The McGill Tribune Vol. 30 Issue 10

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THE GREAT JON STEWART DEBATE, PAGE 8

Published by the Tribune Publication Society Volume No. 30 Issue No. 10

Thousands celebrate newly canonized B rother A ndré Harirper, Charest, Tremblay.among attef;naees at Olympic Stadium

By Sean Wood News Editor

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Dozens o f bishops file into Brother André’s canonization celebration A crowd o f thousands turned out Saturday to honour the legendary Montrealer ( Alice Walker / McGill Tribune )

Olympic Stadium’s postmodern curves have hosted metal concerts, monster truck rallies, and the MLB All-Star Game, but they have rarely formed a cathedral. On Saturday, however, the blue-and-gold plastic seats served as pews as tens of thou­ sands celebrated the canonization of Alfred Bessette, commonly known as Brother André.

The Catholic Church pro­ claimed Bessette (1845-1937), the founder of St. Joseph’s Oratory at­ tributed with thousands of miracu­ lous healings, a saint on October 17 in Rome. Thirty thousand turned out on Saturday, including Prime Min­ ister Stephen Harper, Premier Jean Charest, and 58 bishops.

“He’s more than an ambassa­ dor,” said Mayor Gérald Tremblay.

“In Rome, we saw the universal consecration of an exceptional per­ son who transmitted many values to us: the values of justice, the values of love, the values of peace.”

Bessette was the doorman at the Congregation of the Holy Cross, a monastic community, for 40 years.

Though he was frail, uneducated, and not a priest, by the turn of the century his ability to heal had be­ come internationally renowned. To­

ward the end of his life, he received hundreds of visitors a day. In the six days after his death on January 6, 1937, more than a million people paid respect to his remains. “[St. Paul said], ‘An artist makes the most beautiful paintings with the smallest of brushes,”’ said Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte in his homily. “It is not a small saint who has been canonized, but a great one.

A very great one.”

Though people widely agree on his virtue, his congregation, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, is the target of one of the latest Catho­ lic sex abuse allegations.

On Friday, the Canadian Su­ preme Court approved Shirley Chris­ tensen’s lawsuit against the Catholic Church, in which she alleged that she had been sexually abused by a priest at the Congregation’s Collège Notre-Dame. Christensen is one of several to have made such allega­ tions.

Earlier last week, Robert Corneiller, a representative of the Com­ mittee of Pedophile Victims at Col­ lege Notre-Dame, suggested that the group should have received some of the proceeds from Saturday’s event. “[Instances of sexual abuse] are so sad,” said Father Charles Corso, a spokesperson for the Oratory, in See “TRIBUTE” on page 3

M cG ill institutes $ 15 0 fee for study abroad applications Student leaders criticize administration’s secrecy and lack of consultation

By M att Chesser C o ntributor

Students applying to study abroad in the 2011 -12 academic year will be charged a non-refundable $150 application fee, due to a new policy instituted by the McGill ad­ ministration this past September.

Applications to study at a for­ eign university had previously been

processed by McGill for free.

According to Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson, the application fee is intended to act as a deterrent to stu­ dents who are not fully committed to studying abroad.

“We only want people who are really interested in going [on ex­ change] to apply,” Mendelson said.

“We’ve had a lot of students who

decide at the last minute not to go abroad. As a result, other students who would like to go on exchange are left out in the cold.”

Last year, the university re­ ceived 769 applications to study abroad. As of this August, 162 of those applications had been with­ drawn—a rate of approximately 21 per cent. Late withdrawals meant a number of McGill’s international

REDMEN Friday, N ovem ber 5th vs.Toronto 19h00 Saturday, N ovem ber 6th vs. Nipissing 19h00

ATHLETICS & RECREATION

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MARTLETS Sunday, N ovem ber 7th vs. Carleton 14h00 M cCo n n e l l

“A cancellation fee would have made a lot more sense,” said Arts Senator Amara Possian. “If you apply and you’re not accepted, why do you have to pay $150?”

In a memo to Mendelson, Stu­ dents’ Society Vice-President Uni­ versity Affairs Joshua Abaki and Arts Undergraduate Society Presi­ dent David Marshall argued that the See “ FEE” on page 5

RESQ S o c c e r S e m i-fin a ls

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exchange positions went unfilled, due to expired application deadlines for visas and university registration.

Student leaders, however, have taken issue with the fee, which was implemented without student con­ sultation. The fee is non-refundable, so students who cancel their appli­ cations or whose applications are rejected will not be reimbursed for the cost.

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McGill S p o rts Complex 475 ,ave des pins 514 -398-1539 Support your Martlets and Redmen in authentic varsity apparel from the Redbird Sports Shop

N ews CITY

Volunteers raising funds for homeless-run laundrom at St. James Drop-In Centre project inspired by similar Salvation Army initiative in Toronto

By Tori Crawford

a lot with living on the street,” she said, “that makes it very difficult to work a job in a kitchen or as a jani­ For many of those at the St. tor.”

James Drop-In Centre on St. Cathe­ The laundromat, in contrast, rine Street, finding a job in Montreal would hire the homeless on a oneis not easy. A new laundromat, how­ year contract and would help them ever, could make a difference. to leam to function in a workplace Inspired by a similar project environment as well as build the in downtown Toronto, some of the basic skills necessary for keeping a administrators of the centre are job. looking to open a small commer­ “The idea is to have a really cial laundromat downtown, which supportive workplace where we can would employ both people from the help people build their communica­ Centre and other homeless Montre­ tion skills and help them develop a alers. The laundromat, called “Street schedule and time management,” Suds,” would set up contracts with said Alain Spitzer, director of the local businesses, including restau­ Centre. While the Centre has a pro­ rants and hotels, to pick up, wash, gram called INTERAGIR, in which fold, and deliver their laundry. members are hired to work as sup­ Danica Straith, an employee at port staff, the demand for jobs far "the Centre and McGill alumna, said exceeds the supply. that while many of the people who Spitzer, Straith, and others from visit the Centre—most of whom are the Centre first started fundraising men—are eager to work, it is often for the Street Suds project during difficult for them to get hired or re­ the summer. While some donors tain a job. have committed, they will not fully “If you're schizophrenic, home­ fund until the Centre can raise more less, if you have addiction problems, elsewhere. or if you're paranoid, which comes The leaders of the project re­ E ditor-in-C hief

LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM Leadership Skills Development Workshops

Leadership

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McGill Leadership Training Program First-Year Office

•In te re s te d in gaining skills in leadership?

• Involved in a student club, service or organization as an executive, organizer or event planner?

•Looking for ways to exp a n d & build on your life skills?

If the answer is ‘yes' to any of the above, then don’t miss this opportunity to sign up for the Leadership Training Program ’s FREE Skills Developm ent Workshops!

These workshops were created to give you the chance to develop and build on your leadership and life skills. Attend a minimum of five workshops throughout 2 0 1 0 /1 1 academic year and receive a certificate of completion.

This November, come and check out...

Dealing with Different Personalities in Your Organization Thursday, November 11, 5:30-7:30pm (Downtown campus) Is there a clash in personalities in your organization or club? Learn techniques and strategies that will allow you to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with skill and confidence.

Knowing, Being & Doing: Improving Your Leadership Wednesday, November 17, 5:30-7:30pm (Downtown campus) A participatory workshop to explore the foundations of being a great leader: knowing oneself, being principled and inclusive and doing or acting. Explore the relational leadership model through dialogue and action and be prepared to delve more deeply into your own personal leadership journey!

