The McGill Tribune Vol. 27 Issue 23 by The Tribune

HOW ITZKOWITZ IS LIKE ALL-BRAN, SEE PAGE 8

P u b lis h e d b y t h e S t u d e n t s ' S o c ie t y o f M c G ill U n iv e r s it y

2 0 0 8

e le c tio n

CIRCUS INVADES APARTMENT LIFE, SEE PAGE 15

V o lu m e 2 7 Is s u e 2 3 • M a rc h 1 1 , 2 0 0 7

w w w .m c g illt r ib u n e .c o m

e n d o rs e m e n ts

T h e T r i b u n e w e i g h s in o n c a n d i d a t e s

A rts u n d e r g r a d E x e c u tiv e t a k e o ffic e

T u rn o u t d o u b le of q u o ru m K en S un Results of the Arts Undergradu ate Society elections showed a recordhigh voter turnout at 19.5 per cent this year, up from 12.8 per cent in 2007 , according to AUS Chief Returning Of ficer Karina Gould. The newly elected executive consists of President-elect Nick Wolf, Vice-President Academic Pat Boily, VP Communications Adil Katrak, VP Events Marisa Leon-Carlyle, VP External Hanchu Chen, acclaimed

VP Finance Kendall Zaluski,VP Internal Amara Possian, and Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan, Sarah Woolf and Stas Moroz as Arts Representatives to the Students'Society. Gould attributes the high turnout, in part, to the two days of advanced polling. In addition, "the candidates did a particularly good job to get out the vote," she said. Approximately 1,200 students voted this year; election quo rum was set at 8 per cent of Arts unuSee EXECS on page 4

F re d ju s t k e e p s o n lo g g in ' o n

P e n n e r's p la c e o n -lin e E zra G unter The Tribune Editorial Board presents its picks for next year's SSMU executive, as well as our opinions on the referenda questions. Full candidate interviews on pages 5-7, endorsements on pages 10 and 1 1 .

M a r t l e t s c a p t u r e f i r s t C IS t i t l e

V ic to ry o v e r L a u rie r c a p s p e rfe c t s e a s o n . M att C hesser

For the first time in McGill Uni versity's 187 -year history, the school will be raising a women's CIS national championship banner. With their 2 -0 victory over the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks on Mon day night, the McGill Martlets finally captured the program's first national title in a hard fought game against the third-seeded OUA champions. The win, coming in the Martlets'ninth tournament appearance in the past 11 years, atoned for a disappointing 4 -0 loss to the underdog Alberta Pandas in last year's gold medal game.

Tho nnlrl mprlal TheMartlotc' Martlets'gold medal\/irtnr\/ victory was spearheaded by superb perfor mances from rookie forward Ann-Sophie Bettez and first year defenceman Cathy Chartrand, who each tallied a goal. Chartrand, who notched the game winner late in the second pe riod and added an assist on Bettez's insurance marker, was perhaps the Martlets' best player throughout the three game tournament. McGill goaltender Charline Labonté made 23 saves to earn her fifth shutout in seven postseason con tests. The sophomore netminder did not allow a goal in three games at the national championship tournament

tliminn Il 55 shots turning a<;iHp aside all shots tlthat she faced. Both teams struggled to estab lish any sort of rhythm in the first period, as referee Mary-Anne Gage handed out nine minor penalties in the opening frame alone. Despite the ample power play opportunities both teams failed to convert early on, largely thanks to the stellar play of Laurier goaltender Liz Knox. The Golden Hawks sophomore goalten der made 15 saves in the first stanza, including a sliding left-pad save on a breakaway for CIS rookie of the year See LABONTÉ on page 2 1

For Canadian television view ers who grew up in the 8 0 s and 9 0 s, the memory of Fred Penner crawling through his giant log to welcome one and all into his musical forest domain holds a special place in the heart. But for those who weren't raised watch ing Fred Penner's Place on CBC, there's now an opportunity to make up for lost time. The legendary children's entertainer will be making several stops at McGill this week, including a show at Gert's on March 14 and a keynote address to the Education Graduate Student Society conference on March 15 . The lecture will be what Penner calls an "annotated concert," addressing the role of applied arts in education. "When I'm on stage now I de mand interacting and participation from the audience," Penner said of his performance style. "That's always been part of my work and that's the value of what I do - it is participation.

It's keeping an understand of the challenges that are happening in this world and particularly the things that affect children and families as they're trying to grow and discover and do what families are supposed to do.” Though Fred Penner's Place has been off the air since 19 97 , Penner's vocation as an entertainer and an educator has continued to evolve. He has recently launched a website, fredpenner.com, which will be used to dis tribute his first new album since 2 0 0 1 , Where in the World. Like everyone else in the music business, Penner has been hit hard by the rise of digital technology and the demise of con ventional music distribution, and like most others, he is attempting to em brace new formats. "Standard distribution is pretty much down the tubes, so finding a new way to get the music out to the audience is the challenge. It's still in it's infancy, it seems," Penner said of See THE CAT on page 17

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Attention diverted to referendum questions Referenda committee chairs and senator candidates gathered last Thursday in the Shatner building to promote their specific causes to a crowd of around 30 people. Acclaimed Law Senator Faizel Gilamhussein was first to speak, tout ing the importance of bilingualism on campus. Current Science Representa tive to Students' Society Council Andrew Ling followed, stressing his experience with SSMU and promis ing to improve student services and accessibility as one of three science senators. The other three contend ers were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts. In the only contested debate of the night, all four candidates for the three Arts Senator positions present ed their platforms and took questions from the audience. The candidates, Zach Honoroff, Will Johnston, Kevin Markl and Ivan Neilson, all touched on their experience, ties to the local community and ideas for next year. During question period, all four agreed that French should not be a requirement for professors, and fielded questions on the opt-out issue, CAPS, bilingualism on campus and experience dealing with Dep

CITY

C itiz e n s h o p e t o ja z z

D e b a te s s e e fe w

J am es G ilman

COVER PHOTOBY NIKI HYDE

uty Provost Student Life & Learning Morton Mendelson. Attention was then shifted to the three referenda questions, with repre sentatives from each 'Yes' committee presenting their arguments. Trevor Chow-Fraser presented the case for the'Yes'committee on the question of whether student groups should be able to create and admin ister their own online opt-out system as opposed to the current system run by the McGill administration. Chow-Fraser argued that while all the affected student groups are vital institutions, it is important that students in financial need are able to opt out of the fees. Fie argued that the current system is an imposed, undemocratic and confusing one. The current system "also facilitates negative and potentially slanderous campaigns that target organizations for opt-out," he said. 'Minerva does not provide information to ensure informed decision making and does not allow organizations to respond to accusations.” McGill Debating Union Secretary Josh Stark presented the'Yes'commit tee's case in the Clubs and Services question, which would forbid SSMU from making decisions "which threat en the existence of clubs and Services as a whole".

Stark argued that recent budget cuts by SSMU came without warning, and that SSMU is constitutionally re quired to support clubs and services, referring to the costly purchase of Flaven Books which has been cited as one of the main reasons for clubs and services'low funding this year. The final question of the night was whether or not to renew the Daily Publications Society fee. McGill requires that the student fee for The Daily and Le Délit be put to referen dum every five years. Max Reed and Sarah Colgrove from the DPS argued in favour for the continuation of the fee, stating that its termination would likely force both papers to cease publication since this fund accounts for 56 per cent of the DPS funding. They cited The Daily's importance as an independent news source, its rich history and tradition and Le Délit's role as the only franco phone publication on campus. "I think we really need to make a very large statement to McGill University and to whoever else is listening that this is a really impor tant part of campus life at McGill," Colgrove said. ■ Advance polls opened last Sat urday and voting will end on Friday, March 7 4.

u p L io n e l-G r o u lx

Borough discusses name change T ho m as Q uail Recent calls to change the name of the Lionel-Groulx metro station to Oscar-Peterson have not fallen upon deaf ears. In a South-West Borough council meeting lastTuesday, a group led by Michael Citrome, a Université de Montreal law student, came out demanding the change, stating that the former Montreal resident and jazz deity Peterson was an inspira tion and a role model in the area. The South-West Borough, home to the Lionel-Groulx metro station, is an area strongly influenced by africanamerican culture and is said to be the birthplace of jazz in Montreal. "They responded very positively," he said.-"One councillor in particular, [Pierre Frechette], said that he would personally take the recommenda tion to the committee that's going to be formed by the city, to discuss the name change." The Société de Transport de Montreal has come out against the name change, citing a moratorium with name changes enacted in 20 0 6 . The STM does not expect action to be taken. “There's no chance because of the moratorium. It's a decision to re spect the history of the city and to respect our patrimony,"said Marianne Rouette, STM spokesperson. "The

only way that the metro station name could be changed was if the name of the street adjacent to the metro sta tion was changed.” Citrome said that he thought the STM had no jurisdiction over binding decisions concerning the names of Metro stations. "They don't really have the ju risdiction. The moratorium that they adopted really has no constraining forces on them... For a functionary in the STM's office to say that you can't change the name is just bogus." Citrome drew upon historical context to explain why one of Que bec's elite and notorious anti-Semites has a metro station named after him. Fie claimed that around the time of Expo '67 , Mayor Jean Drapeau needed to court the favour of the elite nation alist establishment to attract people to the expo. To do this, he very hastily called to rename an important Metro station after Lionel-Groulx— a mem ber of this elite. "Lionel-Groulx has no connec tion to the area whatsoever," Citrome said. The movement began two weeks ago with Citrome's creation of a Facebook group encouraging the renaming. As of Monday, the group had just under 6,000 members from within the online community. ■

SP EA K ER S O N C A M P U S

H a id a r i u r g e s C a n a d a

r e m a in

A fg h a n is ta n

C o u n s e llo r u r g e s fo r sh ift fo c u s f r o m p e a c e k e e p in g t o s o c ie ta l n e e d s A u W ithers Last Thursday, Afghan street vendor-turned political analyst Ashraf Flaidari urged Canada to "stay in Afghanistan beyond 2 0 0 9 and even 20 11 to provide human security". Flaidari, a counsellor on political, security and developmen

tal affairs with the Afghan embassy in Washington, discussed the values and roles of Canadian troops in his native country. His lecture, entitled, "Should Canada stay? Human Security in Afghanistan," was part of the weeklong event, "Afghanistan in Focus: A Week of Images and Discussion on

Canada's Role," hosted by the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, and the McGill Human Rights Working Group. Haidari was optimistic about Canada's contribution in Afghani stan. He noted the nation's historic role as an international peacekeeper but explained that a shift in Canada's

MATT PARK Ashraf Haidari spoke as part of the Law Faculty's week-long event, focussing on Canada's role in Afghanistan.

military focus was imperative. "There is very little peace to keep in Afghanistan and much to build," he said. While the challenges for Af ghanistan's security are multi-fac eted and daunting, he emphasized that "Canada is not alone in its ef forts," as there are presently over 70 nations contributing to the restora tion of stability. Haidari explained that although Afghanistan has not always been supportive of an international pres ence, the present force has the ap proval of the Afghan people. At a basic level, Haidari cited that Afghan people still face ubiqui tous poverty, poor health care, water security issues and unique challeng es regarding women's rights. He also described the security situation in Afghanistan as highly precarious. Human Rights Watch de clared 2 0 0 7 as the most dangerous year in Afghanistan since Coalition troops entered the country in 2 0 0 1 . He stressed that the resurgence of opium production in Afghanistan has created destabilizing conditions for the country's unique security problems. Calling for international action, he stated that "global de mand for opium cannot be fought from the supply side". While most Afghanis may gen erally be supportive of their govern ment and the international presence. Alex Dobrota, Law-1 , who worked as

a reporter for the Globe & Mail in Af ghanistan was less optimistic. From his observation, he described the relationship between villagers and the Canadian forces as one of a "lack of trust" His photo display, which ac companied the week-long event, displayed the tension and the challenges Canadian Forces are currently experiencing. Haidari remained supportive of the future of Canada's mission in Kandahar. Lamenting the fact that achievements for human security are often neglected in the media, he applauded Canada on their role and success. "Canada's aid and effectiveness should serve as a model for others," he said. He indicated that a democrati cally elected government, a progres sive constitution and increasing ac cessibility to basic services such as education and health care were im portant milestones for Afghanistan. Yet he indicated that'a lot of Afghans don't know their rights. They don't know they have a constitution." Accordingly, the international community, including Canada, must continue to work with the Afghan government and invest more to build capacity and restore secu rity. His parting message stressed that the Coalition must, "stay the course until [Afghans] can stand on their feet". ■

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11.03.08 • The McGill Tribune • 3

CITY

SP E A K E R S O N C A M P U S

O r g a n iz a tio n s

S o re n s e n

u n ite to

S e n io r a d v is o r d iscu ss e s w o r t h y to p ic s

s a v e

B e n 's

G r o u p s e e k s h is to ric a l s ta tu s T heo M eyer Heritage Montreal and The Art Deco Society of Montreal have teamed up recently in an effort to seek "historic monument" status for the building formerly home to Ben's Delicatessen in order to keep the building from being demolished. The Deli, located in prime downtown real estate on boulevard de Maisonneuve and rue Metcalfe, permanently closed in December 2 0 0 6 after a protracted labour dis pute and employee strike. The prop erty was then bought by the Quebec developer SIDEV, which paid $1,925 to apply for a permit to demolish the building. "We've written letters to every one," said Art Deco Society of Mon treal President Sandra Cohen-Rose. "It's very hard to believe they'd want to tear down this building." While the City of Montreal has the power to protect the building's exterior, provincial Culture Minister Christine St. Pierre would need to intervene to preserve the building in its entirety by granting historic monument status. "It's ecologically and economi cally a good building to keep,"CohenRose said, citing the environmental cost of demolishing the building as well as its commercial potential. "A building like that attracts tourists, as well as film and video producers.” Although Ben's only closed down in 2 0 0 6 , Heritage Montreal has been making efforts to protect the building for over 2 0 years. "In 19 8 7 , we asked the city to list Ben's as a cultural heritage property," said Dinu Bumbaru, Heritage Mon treal spokesperson. The building was constructed in 19 50 as the third and final location for Ben's Delicatessen, which was first opened in 19 0 8 by Latvian immi grants Ben and Fanny Kravitz. Ben's,

along with several other Montreal buildings, was designed by McGill graduate Charles Davis Goodman in the Streamline Moderne style of Art Deco architecture. "The building itself is very typi cal of the time it was built in,"CohenRose said. "Most important are all the famous people who've been there." Ben's was visited by celebrities such as Bette Midler, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and was frequented by musician, writer and McGill gradu ate Leonard Cohen. Ben's was much more than a celebrity hangout, how ever; Pop Montreal creative director Daniel Seligman, who teamed up with the Art Deco Society to save Ben's last year, stressed that Ben's was frequented by locals and visitors alike. "I think most Montrealers have some connection to Ben's," he said. In addition to the Art Deco Society and Heritage Montreal, the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies has also pledged its sup port to Ben's. Montreal is hosting the 10 th World Congress on Art Deco in May 2 0 0 9 . "People are coming from all over the world to see our Art Deco architecture... they'd be disappoint ed if [a piece of] it was gone,"CohenRose said. Sam Benatar, president of SIDEV, refused to give any details about the developer's plans for the site, say ing that he would know in three months. "At this stage, there is nothing we can say," Benatar said. Though Ben's future is far from certain, those trying to save the old deli remain optimistic. "I think all we can do is hope," Seligman said. "Obviously buildings come and go, but I think [losing Ben's] would be a blow to Montreal ers of many generations." ■

to u ts

I nes B eatrix Last Tuesday, McGill's Centre of International Rela tions hosted Gillian Sorensen, senior advisor to the Unit ed Nations Foundation. Sorensen's lecture focussed on the UN's indispensability and triumphs, along with cur rent critiques facing UN procedure and administration. Sorensen began her lecture by paying tribute to Canada's exemplary leadership. "You can't work at the UN without realizing what an incredible role Canada has played in the UN," she said."If we had all Canadas in the world, we would have no need to have the UN." Sorensen stressed that the role of the UN is particu larly salient, living in an age of globalisation. “There is no other organization that brings togeth er 19 3 states," she said adding that this access to world problems is reason behind why she believes the UN is best suited for providing a global response to these is sues. In response to critiques that the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council— China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States— otherwise known as the P5 , are not representa tive of the current political atmosphere, Sorensen said that the situation is an "anomaly" that is not reflective of the overall dynamic of the UN. She also responded to criticism at the slow response to the plight in Sudan, stating that it was absurd that two of the world's poor est countries— Bangladesh and Ethiopia—were the only two countries willing to donate helicopters to the cause. "I guess [the U.S.] needed [the helicopters] for Iraq," Sorensen said bitterly. However, she did not completely denounce the UN on the basis of this misstep, saying that Sudan's case was unique. It is a country which faces a diverse set of problems stemming from many aspects of the country's profile, including those of race, oil, water, and ethnicity; she suggested that this situation made the P5 more reluctant to act. Sorensen defined the role of the UN as that of maintaining a healthy push-and-pull between idealism and realism. "Idealism is necessary because one needs to have a dream, a hope and vision to keep you moving in order to knock against politicians that do not care about their own people,"she said.

U N

successes

At the end of her presentation she urged McGill students to support the UN and to consider it as a po tential career path.

