The McGill Tribune Vol. 29 Issue 24

MARTLETS TAKE TO THE INDOOR PITCH, PAGE 17

DEBATING THE SEAL HUNT, PAGES 10 & 11

iMc G ill Published by the Students’ Society of McGill University

Tribune www.mcgilltribune.com

Vol. 29 Issue 24 • 23 March 2010

M cGill Drama Festival sam ples student plays

Newburgh to face J-Board SPHR files complaint against SSMU president-elect TORI CRAWFORD & STEVEN HOFFER N ew s Editors

Four weeks after the Students’ Society’s Winter General Assembly, the SSMU Judi­ cial Board has accepted a submission from members of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights concerning the impartiality of Zach Newburgh, the current speaker of SSMU Council and next year’s SSMU president.

In the petitioner’s factum, which was submitted on March 17, SPHR claims that as chair of the GA, Newburgh “placed himself in a serious conflict of interest, making it impos­ sible for him to perform his task in an impartial manner,” particularly during the debate over the motion re: The Defence of Human Rights, Social Justice, and Environmental Protection.

The group asserts that there were three main factors which made Newburgh an unsuitable mediator for this semester’s GA: his asso­ ciation with Hillel Montreal as the organiza­ tion's president; his friendship with Mookie Kideckel, the president of Hillel McGill (and HOLLY STEWART Vether in Vostok, directed by Carling Tedesco and written by Zac Lindenbaum-Grosbard, deals with Speedos in Antartica.

See COMPLAINT on page 2

STM to launch new express bus service to Trudeau Airport 747 Express will transport passengers fo r $7 each way MATT ESSERT Contributor

At the end of the month, the Montreal Transit Association (STM) will launch a new bus service providing direct transportation from downtown Montreal to Trudeau Airport.

Service on the 747 Express bus starts on March 29. The bus will offer rides to and from the airport 24 hours a day, and will cost $7 each way.

Michel Labrecque, the chairman of the STM Board of Directors, announced the new bus line at a press conference on March 11. La­ brecque said that the 747 would offer increased service for Dorval residents, easier transporta­ tion for tourists, and a more efficient method of travel between the city and the airport. He predicted that the service would attract some 10,000 riders every day.

“With this new service, we hope to create an awareness about public transit among air­ port clients and employees so that they make a habit of using it for their transportation needs,” Labrecque said at the press conference.

Marianne Rouette, a spokesperson for the STM, pointed out that airport employees and employers will benefit from the new express service.

“Most employees have to take their car to go to work, so it was done mostly for them,” Rouette said.

“Airport employers are finding it hard to recruit staff because of the difficulty, or high cost of, getting to and from the airport,” she added. “If you don’t have a car, you have to take the regular bus, which takes a long time, and the hours are not very good for [most em­ ployees].”

Previously, travellers had only two op­ tions: take a taxi to the airport for the flat rate of $38 one-way, or take the Aérobus, a private bus line operated by Groupe La Québécoise, for $16 one-way. According to an employee of the Airports of Montreal who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Aérobus service will be discontinued on March 28.

According to Rouette, however, the Groupe La Québécoise had a contract with the Airports of Montreal that was expiring, and the decision to cancel service was more of a coincidence than in direct response to the 747 See SERVICE on page 2

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NEWS

2 • 23 March 2010

mcgilltribune.com

CAMPUS

Motion moves SSMU towards vegan-friendly Shatner Building Council seeks to supplement Midnight Kitchen STEVEN HOFFER N ew s Editor

Thanks to a motion passed last Thursday by the Students’ Society Council, McGill veg­ ans may soon have more food options avail­ able to them in the Shatner Building.

The motion, put forward by Emil Briones, the representative from the Faculty of Music requires SSMU to encourage its food service tenants to offer more vegan-friendly choices, though it does not mandate tenants to provide vegan options.

“I worded the motion very carefully,” Bri­ ones said. “I just wanted action to be [taken] in terms of making sure the vegan food options are visible in the Shatner Building without pressuring food services into doing something that they can’t be forced to do.”

SSMU Vice-President Clubs & Services

Sarah Olle echoed Briones’ sentiments.

“We discussed a requirement to mandate our tenants to have at least one vegan food item,” Olle said. “However, we felt that, first of all, it would be too hard for oür tenants, and second of all, that wouldn’t actually be as ef­ fective as the way the motion is written now."

Currently, Midnight Kitchen is the only food service in the Shatner Building that of­ fers vegan-friendly meals on a daily basis. The student-run organization is only available dur­ ing lunch hours, though. With the passage of the motion, current tenants will be encouraged to take steps toward offering vegan options without overhauling their menus.

“This is really a customer-focussed mo­ tion,” Olle said. “It shows our tenants that hav­ ing vegan food options is not really a require­ ment, but is something they should do for their customers because it is important to them and it will increase their business.”

While preparing the motion, Briones and several other vegan students visited Shatner’s

food service tenants to investigate the current options for vegan students, in addition to hold­ ing discussions with current councillors and incoming executives. Briones said that he ex­ pects next year’s executives to carry out the terms of motion.

“I think the main implication would be if right now [the tenants] may be a little sloppy in how they are preparing something—where it would be almost vegan if they changed one ingredient or one procedure of cooking—they would now be encouraged to change so that an item could get the vegan sticker of approval,” Olle said.

Simin Sattari, the manager of Café Su­ preme in the Shatner Building, explained that Café Supreme currently offers several vegetar­ ian options, but changing their menu to offer vegan options could be problematic.

“About changing, you’d have to talk to the company,” Sattari said. “We don't choose the food ourselves. They mandate our recipes. If we’re going to change anything, they’re going

to charge us. We have to serve what they offer because we are a franchise. We don’t have the power to change the menu.”

The motion also mandates SSMU to move toward improving the visibility and la­ belling of vegan food products in the Shatner Building, in addition to taking the vegan issue into consideration when 2011 lease renegotia­ tions with food service tenants.

“Right now in the music cafeteria there are little tags that say ‘This soup is veganfriendly,”’ Briones said. “Little things like that will make a lot of difference because being vegan personally, I don’t feel comfortable eat­ ing anywhere in the SSMU building aside from Midnight Kitchen. I don’t know if a knife, say, touched something with meat in it or chicken broth in it. I just want to make sure that vegans are comfortable eating in the SSMU building while Midnight Kitchen is not operating.”

—Additional reporting by Tori Crawford

CAMPUS

Five Days for the Homeless fundraiser comes to McGill campus End Poverty Now charity event raises $4,933fo r homelessness THEO MEYER N ew s Editor

As most McGill students went to bed on a rainy Sunday night last week, Jennifer Sault, Andreas Mertens, and a handful of other stu­ dents huddled in sleeping bags under an over­ hang outside the Bronfman Building.

The students had committed to spending the next five nights sleeping outdoors on cam­ pus as part of the Five Days for the Homeless, an annual campaign to raise money and aware­ ness for the homeless. This year is the first time that the event, which began at the University of Alberta in 2004 and is now held at many Canadian universities, has come to McGill.

“It’s so easy to walk by the homeless and not see them or get conditioned to [ignore them],” said Sault, U2 microbiology and inter­ national development studies. “We want this to be a reminder that homelessness is real.”

The event, organized by the McGill chap­ ter of End Poverty Now, raised $4,933 last week. The funds will be donated to the Projet Autochtones du Quebec, a homeless shelter near Montreal’s Chinatown.

The campaign’s rules, which are the same at each participating university, are fairly sim­ ple: students are allowed no pocket money, can only eat food that is donated to them, aren’t al­ lowed access to showers, and can only venture indoors to attend class or extracurricular activ­ ities. Though the students are allowed to come indoors if temperatures reach dangerously low levels, last week’s near-balmy weather made that unnecessary.

“It’s actually not as bad as you would think,” said Mertens, U3 education. “The weather’s been fantastic, and all of our friends are really supportive.”

After spending the first night outside the Bronfman Building, the students moved to the

Participants settled inside the Milton Gates and were joined by about 25 guest sleepers over the five days.

Roddick Gates before finally settling on a patch of concrete near the Milton Gates. Though the area is harshly lit and a bit loud when trucks pass on University Street, it does receive a lot of foot traffic.

“It’s guarded from the wind, so it’s fairly warm at night,” said Sault, who is also the na­ tional director of End Poverty Now. “It seems to be a good location. We’re reaching a lot of people here.”

Because they could only eat donated food, the participating students subsisted on Tim Horton’s and peanut-butter-and-jelly sand­ wiches given to them by friends and passersby. Enough food was donated, however, that the students had trouble polishing it all off.

“We don’t know what to do with all the food,” Sault said during the event. “We actu­

ally went and gave it to homeless people yes­ terday because we had too much food here.”

In addition to the six students who spent all five nights outside, approximately 25 guest sleepers spent a night or two in the cold to show support for the cause. According to Sault, a homeless man named Jean joined the group one night and even offered to donate some food, which the students refused.

The event’s organizers initially had some trouble obtaining permission to hold the event on campus, as the administration does not normally allow overnight events. The request was forwarded to the office of Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendel­ son, however, who looked into the event and signed off on it.

“There are certain kinds of events—cer­

LORRAINE CHU EN

tain kinds of fundraisers, typically—for which we feel, under certain circumstances, we can make exceptions,” Mendelson said. “That’s what we ultimately told the group.”

According to Sault, the university was “very supportive” of the campaign. She and the other organizers hope to expand the event in the future, perhaps by recruiting semi-famous guest sleepers such as Justin Trudeau, who spent a night outside at Concordia’s event this year.

Both Sault and Mertens were careful to emphasize, however, that spending five nights outside on campus is just a small taste of the conditions the homeless face on a daily basis.

“I don’t consider it living like a homeless person,” Mertens said, “because we’re certain­ ly still very privileged.”

Curiosity Delivers.

23 March 2010 • 3

CAMPUS

MUHC and

u n a n i . c a

Free website designed to consolidate health information SEAN WOOD C ontributor

Last Monday, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and a medical-tech­ nology company launched unani.ca, an inno­ vative new personal health record (PHR) sys­ tem. The interface allows patients to store all of their medical information in one place, and its developers hope that it will contribute to a growing trend of patient self-management.

“The time has come for people to par­ take in the management of their health,” said Philippe Panzini, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Medforyou, the Mon­ treal medical-technology company that helped develop the new website.

The free site, which is named after the Unani healing system developed in the 11th century, allows patients to list long-term health conditions, medications, upcoming appoint­ ments, and other health information in an or­ ganized web profile. Patients can then print off sections and bring them to appointments.

“We hope that it becomes commonplace

Service to start Mar. 29

Continued from COVER

Express.

The 747 Express’s $7 fee can be paid in cash on the bus. This ticket also gives riders unlimited access to the bus and subway sys­ tems of Montreal for the following 24 hours.

Additionally, holders of weekly or monthly Opus cards, as well as one-day and three-day fare cards, can ride the 747 at no extra cost.

The monthly one to eight TRAM card, which provides access to Montreal’s commuter rail lines, metro and bus system, can also be used.

The new bus’s route will not be particu­ larly convenient for many McGill students, however. The 747 Express will leave from Montreal’s main bus terminal, located on Berri Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard, and then travel mainly along René Lévesque Boulevard.

“I think it’s difficult to take the bus from a student’s perspective,” said Braden Touche, U1 economics, who regularly travels to the airport when flying home to Calgary. “I have to get to the bus station, which means that I have to take the metro, but in the winter I can­ not do that because I will probably have a big bag.”

Students such as David Midgley, U2 accounting, however, see the service as too cheap to pass up. “[The subway station] is kind of out of the way,” Midgley said. “But, [given the price], it’s definitely going to appeal to some people, myself included.”

The 747 Express will leave every 20 min­ utes during rush hour, every 30 minutes dur­ ing off-peak hours, and every hour between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Service to and from the airport will take between 20 and 50 minutes, depend­ ing on traffic.

launch patient self-management platform

for people and families to keep medical infor­ mation themselves ... because currently it’s all spread around in paper or folders,” Panzini said.

Reflecting its new-generation outlook, the site’s graphics are glossy and smooth. When users register, they pick one of 10 “secret im­ ages” to click on as an additional log-in ID. The site has not received overwhelming traffic in its first week, but its creators are plan­ ning to add a number of new features to so­ phisticate and optimize its performance. Pan­ zini said that before the year is over, there will be more “eye candy and flexibility.” He also hoped to have the system translated into mul­ tiple languages, in an effort to make it globally marketable.

“Our statistics show that about 75 per cent of the people hooking up are from Que­ bec, but there are people from everywhere else [as well],” he said.

In 2007, Medforyou approached Arthur Porter, the MUHC chief executive officer, who had been looking for a patient self-man­ agement tool. The partners began work on the project the following year.

The MUHC did not return the Tribune’s request for comment, but according to a press

release, unani.ca is “the first consumer-minded personal electronic health record in the Cana­ dian marketplace that combines the expertise of a world-class academic health centre with that of award-winning information technology developers.”

The finished product is not the only one of its kind, but rather a new variation on an ex­ isting theme. Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto has a similar platform, and there are a number of other PHR systems that charge users.

Andrew Helmers, a second-year McGill medicine student, praised the system but said that it had certain limitations. He said that the site’s journal function, which allows users to track symptoms on a daily basis, is too gen­

eral.