Ne w to Our Schedule!

Building Sustainable Student Initiatives Tuesday, November 23, 5:30-7:30pm (Downtown campus)

Registration now av ailab le via M inerva!

To access the site and /or see a complete list of workshops offered this semester, go to our website at: www.mcgill.ca/ftrstyear/leadertraining/ For more info, drop by the First-Year Office --------------- in the Brown Building, Suite 2100. or call 514-398-6913_________

cently competed in the Aviva Com­ munity Fund Contest, a competition where people vote for the idea they believe will be most beneficial to its community. The winning groups receive a funding grant. Street Suds placed 31st during the first round of voting, missing the cutoff by one.

Spitzer, however, is confident that the group will be able to reach their $100,000 startup budget through other means.

“We've been working on a lot of other proposals,” he said, “We al­ ready have some seed money from a Street Suds is looking to obtain industrial grade washing-machines for foundation that really believes in us, soon to be open laundromat ( Alice Walker / McGill Tribune ) but it’s not enough.” huge contracts and is very success- sure we get the seed money to make The Montreal organizers have ful, so we’re hopeful that our project it all come together,” he said. also had numerous meetings with will succeed as well.”

More importantly, however, ac­ members of the Toronto Gateway Straith is hopeful that Montreal cording to Straith, is the impact the Salvation Army, who started a simi­ businesses will be as eager to sign project could have on the people lar initiative that has been extremely on as those in Toronto. who work there. successful. Gateway Linens, as “Due to social responsibility, “I know a lot of guys here feel the venture is named, has obtained a lot of businesses want to get in­ like their lives are a dead end when contracts with numerous hotels and volved with the community,” she they can't find a job,” she said. other businesses in the city. said, “This is a really practical way “We're looking forward to helping “I was in Toronto and bumped of helping our community.” people get out of the basic need en­ into a friend who’s been running Spitzer echoed the sentiment. vironment we're providing now so a similar laundry program,” said “Everyone’s behind us on this. they can work their way into some­ Spitzer. “Gateway Linens has some Now it’s just a question of making thing that's more than that.”

CAMPUS

S S M U m ay facilitate ablutions MSA members more concerned about lack of prayer space

By Maria Flores News Editor

When McGill Muslim students perform the ablution ritual, in which they wash their feet and hands mul­ tiple times before daily prayers, it can lead to wet countertops in Shatner bathrooms. To avoid the incon­ venience and to ease the the ritual’s practice, the Students’ Society is at­ tempting to take initiatives towards installing ablution-friendly facili­ ties.

In 2005, Muslim students lost their prayer space in Peterson Hall and are currently forced to pray in the Muslim Student Association of­ fice in the Shatner Building.

“No one really brought it up as a serious issue,” said Anushay Khan, SSMU vice-president clubs and ser­ vices. “But there were complaints from people at Gert’s and many other services in the ground floor [of the Shatner building], because there often is a lot of water spillage.”

Many Muslim countries have public washrooms with special fa­ cilities for ablution. Although the same expectations do not exist at McGill, SSMU is still taking steps to facilitate the ritual.

“Being Muslim, I figured I can best understand the issue myself, so

I did a bit of research and there are many universities in North America that have installed things like this,” Khan said. “I felt that it was some­ thing that Muslim students needed [and] considering that their space had been taken away in the past they were already in an unfair situation.”

After research on the issue, Khan decided a sink that allows its users to sit down was found to be a suitable solution. She contacted the McGill administration, since SSMU was unable to undertake the project alone.

“It is something that the uni­ versity should have provided as part of a culture of sensitivity, so we are definitely trying to push for the uni­ versity to pay for at least a portion of it,” Khan said. “But I really don’t think that this is something the uni­ versity is interested in doing.”

Even though improved wash­ room facilities would be benefi­ cial for the Muslim community at McGill, Muslim Students’ Asso­ ciation VP External Aya Salah ex­ plained that the issue is secondary to their prayer space problem.

“It’s not really a priority right now with us,” Salah said. “The fact that it’s wet, that’s something we can control.”

Prayer space on the other hand

has been a constant issue for the MSA. Their biggest concern is to acquire a room other than their of­ fice where prayer, which Muslims must perform five times a day, can take place.

“We pray in the MSA office, [which] is not meant as a prayer space,” Salah said. “But there is no­ where else on campus.”

Unfortunately, Khan explained that space in the Shatner building is extremely limited, and increasing the prayer space would be a difficult task.

“Right now the space that we give them is small,” Khan said.

“I understand that, but at the same time many other services don’t have space, and every Friday we always give them the ballroom.”

The only action that SSMU can take right now, according to Khan, is to assist the MSA with the com­ plaint they have filed under the Que­ bec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms against McGill for taking away their prayer space.

Erin Hale, a U3 philosophy student and former McGill Daily editor, had been concemeds. but was relieved to find that it was not their biggest concern.

“I guess I’m happy it’s a non­ issue,” she said.

Tuesday, N ovem ber 2, 2010

Tribute paid to founder o f St. Joseph’s O ratory Want to meet, famous people?

Continued from COVER

regard to sex-abuse scandals gen­ erally. “They should not have hap­ pened and are embarrassing. So we take them in, we accept them, and we move on, not to forget them, but to ensure that whatever harm was done can be repaired.”

The Oratory is Bessette’s pri­ mary legacy. He began to envision a shrine to St. Joseph, whom he be­ lieved was the source of his ability to heal, in the late 19th century. The first small chapel was built in 1904, and the current basilica was complet­ ed in 1956, almost two decades after Bessette’s death. As a commemora­ tion of Bessette’s ministry, the Ora­ tory remains an international tourist attraction and pilgrimage site.

In cooperation with the city, the Oratory put ads in the Montreal Metro and on streetlight posts which read “Brother André: A brother. A friend. A saint.” Representatives handed out handkerchiefs to Satur­ day’s crowd, which they waved dur­ ing their applause.

The ceremony was an embel­ lished traditional Catholic Mass.

One of Bessette’s suitcases, a plan of St. Joseph’s Oratory, and some

Wapt to get ex­ clusive access to cool events?

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In the front row at Olympic Stadium, Prime Minister Stephen Harper applauds the presentation o f the crutches o f one o f the people healed by Brother André ( Alice Walker / McGill Tribune )

discarded crutches from one of his healings were alongside the altar, which stood in what used to be cen­ tre field for the Montreal Expos. Les Petits Chanteurs de Mont-Royal, a children’s choir from College NotreDame, provided music.

Though the crowd wore more habits and rosaries than caps and jer­ seys, it was not limited to the Catho-

University of Ottawa

lie faithful.

“André came from a point of view of unconditional acceptance,” Corso said. “He accepted believ­ ers, non-believers, people of other faiths. He was interested, of course, that they eventually come close to God, but he just accepted them and listened to them.”

A number of leaders from other

faiths attended the ceremony, and the diverse crowd left the stadium in a good mood.

“At the very end, where ... people were cheering,” Corso said, “I started to laugh. I was laughing out of pure joy.”

Want to answer, “Boo Y E A H lr Write for News.

