapes are comprised of looped, funky, m elodic guitar, bass and keyboard lines, intricate drum beats, subdued, jazzy brass instrum ent backgrounds—all overlaid with echoing, dreamy vocals evocative of late sixties psy­ ch e d e lia . It's hard to conceive of a seasoned, worldrenowned m usician and songwriter constructing an album to forever bridge the gap between psychedel­ ic pop, hip-hop, acid jazz and trip-hop, let alone a young, unknown gunslinger from Dundas, Ontario, doing so seam lessly, in less than half an hour and on his first try. Be With m erits an A-plus for sheer ambi­ tion alone.

Santana. All That I Am .

Why would you collaborate with w ill.i.am ? Why would you collaborate with Bo Bice?

The instrumental tracks stand up just fine on their own.

Why would you do this?

Paul McCartney.

Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard. The cover photo­ graph of the album—a pic­ ture of a young, guitar-toting McCartney in his backyard— is enough to hint at the fact that the Beatles's only remaining frontman is essentially writing the sam e m usic as he was 30-odd years ago. On the one hand, if s refreshing that M ra rtn e y is still able to tap into the sam e creative forces as he did during the golden days, however, on the flipside, ifs actually quite pathetic that he hasn't shown a glimpse of m usical innovation in a career spanning 40 years.

Rehashing the sam e, tired sunshine psychedelic pop m elodies he's been using since Rubber Sou l and Revolver, M cCartney's latest grows tiresom e midway through the second track. The lyrics, "How nice of you to think of me/W hen I was out of sorts/How nice it w as for me to be/ln som eone else's thoughts/ln som eone else's m ind/Som eone else as kind as you,” are a prime example of the tacky sen­ tim entality that perm eates the entirely of M cCartney's latest creation. Even the absolutely sub­ lime acoustic interlude "Jenny Wren" is not substan­ tial enough to save Chaos from the wreckage caused by a dozen pitiful songs best described as infantile musings about love and romance, with the occasional four-minute m usical interjection about drinking tea.

RUGBY — C O N C O R D IA

20,

REDMEN

18

Redmen fall in rugby final Late h ero ics not enough to co n q u er C o n co rd ia D A V ID BLYE When a team wins a championship, it becomes the target: the squad that the rest of the competition wants to defeat. When it goes 23-1 in regular season action and 27-2 overall during the past three years, it becom es an even bigger target that the oppo­ sition wants to knock off even more.

On Sunday, the Concordia Stingers managed to prove how big a target the Redmen had becom e. In front of a raucous home crowd at Molson Stadium, Concordia emerged with a hard fought 20-18 victory and dethroned the Red 'n' White from their perch as QURL Champions.

"We made some m istakes and gave up a lot of penalties," said Head Coach Sean McCaffery. "It w as definitely a tough loss to swallow. We came in expecting to win the championship."

The Redmen opened the first half trading field position with Concordia until 15 minutes in, when Stingers' fly-half Scott Gil kicked the first penalty goal of the afternoon to give Concordia a 3-0 lead. Two minutes later, McGill stormed back into the Concordia end and managed to even the match at three with a penalty kick by John Reid. The Redmen proceeded to control play for the next few m inutes, and were rewarded 25 minutes in when the Redmen scrum powerfully moved the ball, allowing number eight Adrian Myers to cross into the end zone for the try, giving the Redmen an 8-3 advantage.

From there, the Redmen and Stingers continued a see-saw battle with the score remaining unchanged before-in the dying seconds of the half-G il w as able to convert his second penalty of the afternoon. As the whistle blew to end the first half, the Redmen lead had been reduced to just two points, 8-6.

Second half kicking ends with a frenzy as Redmen come­ back falls short When play resumed after the break, Concordia proceeded to set the tone for the rest of the match. Just two minutes after the restart, Gil again scored with his feet for the Stingers. This tim e, he surprised the crowd by hitting a seldom-seen drop goal, which gave the Stingers a 9-8 lead. From there, Concordia pro­ ceeded to play solid defence and took advantage of M cGill's errors. Over the next twenty m inutes, they scored two more penalty goals while keeping the Redmen at bay, increasing the advantage to 15-8.

With eight minutes to go, McGill looked like it was about to

THE

RED

mount a comeback, as Reid scored his second penalty of the afternoon, cutting the Concordia lead to four. But with five min­ utes remaining, a controversial decision went against McGill that put the game all but out of reach. Concordia fullback Etienne Bouchard-Claisse was brought down just outside the endzone and appeared to have not crossed the line. But the referee saw it differently, and awarded the Stingers the try. Though it went unconverted, Concordia led 20-11 with less than five minutes to play.