“I couldn’t find an easy way for a diabetic to track their blood sugar every day,” Helmers said. “They should have more templates for journals specific to patients with chronic con­ ditions.”

Panzini said, however, that the system is deliberately simple—at least for now.

“-We know that people have a hard time understanding health issues,” he said, “so we made the system look deceptively simple.”

Despite his criticisms, Helmers said that in general, the interface is a good thing.

“I would use it, just because I have trou­ ble keeping track of those types of things,” he said.

mcgilltribune.com

4*23 March 2010

CAMPUS

Complaint alleges that Newburgh acted impartially at Winter GA Continued from COVER Tribune columist); and his previous role in opposition to the Gaza motion at the Winter GA last year.

“We have a lot of facts that show that Zach is biased, in particular in which he shows that he was involved as a representative of Hillel in trying to negotiate a settlement before the GA,” said Raed Khuffash, a member of the SPHR executive. “So this shows that he was' already involved in the process which makes him unfit to be the speaker at the GA.” Newburgh,, however, questioned the va­ lidity of the accusations levied against him.

“I’m surprised that my impartiality is being put into question, especially given the impartiality I’ve displayed during my tenure as speaker of Council,” he said. “As speaker, I have displayed throughout my term that I am able to be impartial in matters of personal in­ terest and in matters of a personal stake that are up for debate.”

In the factum, SPHR alleges that New­ burgh’s bias led him to allow “a vote to pro­ ceed calling for the striking of clauses 6 and 7 of the preamble,” as well as his decision to dis­ allow debate and discussion prior to the vote.

The group is arguing that, by allowing these preamble amendments, Newburgh broke four years of precedent at SSMU GAs. Newburgh, however, said that after consulting with coSpeaker Lauren Hudak, SSMU President Ivan Neilson, and Vice-President Clubs and Servic­ es Sarah Olle, he decided to follow the proce­ dure as laid out in Robert’s Rules of Order.

“We decided it was something that, yes, would make precedent, but amending the pre­ amble to a resolution is indeed possible, and

SSMU President-elect Zach Newburgh reacts to his narrow election victory two weeks ago.

we should be following Robert’s Rules,” New­ burgh said. “I have an obligation to uphold Robert’s Rules to the best of my ability.”

In their factum, the remedies proposed

by SPHR are that the Judicial Board “Declare that the Respondent has acted in dereliction of his official duty as Speaker of the General As­ sembly and with a reasonable apprehension of bias and a conflict of interest,” and thus issue a public censure, and that Newburgh issue a public apology acknowledging that he acted in “dereliction of duty.”

Although the Judicial Board Terms of

Reference state that any submission must be submitted within 10 days of the incident, the group was granted an extension after approach­ ing the Board approximately a week after the GA. Neilson explained that it is within the pur­ view of the Board to grant such extensions.

“The Judicial Board procedures are really just suggestions,” he said, “because according to the constitution, they can establish their own rules of order, which they actually have done in this case by accepting an application more than 10 days after the event in question.”

Both Khufash and SPHR VP Internal

Professor wins Killam Fellowship

TaCEQ question deemed invalid

Vicky Kaspi, a McGill physics professor, won a Killam Research Fellowship last week, netting her $70,000 per year for the next two years to study magnetars, a type of neutron star that emits powerful X-rays.

“The Earth is a very small object in the scheme of things, but magnetars are even smaller—about the size of Montreal,” Kaspi said.

Kaspi’s research involves trying to un­ derstand the magnetars’ X-ray bursts and how the tiny stars form. Her research will be aided when NASA launches NuSTAR, a sharper X-ray telescope, in 2012.

Kaspi was one of eight Canadian profes­ sors awarded a total of $ 1.12 million in Killam Fellowships by the Canada Council of Arts this year.

Surprisingly, Kaspi hated physics in high school and considered majoring in English lit­ erature in college. She warmed to the subject while studying at McGill, however, and grew to love physics doing research one summer.

“You never really know where research will take you,” Kaspi said. “I think research in astronomical physics will [eventually] have a huge impact on our lives.”

The plebiscite question on whether to lobby Quebec City to fund the Quebec Student Roundtable (TaCEQ) put forward during the recent referendum period has been deemed invalid by Elections McGill. The question did not appear in its entirety on the ballot.

The TaCEQ, a provincial student lobby­ ing group, was founded in April 2009 by a number of Quebec student unions, including the Students’ Society.

“At first, we thought that we just forgot to add it onto the ballot, but then we heard that some people saw it, but most people didn’t,” said Michael Vallo, the chief electoral officer of Elections McGill. “Either we forgot to put it on or it was a technical issue.”

Normally, a referendum question is pref­ aced by a title and text describing the ques­ tion. In the case of the TaCEQ question, how­ ever, all that appeared was an incomplete title, which read “TaCEQ: Funding,” and the pos­ sible answers of “yes” or “no.”

“The moment the ballot went online, the ballot couldn’t be touched,” said SSMU VicePresident External Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan. “Unfortunately, the ballot question had to stay online, even though it was obviously not complete.”

The question’s original results were 26.8

per cent in favour and 32.8 per cent against, with 40.4 per cent of the ballots marked spoiled . According to Vallo, however, these numbers don’t mean very much.

“It’s important for people to know that the results shouldn’t be taken seriously because the question was not presented in a correct manner,” he said.

Quebec is the only province to provide bursaries to remunerate the permanent staff of provincial student lobbying groups, which the TaCEQ does not yet receive. Other organiza­ tions, such as the Quebec Federation of Uni­ versity Students (FEUQ) and the Syndicated Student Solidarity Association (ASSÉ), do re­ ceive such funding.

“The goal [of the plebiscite question] was to pursue getting recognition from the pro­ vincial government,” Ronderos-Morgan said, “which is a necessary precondition to being eligible for these bursaries.”

The TaCEQ hoped to find out if McGill students wanted the group to continue with their efforts to receive this funding. Because plebiscites are non-binding, however, the or­ ganization is free to ask the question again at the next referendum period.

ADAM SCOTTI

Urooj Nizami said that if they could secure the same remedy through mediation, SPHR would be willing to settle the case outside of Judicial Board.

“This is not a personal case of SPHR against anyone. We feel like we are represent­ ing the student body in this case,” Nizami said.

“SPHR’s name is on [the factum] and I signed it, but we feel th at... SSMU affects the entire student body and we feel that what was done affects everyone.”

—Additional reporting by Theo Meyer

N e w s i n B r ie f

—Elisa Muyl

—Kyla Mande l

( ------------------------------------------------

"SOMETIMES, I GUESS THERE JUST AREN'T ENOUGH ROCKS" —FORREST GUMP WITH ONLY TWO ISSUES LEFT, IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO WRITE FOR NEWS. MEETINGS ARE MONDAYS AT 5:30 IN THE TRIBUNE OFFICE. s___________________________ >

Curiosity Delivers.

23 March 2010 • 5

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

McGill alum Christian Lander talks blogs, books, and bagels Christian Lander delivered the keynote address yesterday at the second annual BASiC Ampersand Conference. Lander, who gradu­ ated from McGill in 2001, is the founder o f the popular blog Stuff White People Like, which netted him a publishing deal two years ago.

During his address, Lander talked about his own experiences being creative in the digital age and how to excel in this new environment.

The Tribune sat down with Lander before his talk to discuss his experiences at McGill and how he managed to transition from blogger to author.

Were you excited to come back to McGill?

The second I was told that there was inter­ est to bring me back, I was just like, “Are you serious? Really?” I couldn’t wait to go back [to McGill], This was something that I always thought would be amazing to happen. I mean, I wasn’t a really popular dude at McGill when I was here. I didn’t really tear up the campus.

So, I was really, really excited to come back. I also wanted to come back to Montreal with my wife. I needed bagels. I was dying.

— ;------------------------------------------x

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Join our photographers in covering news, arts, student living and sports.

Email photo@mcgilltribune.com for details.

V,_______________ ____________/

You worked at the Tribune for several years. Do you think your experiences at the paper helped you to get where you are now?

Was there a point when writing in the blog when it went from “making my friends laugh” to “making everyone out there laugh?”

You seem to have come along at quite a good time for people trying to be funny on the Internet and capitalize on that. Do you think that’s a big part of your success?

Well, yeah. The Tribune journalism pro­ gram—which is, you take five classes and you work on the paper—is pretty intense. The amount of time you spend writing and editing and reading and going through that whole pro­ cess is absolutely helpful. It was huge to go through all that. For me, trying to make it as a freelance writer, I came out with a portfolio— an actual printed portfolio you can take with you.

I think the moment it set in was when I would meet people for the first time and I would tell them about the blog, and they had already heard of it. That was a really odd ex­ perience. It’s hard to say when that exact mo­ ment hit, because every time something really positive or big happened, it felt like, “That was it. This is awesome, [but it’s] never going to get any bigger than this.” But it kept getting bigger.

Absolutely. Without a doubt. Luck is such a huge, huge, huge part of it. It started up right as Obama stuff was taking off and these white people were getting all excited again because Bush was finally going to end. I don’t know how all of the things mashed up like that. I was really, really lucky that it did and that was it.

Your blog, Stuff White People Like, has become very successful and very popular.

When you started it did you ever thing it would become this big?

Your blog is pretty accessible. Do you think that the broadness of the topic helped make it more accessible and more popular?

No. I like to use the analogy of a lottery ticket. When you buy a lottery ticket, you’re thinking, “I know I’m not going to win, but wouldn’t it be nice if...” There wasn’t even a “wouldn’t it be nice if ’ in the back of my head.

It was really just to make my friends laugh.

That’s all I thought it was going to be.

Yeah, of course. Even when celebrities, who are already famous, write blogs about what they did today, people still don’t read them. I mean, I unfollowed Ashton Kutcher on Twitter. I don’t care about his dumb-assed kabala meetings, and he’s famous. [Stuff White People Like] doesn’t try to do a million things.

It does just one thing well, and that’s it.

W hat’s next for you?

The publishers would definitely like to do a second “Stuff White People Like" book: “More Stuff White People Like.” The only rea­ son I’m a little resistant to that is I’m not sure I can keep the quality up, because you can get a little burned out writing about white people.

It’s the same thing TV shows go through with jumping the shark. One of the things that I’ve wanted to be for a long time is a comedy writer in Los Angeles for television and things like that. I think that’s something I would like to do next more than anything else.

—Compiled by M att Essert

6 • 23 March 2010

o b a m a ’s d e c l in in g s u p p o r t

From the time I arrived on campus in Au­ gust 2008 to the U.S. presidential election that November, I didn't meet a single John Mc­ Cain supporter. I don’t think this was because I had a disproportionately Obamaniacal group of friends. Nor was it because we viewed him as somehow the lesser of two evils—the tone of his supporters during the campaign was hardly reflective of that kind of aw-shuckshe’s-the-best-we-have mentality that you get with someone like Michael Ignatieff. Rather, it was an intense feeling of deliverance. I was surprised on election night to see Canadians in my residence—admittedly under the influence of certain substances—sobbing sweet tears of joy, demanding embraces from anonymous passers-by.

Yet it has become standard practice in classes and in conversation to speak negatively of Barack Obama, usually without mentioning any specific grievances. Why the change?

First of all, we are highly disingenuous creatures. I don’t mean human beings—I mean undergraduates, and specifically McGill undergraduates.

There’s enormous pressure on univer­ sity students to speak with an authoritative tone, especially for those of us engaged in the manufacture and dissemination of opinions on campus, as if to give the impression that after years of deliberation, and the perusal of all the necessary literature, this is the definitive con­ clusion.

We live in a culture—and I don’t just mean here at McGill—in which it’s considered immoral not to have an opinion on something.

“Apathetic” is just about the worst epithet you can throw at someone these days. Remain­ ing silent is considered “being complicit.” So we’re forced to attempt endless explanations

M Y FIR ST M UGSHOT

As a recent martyr for student journalism, I can say that getting arrested sucks.

I attended the 14th annual March Against Police Brutality on March 15 with two other Tribune photojoumalists to get some shots of the inevitable violence and rioting that occurs during the event.

The protest started peacefully as the 900 attendees, clad mostly in black, expressed their discontent with police tactics. Eventually, the police blocked the path of the protest and the event turned violent. Bottles, fireworks, food, and profanities were hurled at the ever­ growing number of police officers. Suddenly, all hell broke lose as riot police charged into

Opinio n of things we really don’t know about or, in all honesty, care very much about. I’ve mean­ dered away from Barack Obama and his ex­ pired popularity among McGill students, but there is a definite connection—when pressed for an opinion about something you are not re­ ally familiar with, there’s always an easy way out: adopt the opinion of those around you.

Which leads me to the second reason why Obama is no longer popular at McGill. Not only are we generally disingenuous creatures, but by and large we’re extremely impression­ able ones as well. Similarly to how we’re inse­ cure about the depth of our knowledge or the conclusiveness of our conclusions, but pretend outwardly that we aren’t, we pretend immature things like friends or fashionable trends do not sway us. We like to pretend that our 18th birth­ days marked our liberation from those baser desires to conform and be accepted by our peers. The truth is very much the opposite.