Meetings are

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Graduate Studies

E x p lo r e w i t h C a n a d a 's le a d in g r e s e a r c h e r s

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uOttawa at McGill University Visit us a t th e G rad u ate and Professional Schools Fair 20 1 0 for th e sciences, on N o v e m b e r 3, 2010, in th e Shatner Ballroom o f th e U niversity Centre.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Talking to euthanasia o pp o n en t M arg aret Som erville Director of McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law recently testified at hearings Margaret Somerville, founding director o f the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law, recently testified at the Quebec National Assembly hearings. She sat down with the Tribune to share some o f her thoughts on euthanasia.

Why have you taken such an active role against euthanasia?

It is the single most important issue that we ever face because it af­ fects everybody. Although there are many other important issues, we are never going to design every child.

We aren’t going to use reproductive technology for everybody. If you in­ stitute euthanasia, everybody could be subject to it. In a way, even if you aren’t affected by euthanasia, it goes to the most fundamental of our so­ cietal values [the] respect for every human life. If we institutionalize eu­ thanasia, we cross that Rubicon. We change that norm.

The House of Lords in Eng­ land say the foundation stone of this civilized society is that we don’t kill each other. Even if you don’t think euthanasia is wrong, it does more harm than good for our society. And what you hope to achieve for a per­ son by euthanasia you can do by good palliative care and if nothing else is possible, palliative sedation.

You give them sedatives so they don’t feel the situation, given that they give you their permission and that there is no other way to stop their suffering.

What is the distinction be­

tween euthanasia and allowing someone to die naturally?

Pulling the plug is not eutha­ nasia. In pulling the plug you have treatment that is not effective to maintain the person because they’re dying, and what you’re doing, some say, is prolonging their dying, not prolonging their living. And what we do is care for them, but if they say, “No, enough is enough,” every­ one in Canada has the right to refuse treatment. There is no obligation to receive treatment.

There is a great deal of confu­ sion—not just with the public. Even the doctors are confused. I’ve asked doctors “Have you administered eu­ thanasia?” and some of the doctors [say] yes. When you ask them to tell you what they did, it turns out they didn’t do euthanasia. When you find out they’re doing things like giving adequate pain relief treatment, it’s not euthanasia. We’ve been trying really hard to get doctors to give ad­ equate pain relief treatment because one of the main reasons people get euthanasia is because they just can’t cope with the pain. The latest re­ search shows that proper pain relief actually prolongs your life. Which makes sense, since not all your psy­ chological resources are being used to cope with the pain.

What would be the implica­ tions of legalizing euthanasia in Canada?

What we have to ask is: “What do we have to do to hold our values

Somerville has spoken out against legalizing euthanasia in Quebec. ( Logan Smith / McGill Tribune )

on trust for future generations?”

Even if we wouldn’t misuse this now in rare cases where there really isn’t something else we can do, what is likely to happen in the future is re­ ally frightening. The evidence we’ve got of that is the Netherlands. They went from saying “It’s rare. It’s only going to be eligible adults in chronic pain. They’ve got to be terminally ill, and they have to repeatedly say they want to do it, and they have to give their full consent.” Now, not one of those conditions apply. They just put a petition in parliament that says if you’re over 70 and you’re tired of life, you can have euthanasia. The

courts hold that if a psychiatrist killed a 55-year-old woman because she said she’s depressed, that’s justi­ fied euthanasia.

What we’ve lost is any sense of the mystery of life. We’ve gone to a total scientism—that we’re just a bunch of functioning molecules, a sort of “Genes ‘R Us.” Once the ma­ chine has stopped working, as one Australian politician said, “When you’ve passed your ‘best before’ or ‘used by’ date, you should be chucked out as quickly, cleanly and efficiently as possible.”

If we lose the sense that death is a big deal, we’re likely to lose the

sense that life is a big deal, and if we lose the sense that life is a big deal, we’ve lost everything. We lose our ability to find meaning. We lose our ability to find awe, allure, and mys­ tery. We won’t just dehumanize our­ selves; we’ll encourage suicide by making it a norm. The people who want euthanasia have a condition that psychiatrists call hopelessness.

They think that there’s absolutely nothing to look forward to, that there is no joy or anything good in life.

— Compiled by Morgan Abraham

SPEAKER O N CAMPUS

H a rv a rd ’s Roger Brockett discusses in telligent m achines Professor points out problems with Turing test, the traditional method of determining robot smarts

By Ivan Pi_____________________ C o n trib u to r

What is an intelligent machine?

On Friday, Roger Brockett, a roboti­ cist at Harvard University, gave a lecture at the McGill Centre for In­ telligent Machines that attempted to answer this question.

In the 1950s, the Turing test was the standard for determining wheth­ er or not a machine was intelligent.

In the test, a human interrogator engages with another human and a machine, all of whom are physically isolated from each other. The inter­ rogator asks questions in the form of written texts to which the human and the machine respond anonymously.

If the interrogator can’t distinguish between the answers, then the ma­ chine is judged to be intelligent.

But according to Brockett there are many flaws in this definition.

“Exams are not open book tests,

but life is,” Brockett said. “In a Tur­ ing test you are in a sterile environ­ ment. You have no help in answer­ ing those questions. Moreover, that makes it more or less the standard aptitude test, where you either check the boxes or you do not. On the other hand, in real life, it is an open book test. You get whatever choices to solve the problem. The Turing test doesn’t reflect that.” “[A] Turing test is really a test for interaction with humans as if it is a human. But there is more to intel­ ligence than just interaction,” added Jeremy Macdonald, a PhD candidate in mathematics at McGill.

Brockett described three pillars that are essential for a machine to be intelligent: it has to extract infor­ mation from, respond to, and make changes to the environment in which it exists.

Where does that put machines that Canadians use every day, such

as search engines? To answer this, Brockett described the scenario of searching for an airplane ticket on­ line. The search engine would ex­ tract all the information related to your flight and rank them in order of relevance. If the airline cancelled the flight, the results would reflect that.

Search engines, then, are very intel­ ligent.

Brockett admited however, that his criteria also has some flaws.

“When I was 10 years old, I read this Time magazine article where this psychologist would hang bananas on the ceiling and scatter around the room boxes and crates and place a monkey in the room and see if the money can stack the boxes together and jump on it and get the banana,” Brockett said. “He would observe the monkey’s behaviour through a keyhole. What he found when he peered through the keyhole was the monkey looking straight

back at him”.

If intelligent beings sometimes fail to grasp the objective of tests, how can we expect machines to do it perfectly?

To answer this type of question, Brockett encouraged young people to do research. In particular, he said that inquiries into prosthetics, pro­ viding companionship and help to the elderly and impaired might be the most powerful ways to learn about intelligent machines.

At the McGill Centre for Intel­ ligent Machines, much work has al­ ready been done by roboticists like Professor Frank Feme. This idea ap­ pealed Chris Warren, a U2 electrical engineering student who attended the talk.

“I want to build a utopia where human labour will be substituted with machine, where there is no scarcity, and no need for labour,” Warren said.

Others are more skeptical.

“It is not so much an engineer­ ing question as it is philosophical,” Macdonald said. “He needs to be more expansive.”

Ultimately, said Brockett, per­ haps it’s not the definition of what it means to be intelligent that matters, but the contribution that machines make to society.

“We can build football players out of robots, but we devalue every­ thing that machines can do unless it is intrinsically human,” Brockett said. “Poor old intelligent machines are going to need a powerful advo­ cate if they are to get their due.”