However, even though they were down by nine points with little tim e remaining, the Redmen didn't give up, attacking with what seem ed like newfound energy. The squad was rewarded with its second try, as the McGill forwards pushed centre Mark Ihnatowycz into the endzone. After making the conversion, the Redmen trailed by just two points and needed just a penalty to complete the dramatic comeback. But alas, it was not to be. Poor field position and stiff play from the Stingers' defence shut the Redmen down in the final m inutes, bringing a discouraging end to the season.

After the game, coaches and players alike w ere disap­ pointed with the result.

"W hile I'm upset with the loss, you still have to give credit to Concordia," M cCaffery said.

"They came in here with a com pletely changed style and won a hell of a game."

Equally disen­ chanted was flanker Jordan Ross, who didn't approve of the Mark Ihnatowycz blazes past the Concordia

tactics Concordia brought into play.

"It's tough to lose like that," he said. "We were out there scoring tries and they were mostly kicking penalties. It's losing a football game to team that only kicks field goals."

Try scorer Myers, who was playing in his final game as a member of the Redmen, noted that it was a dissatisfying end to his career.

"It feels really bad to lose like this, especially for us graduat­ ing players," he said. "For guys who have been with the team four years now, it was a hard way to go out."

While the Redmen fell short this year, the squad can take some consolation in the fact that it will have a numberof very good players returning next year. With a good off-season, the Redmen should have little trouble making it back to the confer­ ence championship and trying to reclaim the gold. ■

VLADIMIR EREMIN

defense en route to his injury tim e try, but it w asn't enough.

ZON E

Don’t knock the need for speed hile he w asn't the first African-American to play in a major professional sports league, Jackie Robinson effectively broke the colour barrier when he stepped on the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, setting off a spiral of minority involvem ent in sports.

As more African-American and Latino players have found a home in baseball and other major sports, it would be im possible to argue that the game has suffered; rather, the addition of m inorities has altered sports positively, creat­ ing more speed and skill, and leading to greater competi­ tion. So why is it a problem to say as much?

Fisher DeBerry, the longtime coach of the Air Force Academy football team , recently shed light on black athletes playing in Division-1 NCAA football. After getting blown out

by Texas Christian University two Saturdays ago, DeBerry was asked in a post-game press conference what went wrong. He responded by recognizing that his team lacked minority athletes.

"It just seem s to be that way, that Afro-American kids can run very, very w ell," DeBerry said. "That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me they run extrem ely well.”

DeBerry's com m ents were not taken lightly; there was an enormous outcry by the media and NCAA officials, who accused DeBerry of making racist statem ents. DeBerry was

W

heavily reprimanded for his com m ents, and later apologized for them .

ESPN comm entator Stephen A Smith appeared on the CNN's Paula Zahn N ow shortly after DeBerry's statem ent.

Smith was outraged by the complete lack of respect DeBerry showed toward minority athletes. He interpreted DeBerry's comm ents as blatantly racist, knocking the intel­ lectual abilities of blacks. Sm ith's perform ance w as passion­ ate and his message was clear: African-Americans are equal­ ly as capable as whites and are not just athletic m onsters who can't think for them selves.

Sm ith, it seem s, has m issed the point. In no way did DeBerry mention anything about intellect as it related to either race or athletics. But that's not what is truly relevant here. I'm confused as to how, exactly, DeBerry's comm ents were racist. DeBerry, it would appear, only spoke the truth, and the media blew the entire quote out of proportion, try­ ing to create a story out of nothing.

It's hard to displace emotion when it com es to matters of skin colour, especially in the racially-charged arena both athletics in country with a history of institutionalized racism.

But facts w ill always trump emotion, and DeBerry's com­ ments are entirely factual.

Take a closer look at what DeBerry said: By no means did he imply that every single Afro-American can run w ell,

A D A M M YER S

or that only Afro-Americans can run w ell. All he pointed out w as that African-American kids can run w ell. And here's where evidence starts to creep in. All 32 NFL starting run­ ning backs are African-American, and there is not a single starting cornerback—a position associated only with sp e e d in the NFL who is not of African-American descent Likewise, the majority of NFL wide receivers, another speed position, are African-American.

The media had no right to spin DeBerry's accurate comm ents into a racial attack. Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has also said that the black athlete has changed the tempo of the game, and he is one who has been around long enough to make fair and accurate assessm ents.