If you hang out with a certain group of friends whose tastes in music, fashion, life­ style, whose general sensibility you very much admire, and you sense them starting to sour on Obama (whose policies and actions in office you might, in an unguarded moment, admit to not knowing very much about), what are you going to do when the president’s name comes up in a conversation? You’ll grunt. Maybe you’ll manage to spit out a couple words like “inevitable disappointment.” But, in truth, the inevitability is as fake as the disappointment, because you have no idea what you’re talking about.

The close reader should be thinking that my roughly sketched syllogism requires a prime mover, someone to first sour on Obama without having adopted that opinion from someone whose sneakers they admire. Fine.

Obviously it is possible for a reasonable and intelligent person to not be as excited by Obama as they were two years ago. But this doesn’t account for the massive change in opinion about him at McGill.

So what does? I can think of two possibil­ ities. Either there’s a conspiracy afoot, perhaps involving the water supply, or McGill students vastly underestimate the extent to which they permit themselves to be herded this way and that by even the gentlest nudge.

TH E IR ISH HA V E NO CLASS

I went to class on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not proud of it. Society decided that this particular day would be the one where we say “the hell with it” and go AWOL—and I spat in its face. I crossed the picket line of our collective alcoholic breakdown.

But then, sometimes we all have to make tough decisions. To realize that “right” has al­ ways been a relative term.

Take this whole “roll up the rim” thing, for instance. I use a reusable mug to get my coffee (well, fo u r reusable mugs would be more accurate. They become disposable when they fall out of the poorly duct-taped water bottle holders on the side of my backpack and crumble on the sidewalk). But you can only participate in the “roll up the rim” contest if you get one of their earth-killing cups with your coffee. The I-want-my-children-to-knowwhat-flowers-are side of me says I shouldn’t.

But if I don’t take a cup, that leaves more prizes for the non-environmentally conscious.

Why do they get rewarded with cars and free coffees? From that messed-up perspective, it’s pretty much my duty to take that disposable cup and roll up its rim. Also, I could really use a free coffee.

Or food. I’ve seen Food, Inc. I’ve read about agribusiness, organics, local farming, fair trade and everything in between. And right now my moral compass is pointing towards ‘starvation as the only decent option. Between chemicals, transportation, giant corporate mo­ nopolies, animal cruelty, farmer mistreatment, government subsidies, land misuse, antibiotics in cows, and all the things we haven’t found out about yet, I can’t even eat my peanut but­ ter and banana sandwich without wondering if I’m hurting somebody. It’s a heavy burden to bear.

the crowd, pushing people out of the way with sued a $144 fine for “participating or being their shields. As the police moved in, protest­ present at an assembly, march, or parade that ers scattered and the Tribune photo team scur­ endangers the peace or the security or order ried around collecting shots of the chaos. Un­ in a public place.” This serious crime requires announced to us, the protest has been declared a municipal headshot in which I did the best an “illegal gathering,” which means that being that I could to give a big smile and pose with in close proximity to the demonstration was a my hands still restrained behind my back. crime. In a matter of minutes, riot police had After being processed I was led to a differ­ secured the area and anyone within this bound­ ent STM bus that began to drive around the ary was forbidden to leave. With this strategic empty streets of Hochelaga. Eventually the move, the police had captured three Tribune -cops dropped us at random street comers in photographers, a couple guys from the Con­ groups of four. There I was, at 11 p.m., fresh cordia Link, high school kids, and plethora of out of the Canadian legal system, with no idea confused hipsters. Noticeably missing from the where I was.

This rant has two points. First, journalists imprisoned group were most of the anarchists carrying baseball bats, firework-wielding idi­ have a huge role in documenting and report­ ing on controversial events. Arresting student ots, and beer-drinking street punks.

We were all handcuffed, patted down, journalists creates a disincentive for campus searched, and identified. I was paraded past a papers to report on important community is­ slew of news cameras before being deposited sues. The fewer papers that report, the less on an STM bus with my fellow detainees. The information will be published about the griev­ most hilarious moment of the night came when ances that caused the protest, and the police the bus started moving and almost immediate­ tactics used to deal with demonstrations.

Second, mass arrests at an anti-police ly the “stop requested” light was illuminated brutality march are not the best way to foster by one of the arrested protesters.

At the station, I was interviewed and is­ relations with the Montreal community. I can

mcgilltribune.com

Or even writing. I’d like to hope that if I had been writing at some point in the past my views would have been on the “right” side of history, consistent with the morals that were heresy then and gospel now. And I’d like to imagine that my current opinions, especially the unpopular ones, are morally righteous and will one day be vindicated by history. But of course there’s a big difference between believ­ ing in our own virtue and having whoever cre­ ates history decide we had moral clarity. All I can really do is the same thing any moral luminary ever did—use the available informa­ tion to try and fathom some sort of reasonable conclusion knowing that I may well be spout­ ing absolute bull.

It’s almost enough to make me want to give up.

Almost.

There’s something comforting in the knowledge that we’ll never be burdened with a monopoly on truth. There’s also comfort in appreciating that people who believe with equal conviction in opposite beliefs are prob­ ably necessary in the same sort of way Jack Nicholson was necessary in A Few Good Men. There’s a lot of balancing involved in trying to come to terms with the idea that morality, right, and wrong, and designations like liber­ al, conservative, extreme, and moderate only exist in relation to each other. But balancing helps keep us humble and focussed. It adds perspective. And if my Wii Fit is telling the truth, balancing builds great abs.

We won’t stop believing in our not-quiteright opinions. We probably can’t—otherwise we would never be sure of ourselves when me make those hard decisions between lousy and lousier. And a life spent in total self-doubt sounds a lot worse than one constantly ap­ proaching the truth. Whatever that is.

All of which is to say that within twenty minutes of my class ending I was in Gert’s, beer in hand. I don’t know if going to class was the right decision, but at the very least I got a column topic out of it—and I did have one hell of a St. Patrick’s Day.

see why there are bylaws that make it illegal to remain in the vicinity of a dangerous situation, but I don’t think the declaration of illegality was explicit enough. If I had known it was il­ legal to be there, and was afforded an opportu­ nity to leave, I probably would have left. Many people were committing crimes at the protest, but very few of them were arrested on an indi­ vidual basis. Arresting 100 people makes the police department seem in control, but in real­ ity, they managed to ticket a bunch of kids who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This year, the police started shooting violent individuals with a paintball gun to identify and arrest them later. I think this is a much more effective system to arrest dangerous protes­ tors and should be used more in future years.

This way, journalists can report, protesters can peacefully protest, and police can maintain order without arresting bystanders.

Nevertheless, I’ll be at next year’s pro­ test-only this time, I’ll make sure I do my hair beforehand so I look great in my mugshot.

Curiosity Delivers.

23 March 2010 *7

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^M c G il l ^ T

r ib u n e

\vww.im\niUtribune.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Thom as Q uail editor@ m cgilltribune.com

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NEWS EDITORS Tori C raw ford Steven H offer Theo M eyer new s@ m cgilltribune.com

OPINION EDITOR M att C hesser opinion@ m cgilltribune.com

FEATURES EDITORS Shannon K im ball Brahna Siegelberg features@ m cgilltribune.com

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORS K yle C arpenter Laura Tindal arts@ m cgilltribune.com

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PHOTO EDITORS A lice W alker Julia W ebster photo@ m cgilltribune.com

—

---------- E D I T O R I A L — ------—

A dollar for the DPS: a worthwhile investment No matter how you feel about the Daily Publications Society’s editorial politics, a “yes” vote is the sensible choice on their pro­ posed fee increase.

Newspaper advertising is in the toilet— the Tribune’s advertising revenue has been cut in half in the last two years—and printing costs are steadily increasing. The DPS pub­ lishes two editions of the Daily and one of Le Délit—the only French-language newspaper on campus—per week, and is projected to run a deficit this fiscal year. In order to stabilize their finances, the DPS is seeking a $ 1 increase to their $5-per-semester student fee through a referendum that opened for voting on Friday.

Without a fee hike, Daily editors have claimed that they will have to consider elimi­ nating the Daily’s Thursday edition or institut­ ing strict page limits for future issues. While better page management and more judicious use of colour pages would improve their finan­ cial situation, eliminating the Thursday edition would limit the Daily’s efficacy as an outlet for student opinions, reducing the scope and depth of their coverage. The DPS is an impor­ tant part of campus dialogue as a forum for both campus and international issues. While the Tribune and the DPS often differ in many

ways, we complement each other’s coverage, and McGill is better off with three healthy campus newspapers.

DPS editors have also emphasized that the fee increase would be used to fund an ex­ pansion of the online presence of the Daily and Le Délit. The media world is changing and stu­ dent newspapers need to reflect the shift away from the print medium. The Daily far surpass­ es the Tribune in terms of online content—see the “Unfit to Print” podcast and even their Twitter feed as examples of this—and further expansion in this area will require dedicated multimedia and online content editors.

A move towards an online first model is in­ evitable due to the current advertising climate; moreover, it is desirable, as it will provide edi­ tors with the training they need to work in pro­ fessional journalism after graduation. McGill does not have a journalism program, a void the DPS and the Tribune fill by providing practical training for aspiring journalists—training that should emphasize the ability to work across multiple media platforms.

However, a significant portion of the Tri­ bune editorial board feels that a $1 fee increase is excessive. The DPS is projected to run a def­ icit of between $5,000 and $10,000 this year,

while the proposed fee increase would bring in roughly $40,000 per year in extra funds.

While advertising revenue is declining, that alone does not account for a large portion of the excess funds. Online expansion is a worth­ while, but relatively cheap, undertaking. We’d like to hear some concrete examples of where the rest of the excess money generated by a fee increase will be spent, since we don’t want any more student fees funneled into the DPS’s reserve accounts (which totaled over $200,000 at the end of the 2009 fiscal year).

Much of the Tribune editorial board feels that a 50-cent fee increase, coupled with cost­ cutting measures such as page restrictions, would be sufficient for the DPS to consider ex­ pansion on a more fiscally responsible scale.

Nevertheless, $12 for around 70 issues of the Daily and Le Délit is a bargain. We strongly believe that the strength and diversity of campus media is worth protecting. The Tri­ bune should be on sound financial footing now that our $3 fee has passed. It is important to ensure that the DPS is in an equally strong po­ sition, and it’s hard to argue that a stronger, fi­ nancially stable, and modem DPS is not worth an extra toonie per year.

The first of those deadlines is April 2. The esti­ mated annual value of the fund is $800,000.

This is especially exciting for any clubs on the Macdonald and downtown campuses that are involved in sustainability. Each and every one of these 30+ groups have had tons of ideas that they want to see get off the ground.

The fund provides a great opportunity for these groups to look past the obstacle of funding and turn their years of effort and volunteerism into concrete actions that create a more enjoyable campus. However, the strength of this fund is that it is truly collaborative and accessible.

Any member of the McGill community can apply, and with the aspiration of becoming an institutional model of sustainability for soci­ ety, we certainly need the entire community to get there.

Applications to the fund can be emailed to sustainability.fund@gmail.com. More in­ formation can be found on the club’s website:

lengthening of prison sentences in Canada.

After a lament about the difficulties of conducting counter-terrorism operations in Canada, Steven cited Stephen Harper’s at­ tempts to increase prison sentences for crime among “actions that make Canada safer.”

I invite Steven to consider that, according to a recent Statistics Canada publication, “the crime rate has decreased by about 30 per cent since peaking in 1991” (JuristaL “Crime Sta­ tistics in Canada” Vol. 27, no. 5). The length of prison sentences has little to do with crime trends, much less terrorism.

If Steven still wants to argue for a postive correlation between increased prison sen­ tences and security—especially in the context of terrorism, I hope he reflects on the situation of my homeland, the United States. My people have languished under the harshest prison sen­ tences in the Western world. We have also suf­ fered from the most heinous acts of terrorism, perpetrated by the likes of Timothy McVeigh, Mohamed Atta, and, just last month, Joseph Stack. It would be nice if increasing security was as easy as increasing prison sentences.

Unfortunately it’s not, and implying the con­ trary while politicizing the issue is irrespon­ sible.

—William Hahm U3 Arts

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L o rrain e C h u en , M a tt E s s e rt, G ra c e G lo w ic k i, S am Jessu la, M o o k ie K id ec k el, A lex K n o ll, R ic k y K reitner, M e n g d a L ei, A d am L e v in e, Iain M a c d o n a ld , K y la M an d el, E lisa M u y l, H a n n a h O ’D o n o v an , C o le O stam ie, H o lly S tew art, R y an T ay lo r, B ia n c a Van B av el, S ean W ood

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The first deadline to submit a project ap­ plication to the Sustainability Projects Fund is almost upon us. April 2 will be the first of many landmarks after students and the admin­ istration formed an unprecedented partnership to create this fund last semester. In what we hope will be a story of transformation, both individuals and groups will be submitting pro­ posals for projects that will help create a more sustainable campus.

The Sustainability Projects Fund was created to facilitate the effective and coher­ ent planning, financing, and implementation of projects to promote sustainable practices at McGill. The intent of this fund is to fully finance or provide seed capital for dynamic, innovative sustainability projects, thereby al­ lowing such projects to be implemented more quickly and effectively than might otherwise have been possible. All proposals from stu­ dents, staff or alumni are welcome and may be submitted at any time, to be evaluated at regular intervals throughout the calendar year.

www.mcgill.ca/sustainability/projectfund.