IOP.HARVARD.EDU Sorensen praises Canada's presence in the global community. "I hope that you are thinking of politics and phar maceutics," she said. "We need people like you who understand what international cooperation is and who can put themselves in others' shoes." Students responded positively to the Sorensen's talk. "I thought it was great to get the UN's opinion on things because of the lack of media coverage," said Kruti Patel, Uo management. “She's a great speaker; it was a real pleasure lis tening to her and got me thinking about the UN in a more positive light," said Nancy Beshay, U2 political science. ■

IM A G E S

News Brief Liquid Nutrition approved as new tenants for Shatner 108 Shatner's newest tenants, Liquid Nutrition, signed their lease on Friday morning, following approval by Coun cil in a confidential session late Thurs day night. After a year of controversy surrounding the empty space in Room 10 8 , Students' Society Vice-President Finance and Operations Imad Barake was pleased to have secured another guaranteed source of revenue for the next three years. "I would consider it one of the most valuable pieces of property in Shatner. It gives the tenant the advan tage of street-side promotion." With nine stores around Montre al, Liquid Nutrition markets itself as a smoothie store with a healthy edge. Shatner's Room 10 8 has remained empty as of March 20 0 7 , following the displacement of University Bytes. Ac cording to Barake, last year's VP Fops, Dave Sunstrum, thought that procur ing a new tenant would be relatively straightforward. “Mypredecessorthought it would be easy to find a new tenant," Barake said. "The problem was that we didn't realize how difficult it would be to ob tain McGill approval for anything." In SSMU's Memorandum of Agreement with the administration,

McGill must approve all tenants in Shatner. Included within the MoA is a clause that states any potential ten ant—with the exception of food ser vices— must not directly conflict with businesses run by McGill. Around September, United Par cel Service, Access Infotech and Liquid Nutrition had all expressed interest in the space. The McGill administration took until Dec. 20 before anything was approved. "I wasn't in town and I received a phone call when in Vancouver that [the Administration] had approved UPS and Liquid Nutrition, but had re jected Access Infotech,"Barake said. UPS had grown disinterested in the space and rejected SSMU's offer. On the other hand,. Liquid Nutrition was still eager to fill the space, and talks over the lease began in January. VP Clubs and Services Mar celle Kosman added that she still felt strongly that the space should have been given to a student group. "I still stand by the fact that we should have put the question to refer endum," she said. "The fact that it's not going to students is unfortunate be cause we have a serious lack of space for students in this building." — Thomas Quail

MATT PARK Engineers Without Borders volunteers distribute flyers and free chocolate to raise awareness and promote buying fair-trade products as part of Fair Trade Day, on Thursday, March 7.

The McGill Tribune

4 • News • 11.03.08

BY THE N U M B E R S

E x e c s p r e p a r e to d e liv e r o n c a m p a ig n

A U S E le c t io n R e s u lts

p r o m is e s

P re s id e n t sets th e b a r h ig h fo r n e w V P s Continued from COVER undergraduates. Just after the results were an nounced, Wolf, elected with 6 3 4 per cent of the vote over his opponent Alexandre Ruiz de Porras, said that he was eagerto start working on his cam paign platform, which in part focussed on expanding AUS's role in the Mon treal community. "I'm going to start working right away," he said. “People should expect a really active AUS executive in the fu ture." Boily, re-elected to his position as VP Academic with 58.2 per cent over Claudette van Zyl, looked forward to making progress on academic and information surveys. The two surveys aim to seek student feedback on advis: ing and help establish a better way for students to find information. Boily aims to use these surveys to "fix the split be tween departmental and faculty advis ing," and expects results at the end of this year or the beginning of 20 0 9 . Winning the VP Events contest, Leon-Carlyle aimed to make the events "more relevant to students, improve relationships with other faculties and SSMU, and more fiscal responsibility in organizing events." The closest race of the elections came to the VP Internal position in a contest between Possian, current First-

The VP External election saw the largest margin of victory in the entire race; Chen won with an over whelming majority of 65.9 per cent of the vote, over fellow opponent Byeong Chang. "I've had a very ambitious cam paign,"Chen said. "Winning an election was only the beginning of the battle. The hardest part will be implementing the policies that we ran on."»

Year Council VP External and Logan Clark, who campaigned on his experi ence inside AUS. Winning with 47-7 per cent of the vote and a narrow six-point lead, Possian hopes to prove her dedi cation to her portfolio. "I always knew that it was going to be close," Possian said. "This just means that I have to work even harder with the departmental associations and between students."

VP Finance Kendall Zaluski 9 26 , 77 .4 % Disapprove 85 , 7 .1 %

President Nick Wolf 758 votes, 6 3 4 % Alexandre Ruiz de Porras 234 votes, 19 .6 % Spoiled

Spoiled

204 , 17 .1 %

185 , 15 .5%

VP Academic Pat Boily 6 9 6 votes, 58 .2 %

VP Events Marisa Leon-Carlyle 655,5 4 .8 %

Claudette van Zyl 384 , 32 .1 %

Stanislaw Mis 381 , 3 1 .9 %

Spoiled n6 9 .7 %

Spoiled 16 0 , 1 3 4 %

VP Communications Michael Brulotte 350,2 9 .3 %

VP External Hanchu Chen 78 8 , 6 5 .9 %

Adil Katrak 6 5 0 , 5 4 .3 %

Byeong Chang 284 , 23 .7 %

Spoiled 19 6 , 9 .7 %

Spoiled 124 , 1 0 4 %

Arts Representatives to SSMU Stas Moroz 5 8 4 , 2 2 .8 %

VP Internal Logan Clark 502 , 4 2 .0 %

Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan 70 3 , 2 7 .4 %

Amara Possian 5 70 ,47-7%

Solika Ry

Spoiled

513 , 2 0 .0 %

MICHELLE GEESAMAN AUS President-elect Nick Wolf shakes hands with supporters after win.

C O RREC T IO N

124 , 1 0 4 %

Sarah Woolf 6 36 , 2 4 .8 %

Source: AUS CRO Karina

Spoiled 129 , 5 -0 %

C A L L FO R ED IT O R S

In the article "Contenders vie to be AUS brass" (0 4 .03 .08 ) AUS VP Internal candidate Logan Clark was said to have "taken on lead ership roles in a variety of sports teams and was also a summer camp counsellor." This quote was attributed to VP Events candidate Stanislaw Mis. In "Principal fields concerns," lab techni cian Slawomir Poplawski was identified as being from the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering. He is in actuality from the Department of Mining and Materi als Engineering. The Tribune apologizes for these errors..

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11.03.08 • News • 5

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PHOTOS BY NIKI HYDE, MATT PARK AND ADAMSCOTTI

S S M U

E le c tio n s

2 0 0 8

W ith c a m p a ig n rh e to ric b e c o m in g in c re a s in g ly p o la riz e d in k e y ra ce s, it is e a s y to lo se s ig h t o f t h e issu e s t h e c a n d id a te s ran o n . L a st w e e k , t h e T rib u n e g rille d th e c a n d id a te s o n th e ir v isio n s, id e a s a n d o ve ra ll p la n s to s e rv e t h e 1 9 , 0 0 0 u n d e rg ra d u a te s h e re at M cG ill. Fo r m o re e le c tio n c o v e ra g e se e th e T rib u n e 's e n d o rs e m e n ts o n p a g e s 1 0 a n d 1 1 .

P re s id e n t RJ KELFORD, U3 INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Historically, presidents have been either in supporting roles or take on a highly active leading role. How would you characterise your leadership style between these two extremes? We should have an expectation that SSMU VPs should be able to work together without being coddled. It shouldn't be a full-time job to keep the team together. What my VPs would really need is direc tion; SSMU lacks overwhelming direction. There are no goals, no direction; no one knows where SSMU is going. So if I can say where SSMU is going and develop broad goals, even simple goals such as SSMU should take an active role to encourage student life on campus, even lofty goals like that give VPs some direction from where should they make their portfolios grow. I would be demanding growth and raising expectations of my VPs. How would you address student apathy,

at the GA and amongst Francophones? You come to realize that every single time something happens at the GA, noth ing happens after that. We're taking very little action on the motions. We're directing a lot of attention at francophone rights. The Francophone mandate needs to be expanded past bilin gual rights.The Québécois culture is a very rich one; it is culturally exciting, it's some thing that our students should be en gaged in. We're making an effort now with Francofête. We need to engage the english community in Québécois culture, we need to show people how rich this culture is to everyone, and that's what's going to bring this community together. It's more than just Francophone rights Both you and Turner gained different experiences in student politics this past year. How will your experience influence your perspective and your approach to the president's portfolio? Kay's talking about experience, I'm talking about results. It's the difference between having ex perience and holding positions,and having experience and taking action and doing things and making change. I believe I've proven that AUS is a far different body from when I started. I believe that SSMU experi ence is a bad thing. At any rate, I think that SSMU experience isn't necessarily a good thing; SSMU isn't a good organization, we need a lot of new perspectives.

KAY TURNER, U3 INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Some presidents in SSMU history have been in a primarily supportive role, while others have taken a more active role. Where do you see your leadership style between these two extremes? My belief is that the role of the presi dent is to play a supporting role to the exec utive. That being said, it's also the president's role to be incredibly visible and to be there to answer questions for students and to be the public figure of the SSMU. I don't think you have to either be a supportive leader or a visible figure, I think you can be both. Both you and Kelford gained different experiences in student politics this past year. How will your experience influence your perspective and your approach to the president's portfolio? I think that SSMU experience in par ticular to the president's portfolio is so in credibly important. If you don't understand how SSMU works, it's going to take a really long time for you to catch up and for you to understand what's going on and for you to make any change at all. In that respect, I think because of my experience, I'll be able to hit the ground running. In your campaign, you talk a lot about how you and Kelford are going to take SSMU in different directions. Which direction are you taking SSMU exactly? Kelford's vision seems to be, from my understanding, having a broader plan, having a greater focus on events, having a greater focus on dubs and services. I want to work on strengthening the representa-

tion side and on broadening environmen tal policy. I know Kelford pays lip service to environmental policy in his platform as well, but I don't really feel like it's at the forefront of his agenda in actuality. If elected, what is one thing that you'd like to accomplish above everything else? The one thing that I want to accomplish next year, if nothing else, is that we don't lose any ground on issues that we're fight ing for. Does that mean that I don't want to lose the status quo? Absolutely not. I realize that SSMU is inaccessible, I realize that it's ex clusive and I realize that we need to work on reaching out to students more broadly.

V ic e -P re s id e n t F in a n c e a n d O p e ra tio n s PETER NEWHOOK, U3 FINANCE, I.S., (ACCLAIMED) What steps will you take with advertising and marketing Haven Books to students? The main thing is making people aware of it. It has offered a decent service but not enough people know it. A used bookstore really works on mass knowledge and mass | users. It needs to increase that liquidity. Right off the bat, we need to get next years' new rez students looking to Haven Books for their primary source of books. It's going to be key to show the price difference. How are you planning on getting pro fessors to put their books and coursepacks to sell in Haven? It will take a significant change of ideas -; of the professors and a confidence that their ■ books will move from that location. We have to show that Haven is a legitimate source for students before professors will buy into that. What are you going to do about Haven Books? I'd love to see it work. If we don't get enough books from the winter and spring book drives, we're going to have to examine what we can do with it and its long-term vi ability. Our lease is there for another three years. We need to look at its viability or sub lease it and lose money on that. So it's the lesser of two evils

What are your priorities when setting up the SSMU budget? Clubs and services are high on my prior ities. That's something that has unfortunately been pushed aside by Haven, and the large amount of money we have to put into that to make it viable. I'd like to get a pretty clear idea of a long-term goal for Haven, and how much money we can put into clubs and ser vices.

H N N Utm

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V ic e -P r e s id e n t U n iv e rs ity A ffa irs NADYA WILKINSON, U3 GERMAN STUDIES, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, ECONOMICS, (ACCLAIMED) What will you work on wih the administra tion to improve student life? I want to work on preserving studentrun cafes; that and services like WalkSafe I think are an integral and valued part of stu dent life. I think that [dealing with the adminis tration is] where I have a lot of experience. You can have an open and friendly discus sion without compromise or weakening on student interests and that's what I'm looking to do; create a positive dialogue. There is a lot of movement towards that. Academic advising is a problem that is frequently cited by students. What initiatives will you undertake to improve it? The position of University Affairs has less control over advising than you would think. I'm going to be shadowing [current VP UA Adrian Angus] for the rest of the se mester to see where he's taking advising. I think that it's important to have continuity because the administrators are here for thir ty years and if we lose our focus, well lose our leverage. Much of your portfolio involves working behind the scenes. What will you do to make your work visible to students? I'm going to have a Web site with a blog

and it's going to have all the things that I'm personally working on. I want students to have instant access to my portfolio. What is the one thing you would like to accomplish above everything else during your tenure? . I want sustainability institutionalized into the governance structure at McGill. I've been working on the Sustainable McGill Project proposal for the sustainability centere for two years now and things are going well. I'd really like to see that be taken up into the administration. Because the centre, it's not just the fact that we'd see more sus tainability but it also affects undergraduate research opportunities, it affects our repu tation with other schools, and relations be tween the administration and students.

6« News. 11.03.08

The McGill Tribune

V ic e -P re s id e n t In te rn a l JOSE DIAZ, U2 ECONOMICS AND RUSSIAN STUDIES hand, eliminating the need for cutlery. I'd work closely with the environmental com mittee and the Sustainable McGill Project.

How are you going to make events on campus more environmentally sustainable while keeping the cost of these events down? I'd like to build on events that have been undergone in the past. For instance, the idea of using reusable mugs in all the events that serve alcohol. Also, using Frisbees instead of plates. I'd also like to implement some of the initiatives that have been carried out by the people at Radical Frosh. Furthermore I'd like to work with the People's Potato at Concodia and the Midnight Kitchen for catering at SSMU events. I'd make sure that the food that is sold in events could be consumed by

Last year many events were cancelled. How are you going to attract more people to these events? Firstly, it's important to work closely with the faculties to ensure that they are promoting the events properly and to work with them. Also, part of what I'm aiming for is to diversify the type of students that par ticipate in SSMU events, Frosh in particular. The nature of SSMU Frosh can be very alien ating, and it's important to combat this by creating a safe space in terms of sensitivity training and making all the events acces sible to everyone. If elected, what is the one thing you would like to accomplish above everything else during your tenure? Diversifying the events and encourag ing the participation of students that have felt disenfranchised in the past with SSMU events. I'd love to reach students who usu ally aren't involved with SSMU events.

JULIA WEBSTER, U3 COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND HISTORY How are you going to make events on campus more environmentally sustainable while keeping the cost minimal? It's making sure that when you plan an event that you break down all parts of the event to the environmental committee. When you do meet with them, you ask them what can we do, and what are our options. It's important to ensure that we also maintain a close relationship with grounds at events such as these and making sure they understand what we are trying to do with the events on campus to make them more sustainable. Many events were cancelled this year, how are you going to combat this and get more students out? Advertisements and really getting the word out about these events to students across campus are important in attracting people to scheduled events. Also, it's impor tant to go to specific faculties and meet with other VP Internals. This can allow them to let their students know about events that SSMU is putting on. It's also bringing in different events.

BRAD MILECH, U2 EDUCATION

KEVIN CHAMBERS, U5 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING while keeping the costs down? I do believe that there are [environ ment] committees; I would consult with these people and work with them to make it environmentally friendly. How are you going to attract more people to McGill events? To attract more people, you just have to market them a lot better, get the word out, work with different groups on cam pus, trying to recruit people to help me. It's important to get the word out.

How are you going to make campus events more environmentally sustainable

If elected, what is theone thing you would like to accomplish above everything else during your tenure? Bringing 4 Floors back to what it used to be. When I first came here, the lines for 4 Floors used to go down to Sherbrooke. They were that popular.

Ting that you would like to accomplish above everything else? The position of VP internal is somebody who is supposed to represent the culture of campus and someone who is supposed to make events that reflect that. The most im portant thing to me is moving towards ex panding school spirit across campus. I could sit here and say that i want to see the VP Inter nal portfolio become more political and more involved with environmental issues, and those things are very important to me, but I feel like those things fall under the umbrella of school spirit which would be my domain.____________

There were various events that got cancelled this year. How would you conduct advertising to attract students and desirability to attend these events? When you're trying to promote events in the real world, you can't just make a facebook event, or start yelling out to people. You have to meet people one-on-one, on an indi vidual basis.The trick is to find out the alpha males and alpha females, and this becomes a domino effect; everyone else wants to come. You have to get the right people to promote for you; you can't just do it by yourself. Francophone and anglophone students tend to not interact in student life. What ideas do you have to draw the interest of the entire student body? If you get Francophone students in volved, you have to make events where fran cophones go. McGill has a general tendency to stay on St-Laurent, Crescent. I want to add events to diversify; you have to allow fran

cophones to feërcomfortable by bringing them to clubs and bars that they like. If there's one thing next year that you can accomplish above everything else, what ■ would it be? My biggest goal is to diversify events enough that everybody in the entire student population goes to at least one SSMU event and say, 'I had a really good time, and I will try other events.'