Hiesday, November 2, 2010

Fee higher than at other universities News in Brief Continued from COVER

new application fee will “limit access to exchanges, and McGill will probably end up with fewer stu­ dents going out on exchanges.”

According to Abaki, the ap­ plication fee contradicts provincial legislation that requires student ap­ proval for ancillary fee increases of more than $15 per year. The new fee, he wrote in the memo, “perfectly fits this description.”

Mendelson disagreed with this line of reasoning, however. Because exchange programs are not compul­ sory, he said, the application fee is not classified as an ancillary charge.

“Students are reasonable—if they knew that a small fee was nec­ essary to improve the services at the Office for International Exchange or to process applications faster, they probably would have been willing to pay it,” Possian said. “This just seems like a sneaky way to fill the budget gap.”

Mendelson acknowledged that the fee was designed to partially re­ coup some of the costs of operating the Office of International Educa­

tion, which he emphasizes does not provide services to most students.

But Abaki countered that McGill could have considered other funding sources.

“If the administration needed additional funding to process ex­ change applications, then both SSMU and the faculty associations would have been willing to consider ways to provide that funding,” he said.

Abaki and Possian also ques­ tioned the lack of transparency sur­ rounding the institution of the fee.

Neither SSMU nor the faculty as­ sociations were informed, and the organizations only learned of the fee when approached by students apply­ ing to study abroad.

According to an email from the Office of International Educa­ tion, the application fee was for­ mulated by looking at registration fees charged by the Group of 13, a collection of Canadian research­ intensive universities. McGill’s fee, however, is the third highest among G-13 universities (tied with the Uni­ versity of Calgary), and McGill is

one of only three G-13 universities that charges a non-refundable fee before an exchange application has been approved.

“We believe that the fee is not out of line with what is charged by comparable universities,” Mendel­ son said. “Students will be able to recoup this cost if they are approved for exchange, as they can expect a mobility grant that will more than cover the cost of the application fee.”

The fee will also be waived for students receiving loans or awards from the provincial or federal gov­ ernment, as well as McGill’s Schol­ arships and Student Aid Office.

Possian, however, expressed concern that the fee will neverthe­ less prevent others from pursuing an international exchange—as she did last year at Sciences Po, a university in Paris.

“I had to work three jobs for eight months while I was in school in order to be able to afford to go on exchange,” she said. “An extra $150 might discourage people like me from applying.”

Former McGill professors inducted into Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Drs. Albert J. Aguayo and Jona­ than C. Meakins, two leading figures in McGill's Faculty of Medicine, are set to be inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2011.

"The Medical Hall of Fame is one of the most prestigious groups of people that have [had] a long lasting impact on health and health research in Canada," said Dr. Remi Quirion, vice dean of science and strategic initiatives in the Faculty of Medicine.

Aguayo's discovery of neuron regeneration in the 1970s played a key role in his selection. Aguayo and his team at the Montreal General Hospital challenged the assumption that neurons did not have an element of plasticity within them.

"This was a big discovery be­ cause it suggested that maybe if we were able to understand the mecha­ nisms involved, we could regrow neurons, for example, in the spinal cord of the injured person," Quirion said.

Meakins was a lecturer in Med­

icine and Pathology at McGill. He was also the director of the McGill University Student Health Clinic, which is seen as perhaps his greatest achievement.

In conjunction, Meakins is widely known as a memorable lead­ er and eventual dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He was also a founder and the first president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The selection of these two doc­ tors demonstrates that "McGill is a powerhouse in health research in Canada," Quirion said.

"When long-term members of the university are elected to the Medical Hall of Fame, it again sus­ tains our position as a leader in the field," he added.

Quirion estimated that 12 to 15 doctors with ties to McGill have al­ ready been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

— Kyla Mandel

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Fall Referendum Period The Fall 2010 referendum campaign period will run from November 2-8, and the polling period will run from November 5-11.

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The following two referendum questions will be on the ballot: Referendum Question Regarding SACOM SS Fee Renewal Do you agree, To renew the $0.75 fee per semester (for full-time and part-time students)to fund the Sexual Assault Centreof McGill Student Society (Fall 2010 through W inter 2013)?

Referendum Question Regarding S S M U Charity Committee and Fund Do you agree, To contribute $0.50 per semester (opt-outable) to a S S M U fund that will be distributed to disaster-stricken countries, and to the formation of a S S M U Charity Committee that will oversee the fund and organize charity events at McGill (the specific structure of the committee and details about the events it will organize can be found at www.votecharitycommittee.tk)?

A s well as the following plebiscite question: Plebiscite Question Regarding Addition of an Interfaculty A rts and Science Representative on the SSM U Legislative Council Do you agree, That SSM U should consider amending its constitution to allow a representative specific to the interfaculty of arts and sciences to sit on Legislative Council?

To view the full text of each question go to ssmu.mcgill.ca/elections and click on the “Elections” tab.

Polling stations will operate on November 5th and November 9th in the Leacock hallway. Any other polling station locations and dates will be announced via email and posted on ssmu.mcgill.ca/elections If you have any questions please contact Elections McGill at elections@ssmu.mcgill.ca

O pinion up outside the door? SSMU would inevitably have to turn many away.

The result would be damning: one person’s vote would be denied be­ Brendan»Steven cause they didn’t get there in time. bsteven @ m cgilltribune.com Don’t take this as an indict­ ment of direct democracy. On the The CA should contrary, the referendum process of­ fers a chance to vote on matters of go away student concern. It is the highest ful­ fillment of the principle of consent Two weeks ago, the Students’ of the governed.

Society held its annual General The GA is not a direct democ­ Assembly. The whole thing was de­ racy. The restrictions of occupying pressing. I went at precisely the time a physical space means that the GA it was to begin, and the first thing is limited in its ability to represent that struck me was the line. students. Past years have shown us Remember the GA last semes­ that special interest groups can ex­ ter? If you weren’t there at least an ploit the GA process for their own hour early, you weren’t getting in. ends. A controversial motion, like A motion criticizing Israel was on the Israel motion last semester, can the agenda, and both sides of the pe­ fill a GA quickly. rennial debate had come out in full But instead of being a forum force. The room was packed beyond for debate, GAs are about stacking capacity. Everyone left after the Is­ the cards. If my group can bring rael debate, so only a little more than more of our people, we will win, 100 people voted on free speech for and you will lose. Instead of com­ pro-life students on campus. De­ peting to convince students on the pressing, I know. basis of solid arguments, GAs are At this semester’s GA, the line competitions to fill the room. Does barely had 10 people in it. Enter­ that sound like democracy to you? ing the room, there were around 20.

The physical limitations of the Over the course of the entire GA, GA are simply impossible to over­ we hovered in and out of a measly come. They will never carry the quorum (100 people) that we could weight and legitimacy of referen­ barely maintain. dums. They need to go.

The GA makes a mockery SSMU President Zach New­ of the democratic process. A fun­ burgh faced several questions about damental principle of democracy attendance at the General Assembly is consent of the governed: laws this year. In response, he revealed should reflect the consent of those his intention to strike a committee who are ruled by them. At the GA on reforming the GA process. This this year, 100 unelected people dic­ is a positive first step, and its final tated policy to the 21,000 students .goal should be unequivocal: the end of the GA. that form SSMU. Think about that for a moment. As one of those at­ In fact, the president, a mem­ tending, I represented 210 of my ber of the executive, or one of our fellow students. All I did to earn that elected councillors should table a right was to walk through the door. motion calling for the discontinua­ The room that hosts the GA tion of the SSMU General Assem­ holds, at most, a little over 500 peo­ bly. I just hope one of them has the ple. But what if 2000 people lined courage to do it.