—Monika Fabian U1 Environment Crime and punishment.

Re: “National Insecurity” by Brendan Steven (16.03.10)

In his article “National Insecurity,” Bren­ dan Steven irresponsibly conflates two seri­ ous issues: counter-terrorism practices and the

The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper pub­ lished by the Students’ Society of McGill University in collabora­ tion with the Tribune Publication Society. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Students’ Society or McGill Uni­ versity. 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

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LEADERSH IP TRAINING PROGRAM

Leadership Skills Development Workshops

Leadership

McGill Leadership Training Program First-Year Office

If you a re a student involved in cam pus a c tiv itie s as an e x e c u tiv e , o r g a n iz e r o r event p la n n e r, you q u a lify fo r the Leadership Training P r o g r a m ’ s FREE S k i l l s D e v e lo p m e n t W o rk s h o p s .

D evelop and build your le a d e rsh ip skills. A tte n d a minimum o f five workshops throughout 0 9 / 1 0 a cad em ic y e a r and receive a c e rtific a te o f com pletion.

This March and April, check out...

Professional Etiquette in the Workplace W e d n e sd a y, M a rch 3 1 , 5 :3 0 - 7 :3 0 p m (D ow ntow n Campus) Professionalism in the w o rk p la c e can be a p iv o ta l p oint in your success in your profession. Come le arn d iffe re n t ideas in im proving your professional e tiq u e tte .

NEW W O R K SH O P: N egotiations T uesday, A p ril 6, 5 :3 0 - 7 :3 0 p m (D ow ntow n Campus) W e all n e g o tia te e ve ry d a y with friends, other students, professors, landlords, etc. In this e x p e rie n tia l w orkshop you w ill e x p lo re and e x p a n d your own n e g o tia tio n skills by being involved in an actual n e g o tia tio n sim ulation. Be p re p a re d to see th a t w e can a ll be b e tte r n e g o tia to rs and a tta in m ore w in-w in outcomes!

Registration available via Minerva!

To access the site, go to our website at:

www.mcgill.ca/firstyear/leadertraining/ For more info, drop by the First-Year Office in the Brown Building, Suite 2100, or call 514-398-6913

P.S. If

space allows, these workshops a re open to all students who are interested in leadership!

Heat things up this summer at McGill www.mcgill.ca/summer summer.studies@mcgill.ca 5 1 4 -3 9 8 -5 2 1 2

McGill

Curiosity Delivers.

St u d e n t Li v in g

GIZMOS AND GADGETS

MIXEN VIXEN

The recession’s gaming revolution Custom cold-brewed coffee Developers release more free games to attract new players IAIN MACDONALD Contributor

As midterms finish up and with finals looming on the horizon, it’s your last chance to procrastinate. Many college students are hooked on video games, but most games aren’t friendly to a student budget. With the recession, however, the market is changing, and there are hundreds of high quality games available free of charge.

With an incredible amount of money driving North America’s huge video market, the industry has pushed forward many tech­ nologies that would otherwise have advanced slowly. The market for high-end graphics cards and processors, for example, is motivat­ ed almost entirely by gamers looking to build the most powerful PCs just for gaming. But over the past couple of years, an increase in piracy as well as the recession have hit the in­ dustry and motivated a number of developers and publishers to release free-to-play games.

A free-to-play game is entirely free and legal to download and play. To compensate for this, almost all free-to-play games have some in-game features that require money to acti­ vate. Much like test-driving a car, the develop­ ers hope to get players hooked on the game, motivating them to spend more than just ecoins and internet bandwidth.

Most free-to-play games are online, in which the player logs in to play against others around the world. These games usually have a ranking system whereby players can earn ex­ perience and in-game currency. The currency is used to buy new items that enhance game

play in some way, such as weapons, gear, maps, interface enhancements, and so on.

During normal play the player earns enough money to only buy a few items. The game also offers additional gold and some premium items for a real-life money price. As well as buying items, most games allow the player to gamble for items. Through the clever use of low-odds in the gambling system, poor ex­ change rates, and an online payment scheme in which it’s easy to forget how much money is being spent, the player can easily end up spending hundreds of dollars trying to win a particular item. However, a careful player can easily play the same games without spending any money.

There are hundreds of well-designed freeto-play games available today, all competing with one another. Some of the most popular free-to-play games are: Racing: Drift City (an RPG in the form o f a car-racing game); Project Powder, a snowboard-racing game with great graphics; and TrackMania, which has a vast number of racetracks to choose from.

Role-playing: Ace Online, a flight simu­ lator; Dungeons & Dragons Online, the com­ puter creation of the fabled board game; and Runes of Magic, which is similar to the best­ selling—and expensive—World of Warcraft.

Shooters: Alliance of Valiant Arms, which has stunning graphics; Crossfire, which bears a striking resemblance to the enormous­ ly successful Counter Strike; and Quake Live, which allows you to play the classic Quake game inside of your web browser.

Sports: The Hunter, a very realistic hunt­ ing simulator; Freestyle Street Basketball; and Pangya, a golfing game.

Not your barista’s watereddown iced coffee CAROLYN YATES

Ingredients • •

1/3 cup ground coffee (a medium or coarse grind works better) 1 x/i cups of water

Managing Editor

Directions There are two ways to make cold coffee: normal coffee that’s been cooled, and coldbrewed coffee. The second is far more deli­ cious and satisfying.

There is a notable difference between letting hot coffee cool off and cold brewing it specifically. Cold-brewed coffee is less acidic and bitter, and a lot more flavourful—partic­ ularly if you’ve been using ice cubes to cool down regular coffee instead. And with this method, you won’t even have to bother plug­ ging in the coffeemaker.

1.

2.

3.

In a jar or glass container (I used a French press, sans press), stir the coffee and water together. Cover and let sit for roughly 12 hours.

Strain twice through a sieve. Rinse the sieve, line it with a coffee filter, and strain a final time to remove any particularly stubborn grounds.

Dilute one-to-one with cold water and pour into a glass with ice cubes. Add cream, milk, sugar, honey, sweetener, or scotch as desired.

Sip and enjoy.

H OW TO

It’s not too late to save your grades Just go to class, OK? Just go.

Dedicate a small portion of each day (even an hour is helpful) to reading, and consult sum­ maries afterwards. Many essay exams offer choices, so it’s better to know half of the ma­ terial well than to vaguely recognize every­ thing.

easy final exam, and McGill’s grade deflation can make it that much more difficult to earn a B. But just follow some age old advice: form a study group, read the textbook, take notes in class, and consult the TAs. This advice is standard, but it works.

Problem: You want As, not Bs Solution: Remember that non-required

Problem: You haven’t opened your text­

Problem: You’re easily distracted, and the spring weather isn’t helping.

Solution: All of the campus libraries are packed during exams, and between nervous breakdowns, texting, and fidgeting it can actu­ ally be a difficult place to study. Rather than taking Adderall—which may result in an in­ tense focus on Facebook—set up a space in your apartment that is dedicated to schoolwork. Take time to put away anything near your desk that might distract you, such as a cell phone, magazines, or the remote control, and don’t use the computer for anything that is not related to studying. Doing a few hours of high-quality studying is better than a weekend of distracted studying. And that way, you can enjoy the spring weather.

book or course pack.

Solution: Reading groups are great, but summaries rarely make sense out of context.

Problem: You want Bs, not Cs. Solution: There’s no such thing as an

SHANNON KIMBALL Features Editor

Did you spend St. Patrick’s Day mourn­ ing your midterm grades over Guinness? It’s not too late to get the grades you want, but finals start in just over three weeks, so it’s time to get serious.

Problem: You haven’t gone to class.

Solution: Start going. You may feel lost, but the professors usually start to give hints about the final exam around this time. Pur­ chase notes if they’re available, or start a free note exchange through an email account to make up for lost time. Most people who join will be in the same position as you, but there are always a few good Samaritans who just want to share knowledge.

conference that the professor mentioned at the beginning of the semester? TAs aren’t try­ ing to waste their time sitting in tiny rooms in Burnside; in fact, they’re paid to help you. Astudents aren’t always geniuses—they’re just not afraid to ask for help. The TA usually goes over the week’s material, and often creates practice problems. On the same note, ask your professor how to study for the exam. Profes­ sors vary in their examination styles, and the best students are those that know the material and can predict the questions.

Problem: You’re graduating this semes­ ter, you’ve lined up a job or graduate school, and you just need to pass a few courses.

Solution: By now you should’ve learned how to cram for exams. You’re on your own.

TIME'S RUNNING OUT!

WANT TO WRITE FOR US THIS YEAR? EMAIL FEATURES@ MCGILLTRIBUNE.COM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

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10 • 23 March 2010

Tradition or

Debating Canad

By Brahna Siegelberg, Features Edito r

The sudden proliferation of gruesome im­ ages of adorable seal pups, the fierce debates between the government and animal rights groups, and the manipulative rhetoric used on both sides are some of the events that can be expected around the time of Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt.

This year, Fisheries and Oceans Minis­ ter Gail Shea announced a 50,000 increase in the total number of seals that can be legally hunted—a decision that has incited visceral reactions from animal rights groups, celebri­ ties, politicians and the European Union, who recently banned Canadian seal products from the European market. In the words of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals repre­ sentative Danielle Katz, “the Canadian seal slaughter is truly Canada’s shame.”

dition in Nunavut and Northern Canada.

“The Inuit subsistence hunt is for a liv­ ing and total utilization of the animal,” says Bridget Curran, a spokesperson for the At­ lantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition. “The commercial seal hunt is a large industrialized slaughter of marine mammals for their fur.”

Anti-sealing groups and animal welfare organizations are particularly incensed by the commercial seal hunt as a result of the harmful way in which seals are killed and their unique targeting of newborns.

“Sealers routinely hook seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid harming the fur,” says Katz. “Many times, these babies haven’t even learned how to swim before being slaughtered for something nobody needs.”

The quota hike A brief history The Canadian commercial seal hunt— the largest slaughter of marine wildlife in the world—takes place each year in late March and early April on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in northeast Newfoundland, where hun­ dreds of thousands of seals are killed in a mat­ ter of days.

The commercial seal hunt, which exists for the purpose of collecting seal fur, should not be confused with the Inuit subsistence hunt—an integral part of Inuit culture and tra­

Sir Paul McCartney, pictured above with Heather Mills and a white coat seal, has called the seal hunt “a stain on Canada’s character.” Although the hunting of newborn harp seals known as white coats is illegal, DFO representative Alan Balil says that animal rights groups have used such photos to appeal to “emotions rather than facts.”

In light of unprecedented climate chang­ es, ice melting, and high seal pup mortality rates, animal rights organizations asked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to cancel the G ulf phase of the annual hunt as a precautionary measure. Shea declined, how­ ever, declaring that the decision would have to be made by the sealers. She later announced that the hunt would go ahead—this time with an increased quota—a decision that did not sit well with anti-sealing groups, who saw the de­ cision as politically motivated.

Curiosity Delivers.

disaster?

a’s seal hunt “It’s a typical pugnacious response from the government thumbing their noses at critics and an empty gesture of support for sealers,” says Curran. “The government is desperate to maintain the Atlantic Canadian votes. They know that if they say to the fishing and sealing industry, a powerful voting lobby, ‘you can’t kill surviving pups,’ they will remember that when they go to the polls.”

The government, however, is remaining resolute in the assertion that this year’s quota had nothing to do with politics, and is merely a scientifically-based number that changes an­ nually according to research and statistics.

“The quota, or the total allowable catch, sets an upper limit of what can be sustainably harvested by the sealers in any given year. It’s set based on a number of factors like science, the health of the population, the ice conditions, weather factors, and migration patterns,” ex­ plains Alan Balil, of the DFO. “It says this is how much you can harvest without harming the population in the long term, not how many seals we want them to kill.”

Anti-sealing groups believe that other recent gestures from the government testify to the malicious nature of the hike. From the Governor General’s public snacking on a slain seal’s heart in Nunavut last May to parlia­ ment’s overwhelming vote to have members of the Canadian Olympic team wear bits of baby seal on their uniforms, and finally, last week’s Parliament luncheon—which served seal meat as the main course—Curran says that the quota hike is consistent with the gov­ ernment’s larger response to the EU ’s banning

of seal products last year.

“DFO has a track record of sacrificing conservation in the name of economics,” says Curran. “For example, the polar bear has been listed as endangered since 1975, but Canada opposed the ban on the trade so that they can be killed for trophies. Another case in point is cod. They closed and reopened the gulf so many times and upped the quota, that they fished it to commercial extinction.”

According to the Canadian Press, even veteran sealer Jack Troake has said that given the declining demand for seal pelts and declin­ ing price. “To us sealers, [the hike] sounds a little stupid.”

Many organizations also allege that the government is taking advantage of the Inuit hunt in the hopes of blurring the line between the two hunts.

“The Canadian government is using the Inuit, whose hunting is not under threat, to push the commercial seal hunt, which is a hideously cruel massacre,” says Katz. “If any­ thing, the EU ’s banning of seal products from commercial hunt, which makes up 97 per cent of seal products, wouldn’t harm the Inuit hunt whereas it might now.”

