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Vol. 29 Issue 7 • W ednesday. O c to b e r 14. 2009
M cG ill field studies: out o f the classroom and into the wild
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN BLAIR
The students from the 2009 C anadian Field Studies in Africa program . The program takes students from C anadian universities to E ast A frica to learn ab o u t the continent in a way they never could in a classroom . See full story on pages 10 an d 11.
Two McGill alumni among cast of 2009 Nobel Prize Laureates Awarded fo r physics, medicine T R IP YANG Contributor
Two McGill alumni are among the new est Nobel laureates, after being awarded Nobel Prizes in their respective fields last week. A co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Phys ics, Willard Boyle, B.Sc ‘47, M.Sc ’48. and PhD ’50, helped invent the charged-couple de
vice, which revolutionized present-day digital photography. Jack Szostak, B.Sc ’72, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two other U.S.-based scientists for their work in discerning how DNA is protected and fully replicated during cell division. There are cur rently six McGill graduates and two professors who have won the Nobel Prize. “This is wonderful news for McGill and Canada. Anything that raises the profile of
McGill provides the [school] with a positive benefit." said Paul Lasko, chair of the depart ment of biology. "McGill is doing many things well. Look at the rankings.” The Nobel Prize announcements come during the same week that McGill was ranked 18th in the annual Times Higher EducationQS world survey, and a week after 19 McGill professors received Canada Research Chair awards - the highest number of grants awarded to any university in the country.
"These rankings check how our students have done in regards to winning awards,” said Martin Grant, dean of science. “What does it say when McGill students have won Nobel Prizes? Well, they’re not doing a bad job.” The son of an American Air Force officer, Szostak enrolled at McGill at the age of 15. After receiving two scholarships and a botany prize, Szostak continued his research at Cor nell University before founding his own lab at See GRANT on page 2
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2 » Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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IN T E R N A T IO N A L
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Grant sees benefits for McGill
Random breath tests considered JAMES GILMAN
Continued from COVER
Managing Editor
Harvard Medical School. Along with colleagues Elizabeth Black burn, University of California, San Francisco, and Carol W. Greider, UC Berkeley, Szostak discovered the mechanisms by which chromo somes, the DNA-containing regions in cells, are protected when a cell divides. In cell division, the ends of DNA mol ecules are gradually lost over many division cycles. Telomeres, which are found on the tips of chromosomes, should be shortened as a result. When telomeres shorten, cells age. But as Szostak and colleagues discovered, a certain enzyme prevents this from occurring in healthy individuals. “We found that the telomerase enzyme extended the telomere DNA, so the ends of DNA molecules could be successfully cop ied during cell division,” said Szostak. “Our finding emerged with all these broader impli cations. Normal cells have the telomerase en zyme turned off when they don’t divide, but cancer cells have telomerase turned on and thus keep growing. This kind of research is important when examining the [processes of] cancer and aging.” After postponing his education to land spitfires on aircraft carriers in World War II, Willard Boyle returned to McGill and earned his Bachelor’s, M aster’s, and PhD degrees in quick succession. Along with Bell Laboratories colleague George E. Smith, Boyle created the famed charged-couple device, a light-sensitive cir cuit that creates electrical charges to capture images. CCDs are now characteristic compo nents of modem digital and video cameras. “Anytime a McGill alumnus wins a pres tigious award, the entire school benefits. The
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McGill alumnus Willard Boyle was a co recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics. advantage for me as a physicist is that I can understand his research. So there is a little something extra [for me],” said Grant. A semi-regular visitor to McGill, Szostak expressed interest in hosting a seminar next fall. Grant agreed that this would be a prime opportunity for students to interact with alum ni and professors. “At times professors may not be [readily accessible], but McGill is still a small enough place to meet and talk to them. There are plen ty of professors [in the Faculty of Science] who are kind of like big brothers and sisters to students,” said Grant.
The Conservative government is consid ering new legislation that would effectively allow police officers to administer random breathalyzer tests as a means o f cracking down on impaired driving. The idea is being looked into by Jus tice Minister Rob Nicholson, who reportedly praised the prospect of random testing at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving meeting on September 26. In June, the House of Commons justice committee submitted a report recommending that Canada adopt legislation that would per mit random testing. Nicholson must respond to the committee’s recommendation by Octo ber 19. “The government is currently studying [the recommendation] and a response will be tabled within the next two weeks to that re port,” said Pamela Stephens, a spokesperson for the justice minister. “But w e’re not going to get ahead of ourselves by announcing leg islation.” Under the current law, police officers can only administer a breathalyzer test if they have “reasonable suspicion” that a driver has been drinking. “Reasonable suspicion” is not offi cially defined, but usually if an officer smells alcohol on a driver, or if a driver admits to drinking, a test can be legally administered. , However, Margaret Miller, national president of MADD, argued that random test ing has been proven to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by impaired driv ing. Random testing has already been adopted by a number of European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand. “Overall it’s a huge benefit to society because there just w on’t be [as much] death
and destruction on the highway,” said Miller. “If there’s a fear of being caught, and there’s a reasonable fear of it, because now there are random tests, you don’t have to be driving er ratically or anything to be stopped, people will drink less and drive less. They’ll drink less overall if there’s a chance they could be driv ing, and just be more cautious.” If the Conservatives decide to introduce legislation permitting random testing, it is like ly to receive enough support from opposition parties to easily pass. The Liberals have said they would support any move to give police officers random testing powers. NDP leader Jack Layton expressed similar sentiments last week as well. “It’s the kind of thing that could save some lives,” Layton said, according to the Canadian Press. “The evidence seems pretty strong that [such a law] can reduce fatalities and collisions.” Yet the suggestion of random breatha lyzer tests has sparked opposition from civil liberty advocates, as well as in editorials by the Globe and Mail and the National Post. According to Suzanne Costom, an execu tive member of the Criminal Justice Commit tee of the Canadian Bar Association, although any random testing legislation is still only hy pothetical, there are concerns over the effect random testing could have on an already over burdened court system. "The Canadian Bar Association is cer tainly in favour of any legislation which would have the effect of making our streets safer,” she said. “We’re not certain that it would be fair to the administration of justice to enact a provision like this knowing before you even start that it’s going to invite litigation and tax our already overburdened justice system ... without being certain that the net effect is going to be to make everyone safer.”
CAM PUS
McGill receives B+ grade on College Sustainability Report Card Improves from 2008 grade o f B
STEVEN HOFFER News Editor
McGill received a B+ and has been recog nized as a campus sustainability leader in the 2010 edition of “The College Sustainability Report Card,” a survey o f American and Cana dian schools administered by The Sustainable Endowments Institute. McGill has increased one grade each year since the report cards in troduction, improving from a C+ in 2007. Founded in 2005, the Cambridge, Massa chusetts-based institute surveyed 191 private schools and 141 public schools, totaling 332 colleges and universities for this year’s report card. While only eight per cent of schools surveyed earned an A- and not a single A was given, 53 per cent of schools earned at least aB -. “The report card is one of the only evalu ations of campus operation and endowment sustainability,” said Chryslin Pais, commu nications fellow for the Sustainable Endow
ments Institute. “So compared to a lot of other surveys and rankings [that] focussed on sus tainability in research or academics, our report fills the gap of looking at specific campus op erations and evaluating endowment sustain ability as well.” The survey relies on environmental stu dent leadership and administration from each school to fill out questionnaires in nine fields including administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, student involvement, transportation, endow ment transparency, investment priorities, and shareholder engagement. McGill received an A in six out of nine fields, but earned a D in green building, and a C in shareholder engage ment. “The stakes have gotten higher and it’s getting tougher to get a high grade which is the way that it should be,” said Jim Nicell, vice principal of student services. “So when you see in general that Canadian and U.S. schools dropped in certain categories, I think that’s appropriate. When it comes to our vision and what we want to achieve, we have to keep moving the target out.”
One of several strong spots for McGill was an A in student involvement. “I was really happy to see that we got on A for student involvement,” said Maggie Knight, one of SSMU’s two environment com missioners. “Obviously one of our roles is to connect different initiatives on campus and to help them be successful in whatever they try to do, so it is really exciting to see that being recognized.” Despite the strong mark and improve ment, Nicell had reservations with the survey, and warned against allowing these results to dictate M cGill’s sustainability policy. Accord ing to Nicell, McGill still has the potential for drastic improvements, particularly large-scale transformational projects with Montreal offi cials to create a car-free sustainable campus. Green building, the area where McGill received its lowest mark, is a area of interest for Nicell. Lower campus is home to several buildings, such as Strathcona and the Mac Donald engineering building, all well over 100 years old and structurally impossible to fully convert into perfectly energy efficient spaces. “As a part of sustainability we have to
preserve culture as well,” said Nicell. “There are three elements to sustainability: environ ment, social, and economic. We have to main tain a balance there ... We cannot, and we should not, ever destroy the historic structures of this university.” Both Nicell and the other SSMU environ ment commissioner, Arielle Jaffe, emphasized not only the preservation of M cGill’s histori cal structures, but also the importance of craft ing a culture of sustainability. “A big part of [building a sustainable cul ture] is having mandatory acknowledgement of environmental issues as well as education,” said Jaffe. “To make that a priority will in crease awareness and our grade so much. If everyone cares a bit and takes into consider ation the things that they do, w e’ll be able to mobilize so fast.” “We are trying to create a culture at McGill where sustainability becomes not an afterthought, but a reflex,” added Nicell. “I know that a culture shift is one of the most dif ficult things to accomplish, but it is something that we have to start doing and moving in the proper direction.”
Wednesday, October 14 2009 » 3
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N A T IO N A L
Google introduces Street View application to Canadian cities 1 1 municipalities included STEVEN H O FFE R News Editor
Have you ever thought about walk ing straight down the middle of St. Laurent? Against the flow of traffic? Now, thanks to Google, you can do exactly that. Google Street View, the popular Google Maps application that allows people to virtually discover and navigate cities through street level images, has been introduced to 11 Canadian cities, includ ing Montreal and Vancouver. In addition to Montreal and Vancouver, those wishing to explore without ever leav ing their computer can dive into Whistler, Squamish, Banff, Calgary, Kitchener-Water-
loo, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Halifax. Across these 11 cities, Google drivers covered approximately 49,400 kilometers of road in Canada prior to launching the application. The release comes in anticipation of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, scheduled to begin February 12, 2010. “We’re thrilled that Street View is now available for Canada in time for the 2010 Winter Games,” said Jonathan Lister, head of Google Canada, in a press release. “Street View has been hugely popular with our users worldwide, and now Canadians and others can see the streets and landmarks of Vancou ver, Whistler, and other cities, and innovate in exciting ways. Governments, businesses and individuals across Canada use Google Maps and Google Earth every day as essential and
informative tools: Street View now adds a new dimension.” While the procedures for capturing Street View images are generally standardized re gardless of the city, according to Google, drivers encountered some unique obstacles and features in Canada. For instance, drivers pointed to the weather, especially the Vancou ver rain, as the biggest challenge they faced. In addition, drivers often amused themselves by counting and guessing the number of Tim Horton’s that they would pass on a given day. Street View images are captured using state-of-the-art cameras mounted on vehicle rooftops. Drivers generally climb on top of their car 15 times a day to clean the lens, cover up equipment due to rain, or do a routine check.
When Street View was originally launched, it offered panoramic images of San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, and
“W e ’re th rilled th at S treet V iew is n o w av ailab le fo r C an ad a in tim e fo r th e 2 0 1 0 W in te r G a m e s.” — Jo n a th a n L ister, h ead o f G o o g le C an ad a, in a p ress release.
Denver. With Canada’s addition to the Street View repertoire, the service is now available in 14 countries including Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Taiwan, and the United King dom, among others.