When it com es down to it, people are sensitive—often with good reason—about issues of race, and there is a line that needs to be respected. But that doesn't mean that comm ents by a white person that invoke truthful and ulti­ m ately positive characteristics of m em bers of a minority group should be autom atically interpreted as racist. When healthy dialogue is restricted because of fear of reprisal by the media and others, the potential for societal growth—akin to the increase in the skill level in sports since the breaking of the colour barrier—is stunted. And that leaves us much closer to a pre-1947 approach than we'd like to think. ■

the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | sports 2 1

PROFILE — POKER

Calling your bluff

Gimme some Mo

T.O . owes us better

M cGill students organize on-cam pus tournam ents fo r charity ADA M MYERS

M O H IT A R O R A

Sport? Not a sport? While the debates can rage on, it's indisputable that the poker craze is sweeping the planet. And now, Texas Hold 'em has arrived on cam pus, courtesy of enterprising M cGill students Daniel Doubillet and Jon Kleim an, who have been organizing live poker tournaments where players of all skill levels can get into the action.

Doubillet describes him self as som ewhat obsessed with playing poker, especially enjoying the mental competition of the game. It is this love for the game that inspired him and Kleiman to set up the tour­ naments.

"We decided that there was no real safe and wellorganized fun way to play poker in a large group at M cGill," says Doubillet, a U2 Political Science student.

"We knew that a lot of people out there, like us, were looking for a fun, organized way to play poker."

With so many students becoming extrem ely engrossed in the game of poker, and with events such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour ubiquitous on television, the pair thought they would offer players something they couldn't get in their aver­ age "at home" game. The games are played at Cert's, with multiple tables, allowing amateurs to gain experi­ ence in tournament-style play. And poker fanatics are taking advantage of the seldom-offered opportunity to play in a competitive, organized environment.

"We sold tickets to the first tournament, and we decided to cap the number of people at 104," Doubillet explains. "We had to turn down about 75 people. Now we havg developed a clientele of about 250 people. The demand is so large that now we run on a first come, first serve basis."

Another advantage of the McGill tournaments is that they are open to anyone. Beginners are just as welcom e as seasoned pros and can join without feel­ ing intimidated.

"The majority of our players are novice or begin­ ner," says Kleim an, U3 Philosophy. "Most don't play much and just want a chance to learn how to play. It's rare that you get an opportunity to play in that sort of setting for only $30. If you want to sit down in a big tournament you have to put thousands down. We get a lot of online poker junkies who want to test out their skills in live poker."

Doubillet notes that this atmosphere makes for a varied clientele.

"We get lots of people from McGill and lots of friends of ours," he says. "We get people who are just looking for a game. We also get people from Concordia who have heard about it from their friends at McGill.

We've also had anything from professors to McGill employees, including the manager of University Bytes."

ith another chapter in the books for the Pats-Colts rivalry, the Steelers and Bengals mixing it up in the North, and the Chargers and Chiefs battling out West, its become clear that the AFC is where it's at this season in the NFL. The NFC, by comparison, has come up a little short. Sure, the East has been strong so far, but I don't think the Giants, Cowboys or Redskins are the real deal. Realistically, they should have been in a dogfight for a wild card spot while the Eagles cruise to the divi­ sion title and home field advantage. The sam e goes for Atlanta, Seattle and Chicago. I don't see any of them winning on the last weekend of the season. What I do see are two lost opportuni­ ties: in Philadelphia and Minnesota.

The Eagles should be the best team in football right now, with Donovan McNabb-to-Terrell Owens touchdowns filling the highlight reels. They should be getting Brian Westbrook the ball 25 tim es a game and keeping their defence off the field so that guys like Jevon Kearse and Brian Dawkins are still strong in the fourth quarter. They should be ordering rings in January. Instead, Philly is throwing on every down and losing divisional games they haven't lost this century. Now, it looks like Owens has played his last game for the Eagles.

Meanwhile, the Vikings had to address the situation sur­ rounding their own me-first wide receiver, Randy Moss, so they dealt with it by shipping him to Oakland. Now, at 3-5, they are without Daunte Culpepper, who is lost for the year and was lost long before he injured his knee. They have a recycled Brad Johnson throwing to a group of m erely passable wideouts who are as maddening to fantasy GMs as their running back carousel.

Had the Vikings held on to Moss, they'd be bearing down on Philly and setting up a duel between the best quarterbackreceiver combos in the league, with the winner getting a chance to square off against the Peyton Manning-Marvin Harrison duo in Indy.