V ic e -P re s id e n t E x te rn a l

DEVIN ALFARO, U2 SOCIOLOGY AND URBAN SYSTEMS

Do you feel that national and/or provincial representation is necessary for SSMU? I don't think so; I think we need to remain active on both the provincial and the federal scene, but I don think that we should be a member of any federation or lobby group. We have tried three out of the four that are available to us and we've had negative experiences with all of them. I think we need to build coalitions on an issue-by issue basis to make sure our voice is out there, but I think that independence is the only way for us to proceed at this point. For a while now, SSMU's relationship with the PGSS has become increasingly

strained, what will you do— if anything— to shore up relations with the PGSS executive? A lot of this depends on how the PGSS elections go. It's a really difficult issue, be cause I think that SSMU has been perfectly reasonable throughout this entire process. The [PGSS] have been totally unreasonable. That being said, I think that is important we reconcile our differences with the PGSS. I'm a former Queer McGill executive and there are most certainly graduate students who are involved with the dub. I think that there is no reason that we shouldn't be working together. If elected, what is the one thing that you would like to accomplish above everything else during your tenure? I think the most important external issue that we are facing at the moment is university under-funding. In my mind, that is the root cause of a lot of our problems. There are the obvious effects that it has like increasing tuition fees but this under-fund ing also affects campus life in ways that aren't quite as obvious.

TREVOR HANNA, U3 PHYSICS Do you feel that national and/or provincial representation is necessary for SSMU? I think that for the time being that we should maintain our independent status. But that shouldn't prevent us from working with other student unions, pro vincial organizations and federal organi zations accordingly. Perhaps, sometime in the future, we can re-establish good working relations with these national or ganizations. For a while now, SSMU's relationship with the PGSS has become increasingly strained, what will you— if anything— do to shore up relations with the PGSS executive? I don't think it's just the PGSS that we're on bad terms with. In the past cou ple of years, we've been burning bridges with multiple student associations. My main philosophy is that we need to work with associations on an issue-by-issue basis. In general, we should be respect ful towards one another in so much

as we can agree to disagree without being disagreeable. If elected, what is the one thing that you would like to accomplish above everything else during your tenure? My number one priority would be fi nancial aid. It would be to get the paren tal contribution threshold raised. It would be to deal with the indexation of costs, and it would— most importantly— be to procure a long-term agreement with the Quebec government to keep loan limits at their current limit.

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V ic e -P re s id e n t C lu b s a n d S e rvic e s JOHNSON FUNG, U1 MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

SAMANTHA COOK, U3 ENGLISH LITERATURE If the clubs and services referendum question passes, what concrete actions are you going to take to ensure that clubs and services are a priority? I think I'm opposed [to the referendum question]. There are six execs for a reason; SSMU has so many jobs it has to do from negotiating with the administration and with other schools, plus the internal things we do. I think that maintaining a balance is important, but not prioritizing one over another. Haven Books is clearly draining funds from your portfolio. How are you going to work with the VP Finance and Operations to approach this issue? I am pro-Haven; I believe that any starting business is obviously going to make a loss, that's just how it works. I'm

not sure who came up with the idea of starting it at a time when it would drain the budget so much, but I think [current VP Finance and Operations Imad Barake] did not do his job. When it came to Haven, he really didn't promote it, especially in the first semester. I think it would be really imperative to make sure that the new VP FOps really knows that this is something that clearly affects his portfolio and that this is something he's got to move on. I wholeheartedly suggest that we sell other things at Haven because at the be ginning and ends of the semester people buy and commission their books, but in between, there's no traffic. [The current SSMU exec] said that Haven will keep on losing money for the next three years, but I think it's going to be less and less as it goes, it's not going to be the $3 0 0 ,0 0 0 drain that it was to begin with. If elected, what is one thing that you'd like to accomplish above everything else? I think the most pertinent thing is making sure that clubs and services receive the funding that it requires to function in a stable manner. The giant fluctuations are sometimes dependent on the general sta tus of SSMU at the time and I think finding ways to improve the budget right now and then make sure that there are consistent ways to keep it up in the future would be a great goal.

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How would you increase Francophone participation in clubs and services? I definitely and fully support working very closely with the Francophone Affairs Committee and the francophone clubs that already exist, as well as approving franco phone clubs that want to join SSMU. I want to make a separate Francophone com mittee that approves prospective Franco phone clubs because I don't feel that your average student can really understand, nor do I think I could really understand, what issues Francophones really find important. If the clubs and services referendum question passes, what concrete actions are you going to take to ensure that clubs and services are a priority? What I want to do with funding is that I want to help clubs be self-sufficient in their day-to-day activities and in their events. If the clubs are all sustainable by themselves, then the funding from SSMU is not going to be allocated to keep clubs alive. I want SSMU's fund to be a venture capital fund and not a fund from your parents to fill in your credit card debt; there's a very big dif ference.

If elected, what is one thing that you'd

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like to accomplish above everything else? We are a school that has students who want extracurricular activities and the fact that only 5 ,0 0 0 are in clubs and services is a shame. If SSMU was more relevant to the average student, problems wouldn't arise as often and the ones that do would get fixed much faster because people would start caring.

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S t ill w a i t i n g f o r C h in e s e d e m o c r a c y T imothy M ak T imothy . m ak @ m ail . m cg ill . ca aving just returned from a visit to China, I could regale you with anecdotes about my antics abroad. Alternatively, as this is a political column, I could unload a bit of my more politically oriented reflections. My preference is for the latter. Over the course of my trip, I visited both Hong Kong and Beijing. Since they speak dif ferent languages and pursue almost entirely different policies, one might be forgiven for wondering if they belong to the same coun try at all. Hong Kong is a shining example of what capitalism can bring to an area focussed on economic openness. Hong Kong is like New York's famed Times Square, but everywhere. Even residential areas are lit up like trees on Christmas Eve in response to the relative pros perity and buoyancy. Downtown Hong Kong is like a fit of effulgence and one can't help but be excited by this port's unbridled optimism. In the jurisdiction that the Fraser Institute la belled the most economically free in the world, it absolutely felt that way. It seems to me that in Hong Kong, individuals could seize their destinies, grab hold of their natural innovative capabilities and fulfill their inventive potential. I watched the exuberant skyline and realized that in this city, you can make your own deci sions—even bad ones. The air is clearer there and I have not met friendlier people. Beijing is the exact opposite. Smog clogs the lungs while dust coats the tongue and one finds little fun in a city of state-controlled mo rality. Police officers stand at major crosswalks and soldiers march by in formation constantly, but this rarely prevents the locals from cheat ing any and all they perceive to be foreigners. In the city, the sun is but a distant memory of those who sought better conditions in a larger city now wrecked by environmental havoc. There is no sunrise or sunset in Beijing, only fog and cloud and overcast skies— today

and tomorrow and the day after that. A Cana dian in Beijing must begin to think that even when such despicable weather collides with a Canadian city, one can be reassured that the vegetation is in dialogue with the shrouded skies and that the negotiations will hopefully end soon. None of this climate exists in Beijing and residents just accept the foul colour of the heavens.There is no variety or surprises in life—only silence and nationalized order and, for the most part, darkness, both in liberty and in imagination. Communism here is not a bit conflagrant, lacks excitement and is left presenting noth ing but weathered and battered old ideas. It seems to me for the most part that Beijing is a city locked behind something more porous than an iron curtain, something that lets the light in (after all, there's a hole in everything if you look close enough). It's saddening, almost maddeningly so, to see the lost opportunity in what could have been a liberating Olympic Games. But what should I expect from a quasi-police state? Per haps I seek out the nooks and crannies devoid of democracy because I value freedom so highly. It may be that my mind exaggerates in both delight and dismay the cities I've seen in the past two weeks. After all, mainland China is not the worst, most democratically depraved country in the world. But neither should its condition be acceptable to any of us. In China, a hit on Wikipedia is an act of dissent and I saw firsthand what a censored media writes. As I journeyed through .this country, William F. Buckley, a conservative icon, a man of cunning, intelligence and per ception, passed away. I suppose it is telling that I didn't hear a word about it until nearly a week later when my feet hit the terminal at O'Hare. ■

J . F. K ostuck JFKOSTUCK@GMAIL.COM

t makes sense to trust in the word of some one who you hold in high esteem. I, for one, think only the best of Cap'n Crunch and, therefore, when he released the peanut but ter version of his classic cereal, I picked it up with nary a second thought. I was not disap pointed. I enjoy reading informed opinions, not because I need to know what others think in order to form my own opinion, but rather be cause I like to see how articulate the speaker or writer is and which particular factors of an issue they have chosen to focus ’most strongly. Even more than I enjoy reading informed opinions, I enjoy reading uninformed or irra tional ones. As of late, I found my reading list growing longer and longer as election season carried on in full swing. Every Tom, Dick and Harry seemed to have something to say and damned if they weren't going to say it. All across campus it began to seem as if whoever could say something louder than the rest was the one who was correct. Now, far be it for me to think that my po litical opinions are important enough to be heard, let alone published. Instead of another long-winded political rant, I instead present you with something undoubtedly more en tertaining and enlightening. Without further adieu, I give you my official endorsements for breakfast cereals 20 0 8 -2 0 0 9 . First, I must say that as a child, I never had any particularly strong feelings towards cereal. I preferred a hot breakfast, hands down. But upon arriving at McGill, I became aware of the intricacies of cereal choice and the cold break fast process as a whole. I was overwhelmed at first and clung, as many do, to the choices of those around me. My roommate liked her cereal sweet: Lucky Charms and Frosted Flakes often filled our cupboards. This was fine for a while, until I began to do my research, I wanted the cereal that was best for me, that represented my in terests, and do all that it could for my body as

a whole. Thus, though initially siding with my roommate's choice of sugary snacks, in 20 0 7 20 0 8 , 1 officially endorsed All-Bran Flakes as my cereal of the year. At first, I was happy with my decision. I felt that I was placing faith in the best possible cereal for the job. The claims I read on the back of the box were logical, yet ambitious, prac tical, yet promising. I happily munched away on my All-Bran throughout the summer (I en dorse in terms of academic years). It was not until September that I realized just how big a mistake I had made. Things began to fall apart faster than I could keep track of. My once highly-esteemed All-Bran was now causing headaches, cramps and nausea. Even after I stopped publicly endors ing it and cutting it out of my life as much as possible, I felt the aftereffects of this gastronomically disastrous food. It seemed that AllBran was incorrigible as a foodstuff, unable to play nicely with other, more palatable cereals. All-Bran would attack its competitors so ma liciously and without provocation, that it re sulted in extreme digestive problems and pro jectile vomiting. My usually eager and willing panel of cereal taste-testers were so turned off by All-Bran's behavior in 20 0 7-2 0 0 8 that they refused to participate in this year's race at all. I tried to convince them that this was it, the big one, the one they'd all been waiting for— but alas, the Bran-man was getting no support. This year, the race came down to two competitors: All-Bran Strawberry Medley and Corn Pops. Though the former is a much-im proved version of its spiny, digestively disas trous predecessor, Strawberry Medley's close affiliation with All-Bran is enough to turn me off. Though sweeter and less vomit-inducing, the fact that Strawberry Medley's campaign seemed to rise out of All-Bran's ashes should make any cereal-eater wary. True, Corn Pops has its flaws, but I'd rather spend a year shit ting out sugar-glazed cereal puffs than having recycled All-Bran shoved down my throat. ■

TH E D E V IL 'S A D V O C A T E

I g o t d e m s e p a r a t io n b lu e s a g a in B en L emieux BENLEMIEUX@GMAIL.COM

ast week, Pauline Marois, recently appointed leader of the Parti Québécois, proposed a "national conversation" on the Quebec sovereignty issue, wherein the PQ would gather feedback from the people and draft a sovereignist manifesto, essentially the principal tenets of a hypothetical Quebec constitution. The PQ leader pledges that, if elected, the next referendum will be placed on hold, but she will "go to the limits of what can be done in the current system" and do this by acting as if it were already an independent state as much as possible. Marois has received flack from left-wing members of her own party, ADQ leader Mario Dumont, who suggested the PQ had lost all sense of direction and in a snide, disbelieving, eerily nihilistic column, Gazette columnist Don MacPherson writes, "in Marois"conversation'with the people about sover eignty the PQ can be expected to do all the talking." If for no other reason than to prove this tête-carrée stock-fish wrong, yours truly has decided to take the first step in this conversa tion and propose some ideas of his own for the benefit of our future glorious nation. First things first, the dastardly, imperialistic "0 Canada" goes right out the window in favour of Céline Dion's "A New Day Has Come.'This new national anthem would carry a more uplifting message, stand as an emblem of home-grown tal

ent and pay tribute to a multi-platinum Quebec artist who put out six milestone, chart-topping French records and a few other relatively successful foreign language albums. While Marois' proposed Quebec plan calls for better integration of immigrants, we should remember former PQ leader Jacques Parizeau's warning that"money and the ethnic vote" were a perpetual threat to Quebec sovereignty. Better we strip immigrants of all their rights and then return them gradually if they display good behaviour and social adhesion. In waiting for their full franchise, immigrants will be assigned work by the state, varying between mowing lawns, pumping gas, making donuts and providing customer service in sports stores. This ought to prepare them perfectly to be true-blue Quebeckers. As for part deux of the Parizeau doctrine, fortu nately, the probability of an independent Quebec having a problematically large amount of money is slight. It is indeed commendable that Marois feels a need to re-write Quebec's history curriculum to highlight the nation alist viewpoint in schools; we need to take this methodology a step further and insist upon students learning Quebec's French dialect. Look forward to more dropped r's, super fluous contractions and informal personal pronouns in the workplace. François Pérusse becomes Quebec's poet laureate. If he

isn't already. Queen Elizabeth Il's likeness is to be removed from all coins and replaced with former Expos mascot Youpi. All Brit ish and Canadian historical icons will be removed from Que bec bills and replaced with noteworthy Péquiste Premiers like René Lévesque and.... um... well perhaps they'll all be René. The so-called "brain drain" has been quite successful in eliminating affluent, educated, Anglophone families from the province, but if we're aiming for unblemished, unchallenged, Francophone hegemony here, in the event of sovereignty we'll probably need to implement something along the lines ofi'brain exodus.'Many Anglophone families have deep roots here in Quebec, meaning they will be difficult to dislodge and, unlike immigrant families, impossible to convert. Thus, once these new PQ policies have been implemented, we need only wait until the following October for all the Westmount and Côte-St-Luc inhabitants to fly down to Florida for the winter, at which time all the construction crews in Que bec work double-time to bring down all their houses, put the pieces on flatbed trucks, move the units to empty plots in Hérouxville and rebuild them. Chances are the snowbirds will not come back. Vive le Québec libre.*

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H o w t o b e M c G ill's K a r l R o v e he proletariat may be content to merely vote once in the Student's Society elections and referenda, but you certainly know better than to entrust control of something as important as SSMU to the chaos of democracy. Whether you've decided to step forth into the public life as a can didate, or if you'd prefer to support the puppet of your choice, effecting your world views requires scheming, guile and a ruthless lack of ethics. Prior experience with a major campus organization helps too, but may be redundant. Your first step to un-level the playing field should be to limit who steps up. Encourage as many of your friends as possible to run for the same executive position you covet. The lengthy candi date list will intimidate your competitors and, with luck, convince them to settle for a better-paid and more prestigious position with a global firm in an exotic country. Don't fret about stepping on a back or three in your climb to the top—you can't rule the pond without standing on a few turtles. If a challenger actually dares to stay in thé race to face you in the election, you'll have to begin a campaign. This might look like the time to coyly sway voters with your persuasive ideas and exten sive curriculum vitae. Do not be distracted! Stu dent voters can only be expected to understand national level issues concerning the United States, international health crises popularized by Bono and Quebec's need for free tuition. No one actu ally knows much at all about what SSMU needs, al though just about everyone has an opinion when prompted about an issue. So your best plan is to avoid issues as much as possible. Stick to supporting generic, substancefree causes that showcase how capable you are as a leader. In fact, most topics that end in "ability" should do nicely. Practice rattling off a long list of

TH E O P-ED SECTIO N A C C E P T S 550650 W O RD G U ES T S PIEC ES FROM TH E G REA TER M C G ILL AN D M O N TREAL CO M M U N ITIES ON R ELEV EN T ISSU ES.

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A ndrew D athan F rankel words like accessibility, sustainability, transportabil ity, liability, etc. without ever explaining what they mean or what you think about them. Voters will as sume you share their views, even if they haven't de cided what those views are themselves. Pick a few unquestionable positions if you really feel the need to make a stance. "Pro-puppies" is a solid cause, no one ever votes against puppies. Asking questions can also help you avoid commitment, but could backfire if people start actually answering. Again, stick to safe generality: "Shouldn't students be the focus of the student so ciety?" Answer: "Yes." Avoiding issue-speak does have the unfortu nate side-effect of shifting the debate to who you actually are. Although extensive experience is ex pected before you run for the big-wig positions, you don't actually have to be associated with your record. Feel free to make up a new, more market able image. Fortunately, becoming the candidate people want to elect is easier than saying the opin ions they want to hear. Students are inherently malcontent and rebellious, so position yourself as being different, a voice of change challenging the status-quo. Regardless of your role in shaping the current situation, your courage and commitment to progress will be remembered instead. Even if you can't win an outright election (un)fairly, you could always just proclaim thyself king or queen. Pick a position no one else wants and begin serving loudly and visibly. Regardless of how important your role has been historically, it can't possibly be as important as you are. Glorify your name by rebranding your position with a suf ficiently royal moniker, Czar of Electoral Obstetrics would do nicely, then bask in your newfound re spect and authority.*

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Want to join illustrious ranks that includeAdam Smith and Byron Tau? Apply to be the Tribune's third-ever Opinion editor and your name too could one day grace theTribune masthead. Send a C.V., a cover letter and three relevent writing samples to editor@mcgilltribune.com.