CAM PUS
Professors concerned about religious illiteracy among students M cG ill symposium discusses possible consequences T R IP YANG Contributor
According to a 2001 census, 77 per cent of Canadians identify themselves as Christian and 83.8 per cent of Canadians claim to be re ligious. Yet, despite these statistics, educators are growing increasingly alarmed at the coun try’s lack of religious knowledge. At a recent McGill symposium on reli gion, Harvard professor Diane Moore claimed that religious illiteracy is a worldwide problem stemming from ignorance of basic religious knowledge and an inability to appreciate reli gion’s role in modem culture. Consequently, religious illiteracy incites prejudice and antag onism while hindering peaceful coexistence and cooperativeness. “Religious illiteracy plays itself [out] in personal and global ways,” said Moore. “In our [Western] context, we have a misunder standing of Islam. We draw superficial rela tions between Muslims and terrorism.” The consequences of religious intolerance were evident in Herouxville, a small Quebec
town which approved a “code of behaviour” for newly arrived immigrants in 2007. Among other provisions, the document prohibits the stoning of women and veils to cover one’s face, among other provisions. Religious groups sub sequently condemned the legislation as racist and patronizing. “The situation in Herouxville was embar rassing. At the same time, I don’t think it’s fair to say [religious intolerance manifests itself] only in little towns in Northern Quebec,” said McGill Ombudsperson Spencer Boudreau. “Across Canada, there is a misunderstanding of religion.” Boudreau, a former associate dean of edu cation, argued that religious illiteracy is a con cern even at McGill. While teaching a course on religion, Boudreau was surprised when he drew blank stares from his students after refer encing Job, a figure in the Hebrew Bible. “Religion is a part of our culture, but it has been somewhat neglected, especially in academics,” said Boudreau. “There are very bright students at McGill, but something was excluded in their education.” In order to increase religious literacy, Moore argues that beliefs should be taught in a nonsectarian way. He emphasized the impor
tance of presenting different faiths in an im partial manner, so students don’t interpret the teachings as proselytizing. “How you teach religion is just as impor tant as what you are teaching,” said Moore. “In addition, few teachers are adequately trained to teach religion. Students and teachers may also harbor strong, unconscious assumptions about religion. There are definitely challenges to teaching religion responsibly.” Last fall, Quebec passed legislation re quiring all primary and secondary schools to teach an ethics and religious culture course that covers the world’s major religions. Bou dreau believes that the course will increase religious literacy. “The trend is to have more education about religion,” he said. “You will have chil dren of all kinds of religions and ethnicities. The religious element of culture [cannot con tinue to be] insufficiently addressed. The real ization from 9/11 is that we cannot ignore the power of religion.” While Moore agrees that the new course is a step in the right direction, she also noted that a similar religion class would be difficult to implement in the United States. Moore explained that there are two primary goals,
bridging the achievement gap and increasing competency in language arts and sciences, that would be prioritized over introduction of a re ligious course. “Realistically speaking, the U.S. educa tion system has priorities to focus on,” she said. “We can address [religious illiteracy] by tying religious references into English, history, and language arts classes.” While Boudreau is still surprised that many of his students were clueless as to the identity of a significant biblical figure, he also believes that students today are more interested in learning about religion than 10 years ago. “Students now are very curious and en gaged. They don’t have a chip on their shoul der when learning about religion,” he said. Mitchell Miller, U4 secondary education and president of the Education Undergraduate Society, echoed Boudreau’s observations. “While students are not that well-versed in religions other than their own, they are in terested in learning. For lack of a better word, it’s fun to know about other religions,” said Miller.
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4 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
SPEAKER O N CAM PU S
Psychology professor researches the erasement of memories C ould be used to treat PTSD
LAUREN HUDAK Contributor
In a lecture titled “Manipulating Memo ries for Therapeutic Purposes: Fact or Fic tion?” McGill psychology professor Karim Nader detailed his groundbreaking, innovative research that suggests it is possible to “erase memories.” N ader’s research, quite literally, broke the barriers of prior psychological knowledge. Prior to N ader’s investigations, it was be lieved that when an individual acquires a new memory, the information is briefly held in the unstable short-term memory, where it is later converted into the stable long-term memory through a process called consolidation. After a memory is stored in this long-term vestibule, researchers believed that the individual is not able to modify that memory. After listening to a presentation given by Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, Nader became particularly interested in what happens to a memory at the stage when it is recalled by an individual. Nader attributes some of his suc cess to learning about other aspects of memory storage, instead of solely focussing on consoli dation.
While working in a lab, Nader used the parameters from the prior experiments, and modified them slightly in order to test his theory. The experiment showed that when an individual recalls a memory, it goes back to the unstable state. Subsequently, in that unstable state, if reconsolidation is blocked, the memo ry can be eliminated. “The interpretation [of your experiment] has to be objective. But then if your interpre tation says it’s theoretically possible to erase memories then you should go off the wall,” said Nader. The idea of erasing a person’s memories has already found its way into the entertain ment world, serving as the inspiration behind the film The E ternal Sunshine o f the Spotless M ind, the story of a devastated young woman who attempts to erase the memories of her ex boyfriend. N ader’s findings could have a profound impact on the treatment of patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessivecompulsive disorder, or addiction. During the lecture, Nader explained that trauma patients could be treated with propanolol, a beta block er. “The drug causes asymmetrical effects on emotional information, so the conscious part [of the memory] becomes restored while the emotional part is not,” said Nader.
JULIA WEBSTER
The preliminary findings from case stud ies, in which six treatments were used, indicate that the vast majority of PTSD patients no lon ger met the diagnostic PTSD level after treat ment. However, because the research behind it is relatively new and has not been sufficiently tested, the beta blocker has not been adminis tered to treat patients. Regardless of its effectiveness, the use of this drug to erase the emotional component of a memory raises several serious ethical issues. “To me, there is an ethical moral dilem ma. On one hand, you would want to relieve suffering, but, on the other hand, it could be abused,” said Sam Goldberg, a McGill alum nus. “For example, criminals, rogue soldiers, or all types of other people could be given this stuff to become more efficient killing ma
chines, to become non-emotional zombies.” While this is a concern for many, Nader believes the advantages outweigh the disad vantages of his research and its impacts. “W hat we are doing is giving those peo ple back their lives,” he said in reference to patients who suffer from PTSD. Nader recently received the Steacie Award, a prestigious prize given by the Ca nadian prime minister to encourage the career development of young and productive scien tists working at Canadian Universities. “I ’m 34 years old. I have one paper in the field to my name, and I have Nobel Laureates throwing hatchets at me. When you’re 34, you are even surprised that these people know your name.”
E X C L U S I V E I N T E R V IE W
RVH director of infectious diseases discusses H1N1 in Montreal TRIP YANG Contributor
The endless m edia attention on H1N1 has led to confusion regarding the truth a n d myth surrounding the virus. To tie up the loose ends, the Tribune recently sat dow n with noted vi rologist Dr. D alius J. Briedis, director o f the D ivision o f Infectious D iseases a t the Royal Victoria H ospital, to discuss how the virus is transm itted, how it differs fro m p a st flu p a n dem ics, and w hat students should do i f they experience flu-like sym ptom s.
The everyday definitions of swine flu and H1N1 differ from the scientific defini tions. Why are those differences in the no menclature? To some degree both of these are nick names that have been adopted in the press. Strictly speaking swine flu is influenza virus that only affects pigs. H1N1 is a general type of flu that w e’ve had since around 1967. So what’s going on now is the virus is going around and threatening humans. It is a pan demic already because a pandemic is defined by an epidemic of flu that goes all around the world. So this threatening virus, called [in the press] swine flu or H1N1 is in fact a recom binant virus between traditional H1N1 that’s been circulating around since 1967 and a pig virus. So now it’s neither a pig virus nor the same H1N1 as before. It’s essentially a new virus. When swine flu is transmitted to hu
mans, what genomic differences occur? The great bulk of influenza virus in the world is found in wild water birds. Both hu mans and pigs are sort of a side show. Most of the genes we find in human and pig strains can also be found in bird strains, so it becomes a little confusing. The human H1N1 is essential ly an adapted avian virus itself. This terminol ogy gets very confusing, because most of the pig and human genes [of influenza virus] came from birds in the first place. These new strains do not have genome segments newly acquired from birds. Does the new strain of H IN I transmit in ways different than regular seasonal flu? It seems as if it’s more transferred by in animate objects and direct touch rather than the air cell transmission [of the traditional flu]. The [new H1N1] seems to be able to live on hands [longer] than door knobs, so we touch the door knob, pick our noses, and we get in fected. In 1,280 confirmed cases of the flu pan demic in Montreal, 12 victims have died. How does the flu pandemic in Montreal compare with situations in the developing world? So far what w e’ve seen here is relatively minor compared to a lot of places in the de veloping world, and in the aboriginal villages of Canada. We’ve seen a much higher rate of infection and serious disease. It’s very hard to actually compare the amount of serious dis ease because the number of serious disease cases needs to be compared to the total num
ber of cases. We have no idea what the total number of cases is. 1,280 is probably only the tip of the iceberg. There are probably thou sands more who have mild cases and have never sought help. It makes it hard to judge if the tip sticking out of the water is significant or not. In 1918 about five per cent of known cases died. In the recent 56-57 pandemic the case mortality was about 0.5 per cent. In Mex ico the initial case mortality was much higher, but that probably reflects the tip of the iceberg phenomenon where the people who are most likely to be tested for flu are the people who are really sick. W hat’s the case mortality for the cur rent flu pandemic? The numbers for different localities differ tremendously. Our case mortality is very low. In other places it’s very high. So far it’s clear that this new strain is not nearly as bad as the 1918 strain, but it’s similar to the 1918 strain in that the severe disease that we see, we see in young people and not the old farts like me. 56 per cent of Montreal victims are women. Are women predisposed to influ enza? I think that’s an artifact we see from being more involved in child care than men are. It’s children who are the main vectors for the virus and pass it around. I think it simply reflects the fact that women spend more time around children. Do the 2009 flu pandemic and regular seasonal flu target different demographics? Regular seasonal flu tends to target the
elderly, infants and [the] chronologically ill. This strain hits those populations but in excess of those populations, it seems to cause serious disease in six-to-25-year-olds year olds who normally who would normally remain un scathed by [regular] seasonal flu. Many symptoms of this H1N1 flu re semble those of typical seasonal flues, such as fevers, coughing, and sore throats. If someone experiences these symptoms, how soon should they visit a doctor? Regular seasonal flu, which causes se vere disease in old people, develops slowly in old people. So they get their serious disease, say, a week after they first get sick. Younger people, who are going to get really bad, get bad within the first 48 hours. I think that if we know there’s H1N1 swine flu in Montreal, and you’re six-to-25, and experiencing flu symp toms, you should probably consult a doctor within the first day or two. E d ito r’s N ote: Dr. B riedis m entioned that M ontreal will have vaccine treatm ents by the second or third w eek o f November. Briedis added that the H I N 1 flu pandem ic m ay be over in M ontreal. Briedis also encouraged young people with severe upper respiratory infection to visit Student H ealth immediately, where th e y ’ll be treated with an anti-viral drug called TamiFIu. Briedis added that stu dents should seek the vaccine when it arrives in November.
Curiosity Delivers
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 • 5
C IT Y
CAM PUS
Protest planned for Bush’s visit P olice preparing fo r event
KATRINA SIENIUC Contributor
Montreal protesters plan to give former U.S. president George W. Bush a piece of their m ind—or in this case, a piece of their ward robe. Bush is scheduled to speak at a private Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal lun cheon on Thursday, October 22. An ad-hoc group of “anti-capitalist, anti imperialist” protesters will disrupt the event by throwing their shoes at the former presi dent. The inspiration for the protest is the in cident in Baghdad last December when Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi interrupted a news conference by launching a shoe at the president’s head. The Montreal demonstrators plan to send a similar message. The event, with tickets priced at $400 each, is taking place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Attendees will hear Bush reflect on his time in office and answer various questions from the audience. According to John Parisella, Quebec’s delegate-general to New York City, Mon treal welcomed Bush to speak because of its
“ [openness] to diverse points of view.” He also emphasized the point that Bush’s presence in Montreal does not necessarily mean approval or praise for his time in office by Montrealers. However, according to the protest orga nizers’ Facebook page, Bush is clearly “not welcome” in Montreal by certain citizens. It continues to mention that anyone who would pay $400 to hear “this criminal brag for 40 minutes” is also a “crook.” The protesters’ Fa cebook page invites the people of Montreal to “crash the party” and for everyone to “bring your old shoe.” The extent to which people will toss their shoes as an expression of dissent is unclear. Although people are urged to dig out their old footwear, it may be more symbolic than literal. The protest group’s posters do not encourage the actual pitching of shoes, rather just the symbolic gesture of old shoes as a memorial for protest. According to Alain Bourdage, the officer in charge of operational planning for Montreal Police, the protest could be anything from shouting outside the building to attempts to get inside and physically disrupt Bush’s talk. ADAM SCOTTI
Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson spoke to a packed crowd in the Shatner Building’s Lev Bukhman room last Thursday at a town hall meeting regarding controversial events on campus.