“The Inuit are being used as pawns by the Canadian government by running a cam­ paign to blur the lines between the two hunts in an effort to fool the public into thinking that the seal hunt is necessary and part of Canadian tradition, which it isn’t,” says Curran.

The government disagrees, asserting that the mention of the Inuit seal hunt is only in reference to the genuine concern that the EU ’s

ban will threaten Inuit industry.

“The Inuit exemption was written into the ban by the EU,” says Balil. “But it’s not going to be effective in practical terms. The ban will affect the infrastructure that [the Inuit] rely on to sell their products.”

The great sealing debate If the members of the two camps could at least agree on the facts, then much of the de­ bate could be resolved. While the government insists that there is a thriving industry for seal pelts—there were about $10 million in exports to Russia last year—and that they are looking to expand the export of seal meat to China, anti-sealing groups believe that there are no markets in existence.

“To say that the markets are slumping is optimistic,” says Curran. “The truth is that the markets are dead and they’re not coming back.

The government is holding out false hopes to the sealers saying that there are new markets in Asia, but they should realize that it’s over instead of wasting millions of our tax dol­ lars.”

The two sides also disagree fundamental­ ly on whether DFO’s goal is really to preserve the seal population or, in fact, to exterminate the population, which some fishermen believe is responsible for the depletion of lucrative commercial fish stocks.

“Decisions that should be based on ma­ rine biologists and climate specialists are being left in the hands of fishermen wielding clubs and rifles—men with a vested interest in bringing seals to the brink of extinction and beyond,” says Curran. “This is not a plan for conservation as DFO claims. It’s a plan for ex­ termination.”

The anti-sealing argument hinges on both the notion that the seal population is in danger and that the commercial seal hunt does not kill the animals in a humane way, with DFO ada­ mantly refuting both claims.

“We have scientists who assess the seal populations throughout the year,” says Balil.

“This is an ongoing project, we are always managing the state of the stock. It’s a healthy, thriving population, and w e’re doing every­ thing we can to make sure that it stays like that."

Curran says, however, that seals are among top predators like sharks and polar bears that are crucial to the marine ecosys­

tem —and that have both been over-hunted in the past few years. Even if the population is currently healthy, adds Sheryl Fink from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, it is important to be taking a precautionary ap­ proach given the vast climate changes.

The most controversial point of disagree­ ment is, of course, whether the seals are at least being killed according to humane stipulations.

Balil says the hunt is monitored closely, with fishery officers making sure that the sealers— who he assures have been licensed only after a number of years as apprentices—are following a strictly defined three-step process when kill­ ing the seal. Fink disagrees, however, arguing that the rapidity of the hunt renders humane killing processes unfeasible.

“Because of the sheer expediency of the hunt—300,000 killed in a matter of days or weeks—and the geographic areas over which it occurs, it is difficult to monitor or enforce regulations. There are boats competing to meet the quotas, so they’re trying to get the skins off as many seals as quickly as possible before the ice melts.”

And as for all the ghastly images attesting to the gruesome and wasteful nature of the seal hunt? Balil says the issue has been dramatized and manipulated by animal rights groups.

“Some groups have done very well at pulling at emotional strings using some im­ ages of white coats, which cannot be legally harvested in Canada,” he explains. “But they still use those images because they appeal to emotions rather than the facts. Seal hunting is also a particularly emotional issue because it happens in full view. Anyone can request an observer perm it—that’s how they get those images.”

Whether the seal population is really en­ dangered, whether animal welfare practices are being followed, and whether there really is a market for seal products, are all questions that need to be resolved before the two parties can agree on how to proceed.

While Katz avows that Canada’s image will be equated with the seal kill until the slaughter is stopped, Balil says, “there’s a lot of misinformation out there. It’s difficult to judge from a distance, but I can tell you that the compliance rate has been quite high.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOYCOTT CANADA

mcgilltribune.com

12*23 March 2010

FOOD GURU

RESTAURANTS

Three-ingredient peanut butter cookies

A tale of two hamburgers

CAROLYN YATES Managing Editor

My peanut butter cookie repertoire used to consist of delicious, crispy cookies made from a recipe handed down from my grand­ mother. But they had nine ingredients in them, and who has that kind of time? These cookies have only three ingredients in them, and while they come with a little less childhood nostal­ gia, they are unbelievably delicious.

I have made this recipe with crunchy, creamy, and organic almond peanut butter, but the good oF fashioned smooth processed stuff still works best (though crunchy is a close sec­ ond). You can add chocolate or caramel chips, coconut shavings, vanilla extract, breakfast cereal, or chopped nuts, but none of the extras are necessary.

Pay close attention to how long they bake—for chewier, moister cookies, take them out a little early, and for crunchy cookies, leave them in a little longer. And even though

SPRING BASIL SALAD A few weeks ago, I ran a workshop at Nuit Blanche. We talked about a great assort­ ment of food facts, including à demonstration of a brilliant tool: foodpairing.be, which gen­ erates incredible (and often unexpected) fla­ vour matches. This can be useful for writing new recipes and coming up with innovative dishes. We showed it off by letting people pair fresh basil leaves with four of the website’s suggested matches: cocoa powder, black tea, grapefruit juice, and honey. I ’ve used the web­ site for years, but I was still wary of a few of the pairings. Cocoa and sweet pesto, for in­ stance, was a truly pleasant surprise.

Basil is universally well liked, but largely subjected to the same boring uses: Caprese salad, pesto sauce on pasta, or tossed into to­ mato sauce. But foodpairing—and reconsider­ ing your own flavour matches—can show that even everyday ingredients like basil deserve reconsideration and reinvention.

The highs and lows of made-toorder burgers SHANNON KIMBALL

letting each batch cool in the pan for a few minutes slows down the process, it improves the taste and texture.

Ingredients • •

1 cup peanut butter (works best with the overly processed, non-organic kind) Vi cup sugar

•

1 egg

1.

2.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Mix ingredients until blended. Using your hands is the most fun, but a spoon will also do.

Roll into 24 balls and place on parch­ ment-lined cookie sheets. Flatten with a fork.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. They taste delicious if under­ cooked, but are still edible when over­ cooked. Cool for two minutes before re­ moving from pan.

Directions

3.

4.

It’s only March, but Quebec greenhouses are already producing beautiful fresh basil. I discovered this when a friend brought home some jaw-droppingly fresh herbs that she had grown for a class at Mac campus. A bunch of friends came over for happy-hour beers, and I put together a delicious light meal for them.

I decided to use the fresh basil leaves as greens in a mixed salad, tossing them whole with baby spinach leaves. Arugula, frisée, or tender romaine lettuces would all work instead o f—or in addition to —the spinach.

Other herbs are also great additions, like Ital­ ian flat leaf parsley. The presence of herbs in salad makes the salad’s flavours much more intense and substantial.

I sautéed very thin slices of zucchini, garlic and white onion in olive oil with salt, pepper, and red pepper flake. When these had cooked down and become tender, I took the pan off the heat and added balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of honey (another idea I got from foodpairing). At this point, check for season­ ing again. 1 tossed the basil and spinach with olive oil, balsamic, and some toasted, chopped nuts and topped each plate with heaping por­ tions of the hot vegetables. The greens wilted a bit under the vegetables and the entire dish was bright and flavourful. Served with a thick slice of rustic bread, the dish made an excel­ lent snack on a beautiful early spring day.

Features Editor

For many people, hamburgers bring to mind bad cafeteria food and mystery meat. But two restaurants are redefining hamburgers, or at least getting back to the good old days.

M:brgr, on Drummond and de Maison­ neuve—best classified as diner-chic, with gleaming white tables and ketchup squirt bot­ tles—serves up custom, gourmet hamburgers, spiked milkshakes, and other glamorized ver­ sions of hamburger joint classics.

The restaurant doesn’t have appetizers— it is, after all, a burger joint—but the ample main courses suffice. Eaters can choose from the “AAA” burger at the reasonable price of $8.75, or a Kobe Beef burger at $ 18.75 for true aficionados. Regardless of price, all of their hamburgers are juicy and perfectly cooked.

Other notable menu items include the Big Z ak—the glamorous version of the Big M ac—piled high with two burgers and tradi­ tional Big Mac toppings, and the fry basket, which includes regular fries, sweet potato fries, and onion strings. Split a giant choco­ late chip cookie covered in ice cream and hot fudge with friends to complete an indulgent meal.

Over a dozen toppings can grace your patty, including pulled pork and cucumbermango relish. The cheese selection rivals that of Atwater Market, including thick slices of Gouda and Brie. But be wary: a slice of cheese may only cost a couple of dollars, but the truffle shavings will cost more than your cell phone bill. It’s also easy to lose track of

toppings, and before you know it, each bite will be worth $2.

While the food is worth the price tag, the over-stimulating atmosphere takes away from the M:brgr experience. Loud music blares even in the early afternoon, and combined with bright lights and big screen televisions, it is not a cozy, romantic, or even friendly en­ vironment. You are sure to leave M:brgr feel­ ing as full as you might have at a 1950s-style diner, but without the feel-good vibe.

Ultimately, M:brgr is a great place to go when your parents—or anyone else who isn’t on a student budget—are in town. It’s not a good place for a first date, or to talk about anything important. But in the meantime, stop by for lunch during the week, when an AAA burger, fries, and soft drink will only set you back $12.75. Put your savings towards a spiked milkshake—because who doesn’t want some ice cream and Bailey’s in the middle of the day?

And if you’re not in the mood to splurge on ground beef and potatoes, head over to Patati Patata on St. Laurent and Rachel. This 13seat burger joint serves made-to-order sliders, poutine, and beer for under $10. It’s probably the exact opposite of M:brgr, from the under­ stated food to the friendly atmosphere. Patati Patata doesn’t try to make hamburgers sophis­ ticated, but it’s a step up from frozen patties and doesn’t cost much more. You can even watch your entire meal being prepared behind the bar—from salad to burger to poutine.

M:brgr: 2025 Drummond Price: $15-20 per person Patati Patata: 4177 St. Laurent Price: $7-10 per person

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A&E

Curiosity Delivers.

23 March 2010» 13

THEATRE

McGill Drama Festival produces a lively selection of student plays Players ’ Theatre offers seven McGill productions this week as part o f annual festival

Crickets By the Stream Written by Nathalie Selles. Directed by Isaac Robinson.

Crickets By The Stream begins when

Presenting student productions for over 10 years, McGill Drama Festival continues the tradition with seven new plays this year. Set in Players’ Theatre, the Festival’s second week of plays runs from March 23 to 27. Each night offers a different collection of two to three short plays written, directed, arid produced by McGill students—a perfect sample platter of M cGill’s theatrical offerings. No two plays are alike, with topics ranging from marital troubles to a girl’s subconscious to mythologi­ cal student societies. Below are some of the year’s festival participants.

three separate parts of one girl’s subconscious join together in random thought. In her mind, there are scary things to be had, and too many snippets of lost wonder, joy, and pointless con­ templation. I understand that shorter plays and narratives have difficulty maintaining plots in the same way lengthier pieces do, but this particular play didn’t even try to pull one off.

There was no attempt to create coherence— it was destined to be a play with a mind of its own. The writing seemed at odds with all sorts of sensations, but as dissatisfying as the lack of plot was, thé way it flowed was impec­ cable. Certainly, this feeling of continuity in a play full of interrupted ideas was in part due to the strength of the individual performances.

If there is such a thing as the embodiment of one’s subconscious, all three actors nailed their role to a tee. Each portrayed a slightly different character angle that they accentuated by their delicate movements. Hannah Tharp’s choreographic work flitted across the stage as poetically as each spoken phrase and the overall mindset was one of bliss and magi­ cal entrancement. So empty your brain and let your thoughts wander freely—you’ll take more from this performance if you simply let your mind go.

Dent Written by Daniel St. Germaine. Directed

by Max Zidel.

Dent follows 18-year-old Davy White (Fabien Maltais-Bayda) as he recalls the un­ timely disappearance of Mrs. DiGiovanni, a woman in his hometown, a few years earlier.

The play’s flashbacks reveal how the commu­ nity was scandalized in response to newspaper headlines and neighbours’ gossip. Through the recollection of carefully selected memories from an impressionable time of his life, Davy pieces together a detailed look into the tragic disappearance of Mrs. DiGiovanni.

The performers were wonderful, as both actors complemented each other in their dy­ namic relationship between mother and son.

Giddings does a superb job playing up Davy’s gossip-hungry mother, in a hysterical rendi­ tion of a figure w e've all encountered staring back at us from across the kitchen table.

The set and lighting were carefully incor­ porated to add a bit more depth to this per­ formance; with an eerily placed dentist chair, it didn’t take much to rekindle my childhood fears of unwelcome and rather intrusive pry­ ing and poking. The theme of the play may have skewed my perception towards one of discomfort, but I suppose a small town, big news and endless prattle have a tendency to overdo things. “Oh how rumours can be so vindicated!”

—Bianca Van Bavel

Truth be Told Written by Natalie Gershtein. Directed by Tabia Lau. Truth be Told tells the familiar tale of an unhappy couple, in which a wife struggles to reconnect with her distant and adulterous hus­ band. Though the story is not very inventive, the play’s honesty, rawness, and unexpected plot twist make it utterly captivating.