A close call with plagiarism Last week, I submitted an arti­ cle to the McGill Daily. (Just broad­ ening my horizons, not switching turfs.) When the editor told me that I had used too many of anoth­ er’s words and as a result, the ar­ ticle could not be published, I was shocked. Had I really crossed the line to plagiarism?

A 2009 study at the University of British Columbia found that stu­ dents who plagiarize or cheat have “dark” personality traits, most com­

monly psychopathy. The study’s au­ thor, psychology Professor Delroy Paulhus, recommended that univer­ sities should treat plagiarism as a mental disorder.

Me? A psychopath? It doesn’t match my personality traits or my strong ethical values. I still can’t come to terms with the fact that la­ ziness and sloppy work resulted in a close call with plagiarism. I am reluctant to even talk about this incident because, like many other students, I’m hesitant to admit that I came so close to cheating. It’s a mistake I won’t make again.

Apparently, I’m not the first.

Researchers at Guelph University and Rutgers University revealed in a 2006 study that over 53 per cent of Canadians admitted to plagiarism and 18 per cent to cheating on tests at post-secondary schools. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper was

Due to an incident of drunken buffoonery and stupidity, I spent the better part of last weekend, from October 22nd until the 25th, lying around my apartment on couches and beds with a tensor bandage around my swollen, bruised, painful left ankle. Ice was applied. Medi­ cine was taken (as was “medicine”).

After three full days indoors with no fresh air and the lingering stench of stale bong water, empty beer cans, and cooked food, I began to experi­ ence early-onset cabin fever. When the weather is unseasonably warm, and I can see the sun shining through the windows, I certainly don't want to be stuck inside. But, of course, I was, and had to live with it. I also missed two unrecorded classes of philosophy and Shakespeare. While this may not be an incredible loss, it did bring me to think how unneces­ sary it is to skip a class just because you “don’t wanna go,” when some of us who want to go to every class and enjoy the opportunity (and abil­ ity) to do so can’t because of unfore­ seen circumstances.

Although my scholarly Mon­ day was a complete failure, I did end up watching a movie of such wonderful scope and brilliance that the day didn’t seem like a complete loss: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I laughed, I was riveted, I got up (slowly and painfully) and hopped my way into the kitchen to make myself a Nutella sandwich right after the rescue of Jones’s fa­ ther (Sean Connery, naturally). Af­

terwards, I lay back, scoured Wiki­ pedia, and listened to Illmatic while waiting for my roommates to come home before watching copious epi­ sodes of South Park.

If this had been a Sunday, I would have liked nothing more than to watch the movie while lounging in a bathrobe, incapacitated due to my inability to keep from jumping off stationary objects. However, on a Monday, I know there is class, and knowing I was missing class made me more anxious than the prospect that my ankle could quite possibly be broken (it’s not).

While 1 sympathize with peo­ ple who skip class in order to study or finish assignments and papers, or who skip recorded classes because they know they’ll have the opportu­ nity to revisit these lectures exactly as they happened, skipping lecture with no legitimate reason seems to me a bigger waste of time than actually going to class. Taking the necessary steps to retrieve notes and catch up on lectures is as wasteful as one can get, not simply when it comes to time, but, more important­ ly, money. Remember, you’re pay­ ing for every course (or your parents are) and skipping class is like throw­ ing money in the garbage.

You skippers should re-evalu­ ate what it means to skip class when you’re watching that episode of The Wire you simply had to watch (which, I admit, is amazing and slightly excusable) instead of going to that unrecorded class where the professor tells everyone exactly what they should study in order to do well on the exam.

Learn to like class, to enjoy your professors’ jokes they told in the same class in the same context last year, and to relish the centuriesold tradition of scholarly and intel­ lectual exploration. Or say fuck it and watch that episode of The Wire.

It is amazing, after all.

accused of plagiarizing his 2010 throne speech from former Austra­ lian Prime Minister John Howard.

Harper was also accused of plagia­ rizing a speech he gave as opposi­ tion leader, urging Canada to send troops into Iraq. His speechwriter eventually was forced to resign.

The fact that plagiarism is so widespread—among politicians, stu­ dents, and even professors—makes me wonder why it’s so appealing. Is it laziness, or is it a deeper societal problem?

One issue is that students often don’t realize they are cheating. Let­ ting your parents edit your work (or write it for you) is plagiarism. Work­ ing in groups to solve a project, when the professor has forbidden it, is cheating. A survey of 20,000 students compiled by the Canadian Council on Learning found that stu­ dents of our generation are more

likely than those of others to cheat, and less likely to call it cheating.

Another problem is the acces­ sibility of cheating. Internet-based cheating increased by 81 per cent between 2003 and 2006 according to a survey conducted by the CCL. Copying and pasting from an article has never been so easy.

But the biggest problem is our failure to value our own words and work. People cheat not because they are unethical or too busy to come up with their own ideas, but because they don’t value their own opinions.

The thoughts of supposedly repu­ table others seem more important; one’s own original thoughts seem not to measure up in comparison.

While discussing ideas for a class paper, my Shakespeare professor didn’t just tell us not to plagiarize.

He told us not to disrespect our own intelligence. “Borrowing” an idea

Polarize Me Marko Djurdjic

Incapacitated instruction

Interested in photojournalism?

J o in o u r p h o to g r a ­ p h e r s in c o v e r in g n e w s , a rts , s tu d e n t liv in g a n d s p o rts .

E m a il p h o t o @ m c g i l l tr ib u n e .c o m fo r d e t a i ls . _______________________________ /

from someone else only means that we don’t believe sufficiently in our­ selves.

An organizer of the Rutgers/ Guelph study said the best way to deal with plagiarism is to implement an honour code in schools. But stu­ dents know cheating is wrong. It’s more important to encourage them to develop their own ideas and take them seriously when they vocalize those ideas.

The excuses are endless but at the root of cheating lies an under­ appreciation of your own self-worth.

Rather than just inserting the section “McGill values academic integrity” onto every syllabus, it would be more effective if professors and students discussed what academic integrity really is: an understanding that my ideas can only be authentic if I work hard to ensure that they’re my own.

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7

— =— =— =— = E d i t o r i a l ------------— — S S M U is right to take political positions At the Students’ Society Coun­ cil meeting last Wednesday, SSMU voted in favour of a motion to “stand in solidarity” with the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill, or AGSEM, as they push to unionize course lecturers. Some councillors raised concerns about SSMU being too political and the motion being against students’ best interests. While the implications of course lecturer unionization are not totally clear, the discussion surround­ ing the motion did raise the important question of just how political SSMU should be. It’s important to affirm that when it comes to issues affect­ ing students, student representatives

have the right to take defined politi­ cal positions.

A s . a representative body, SSMU officials have the responsibil­ ity to advocate on behalf of students, and political resolutions give them democratic mandates on which to stand. In the case of AGSEM, for instance, the potential for attracting better course lecturers and improv­ ing the quality of work for those who are here are measures with direct and important impacts on student life. In that sense, this is exactly the type of motion on which SSMU should be taking a stand.

As with any political decisions, though, SSMU statements have the

potential to be quite controversial.