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6 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
zdaniels@mcgilltribune.com R EM EM BER TH E T IM E W E C R ASH ED CHRIS C O L E ’ S P A R T Y ? *I Last week, instead of writing this col umn on time, I visited a friend from residence who recently moved into a nearby apartment. As we got deeper into our cups, we began to reminisce about the first year that we knew each other. His first impression of me was that I was a precocious tot, and mine of him was that he was a cute, brooding sissy. It turns out that he’s not such a sissy; our stories of past exploits were equal parts gossip and deface ment of public property. When I got home, still caught up in the nostalgic spirit, I started reading my journals from first year and found a file called “Rules for Living.” A little background: when I was accepted to McGill, I didn’t know anyone attending this school, and my knowledge of Canada was lim ited to a pre-teen family trip to Niagara Falls. (When my mom asked me what I thought of our northern neighbour, I said “Canada has a lot of wax museums.”) Wax Maurice Richards aside, coming to McGill was exciting because it promised to be completely different from my life in Minnesota. Ever the type-A person ality, I had wanted to make sure I had the best experience possible, so I made a list of “Rules for Living.” Zoe’s First Year Rules for Living • One night of at-home time is enough to re cover from three days of partying. • You look fine. • Do your homework the night before. • Accept every invitation given during the first two weeks of school. • Never say “best friend,” “boyfriend at home,” or “I’m so drunk.” • Do it because you can. I used to be obsessed with doing things the right way, in the right order, and in the
The ad opens with a greyscaled photo of Michael Ignatieff, hands outstretched towards a nameless crowd, a smile on his face. “He considers America ‘his country,” ’ claims the commercial. If he loses the election, he will “ask Harvard to take [him] back.” I have been told that attack ads such as this are considered one of the worst aspects of competitive politics. The Liberal Party denounced the Conservative attack ads as innacurate, offensive, and partisan—saying that
Opinion most economical way possible. That’s what my list was: the set of rules that would ensure the most interesting year for me. The method was a bit skewed, but the sentiment was spot on. Loosely following these rules led to one of the most interesting years of my life. No “rule” has been more valuable than compelling myself to do things when the opportunity arises—to turn down as few in vitations as possible. When forced to make choices between what would be smart and what would make a good story, I pick the good story. McGillians, I implore you to do the same. Not to make a list of rules, but to create good stories. Make stories to tell your friends, to tell your kids, to tell anyone who’ll listen. Meet a family of heavy metal musicians and go home with them. Get an ill-advised tattoo. Build a three-foot tall replica of a thumb and use it to hitchhike. Take advantage of weird opportunities and obsessions, because there’s no time better suited to pointless adventuring than university. My pointless adventure is wrapping up, though. Like many of you, I’m graduating soon and don’t know what I want next. My plan is to apply for a bunch of things that seem interesting—I figure I’ll want at least one of them when it comes down to the wire. But while I’m still here, you can bet that I’m going balls to the wall. And if a testiclefree gal like me can do that, then you can, too. McGill culture prizes completing assignments, getting good grades, and getting triumphantly wasted—but there are better stories for you. Go find them. I went to Chicago to do comedy at the risk of having to take an extra semester to graduate. It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for any number of A’s from McGill pro fessors, and it turns out to have not adversely affected my credits. Do things that interest you. The most interesting people on this earth are the most obsessive weirdos, as Errol Mor ris knows. I’m not saying you should drop out of school and start that hydroponic “tomato” farm you’ve always dreamed of, I ’m just say ing you should work to feed your passions. If you go to McGill to get a degree so that you can find a job to support your Batman fanclub’s weekend orgies, then you’re doing it right. Make good stories, people, because that’s what life’s about!
they were typical of the crudeness of the Con servatives. Ignatieff criticized the ads in an on line broadcast saying, “I am not the issue.” Yet attack ads work brilliantly, and the Ignatieff ads have raised questions about the Liberal leader that otherwise would not exist. Whether he likes it or not, Ignatieff’s past and his motives for returning to Canada have be come an issue. The Liberals have good reason to fear the commercials. The party’s former leader, Stéphane Dion, was swept away by the Tories’ effective attack ads that painted him as a weak and ineffectual leader, and the aloof Ignatieff is just as ripe for the picking. And while the string o f attack ads launched by the Conser vative Party against Ignatieff have been criti cized by the media, they are having an effect on Canadians. A recent poll by Angus Reid Strategies found that the commercials negatively af fected the public’s perception of Ignatieff. Views o f Ignatieff as a strong leader in Quebec
CHOOSE L IF E ’S FAR-RIG H T AGENDA White supremacist groups like the Aryan Nation no longer advocate race “hatred,” they advocate race “pride.” “Black people are not bad, white people are just superior.” Does this change the racist nature of their message? Of course not. It is a disingenuous attempt to fit hate speech into liberal discourse. Similarly, Choose Life President Natalie Fohl’s recent statement in the Tribune that, “It’s really unfortunate that we couldn’t have respectful dialogue,” and other claims to want to “talk” about abortion are disingenuous cov er-ups for a hateful message. Choose Life’s message is not about “choosing” at all. It’s about rolling back the clock on women’s rights, and the entire notion of sexual freedom from state control. Last fall, when Choose Life first set up an inflammatory display on campus, some concerned people came and pelted them with questions about their group. I, sick of “debat ing” with the religious far-right, asked one of their volunteers a question: “Women had abortions before it was decriminalized. They died in far greater numbers. How is a return to that ‘Choosing Life?” ’ His response was the only honest thing I’ve ever heard from Choose Life: “It’s true. And that’s why our real goal is to create a culture and society where women don’t end up in situations where they even contemplate an abortion in the first place.” Come again? “Well, at least not outside mar riage.” And there it is. Choose Life’s goal is not to help women pick what this group considers to be the correct moral decision on abortion. It is about socially engineering a society where women are not free to have sex on their terms. According to that belief, women can only have sex when they are economically and socially bound for life to their male sexual partner. O f course, the logical option to avoid pregnancy would be safe or non-penetrative sex. Sadly, it seems Choose Life also opposes
dropped by 12 per cent, and views of the man as “open” dropped by seven per cent. Also, in a recent study of Quebec, support for the Conservatives increased by eight points, while the Liberals dropped nine points over the same period. In volatile Canadian politics, where minority governments have become the norm, these small changes in opinion can dramati cally alter the outcome of an election. As a politician it is impossible to avoid criticizing your competition. A healthy portion of the political process is devoted not only to establishing your intentions for government, but how your opponent would fail to govern properly. Dion is living proof that attack ads can undermine the credibility of a campaign and its leadership. The commercials are particular ly effective when the issues raised are fair, rea sonable, and cause for legitimate concern. De spite the criticism of the Ignatieff attack ads, it cannot be forgotten that the commercials are based on quotes directly from Ignatieff. Yes,
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these options. When we questioners raised these op tions last fall, we were told by a Choose Life volunteer that to declare that life begins at a particular moment or another is arbitrary, and therefore anything with the potential for life is, itself, life. In other words, as the Bible al legedly commands, spilling your seed is just as sinful as aborting a baby, which is just as sinful as murdering your neighbour. Or just as sinful as the Holocaust, as Jose Ruba tried to tell us. And thus we uncover another layer of Choose Life’s frightening far-right agenda. It isn’t just about holding back women’s right to choose their sexual partners and practices. It’s about restricting everyone’s right to have sex outside the confines of life-long heterosexual marriage. O ne’s personal beliefs about abortion are a matter of moral choice—the criminalizing of sexuality is not. The decision to have an abor tion is an individual choice that each woman must make for herself. To decide that one considers the practice immoral—and to share your opinions to that end—is perfectly legiti mate. To advocate the criminalization—or at least the social stigmatization—of all sexual acts committed outside of heterosexual mar riage, however, is not a matter of morality. It is a matter of hate. This is why Tuesday night’s events were not about freedom of speech, but were about hate speech. And this is why so long as Choose Life continues to deny the humanity of people who have sex outside heterosexual, life-long marriage, their events will be shut down. This is not a threat. This is a statement based on his torical facts and basic human reaction to the spreading of hatred in their communities. I have many friends—mostly Catholic, like this group claims to b e—who consider themselves “pro-life.” While I personally dis agree with their opinion and they with mine, we can engage in “respectful dialogue,” be cause both of our starting points is that abor tion is a moral question. When your starting point is the criminal ization of all sex acts committed outside of a heterosexual marriage, you are not pushing for a “respectful dialogue.” You are not even en gaging with morality. You are engaging with hatred.
they are dramatized, but Canadians should not forget that they have a basis in fact. We cannot forget that Ignatieff told the Harvard Crimson in 2005 that, if he were to fail in his bid for election, he would “ask Har vard to take me back.” He did indeed call the Canadian flag “a passing imitation of a beer label.” When asked if Canada as a nation had failed in the 1995 referendum, Mr. Ignatieff declared that it was “very hard put to see what kind of future we have.” The Conservative attack ads force us to question Ignatieff’s motives. Has Ignatieff shown us that he really is here for the Cana dian people, or is he simply here for ambition? It’s no wonder the Liberals fear attacks ads: they reveal the complexity of a politician— breaking down the carefully cultivated public image put forth by the party. They make us wonder who they really are.
Curiosity Delivers
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009 • 7
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--------------------- E D IT O R IA L -----------------Vancouver’s worrying civil liberties rollback
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Given the recent package of Olympic bylaws passed for the 2010 Winter Games, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Games were again being held in Beijing, and not Vancouver. In the Chinese capital—the host city of the 2008 Summer Olympics—one wouldn’t be surprised to see bans on “voice amplifi cation equipment” (such as megaphones) and signs that are not of a “celebratory na ture” on city property for the duration of the Games. Or a bylaw that prohibits “any dis turbance ... interfering with the enjoyment of entertainment on city land by other per sons.” Or a piece of provincial legislation that allows authorities to enter residences and private property with only 24 hours no tice to remove or cover up signs during the Olympics period, and fine offenders up to $10,000 per day. But these are not the measures of the repressive Chinese government—rather, they are “temporary restrictions” passed by the Vancouver City Council and the B.C. provincial government this summer in prep aration for the 2010 Olympics. Last week, the B.C. Civil Liberties As
sociation publicly endorsed a lawsuit filed by University of British Columbia professor Chris Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe, two members of the Olympic Resistance Network, a group that challenges the restric tions on protest signs. They claim that the bylaws restrict their Charter rights to free dom of speech and freedom of assembly. According to the City of Vancouver, however, the bylaws are only intended to protect Olympic advertisers, and to allow authorities to shut down those looking to make a quick buck from selling unauthor ized goods. City Councilman Geoff Meggs told The Vancouver Sun that the bylaws were only there “to stop ambush marketing and inappropriate commercial expression.” Unfortunately, the wording of the by laws is much too vague for us to take the city at its word. Laws of this type must be pre cise, because ambiguity leads to confusion and abuse of power. As it stands, the bylaws give authorities too much leeway to inter pret a legitimate protest as a “disturbance” that interferes with others’ enjoyment. And the allowance of “celebratory” signs but not dissident ones may be acceptable for inside
Olympic venues, but it is pure censorship when it is also applicable to the “Olympic bubble zones” that compose much of down town Vancouver, Richmond, and Whistler. If the bylaws are meant to restrict un authorized advertising, then they should be written to specifically do just that. There’s no reason why the bylaws can’t be written to prohibit signage or voice amplification equipment only when they are used for il licit promotion, rather than the blanket re strictions currently proposed. The Olympics are a magnet for contro versy and ajegitim ate area of debate over the use of taxpayer funds. However, the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Commit tee seems to want to ensure that dissident voices are marginalized, and that everyone looks happy when the world’s media come to Vancouver in February. Unfortunately the municipal and provincial government seem all too happy kowtowing to their wish for a controversy-free Olympic Games. VANOC has already taken our money without ask ing—don’t let them take our right to protest as well.
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Last Friday’s announcement of US Presi dent Barack Obama as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize has turned heads around the world. There’s been an outcry, from the right, the left, and the centre, that Obama—a presi dent barely nine months into his term —doesn’t deserve this international honour. And they are right. Obama is the Commander-in-Chief of the largest military in the world, which is currently engaged in not one, but two full-scale wars. That alone should take him out of consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize. But the argument goes further than that. Three US presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize since its inception in 1901: The odore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Jimmy Carter in 2002. Both Roosevelt and Wilson won the prize while in office for helping to end a major international war (the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, respectively), and, in Wilson’s case, for estab lishing an institution dedicated to international cooperation (the ill-fated but well-intentioned, League of Nations). Carter won more than 20
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 submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or sole ly promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.