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Our own private Israel-Palestine feud In the last issue, Adam Slander's opinion piece "Sderot: Test case for the Two-State So lution" (0 5 .03 .08 ) contained two substantial factual errors regarding Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. Specifically, he first states that "in 20 0 5 , Ariel Sharon ended the occupa tion of Gaza by removing every last settler and any form of military presence there? On the contrary, Israel's occupation of Gaza in no way ended after the "Disengagement" in 20 0 5 . To this day, Israel exercises direct military control over Gaza's land borders, territorial waters, air space, population registry et al. For the Gazans, the only thing that has changed is that they can move freely within the coastal area tor the first time in 40 years. 1hey stili lack basic control over their lives, the ability to make a living, and most importantly, safety.This point is especially pertinent give the recent escala tion of the Israeli siege and assault that, in the last three weeks alone, killed over 50 civilians (including 27 children and six women) and in jured over 230 . The second false statement concerns the intent of the Israeli regime to remove illegal colonies from Occupied Palestine: "De spite Sderot's plight, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has not wavered from his plans to withdraw from the Palestinian territories in the West Bank." No Israeli prime minister, including Olmert, has ever stated that they planned on withdrawing the illegal Israeli colonies from the West Bank. Olmert's only stated plans were to withdraw from Palestinian population centers and minor colonies. This intent is confirmed by his recent approval of the construction of 750 new housing units in the illegal Israeli colony of Givat Zeev. Misleading the general public, whether intentional or by accident, does a disservice to both the Palestinians and Israelis suffering from this conflict. — Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir Ph D., Chemical engineering

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n 8:00 p.m. on August 8 th20 0 8 , not a drop of rain will fall in Beijing, or at least that's what the city's Olympic organizers claim. Beijing has been working tirelessly to create a perfect en vironment for the 2 0 0 8 Olympics— stadiums have been constructed ahead of schedule, big moves have been made to improve air quality in the city and there are people in place to prevent rainfall. The city's bureau of environmental protection plans to survey all sources of pollution in the city and to alter the pollution of these sources in order to reach its "Green Olympics" goal. Though the Beijing authorities claim that air pollution in the city is decreasing, there are plans to dirty the sky before the opening and dosing cer emonies. China plans on doing the unthinkable— controlling the weather.The People's Republic pre fers bringing out the big guns against those mali cious clouds rather than profiting from overpriced Olympic logo umbrellas and ponchos. Weather manipulation is no new feat for the country, which has the most extensive weather modification army in the world. China totes a large weather control ling force of 7,000 anti-aircraft guns and 4,900 rocket launchers. This army has been entrusted to make sure there are no dark clouds over the open

ing ceremonies in August. Clouds, of course, are not living things; they don't die when you shoot them; you cannot bomb or nuke them. Furthermore, they do not have rul ing bodies of government, so boycotting their economies or trying to sign peace treaties is also impossible. How, you ask, do soldiers wielding guns and rocket launchers fight against masses of con densed water? With a silver bullet—the weather soldiers will shoot silver iodide into the clouds so that water particles form snow flakes around it and become heavy. When the snowflakes become heavy they fall and melt into rain. Thus the army cannot really stop the rain, but it can control when the rain happens. Beijing has enlisted meteorolo gists to dilligently monitor the rain situation so that any chance of rain is eliminated before the big day comes around. This attempt to control the weather involves shooting chemicals into the sky, just the thing that Beijing has been trying to eliminate for the past year in preparation for the Olympics. There are cer tain things that can be controlled and China has, of course, tried to control them; these include popula tion, the number of people who come to the Olym pics, the number of seats there are, how much they

charge for sodas, etc. It is, however, quite impru dent to go to war with the weather. It is a waste of money, time and manpower— it actually resem bles the war in Iraq. There are always going to be terrorist clouds hiding in the mountains in Pakistan and plotting to destroy sunny days. Not to mention China is already losing 2,500 sq k.m. of possibly ar able land annually to desertification and weather manipulation may be playing a role in the loss of land.Though often the purpose of these operations is often to create rain in places it usually doesn't fall, changing the places that rain does fall can mess up the general swing of things. Farmers welcome these rains because they help crops grow, which is all fine and dandy. However, manipulating the rains in order to better an Olympic image seems incred ibly stupid. China needs to combat smog, not add to it by filling the sky with silver oxides. Apparently the connection between shooting chemicals into the sky and air pollution doesn't ring a bell in the mind of Madam Zhang Qiang, a Beijing Meteorologist who told USA Today "I can't do any thing about air pollution.” For anyone lucky enought to be going to the Olympics this August, I would suggest bringing an umbrella, because I hope it rains. ■

Advertising Brown Student Building Suite 120 0 ,3 6 0 0 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A1Y2 T: 514398.6806 F: 514398.7490 The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Students' Society of McGill University in collaboration with the Tribune Publication Society. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Students'Society or McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@mcgilltribune.com and must include the 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 theTribune 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 ■ 11.03.08

The McGill Tribune

S S M U E L E C T IO N ENDORSEM ENTS

fter a long, arduous and often con responsible judgem ent. tentious meeting, the Tribune editors We'd like you to keep our endorsements proudly present our third annual SSMU in mind when you're voting, but ultimately election endorsements. These opinions the re choice rests in your hands. Do some re flect the consensus of our editorial board and search, read candidate Web sites and go vote. are not based solely platform or ideology. We You can go online and cast your ballot at also looked at each candidate's potential hfor ttp://o vs.ssm u.m cg ill.ca, from now through Friday, March 14 . good m anagement, strong leadership and

Photos by Niki Hyde, Matt Park and Adam Scotti

he clear choice for Students' Society President is current Arts Undergradu ate Society President RJ Kelford. Kelford promises to be a breath of fresh air in the insular and narcissistic organization and, if he is able to follow through on campaign promises, will be able to overhaul SSMU to make it more relevant on campus. Turner may have more experience with SSMU, but she has failed to impress us this year as VP Internal after cancelling events and failing to follow through on endeav ours such as an eco-friendly Frosh.The for mer once-weekly SSMU listserv has swelled to a bi-weekly behemoth and certain clubs and services still do not have functioning Web sites or domains. She has shown no signs of leadership as a VP. Her major initia-

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PRESIDENT

VP EXTERNAL

R.J. KELFORD

DEVIN ALFARO

tive in Council this year was the failed gen der parity motion. In the debates, she has demonstrated that her platform is, in large part, stale political rhetoric about bringing students together. She is easily shaken and often inarticulate— problematic traits in any SSMU president, who is required to be the public face of the organization. Kelford, on the other hand, has given AUS direction and focus. Where SSMU failed, AUS has stepped up to the plate. In stark contrast to SSMU's inability to orga nize a popular event, the newly established AUS Fine Arts Council executed the wellplanned and well-attended Nuit Blanche last week. Further, other successful events such as Oktoberhaus and the weekly Arts pubs have demonstrated Kelford's abilities to run a successful executive and give direc tion and focus to a large organization. Kelford does have a reputation as a forceful presence, which can work for or against him, but we believe that his impres sive oratory skill and thoughtful conversa tional style make him better equipped to represent students on Council and to the administration. His plans for the coming year are filled with concrete ideas for im provement that show a real connection to what students want and while he may find that he has bit off more than he can chew, he has demonstrated a strong work ethic at the AUS, has produced amazing results and should be able to handle the steep learning curve. ■

or the position of VP External Affairs, the Tribune believes Devin Alfaro is the better choice. While we were impressed by the ex perience of both Alfaro and his opponentTrevor Hanna, we believe that Alfaro is better equipped to handle the challenges of an independent Stu dents'Society that lacks membership in any pro vincial or federal student organization. Alfaro's congeniality, charisma and experi ence with the SSMU External Affairs Committee were also significant factors in our endorsement. Cutting through the student apathy at McGill is no easy task, but we believe Alfaro's articulate and enthusiastic nature is well suited to engage and mobilize McGill students. His promises to improve community outreach programs and strengthen SSMU's ties to the greater Montreal area are also good initiatives. The Tribune disagrees with the emphasis that Hanna placed on creating a student ex change program, similar to ERASMUS in the Eu ropean Union and we feel that there are more pressing issues that demand the attention of the VP External. Further, we are concerned that Hanna's soft-spoken style would make galvaniz ing students difficult. We do, however, believe he made good points about broad-based is sues— such as Quebec loan limits—that deserve the attention of SSMU. An independent SSMU makes the VP Exter

~~P C L U B S & ^ R V IC E S

V P F IN A N C E & O P E R A T IO N S

JOHNSON FUNG

PETER NEWHOOK (ACCLAIMED) ie Vice-President Finance and Op erations position is uncontested for I the th. second year in a row. Newhook is justifiably concerned about the lack of stu dent interest in SSMU financial policies. His aim to make students more aware of the financial aspects of SSMU is commendable, though it will be his decisions in dealing with Haven Books that will determine the

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success of his tenure as VP Finance. We're concerned, however, about his apparently lack of knowledge concerning the porfolion and wary that his inexperience will af fect the already bleak finiancial mess that SSMU finds itself. Current VP Finance Barake's tenure was marked by turbulence because of last year's impulsive Haven Books purchase. Campaign promises aside, Newhook needs to make restoring the Society's solvency a top priority. So far, Newhook's campaign agenda has been lofty and ambitious, but we'd like to see more specifics from Newhook—as well as innovative solutions to the Haven situation, which is becoming a serious fis cal liability for the Society. While his goal of increasing clubs and services funding back up to levels prior to the Haven Books invest ment is encouraging, a potential increase in clubs and services funding can only come if Newhook can stem the massive balance sheet losses posted by the bookstore. As economists are fond of saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Newhook will have to work hard and think outside the box to solve the Haven dilemma. His ideas are repetitive and generic. We need a fresh approach to solve SSMU's fiscal problems and we fear that Newhook lacks the experi ence to make this happen.■

nal portfolio extremely important in the upcom ing year. We hope that Alfaro will be able to suc cessfully build coalitions with other schools, and that he recognizes that an independent SSMU might struggle to influence federal and provin cial policy if they have no formal ties to larger organizations— especially if a future VP External does not have the connections or interpersonal skills of a candidate like Alfaro. We hope that Alfaro doesn't chart a course that leaves student activism hinging solely on the personality of the VP External. ■

oth candidates for VP Clubs and Services boast a good deal of experience, but both have serious flaws. Sam Cook—straight from a successful run as part of Queer McGill's exec— has personal, hands-on experience with important clubs and societies. Johnson Fung, a tech wizfor the Arts Undergraduate Theatre So ciety and the Fine Arts Council, has centred his campaign on making clubs and services more accessible on-line. Choosing between the two candidates divided the Tribune board but ulti mately Fung won our endorsement. Fung's platform emphasizes both the tech nical inadequacy of the current SSMU Web site with respect to Clubs and Services and the need for Clubs and Services to cultivate resources in dependent of SSMU. If his current Web site is any indication, Fung could easily re-vamp the clunky and out-of-date current site. Fung also

proved his capability with his successful management of the AUTS production of Urinetown, which he maintains is the only Moyse Hall production that turned a profit. He also boasts realworld management experience in the form of several Internet ventures. Fung's greatest weakness is that he does not possess Cook's level of experience when it comes to dealing with the administration, various clubs and societies and SSMU. In an inter view with the Tribune, he also had no specific plan to deal with incumbent Marcel Kosman's complaints that the VP C&S has been increas ingly marginalized and ignored by McGill administrators, even defending some of McGill's more autocratic policies. Further, we are concerned that his plan for technologically revamping SSMU falls more under the portfolio of the VP Internal. Cook, however, has naively tied herself to the financial mess that is Haven Books, defending it during the debates, even though it has been cited as the main cause of underfunding of clubs and services. Fung recognizes the problem with Haven's business model and has vowed reforms in order to work to preserve the clubs' budget in tandem with the VP Finance, Cook has also made bizarre comments about how clubs should not be SSMU's top priority— even while running to be their chief administrator and representative on Council. While the Tribune recognizes Cook's experience, Fung's stance on an SSMU audit, increasing online availability and his proven success with AUTS and Internet ventures makes him the preferred candidate. ■

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12.03.08 «The McGill Tribune • 11

NADIA VP UNIVERSITY WILKINSON AFFAIRS (ACCLAIMED)

VP INTERNAL JULIA WEBSTER hile this was the most hotly contested position this year with four candidates re maining on the ballot, Julia Webster and José Diaz are the two most viable candidates. Brad Milech emphasized his experience and connec tions with the entertainment industry in Montreal. While impressive, he did not adequately express how he would be able to translate this into the heavily restrictive environment of SSMU. Kevin Chambers probably drew most of the attention in this race. We're thankful someone at least tried to bring the funny this election season and under the underwear Chambers had a surprisingly strong platform backed by reasonable experience. How ever, his candidacy falls short in comparison to the remaining two candidates. José Diaz's campaign was run on the most unique premises, promising to diversify the con tent (and consequentially, the attendees) of SSMU events while not alienating McGill's boozier popu lation. While it is inarguable that SSMU can't coun ter student indifference with alcohol anymore our board was concerned with Diaz's somewhat lack lustre experience with SSMU administrative affairs. Webster, on the other hand, has diligently worked her way up the ranks of SUS and SSMU and has been shown to be a reliable and competent lead er. We are confident she has what it takes to start planning and delegating from the day she takes office while avoiding mistakes that have been made in the past under her watch.Those mistakes were not trivial: no one could claim that SnoAP '08 was particularly memorable or groundbreak ing. Indeed, Webster continued with a supposedly idiot proof formula of tent + music + booze which can appeal to even the stodgiest of McGill stu

his past year saw the Vice-President University Affairs re-establish amiable, and viable working relations with the McGill administration. This strong foundation has created a political forum in which change can be affected. Next year's VP UA has an opportunity to expand on this foundation and improve student life on campus. As an ideal candidate, the Tribune is excited to usher in the acclaimed VP UA Nadya Wilkinson. Although her experience in student politics has been called into question, Wilkinson has all the necessary skills to admirably fulfill the duties within her port folio. Most importantly, Wilkinson has extensive experience when it comes to deal ing with student-administration relations, after two years of leading environmental reform as the Chairsperson of the Sustainable McGill Project. Wilkinson's goal to increase the accessibility of the VP UA portfolio using a Web site and a blog is exciting. However, Wilkinson's goal to increase the transparency of the administration seems to be lofty and may reflect a naïve shortcoming. Coming into this job steaming with optimism and excitement, The Tribune hopes her fresh outlook and warm disposition will be enough to follow through on her ambitious goals and projects for next year. ■

dents. But somehow the event was unable to turn a profit. Whether it was inefficient negotiation, an inability to adapt in the face of rising license and security costs or just bad timing, we hope that Webster has learned that risk taking can often be more profitable than remaining with the formulaic. Of her new ideas, the one that stood out was the idea of a SSMU organized concert of some sort. While this would only be miniscule compared to the campus events run by some of our neighbours to the south, it would certainly be a start. ■

REFERENDA QUESTIONS Daily Publication Society fee renewal — YES The Tribune encourages a "Yes" vote concerning when students tried to make the hefty DPS fee op the Daily Publication Society referendum. Undoubt tional, the papers fought tooth and nail to avoid such edly, securing the continuing fiscal existence of our a situation, even taking the question to J-Board and neighbours downstairs is essential to preserving a di getting the results sealed on a technicality. As of now verse campus press, as well as honouring the legacy students cannot opt-out of the Daily's $5 per semester fee, or even vote to lower the paper's fee. of the 97 -year old paper. That being said, the Coordinating editor Drew Nelles has campaigning by the "Yes Committee" has told both the Montreal Gazette and the been marked by half-truths, electioneering Mirror that students can theoretically or and misleading information regarding the ganize a referendum to address any po publication society's constitution. tential problems with the paper, but this Nobody is explicitly targeting the Daily is not actually the case. The Daily's con or le Délit, contrary to what the committe stitution autocratically states that ques would have students believe— rather, they tions regarding lowering the Daily fee or simply need a renewed mandate from stu dents in order to sign a new Memorandum of Agree even make it opt-outable are "inadmissible." Further, ment with the University. Such mandates are routine the Daily has not been our independent student matters for independent clubs and services. Indeed, paper since 19 11 . Rather, they secured independence even the Daily's most vehement critics (see daily- from SSMU in 19 8 1 . Despite these factual oversights and distortions on the part of the Yes committee, a watch.blogspot.com) support the fee renewal. Further, the Daily should not be the only major on-campus fee "No" vote would seriously jeopardize the contin that is not opt-outable. QPIRG, the Midnight Kitchen, ued existence of the Daily and le Délit and imperil CKUT and the Tribune all accept the accountability our diverse campus media—a wholly undesirable that comes with accepting student funds. In 2 0 0 4 , situation. ■ SSMU to lobby to end the current Minerva opt-out system — NO Ever since the McGill administration put optoutable fees onto Minerva last year, many affected groups have been clamouring to end the system, claiming that it imperils their financial independence. These students, however, should be focussing their time and attention on per suading students not to optout, rather than pushing a sym bolic motion with no policy im plications. Such groups should applaud a rare initiative on the part of the administration that helps cut through bureaucratic red tape. Such SSMU lobbying would negate the original purpose the sys tem, making it harder, ratherthan easier to opt-out.The Minerva system is actually a model of simplicity in a labyrinth-like university system—and voters should

ask why SSMU should lobby to end a system that makes student life easier. The administration is not threatening the autonomy of student groups— rather, students themselves vote on whether fees should be optional or not. The adminis tration is merely responsible for collection and distribution of funds. To the groups that claim that their independence is on the line, we assure them that having an opt-outable fee is not financial Armageddon. The Tribune's 50 -cent levy is opt-outable, yet we are strongly in favour of the ease of the current system. We strongly recommend that students vote no on this token question—and that SSMU move on to more im portant matters.*

SSMU should support clubs and services — YES The Tribune supports the spirit of this endorsement—that students should support clubs and services and that they should remain a priority for SSMU. We also strongly support the idea of en suring that SSMU cannot take any actions to threaten the existence of a club or service. However, we remain hesitant about many of the implications of this question. We should be using this energy to vote for responsible SSMU execs. Further, we are concerned about its long term implications. It is currently a vague, symbolic and reactionary clause, meant as a well-deserved slap in the face to SSMU after the Haven Books debacle and subsequent loss of funding to clubs and services. However there is no way of knowing how it will be used and interpreted down the line. ■

Elections McGill Chief Returning Officer changes title to Chief Electoral Officer — YES Whatever helps you sleep better, Corey Shefman (current Elections McGill CRO.... and soonto-be Elections McGill CEO)

SSMU allowed to hire auditors — YES The Memorandum of Agree ment between SSMU and the University requires an audit every year. Given the established rela tionship between Chamberland Hodge and the Society, this vote is an obvious yes.