But they felt Moss's off-field histrionics were disruptive to the team , so they sent him out w est for little value but plenty of peace of mind. Here's the thing, though: anything Moss ever did only brought scrutiny upon him self, and it never affected his play or his team 's success on the field. Have you ever heard a team ­ mate complain about Moss being a nuisance? Never.

In fact, for a team looking to make the leap and grow into a championship-calibre squad, Moss' antics would have kept the attention and pressure on him , which has never shown to both­ er him. This year, the team imploded without him there to take the heat off, while he's been little more than an ordinary receiv­ er in Oakland.

But Moss isn't ordinary, not by a long shot. He is without a doubt the most dangerous player in the game. No one player gets more individual attention from opposing defences than Moss, and always keeping one eye on him opens things up for his team m ates. If the Vikings had him this year, Culpepper would not be the most prolific fantasy team m ass murderer in history, and Minnesota would have already clinched the dismal NFC North.

In this way Moss is utterly unlike Owens. While Moss is occasionally a trouble maker, Owens is simply a cancer. This isn't like when Tampa dropped keyshawn Johnson, another headcase. Johnson's play had declined to the point that he offered no reason for the Bucs to put up wih his nonsense. Owens, though, is at his best, and the Eagles still think they're better off without him, which should tell you just how poisonous he has been to that team . They simply cannot win with him.

Sadly, though, they definitely can't win without him. He's too valuable, arid not even McNabb and Westbrook can combine to replace the production of Owens. Among receivers, I'd say Moss is the best deep threat in the league, Marvin Harrison the best route runner and Johnson the best blocker. Owens is probably second best at all of those things. If he had come to Philly focused on both winning and simply acted like a decent human being, he would have received plenty of love for his 100th touchdown, and probably his 110th later on in the season. There is nothing he can't do, other than keep his foot but of his mouth and his head out of his ass.

So now Owens will be sitting in his living room on Sundays, watching Moss languish in Oakland. These two superstars should have used their talent to level the balance of power in the NFL and make it a two-conference league, but instead they helped contribute to the biggest letdown in a decidedly disappointing football season. If you don't think so now, you'll certainly change your tune when you're watching the Seattle Seahawks get demolished in Super Bowl XL. ■

W

VLADIMIR EREMIN

Doubillet and Kleiman are a couple of cards.

Taking fun and games seriously Doubillet and Kleim an spend much of their free tim e working on the logistics of the tournam ents. They note there is a lot of work that goes into the events, and the two are responsible for making sure everything runs sm oothly: the cards, the chips, the tables, the venue and sponsorship.

"We decided to go with truepoker.com for our sponsors," Doubillet explains. "They give us hats, tshirts and condoms to give out. They give cash-money credits as draw prizes."

But the reasons for putting on the tournaments— and the players' reasons for joining them —go beyond prizes. The tournaments are run in conjunction with different charities, with part of the player entrance fees—which run between $25 and $50, depending on the number of people involved—being donated to wor­ thy charities.

"In January we are doing a tournament for Shave To Save with [SSMU President] Adam Conter, which is going to be several hundred people," Doubillet says.

"We also have another 100 person-plus tournament planned for Canfar. In the past, we have done tourna­ ments for Wakadogo Uganda, a Ugandan orphanage."

Doubillet and Kleiman both agree that being able to donate the players' buy-in to worthy causes—and bringing poker to other fanatics on campus—makes the hard work worthwhile.

"The idea," Doubillet says, "is to provide a fun organized experience for everyone who loves the com­ petitive edge of poker." ■ To g et in on the next tournament, contact Daniel and Jon at hothpoker@hotmail.com.

COURTESY OF JON KLEIMAN

This photo might not show it, but these are people, not dogs, playing poker in Gerfs.

22

sports | 8.11.05 | the mcgill tribune

C IS

FO O TBALL — CO N FER EN CE

CHAMPIONSHIP

PREVIEW

Overtime win propels

On any given

Martlets to Alberta

Saturday...

Continued from cover.

U niversity football season

Head Coach Marc Mounicot felt his team did well to escape with the win.

"I feel relieved to have won," Mounicot said. "This was probably the hardest final we've played in the past few years."