Well done, Choose Life. Re: “Editorial: Choose Life crossed the line with Ruba event” (06.10.09) “Choose Life crossed the line with Ruba event” —not even. The very title of this edito rial is absolutely absurd. One would think that in a free and democratic country like Canada, there would be no censorship of an event makings one’s position on a certain matter of
years after leaving office in recognition of de cades of work towards international peace. Not only has Obama not yet ended a war while in office, he is actually planning on in creasing the number o f US troops in Afghani stan and scaling up the war there. While this is probably the right strategic decision, it’s the exact opposite of what his predecessors have done to earn the prize. While it’s true that Obama’s willingness to engage with Iran and his efforts towards Israeli-Palestinian peace are laudable, neither has been significant or successful enough to warrant this award. The most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke down without much progress, and last Thursday Israeli Foreign M inister Avigdor Lieberman stated that he believes a comprehensive peace deal with Palestine is impossible in the foresee able future. The Geneva talks with Iran were a step in the right direction, but it is far too early to assume that there will be any slowdown of Iran’s nuclear program. Despite the fact that I believe Obama does not deserve this award, I also believe that it may have been a good thing. In his short ac ceptance speech at the White House on Friday, he admitted that he was surprised, and that he didn’t believe he had earned the award, but was accepting it as a “call to action.” This is a good sign. Obama needs to use this award as a mo mentum-builder to encourage his diplomatic
great social and political importance known. Whether that event is appropriate or not is for McGill Students to decide. For SSMU to at tempt to stop this event, which is being run by a SSMU-approved student club, is simply ridiculous—and the reasoning behind that even more so. It seems that this event may raise a few eyebrows as it is “designed to be inflammatory.” So what? Perhaps for others the event would consist o f material which they passionately believe in. Still for others, it may be an eye-opening experience. I still can’t get over the fact that SSMU would make such a big deal out of this matter and try and prevent this Choose Life event from happening, and,
team. Special Envoy George Mitchell is cur rently shuttling back and forth between Jeru salem and Ramallah trying to restart talks be tween Israel and Palestine; Iranian and Ameri can diplomats are set to resume negotiations later this month with no clear goal or solution on the table; the US military is facing the daunting task of withdrawing, and not with drawing, from Iraq at the same time; and the war in Afghanistan is only going to get worse before it gets better. In the face of these issues, a little encouragement and positive reinforce ment can only help Obama and his team at the White House and the State Department. Do I think that there were better candi dates for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize? Yes. Nominees included French-Colombian hos tage and activist Ingrid Betancourt and Chi nese activist Hu Jia—among a total of 33 or ganizations and 172 individuals. However, no other nominee has as much potential to turn a win into concrete, positive action. This is a unique opportunity for Obama: he’s getting a Nobel Peace Prize for what he can do in the future. Let’s hope he earns it. Tais McNeill is a U2 International D e velopment Studies and Political Science stu dent. You can reach him at tais.mcneill@mail. megill, ca
furthermore, that the Tribune would support SSMU in their nonsensical stance and actions. Finally, I would like to commend Choose Life for going against the mighty SSMU and fight ing for what they believed in. Whether they are on the right side or not is beside the point. They believe in something, and it is something that a great deal of the world’s population also supports. Thus, to bar them from voicing their beliefs is completely preposterous. Shame on you, SSMU and McGill Tribune—and well done, Choose Life. — Kokulan Mahendiran UO Arts Letters continued on PAGE 8
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8 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
show a few shocking pictures. —Chris Knight U 1 Mathematics and Computer Science
Continued from PAGE 7 Choose Life’s rationale. Re: “Editorial: Choose Life crossed the line with Ruba event" (06.10.09) I must preface this letter by saying that in no way am 1 pro-life or associated with Choose Life in any capacity. However, I do wish to play the devil’s advocate for a moment. Most people would agree that the murder of mil lions of people is a horrific atrocity, especially if these murders are sanctioned by society and the murderers given complete amnesty. With this in mind it should not be shocking to any one that some may find it completely reason able to compare abortion to the Holocaust. If we concede that it is legitimate for people to consider abortion to be murder, then how is it ludicrous to find clear parallels to other massacres in history? I mean, what if we were allowed to abort children up to two years of age? 12 years? Arguments about the consent of the mother can’t really apply if the person who is being murdered doesn’t give consent. If a human is a human at conception, then abor tion is just as much a murder at that stage of development as any other, worse maybe, since as long as the person is in the womb, his or her termination is allowed with impunity. The bottom line is that from a pro-lifer’s point of view, we currently live in a society where we don’t consider the destruction of a human life a crime if the human in question comes under a certain category. The best de fence we could muster is that at least our cul ture is apathetic about this atrocity rather than encouraging it. I guess my point is that it’s a little ridiculous for people to get upset with Choose Life for following their ideology to its logical conclusion because it’s “immature” or “manipulative.” If anything, Choose Life is showing a pretty poor effort for their cause. If there really was a veritable slaughter going on, I’d expect activists to do a lot more than just
Commentary Birgitte Witt LO SING PA TIENC E W ITH C H O O SE LIFE I
I used to be pro-Choose Life. When the club was founded last year, I was under the im pression that it wanted to reintroduce and rein force resources for those women who decided to carry a pregnancy to term, whether planned or unplanned, during their university careers. I identify as pro-choice, and any resources that support women in their choices seemed like a positive thing to me. However, with each sub sequent event and public message that Choose Life has decided to introduce into what they call the “debate” on abortion in Canada, it be comes increasingly clear that their goal is not to support those who decide to carry a preg nancy to term, but to oppress women by sham ing them, attempting to limit their choices, and engaging in hate speech. My reeducation began with the “Silent
I’m sorry, did I offend you? I’m glad to see that your event went ahead, if not quite as planned. It would have been a shame if it had been shut down by administra tive forces. You might have even had a legiti mate complaint there concerning freedom of expression. Maybe. However, if you’re going to say that freedom of speech means the free dom to say offensive, hurtful, triggering things (and you would be right about that, though some would argue that what you planned to say bordered on hate speech), don’t complain when the protesters come. Don’t gripe about how we upstaged you. Don’t you dare say we violated your freedom of speech. Nothing pre vented Jose Ruba from saying his whole spiel; hell, I even trust that no one would have gotten physical if he'd tried to say it on stage. We pro testers only prevented him from being heard, by using our freedom of speech. I’m sorry, did that offend you? Frus trate you? Anger you? Good. Welcome to the club. Now quit your whinging, you bloody hypocrites, we, too, have the right to speak, to speak and shout and sing over you. If it’s of fensive, you can always leave. You’re free to speak; w e’re free to speak louder. Life’s tough like that. P.S.: To the next pro-lifer who says that no pro-choice person came forward to debate Ruba, fuck you. I know of at least one person who did in fact email Choose Life McGill, not outright putting their name forward, but ask ing for details with the tentative suggestion that they would, were it not a setup. No one re sponded. D on't imply that w e’re cowards, too afraid to stand up for what we believe in when the event was never intended to be a debate in the first place. —Amelia Mensch U 1 Mechanical Engineering
Opinions can be oppressive. Re: “Choice words fo r W oolf' by M o hammed Ashour (06.10.09) Mohammed, thank you for your criti cism s—I assure you, they’re nothing I’ve not
No More” campaign across campus, which featured posters of women stating “I regret my abortion” —the implicit message being that any woman who chooses to terminate a preg nancy will also come to regret it. Choose Life argued that they were merely trying to initiate a debate on the subject of abortion and its con sequences. If this were accurate. Choose Life should have organized a group of women par allel to those that they invited—that is, women who have had abortions and do not regret them. This would have reinforced the message that abortion is a choice, one with a context of potential costs and benefits on either side of the equation. The path that you choose, as well as the possible consequences, is a deep ly personal choice that no one can make for you. However, the simplistic statement that all women eventually come to regret their abor tions is patronizing and offensive to women who are legally able to make their own life de cisions. I became wary of Choose Life. The next warning sign was the commen tary piece by Natalie Fohl, founder and presi dent of Choose Life, in the Tribune on Sep tember 29. In it, she states that Choose Life be lieves that abortion is tantamount to “end[ing] the life of another human being.” This state
heard before. You mention that “certain individuals feel the compulsive need to smear particular groups in order to stifle opinions that they dis agree with.” Now then, shall I break down your rheto ric as you so kindly did for me? Amongst my “swamp” of “rhetoric,” “redundancies,” and “blind accusation^],” apparently I showed myself to be “intellectually dishonest” and “ignoran[t].” Oops, I almost forgot the bit where you mentioned my “mental diarrhea!” I ’m unfamiliar with that very technical diag nosis, but since you’re pursuing a degree in neuroscience, I guess I’ll trust your judgment. As you so insightfully noted, “strong words must be supported by strong evidence.” Following that statement, I can assume that you did your research into the kind of harm less “opinion” Choose Life was propagating. In brief; abortion is like the Holocaust, and thus, post-abortive women are Nazis. Opinions aren’t oppressive, huh? —Sarah Woolf U2 Political Science & Women’s Studies Words from a disappointed alumnus. Re: “Choose Life proceeds with contro versial ‘Echoes o f the Holocaust”’ (06.10.09) I was quite saddened to read that diver gent views are now to be shouted down at my alma mater. Your article included a quote that McGill is not a public space. M cGill’s funding is public with some private money from donors like me. It is indeed a public space. I have no doubt that the student quoted pays fees that are a small fraction of what her education costs. I had been heartened that Choose Life was allowed into existence earlier this year. I guess they can exist as long as they don't speak. This is not what should happen at a great university. There should be an exchange of ideas and a willingness to listen to other points of view. I am disappointed. I will have to re-evaluate my donations to McGill in light of these recent events. I am sure many others will do the same. —Roy Eappen M.D.C.M. ‘85
ment implies that women who choose to have abortions (as well as abortion providers) are murderers. As we all know, the first of the Ten Commandments that does not deal with the practice of religion states "thou shalt not kill,” and murder remains the most abhorrent crime in our society, alongside rape. By characteriz ing women who have terminated a pregnancy as murderers, Choose Life infers that these women have made an unconscionable choice both morally and legally, and should be con sidered criminals for exercising their right to choose. The last straw for me, however, was this past Tuesday’s event entitled “Echoes of the Holocaust” with speaker Jose Ruba, that was supposed to draw parallels between abortion and the Holocaust. Godwin’s law, and its part ner, reductio ad hitlerum (the idea that the longer a "debate" continues, the more likely it is to fall prey to a form of association fal lacy known as “playing the Nazi card”), are amusing to observe on the Internet, but in what is supposed to be a reasoned debate they are completely out of place. I will leave the dis cussion of the parallels to others more knowl edgeable than I, but inferring that women who terminate pregnancies are similar to Nazis or
An open letter to McGill’s giant hole. I came to McGill four years ago as a bright-eyed freshman, excited to be at such a prestigious brand-name university. I soon real ized that my brand-name university is more of a knock-off label that begins to unravel after a few wearings. Within a week of moving into Upper Rez, a giant hole appeared near Doug las. Four years later, this hole remains unfilled and more have since sprouted up on campus. Last night I was walking home from the li brary at 11:30 p.m. in a fog created by 18th century international relations history and my malfunctioning laptop. School clouded my brain and I walked right up to the giant hole at the Milton gates. I attempted to enter McCon nell Engineering, but as there’s no card reader, my only option was to walk around, go up and walk the entire way back around. Instead of doing that, I started yelling at the door. Another student in the same predicament turned to me and said, “don’t take it personal ly.” I do take it personally. The McGill bureau cracy hates their students and for the last four years has made my life difficult, day in and day out. This hole is the last straw in my re lationship with my brand name university. I ’m older and wiser now, and I see this for what it is: a giant hole to make students angry. Sure, we need to transport oxygen and pure water for research purposes (I read those emails), but this hole has been disrupting my walk to school for two years now. Work seemed to be at its best midway through this summer, but then, just last week, the hole grew. I wish I was surprised. And so, giant hole, I’ve accepted your existence and the fact that you may never get filled and that I’ll be walking through McConnell Engineer ing for the rest of my life at McGill. I have only a few months left as an undergraduate, and I have but one wish; finish the construc tion and fill up the hole by June 3, 2010. Let me leave McGill with the same sentiment that I arrived here with, proud of the name-brand education, not frustrated by construction and disruption of green space. I appreciate it. —Sarah Quinn U3 Arts
the Interahamwe of Rwanda is fallacious, op pressive, and deeply offensive. We, as a society, have reached a com promise and a consensus on abortion, in that it should be acceptable and available up until a certain point. Discussing this compromise and consensus is the right and responsibility of every member of our society, but to begin the debate by attempting to shame women into a particular choice, and likening those who choose abortion to murderers and génocidaires is not a productive or appropriate approach. By protesting Choose Life’s caricature of women on Tuesday evening, McGill students made their opposition to the methods of Choose Life very clear. If Choose Life want to continue to exist on campus and, as they put it, “introduce [their] perspective into public discussion, in the interest of promoting respect for all human life,” they should begin to respect the agency and integrity of those women and men protest ing outside their doors on Tuesday night. Birgitte Witt is a U3 H onours Political Science and E conom ics student.
Student Living
Curiosit^^elivers
MR. PRETEEN DREAM
When I was nothing but a pre pubescent girl,. I had one of those devastating crushes that you never forget. Let’s call him Mr. Preteen Dream. Later, as a mature high school student, our paths crossed again at a party his sister—my friend—was hosting. We talked about music (specifically, our love of Jason Mraz), and he innocently invited me into his room to watch a video he had of Mr. A to Z. This was my inner 13-year-old’s chance to actually enter tain the idea of hooking up with my childhood crush, and thankfully I was drunk enough to not grasp the repercussions of hooking up with my friend’s 22-year-old brother at a high school party, at my gossip-saturated high school in particular. Although my wine intake upped my liq uid courage to pursue this invitation, it also
obliterated my speech filter system. Loqua cious phrases such as, “You know, I had a huge crush on you when I was 12” (to which he replied with embarrassment, “Well, I didn’t, because you were 12 ... and that would have been weird.”), “Your sister’s going to flip,” and my personal favourite, “Just so you know, I’m a virgin and I ’m not going to have sex with you,” all flew out before I could stop myself. I’m surprised he didn't suddenly “re member” the job he had really early in the morning. Perhaps I was cute in my moment of verbal masochism, but more likely, the idea of hooking up with someone who’d crushed on him idyllically was appealing. We had been texting and chatting fol lowing our run-in, and I guess he figured that we should legitimize whatever we were doing with a real movie date. I giddily agreed and we settled on going to see the biggest movie out at the moment: Borat. On Friday night, getting giddier by the moment, I was ready by 6 p.m. He hadn’t even called yet. The moments dragged by with ago nizing slowness. Finally at a little past 7:15 he texted me to see if I still wanted to go out. I guess he hadn’t thought about it too much all day. But that’s fine—I could pretend I hadn’t either. I
was casual. I was a busy, busy girl with lots of pertinent high school duties he would not have understood (I wish). Now, before leaving his house at three a.m. that first night we crossed paths, Mr. Dream had lent me the DVD set of Jason Mraz in concert, and I’d watched it. I also noticed that one of the discs was missing. So I filled it. With a mix CD. Let me re peat: I made him a fucking mix CD. I’m over it now, though. Completely. I ’m not a dweller. So he drove up, I got in the car, and as we listened to the indie rock songs I’d so careful ly chosen, I thought to myself, “Fuck. I made him a mix CD." It had seemed so innocent, something I’d do for any of my guy friends. But Mr. Dream wasn’t my guy friend. This was my first real date, which should have happened at age 14, when it would have still been ok to make him a mix CD. I certainly couldn’t take it back now. At least it filled the prolonged and awkward silence in the car. Needless to say, we did not seal the deal that night. Note to self: If you ever manage to have a second date, guys can smell desperation. That stuff is more potent than Axe.