S t u d e n t L iv in T h e e ig h t-m in u te m e a l

FOOD WITHOUT THOUGHT

B e in g

r e a lly , r e a lly C arolyn Y ates

Whether .you're extremely busy or excessively lazy, these eight-minute meals are an easy way to eat when you just don’t feel like making anything better. Normal sandwich: Take two pieces of bread and whatever ingredients you have at hand. Ingredi ents might include: chicken, turkey (and other cold-cuts), tuna, lettuce, mustard, mayo, nutella, tomatoes, cheese, peppers, honey, pickles, olives, bacon and jam, among many others—although probably not all at once. Place ingredients on piece of bread; top with other piece of bread and futile patting motion. Serve.

la z y w i t h o u t s t a r v in g Insert-Fruit-Here-Sandwich: Relive kindergarten by spreading peanut butter over bread. Add thin ly sliced fruit. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Blank from a can: An old classic among cow boys and other bandits, this meal involves taking something from a can and micro-waving it (or cooking it over an open flame, camp-fire style) until you can stand eating it. Whether soup, pasta or vegetables, the only thing quicker than the prep-time will be your disgust. Eggs: There are a variety of ways to cook eggs, each more inventive and delightful than the next. For eight-minute purposes, stick to scrambled, boiled, or fried. To make scrambled eggs fluffier, add milk as you scramble; be sure to run boiled eggs under cold water before taking the shells

FITRI.MANZANISIMO.NET Eggs are an awesome meal— or a nasty one, depending on whether you have mad coking skillz or rotten eggs. Also, before you micorwave it, punch six or seven holes in it so it doesn't explode. Then, microwave for four to ten minutes, depending on the potato and your microwave. ■

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off; and don’t forget to grease the pan. Salad: Salad (lettuce, dressing) is boring by itself, so add things like croutons, grated cheese, cut vegetables, or fruit. Leftovers: Bonus points if you didn't have to cook the food in the first place. Frozen dinners: These are usually hit-or-miss. When they say to lift the corner to allow for venti lation, lift the corner to allow ventilation. The other key to success is content. Be wary of anything too expensive or too cheap, as both usually lead to disappointing results. If you're picky about food on your plate touching other food on your plate, stick to pasta-based meals. Baked potato: Get a potato. Scrub, if you're feel ing fancy, cut out the eyes and other bad bits.

Sunday

Friday, March 12,2008 Registration for the FOKUS Film festival 72 -hour filmmaking competition is still open. Interested teams are asked to report to the TV McGill office: Shatner base ment, 10 a.m.

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Thursday, March 13,2008 Splashbash— Montreal's Paint Party, Orchid Nightclub Tickets: Call Justin (514 ) 774-5871 More info: Facebook event Splashbash 2008

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W ant to advertise in th e Cam pus Calendar? For ju s t a to o n ie you can advertise y o u r e v e n t up to tw o weeks in advance. Email ca le ndar@ m cgilltribune.com fo r m ore in fo rm a tio n , o r d ro p by th e Tribune office in Shatner n o .

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11.03.08 • The McGill Tribune • 13

www.mcgilltribune.com

TECH

FO O D FO RTH O UG H T

The new Iro n C h e f L o w -s tre s s

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S ophia K arwowski Pad thai originated on the street carts of Thailand before being brought westward and embraced by resturant patrons everywhere.There are as many recipes for pad thai as there are chefs; however, the two uni versal requirerments for producing successful pad thai are very high heat and constant stir-frying to avoid the ingredients sticking to the wok (or big pan).The part of this recipe that involves actual cooking only takes 10 minutes at most, but since your hands will be occupied the whole time, it's important to measure out all of the ingredients beforehand so as to be able to dump each one in at the last minute.

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little

ta x i t h a t c o u ld

E mma C abrera -A ragon The latest green machine is busy circumnavigating the globe in the guise of a solar powered car, driven by Swiss teacher Louis Palmer. It set off on July 3 , 20 0 7 and was most re cently showing off its flashy Q-cells in Australia. Powered largely by a six square metre trailer of solar panels, the little blue car bears a taxi sign and its driver offers rides to all parties interested encountered on his world wide tour. The idea for the car purportedly began when Palmer wanted to travel around the world without harming the environment and over 2 0 years

later, Palmer has his dream car, which required the assisance of four Swiss universities and 15 Swiss companies who spent three years designing and building it. Weighing approximately 750 kilograms, it has a top speed of 9 0 kilometres per hour, seats two and can travel up to 10 0 kilometres a day on solar power alone. The solar taxi will not be pulling INHABITAT.COM up in North America until later 2 0 0 8 , Look! It's solar power! but has already graced countries from Switzerland to Syria, where the ing to spread Palmer's message about car was given a police escort, to Indo the reality of global warming and the nesia where it made a stop at the U.N. need to effect change. ■ climate conference. The car is just now leaving Australia and will carry Sources: MSNBC, ABC, on its journey in Singapore, continuReuters and BBC

Ingredients: 125

Canadian Security Intelligence Service

grams (4 ounces) narrow rice noodles

1 tbsp tamarind paste* 2 V2 tsp nam pla (fish sauce)* 2 'A tsp sugar 1 'A tsp lime juice 2

tbsp water

A World of Challenge er at the forefront of national security

S ecu rity m atters to every C anad ian. T h e C anadian S ecu rity Intelligence S ervice (C S IS ) w o rks at the fo refro n t o f national security to ensure th a t o u r co u n try is a safe place to live and w ork. O ur role is to

'A cup canola oil

investigate security threats, co llect and analyze info rm ation and advise the G o vern m en t o f C an ad a on

tsp garlic, minced 'A tsp ginger, minced

m atters relating to the security o f o u r cou ntry and its citizens. It’s a fa s t-p a c e d environ m en t w here e m p lo yees have opp ortu nities to take on different challenges. T he S ervice also fosters diversity and

'A kg. shrimp or chicken, beef, pork or tofu, in small cubes

egg scallion, minced 'A bean sprouts 2 cups broccoli florets

inclusion, and is representative o f C a n a d a ’s population.

1 1

Requirements To be considered for employment at CSIS, you must: •

j Va cup^ea^'uts ' \'A lime, cut in half ! pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

* •

be a C anadian citizen residing in C an ad a fo r at least the p ast 1 0 years; p o ssess an u ndergraduate degree fro m a recognized institution or, fo r s o m e positions, a c o m m u n ity college d ip lo m a o r certificate; and j g g »

•

be eligible to undergo the m o s t stringent security p ro cess.

*Both nam pla, also known as fish sauce, and tamarind paste are widely used ingredients in South Asian cuisine and can be picked up at Les Fruits du Parc in Les Galleries du Parc for a little over two bucks each.

T h e S e rv ic e is a c tiv e ly recruiting q ualified ca n d id a te s fro m various ethnic backgrounds. For m ore inform ation about C S IS o r the p o sitio n s c u rre n tly a vailab le, p lease visit o u r W e b site at w w w .c s is .g c .c a .

Steps: 1. 2.

Soak noodles in a bowl of water for one hour; drain. While noodles are soaking, mix together the sauce ingredients: tamarind paste, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and water. Prepare the rest of the ingredients. Warm oil over high heat for one minute or until almost smoking. Add garlic and ginger and sauté for 30 seconds. Add shrimp, meat or tofu and brown until almost cooked through, about 2 -3 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add noodles and stir-fry for one minute. Pour in most of sauce mix ture; toss to coat. Cook until al dente, then push to side of the pan and scramble egg in remaining space. Add reserved shrimp, meat or tofu along with vegetables (scallion, bean sprouts, broccoli and carrot) and half of the peanuts. Toss to mix and let warm. Remove from heat and garnish with lime quar ters along with the rest of the peanuts and the red pepper flakes, if you so desire. ■

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The McGill Tribune

14 • Student Living • 11.03.08

DUCKTAPE

BE T H E TR IB U N E'S ED ITO R

M o ld is ta k in g o v e r th e w o rld ! S y m p to m s th a t m e a n b e fo re E lizabeth P erle Are you in a perpetual state of sneezing and coughing during the school year? You could be al lergic to certain molds— much like many people are allergic to dust. Aside from the fact that, for many of us, cleaning our apartments regularly is quite the feat (especially during midterm season), mold can grow in even the cleanest of places if the air is moist and there is a lack of air circulation. In order to effectively eliminate mold you should use vinegar-—an environmentally friendly product—to clean your bathroom. Pour or spray

it 's t o o

la te

y o u

a n d

n e e d

m o ld

it in places that mold grows most easily. For ex ample, underneath faucets, shower curtains, tiles etc. You can even clean your entire floor with the stuff. Believe it or not, there is likely just as much mold in the kitchen as in the bathroom (just think about all those food remnants around and those dark, moist cupboards). Again, vinegar is your friend. And don't forget to clean off your dish-dry rack regularly, as well as your cutting boards. If it's humid out (this applies more for the summer), use an air conditioner to prevent mold growth. If it's cold outside, a dehumidifier should

c le a n

fills y o u r lu n g s

do the trick. Turn down the heat in the bathroom/ kitchen/laundry room when you're not using them. Avoid using space heaters in these rooms as they tend to increase humidity anyway. Getting mold off of your carpets is difficult. One trick is to pour baking soda on it, let it sit for an hour or so, then vacuum it up. There are also natural alternatives to chemical cleaners that you can purchase that will still effec tively get rid of mildew and mold. Look for brands like Seventh Generation, Ecover and attitude, that use plant-based, biodegradable, environmentally friendly products. ■

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circus

R e in v e n t in g t h e b ig - t o p s p e c ta c le M o n t r e a l's

n e w

C rystal C han Most Montrealers experience their fair share of cabin fever from the five-month win ters, but how many of your roommates respond by literally flying up the ceiling? Circo d'Hivemo is a theatrical piece with just this lack of bound aries. The story follows a group of eccentric residents in an apartment complex who react to their winter insanity with a dizzying blend of genre-pushing theatrics: juggling, jazz sing ing, sketch comedy, clowning, aerial trapeze... you know, anything but an average, gardenvariety response. "We have had just a wild winter in Mon treal, and we're getting to the end. What I'm saying to people is: come and celebrate the end of winter with Circo d'Hivemo" creator, producer and director Aytahn Ross said. Circo d'Hivemo is the sixth edition of Eve nings of Circus, a performance series which got its start playing sold-out shows at Canada's Na tional Arts Centre in Ottawa before relocating to Montreal in 20 0 6 , the self-proclaimed circus capital of the world. Ross has been in theatre since childhood and worked his way through Concordia as an actor, juggler and comedian performing at summer festivals all over the country. His series aims to straddle such diverse performance disciplines. Evenings of Circus is not your father's circus show. Beyond the tra ditional five performance families of acrobat ics and contortion, juggling and manipulation, aerial tight wire, trapeze and clowning, other arts play an integral role. In the past his 'circus' shows have incorporated performers as diverse as a CBC Literary Award-winning poet, modern dance performers and multiple jazz musicians. Evenings of Circus was inspired by the re cent renaissance in circus, a re-popularization of the art form ushered in by such companies as Cirque du Soleil. Like other next-generation circus shows, the Evenings of Circus series fo cusses on feats of athleticism and theatricality. Seamlessly bound together, these shows are a far cry from the disconnected, flashy string of oddities, curiosities, variety acts and animal pa rades that used to fill up circus rings. Circo d'Hivemo strikingly differentiates itself from Cirque du Soleil and its other contempo rary counterparts, however. It is understated, less focussed on the spectacle of big-number productions. Realizing itself on stage rather than under a big top, the show has a much stronger

ir c o

d 'H

iv e m

m ix e s

theatrical background: the performers do not merely execute tricks but also play characters and the narrative is an integral part of the show. "We are about showcasing the individual," Ross insisted. "You have these big shows, like Riverdance or Cirque du Soleil, where there are one hundred people flipping and dancing and fancy lights... That stuff is amazing, but it's a bit overwhelming. With [Circo d'Hiverno's] few great artists, you're going to get close to them. The atre Ste-Catherine is perfect, because it's so in timate. Essentially, you're part of the apartment block; the show takes place in the courtyard of an apartment, and that includes the audience. And we're going to make it snow in there!" This will be the first time the high-ceilinged, 10 0 -odd-seat theatre will play home to a

p h y s ic a l fe a ts w it h

trapeze artist. "I'm betting whoever will be there, the au dience, this will be the closest, most intimate setting that you'll have been in with a trapeze artist. Usually they're far away. Maybe you'll get hit by a bead of sweat,"joked Ross. Aerial trapeze artist Catherine Viens will perform with aerial hoops and silk as well as a trapeze. The show marks the end of a recent hiatus after the birth of two children and it will incorporate the zany struggles of a mother. “Mainly it's a show that we’re doing to have fun," Viens said. "We're not there to boost our egos, we're there to play for the public. It's not a pretentious show, which is its main attraction." Circo d'Hiverno's other performers include Ross, actress and singer Kim Zombik ("it's worth

d r a m a tic

a rts

the ticket just to hear her sing," said Ross), and former lead clown with Cirque du Soleil Mooky Cornish, just back from doing a one-woman show in New York. "Circus gives us the possibility to go any where," Viens said. "We don't have to stay on the theatrical side, or focus on the physical act itself. We can go from one performing art to another."* Circo d'Hivemo plays March 74 at 8:00 p.m. and March 15 at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00p.m. at Theatre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.). Tickets are $r0 in advance and $15 at the door. Mention The McGill Tribune and get two for one tickets ($15 with reser vations). For reservations e-mail info@theatrestecatherine.com or call (514) 284-3939.

Performer Aytahn Ross celebrates the end of winter with a little clowning around (and sticking things in his mouth).