It’s important to note, therefore, that SSMU’s jurisdiction is by no means unlimited. It is difficult to draw a clear line, but in general SSMU’s positions should be constrained to issues that directly affect students. We consider the AGSEM motion especially noncontroversial. While it implies few tangible obligations for SSMU, most students can likely support “standing in solidarity” with a union as it fights for increased course lecturer rights.

This is an issue with important implications for the way SSMU con­ ducts its business in the future. From controversial GAs to fiery council debates, hurt feelings and political

opposition are often couched in terms of what should and should not be dis­ cussed in SSMU forums. We have spoken time and again against a GA we see as irrelevant to student lives, but we do believe that the representa­ tive institutions SSMU has in place should address issues affecting stu­ dents, even if they’re political. At its best, SSMU speaks for its members, the students. President Zach New­ burgh, the rest of the executive, and the council are within their rights to adopt positions they consider prop­ erly reflective of the interests of the students, and should not be too wary of taking stances—within limits—on behalf of McGill undergraduates.

Release health records, not identities The Supreme Court of Brit­ ish Columbia is currently deciding whether Olivia Pratten’s inability to access the identity and medical re­ cords of her unwitting biological fa­ ther—a sperm donor 28 years ago— violates her constitutional rights to “life, liberty, and security of person.”

Pratten, a reporter for the Canadian Press, sued to mandate that records be made available to sperm donors’ children when they turn 18. The fed­ eral government disagrees, sympa­ thizing with Pratten but contending she has not been treated like a sec­ ond-class citizen. We agree with the Crown: as current federal legislation mandates, donors’ medical records should be made available to inquir­ ing children, but individual identities should remain concealed.

For various reasons, some more obvious than others, it’s justifiable that a person would want to know the identity of their parents. For one thing, most people just want to know.

Many children who are adopted or bom from donated sperm have trouble later in life grappling with

who they are, where they come from, and what they are doing here. There is a fundamental human need to tell stories, most importantly about our­ selves. Not knowing the identity of one or both of one’s own parents can be traumatic. It’s perfectly under­ standable for people to want to learn the truth.

Another reason is more practi­ cal: learning the identity of one’s par­ ents could clear up a lot of questions about medical history, and can there­ fore help a person take important precautions to ensure they remain healthy. Ignorance of hereditary con­ ditions can lead to serious complica­ tions. Knowledge of your family’s medical history can help prevent such tragedies from happening, and should be available to any person who asks.

Despite this, while medical his­ tory should be available, there are valid reasons for keeping donors’ identities hidden from their offspring.

One issue is that while sperm dona­ tions are important for helping many couples conceive, many men who

donate sperm do so only for money, and neither expect nor want to be called “Daddy” by anybody. If they knew their identity would eventually be made known to any children their sperm managed to conceive, many of these men would be seriously disincentivized from donating. As sad as Pratten’s situation is, we have to assume it would be even sadder had she never been bom.

There is also a serious issue related to retroactivity. It seems dan­ gerously unfair—and potentially a violation of constitutional rights—to assure sperm donors anonymity at the time of donation, and then 15,20, or even 30 years down the road strip them of that right, in direct violation of the previously-signed agreement.

Whatever the psychological issues faced by children ignorant of their parents’ identities, applying this ac­ cessibility mandate to donations from the past seems especially inde­ fensible.

One unique complication of the Pratten case is that, according to the Globe and Mail, “The Vancouver

doctor who inseminated her mother said he destroyed those records in the 1990s because at the time he wasn’t required to keep such docu­ ments for more than six years.” To address precisely this problem, the federal government in 2004 passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which, according to the Globe, “prevents donor records from being destroyed but still allows donors to remain anonymous.” This act does not apply retroactively, as indeed it properly should not.

The case of Olivia Pratten and those in similar situations is confus­ ing and complex. There’s no easy answer, since recognizing the rights of one party seems in the end to vio­ late those of the other. However, it’s unjustifiable to renege on important promises.

To paraphrase Churchill, the current federal legislation, which al­ lows children to see medical records but not the actual identity of the father, is the worst solution to this complex problem, except for all the others.

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may be sent to letters@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact infor­ mation. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submit­ ted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those o f the author and do not necessar­ ily reflect the opinions o f the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.

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Journalist or jester: Is Jon S tew art relevant anym ore?

On Saturday, October 30, Jon Stewart hosted his Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Today, two Tribune editors face off on whether Jon Stewart has anything important to contribute to American political debate.

Given this past weekend’s grab of the mainstream media’s bewil­ dered attention with his Rally to Re­ store Sanity and/or Fear, there’s been an awful lot of ink devoted to Jon Stewart lately. Alternative bloggers, TV interviewees, and my friends’ Facebook statuses have all but eclipsed anything original there is to say about how great the “fake news” anchor is. And yet, vitriolic com­ mentators, including voices in this very newspaper, are doing their best to rain on the funny man’s parade.

Some decry the fact that a nation’s youth have more faith in a comedian than in politicians; some just think Stewart should decide which of the two he wants to be. I say that if this were a popular 1960s Disney musi­

In the later Bush years, I watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart every night before going to bed. Stewart provided a perspective on the news which was both funny and serious. He was the Great Amer­ ican Satirist of those difficult times.

For one thing, his show provided a significant societal service by dig­ ging through hours of television footage for samples of supposedly eminent public personalities saying stupid, offensive, or self-contra­ dictory things. In this way, even if the “alarming” stories about young people only receiving their news through Comedy Central were exag­ gerated, Stewart fulfilled the entirely different and probably even superior role of distilling an infinite mass of information to a few digestible and highly amusing (if only loosely representative) tidbits, which for me and many others were the basic components of that era’s fundamen­

cal, the naysayers would be work­ ing for a certain bank too scary to be put in kids’ movies, and Stewart and friends would be that whimsical old man who floats up to the ceiling from loving to laugh so much. To those who think Stewart is not rel­ evant, I’d say look from up there.

Stewart is possibly the most important pundit on American tele­ vision right now. For one thing, he is an astounding journalist. He’s often classified as a fake news anchor, but this is misleading. That he is a come­ dian doesn’t mean his news is fake; it means he has a shield to say true things even when others won’t. This Hour Has 22 Minutes is fake news, “Weekend Update” is fake news, but Stewart offers wry commentary on

tal structure. They will continue to constitute the reality of what the Bush years were really like to us for the foreseeable future, whether or not we ever lay the bongs aside long enough to realize it.

After the Obama Incident of 2008, pundits pronounced The Daily Show brand of comedy all but dead.

It was only, they argued, in opposi­ tion to the presence of totally selfunaware neoconservatives in the halls of American government that Stewart’s satire could work. The seizure of power by a young admin­ istration for whom the vast majority of Stewart’s fans had voted, and the theory that post-election feel-gooding Americans might not feel so good about the satirist pointing his famously lethal weapons at the first black American ever elected to the White House, seemed destined to move Stewart from somewhere very near the centre of American political

GRADUATE ENG ! ( » * !

■ il

actual news stories. If the informa­ tion he presents is “unreal,” it’s only in the sense that you won’t find it broadcast on major news networks.

Yet if another newsgroup ran the ex­ posés on Fox journalists or backped­ alling politicians in the way Stewart does, people would call it investi­ gative journalism. Because Stewart aims to get laughs, and because our society believes in this strange per­ verse notion that what is fun cannot be important, they call it comedy.

The difference is semantic. No label can hide that Stewart’s show pro­ vides necessary contributions to the American political conversation.