TOOV CjTWtTl----------------------------------------------------------
ADAM LEVINE Contributor
It’s pretty challenging (and pretty pre tentious) to define one’s own culinary per spective, but I’ll try anyway. I ’ve been cooking for ten years, and eating for 20. The best meal I’ve ever had was fresh blood oranges and almonds off the back of a farm truck in northern California. I was once a vegetarian, and even a vegan, but nowadays I ’ll try anything at least once. The cornerstone of my approach to food is the following: since we have to eat to survive, it might as well be delicious every time. I’m fascinated by why we eat, what we eat, and why we crave certain foods at cer tain times. And I don’t believe in recipes—I believe in methods. I also believe in adven tures: I once quartered a chicken for chicken soup. Spoiler: the following has a lot less blood and guts. Recently, I set out to make calzones with end-of-summer vegetables. My culi nary adventure brought me to a rather sur prising location: McGill Pizza. Pizza dough is easy to make, but it takes some time and is inexpensive at most pizzerias. I asked the guy at McGill Pizza if they sold dough, and he gave me a swift, simple “No.” “Really?” I asked. “No. We don’t sell pizza dough.” i.
He and I engaged in an intense staring con test until he blinked. “Fine, give me three dollars,” he submitted, and sold me the dough for two pizzas, enough for three large calzones. You can fill calzones with a variety of comestibles, but remember: preheat your oven while you roll out your dough and make your fillings. If you don’t own a roll ing pin, rinse off a wine bottle. Your dough rounds should be about as thick as a pencil (if you like your crust a bit thicker, go for it), but not so thin that it rips or tears. Heap generous piles of the filling into the center of the dough and fold.( Note: the dough will only make a seal when it comes in contact with other dough—not the filling, which is wet. Doing this will prevent the calzone from baking perfectly.) To make my filling, I chopped a bulb of fennel, half of a large yellow onion, a bell pepper, a zucchini, and an eggplant into equal sized cubes. I also diced three cloves of garlic. I sautéed all of these in olive oil with liberal amounts of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. After they cooked down, I added a couple freshly chopped tomatoes, giving the mixture a thin sauce. If you plan to add ricotta (this is a good idea), allow the sautéed vegetables to cool. Add about half a cup of ricotta and maybe some chopped basil or pesto. Taste and sea son again. I arranged my calzones on an oiled baking sheet and brushed the top of each one with a tablespoon of olive oil. I baked them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until they
Science Undergraduate Research Conference 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Arts Building Top students from across the Faculty of Science present the results of their research projects.
Homecoming: Spotlight on Schulich Concert 8:00 p.m. Pollack Hall Kick off Homecoming 2009 in swinging style! The Schulich School of Music and the McGill. Alumni Association proudly present “Spotlight on Schulich,” a concert featuring jazz, vocal and chamber music performed by our talented students.
I
My life in science: the excitement of discovery 2:30-5 p.m. Peterson Hall
Simple and delicious calzones for anyone Calzones filled with comestibles, sans recipe, can be incredibly satisfying
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 • 9
were golden and looked ready to eat. The result is inevitably simple, deli cious, and so, so, so satisfying.
The Faculty of Science welcomes neuroscientist Dr. Brenda Milner to deliver the keynote address at the Science Undergraduate Research Conference.
David L. Montgomery 5/10 Km Run 9:30 a.m. Mount Royal Come exercise and honor the mem ory of David Montgomery. Regis tration is $10 for McGill students.
The Trial of Charles Taylor 12:30-2 p.m. Chancellor Hall, Rm. 202, 3644 Peel See Jeremy Waiser, the Special Assistant to the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone since October 2006, present an inside look on the trial of Liberian president Charles Tay lor, who is currently on trial for war crimes and crimes against human ity committed during Sierra Le one’s brutal civil war.
LEAH PIRES
Adam Levine is a U3 art history major with a penchant for calzones, chopping up chickens, and cooking without recipes. j
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Ex p l o r i n g Ea s t A f r i c a w i t h M c G ill' s CFSIA program BY LAURA TINDAL
Kibale National Park, Uganda — Me tallic cell phone alarms start buzzing beneath the mosquito nets shrouding each of the four bunkbeds. It’s dark in the dorm room, but a greyish light is starting to seep in from out side. It’s five a.m. and not easy to wake up, but unlike in Montreal, where we would hit snooze and skip an early class, nobody wants to miss anything here. In the last two weeks, school has involved visiting a slum in Nairobi, watching zebras wander around our truck in Nairobi National Park, and touring the United Nations headquarters. It’s only the second week of M cGill’s Canadian Field Studies in Africa program, and it already feels like w e’ve been here for m onths—in a good way. This morning w e’re quiet as we try to dress privately under the tangled, and occa sionally bug-filled, mosquito nets hanging around us. At Kibale w e’re in simple dorms, complete with sporadic electricity and bunkbeds. For the majority of the trip w e’re at re search stations like this or in cramped tents— two people in each, which makes movement tricky. By the time w e’ve been camping for three weeks straight in national parks, nobody will be shy about changing or sleeping in close quarters. Jen, Marion, Alicia and I come out of our room in sweaters to brace ourselves for the cold morning air. As always, it’s beautiful outside: lush green grass, loud hombills, and orange and blue lizards are right outside our door. But there’s something else: poo has been smeared across our door—handprints and fingerpaint designs decorate the wood with shit. The baboons don’t like us very much.
They walk around the research station like they own the place—the size of big dogs with bigger teeth, opposable thumbs, and little fear of people. The mothers come by with little black haired-babies dangling from their chests, and the males steal mangoes right from your hands. But they’re harmless, and this morning they’re sitting by the woodpile, watching us as we go through the dewy grass to the bath rooms, probably hoping w e’d blame the new decorations on the boys. The bathrooms have either flush toi lets or squat toilets (holes in the ground that force you to practice your aim like you never thought you would) that are most common throughout East Africa. We use bottled water from our filtration system to brush our teeth, but we use all water sparingly. We will visit areas o f Kenya where families walk two hours for dirty water every day, and the cows that they rely on for food are dying in the drought. When we return to Canada, fresh water in toi lets seems less of a missed luxury and more of a ridiculous waste. After a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, fried eggs, bananas, toast, and tea in the re search station’s dinner hall, we meet for classes, equipped with our cameras, note books, and water bottles. Within the semester of the field study there are three “mini se mesters,” in which there are three courses to choose from, dividing the group into around 12-person classes for each section. My class for this section is primatology with Profes sor Colin Chapman. Chapman and his wife Lauren (who teaches East African ecology) live in Montreal for the first half of the year, then move to their home and research station in Kibale for the rest of the year to do their respective research. It’s their fun, passionate involvement and teaching that makes Uganda the best leg of the trip.
The CFSIA program is organized by McGill but has partnerships with Queen’s University and the University of British Co lumbia. The program takes 30 to 40 students for a winter semester in East Africa, with the goal of increasing student understanding of Africa and introducing them to the continent. The hope is that this will encourage contribu tions to the region after the program ends. Stu-
LUSH GREEN GRASS, LOUD HORNBILLS, AND ORANGE AND BLUE LIZARDS ARE RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR DOOR. BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE: POO HAS BEEN SMEARED ACROSS OUR DOOR— HANDPRINTS AND FINGERPAINT DESIGNS DECORATE THE WOOD WITH SHIT.
dents travel with McGill professors through out East Africa, and the itinerary depends on local partnerships and safety in each region. Today, Jen, Dave and I will spend the morning collecting data for our research proj ect. This involves meeting up with our re search assistant Daniel and heading into the jungle with him to find the appropriate groups of monkeys for our study. Our project looks at vigilance levels in Red Colobus monkeys, and in under half an hour, Daniel has led us to a group of 20 red-headed monkeys bounc ing in the trees above us. We spend the morn ing taking photos and recording data, strain ing our necks staring up at the canopy while the monkeys nibble leaves, chase each other, and leap from tree to tree. When we first ar rived we took blurry photos of monkeys miles away; now we only take a shot if the primate’s within reaching distance—in a month this will be the same for a number of other savannah animals. We trek home uphill in the heat and mud with Daniel using the machete (or panga) to chop brush and thorny branches out of our
PHOTOS BY DAVID LOUTFI, DAVID OBERT, AND LAURA TINDAL
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way. Somebody inevitably steps in a line of army ants, which will crawl up your legs de spite boots and long pants and start to bite once they get to your knee. They sting, but not too badly, and victims usually rip off their pants in a hilarious attempt to get the ants off. Hombills sound like helicopters flying over head, and we have to avoid stepping in the water-filled elephant footprints in the mud, which can go thigh-deep. The forest elephants are sneaky and silent—they can be dangerous if you stumble upon one, though no student ever has. When we camp in Tsavo National Park in Kenya, the savannah elephants will walk right by the tents during breakfast, since they’re used to camps of people. By the time w e’re back for lunch—con sisting of ugali, chapati, curry, the biggest and sweetest mangoes and avocados w e’ve ever seen, and of course, more hard-boiled eggs— w e’re dirty and exhausted. The other sections claim that their tea plantation and fish speci men classes were more fun, but we have a hard time agreeing. After lunch, we have a couple hours of lecture with Colin under a tree, and then the rest of the afternoon is free time. Most people write in the journals we have to keep for the core course that continues through out the program. Others read, and some do the exercise regime w e’ve set up to balance all the carbs we eat here (enthusiasm for this will fade away as it gets hotter). A game of soccer starts, foreshadowing the times when w e’ll play local soccer teams in villages and
predictably get our asses kicked while the whole village watches. As the sun starts to set around six p.m., people start to move towards the dinner hall. Dinner—any meal, in fact—is always a highlight. Not because w e’re starving, but because the food is so good. It’s mostly local produce, and with so many options, the line for dinner evokes hyenas at a kill. It’s dark when dinner’s over, and some of us head over to the Canteen, the shack and bar at the research station where we can grab a warm, half-litre Nile beer for the equivalent of $2. Here, we sometimes hang out with our re search assistants, looking at a night sky filled with so many stars it seems like there’s more light than darkness. Other nights, Dave and I will get beer from town to sell to the group (proceeds going to the Kibale Health Clinic), and a party in the dining hall will ensue, com plete with eerie green lights, limbo poles, and “Disturbia” blasting into the night. We sit and talk about how amazing this trip is, about how w e’ve learned more in one day here than in three years of classes at McGill, and how none of our International Development Studies courses showed us what this place and these people were really going to be like. Heading back to our dorms before 11 p.m .—since we have to be up early—we keep
our headlights on the ground to watch for snakes, which never cause us trouble except for the one that slithers harmlessly up some one’s pants by Lake Nabugabo. Nights in the Maasai Mara are a little more stressful for some, when trumpeting elephants and roaring lions will echo unnervingly close to the tents. The camp will be guarded by armed ataris, though, and the animals have little interest in us. Falling asleep back under the mosquito net, exhausted and satisfied from another amazing day, it’s impossible to think that there will be better days to com e—but there will. I’ll spend a night with a Maasai family, milking their goats and learning about how they live in a way none of my African Studies courses on pastoral people ever taught me. I’ll pet a baby elephant, see lions up close, and spend afternoons on white sand beaches by the Indian Ocean studying for exams. As far as schooldays go, my days in CFSIA are made up of my best ones.