Thunder and lightning threaten to derail final The Martlets got to Sunday's final by beating Concordia 3-0 on home turf Friday Night Jennifer White recorded a hat trick, scoring goals in the 15th, 20th and 66th minute for M cGill, while Villalba and Laura Defuria shared the shutout But from the instant the two sides took the field to begin the match, it w as obvious that this w asn't going to be the sam e type of cake walk. Not only did Montréal battle McGill for the top spot in the conference all sea­ son, but the team s stepped out to an emerging thunder­ storm, which had the ability to wreak havoc with the Martlets' pay.

However, the women responded with some thun­ der of their own, as Sarah Chm ielewski narrowly missed a chance to put McGill up early less than a minute in.

From there, the storm steadily progressed to the point that the match—which had become largely a midfield battle—had to be delayed due to lightning. After things got going again, the match continued with a lot of midfield play, although Martlets midfielder Carolyne Pelletier did manage to produce a phenomenal strike that hit the crossbar.

The rain let up as the team s returned for the sec­ ond half, but the Martlets brought back what had been a lucky tactic from early in the season, changing into their dry red shirts. However, not even the new clothes could stop the Carabins from applying m assive pressure in the second half. Only through solid defending—featur­ ing plays like a spectacular goal-line stop in the 67th minute—and the inspired crowd, led by the defeated but still joyful m en's rugby team , were the Martlets able to preserve the scoreless draw at the end of regulation tim e.

"I don't think we executed well enough," said Mounicot. "We had a few close chances but w e should have controlled the drill a bit more. I think that in the first half, we were good but in the second half, you could see that Montreal was really coming to win. They clearly have

gets dow n to the w ire D A V ID B L Y E

VLADIMIR EREMIN

Magalie Kolker scored the extra tim e winner. a strong team , and they gave us a very tough game.

Whatever Mounicot said during the quick break between regulation and overtime must have worked, because the Martlets retook the field with what seemed to be a renewed zest for the game and ended it less than a minute in. Rookie forward Magalie Kolker convert­ ed a pass from Chm ielewski and produced the golden goal, giving the Martlets the victory and their third straight QUSL title.

"I saw the ball land on the 18-yard line and hit it with my left foot," said Kolker, who w as named game MVP. "It may not have been the most powerful shot but it sure was an accurate one."

Hard road ahead at nationals Though the victory over Montréal was a tough one, the Martlets know that the real test will be this weekend when they challenge for the CIS championship in a sin­ gle-elimination tournam ent Mounicot believes that his squad w ill be in tough to emulate last year's second place finish.

"Everything is against us," the coach said. 'W e're young and this was a rebuilding year with a lot of new players. On top of that, w e're playing the hosts from Alberta in our first game. Even though they didn't make the play-offs in their conference, I think they have a pret­ ty good team.

W e're not going in with the sam e expectation as last year," he added, "but you never know." ■ —With additional reporting by Adam Myers

Just because McGill forfeited its last two games doesn't mean people around these parts should stop pay­ ing attention to Canadian university football. After all, unlike our neigh­ bours to the South, we have an actu­ al playoff, and its just starting to get interesting. Following this past Saturday's sem i-finals, the Trib pres­ ents a preview for next weekend's conference cham pionships, starting in our neck of the woods.

Quebec—Dunsmore Cup Montréal @ Laval, Saturday 1 p.m. on RDS This one's going to be painful.

Even though the 6-2 Carabins are ranked fourth in the country, both of those losses came at the hands of the Rouge et Or, and when the sides met two weeks ago, Laval demol­ ished U de M 54-7.

But forget, for a moment, that Laval has defeated Montreal tw ice .’

Just think about the team itself. Laval has won a CIS record 19 straight games, as well as the past two Vanier Cups. The offence features allQuebec RB Pierre-Luc Yao, who ran for 893 yards and scored eight TDs in seven games, as well as QB Benoit Groulx, who in just five games threw for 1317 yards and league-best 13 scores. If this isn't enough, the defence is stacked. It allows a CISbest 182 yards per game, and is led by all-Quebec DT Miguel Robédé, who last year was the first overall pick in the CFL entry draft.

If the Carabins are going to have a chance, they're going to need a big game out of their all-conference RB Joseph M roué. However, if the Carabins can't establish Mroué and the running game, then it's going to be a long affair on Sunday at PEPS. After this win, people should start calling USC "America's Laval."

Prediction: Laval 55, Montreal 14

FREE UJEEH T R I>U £ IjtlfTH T H IS y4 D. 680 St- Catherine St. W. 1st FLOOR (Mcgill Metro, comer University) 514-879-5621

iiiiuiii 2 E n s H i o o . c o m

Laval is going for the first ever threepeat in Vanier Cup history.