POP RHETORIC

S e e y o u o n t h e f lip s id e Charlie Cheng Remember the days when you used to run as fast as you could to the record store as soon as you received your weekly allowance? Of course you don't, because those times are way behind us. In this digital age, hits from the radio can instantly be downloaded and stored on your iPod for either 99 cents or free of charge, depending on how generous you're feeling. A quick and effortless fix for popular music longings means that a countless number of potential songs are going un heard, only because we cannot be bothered to take the risk of buying a CD containing all but one lead track considered unworthy for radio play. With the death of pressed vinyl as music's primary physical medium, gone are the days of sin gle sales, and of course the B-sides. For those unfamiliar with the concept, in the days of 4 5 s (or 7 " records), the singles of a newly released album were sold separately before or after the release of the album

to promote sales. As a result of vinyl's two-sidedness, you had the featured single on one side and a "bonus" on the B-side. Because these extra tracks are not featured on studio albums, it gives the artist complete freedom from any com mercial pressure enforced by record labels. Whether they decide to leave it as a second thought or use the opportuni ty to artistically experiment is up to them. Singles have also been featured on compact discs, but for the large part have not been successful and are dwindling into nonexistence. B-sides can be many different things, including but not limited to, a demo of a song in its rudimentary form, experi mental ideas, an acoustic version of the A-side, a memorable live performance, songs that don't fit with an album's over all sound, songs deemed unworthy for the studio album or even covers of another artist's work. They can be moments of genius deliberately hidden from all but the most devoted fans. For the most part, however, they reveal something

about the artist who composed them. In terms of quality, there are plenty of B-sides that eas ily rival their featured side. Show someone who’s unfamiliar with the Pixies'"Here Comes your Man" and its B-side "Into the White" and see if they can figure out which is the single. Ask me what my favorite Oasis song is, and I'll say "The Mas terplan", B-side to "Wonderwall". And what's the deal with the roaring fan favourite Smiths track "How Soon is Now?" not originally being deemed single-worthy? Sure it can be frustrating to dig through the entire cata log of an artist. But if you invest the amount of sweat that you'd expect to see returned from a quality B-side there's no doubt you’ll find at least a couple gems or maybe even a new favourite song. Unfortunately, with physical single sales being overwhelmed by digital downloads, the B-side as a form of creative musical expression is indeed biting the dust. ■

16 • Arts & Entertainment • 11.03.08

The McGill Tribune

MUSIC

FILM

J a z z a n d ju s tic e

C h a s in g y e o ld e t a ile

J o h n

T h e

R o n e y 's ja z z o d y s s e y R enée S utton

t h e r

B o le y n

ir l a

SUSHMITA SHIVKUMAR

Melding different genres into his own compositions, the high ly innovative music of Montreal-based pianist John Roney is earn ing substantial critical respect. Recently he has been collaborating with Sudbury Ontario's Silver Birch String Quar tet, and as a group they look forward to their first Montreal perfor mance. Roney himself, however, remains ex tremely active in the C O U RTESY JOHN RO NEY city with many other Roney: The piano man. musical endeavors. “I'm really busy in the Montreal jazz community," he said. "You can see me playing at all the jazz clubs like Upstairs and the House of Jazz." Having already released two albums with his jazz trio, Roney's list of gigs is growing continually. He will be performing on June n at the Salle des Jeu nesses Musicale de Canada and, for the third year, he will also be hosting the late-night jam sessions at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Roney is a pleasantly modest individual considering the extent of his work, within both the local jazz community and the academic world. Having received his M.A. from Mc Gill, Roney now teaches in the Jazz Performance department at the Schulich School of Music. His performance inspirations generally find their roots in music that comes from tradition. He is greatly influenced by foundational artists, from Mozart to Duke Ellington. He writes all of his own music and is renowned for being an instinctive improviser on stage. In May, his chops will be tested with a whole gig based on improvising upon traditional works. Roney teamed up with The Silver Birch String Quartet within the last year and a half, though they have been friends for years. Nevertheless they will be releasing their first self-titled album in May on Effendi Records. "The great thing about this project is that we come from both classical and jazz influences. The music on the record really takes advantage of that," said Roney. "You might call it cross-over classic jazz." The majority of the music is Roney's original writing, but he confirms that there is also a fair amount of improvising on behalf of all the musicians involved. Their repertoire incorporates some very diverse sounds, including Japanese pop tunes and Renaissance chorales. On March 15 , Silver Birch will be headlining the Jazz and Justice series at the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Jazz and Justice is a benefit concert run by John Inder, which for the past five years has seen great success in raising money by promoting talented musicians in a small, comfortable setting while also working to support social justice through music. Proceeds go towards such charities as the Montreal City Mission and l'Abri en Ville. Roney is thrilled to participate in the show and is happy to be able to make his own contributions towards such worthy causes. At the same time, he also hopes to get the buzz out on the new album. With Silver Birch on the way, the group has several shows lined up, including a second Montreal per formance later in the summer. However, Roney hopes that they will eventually move on to playing bigger crowds and venues. Still, he still maintains a great appreciation for all of his sincere listeners. "Honestly, I would just as soon perform at home," he said lightheartedly. "I always love to play for any attentive audience who really take pleasure in what I play."> John Roney and The Silver Birch String Quartet take part in Jazz and Justice on March 15 at 8:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Church o f Montreal (5035 de Maisonneuve W.) Ticket a re:$25 for adults and $10 for students.

d u ll p e r io d

p ie c e

ager who goes around wringing his hands and begging Anne to jump into bed with him till he loses all patience and rapes her in what could have been a powerful scene but ends up as awkward with Portman doing all the acting. The historical accuracy of the movie is quite sus pect, with Hollywood taking its usual liberties with the historical details. While enough was added for the average movie-goer, the filmmakers decided to keep enough of the original story's appalling details to make just that average movie-goer quite uncomfortable.The result is a movie that deals poorly with issues like incest and rape and does not entertain either. In fact, it is only Portman and, in a supporting role as the girls'mother, Kristin Scott Thomas, that justify the 115 minutes of your time. Removing them would reveal it to be just what it is: the eternally dull story of one man's preoccupation with getting some.B

The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn has long proved a compelling narrative, whether as an inspira tion for Shakespeare, children's rhymes or in numerous film adaptations. The latest historical interpretation of this timeless tale is adapted from a novel of the same name written by Philippa Gregory. Although most versions deal with the scandalous Anne Boleyn, played here by Natalie Portman, The Other Boleyn Girl portrays her less famous sister, Mary Boleyn, who was King Henry's mistress long before he became enchanted with Anne. Played by Scarlett Johanson, Mary is portrayed as the more innocent sister in di rect counterpoint to Portman's shrewd machinations. Caught up in events far beyond her capacity, Mary is offered up to the king as a mistress by her uncle and father to secure their family's position. However, after inevitably falling in love with King Henry (Eric Bana), she faces fierce competition from her sister. The Other Boleyn Girl sullies the screens oftheAM C Portman as Anne Boleyn is the clear show-stealer, Forum (2313 Ste-Catherine W). Check www.cinemamonwith the story quickly bending towards her character. treal.com. for showtimes. She plays a woman driven by ambition, jealousy and desperation perfectly. At first, when she is tormenting her pregnant sister by seducing the king and later, when she considers incest after repeated miscarriages to give her king the much longed for son. Johanson essentially plays the same mistreated character as she did in Girl with a Pearl Earring, in an identically terrified and down-trodden manner. In a completely limp performance, she shifts easily into the back ground and soon her supposedly meaningful silences ensure her a role among the periodthemed furniture. But it's Bana who proves the biggest disappointment in all of this. As King Henry VIII, he goes through a schizophrenic and unconvincingly drastic shift in character. The start sees him as a gentle but silently powerful king. He soon devolves, however, into a manic character apparently tortured by Anne's seeming rejection of him. While LATIM ES.CO M the intent may have been different, he comes across as a pathetically horny teen Toil, toil Boleyn trouble: Johanson as the downtrodden Mary.

“A lw a y s s tr iv in g to m eet y o u r C a n a d ia n Im m ig r a tio n n e e d s.” O u r im m ig r a t io n la w p r a c t ic e is o n e o f t h e l a r g e s t t e a m s w i t h e x p e r i e n c e in a l l C a n a d ia n im m ig r a t io n m a t t e r s :

Robinson Sheppard Shapiro established 1921

^ est

• S k ille d w o r k e r s ( F e d e r a l a n d Q u e b e c ) • F a m ily s p o n s o r s h ip • W o r k a u t h o r iz a t io n / e m p lo y m e n t v is a • B u s in e s s C la s s

V is it o u r w e b s it e to o b t a in a F R E E

im m ig r a t io n a s s e s s m e n t .

C o n ta c t: A lic e M arkarian D a g h a v a ria n Toll free 1 (8 6 6 )4 0 4 -7 6 0 0 or 1 (5 1 4 )3 9 3 -7 6 0 0 w w w .rssc a n a d a im m ig ra tio n .c o m

C O U RTESY JOHN RO NEY

The Silver Birch String Quartet: Dressed to "kill" their set (musically).

11.03.08 • The McGill Tribune • 17

www.mcgilltribune.com

T he cat cam e b a ck THERE ARE ONLY A FEW ISSUES LEFT TO GET IN ON ALL THE SWEET A&E ACTION.

C h ild r e n 's

ic o n

p la y c a m p u s

continued from COVER

WRITER'S MEETINGS MONDAYS AT 5:30 P.M. IN GERT'S. LOOK FOR THE GUYS WITH STACKS OF BOOKS AND CDS.

Previews Movies. A Tribute to Heath Ledger. Mar. 12 at 7:00 p.m; Cinema du Parc (3575 Parc). The man cast to play the Joker in the upcoming Dark Knight ended up the first sad clown of 20 0 8 , with his untimely death earlier this year. Thankfully, everyone's favourite repertory cinema will be holding a celluloid vigil, starting with Brokeback Mountain at 7:00 p.m., followed at 9 3 0 p.m. with Candy, which sees Heath as a struggling Australian poet. Check www.cinemaduparc.com for tickets and more info. Music. July Black. Mar. 15 at 8:00 p.m.; Club Soda (1255 St-Laurent). The Toron to-born soulstress continues her steady ascent into pop stardom as she takes the stage at Club Soda this week. While struggling to find a significant audi ence since the debut of her first single in 19 9 8 , Black's latest full-length, Revival, has put her back on the charts in 20 0 7 . Tickets are $15 at the door or online at www.ticketpro.ca.

Reviews

khhhm h

Small Sins. Mood Swings. This is what hap pens when the soft revolution starts packin'a piece. Small Sins was originally the solo proj ect of Thomas D'arcy, Toronto music scene veteran (think Broken Social Scene, Rest etc.). On this second release, D'arcy collabo rates with Brent Follett, Kevin Hilliard, Todor Kogakow andTreve Krecklo. Loaded with ref erences to guns (including the pistol on the cover), only one sound can describe Small Sins' latest release—POP! Aside from mixed feelings about the proliferation of firearms, fans of the scene will not be disappointed, though perhaps surprised; trying to stop the CD midplay is about as easy as stopping a speeding bullet. Space sounds and steady percussion lay down a groove that grows steadily deeper as it wends its way through 13 tracks, never giving too much. "On The Line" sets the stage for the assault early on in the album and along with "It Keeps Me On MyToes,"a disco-esque groover, these tracks hit their mark, ringing with the sound of instant classics. The progression peaks out on “We Will Break Our Own Hearts"—a keyboard laden jewel of pop rock perfection, holding back an explosion that comes with a silent, sudden finish. Subsequently, the album pe ters out with the two easy listeners that frankly, your breaking heart will need. Smart, stylish and thoughtful throughout, Mood Swings only lags on the dark cabaret number, "On A Mission". In short, this is no game of Russian Roulette. Still, although Mood Swings was released before 20 0 7 came to a close, we still aren't hearing much of it on the radio. Forget hanging the DJ: someone pop him in the arse!

internet distribution. "It's come up pretty quickly and they're still trying to find out how to deal with that. The big players are seeing this as a bit of a cash cow— I think things will settle out over time, but there's mass confusion at this point." Penner's career is also entering a new phase for rea sons other than the rise of music downloading. In addition to distributing his album, he plans to use his Web site to connect with both children and their parents. "We're hoping to build it into parenting issues, focus sing on the teen world, the generation I've gone through who are now becoming educators and are now moving into their own lives as parents and the challenges that they're going through. So finding tangents from the site to address whatever is of interest to me and to my audi ence is wide open," he said. “It almost feels like a whole new career is beginning at this point, but with a really strong foundation after the decades I've been doing this," he added. Despite the technological revolution that has taken place since Penner launched his career in the early 80 s, his audience has demonstrated a remarkable continuity. Chil dren he won over with hits such as "The Cat Came Back" and "It Ain't Gonna Rain," have begun showing up at his concerts with children of their own. "People who have grown up with me are at that phase of their life where they are doing their own retrospective on where they've come from and I'm quite honoured that they think of me fondly... so I have all these really beautiful and heartwarming connections with people who feel that I've been a positive influence in their lives, which is really the philosophy and foundation of everything I've done,"

T he M cG ill T ribune

— Geoffrey Anstey

Penner said. While the fond nostalgia of a loyal fan-base has cer tainly helped Penner retain his popularity, he credits his success to a message which has remained consistent de spite cultural changes over the past two decades. "The vernacular of a generation changes and some times the music style will change along the way," Penner acknowledged. "But the songs that I write I hope appeal to the human element—the values that will always be part of human evolution. The importance of communication and trust and respect and honesty and courage. Those don't ever change." ■

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INTENSIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING PROGRAM FOR ASIAN STUDENTS

— Heather Anderson

Smashing Pumpkins. American Gothic EP. The release of a subdued acoustic EP by the Smashing Pumpkins shouldn't come as a sur prise to anyone, since from the very start of the band, Billy Corgan has always flirted with airy emotional ballads. Songs such as "Rhi noceros" and "Mayonnaise" could have easily worked as laid back acoustic numbers, but back in the early 9 0 s Billy had the good grace to infuse his gentler songs with some of the alternative rock that he helped define. Now, after Zietgeisfs failure to rekindle that genre, he's decided to give the electric guitars a bit of a rest and go to second base with ballads, which turns out to be more of an awkward fondle than an impas sioned snog. "Again, Again, Again (the Crux),"is a sentimental cookie cutter that wants us to believe that acoustic guitars equal sincerity. And even with its lively ending, it doesn't come close to justifying Corgan repeating the cliché "when will I see you again,"well, again and again."The Rose March"and"Sunkissed"are improvements, but are still mediocre, the background instrumentation often overshadowing the songs themselves. It's only when Corgan sticks with his alt rock roots on "Pox" that he produces something decent, but without his usual electric guitar shennanigans it just doesn't sound fleshed out. As much as Cor gan wants to be able to make bare bone acoustic songs, he can't escape the fact that he made his career on theatrical alt rock. Folksy bedroom rock just isn't where his strengths lie, and it shows.

e v e n ts

SEEKING MONITORS

August 1-27, 2008 Qualifications: Native-speaker proficiency in English. In-depth knowledge of Montreal and Canadian culture. Strong leadership abilities. Openness to other cultures and customs. Dynamic, outgoing, reliable, and team-spirited individual. Interest in and/or experience with second-language teach/leaming and/or with East Asian cultures and languages would be an asset. Job Description: The English and French Language Centre (Faculty of Arts) is seeking monitors for its Intensive English Program for Asian Students. Monitors are in charge of a group of undergraduate students from Asia, and will live in residence with the students. Monitors are required to: • Dine in residence with students • Provide students with as many opportunities as possible to speak English • Coordinate out-of-class language learning activities • Act as resource-persons for their group • Participate in the program’s cultural and social activities F o r m o r e in f o r m a tio n o n th e p r o g r a m , in c lu d in g a d e ta ile d s c h e d u le , p le a s e c o n s u lt th e p r o g r a m ’s w e b s ite : w w w .m c g ill.c a /s u m m e r /a s ia n p r o g r a m /

To Apply: E-mail your CV and a cover letter explaining your qualifications and why this position

interests you to: The Director - English and French Language Centre McGill University c/o Ms. Jasna Hancevic Program Administrator jasna.hancevic@mcgill.ca Deadline: Thursday, April 19,2008

18 • Arts & Entertainment • 11.03.08

The McGill Tribune

BOOKS

S p a c e f o r d u m m ie s

A re a d to

B o o k b u m s

M a r itim e

o u t w ith

W illiam Robinson Every Saturday at 12:06 p.m., CBC Radio's Bob McDonald hosts Quirks and Quarks, a show offering its listeners updates in the fields of pure science, medicine, technology and the environment. McDonald's producer, Jim Lebans, has now brought the show to paperback in The Quirks and Quarks Space Book, which amalgamates both old and new ideas about the final frontier. The Quirks and Quarks Space Book at tempts to provide the layperson with trendy ideas as well as their inspiration in the sci entific exploration of space. The facts range from grade 11 to doctorate level physics, but everything is presented clearly and simply, with big ideas being related to everyday life.

4 2 QUESTIONS (AND ANSWER*! ABOUT Lire. THC UNIVERSE,; and Everythin ® 1 ------------- W J

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The universe in 250 or so pages.

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Despite a brief mention of mathematical formulas, anyone should be able to bask in the grandeur of the universe as presented in these pages. Divided into 42 chapters, the book pro ceeds from the relatively small to the infi nitely large. Beginning with both current and more dated discourses theorizing the galaxy and finishing with theories on the birth and death of the universe, Jim Lebans takes the reader on a trip through time and space (or maybe more accurately, space-time). For those who are already well versed in space exploration, this book may help in explaining things to those who aren't so in terested in the really big questions. Multiple party stories are available from the more ob scure chapters— I find myself often telling people that lo, a moon of Jupiter, has tides like earth's, but which rise one hundred feet due to Jupiter's excessive gravity. There is a craving to be funny throughout the book, but unfortunately attempts at humour fall pretty flat. Although chuckles rarely mani fest themselves, pop culture references do appear (if sparsely) throughout the book, including several from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And even without pictures, this scientific tome maintains an equally fun and awe-inspiring tone. Too often people are left simply un aware of the non-pragmatic aspects of sci entific discovery and Lebans offers in some two-hundred and fifty novel sized pages the wonders humanity has been able to grasp and offers it in simple language to those in terested. Whether you are interested in the near impossibility of meeting alien life, the inevitable end of the earth's existence, or, better yet, the universe's final breath, the Space Book offers all of these universal let downs. A tone of optimism is attempted, but certain passages may crush any avid space explorer's dreams. ■

m i s s

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I s la n d s

Ragged Islands, where she raised her children and where she seeks to join her departed husband. As his mother Susan Ann lies dying in a To Repeating to herself the words of a letter written ronto hospital on September 11 , 2 0 0 1 , Carl Well by her husband Jamie,"I miss you terribly and am man clears out the tiny apartment where she counting the days," Susan Ann retraces her steps spent her last years, making his way through along the familiar road through the Maritimes, boxes of possessions and dragging up old mem seeking to understand her past and meeting ories along with the letters and objects she saved people from her life along the way. Back in To over her lifetime. As his mother edges towards ronto, Susan Ann's children watch on helplessly her death, Carl uncovers family as their mother comes closer to secrets and complicated webs death while planes are crashing of lies and resentment. Mean in New York and the world is while, lapsing in and out of con shifting before their eyes. sciousness, Susan Ann embarks Underlying metaphysical on a mystical journey through questions concerning the soul's her past to Ragged Islands and existence independent of the the lost homes she had known body, the question of time, and in the Maritimes. the nature of death pervade the Ragged Islands is Don Han novel. Weaving in and out of nah's moving account of an el the Toronto hospital room and derly woman coming to terms Susan Ann's dream-like journey not only with death, but with a through the Maritime fog, Han lifetime of family conflict, resent nah questions our conceptions ment, and her own feelings of of time and reality as he blurs abandonment after being given the distinction between dreams away by her birthmother to be and real life, the past and the raised by relatives.The renowned present. Canadian novelist and play Ultimately it is the novel's wright paints a beautiful portrait poetic and sensitive descrip AM AZON.CA of the Nova Scotia coast where tions of both the Maritime land Susan Ann revisits the places that Behold the great expanse. scape and the mental landscape defined her from childhood to old age. Hannah of a dying woman that leave a lasting impression questions what a life ultimately adds up to as Carl on the reader. Hannah's postmodern take on searches through his mother's keepsakes and the traditional picaresque novel, reminiscent of Susan Ann searches through her past. The shifts Gogol's Dead Souls, invites the reader to enter of perspective allow the reader to explore the Susan Ann's mind as the secrets of her life unfold concept of death for both the dying woman and and puzzle the pieces together to understand the loved ones who survive her. Like the cards her troubled past. For those readers who enjoy and letters that Carl finds hidden in his mother's dream-like journeys through the unconscious boxes, are our lives merely the sum of what we in the manner of Eternal Sunshine o f the Spotless leave behind? Mind and Richard Matheson's 19 78 novel What Susan Ann journeys from the family farm of Dreams May Come, Ragged Islands provides an her girlhood summers in Shediac to the house in intriguing exploration through the mind of a Moncton of her adolescence and ultimately to dying woman. ■

Carolyn G régoire

ml M IÊ

Andrew Seward:

m e m o ry

o u t

o n

Backpack

re m e m b e r

Briefcase

T h e r e 's s t i l l ti m e t o r e g is te r !