W e s it a n d t a l k a b o u t h o w W E 'V E LEARN ED M O R E IN O N E D AY H ERE THAN IN TH R EE Y E A R S O F C LA SS ES A T M c G lL L , AND HOW N ON E O F O UR IN TERN A TIO N A L D e v e l o p m e n t S t u d ie s c o u r s e s SH O W ED US W H AT TH IS P LA C E AND TH ESE P EO P LE W ER E R EA LLY GO IN G TO BE LIK E.
mcgilltribune.com
12 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
M IN D F U N K
TRAVEL
Decoding the aspartame myth
Buda and Pest
9 7 packets o f sweetener a day
linked to possible health risks JA N E T M CM ULLEN Contributor
From chewing gum to diet soda, aspar tame and other low-calorie artificial sweeten ers are ubiquitous in food and drink favou rites. While the addition of aspartame and other sugar substitutes has garnered extreme controversy over the years, there’s still over whelming scientific evidence indicating that aspartame is harmless, according to govern ment recommendations. But surfing the Internet seems to reveal a different story. Much of this can be blamed on “Dr.” Betty Martini, founder of Mission Pos sible World Health International, an organiza tion trying to cut out aspartame use. Martini claims that this “toxic” substance can cause countless health problems, including brain tumours, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, seizures and lupus. However, these allegations are not supported by scientific evidence. In fact, respected scientific advisory com mittees worldwide, including the US Food and Drug Administration, World Health Or ganization, European Food Safety Authority and Health Canada, all agree that aspartame is perfectly safe. Before any food additive is introduced to the market, it must undergo ex tensive safety testing and scrutiny by official regulatory bodies. “We have regulatory systems, and sub stances are not just randomly put on the mar ket,” says Joe Schwarcz, director of M cGill’s Office for Science and Society. “The path until something gets approved as an additive is a long and arduous one.” Aspartame was no exception, and has also been subject to continuous safety evalu ation through laboratory studies in animals and clinical studies in humans. Aspartame’s
“ Y o u r c h a n c e o f h a v in g a n a d v e r s e r e a c tio n to s o m e n a tu r a l f o o d is a lo t g r e a t e r th a n y o u r c h a n c e o f h a v in g a r e a c tio n to a s p a r ta m e , b e c a u s e th a t a t le a s t h a s b e e n te s te d . ” — P r o f. J o e S c h w a r c z
Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), established by the FDA, is 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, which correlates roughly to twenty cans of diet soda or 97 packets of sweetener per day. Not surprisingly, actual average daily consumption of the substance is much less. This is not to say that aspartame will al ways be safe for every individual. “There is the possibility of someone hav ing an adverse reaction, in the same way that you can have an adverse reaction to strawber ries or fish,” says Schwarc. However, “your chance of having an adverse reaction to some natural food is a lot greater than your chance of having a reaction to aspartame, because that at least has been tested.” The most common reaction reported has been headaches, but that has been quite rare compared to unfavourable effects caused by other chemicals. “If you have such a reaction, you just stay away from it,” says Schwarcz. Adverse reactions are often blamed on methanol, which combines with amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid to form aspar tame. The formic acid metabolite of methanol is indeed toxic in high concentrations, but the dose derived from average aspartame con sumption levels is much too low to have any negative impact on health. Interestingly, meth anol is also found in common foods including fruits, vegetables, and juices, but the amount of methanol that is liberated when you ingest aspartame is less than what you get in many of these natural foods. For the small proportion of the popula tion affected by phenylketonuria, a heredi tary condition characterized by an inability to metabolize phenylalanine, this component of aspartame is indeed dangerous, as it can ac cumulate and cause brain damage. However, healthy individuals do not face these risks from phenylalanine. Through years of debate over aspartame’s safety, scientific research and evaluation by reputable regulatory bodies has dispelled myths of aspartame toxicity. When consumed in amounts recommended by the FDA, aspar tame is safe for the general population. Next time you see it on a food label, don’t be con cerned—just try not to put more than 97 pack ets of sweetener into your morning coffee.
Touring and dining a war-torn city SHANNON K IM BA LL Features Editor
It may be an ocean away, but if you ever have the money to backpack through Europe, or are studying abroad and have a free week end on your hands, Budapest is the place to goThe Hungarian capital was originally two cities, Buda, the old city, and Pest, the new city. Budapest has been ravaged by war for centuries—on a recent trip, I learned that the country has never had more than 70 years without turm oil—but it has rebounded. In fact, Budapest is in a lovely transition period: its tourist industry is growing rapidly, but it’s not quite lavish enough to be as expensive as other popular central European destinations like Prague or Vienna. The Parliament building, the State Opera House, and St. Stephen's basilica are fine ex amples of neogothic and neoclassical archi tecture, but to get an even better view of the
One
SHANNON KIMBALL
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Budapest and its landmarks, go to the look out point at the Royal Palace or Fisherman’s Bastion. Better yet, take a hike to the top of Buda's hills. No trip to a war-ravaged city would be complete without a chronicle of the Nazi and Soviet occupations. The Terror Museum, right on Pest’s main street Andrassy, shows the hor rors of both occupations, and visitors can also take an elevator down to the former prisoner of ward holding cells. A word of caution: this destination is not for the claustrophobic or the easily spooked. Situated in between the two cities on the Danube River, Margaret Island is the perfect stopping point for a picnic. It boasts medieval ruins of a 13th century church and convent, a small zoo, several parks, and a Japanese gar den. For those looking to bum off those but tery and flakey Hungarian pastries, a five-kilo metre track surface surrounds the island next to the walking path, which provides fantastic views of both cities. W here to stay: Far cheaper than London or Paris, Budapest offers fabulous hotels at even better prices. Hostels are abundant, but renting an apartment with friends, such as those in the Residence Izabella, is economi cal as well. Most Budapest hostels, hotels, or apartment complexes offer complimentary breakfasts and concierge services, a European tradition. W here an d w hat to eat: Gerloczy Kavehaz, a little French bistro, is nearly right out of Van Gogh’s famous Cafe Terrace at Night painting, with its yellow walls, outdoor terrace on cobblestones, and small park surround ing local shops. The food is an eclectic mix of French, Italian, and Hungarian. The high light of the menu is the chance to choose your bread from over a dozen varieties. For a main course, try the grilled salmon over fresh pasta with saffron. KiskaKukk Etterem, named for Hun gary’s cuckoo clocks, serves the spiciest goulash—a stew composed of beef, garlic, tomato, onion, and Hungarian paprika—in town, along with other traditional Hungarian meat and potato dishes. And while all respectable Hungarian res taurants boast about their paprika-laden soup, Hungary is also the perfect place fo r pastries and coffee. You won’t find a Starbucks in this town (the chain did try to open a branch in Pest, but locals couldn’t grasp the idea of get ting coffee and running around town with it). Freshly made chocolate, tortes, strudels, and more line Cafe Lukas’s windows. This sit down cafe offers simple cups of coffee on marble tables under chandeliers, for surpris ingly reasonable prices. A bit further from the city centre, the Daubner confectionary always has a line for the best sacher torte outside of Vienna, as well as crumbly pastries filled with colorful butter creams. While you’re in Hungary, also sample Hungarian wines, particularly the sparkling variety. Taxes on French and Italian labels will destroy a student budget, but Hungarian liquors are both high quality and highly af fordable.
Curiosity Delivers
A & E ------
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 • 13
L IT E R A T U R E
Kelley Armstrong’s Frostbitten gets a warm reception Canadian author attracts the Twilight crowd CAROLYN YATES Managing Editor
Kelley Armstrong has always been fasci nated by the paranormal, and with the Twilight phenomenon now she has an even broader au dience to share her passion. Her latest book, Frostbitten, is Armstrong’s best-selling firstweek release, while the conclusion to her Darkest Powers Trilogy, The R eckoning, is eagerly anticipated by readers. “I’ve just always been fascinated by the paranormal,” says Armstrong. “[I have] no idea where that came from, it’s not my back ground ... but I’ve just always been interested in it.” Bitten, the first book in the Women of the Otherworld series and Armstrong’s first published novel, was released in 2001. It in troduced Elena Michaels, the world’s only fe male werewolf, and laid the groundwork for the series’ fictional world. Frostbitten takes place ten years after B it ten, and is the fourth novel to feature Elena as narrator—and while she is now middle-aged and married, lycanthropy keeps her on her toes. As the enforcer for her pack, when she hears about a series of murders outside An chorage, Alaska, she heads north to hunt down the rogue werewolves responsible, and learns more about her own supernatural heritage than she would necessarily like. The pace is quick and character-driven, and as Elena tries to rec oncile her past with her present the r e a d e r new and series devotee alike—has the oppor tunity to explore an easy yet intricate read. But the focus on Elena was unplanned. While at a mystery convention in Anchorage, Armstrong heard that reports o f increased wolf activity close to town were making people in the area nervous, and started spinning off her own story. Frostbitten was bom. “[It] was a very easy write,” says Arm strong, but for her, a quick first draft is nothing new. “I’m someone who sits down and writes start to finish in a block of time; no going back and editing. If I change something part way
through, I just write down that I need to go back and fix that later. I do a first draft for one of the adult novels in about four months, but then of course there’s a whole lot of editing.” Not surprisingly, Armstrong has been writing her entire life. “From earliest childhood I was writing short stories. In my teens, I started writing somewhat longer novellas. In my 20s, I started writing actual novels, thinking I would like to get published someday, and then I sold my first book when I turned 30,” she says. Her process seems to work. The eleventh book in the Women of the Otherworld series, Waking the Witch, is already completed, and Armstrong plans to start writing the twelfth this December. Armstrong will also be wrapping up the
Darkest Powers Trilogy, for young adults, in spring 2010. The series features Chloe, a young woman who assumes she has mental problems until she realizes that she really has superpowers, as well as accidental-on-purpose zombie raising, angry ghosts, and, of course, a love triangle. “I ’ve been building up questions for two books now and they’ll all be resolved in book three, so there’s a lot of anticipation for that,” says Armstrong. “It wraps up everything ... They’ve been on the run, they’re going to have to face who they’ve been running from, and there is a light romance, a love triangle, which I will resolve in book three.” The Awakening, the second book in the trilogy, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list for children, a suc
cess which Armstrong attributes, surprisingly, to Twilight. “It’s the Twilight phenomenon, it really is,” says Armstrong. “The YA [series] has done extremely well, because people are looking for that. “There’s always been people interested in werewolves, vampires, that sort of thing, but once Twilight and True B lood hit, you start pulling in that much larger audience who don’t normally either read this [genre] or don’t nor mally read in general ... and then they’ll go out and buy them and they’ll discover there’s all these others authors writing, and they’ll branch out.”
SAM JESSU LA
SPOILER ALERTI I hate the idea of fortune-telling, not because I am superstitious or sceptical of it, but because I simply cannot stand being told how an event will occur beforehand. Much to my chagrin, the movie industry—which used to be in the art business—is now closer to the fortune-telling business. Nowadays, it seems that movie trailers have become movie spoilers. People go to the cinema for wish ful fillment: they want to experience emotions they may not have access to in everyday life. However, it is difficult to feel anything when you are missing the entire build-up of a cathartic event. Indeed, I do not under stand why directors spend so much effort on
their climactic scenes when they just butch er them in the trailer. Above simply giving away the ending, trailers contain every good part of the movie that they’re advertising for. Whether a comedy preview that con tains every joke in the movie (Bruno) or the action film that shows you the best mindblowing special effect-ridden scene (Trans fo rm ers 2), a potential audience member knows every decent part of a movie six months before its release. Trailers, which used to be a very small taste of the film, have become the equivalent of reading the last page of an Agatha Christie novel. While I do acknowledge that there are some films that are simply so good they can be viewed a thousand times without ever becoming redundant, those are limited to pretty much anything with Paul Newman and/or Steve McQueen (at least for me). The
rest of the film industry gamers its appeal by guiding the spectator through an open-end ed journey. When the film’s trailer shows too much of what will happen, it often takes away from the suspense and excitement that the film was meant to create. Ever since the film industry started measuring success through the first week end box-office profits, there has been in credible pressure for a movie to attract as many people as possible on opening day. As the directors become less concerned with longevity of their work and more with their immediate ticket sales, it becomes easier to sell out by treating the public like a bunch of children with ADD who will forget to see a movie after the first distraction they encoun ter. Thus, it is necessary for them to show a movie’s highlights instead of giving the au dience an idea of what it is about.
Perhaps the only solution remains to ban all trailers before a film, letting people choose whether or not they want to ruin their film experience for themselves. It seems that we are in a no-win sce nario: how can one choose what film to see and not have it spoiled? The only alternative I can offer is to enter the cinema blind. Pick your movies according to the title and limit any incoming information about it. That not only means boycotting reviews and conver sations about recent films but also involves ignoring any trailer displayed before your film. Sure, you might find yourself sitting through some movies equivalent to an or ganic chemistry lecture, but at least in the end you will experience a movie like you were supposed to.
mcgilltribune.com
14 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
F IL M
M U S IC
The cost of a bad hair day
Flogging Molly still at it
Chris Rock explores what good hair means to black women
The L.A. C eltics release new album, Float, to crtical acclaim
KYLE CARPENTER A & E Editor
Good Hair is a documentary starring Chris Rock, as he explores his three-year-old daughter’s question, “Daddy, why don’t I have good hair?” Rock quickly discovers that in the black community “good hair” means straight hair. He goes on to explore the various and often painful ways black women achieve “good hair.” Many black women from a very young age routinely use “relaxers,” made from so dium hydroxide: a chemical that can easily bum the scalp if left in too long, and is ca pable of disintegrating aluminium over time (as a scientist demonstrates with a soda can). Further, Rock finds mothers who have been getting their daughters perms at as young as three years old. The film centres around a hair styling competition in Atlanta, where stylists perform glitzy dance numbers and various other theat rics while cutting models’ hair (it looks even weirder than it sounds). However, the meat of the film is Rock’s interviews with celebri ties—who are chiefly black women—about their hair and black hair in general. These interviews feature a diverse range of stars, including Maya Angelou, A1 Sharpton, Eve, Salt-n-Pepa, T-Pain, and Ice-T. Rock spends much of the film moon lighting as an investigative reporter, travel ling to the source of each issue he discusses. He searches for an answer to one of the film’s main questions: why are black people, who spend more money on hair care products than anyone else in the U.S., pushed out of the hair care industry by white and Asian companies? This includes Rock visiting a black-owned hair product company that mainly manufactures re laxers, and venturing all the way to India to see where the hair that women spend thousands of dollars on comes from. This brings me to the
film’s most surprising and in-depth topic: the weave. Before seeing the documentary, I was blissfully ignorant about the amount of women walking around with hair that isn’t theirs at tached to their head. Rock reveals that many black women shell out a minimum of $1,000 (and in some cases, up to $3,500) for partial and full weaves, in which real human hair is sewn onto their own. Thankfully, Rock is quick to ask the obvi ous question: where does this hair come from? It’s been a long time since The Gift o f the Magi, and women selling their hair is a phe nomenon that is a little hard to come b y —un less you’re in India. In the film’s most startling revelation, Rock explores the business of ex porting human hair from India, most of which women have voluntarily shaven off during as a religious ceremony (and thus given away for free). However, human hair is big business, made clear when we are shown a “transporter” in L.A. walking around with a suitcase full of hair, valued at $15,000. The documentary digs deep into nearly every issue, and Rock’s humourous approach to interviews—both with celebrities and peo ple in barber shops, high schools, and styling conventions—keeps the film light and enjoy able. However, the celebrity interviews tend to get a little repetitive, especially when they’re with one C-list actress after another. Some of the film’s most profound comments come from A1 Sharpton and Ice-T (surprisingly), who both accept the lengths black women go to make their hair look good and try to explain why they do it, instead of condemning it. I came out of the film having been exposed to a world I didn’t know existed, and immediately noticed the convenience store full of racks of women’s hair for sale that I had overlooked— in more ways than one—on the way to the theatre.