The plot follows Jimmy (Matthew Rian Steen), who has developed a tireless habit of sleeping with the secretaries at his law firm.

He hires them, seduces them, and finally sends them away with a fat paycheck to keep every­ thing quiet. His wife Janine (Chloe Texier) desperately tries to save their drowning mar­ riage, but despite her exhaustive efforts, every day seems to end with a cold and sad “good­ night.”

The set is effective and minimal, not tak­ ing attention away from the talented actors.

The couple’s bed is positioned at centre stage, serving as a nice visual and thematic centre­ piece—the place where many romances call home to the highest and lowest points of love.

—Bianca Van Bavel

Apollo Tyrannus Written by Julian Silverman. Directed by Isaac Robinson.

Apollo Tyrannus is a light-hearted com­

HOLLY STEWART

The only clear theme of the festival is variety, with Greek gods and secretaries starring.

Matthew Rian Steen perfectly conveys the arrogance needed from a slimeball of Jimmy’s calibre—he is so convincing that we hate him up until curtain call. Chloe Texier’s performance was also admirable, though more subtle and understated than Steen’s; she effec­ tively portrays the uncomfortable and pathetic position of a woman trying to pull together a hopeless marriage. In one scene, the couple has an explosive fight which sends energetic chills into the audience—it would have been great to see more arguments between the two, as they did it so well.

Truth be Told was a pleasure to w atch—it is at times funny and at others sad. This is a MDF must see.

—Grace Glowicki

Accompanied by Prolonged Feelings of Dread Written by Todd Frei. Directed by Johanu Botha.

Embracing all that is wacky, Accompa­ nied by Prolonged Feelings of Dread assaults the audience with a whirlwind of crazy, leav­ ing in its wake a dumbfounded feeling of “what?!” But this seems to be the point. The play’s slapstick portrayal of hypochondriaemerging both as hilarious and claustropho­ b ic -c a u se s us to spend half the time laughing and half wondering what’s going on.

The act takes place in the waiting room of

Dr. Bill Norwell (Matt Stevens) which is ruled over by Miss Charon (Renee Hodgins), a stem and sinister secretary. Within the first few minutes it becomes apparent that something strange is in the works: the patients have been waiting for days, weeks, and, in some cases, months—but as time slugs by they never see anybody enter or exit Dr. Norwell’s office. Ev­ erything quickly dissolves into meaningless fury and we are forced to ask, who exactly is ill?

All the actors are interesting to watch, but Hodgins plays her Miss Charon with an impressive integrity—aggressive note-taking, hysterical pauses in phone calls, and methodi­ cal paper ripping contribute to her calm-before-the-storm/evil headmistress vibe. Shireen Shoofi and Brendan Steven play amusing pa­ tients in the waiting room —thanks to her tim­ ing and his energy, their enjoyable dynamic often steals the spotlight.

A possible point of frustration for some is Miss Persimmon (though impressively played

by Tierney Sloan). The character was a little offensive in her references to the physicality and speech caused by certain real and not-sofunny disabilities. The play lagged towards the end when the plot seemed to have exhaust­ ed itself, but the energy and persistence of the actors eventually regained the audience’s at­ tention.

— Grace Glowicki

edy with lots of laughs. As president of The Student Society of Mythical Oracles, Apollo (Alex Gravenstein) is faced with solving the crisis concerning Oedipus and with the likeli­ hood of self-fulfilling his own prophecy. De­ termined to show that the “gods” of governing student societies do not control the students’ fate, the play digresses through a series of comical conversations between three mem­ bers of the society from rather different back­ grounds.

The witty mix of classic mythology and modem flavour had the audience captivated from the beginning. The charismatic crew of actors really work their magic in a wonder­ ful complementation of each other’s intensity.

Deverett has you on edge as he flies around the room in his agitated portrayal of Hermes, while Clohan balances the scene with Dio­ nysus’ carefree party ways'. The group’s cun­ ning dynamics were irrefutable as each cast member charmed the audience into hysterics.

I could have sworn I heard people in the audi­ ence join in at one point as the actors digressed into singing, “I got my swim trunks and my Hippie-floppies.” '

—Bianca Van Bavel

The schedule for the McGill Drama Fes­ tival can be found at ssmu.mcgill.ca/players.

Tickets are $5 for students and $12 for a fes­ tival pass.

mcgilltribune.com

14 • 23 March 2010

CAMPUS

M ary H . B row n Fund 2010 C all for P roposals

McGill holds stand-up auditions Comedians look to recruit students performers for contest KYLE CARPENTER A&E Editor

Montreal is Canada’s home for comedy.

Over the years, the Just For Laughs comedy festival has featured some of the world’s great­ est comic icons, while also providing an outlet for local talent to perform. Within that home­ grown talent is Jeff Schouela, a six-year standup comedy veteran who is holding auditions for McGill students to compete in a series of amateur stand-up competitions.

“The main thing about the contest is that it’s open to people who have never performed stand-up before,” says Schouela.

Auditions will take place over two days at G ert’s. If the thought of performing in front of a crowd has your stomach in knots already, rest assured that the auditions are being held in front of a panel of three judges instead of a typical audience. Each contestant will be asked to perform four to six minutes of mate­ rial before being evaluated by the judges.

Eight to 12 students will be selected to compete in a McGill vs. Concordia night at Comedyworks. Afterwards, the contest will begin with a series of stand-up shows that will run over four to five weeks at Comedyworks, from mid-May to mid-June. McGill students will compete against students from Concordia, Dawson College, John Abbott College, and Marionopolis. Each show will feature eight to 10 contestants performing between four to six minutes of material. Each week, two winners will be selected to compete in the finals. When the finals are over, the winners will be entered into M ontreal’s Hilarious, a contest open to all amateur comedians with a yet-to-be-determined cash prize where the winner will be de­ cided by both the judges and the audience.

No strangers to the stage themselves, Schouela and his co-producer Eman under­ stand the anxiety involved with performing in front of a crowd, yet they are optimistic about

the student turnout.

“I think it’s inherent in a lot of people to a) be funny, or b) try stand-up comedy,” says Schouela. “There are a lot of competitions for comedy in the city, but I think it’s a little too intimidating for newcomers to want to join those things knowing that they’re going to be performing with professionals.”

T h e m a in th in g a b o u t th e c o n t e s t is th a t i t ’s o p e n to p e o p le w h o h a v e n e v e r p e r fo r m e d sta n d -u p b e fo r e .

— J e f f S c h o u e la

Schouela designed the contest to give each performer a chance to polish their mate­ rial and get comfortable performing on stage before competing in Montreal’s Hilarious.

This is the first year for both contests, but he hopes to make each an annual event.

Schouela’s own stand-up routine won me over with a joke about the “Toronto dream” being “a condo and an empty relationship.”

Offstage, Schouela produced The Best of Montreal comedy show and album last sum­ mer (which featured a recording by Schouela), as well as co-producing an upcoming show called “We A in’t Terrorists.” Eman produces a comedy show every month at Comedyworks for up-and-coming comics.

While performing stand-up comedy is certainly not for everyone, it is an oftenunderappreciated form of entertainment that requires a lot of creativity and even more courage. If the thought of making a group of strangers laugh doesn’t make you light-headed like me, then this is your chance to shine. Who knows, you could be the next Russell Peters.

Or, you could be funny.

Auditions will be held on March 25 and 26, from 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. at Gerts.

T his endow m ent provides a total o f about $ 2 0 ,0 0 0 annually for the creation and early support o f innovative, on-cam pus projects that b en efit M cG ill students’ physical.and p sy ch o lo g ica l w e ll-b ein g , and related initiatives. P roposals from faculty, students and sta ff are all w elco m e. E xtensions o f ex istin g projects are also elig ib le for one renew al. The application deadline is scheduled for n oon on

T hursday, A pril 15, 2010.

A pplication is b y letter to the D ean o f Students w h o adm inisters the program in conjunction w ith the D eputy Provost and the D irector o f B equests and Planned G ifts.

For application gu id elin es, su g g estio n s for preparing a su ccessfu l application, and ex a m p les o f projects subm itted by previous recipients, visit http://w w w .m cgill.ca/deanofstudents/m arvbrow n/ P lease contact M eghan M cC u lloch at 3 9 8 -1731 or m eg h a n .m ccu llo eh @ m cg ill.ca for additional inform ation.

O ffice o f the D ean o f Students B row n Student S ervices B uilding 3 6 0 0 M cT avish St., R oom 4 1 0 0

THE SEMESTER IS ALMOST OVER, WHICH MEANS THERE’S ONLY A FEW WEEKS LEFT TO WRITE FOR A&E! C O M E T O O U R M E E T IN G S A T 4 P.M .

AT G E R T ’S O N T U E S D A Y S T O P IC K U P A S T O R Y , O R E M A IL U S AT A R T S @ M C G IL L T R IB U N E .C O M .

J

Pop lÿietoric GETTING SERIOUS After seeing the preview for Ben Stiller’s new indie-drama Greenberg, the first thing I thought was, “Wow, that looks awesome.” The second thing I thought was, “Wait, has Ben Stiller acted in a seri­ ous movie before?” In Greenberg, Stiller is an irritable, cynical, and on the verge of a midlife crisis. It sounds pretty off-beat compared to his usual ridiculous, idiotic— albeit hysterical—roles (think male model and gym owner). So the question is, will we be able to appreciate him in a more serious light, or will we be constantly preoccupied with the thought of his circumcised fore­ skin being plunged into a pot of fondue?

O f course, this isn’t a rare phenom­ enon in the movie industry. We’ve seen it many times: Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, and Robin Williams are all perfect examples of slapstick actors who have transitioned

to serious roles. It always seems to work the same way: it’s all or nothing. Either the switch will turn out to be an epic failure or a great success, but nothing in between.

Jim Carrey is a good example. When I think of Jim Carrey, I picture the gro­ tesque scene in Ace Ventura: Pet Detec­ tive in which he’s bom from the ass of a robotic rhino. But he’s also appeared in a few psychological dramas, such as Eter­ nal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Number 23. As expected, the former was a knockout while the latter was the complete opposite.

How about Adam Sandler? His come­ dic roles are so legendary I don’t even have to refresh your memory with character de­ scriptions. And then came along Spanglish.

I loved this movie, and not just because Paz Vega is hot. Sandler delivered a heart­ felt performance that wasn’t interrupted by thoughts of Happy Gilmore even once.

And Robin Williams? Perhaps he’s proven to be the most versatile. He will

forever hold a fond spot in our memories in Mrs. Doubtfire and as Peter Pan in Hook (not to mention his stand-up). But h e’s es­ tablished himself as an exceptional jackof-all-trades when it comes to acting. Good Will Hunting and One-Hour Photo are just two examples of W illiams’ serious side, and he nails both acts brilliantly.

In addition to these notable multi-fac­ eted actors, there are others like Bill Mur­ ray, Woody Harrelson and Ashton Kutcher that have shown that we shouldn’t expect the worst from them in out-of-character roles. Audiences tend to have the mental­ ity that people, including actors, should stick to what they know. Maybe part of this is because some people think that comics take on funny roles for a reason, starting out playing up their funny side to mask the fact that they don’t have the talent to act in more serious roles. But this clearly isn’t always the case.

Should actors be restricted to a certain domain just because that’s what they’re

known for? Well, it all comes down to what they can pull off. As mentioned before, Robin Williams is a clear-cut example. He will always be recognized for his classic portrayal of hilarious characters, but he will be remembered just as much for his talented performances in other genres. On the other hand, I tend to think that Adam Sandler will be celebrated much more for his comedic work than for his more dra­ matic work in Spanglish or Punch-Drunk Love (even though both performances were terrific).

Comedic actors often have more up their sleeve than we give them credit for, and I ’m very excited to see Greenberg. I love Ben Stiller playing goofy roles like Gaylord Focker, and it will be interesting to see how he does in a serious role—he has as good a chance as any other actor at pulling it off.

—Alex Knoll

Curiosity Delivers.

23 March 2010 • 15

FILM

Not even a transplant could save this half-hearted action film Repo Men pushes products more than limits SAM JESSULA Contributor

Getting your car or house repossessed is one thing, but getting your new liver repos­ sessed is quite another. In the dark, not-sodistant future of Repo Men, medical advances have led to a manufactured organs market— which is great news, but only if you omit the price tag, of course. You can always set up a financing plan, but if you fall short in your payments, a hired thug and wannabe surgeon will break into your house and slice you open to legally reclaim their property.

The movie centres around Remy, a repo man who, while reclaiming a heart, fries his own. Ironically, his new bionic organ seems to function better than his original, as Remy develops a conscience and realizes his job will not get him citizen of the year. Unfortunately, Remy does not seem very fit for any other line

of work, and the clock is ticking on his heart mortgage. Pursued by his colleagues, Remy and his newfound girlfriend have to fight to survive.

Redundancy seems to be the main theme of the movie. The topic is-all too familiar, and the message of an inevitably terrible future unless humans start acting more humane has become background noise in science fiction.

Also redundant are the fight scenes in this socalled action film. Every confrontation seems to involve only ,two characters, Remy and his partner Jake (Forest Whitaker), who only fight with knives and tasers. Doesn’t the future have cool new toys to play with? The main futuris­ tic development seems to be that advertising has sky rocketed, which seems like a shrewd prediction, considering the film has product placements in almost every frame.