Stewart is also important be­ cause he makes news interesting.

There is, of course, nothing unique

in this: all news organizations put spins on their content so that people will want to consume it. What’s unique is that Stewart’s spin is deliv­ ering news in a way that makes his audience laugh, rather than cower in fear. Stewart’s critics often contend that his brand of political comedy leaves his large youth following un­ abashedly cynical. This is probably true, but I guess what you conclude from that comes down to personal preference—whether you think it’s better in a healthy civil society for news viewers to come away think­ ing most of their politicians and pun­ dits are crooks, or for them to think that most of their fellow citizens are itching to abduct their children.

Finally, Stewart is important

because people think he’s important.

From the hundreds of thousands who came to his rally, to the millions who watched Barack Obama on his show and Stewart’s own heralded guest appearances on other cable shows, people think this man is important.

Laughter is the only possible response to Stewart, because the most rational reaction would prob­ ably be tears. He’s not the next president. He’s not Edward R. Murrow or Bob Woodward. But in an age when newscaster and politicians are no longer gods, laughter may just be the best medicine. In a house divided at home and overstretched abroad, Stewart is the best defence mechanism America’s got.

—Mookie Kideckel

life to the outermost fringes, exactly where his opponents at Fox News, in the Republican Party, and elsewhere always wanted him to be.

As evidenced by the deluge of support for Stewart’s recent Rally to Restore Sanity, this relocation never took place. The comedian continues to occupy an almost exalted place in contemporary young Americans’ otherwise relatively empty pan­ theon of beloved public figures. As Stewart has so aptly and repetitively shown over the years, there are few politicians or so-called “media per­ sonalities” in whom one can con­ fidently invest any great degree of trust. They almost always seem to disappoint in the end. Stewart prom­ ises purity, and we like that.

Though his politics are clear to anyone even partially acquainted with the substance and tenor of The Daily Show, Stewart has always been able to dodge responsibility for

those political views by varyingly claiming himself as either a mere comedian or as a critic of the entire political culture, for him a toxic cli­ mate caused largely by a fickle and irresponsible media. He has repeat­ edly denied being a lapdog for the inflamed left, and on the show makes strenuous if not entirely plausible ef­ forts to lampoon overzealous liber­ als a fraction as strongly as he does their right wing counterparts.

It’s Stewart’s style of captur­ ing and disseminating those audio­ visual snippets of political reality that has been taken up by the media he so regularly deplores and repack­ aged as what journalism should be in the 21st century. A relatively straight line can be drawn between that toxic political climate his rally was sup­ posedly decrying and the very thing he has done, the role he has played, for more than a decade. Whenever a politician or public figure says

something offensive or even just off-key, everybody pounces. If his show cannot be blamed for directly causing that “gotcha” atmosphere, it has done nothing, despite Stewart’s gadfly pretensions, to genuinely crit­ icize or seek to reverse it.

I no longer watch The Daily Show at all. His way of trying to dodge responsibility for both his politics and his comedy by alter­ nately posturing himself as more committed to one than the other is sneaky at best. His rally was-just a marketing tool, organized by Com­ edy Central (subsidiary of Viacom), and sponsored by LG, Hershey’s, and Volkswagen. The Daily Show remains tremendously popular de­ spite its bad comedy and unserious politics. This generation will go no­ where so long as we depend on Jon Stewart for our left-flank satire. We can do better— yes, we can.

—Ricky Kreitner

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Prospective graduate students currently enrolled in or with an earned Bachelor o f Science degree in Engineering, Math or a Flard Science are encouraged to attend this event. Places for this information session are limited.

Get an overview on leading programs such as Green Technologies, Financial Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Astronautics and Space Technology, Chemical and Materials Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering, among other disciplines.

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Stealing from the cookie jar Firesheep helps amateur hackers exploit public networks By lain M a c d o n a l d ________ O n lin e Editor

Your online accounts are vul­ nerable. From Amazon to Yahoo!, your personal information on many of your favourite sites, if used on a public network, can easily be stolen.

Thanks to a Firefox plug-in called Firesheep, released last week by hacker Eric Butler, this risk is higher than ever. By installing the plug-in and connecting to a public network, amateur hackers can gain access to dozens of accounts in seconds.

Firesheep steals your identity by stealing cookies (no, not from the cookie jar). Cookies have been used for the last 15 years, and they allow site administrators to remember who certain users are. When you log in to a site like Facebook, your username and password are passed through an encryption algorithm before being

sent to the site. This way, even if your information were intercepted, it would be useless. After logging in, however, all of your communication with the site is unencrypted. WEP or WPA encrypt communication, but on a public network, this clientrouter safeguard is absent.

Imagine your network is a giant room, with one person responsible for handling all communication out of the room. That person is the rout­ er. Each computer, or client, would be a person in the room. Over an ethemet connection, each person has a telephone to communicate with the router, so nobody can hear their con­ versations. With a wireless connec­ tion, however, all of the clients must shout their information at the router.

In this case, everyone can hear ev­ eryone else’s communications. On an encrpyted network, each per­ son uses a secret code to do their

transmission, so while a message can be understood by the client and the router, nobody else understands what they’re saying. However, on a public network, this information is not encrpyted. This means everyone in the room can hear what everyone else is saying. All they have to do is listen.

While your computer typically ignores messages not addressed specifically to it, Firesheep uses a library called WinPCap, which lis­ tens to all messages that your com­ puter can see on a public network.

Firesheep can’t be used to steal your username and password, but when you request a page which requires cookies, your machine sends the cookie to the router in an unecnrypted format. Firesheep, when listen­ ing to transmissions, can steal this cookie and remember it. Then, the Firesheep user can simply request

the page using your cookie, which will fool the site into thinking that he or she is you. The amateur hacker can then muck around with your ac­ count all they like.

The writer, Butler, said that he didn’t intend for this plug-in to be used in a malicious manner, despite the possibility. Rather, he created it to demonstrate the issues with un­ encrypted cookie transmission to these site administrators. Point taken, Butler.

The solution to this problem isn’t to stop using these sites on an unencrypted network. In fact, any site with a social network plug­ in, like a tweet or a “like” button, involves this cookie information.

While the onus is on site administra­ tors to use SSL encryption protocols to encrypt all sensitive informa­ tion, you can take security measures yourself until they do. Firefox users

can install the HTTPS-everywhere plug-in, which forces Firefox to use the stronger HTTPS encryption whenever possible. Force-TLS uses a similar method of forcing HTTPS encryption. Logging in to a Virtual Private Network can also be used to secure communication with the web.

Firesheep points out a gap­ ing hole in web security. While site administrators might think they’re keeping users safe by encrypting login, they’re fooling themselves if they’re using unencrypted HTTP connections after that point. As But­ ler pointed out, it’s actually quite easy to steal cookies that these sites use and pose as another user. We can only hope that popular websites fix this issue soon. Until then, it would be foolish to use any non-HTTPS site on an unencrypted network.

XVS.Y

Skype vs. Google Voice Which video chat is more likely to keep your long distance relationships intact?

Whether you're chatting with your parents, friends, or boyfriend, long-distance relationships have been made easier with chat programs that allow voice and video communication. Skype seems to have taken the lead in the industry, but there are other chatting and video streaming programs that are just as good, if not better. One program that is proving more and more competitive can be accessed through your Gmail account, Google Voice.