KATHRYN AMEY Contributor
Known for their rock-punk-Celtic sound, Flogging Molly is an institution in the music industry, and with their new album, Float, and their current Canadian tour, it looks like the 16-year-old band is here to stay. The band was formed in 1993, after be coming regulars at Los Angeles pub Molly Malone’s, which also inspired the band’s name. After a series of Monday night sets, the band began to gain recognition and eventually signed with SideOneDummy Records. Float, their fourth studio album, is more politically inspired than their previous work. While recording, banjo player Bob Schmidt claims the band wasn’t really sure what they were doing, but looking back, it wasn’t a co incidence that the title track “Float,” a song about banding together, happened to come out in the time of devastating economic instability throughout the world. Celtic music as a genre is about “being a rebel voice, being a dissident voice in music; always pointing out societal injustices,” Schmidt explains. Yet the band doesn’t work directly with any specific charities or organizations that work against these injustices. “What we like to do is not get directly involved with any specific cause, but sort of point out to our fans—because I think our fans are pretty as-
tute people—these injustices,” says Schmidt. “I think our music has a lot to do with a sense of community. Whenever any human being in any country is being mistreated, it would be irresponsible not to point it out.” Alternative Press called Float one of the ten most important albums of the year, if not de cade, but Schmidt says that the album is really not that much different than what they’ve done in the past. Still, after so many years, Flogging Molly has fine-tuned their Irish-pub sound and have collected a diehard fanbase. “It was sat isfying to realize that we had reached the place where people were getting what w e’ve been trying to do all this time,” says Schmidt. “[Our music’s] really about being yourself and not taking crap from anybody.” W hat’s different about this record is that it was written and recorded in Ireland, while all previous albums were put together in Cali fornia. “I think it definitely had an effect,” Schmidt says. “We recorded it in a big, old haunted lodge that Dave had converted into a studio. [It was] in the dead centre middle of Ireland, so that was obviously an interesting juxtaposition.” Usually frequenting big cities during their tours, the band suddenly found themselves deep in the Irish countryside. So what do a band of Irish punks do out there? “[We’ve been] riding horses and shooting skeet. All those Irish things.” There may have been some Guinness in volved as well. Flogging Molly will be at Metropolis on October 18.
Flogging Molly enjoy the Irish countryside.
T h e Va n i e r I n s t i t u t e PRESENTS:
of the
n m e .c o m
Fa m i l y
The Family as a Political Institution
WANT TO WRITE FOR A& E?
A Public Lecture by Daniel Weinstock, PhD Director, Centre de recherche en éthique de l’Université de M ontréal (In French, w ith simultaneous English translation)
Thursday, October 2 2 nd, 2 0 0 9 , 7 :0 0 p.m. M axw ell Cummings Auditorium , M o n treal M useum o f Fine Arts 1379 Sherbrooke St. W est, M on treal, QC
S eating fo r this fr e e lecture is lim ited . Please reserve
by contacting Sara at 613-228-8500 (ext. 213) smacnaull@vifamily.ca
Com e to o u r MEETINGS ON TUESDAYS, 5:30 AT GERT'S.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 * 15
Curiosity Delivers
ART
Waterhouse floats into the MMFA Lady o f Shallot brought to life in M M FA display CAROLYN YATES Managing Editor
O From October 1 to February 7, a retrospec tive on British artist John William Waterhouse, titled J. W. Waterhouse: G arden o f E nchant m ent, will be held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition is the first large-scale display of Waterhouse’s work since 1978, and the first ever to feature the entire span of his work. With over 80 paintings, sketches and documents displayed against a dramatic black backdrop, the exhibit does a stunning job of highlighting a little-known artist. “Waterhouse isn’t easily classified; partly because his subjects are narrative, partly be cause his art is well-known inside of England but not outside. H e’s an artist that’s tended to be neglected,” says Anne Grace, the MMFA’s curator of modem art, who was in charge of the presentation of the exhibition. “But his works are very relevant today ... I think that visitors will share in a sense of discovery and delight.” The display of the exhibition is particu larly striking. The MMFA hired theatrical set designers to set up each room, and it shows. The room displaying Waterhouse’s sketches and scant personal belongings, for example, evokes a studio, while other rooms evoke a park, a lake, and classical Greece. Though simple, there are a few small touches—such as disembodied hands holding back the cur tains between rooms—that give the display an
T H E L A D Y O F S H A L L O T B Y JW
added depth while still maintaining the dra matic simplicity of art-on-black. “I think with the dramatic presentation they become more than just pretty paintings. We wanted to really get at what the paintings are about and really get at the magical, mysti cal side,” says Grace. The exhibition is organized thematically, though it is essentially chronological as well. The first room does not feature any of Water house’s works, but gives a sense of his con temporaries, while the first works from the artist himself highlights his interest in classi cal antiquity. The exhibit flows from room to room, through history, the occult, water, and gardens, though there is also a room devoted to his sketches and life at the Royal Academy, and another dedicated to the Lady of Shalott. That room is one of the highlights of the exhibition, and includes several images—both paintings and sketches—inspired by Lord Al fred Tennyson’s poem, “The Lady of Shalott.” “We’re really pleased because it’s the first time ever, not even in Waterhouse’s life, that all of the versions of the Lady of Shalott have been shown together,” says Grace.
W ATERH O U SE
Instead of a chronological display, the paintings are organized according to the se quence of scenes in the poem, which is in scribed on the wall near the entrance to the room. “It’s one of the most important paintings in Waterhouse’s career,” says Grace. “It’s a very well-loved, liked and reproduced image. We’re pleased to have it in Montreal because Waterhouse’s name is unknown here, so we have an iconic image that we can associate his name with.” The Lady o f Shalott is proof that art really is better in real life. The square brush strokes create a subtle background from which the finely-detailed Lady stands out—so much so that viewers can see the veins in her wrist. “Even though Waterhouse’s paintings are often reproduced, there’s a real thrill to seeing them in real life; something that doesn’t trans late through reproductions,” Grace says.
ctober
1 4 -1 9
Wednesday. Film. B right Star. An ode to the love affair between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. If nothing else, maybe English literature majors will enjoy it. @ Cinema du Parc. Thursday. Television. 30 Rock. N BC’s only good comedy returns, with Tina Fey playing T V ’s sexiest comedy writer/klutz. The show also boasts smart writing and hilarious characters played by Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan. Friday. Film. Where the Wild Things Are. Spike Jonze’s reimagining of the classic, nine-sentence children’s book. Hipsters everywhere are clearing their already clear schedules. Saturday. Music. Metric. M etric’s last album was nominated for a Polaris —but they already have one of those. Emily Haines brings her indie-dance rock to Montreal Friday and Saturday night. @ Metropolis.
J. W. Waterhouse: Garden of Enchant ment is on display a t the M ontreal M useum o f Fine A rts until F ebruary 7, 2010.
C all lor N om inations! Are You in First Year? Want to Represent First Year Students at McGill? Get Involved!
Run for a Position on First Year Com m ittee of Council (FYC) Starting October 12th Elections McGill is accepting Nominations for the follow ing FYC positions: • President • VP Academic • VP Communications • VP Finance • VP External • VP Internal
Get a Referendum Petition Kit or a FYC Nomination Kit online at: Electionsmcgill.ca
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We are also accepting Student Initiated R eferendum Questions!
R e fe r e n d u m P e titio n s D u e : O ct. 1 6th N o m in a t io n K its D u e : N o v . 2 n d
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16 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
CD REVIEWS
The Cinem atics: Love and Terror The Cinematics have had a rough time lately. In early 2008, they lost their lead gui tarist, and their record label, TVT, disintegrat ed. But pitfalls aside, the band seems to have emerged unscathed—if not stronger. Their sophomore album, Love a n d Terror, is infused with dark guitar riffs and even darker lyrics, delivered in a voice that alternates between low and sad, and high and desperate. The album may owe its ominous feel to the band’s new guitarist, Larry Reid, whose songwrit ing confronts some of society’s more daunt ing issues. In “Hospital Bills,” ghostly voices echo as he asks if there’s “a miracle drug that I can get so we can make you better?” but con cludes, “I don’t think we can pay these hospi tal bills.” Similarly, in “Quit (When the Banks Collapse)” he desperately asks, “Who will keep the wolves from my door?” The album’s true gems are the songs that aren’t quite as heavy-handed. “New M exico” is a fairly simple love story based on the ageold question: “Are we staring at the same stars?” The title track is another winner, a song with an 80s-era U2 feel to it that’s lack ing in introspective lyrics —and that’s a good thing. Instead, it features heavy guitar riffs and a driving chorus that doesn’t let up until the final seconds. The Cinematics have proven that they can stand with Interpol and The Fixx as one of the better Brit rock indie bands. While there’s the fear that they won’t grow out of their cur rent sound to become a lasting power, Love and Terror shows, at the very least, that it will take more than one rough patch to bring these guys down. —Graham Pinchin
The Flam ing Lips: Embryonic
Zero 7: Yeah Ghost
T he xx: xx xx, the debut album from South London quartet, The xx, is a compilation of uncon ventional love songs, weaving together an alternately dark and optimistic tale of young, modern lovers. The chemistry of vocalists Romy Madley Croft (guitar) and Oliver Sim (bass) is audible—the album’s best tracks are seductive back-and-forth duets, pulling off the poten tially corny Sonny and Cher-esque feat o f two singers crooning sweet nothings to each other. The standout track “Crystalised” is stunningly sultry, hypnotic, and melancholically beauti ful. Laced with more sexual undertones than Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” the song’s lyrics are poetic and sensual—“Glaciers have melted to the sea/1 wish the tide would take me over/ I’ve been down on my knees/ And you just keep on getting closer.” With strong bass lines and a touch of R & B, “Heart Skips a Beat” and “Shelter” beau tifully showcase Madley Croft’s deep, sultry voice. Equal parts eccentricity and masterful musicianship, the sexually charged and stun ning debut—produced by the four 20-yearolds themselves in their recording studio’s back office—is one of 2009’s most unique compilations. —Carolyn Grégoire
IRCM
Masters of down-tempo synth-pop Zero 7 are back with their fourth studio album Yeah Ghost. Presenting both a return to, and a departure from, the palliative, atmospheric sound that made the British duo famous on their debut album Sim ple Things, the new album’s up-tempo beats and futuristic instru mentals achieves only limited success. A rather odd assemblage, Yeah G host is ultimately incohesive. The album incorporates several tracks from the duo’s instrumental project Ingrid Eto, which are a little too avantgarde to have any mainstream appeal. “Mr. McGee” is an up-beat toe-tapper, w hich— though unexpectedly catchy—verges on sac charine. “Sleeper” —an unfortunate Nelly Furtado-esque pop number—falls utterly flat. The real low point is “Ghost Symbol” —a bizarre, new-age mess that effectively brings down the entire album. Stuck in this disconnected jumble are several gems that save the album from ruin. Yeah G host’s best tracks are “The Road” and “Pop Art Blue,” both of which return to the beautiful, atmospheric melodies that no one does quite like Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. Zero 7 succeeds when they stick to iiberchill tracks like 2001 chart-topper “Destiny” and, of course, the G arden State generation defining hit “In the Waiting Line.” If Zero 7 wants to produce another Grammy-nominated album like 2007’s The Garden, Binns and Hardaker are going to have to do what they do best—chill out.