B a s s is t , A g a in s t M e !

N egotiatin g for S u ccess March 11, 10:30am - 12:30pm

Panel: W om en In Care Work March 1 7 , 2:30 - 4:30pm

Dining E tiquette * March 11, 6 - 9 p m

J ohn S emley

Human Rights: Making a Career o f It March 18, 5:00pm 7:00pm

Since their first full-length, Reinventing Axel Rose, dropped in 20 0 2 , Florida-based rockers Against Me! have been building their fan base on the strength oftheir live shows and recorded material equally.The band takes the big stage at the Bell Center next Sunday, opening for the Foo Fighters. Against Me! bassist Andrew Seward spoke with The Tribune last week regarding the band's move from packed punk clubs to certi fied rock stardom: “It's an easy story. We played a KROCK show in Los Angeles and [Foo frontman] Dave Grohl came backstage. We all hung out, drank a few beers

D iscussion Group for N ew Im m igrants March 12, i:00pm - 2:30pm

Panel: Careers in th e Foreign Service March 19, 2:30 - 4:30pm

ftinei: S Under 25 March 1 2 ,4 :3 0 -6 p m

How to M anage Your Personal F inances March 1 9 ,4 :3 0 -6:00p m

Panel; How to G et Hired March 13, 6 - 8pm

Panel: Principles o f Environm entally Friendly Living March 20, 4 : .3 0 - 6:00pm

Panel; W orking w ith a Disability March 1 4 ,1 : 3 0 - 3pm

Dining E tiquette * Mardi 2 6 , 6 9pm C losing R eception Keynote: From Passion to Action March 27, 4:30 - 6:00pm

and then he basically asked us to come on tour with them. It's been more o f a challenge because people are there to see the Foo Fighters. So we just have to give it our all, no matter what...we are know and we've always been a touring band."

The rise of Against Me! has more to do with their opening slot on an arean rock tour, however. SPIN magazine voted their 20 0 7 majorlabel album, New Wave, the best record of the year. When asked how graduating to major label status has changed the band's relationship with industry top brass, Seward was charmingly frank.

* 4 $ 2 0 c h a r g e a p p li e s f o r P ip in g E tiq u e tte c o u r s e m a te r & is "It's changed quite a bit," he said. “Nobody wants to take us out for din ner anymore now that we're signed."

For m o r e in fo r m a tio n a n d t o r e g is te r : w w w .c a p s .m c g lll.c a o r c a ll 3 9 8 - 3 1 4 8

Presented by

M c G ill

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Catch Against Me! and the Foo Fighters this Sunday at the Bell Centre. Or if the medicore acoustics of big arena rock shows aren't your thing, dig New Wave until the band makes an inevitable return to a more in timate venue.

11.03.08

www.mcgilltribune.com

• The McGill Tribune • 19

ART

T h e n e w e s t d im e n s io n F o u n d a tio n

fo r C o n te m p o ra ry

S ara M c C u llo ch The DHC/ART Foundation for Contempo rary Art is now showcasing six different artists who manipulate time, space and perspective using film and photographic media.The gallery itself, divided between two different buildings, will feature film re-enactments from Paul Pfei ffer, Ann Lislegaard, Harun Farocki, Nancy Dav enport, Kerry Tribe and Stan Douglas. Paul Pfeiffer's Live from Neverland tackles the media spectacle surrounding the child mo lestation allegations against Michael Jackson. Before viewing the main attraction, a corner installation, Live Evil (Bucharest), greets you with footage of a headless Michael Jackson on stage morphing into an alien - not through his physi cal transformations - but through computer ized imaging. As for the main attraction, a small television replays Jackson's denial accusations while another screen showcases a Greek chorus filled appropriately with children chanting his many denials. The chanting is subtly synched

COURTESY STAN DOUGLAS

Stan Douglas revisits Cuba of the 80s.

in a r t e x h ib it io n s

A rt says: b e

with Jackson himself, right down to the facial expressions and pauses. Ann Lislegaard's i-You-Later-There eerily; recreates normal daily activities with a leaning floor structure illuminated by a giant, flickering lamp. Daily sounds are mimicked through a sound track providing an audible background to: chairs shuffling, footsteps, doors, running water, and a kettle. These sounds are drowned in the haunting voice of a speaker recount ing her daily routine. All senses are blurred as the installation disrupts time, space, sight and sound. Harun Farocki's Deep Play installation will appeal to faithful soccer fans as it depicts twelve different perspectives of the 20 0 6 FIFA World Cup, held in Berlin. The different points of view include Farocki's own footage, secu rity footage, channel directors controlling the angles, players computerized as dots, statistical representations of players' speeds and goals, high angle camera views and screaming team coaches. Nancy Davenport's short space odyssey, Workers (leaving the factory) takes on the socio economic theme of outsourcing by uniting European factory workers with their new Chi nese replacements in an orbiting, animated sequence. At the centre of this installation is a rocket adventure. Davenport completely sur rounds the space spatially, visually, and audibly. His other exhibitions include Campus, a series of photographs of many university campuses across the United States and Canada, as well as Weekend Campus, a looping video chronicling a series of student witnesses at the scene of a road disaster. KerryTribe's Here and Elsewhere is a thought-

k in d , c h a n g e

provoking interview between a perceptive tenyear-old named Audrey and her father, British film historian, Peter Wollen. The film traces the young girl's views on history, memory, percep tion, time, image, and knowledge. The installa tion includes two adjacent screens, separated by a small gap, and each, at some points in time, displaying different scenes. Unfortunately, Stan Douglas's installation, Inconsolable Memories, is having some technical difficulties, but will be up and running next

tim e

week. This installation accelerates the time frame of Cuban filmmaker Tomas Gutiérrez's Memories o f Underdevelopment (1968) to the so cial-historical context of the i 9 8 os.B Re-enactments is on display at the DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art (451 and 468 StJean) until May 25. Gallery hours are Wednesdays to Fridays from noon to t o o p.m., and weekends from n to 6. Admission is free.

COURTESY NANCY DAVENPORT

Nancy Davenport tackles outsourcing in W o rk e rs

(le a v in g th e factory).

FEATURES CROSS-OVER: X VS. Y

S o u l ( t h e c o n c e p t ) v s . S o u l ( t h e m u s ic ) Soul (the music)

NYTIMES.COM What it is: According to longstanding religious and philosophical dogma, it's the immortal, self-aware essence unique to some biologi cal organisms. Some philosophers believe that it’s the kernel of human sapience. Endorsed by: Plato, Thomas Aquinas, the Zohar, etc. Benefits: Religious doctrines vary on this, but generally an un soiled, burden-free soul can secure you front row seats for the afterlife. Some transhuman and posthuman thinkers believe that soon we'll be able to upload souls to hard drives for safekeeping— and collecting!

The Winner: Soul (the music) While working to preserve the purity of your immortal soul is a tiring and thank less pursuit, soul music provides that instant adrenaline kick that proves exceptionally more gratifying. Sure, the steady beat may descend into droning after listening to three Wilson Pickett LPs in a row, but (if you want to get religious), the one-two, one-two of the tapping toe is the heartbeat of the soul anyhow.

What it is: According to the gatekeeper of American music's secular inter-sanctum, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." Endorsed by: Nina Simone, Solomon Burke, James Brown, Motown, Stax Records etc. Benefits: While it may not promise eternal salvation, its sultry rhythms, deep bass and multilayered background vocals make shuffling about on this mortal coil far more bearable. It also influenced funk, disco, hip-hop and quiet storm radio. Swing loooooooooooow, sweet chariot!

Value: The current eBay asking price for the soul of the Egyp tian Queen Nefertari (wife of Ramesses II) is 49 USD. Yours is probably worth way less.

Value: The current eBay asking price for a rare B.J. Records 4 5 rpm record of Melvin Winn's “Trace of Smoke" is $3 5 0 0 . This is roughly as valu able as the souls of 71 dead Egyptian Queens.

Drawbacks: Believing in a soul can be a bit of a rip off. Toiling to stave off the corrupting cloven hoof of temptation is a full-time job: one which pays horribly and makes indulging all life's fun stuff a tire some battle between good and evil.Then again, to some the sanctity of lingering traces of God's first breath into Adam, now encoded in our genome, is worth preserving.

Drawbacks: Is inviting immersion so totalizing that you forget to sleep and lose interest in sex entirely a drawback? Otherwise, soul music poses no potential threats. Even the crap you find for a buck in some crate at a yard sale is better than most anything else committed to wax. Detroit, Memphis, Philly, deep, blue-eyed or psychedelic, soul is a big legged mistress whose booty knows no bottom. — Compiled by John Semiey.

S p o r t s --------------------------HOCKEY— REDMEN 4, BROCK 1

R e d m e n t a k e t h e c r o w n a t Q u e e n 's C u p F o r th e

fir s t t im e

s in c e

1 9 4 6 , M c G ill w in s

A aron S igal Leafs and Cubs fans, take solace: championship droughts do Rebounding well from an emotionally draining OUA East final against traditional rivals UQTR, in which the Redmen weath ered a storm of chippy Patriotes play and secured a slot in the CIS National Championship tournament, McGill ended 62 years of frustration by defeating the Brock Badgers 4 -1 for the program's first OUA conference title since 19 4 6 . By walking into a hostile St. Catherines arena and downing the OUA West champion Badgers, a squad that had defeated McGill earlier this season, the Redmen gained some extra confidence heading into nationals, where Brock will also be one of the vying participants. "This was a reminder for us to stick to the way we want to play," Head Coach Martin Raymond said. "It always gives you con fidence to do the things you practice and have success with it. When you finish on top in an important game like this on the road against a tough opponent, it's certainly comforting for us to know we can play strong hockey when we put our minds to it." nasifc'.

le a g u e t it le

First period jitters As is standard in any significant postseason af fair, the first period proved to be a defensive strug gle where neither side was able to find the back of the net. Instead, a physical tone was set for the match, and possibly for Moncton, as the two teams employed a dump-and-chase style in order to feel out their opponent's strategy and soften up the de fence for the later stages of the game. "We wanted to be physical from the get-go," Raymond said. "They are a conservative, trapping team and we wanted to get after them and take them out of their comfort zone." The second period saw Brock ratchet up the tempo of play and start to pepper McGill's star goalie, Mathieu Poitras, with high quality scoring chances. After much frustration at the hands of a stellar Poitras, the home team finally converted when forward Jonathon Labelle slotted home a rebound off a George Bradley point shot to score the match's first tally in the 13 th minute of the second frame. Seemingly unable DARIOAYALA to generate an equalizer BenGazdic embraces a teammate after the historic McGill victory. against Brock's Matt Harpwood, McGill headed into the intermission glaring at Badger goose-egg at 3:21 into the third as the blueliner rushed year 63 of the Queen's Cup drought. "We try not to worry about that the net and capitalized on a Harpwood rebound. After opening streak in the heat of the game," Raymond the floodgates, a worn-down Brock squad could not manage to said. "But in the back of your mind you stem the McGill tide as over the next 16 minutes the Redmen say how it would be fun to win a banner potted three more markers. Sniper Shawn Shewchuk was cred before nationals and keep our win streak ited with two goals in two minutes and Guillame Demers iced the match with an empty net tally as the game wound down. going.” McGill outshot Brock 25 -14 over the course of the game and 14 -3 in the dominant third period effort. Third period dominance "It was pretty exciting at the end," Raymond said. "It's a 105 Despite their 1-0 hole and history conspiring against them, the Redmen year old cup and, lifting it, you see it has a lot of McGill plaques blasted out of the gates in the third pe on it from a long time ago. It's nice to know that it will have a new riod and, not only captured the Queen's one on there now." With the Queen's Cup streak now broken, the Redmen shift Cup title, but built up a wealth of mo mentum for the CIS National Champi their focus to the CIS Nationals in Moncton, New Brunswick. In onships with a four goal explosion. The addition to the Redmen, the March 2 0 -2 3 tournament will feature Red 'n' White completely reversed the squads from Brock, Alberta, Saskatchewan, UNB or Saint Mary's and the host, the Moncton Aigles Bleus. In their second national DARIOAYALA run delivering several devastat championship appearance in the last three years, McGill will have ing hits and establishing a strong downlow presence. Defensive stalwart and the higher of the two OUA seeds by virtue of their Queen's Cup captain David Urquhart finally broke the victory. ■

end.

O U A

• Ü. r a s s e s m

The Redmen celebrate after securing the OUA title.

THIRD MAN IN

B o x in g b it e s b a c k A aron S igal p here in Canada, we know all too well that the NHL is the black sheep among North America's major sports—nobody does soul-crushing, league-undermining and mind-boggling decisions like the Bettman cote rie. From moronic "feet in the crease" type rules to television exile on some former cycling channel called Versus to the catastrophic (and seemingly never-ending) expansion into the U.S. Sun Belt, the NHL has amazingly managed to per form a self-crucifixion to the bewilderment and resignation of Canadian diehards. But if we put aside our hockey-related myopia, take our blinders off and gaze southward, hockey's self-inflicted plight seems insignificant next to professional boxing—a sport that slashed out its own knees by removing itself from free everyday cable and moving major bouts to pay-per-view channels such as HBO at $6 0 a pop. With the exception of the now exceedingly rare Mayweather-De La Hoya, Mayweather-Hatton or Corrales-Castillo type tilts, the prizefight has become a thing of ancient history for most people who cannot, or refuse to, shell out exorbitant prices to watch TV. As seen by the stunning suc cess of UFC's Apr. 19 event right here in Montreal— its first official foray into the Canadian market, which sold out the cavernous Bell Centre in only hours—the bloodlust vac

uum created by boxing's departure has been more than adequately filled by mixed-martial arts and conventional pugilism shows no signs of what should be a very worried reaction. MMA is snatching up the younger demographics while boxing seems content to cling to its diminishing fan base that remembers the glory days of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Compounding boxing's troubles is the complete dearth of talent in the glamourous heavyweight class. While any true fight fan knows that the welter and middleweight divisions are where the top-flight action is— legends like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather Jr. all spring to mind—the heavyweights hold the most allure. Without engaging titans similar to Ali, Frazier, George Foreman and Sonny Liston, box ing will remain moribund. Facing this reality, professional pugilism has been re duced to rumours of an upcoming third bout between heavyweight mega-stars, the certifiably insane (and sup posedly now-corpulent) Mike Tyson and a pseudo-geriat ric Evander Holyfield. And we all couldn't be more excited. While last year's Mayweather-De La Hoya and MayweatherHatton pulled in massive numbers, Tyson-Holyfield 3 would

be unprecedented. Never mind the fact that for health and safety reasons these two should never be allowed to set foot in a ring again— Holyfield is 45 and Iron Mike is 4 1 — but, if I remember correctly, the last edition of this clash 11 years ago ended with Tyson spitting a rather sizeable chunk of Holyfield's ear across the squared circle (after having gnawed on the other ear earlier in the match). This proposed fight, which surely will not get state sanctioning in Las Vegas, New York City, Memphis or any other respected boxing town and will have to be held overseas or on a barge in international waters, is a debased freak show and symbolic of how far box ing has plummeted. No one truly expects a prizefight test of talent or a technical showdown anymore; we're in it for boxing's inevitable payout of the bizarre and zany. Maybe I'm wrong and Tyson-Holyfield version three will propel pugilism into a new Golden Age with a dazzling dis play of boxing prowess from two former dominant fighters, but the prospect of "Iron Mike" and "The Real Deal" butting heads at a combined age of 86 and more body parts pos sibly being spit around a ring seems to represent all that is unholy with the sport today. Don't kid yourself though: I'm putting aside $60 , beer and some chips just in case, and, re ally, so will you. ■

11.03.08-Sports *21

www.mcgilltribune.com

PROFILE— SWIMMING

L a b o n t é f la w le s s in t h r e e g a m e to u rn a m e n t R o o k ie

C h a rtra n d

Continued from COVER Bettez and a sprawling stop to deny Rebecca Martindale on a two-onone. Neither team fared much better in the second period as both teams played sloppy hockey that featured neutral zone turnovers galore. Knox continued to shine in the early going turning aside nine McGill shots by the midway point of the frame and look ing like she might be able to singlehandedly steal the game for the Gold en Hawks. Late in the period, however, with a teammate already in the box, Laurier defender Andrea Bevan threw a big body check on Bettez and was assessed a minor penalty for elbow ing. On the ensuing 5-on-3 advantage for McGill, a bad change by a Golden Hawks' forward gave Chartrand all sorts of time to tee up a slapshot that beat a partially screened Knox on the high glove side. Chartrand's tally, and her later assist, gave the defenceman a tournament-leading six points in three games. The Martlets employed a great forecheck and superb defensive zone coverage in the third period to stifle any Golden Hawk hopes for a late comeback. Emblematic of this ef fort was a penalty kill with less than five minutes remaining in the game, where Laurier did not get a single scoring chance. The McGill penalty kill finished the tournament a flawless 2 0 -for-2 0 when down a player. Bettez sealed the win for the Martlets by converting a nice behindthe-back pass from Vanessa Davidson with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.

fin is h e s

McGill herds Bisons The first game of the tourna ment round robin saw the Martlets use their superior speed to dominate the fifth-ranked University of Manito ba Bisons in a 6 -0 rout. Forward Alyssa Cecere and All-Canadian defenseman Catherine Ward each scored twice to power McGill to victory against the overmatched Canada West finalists. "Our experience from last year's Nationals has definitely been a big help," said McGill Head Coach Peter Smith. "The atmosphere in our room was one of confidence, in terms of our players knowing that they could control the play and control their own destiny. We really focussed on the things that we do well, like using our speed, rather than letting the other team dictate the terms of the game." After an initial feeling-out period, the Martlets'third line was rewarded for their tenacious forechecking when Alessandra Lind-Kenny notched the game's first goal. Lind Kenny took a

DARIO AYALA

Forward Jordana Peroff carries the puck to lead the McGill attack.

a c a d e m ic

as to p

The victory caps an almost flaw less season for McGill, who stormed through an undefeated regular season, swept two consecutive op ponents in the QSSF playoffs and outscored their opponents by an 11 0 margin at Nationals. The Martlets' compiled a 36 -1-0 record against CIS opponents this year, with their only loss coming in a shootout against the Alberta Pandas at the Guelph Gry phons Invitational Tournament. The ladies in Red 'n' White also became the first top-seeded team in four years to win the gold medal at the national championship tournament.