Despite a complex premise, the plot fea­ tures too many unexplained twists, and com­ ponents to be coherent.

The actors’ performances are mediocre at best, although the script did not give them

Even Jude Law can’t get the audiences’ hearts beating. much to work with. Liev Schreiber is quite remarkable as the evil boss, yet his role re­ mains minor. It would have been nice to see a bit more of a metamorphosis in Remy, whose struggle with his growing conscience seems as interesting as doing laundry.

At a time when health care reform is on

PROJECTClNEMA.COM

everyone’s mind, the film meant as a wake-up call ends up putting the audience to sleep. In the end, this picture can be avoided by seeing an episode of Nip/Tuck alongside 10 minutes of Kill Bill.

C D REVIEWS

Jimi Hendrix: Valleys o f Neptune Where would Jimi Hendrix fit into to­ day’s music scene? Seasoned but pushing into the mainstream like Eric Clapton? Play­ ing Super Bowl halftime shows like Pete Townsend and The Who? The release of Val­ leys o f Neptune, a posthumous follow up to 1968’s Electric Lady land, may convince you that Hendrix was simply too much of a psy­ chedelic, blues-thumping, break-through-theboundaries-of-your-brain invention to ever es­ cape the “27 Club.” “Fire” and “Red House” offer avid fans the chance to experience a fresh Hendrix take on the classics and revisit the rhythm section of Noel Redding (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums). The “king of slide guitar” Elmore James would be proud of the Hendrix interpretation of “Bleeding Heart,” which peaks with the lone hollers of a “sold my soul to the devil” guitar solo that Hendrix fans have grown to expect. Producers have also uncovered a lively rendition of “Lover Man,” a raw, acid-rock jaunt that is among the never-before-released studio tracks, despite having held its own during the Hendrix live performance heyday. The title track, how­ ever, is the album’s crown jewel. “Valleys of Neptune” has the insightful songwriting, soulsoothing guitar riffs, and virtuosic playing that seats Hendrix on his throne in the mythologies of music history. You probably shouldn’t buy the hypotheticals on what Jimi Hendrix would have become, but Valleys o f Neptune is one album worth getting your hands on.

— Steven Hoffer

Aidan Knight: Versicolour Until now, if the name Aidan Knight sounded familiar, it’s likely because of his numerous backing contributions to bands in the Victoria/Vancouver music scene. But take a few listens to his debut Versicolour and it’s hard to imagine Knight backing up any musi­ cian other than himself.

A mix of folk and acoustic pop, Versi­ colour moves through many different moods.

Some songs are light, others are dark and often they’re both. Opener “The Sun” starts out feeling gloomy before a glockenspiel and back-up vocals hint at the full-on release to follow, courtesy of a crescendo of strings and horns. Conversely, “Knitting Something Nice For You” begins with hauntingly delicate finger-picking before Knight’s tortured vocals and driving drums turn it into something more sinister. And then there’s “Jasper,” the sunny and uplifting finale whose joyous hymn-like refrain is damn near perfect.

Part of what makes this album so strong is the excellent arrangements and orchestra­ tion, both of which are brought out through an impeccable mix and are best listened to on a quality set of headphones. Clearly a mature songwriter, Knight shows that it’s possible to craft songs that are dense without being over­ whelming and sparse without being boring.

To put it bluntly, Versicolour is a collec­ tion of beautiful songs from a promising new artist. If there’s but one complaint it’s that with eight songs in only 28 minutes, it’s over far too soon.

— Ryan Taylor

Gorillaz: Plastic Beach Gorillaz’s highly anticipated third album Plastic Beach definitely sounds like a Gorillaz album, but it lacks the flare of their sophomore release, Demon Days. Plastic Beach feels like a concept album, but it’s difficult to tell what the concept is (but it’s certainly not a pinball wizard). That said, every album released by an animated band of eccentric characters (none of that is metaphorical—they’re cartoons) is bound to be strange and quirky, but the new album takes that to the extreme with its oc­ casionally bizarre genre blending.

Ex-Blur frontman Damon Album is the mastermind and voice behind Gorillaz, though his vocals can’t really be heard until the fourth song, “Rhinestone Eyes,” a poppy track with a little bit of an edge that stands out on the lengthy 16-track album. “Superfast Jellyfish” is another winner, which has the familiar vocals of De La Soul who appeared on the Demon Days single “Feel Good Inc.” The al­ bum’s best song, or at least my favourite, is “Some Kind of Nature,” which has Alburn singing soft background vocals, featuring the memorable line “all we are is stars.”

While songs like “White Flag” and “Glit­ ter Freeze” are simply boring, the real draw­ back of Plastic Beach is that it contains no potential smash hits. “Stylo,” the album’s first single, is too bland and forgettable—unlike previous albums’ singles like “Clint Eastwood,” “Dirty Harry,” and “DARE.” A decent album overall, but lacking in comparison to the band’s earlier work.

— Kyle Carpenter

Scott Lanaway: Mergers and Acquisi­ tions I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, but I will decide what to read based on what the back cover says; a song called “Oprah, God Wants You To Have A Private Jet” was more than enough to entice me to listen to Scott Lanaway’s Mergers and Acquistions.

The album is full of spacey electro-folk, one of those new, hard-to-classify sounds your iTunes gives up on and calls “alternative and punk.”

The opening track “Let’s Be Together” is boring, but kind of catchy. In fact, a lot of this album is boring but kind of catchy. “Gabapentin” is almost psychedelic with its background harmonies and chirping bird noises. It sounds like we don’t hear Lanaway’s real, bare-bones voice until track six, “Juliet of The Spirits,” though he does have a nice Robert Plant thing going on in “Wild Eyes.”

The album features a lot of the same; lay­ ered vocals and synth intermingling, which creates an ominous feel. This is true o f “ 1333,” “Mind Off The Blue,” “Wild Eyes,” “The Ice Storm,” and “All Our Yesterdays,” —a third of the album right there.

Mergers and Acquisitions isn’t lively or poppy, but it does have its moments. Unfortu­ nately, these moments are far too few to make the album worthwhile, unless you’re looking for some background music for your next massage or bubble bath.

— Kyle Carpenter

mcgilltribune.com

16*23 March 2010

BOOKS

The Canadian War on Queers tells personal accounts of prejudice New book explores the history o f Canada’s War on Gay CAROLYN YATES Managing Editor

Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile’s The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation discusses the under-theradar—and sometimes officially sanctioned— targeting of gays and lesbians as security threats from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Written from —and told through—a se­ ries of first-hand accounts combined with documents obtained under the Access to In­ formation Act, Kinsman and Gentile discuss the history of queer Canadians in a way that is passionate and personal.

In the second half of the 20th century, queer women and men were interrogated, spied-on, and harassed. Others were fired from their jobs, put through the “Fruit Machine” —a

test that measured the supposed erotic re­ sponse to a series of im ages—and declared to be national security risks.

First-person narratives form the core of the book, providing both the most informative and the most interesting segments. While ma­ terials for The Canadian War on Queers did in part come from documents released under the Access to Information Act, Gentile says that it was important to look beyond the of­ ficially sanctioned—and officially censored— information.

The declassified documents tell a chilling tale in which queers were seen as having char­ acter weaknesses, and therefore as unreliable, disloyal, and subject to blackmail, making them threats to national security. But the most interesting part of the book is the recounting of the experiences of those who experienced the purges first-hand.

“They become the highlight of the book,” says Gentile.

The Canadian War on Queers also aims to be, in Gentile’s words, an act of rebellion.

Not only does it tell the stories of those who were purged, interrogated, and spied upon, and who resisted, it also, in Gentile’s words, is an act of rebellion.

“Most people don’t learn about queers in Canadian history and they certainly don’t learn about how the Canadian state was trying to get rid of homosexuals working in the federal gov­ ernment and the military,” says Gentile. “My political motivation is not as a queer person wanting to write this history, but as a historian wanting to record the voices of people who have been silenced.”

One of the book’s main weaknesses is its “In this chapter we will show” style, which non-academic readers will find frustrating.

Kinsman and Gentile sometimes get bogged down by using particular phrasing instead of just saying what they mean, and by summa­ rizing the personal accounts instead of leav­

ing them to speak for themselves. That said, they do a fantastic job of leaving excerpts from their interviews long enough to give context in a self-contained manner, which adds a lot to the narrative.

In one of the most enlightening—and most worrying—parts of the book, Kinsman and Gentile draw comparisons between the past War on Gay and the present War on Ter­ ror. Arguing that the indiscriminate targeting of Arab and Islamic-identified peoples is very similar to a non-specific fear of gays and lesbi­ ans, they show that the Cold War world is still uncomfortably close.

“The national security ideology is not something that happens in the past; it’s some­ thing that’s very active and has a very contem­ porary character to it,” says Gentile. “Although w e’re talking about queers, we can extend the analysis that we make in the book to what’s happening today.”

M a r c h 2 3 -29 Wednesday. Music. Girl Talk.

SSMU has managed to bring the world’s most famous mash-up DJ (read: a guy who has made a living pasting other people’s songs together) to Montreal. Girl Talk will be playing/ spinning/hitting buttons on his laptop this Wednesday in front of a crowd of McGill students, in what is sure to be a louder, rowdier club atmosphere. Cana­ dian opening act Hollerado will add a rock n ’ roll flavour to the show —make sure you don’t miss them. @ Metropo­ lis.

BU SUMMER'10 L e a r n .

E x p lo r e .

Thursday. Film. Fokus Film Festival.

D i s c o v e r .

T h is s u m m e r, e x p e r ie n c e o n e o f th e w o r ld 's to p - r a n k e d u n iv e r s itie s — in o n e o f th e n a tio n 's g r e a t c o lle g e to w n s . B o s to n U n iv e r s ity S u m m e r T e rm h as 7 0 0 c o u rs e s to c h o o s e fr o m , in o v e r 7 0 s u b je c ts . S tu d y w it h a w a r d ­ w in n in g fa c u lty . F u lfill y o u r a c a d e m ic g o a ls . A n d f a ll in ^

w it h B o s to n .

L e a rn m o re a t b u .e d u /s u m m e r .

Friday. Music. Black Lips.

S u m m e r 1: M a y 1 8 -J u n e 2 5 S u m m e r 2: June 2 8 -A u g u s t 6

B

B o s to n U n iv e r s ity S u m m e r Term An equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.

The Fokus Film Festival is the only student film festival at McGill, and the three-hour showcase of student films is taking place this Thursday. The festival is in its fourth year, and has boasted over 200 entries to date. TVMcGill has been putting on the event since 2006, and it has grown to have an expected audience of 300 people this year, so get your tickets while you can. @ Cinema du Parc.

O

S

T

O

N

U N IV E R S IT Y

Any hipster smart enough to not wear neon and refer to themselves as a hipster probably likes Black Lips. The band have a strange sound, somewhere between the melodic pop sounds of six­ ties surf rock and very modem indie rock. The band is also known for lewd behaviour, which is what led to an out­ standing arrest warrant in India. If it’s anything like that show, this should be a good time. @ Just For Laughs.

Curiosity Delivers.

Sp o r t s

23 March 2010* 17

MARTLET INDOOR SO C C E R -M C G IL L 2, SHERBROOKE 1

McGill one win away from QSSF indoor soccer championship McGill rides youth movement into Quebec finals KAILAN LEUNG Sports Editor

For Head Coach Marc Mounicot and the McGill women’s soccer team, there’s nothing surprising about being in two provincial finals in the same academic year. In early November, the team ’s hopes of a berth at Nationals were shattered when the Martlets lost a 2-1 decision against the top-ranked Montreal Carabins in the conference championship game. Fast for­ ward five months, and the Martlets are once against poised to capture the Quebec crown.

This time, however, they’ll be leaving their cleats at home.

Freshmen Laura Bland-Lasso and So­ phia Horricks each notched goals to catapult McGill into the QSSF indoor soccer finals, with a 2-1 victory over the Sherbrooke Vert et Or on Sunday at the Stinger Dome.

While many McGill soccer fans assume that the season ends before the first snowflakes hit the field, both the Martlets and the Redmen practice and compete all year round—once the outdoor season finishes, the teams relocate to Tomlinson Fieldhouse to train for the equally competitive indoor season. Mounicot believes that the chance at an indoor championship in March provides his squad with all the motiva­ tion they need to stay in game-shape.

“We give three weeks off to the girls after the fall season, then we have a few practices during exam period just as a stress reliever,” he said. “They have to stay in shape, go to the gym, [and] lift weights. As soon as January starts we have five days of activity per week: two practices, one game on the weekend, and the weight room two times a week.”

Mounicot even implemented yoga ses-

The team’s younger players have been just as successful under a roof as they were during the outdoor soccer season. sions during the winter as a means of keeping his players physically and mentally fit. And the hard work the Martlets have put in since November has certainly paid off—McGill fin­ ished the regular indoor season with a 5-1-1 record, and is now 2-0 in postseason play. “ [The success] has just carried over from the fall season,” Mounicot said. “We use only first and second-year players in the winter ... and we have a few second-year players who are used to playing with each other [al­ ready].”

“We set the goal for next year to be one of the two teams in Quebec to go to Nationals in the fall. So all the work is done for that.