The Flaming Lips have always struck me as a strange band. They transcend indie rock, with heavy doses of alternative, stoner rock, and a sort of chaotic progressive touch that I can’t even categorize properly. Their latest album Embryonic is no exception. “Convinced of the Hex” is a solid open ing track, but it leads into “The Sparrow Looks Up At the Machine,” a great song until it gets repetitive after the first minute (and the “Whole Lotta Love” vocal effects didn’t help, either). Things only get worse with “Evil,” a tone-heavy and instrument-sparse track that drags on for over five minutes. The album’s appeal lies in its length: the deluxe edition features 18 songs and four bonus tracks, making the album over an hour long. The trouble is, you have to pick between the frenzied or monotonous tracks—yes, there are both—that are sometimes lacking in vo cals, like “Aquarious Sabotage” and “Gemini Syringes.” At times the two cross paths, like in “The Ego’s Last Stand,” and “See the Leaves,” which are both album highlights. Other stand out tracks include “Your Bats,” which has got a repeated bass hook answered by drum fills beneath reverberating vocals and “Watching the Planets,” which simply has no business being at the end of the album. Embryonic is an odd mix, but that’s just what you would expect from The Flaming Lips. While some tracks are too slow and re petitive and others too chaotic, the combina tion of the two produced a few great songs.
—Carolyn Grégoire
—Kyle Carpenter
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Curiosity Delivers
Wednesday, October 14 2009 â&#x20AC;¢ 17
Valued exposure
STEPHANIE OVENS
Sports
18 • Wednesday, October 14, 2009
M ARTLET H O C K E Y -
mcgilltribune.com
M C G IL L 5, C O N C O R D IA 0
Hockey Martlets begin title defence with 5-0 rout over Concordia Impressive performance from rookie Ton-That leads the way JOHN HUI Contributor
McGill opened their season in fine style Friday night, blanking cross-town rivals Con cordia 5-0 at McConnell Arena to bring their win streak against CIS opponents to an as tounding 55 games. M artlets’ rookie sensation Kim Ton-That turned in a dominant perfor mance, scoring a pair of goals to lead M cGill’s rout over the Stingers. Despite M cGill’s long and bitter sporting rivalry with Concordia, the two teams never looked the part of equals, as the Martlets re minded everyone why they are the country’s first-ranked team. With Friday’s win, the Mar tlets celebrated their 29th consecutive victory over Concordia. Tensions ran high and tempers flared more than once during the game. Sting ers goaltender Audrey Doyon-Lessard looked like she had an answer to the high-flying Mar tlet attack early on, but the defending national champs would not be denied. “It doesn’t matter what team is on the ice,” said Martlets captain Vanessa David son. “ [Concordia] is just another team. We knew that we just had to play our game and we would be successful. Whatever chip [Con cordia] might have on [its] shoulders, we just deal with it.” The Marlets fired 30 shots at the Sting ers’ net in the opening frame, while allowing the opposition to take just four—all outside shots that M cGill’s new goaltender, Gabrielle Smith, handled with ease. Defensively, Con cordia huddled together in a protective nest, guarding Doyon-Lessard from the McGill on slaught. For a time, the strategy worked, foil ing the Martlets on a long five-on-three power
ADAM s c o r n
M cGill’s offensive assault proved too much for the Stingers, as the Martlets beat Concordia for the 29th time in a row. play, and stopping Ton-That from burying a rebound. Ton-That, though, proved to be more per sistent than the Concordia defence, tallying her first official university goal with 27 seconds left in the opening period. Taking a pass from blue-liner Lisa Zane in the slot, the five-footthree winger streaked past centre ice, dragged the puck around a defender and then returned to her forehand for a wrist shot high into the net to beat Doyon-Lessard. The rookie struck again four minutes into the second period when she was sprung from the neutral zone by a pass from centre Jordanna Peroff, and subsequently hauled down by a Concordia defender. On the ensuing penalty
T TAMPER TANTRUM Last week, the NHL hit the Toronto Maple Leafs with a fine for comments made by the team ’s coach during the offseason. In June, Ron Wilson appeared on a Toronto radio station and announced that the Leafs were interested in pursuing all-star twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin in the coming free agency period. As the Sedins were still under contract in Vancouver, Wilson’s tampering— which violated an assortment of contractual agreements and bylaws—sparked outrage in the Canucks’ front office. The whole situation leaves me with one question: why can’t these people just keep their mouths shut? By publicly announcing the. Leafs’ intentions to pursue the Sedins on July 1, Wilson seriously reduced the Ca nucks’ chances of re-signing the twins at a reasonable price. Yes, professional sport is about winning at all costs, but actions like
h ir d
shot, Ton-That skated in slowly towards the goal and faked to her forehand, forcing DoyonLessard deep into the net to watch haplessly as Ton-That slipped the puck in with her back hand. The freshman from Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, was humble in her self-assessment, giving the team ’s veterans all the credit. “Obviously Lisa [Zane] and Jo [Peroff] made nice passes to me,” she said. “It was all thanks to them that I had the chances to score. They are very easy to play with.” Davidson scored a short-handed goal soon after to push the lead to 3-0, and forward Rebecca Martindale finished off a two-on-one successfully with a minute to go in the sec ond period. Sophomore Lainie Smith fired in
M
these take away from the gam e’s sportsman ship. In the end, the two brothers signed identical five-year, $30.5-million deals, a relative steal for Vancouver considering the high prices being paid for many less worthy players—I ’m looking at you, Wade Redden. The Canucks were fortunate that the Sedins knew the meaning of class and loyalty. Just imagine, though, the disastrous consequenc es that might have come about had Ron Wilson made a similar comment regarding a diva like Dany Heatley. Far too many play ers in the NHL today would have used Wil son’s words as a serious bargaining chip to come up with a shiny new contract. This event is just one example of the many big-mouthed coach/management em barrassments this year. A few days ago, Oil ers Head Coach Pat Quinn earned himself a $10,000 fine for saying that Jarome Iginla should have been treated with a stick to the head after he accidentally sandwiched O ilers’
an
I
n
defencemen Sheldon Souray’s face between his body and the boards. How quickly Quinn seems to have forgotten that comments like these are what led to the Bertuzzi-Moore in cident in 2004, which, as we all know, ended M oore’s NHL career. After the Montreal Canadiens were dealt a swift, and thorough, spanking at the hands of the Boston Bruins in the first round of last year’s playoffs, Montreal GM Bob Gainey ripped into Tampa Bay GM Brian Lawton for publicizing a list of Habs players Gainey had offered in exchange for Light ning center Vincent Lecavalier. Needless to say, Gainey’s under-the-table dealings didn’t go over well with some o f his players, and may have contributed to their poor play throughout the playoff series. And then there is Brian Burke, head honcho of the Toronto Maple Leafs and no stranger to putting his foot in his mouth. Among his many embarrassing credentials, Burke ironically blasted the Edmonton Oil
a scorching outside shot in the final period to round out the scoring. Martlets’ Head Coach Amey Doyle was pleased with her squad’s ef forts in the opener. “Tonight we played really well,” said Doyle. “Everyone had a role [in the win] and we rolled all four lines. Gabrielle didn’t face a lot of shots, but she used her head and made some important saves—especially early in the second period. Our rookies also played really well and were really dedicated to the system.” The Martlets have little time to celebrate before taking to the ice again, when they host the Ottawa Gee-Gees at McConnell Arena on October 17th.
— =
SHAWN STENHOUSE ers’ management two years ago for present ing offer sheets to other teams’ restricted free agents before the signing period. And who can forget how Burke more or less pub licly said that he wanted his team to tank the season in order to secure the first overall draft pick in 2010. Many argue that there’s no place for violence in hockey, but the fact remains that aggressive play always has and always will be a part of the game. What hasn’t been, and shouldn’t be, a part of the game is the recent spate of grossly unprofessional behaviour from team management. Hopefully, other teams will learn from Ron Wilson and the Sedin debacle, and think twice now before they decide to publicly humiliate them selves, their teams, and the NHL.
Curiosity Delivers
RE D M EN VOLLEYBALL -
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 » 19
M C G IL L 0, G U E L P H 3
R E D M E N BASKETBALL
Redmen lose in straight sets to soaring Gryphons White goes off M cG ill shows potential against tough opponent KAILAN LEUNG Sports Editor
Anyone who has watched the McGill men’s volleyball team play or practice over the past three years knows that the Redmen have been steadily improving. On Saturday eve ning, though, it was clear that McGill still has a lot of work left to do if they wish to become a consistently competitive force on the CIS stage. The Redmen looked brilliant at times and ordinary at others, and ultimately commit ted too many basic errors to give themselves a chance, falling to the University of Guelph Gryphons 3-0 in exhibition action. The Redmen competed hard the en tire game, and the two teams looked evenly matched for most of the first set, before Guel ph embarked on a serving run that led to a six-point swing. Despite the loss, Head Coach Simon Berleur was pleased with his squad’s effort, and is optimistic about the upcoming regular season. “I think the outlook is good,” said Ber leur. “You can’t see that in a game like this, because Guelph is one of the top teams in On tario. But this a sign that we can play with [top teams], and that’s the first step for us.” The pieces for success are certainly in place for McGill, but the plethora of men
tal mistakes made in Saturday’s match serve as evidence that the team ’s cohesion is still a work in progress. Guelph was able to find holes in the Redmen block all night long, and M cGill’s back-row defence was caught fro zen, or out of position, time and again. While M cGill’s on-court communication started out strong, it began to waver as the Gryphons built momentum, resulting in far too many balls dropping into empty space. Like his coach, right side hitter Mark Hodge remained posi tive after the loss, but cited areas in which the squad needs to improve. “We’re definitely getting better,” said Hodge. “We got a lot of good rookies this year. This is my third year, and every year w e’ve made a lot of progress. Now we can kill the ball, we can get points. When we get to the point where w e’re running our offence, things work out well ... [But] our defence needs to tighten up, and we need to not make so many errors.” Most of M cGill’s errors came in the form of missed serves, which cost the Redmen an astounding 17 points. The team missed serves in every conceivable way, sending balls wide, long, and into the net. In contrast, Guelph was incredibly accurate from behind the service line, hammering at McGill with an impressive mix of jump and float serves. In the third set, the Redmen looked visibly tired, struggling to supply setter Matt de los Santos with a good first ball and consequently putting very little
pressure on the Gryphons’ defence. Six-footsix Winston Rosser, G uelph’s star freshman, had a field day against McGill, eating up overpasses and continually finding himself up against a single blocker. According to Ber leur, though, Guelph’s size and firepower were what made the game a successful learning ex perience for his squad. “One positive aspect [from this game] is that the guys realize what a higher level [of volleyball] is,” he said. “It’s a good motivator for the [team’s] level of playing ... We can see that there is a higher level, and that there are higher expectations.” Berleur and his coaching staff are not con tent with perennial mediocrity, and envision McGill volleyball competing at the highest possible level. However, the coach recognizes the importance of patience and hard work, and is willing to take things one game at a time. “I think we are a team in progress,” said Berleur. “Year after year we get better, so of course the objective is to be better than last year, bring in a better result than last year, and build on that. You cannot, in one year, [im prove] to win a national championship.” A national championship might not be on M cGill’s current radar, but the Redmen cer tainly expect to challenge for a playoff berth in the competitive Quebec league. The Redmen open the regular season on the road against the University of Montreal Carabins on October 29.
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M cG ill dominates visiting Laurentian 76-64 C H R IST O PH E BOYER Contributor
After close to a month’s layoff, the McGill men’s basketball team was anxious to return to the hardwood. The players finally got their chance against CIS competition in an exhibi tion match against the Laurentian Voyageurs. The out-of-province squad was no match for the rested Redmen, falling to the home team 76-64 in men’s preseason basketball action last Thursday at Love Competition Hall. Se nior forward Michael White led all scorers with 24 points and eight rebounds as McGill levelled their preseason record at 1-1. The Redmen controlled the game’s tempo from the get-go, dominating the paint, and forcing the Voyageurs to rely exclusively on the threepoint shot. “I thought we played tremendous for a first game against a CIS opponent,” said coach Craig Norman. “The guys played well on both ends of the floor, executed the defensive game plan and took care of the ball offensively.” Thursday’s game marked the first time McGill has played since their blowout loss to the NCAA’s St. John’s University on Sep tember 5. Facing a far less dominant team this time, the Redmen cruised to victory. Norman used the exhibition match to experiment with different combinations and lineups on both the offensive and defensive ends. First-year point guard Olivier Bouchard, who split time with senior Jeff Cumming, con tinued to impress in his second official uni versity basketball game, notching 10 points, seven boards, three steals, and a block. “We haven’t had a good point guard of his ability for a long, long time,” said Norman. “H e’s cer tainly going to help us a lot during the course of the year.” Bouchard looked confident and capable, and figures to play an important role in the success of the team. Six-foot-four guard Jesse Woods had per haps his most productive game for the Redmen in recent memory, shooting six-of-seven from the field en route to a 14-point outing. Despite M cGill’s interior dominance, the Voyageurs refused to let up in the gam e’s closing min utes. Laurentian guard Emanuel Pasquale con nected on a pair of shots from downtown in an attempt to bring the game back into reach, but the home team responded with more offensive pressure. McGill prevented the smaller Voyageur players from penetrating the paint, limiting the opposition to three-point attempts, and forcing shot clock violations throughout the game. The Redmen only shot 3-for-17 from three-point range, but Norman isn’t worried about the team ’s difficulties shooting the long ball. “We shot so poorly from beyond the arc because we have been concentrating on de fence a lot, and the kids have to learn to play tough defence on every posession and then hit shots on the other end,” said Norman. McGill, which kicks off regular season conference play against Laval on November 8, hosts the Redbird Classic this weekend.
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