Canada West-Hardy Trophy Alberta @ Saskatchewan, Saturday 2:30 p.m. on Sportsnet West & Pacific In a rem atch of last year's Canada West championship, the sec­ ond-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies will put their undefeated season on the line when they host the fifthranked Golden Bears. The Huskies, who defeated the Bears 29-12 when the two met earlier in the season, will be led on offence by star QB Steve Bilan and the top rusher in Canada West, David Stevens.

Defensively, Saskatchewan sur­ rendered the third fewest yards in the CIS and should pose a challenge to Alberta RB Jarred Winkel and Canada West's top receiver, Andrew Ginther. So even though Alberta will be out for revenge, the Bears' ques­ tionable pass defence means the Huskies will advance to the national sem i-finals.

Prediction: Saskatchewan 31, Alberta 10 Ontario—Yates Cup Western Ontario @ Wifrid Laurier, 1 p.m. on The Score For the second year in a row, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks will go into the Yates Cup with a perfect record, and this year, they host a Western Mustangs side they defeat­ ed 32-17 when the two met earlier this season in London. For the Hawks, the key to the game will be the capacity of QB Ryan Pyear—who led the CIS this season in touch­ downs—to marshal the offence.

Meanwhile, Western's game will be about getting the ball to all-star WR Andy Fantuz, who broke any number of receiving records this year.

That being said, Lauder's ability on defence will be the key to this one.

Look for the Hawks to repeat as Yates Cup winners.

Prediction: Laurier 31, UWO 20 Atlantic—Jewett Trophy Saint Francis-Xavier @ Acadia For the first tim e in seven years, the Saint Mary's Huskies will not be playing for the Jewett Trophy, with the game featuring the only other squads in the AUFC that entered the season with a chance to make the final—yes, 0-8 Mount Allison, which scored 23 points and gave up 379, w e're talking about you.

W hile the X-Men and the Axem en split the season series, Acadia destroyed St. F-X 47-13 on the last day of the regular season, holding St. Francis' star QB Nick Chessa to just 127 yards passing. If that defence shows up again, the Axemen should cruise to their first Atlantic title since 1998.

Prediction: Acadia 35, St. F-X 16 ■

the mcgill tribune | 8.11.05 | sports 23

STANDINGS

A R O U N D THE H O R N HOCKEY (M)

W

L

T

OTL

PTS

HOCKEY (W)

W

L

T

PTS

UQTR*(Far East)

4

1

1

0

9

McGILL

4

0

0

8

RMC*(Mid East)

3

2

2

0

8

CONCORDIA

3

2

1

7

OTTAWA (FE)

4

2

0

1

9

OTTAWA

0

2

1

1

McGILL (FE)

4

0

0

0

8

CARLETON

0

3

0

0

QUEEN'S (M E)

2

5

0

0

4

CONC'DIA (FE )

0

5

1

1

2

V-BALL (W)

W

L

GF GA

PTS

LAVAL

4

0

12

3

8

McGILL

3

1

9

7

6

MONTREAL

2

1

8

4

4

SHERBR'K

1

3

7

9

2

UQTR

0

4

1

12

0

*Represents division leaders

TORONTO (M E)

0

5

1

0

1

RYERSON (M E)

0

6

0

0

0

ON

OUA hockey ranks the two division lead­ ers first and second, and then ranks the remaining six team according to total points. Six team s make the playoffs.

DECK

Martlets Hockey-Dalhousie @ McGill; Friday, 7:30 p.m. at McConnell arena Ranked third in the CIS, the Martlets sit at 4-0-0 in conference play. They will have their work cut out for them in this non-con­ ference game, playing without Head Coach Peter Smith, who will be in Italy.

Martlets Basketball-Laval @ McGill; Saturday, 4 p.m. at McGill Sports Centre The Martlets play their first conference game of the season when they host the Rouge et Or. The Martlets are coming off three straight losses, two against NCAA team s, and will be in tough to turn it around against the perennial conference pow­ ers.

Redmen Basketball-Laval @ McGill; Saturday, 6 p.m. at McGill Sports Centre The Redmen aren't likely to fare much better. This extremely young squad is currently 1-10, although many of those losses were against stiff competition from the NCAA. Redmen Hockey-Ottawa @ McGill; Monday, 7 p.m. at McConnell arena The undefeated Redmen will return home from a two game road trip over the weekend to face the Gee G ee's on Monday night. This is a huge affair against an OUA division rival.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens; Saturday 7 p.m. at the Bell Centre also on CBC The Leafs are playing dismal hockey and the Habs are leading the conference. However, over the last few years the Bell Centre has provided the right remedy for the Buds.