S w im m in g

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centering feed from linemate Jordana Peroff and lifted a wrist shot over the glove of Manitoba goaltender Stacy Corfield to break the deadlock. The goal would stand as the only tally of an opening period in which the Mart lets'outshot the Bisons 12 -3 . In the second frame, Cecere tal lied two goals less than ten minutes apart to blow the game wide-open for McGill. The sophmore winger's first goal of the game came thanks to an alert play by Labonté, who spot ted a sloppy Manitoba line change and advanced the puck to centre ice to set-up Cecere. Labonté was called upon to make only ten saves to earn her first shutout of the tournament. "I thought we had a really good start to the game," Smith said. "We got lots of pressure on their defence, used our speed to our advantage and put in a great 60 minute effort." Ward picked up her first goal of the game halfway through the third stanza on a long-range slapshot, but it was her second goal that stole the show. In what was surely the prettiest goal of the weekend, the sophomore rearguard picked up the puck at her own blueline, undressed two Bison defenders and slid the puck through Corfield's five-hole to complete a play that was strikingly similar to her endto-end goal against the Bisons in last year's tournament. Kate Elzinga, on a goal that was incorrectly credited to Shauna Denis, scored shorthanded to round out the McGill scoring. Martlets hammer X-Women The St. Francis Xavier X-Women proved to be a much tougher test for McGill in game two than the Bisons had been in Friday's tournament opener, but thanks to strong per formances from Chartrand and the always stellar Labonté, the Martlets' prevailed by a 3 -0 score. McGill looked sluggish and un focussed in the opening minutes of the contest, and were outworked by the X-Women for a large portion of the first period. The Martlets gave up a breakaway to CIS player of the year Brayden Ferguson and a 2 -on-i in the opening two minutes of the game, but were bailed out in both instances by excellent saves from Labonté, who made 2 2 saves to record the shutout. "I didn't like our start to the game," Smith said. "We didn't play with the same sense of urgency that we did in the first game. Give St. FX a lot of credit though: they played with a lot of desperation and gave us a tough game." Chartrand got the Martlets back on track midway through the first pe riod, when she pounced on a loose puck in the slot and wired a low wrist shot past St. FX goaltender Katie Harvieux. The power-play goal for the first year defender would stand as the game-winner. In the second frame the Martlets picked up an insurance goal as Elz inga redirected a Chartrand slap-pass through Harvieux's five-hole to dou ble the lead.The game would remain closely contested until Bettez scored into an empty net with less than 30 seconds remaining in the third pe riod. ■

S tillin g

s ta r s in b o t h w o r ld s M att C hesser

In the 2 0 0 6 -0 7 school year McGill ranked second in the nation for academic prowess among intercollegiate sports programs. For that, they have athletes like Joanie Stilling to thank. Stilling is the textbook example of the ideal student athlete, the type of per son who makes students cruising through university on "gentleman's Cs" feel woe fully inadequate. Not only is she an ac complished swimmer who was voted to the conference All-Star team and named QSSF rookie of the year last season, she is also an academic All-Canadian who re CO U RTESY M CG ILL ATH LETICS ceived the Greville Smith entrance schol arship, valued at $1 0 ,0 0 0 , upon applying to McGill. Earlier this year the U1 Chemical Engineering major was also awarded the Martlet Foundation's T. Palmer Howard Award, which is given out annually for leadership and academic excellence among varsity athletes. She earned the Palmer prize by managing to main tain a high GPA in a demanding major while attending ten training sessions, which typically last an average of two hours each, every week. Just reading her list of accomplishments is tiring, but Stilling is unfailing modest. "I've found that swimming keeps me on track with my schoolwork," said Stilling. "When you know that you have practice or a meet you don't have time to procrastinate." A natural athlete Born in Calgary, Stilling says that she inherited her athletic ability from her mother, who competed internationally on the Canadian na tional badminton team. From an early age she competed in multiple sports— soccer, vollyeball and badminton to name just three— but it wasn't long until swimming captured her heart. "I started swimming competitively when I was seven or eight," said Stilling. "But I've loved being in the water ever since I was about four years old. That's when I really fell in love with the freedom you get while swimming and as I grew older I started to love the chal lenge of training sessions and the people that I got to meet through the sport. The friendships I've built through swimming are so strong, especially here at McGill where my team feels like my family." Stilling began competing as a member of the University of Cal gary youth swim club when she was in grade eight, but had already decided that she would rather be a Martlet than a Dino. Earlier that year the budding swim star had visited.Montreal with her badminton team and had fallen in love with the atmosphere and architecture that surrounded the McGill campus. It also didn't hurt that her broth er, Erik, plays defence for the McGill Redmen hockey team. In her grade 12 year she e-mailed McGill Swimming Coach Fran çois Laurin, who responded enthusiastically and began to recruit the Calgary product. And one can see why— Stilling stands 6'i"tall, which helps her excel in freestyle events where every extra inch helps in races that are decided by fractions of a second. School goes swimmingly It didn't take long for Stilling to settle in at the school of her dreams, as she won multiple medals at meets throughout the year and then had six top-ten finishes at the CIS National Championship Meet. That success carried over to her second year where she won medals at universities all over North America, from Yale to Toronto to Trois-Rivieres, and managed a McGill-best eighth place finish at Nationals. "We didn't quite reach our goals as a team at Nationals this year," said Stilling. "And I didn't quite reach my individual goals either. But that gives me something to strive for next year. That's the thing about swimming: you're never really satisfied." In the first week of April, Stilling will attend Olympic trials at Olympic Park Pool in Montreal, with the goal of finishing somewhere among the top 16 swimmers in Canada. Going hand-in-hand with that goal is her desire to win a medal at Nationals and help McGill Swimming get back to the top level of CIS competition. Considering the way she has achieved so many of her athletic and academic goals over the past two years, it probably wouldn't be wise to bet against her accomplishing anything she sets her mind to. ■

22 • Sports • 11.03.08

The McGill Tribune

THE MCGILL TRIBUNE WILL BE ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR NEXT YEAR'S SPORTS EDITOR POSITION UNTIL MARCH 28 AT THE TRIBUNE OFFICE (SHATNER 110). A COVER LETTER, C.V. AND THREE WRITING SAMPLES ARE REQUIRED. FOR MORE INFORMATION, EMAIL US AT SPORTS@MCGILLTRIBUNE.COM.

FLASHBACK

1 9 4 6 : T h o s e w e re th e d a y s ... In their last game before heading to the CIS National Championship tournment in Moncton, New Brunswick, the McGill Redmen defeated the Brock Badgers 4 -1 to capture the Queen's Cup, the OUA conference title. In downing the Badgers and winning the league trophy, the Redmen cap tured their first Queen's Cup since 19 4 6 — a drought of 6 2 years. To put things in perspective, here are some highlights from the last year the OUA trophy resided at McGill:

• William Lyon Mackenzie King was serving his sixth term as Prime Minis ter ofCanada • HarryTruman was President of the United States • The United Nations General Assembly and Security Council met for the first time • Winston Churchill warned of an "iron curtain descending over [Europe]" ! • Only one year removed from WWII combat, the Tokyo war crimes tribu-1 nal begin in Japan while in Germany, the Nuremburg Trials convicted and j executed Nazi war criminals • The Best Years of Our Lives won the Academy Award for Best Picture • Sony was founded as a radio repair shop in a bombed-out Tokyo, build ing • The National Basketball Association is founded • Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Montreal Royals, the Brook lyn Dodgers'AAA affiliate, and, in the process, breaks organized baseball's race barrier. He would break Major League Baseball's colour barrier in 1947. • The St. Louis Cardinals downed the Boston Red Sox for their sixth World Series title. The loss prolongs the Red Sox drought to an unthinkable 28 years. • The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins 4 -1 in the Stanley Cup Finals to capture their sixth NHL championship. Although led by the team's top scorer Toe Blake, rising superstar Maurice Richard and Vezinawinning goalie Bill Durnan, the Habs would have to wait another seven years before grabbing their next Cup.

STOP IN A T H & R B L O C K

FAST TA X PREP

FANTASY Trade deadline day is fast approaching in most fantasy hockey leagues, so now is your last chance to do some damage control to account for some of the madness caused by deadline action in the real league. Today's column is going to take a slightly different focus than usual, zeroing in on wingers that you might be able to pick up in a trade at very little cost. You might even be able to snag one of these hidden gems on the waiver wire, depending on how astute the fellow general managers in your league are.

START S P E N D IN G

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RW Steve Bernier— Buffalo: Bernier has gone from an afterthought in San Jose to a key cog in the Sabres offence, where he gets the benefit of playing alongside some exciting Buffalo forwards on one of the top lines. Buffalo has three games against the inept Leafs defense, which should be a fantasy bonanza, and Bernier will surely benefit from the playoff-like atmosphere o f the buffaslug's stretch drive. If you have a chance to pick him up, definitely pull the trigger on a trade.

RW/LW Jan H lavac— Nashville: There's a very good chance that no one in your playoff pool even noticed that Hlavac was traded at the deadline, moving from the sad-sackTampa Bay Lightning to the surging Nashville Predators. I honestly didn't even know Hlavac was still in the league, but he has five points in six games so far with the Preds and, like Bernier, he will benefit from playing on a high-scor ing team that is sitting just outside the playoffs. He could be a great depth player to have as an insurance policy down the stretch.

RW/LW Andrew L ad d — Chicago: There's a common theme throughout these picks: try to land guys who were part of low-pro file deadline day trades, but moved to high-scoring teams. Ladd fits the criteria perfectly, plus he's an incredibly talented 2 2 -year old who never really lived up to his potential with Carolina. The Hawks are healthy, youthful and are ready to play a spoiler role in the late stages of this season. You should be glad if you can pick up Ladd. — M a tt Chesser

11.03.08-Sports *23

www.mcgilltribune.com

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NHL Hockey—Ottawa Senators at Montreal Canadiens;Thurs day, 7 :3 0 p.m. at the Bell Centre; RDS or Rogers Sportsnet East A few weeks ago, this would have seemed like a barnburner but right now these are two teams heading in the opposite directions. Since splitting two games early in February when these two sides were chal lenging each other for top spot in the Northeast Division and the Eastern Conference, Ottawa has gone into a complete tailspin, struggling to win games and suffering deep internal divisions that led to Head Coach John Paddock's recent dismissal.The Habs, however, have maintained theirtorrid pace and sit only two points behind New Jersey for the conference lead with rookie sensation Carey Price heading the charge with stellar goaltending. As a nice little rivalry has developed between these two teams since the Leafs have dropped off the face of this planet, watch for a spirited affair, especially from the Senators who will use the game to try and build a little momentum for a late charge.

NBA Basketball—Toronto Raptors at Denver Nuggets; Friday, p.m. at the Pepsi Centre; Rogers Sportsnet

At this point they'll already be several games into their crucial but always brutal annual West Coast road swing, but the Raptors run into a Denver squad that is in an absolute dogfight to grab a playoff spot in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.Toronto is all but guaranteed a postseason berth in the atrocious East so the road trip will be mostly used to test the players mental mettle and defensive prowess, but this game should be an exciting shootout with the Nuggets'mercurial guard Allen Iverson and forward Carmelo Anthony—two of the NBA's top scorers— running the floor for Denver. Hopefully the Raps will regain the services of All-Star Chris Bosh by this point and will have the necessary firepower to hang with Denver's high-powered offence.

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Sports Briefs during the course of the tournament. St-Pierre also won a gold medal in the 20 0 2 Olympics, where she was named to the tournament All-Star team. McGill Martlets Head Coach Peter Smith will lead the senior women's team for the first time, after serving as an assistant coach under Melody Davidson for three years. Smith was the head coach of the Canadian women's under-2 2 squad in January when they won a gold medal at the Under-2 2 World Championship.

Redmen reap the rewards of successful season McGill defenceman David Urquhart and freshman forward Simon Courcelles were among the major award winners as the OUA announced its All-Stars in men's hock ey on Wednesday. Urquhart was named to the OUA East first team AllStar squad and was announced as the conference nomi nee for the Randy Gregg Award. The Gregg trophy is pre sented to the CIS athlete who best exhibits achievement in the areas of academics, community and hockey. Courcelles, who finished the year second in team scoring with 30 points, made the OUA all-rookie team and was picked as the conference rookie of the year. The first year forward was the captain of the Quebec Remparts when they won the Memorial Cup in 2 0 0 6 before joining McGill. Redmen goaltender Mathieu Poitras, a two-time AllCanadian, was named to the OUA East second-team allstar squad.

Guelph captures CIS track and field championship The University of Guelph Gryphons have captured both the men's and women's national titles at the CIS track and field championships, which concluded Saturday at the Richard Tomlinson Fieldhouse on the campus of Mc Gill University. It marked the first time that Guelph had won either title and was the sixth time in CIS history that one institu tion swept both banners in the same season. The three-day competition featured six fieldhouse re cords and only one CIS championship meet record, which occurred in the final competition of the weekend where Calgary won the men's 4 X4 0 o-metre relay in a sizzling 13 :14.12 to beat the 15 -year-old standard of 3 :14.60 held by Western since 1993. The host squad from McGill failed to medal in any events. On the men's side they registered only four points, 62 less than Guelph, and in women's events the Martlets earned seven points, 89.5 fewer than the Gryphons.

Three Martlets earn spot on world championship team Three Martlets were among the 24 players and three coaches named to the Canadian women's hockey world championship roster at a press conference on Tuesday. Current Martlet goaltender Charline Labonté will bat tle with McGill alumna Kim St-Pierre for the number one spot between the pipes in the April 4 -12 event. Both netminders won gold medals at the 20 0 6 Olympics in Turin, where Labonté took over the starting job from St-Pierre

NCAA Men's Basketball—NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Tournament Selection Show; Sunday, 6 p.m.; CBS Get ready for the Madness! While no one really watches this show, Selection Sunday is always exciting as it creates the tournament bracket and signals the start of the three-week basketball frenzy. Possible num ber-one seeds this year are North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis, Tennessee, Duke and Kansas but March Madness is always sure to provide some clas sic upsets. Ladies, say goodbye to your boyfriends for the next few weeks because it's all basketball all the time after Sunday, with some "friendly” gambling mixed in of course. .

NBA Basketball—Boston Celtics at San Antonio Spurs; Mon day, 8 :3 0 p.m. at the AT&T Centre; FOX Southwest We don't think many people will get this game up in Canada but we'd be remiss not to notify you of a Celtics game on St. Patty's Day. It may not be at home in Boston and it may be in rrot-so Irish San Antonio but grab a Guinness or some green ale at a local watering hole and watch two of the NBA's best duke it out. Boston looks fairly secure in their top seed in the Eastern Conference while the Spurs are only a half game behind the Lakers for first overall in the West so expect this game and a Tim DuncanKevin Garnett match-up to be a thriller and a possible Finals preview.

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GOALTENDERS: McGill Mathieu Poitras [W] 7 -0 -0 , SV: 13 GA: 1 , 60:00

MOLSON CUP THREE STARS: 1 . Shawn Shewchuk, McGill 2 . Sam Bloom, McGill 3 . Dave Urquhart, McGill

Red vers free tone means time to get busy.

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