The girls are ambitious and they really want to win something this year. We came close dur­ ing the fall and if we can’t win the [outdoor] final for the provincial championships, even if it’s an indoor championship, w e’ll take it. [A championship now] would help us get back to a winning [track] and get back to the winning

mentality that we need to have for next year.”

Fielding a young team has not put McGill at a disadvantage, either. Katherine Green, a sophomore defender from Ontario, garnered second-team all-Canada honours after the out­ door season, and was recently named MVP of the indoor league. Mounicot anticipates that the indoor season will not only help facilitate better technical skills, but also greater cama­ raderie among his younger players for next year. The development of Green, in particular, has been a huge source of excitement for the McGill coaching staff.

“She understands perfectly what I ’m ask­ ing from her,” Mounicot said. “She’s the per­ fect link between the players and myself. She brings leadership, and she brings confidence to the team. She is gaining experience and is only in her second year. She’s the MVP o f the indoor season. She is leading the team the way I want her to lead.”

Green was not the only Martlet to receive

ADAM SCOTTI

attention prior to the start of the indoor play­ offs. Goaltender Shimone Slomowitz, forward Alexandra Morin-Boucher, midfielder Anna Smith and defenders Carolyn Bell and Julia Bahen joined Green on the QSSF first team.

“I was quite surprised to have six players on the first team,” Mounicot said. “It means that people recognize that we have some tal­ ent, and that talent needs to grow and get ex­ perience for us to do what we want to do next year.”

With a host o f talented players and a ded­ icated coaching staff, the Martlets have the in­ gredients necessary to improve on last season’s outcome and make a strong run at Nationals in the fall. For now, though, the team ’s attention is turned towards March 28, when McGill re­ turns to the Stinger Dome to take on Montreal for a shot at an indoor championship.

T IIIR 1) MAN IN LOVIN’ THE CUBS In years past, Chicago has been called the most segregated city in America, in ref­ erence to the city’s heavily black South Side and the mostly white neighbourhoods of the North Side. The city’s most persistent di­ vide, however, has little to do with race. To a much greater extent than either New York or Los Angeles, Chicago is a city divided by baseball.

The divide is a regional one. South Siders cheer fanatically for the White Sox, while I ’m convinced that many North Side guys would rather see a girl in Cubbie blue than in lingerie. And living within walking distance of Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play, is the ultimate goal of many a North Side yuppie.

In the northern suburbs of Chicago, where I grew up, most kids become Cubs fans because their fathers (and often their

mothers) take them down to Wrigley on summer Saturdays for day games. As with many sports, allegiance to a team seems to be passed on genetically.

I became a Cubs fan a bit differently.

It’s pretty safe to say that my parents have never been huge baseball fans. Grow­ ing up in St. Louis, both of them used to give away or sell the free Cardinals tickets they received from their schools for good grades. And even though it’s been decades since they moved to the Chicago suburbs, whatever latent baseball sympathies they do harbour have remained in St. Louis.

With such unenthusiastic parents, I never really got into baseball as a kid.

RB I’s were a mysterious acronym to me, and if I ’d overheard someone mention Babe Ruth’s “called shot,” I probably would have guessed the person was talking about hock­ ey or basketball. Though I eventually pieced together the rules of the game, I was never much o f fan.

In 2003, however, two things happened.

That summer, my uncle took my sister and I to our first gam e—against the Cardinals, of course—in the “friendly confines” of Wrig­ ley Field. The Cubs won that day, and they kept on winning. As September drew to a close, it became clear that the Cubs were poised for a strong postseason run.

Making the playoffs is exciting for fans of any team, but for no one is it more thrill­ ing than a die-hard North Side Cubs fan.

Every week at the top of the division fuels the hope that this year will be the year; that the Cubs will storm through the postseason to the World Series and rid themselves of the so-called Billy Goat curse—the Cubs’ lesser-known and more ridiculous version of the Red Sox’s Curse of the Bambino.

In 2003, however, the Cubbies made it closer than ever before. Brandishing the powerful pitching line-up of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, the Cubs defeated the Braves in five games before facing the Marlins in the National League Championship Series.

I watched every game, transfixed—along

with the rest of the North Side—by the pos­ sibility of a trip to the World Series.

True to form, the Cubs managed to lose that year in heartbreaking fashion. After win­ ning three games in a row against Florida, the Cubs collapsed in Game Five and never recovered. Though they were just a few outs away from the World Series, the Cubs lost to the Marlins in seven games.

I don’t think I cried when the Cubs lost Game Seven, but I came pretty close. It was in that moment, however, that I became a Cubs fan. No other team has the same capac­ ity for raising the hopes of its fan base time and again, and then dashing those hopes in the most dramatic of ways. Being a Cubs fan is intrinsically about being disappointed. But when the Cubs face the Braves in a couple weeks on Opening Day, I ’ll be getting my hopes up—along with the rest of the North Side.

— Theo Meyer News Editor

G uess w h o u s e d t o w r it e a n d e d it SPORTS FOR THE TRIBUNE? C h r i s t i a n l a n d e r , a u t h o r o f 'St u f f W H ITE PEOPLE LIKE".

BOOM.

mcgilltribune.com

INTERVIEW

McGill gears up for Nationals

FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GIANTS AN D BECOME A SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR TODAY. EMAIL SPORTS@MCGILLTRIBUNE.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Webster believes Redmen have talent, desire to make deep run KAILAN LEUNG Sports Editor

Fresh o ff o f winning their second Queen's Cup in three years, the McGill m en’s hockey team is primed and ready to challenge fo r a National Championship. The OVA East champions received a number-two seed in the six-team tournament last week, and will butt heads against the Manitoba Bisons and the Saint M ary’s Huskies in pool play. Redmen Head Coach Jim Webster took some time to talk to the Tribune about preparation fo r Na­ tionals.

How important was it to win the Queen’s Cup, both in terms of seeding and overall momentum?

It was important. The seeding is key, [be­ cause] it allows us to not play three days in a row. We’ll play on the first day, and if we win, w e’ll play Thursday, Saturday, Sunday instead of Friday, Saturday, Sunday. [The Queen’s Cup] was also important just for our mindset, [to see] how we react in big games, in that arena. We played in that arena and won a big game, so I think [winning the Cup] was very important for our mental preparation. We wanted to win the championship; we didn’t want to go in the back door [to Nationals], and that speaks to the competitiveness of our team.

What were your initial reactions to the pool your team is in?

I like that we haven’t played either team so far. I don’t worry about the other team as much as a lot of coaches, I worry about our team. But I think a lot of the teams that have played us this year decided that w e’re good, and that they have to slow us dow n—use a trap, or try other tactics to slow us down. If they go into a game saying, ‘Let’s see what you’ve got,’ then I like our chances. I think our team ’s speed is hard to measure if you haven’t seen it.

You play Manitoba in the first game of the tournament. Any specific preparations for that team?

An average refund with us is $1,000.

No specific things, although I’ll identify to [our team] that Manitoba doesn’t take a lot

of penalties—they’re the least penalized team in the West. And they have good goaltending.

We should be ready to try to win a low scoring game, play good defence, and not just natu­ rally think we can run and gun, and score six or seven goals. I think we have to be prepared for a tough, low-scoring match.

Has this team exceeded expectations from the beginning of the season?

It’s hard to say. I didn’t get the impression from [former head coach] Martin [Raymond] that we would be as good. All of the returning rookies improved their stats and played better than last year. Maybe that’s to be expected, ex­ cept that every single one of them [improved].

The projected team this year had [former captains] Ken Morin and Benoit Arsenal. We lost Benoit to a detached retina, and that was a blow. Morin ended up going to Royal Mili­ tary College. Losing those two guys, we were a little less [impressive] than we should have been on paper. So yes, I think w e’ve exceeded expectations. I know our players, though, are very demanding of themselves. I don’t know exactly what they expected, but I’ve been the one telling them from the beginning of the year that they’re good, and that the National Championship should be their goal. I ’ve been trying to pound that into their heads, and I truly believe it.

What are the major strengths of this year’s team?

I think our depth from start to finish. All seven, eight defencemen can play, and all four lines of forwards can play. We have talent. Not only hardworking players, but we [also] have scorers, playmakers, and powerplay defencemen. We’re tough, competitive, and fast. I think w e’re a good team.

What’s the team’s mood like in the locker room?

They’re excited to get started. This little layoff here? No. Let’s get at it. We’ve been thinking about it for some time and they all want to get it on.

The Redmen tip o ff tournament action against Manitoba this Thursday at 2 p.m. SSN Canada will stream live webcasts o f all tour­ nament games, and the championship final will be televised on Rogers Sportsnet on Sat­ urday.

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McGill looks to make noise at Nationals after winning the Queen’s Cup.

ADAM SCOTTI

Curiosity Delivers.

23 March 2010 • 19

PROFILE

Perfect pitch: Fight Band looks to fine-tune McGill athletic pride Music students provide sporting events with much-needed boost SEAN WOOD Contributor

The McGill Fight Band doesn’t march.

They don't do halftime shows, they don’t wear Napoleonic uniforms, and they don’t have a dance team. If you’re looking for highstepping, capes, or colour guards, you’re out of luck. But if you’re looking for spirit, look no further—the growing Fight Band does what fight bands are supposed to do and does it well.

“Every coach comes to my office at least once a week to see if the Fight Band is coming to their game, or to lobby to make sure that they’re coming to their games,” said Jeremiah Gordon, McGill Athletics’s promotions direc­ tor.

Founded in 2006, the band began with less than a dozen members, but has grown into a robust corps of 40. Boasting woodwinds, brass, and percussion, they’ve become a rec­ ognizable presence at varsity games, bringing in bigger crowds and keeping them excited.

Like many great ideas, the band was bom at Bar des Pins. Ted Smith, a team manager for the McGill basketball team, had just come back from a summer in Japan.

“Japanese sports fans, and especially baseball ones, are fanatics,” he said. “They or­ ganize into a kind of brigade, almost a legion of fans. They bring out bugles and trumpets

and small brass instruments and devise fight songs for everybody in the batting lineup to cheer them on. I guess it occurred to me then that it wouldn’t be that hard to do something similar at college.”

When he suggested to his friends at the bar that they should try it, they didn’t take him seriously. The following Monday, he went in to see then-Athletics Director Derek Drum­ mond. Drummond asked him what it would cost and how soon it could happen. “[I told him], ‘Give me your boardroom to run a couple of informational meetings, give me your photocopier to print off adver­ tisements, and then I’ll need $400 for total ex­ penses,” Smith said.

Drummond agreed. Students were eager to join, but securing practice space proved more challenging: initially, the group practiced late at night in the small music classrooms of a Sherbrooke office building.

“And of course, we had to go get stands,” Smith said. “At around 10, we started gather­ ing up stands from people leaving the practice rooms and hauling them across the street.”

The band played at six games that first year. While some fans were apprehensive about the band’s presence, others enjoyed the injection of spirit, and the band began to grow.

“We started making an impact at games, athletes started to notice us, and then it just kind of grew,” Smith said.

Because members were allowed to drink, Smith admits that the band gained a bit of a

reputation for rowdiness.

“Initially, we used to go out and party a lot at the games. At a certain part we had got­ ten so large that it had potential for a prob­ lem,” he said. “We never had any fights or anything like that, but some people questioned the appropriateness of our behaviour as a band [while] wearing McGill uniforms.”

Partly in response to their behavior and partly because of their success, McGill Ath­ letics opted for a closer relationship with the band. The new, more formal arrangement has banned members from drinking during games, but has also given the band more money.

“Their repertoire has improved, their size has gotten better and they’re definitely a great feature that we have now at our varsity sport­ ing events,” said Gordon.

And the band hasn’t completely lost its edge. In addition to playing pep-band stan­ dards like “Final Countdown” and “Rock and Roll Part 2” during pauses, the band draws on an impressive arsenal of cheer tactics to pump up the home crowd and annoy the visitors.

“The best games are when we get into other players’ heads,” said Kolya Kowalchuk, U3 music, and also the band’s conductor.

Smith, whose main role in the band’s per­ formances was to get cheers going, recalled some of the ways this worked during his time with the band. For instance, the band might single out a particular player to heckle for an entire game, or play with the other team’s tim­ ing.

“When the shot clock was winding down

in basketball we would start counting five, four, three, two, one when it hit eight seconds,” Smith said. “I can’t even count the amount of times that worked. Then, once they catch on to that we start, counting from eight [when it hits five seconds], so they’d think they had more time than they did, and that worked, too.”

Band members admit that Fight Band can be a way for ex-high-school-band geeks to re­ live their glory days, but Smith warned against taking that at face value.

“My impression of band kids has changed considerably since starting this thing,” he said.

“When I was in high school I always thought of the band geeks as anti-social and not par­ ticularly amusing or skillful ... but those kids party hard.”

But the Fight Band is not just a party crew, either.

“What Fight Band has done for a lot of people is create a really comfortable environ­ ment, [allowing] them to let loose and make a lot of friends,” Smith said.

Taylor Stocks, U2 political science and the band’s premier, agreed.

“We’re a nice family,” she said. “They’re a group of people you can always count on for stuff, the right combination of nerd and love.”

Though the band’s season is over, they should be back bigger and better next year, and will continue to pump up home crowds and irritate visitors for years to come.

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