CFL- Saskatchewan Roughriders @ Montreal Alouettes; Saturday 3 p.m. at Olympic Stadium, also on CBC The Als will hope to contune their season on Saturday with a win over the Riders. However, a win just puts them against the Grey Cup champion Argos next weekend in Toronto.

THIS WEEK IN McGILL SPORTS HISTORY

BOX SCORE Friday, Nov. 4, 2005 McGill Redmen 6 vs. Toronto Varsity Blues 3 Varsity Arena SCORING SUMMARY FIRST PERIOD: 1. McGill - Doug Orr (Shawn Shewchuk, Steven Pearce) - 6 :03 (2 P P ) 2. McGill - Charles Gauthier (Louis-Simon Allaire, David Urquhart) - 15:49 (P P ) SECOND PERIOD: 3. McGill - Pierre-Antoine Paquet (Shawn Shewchuk, Loius-Simon Allaire) - 0 7 :0 0 4. McGill - Guillaume Demers (Ken Morrin, Mathieu Leclerc) - 12:51 THIRD PERIOD: 5. Toronto - Andrew Jakubaitis (Brendan Sherrard, Anthony Pallotta) - 0:31 (2 P P ) 6. Toronto - Ray Smegal (Brendan Sherrard, Andrew Jakubaitis) - 2 :3 0 (2 P P ) 7. Toronto - Matt M clsaac (Greg Palka ) - 14:15 8. McGill - Shawn Shewchuk (Pierre-Antoine Paquet , Lucas M adill) - 17:56 9. McGill - Shawn Shewchuk (Bengit Martin, Doug Orr) - 18:14 SHOTS BY PERIOD

McGill Toronto

1 2 3 Total 6 9 12 (2 7 ) 10 12 22 (4 4 )

POWER PLAY (goals/chances): McGill: 2/8 Toronto: 2/10 GOALTENDERS: McG: Mathieu Poitras (W, 6 0 :0 0 , 3 GA, 41 saves) TOR: Max Greenwood (L, 6 0 :0 0 , 6GA, 21 saves)

Sunday, Nov. 9, 1997 The Redmen soccer team won its first national championship, defeating UBC in the final. The Redmen, led by current Martlets coach Marc Mounicot, played the top-ranked Thunderbirds to 120 minutes of scoreless soccer, leading to penalty kicks. In penalties, defender Peter Bryant fired the winning kick, giving the Redmen the title.

Sunday, Nov. 9, 2003 The Redmen rugby squad was upset 16-11 by Bishop's to claim the QURL title. The Redmen had previously defeated the Gaiters twice during the regular season. In the first half, McGill and Bishop's exchanged penalties goals to put the sides square at three at halftim e. But after the break, the Gaiters exploded for 10 straight points, ending the Redmen's hopes to repeat as champs.

Sunday, Nov. 13,1999 In soccer, the Martlets fell just short of winning their first medal at the CIS championships in Waterloo. After being rele­ gated to the bronze medal match, McGill was up against Guelph and a largely partisan Gryphons crowd. The match itself went 120 minutes without a goal sending the match to penalties. On the seventh kick, Guelph's keeper Rita Besso put a brace past Jessica White to give the Gryphons the win.

SPORTS TRIVIA With the renewal of hockey's oldest rivalry on Saturday night, here are some trivia questions about the Leafs and Habs.

1. How many tim es have the two sides met for the Stanley Cup, and what is the series record?

2. Which two hall of farmers played for both Montreal and Toronto in their careers?

3. Which Canadiens draft pick currently plays for the Leafs?

4. Name the last Leaf to score a hat trick at the Forum.

Martlets finish fourth at Rugby Nationals With 13 combined CIS wom en's rugby championship appearances between McGill and Guelph, they were meet­ ing for the bronze-medal. The Martlets had been the victor in both previous matchups. That streak was laid to rest on Sunday as Guelph had a decided edge against a depleted McGill lineup.

Five different players scored tries as the Guelph Gryphons manhandled McGill 32-0 in the bronze medal match at the CIS wom en's rugby championships in Victoria, meaning the Martlets have now run the Quebec confer­ ence schedule but come home without a medal for three straight years.

"Unfortunately we are not used to the physical nature of rugby played in the other CIS conferences," said Martlets Head Coach Vince deGrandpré. "We came into this game battered and bruised, but we played w ell. We'll be back and stronger next year. We expect to lose only four seniors so the bulk of this team will return."

The Gryphons began the game with a strong attack, pinning the Martlets deep, but were unable to translate the offence into points on the board. It wasn't until the 15minute mark that Guelph was able to break the deadlock when scrum-half Alison Smith broke through the McGill line to give the Gryphons a 5-0 lead.

Guelph continued its intense pressure with a beautiful forward drive, linking passes across the field to stretch the McGill line wide. Fullback Rachel Shaw drew to Martlet defenders wide, then passed the ball to an open Leila Hughes, who pushed off a defender and crossed in for the score.

Guelph's third score came off a set-up by Shannon Kane. Kane made a run off the restart bringing the ball to within 10 metres of the McGill goal. The Gryphons picked up the ball off a penalty and dished off to Meaghan Howat, who finished the play, giving Guelph a 15-0 lead at the half.

From there, the Martlets were unable to battle back, and Guelph all but put it away moments into the second fram e, as Shaw was able to run on to the ball off an overlap for Guelph's fourth try.

Western Ontario defeated Alberta 22-0 in the gold medal game.

Hockey Redmen stay perfect after two wins in Toronto All-Star goaltender Mathieu Potrais withstood a Varsity Blues barrage, making 41 saves in the Redmen's 6-3 win over the University of Toronto on Friday night. Forward Shawn Shewchuk led the charge for the Redmen with two goals and two assists, while Doug Orr, Charles Gautier, Pierre-Antoine Paquet and Guillaum e Dem ers rounded out the scoring.

On Saturday night, the Redmen defeated the Ryerson Rams 7-0, as backup goalie Jean-Michel Filiatrault turned aside 10 shots to record his first-ever CIS win. Benoit Martin led McGill with two goals, including the game winner.

Paquet, Orr and Shewchuk scored for the second straight night, while Sam Bloom and Lucas Madill each notched their first markers of the season.

The Redmen, who now sit at 4-0-0, will be in Kingston next weekend. They take on historic rival Q ueen's Friday night and clash with Royal Military College on Saturday.

McGill b-ballers pummelled by Manhattan Arturo Dubois led three Jaspers in double figures as Manhattan College throttled the Redmen 84-35 in a bas­ ketball exhibition game played on the Manhattan campus.

Manhattan—which made the NCAA tournament as a 12seed and beat fifth-seeded Florida in 20 0 4 —scored the game's first four points, but the Redmen used a 7-2 run to take their only lead of the game, 7-6, with 15:53 left in the opening period. The Jaspers then turned up the pressure, going on a 24-2 run over the next 8:19 to take a 30-9 lead with 7 :3 4 rem aining in the first half.

The Jaspers stretched the lead to 24 on two Jason Wingate free throws just before halftime to take a 42-18 lead into the break. Manhattan used its entire bench over the second half, building the lead to as many as 53 on the way to a 49point triumph.

Dubois led all scorers with 18 points, adding a teamhigh seven rebounds. Manhattan was also helped by 36 Redmen turnovers.

Olivier Lamoureaux paced McGill with nine points, while Yannick Chouinard scored seven points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.

*

5. Name the last Canadien to score on a penalty shot against Toronto. jaÀoiunco ubaa 'S sssnoqdiuea iuaDuy\ f J3>pnx Adjbo £ aiuey sanbDEf pue ipi|AOqey\| )|uey aajqi u o m sjea-] .‘sawn axy i z

In Brief The Martlets hockey team beat Concordia 1-0 on Saturday, and are currently ranked third in the country... The Martlets volleyball team is ranked fifth in the country after starting the season 3-1.

Sure, monkeys are cute and cuddly, but taking care of one is no easy task! Believe it or not, managing your money can be easier than managing your monkey.

Here are some tips to help you manage your money.

M o n e y in th e bank: regularly depositing money - and keeping it there - shows you know how to save as well as spend.

Bills in y o u r nam e: from a cell phone to cable TV to a credit card, having bills in your name can help build your credit rating; an important measure that lenders use to determine whether they should give you a loan such as a line of credit, mortgage, car loan, etc.

Pay up a n d p a y o n tim e : late or missed payments have a negative impact on your credit report.

The MasterCard Money Management Crew will be on campus November 8-9.

You can also visit www.mastercard.ca and click "Consumer Education."

Master m i