Google Voice

Skype

Quality: Constant streaming with no interruption. The im­ ages are clear and there are rarely connection problems.

Quality: Skype has a high rate of dropped calls and diffi­

culty in reconnecting these calls. It’s also not. uncommon for the video to freeze or to lag behind the sound. On the plus side, a fuzzy image might make you look better on a bad day.

Price: Until 2011, people-can use Google Voice for free when making calls anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, to land­ lines and mobiles alike. This actually makes it worth it to turn on your computer and sign into your Gmail account instead of using your mobile.

Price: Skype is relatively cheap when calling international landlines, but the costs run high when calling international mo­ bile numbers. If you’re not careful, the $14 minimum upload to your Skype credit can run out quickly.

Popularity: Although Gmail has about 176 million users monthly, not everyone uses Google Voice. On top of that, using the video feature requires an extra download.

Popularity: With over 500 million accounts in use, the ma­ jority of your friends probably have Skype. Calling fellow users is free, which will lower the cost of your Skype usage.

Mobility: Although less publicized, phone applications for Google Voice are just as readily available as Skype apps. How­ ever, a smaller number of users makes downloading the Google Voice application less worthwhile.

Mobility: Thanks to Skype applications available for iP­ hones and BlackBerrys, many people can download Skype on their smartphones.

The Multi-Task Factor: When video chatting, the window

will remain open and in sight on your screen while browsing other programs. This allows you to keep your interlocutor in sight while checking out perezhilton.com.

Texting: Sending texts through Skype is simple and rela­

tively cheap. Skype charges you per 120 characters and shows you how much each text costs as you are texting.

W in n e r

Skype. The quality of the video in Google Voice is significantly better than that of Skype, but until the num­ ber of Google Voice users increases Skype will be the program to use for long distance communication. How­ ever, just as Skype steadily replaced Microsoft Messen­ ger, it’s very likely that Google Voice will replace Skype in the near future.

—Alison Bailey

Multi-Task Factor: When chatting you have to remain on the Gmail window to keep whoever you’re communicating with in sight. This makes browsing on the internet a game of shuf­ fling around windows.

Texting: At this time, sending text messages through Google Voice is not possible while in Canada.

MUSIC

In Concert: Halloween All Dressed Up With Somewhere to Go

Matt & Kim

By Nick Frid___________________ C o n trib u to r

Matt & Kim’s performance on Saturday night at Le National left little to be desired and provided more than enough justification to skip any Halloween party or pre-drink. The duo brought their contagious energy to the stage, and the crowd mirrored their liveliness all night long. Their brilliant backand-forth banter mixed with an incredible rapport with the audience kept the crowd hanging on every word. Between their invitation to stage jumpers and crowd surfers, Kim’s quick break to take a walk on top of the crowd, balloons being tossed around, and a copious amount of time spent doling out handshakes and high fives, the crowd responded

The Besnard Lakes

By Brahna Siegelberg A&E Editor

Along with Wintersleep and Rah Rah, the Besnard Lakes per­ formed at Cabaret Mile-End on Sat­ urday night as part of a rocking Hal­ loween concert.

The Montreal-based indie band, which is composed of husband-andwife team Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, drummer Kevin Laing and guitarist Richard White, entranced the audience with songs from their 2010 Polaris Music Prize-nominated album Are the Roaring Night.

Although the performance was hardly dance worthy, it was enter­ tainment in itself to listen to the sounds of frontman Lasek. Goreas, both back-up vocalist and bassist, lent her voice to powerful harmo­ nies, but it was Lasek's incredible range and enthralling falsetto that carried the evening. It’s refreshing when singers can actually sing.

Named after Saskatchewan’s Besnard Lake, the band mixes ‘70s prog rock, the Bee Gees, and post­

rock with an indie twist. The result is a sound that pays tribute to many as­ pects of rock ‘n’ roll history, some­ thing that jived well with the eerie Halloween vibe of the night.

They played a fairly long set— almost an hour—but with a varied repertoire of music, just sitting and listening to the band was a treat. And it’s safe to say, based on the room full of synchronized head bobbers, that the rest of the audience agreed.

appropriately with plenty of cheers and applause. The ability of the Brooklyn-based pair to establish a connection with concert attendees is something few other acts can match.

After an hour of dancing, laughing, and singing along, Matt & Kim skipped the ever-predictable encore and finished with their most recognizable hit, “Daylight."

After the final song, while the audience was still cheering, the duo further cemented their new Montreal following by jumping into the crowd for an autograph, hug, picture, or comment of gratitude from any audience member willing to stick around.

Diamond Rings

By Ryan Taylor______ A&E Editor

You know you’re onto some­ thing when people decide to dress up as you for your Halloween con­ cert, which was exactly the case with John O ’Regan’s androgynous, glam rock alter ego Diamond Rings at his show on Sunday.

Taking the stage in a relatively subdued matching vintage Seattle Supersonics jersey and hat and Nintendo power glove (he’s known to wear zebra-print tights and rain­ bow eye-makeup), Diamond Rings played an enthusiastic and upbeat set from his recently released debut full-length Special Affections. He easily won over the crowd with his danceable arid catchy melodies, and managed to get the majority of the venue moving even after a long weekend of Halloween festivities.

Almost better than his dance moves was his charming and hilarious banter, with topics including Seal’s contribution to the Batman For­ ever soundtrack and the relatively low stakes of messing up a song he hadn’t played in a while.

At the keyboard, O ’Regan is

Rocky Horror Picture Show

By Holly S te w a rt__

___

Photo Editor

A cold Saturday evening and the first snowfall of the season didn’t stop the line for the Rocky Horror Picture Show from extend­ ing around the block. It’s safe to say that those who like it, like it a lot.

Dedicated fans were dressed in drag and dishabille, even though fishnets and hot pants don’t make for ad­ equate winter layers.

The show started with a ghoul­ ish rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance followed by a costume contest amongst audience members. Then everyone settled in for the real action. The cult classic was shown on the big screen while the scenes were simultaneously acted out on the stage in front. A live narrator threw in lines that dis­

torted the film’s script. “Where’s your neck? Are you an armadillo?” he asked whenever the film’s narra­ tor appeared. The acting was even more creative and explicit than the film itself; during Susan Sarandon’s “Creature of the Night,” in which she sings about heavy petting and making out, the onstage actors pan­ tomimed various graphic sex acts.

Audience participation was mandatory: toilet paper, toast, and rice were all thrown at the appropri­ ate moments, and not a single person remained seated during the classic “Time Warp” dance. At the end of the night, the audience trickled out reluctantly, more disappointed that the show was over than dreading the cold weather outside.

a quirky performer, but give him a guitar and he becomes a force to be reckoned with. It’s not a matter of technical skill so much as how he sells every note he plays with fer­ vour. His music often gets the synthpop label, but make no mistake— live, songs like “Wait and See” and “Something Else” rock first and foremost.

After a quick costume contest before the encore (congratulations to the man dressed as a Mondrian painting), Diamond Rings returned to play his first single, “All Yr Songs,” with tourmates PS I Love You. No disrespect to the men of PS I Love You, but it just didn’t feel right to replace the programmed backing beats with live musicians, and Diamond Rings lost something inherently “Diamond Rings” as a re­ sult. Whether that’s a sign O’Regan has painted himself into too small a comer for future growth remains to be seen, but judging from the suc­ cess of last night’s show, there’s no reason to worry just yet.

S tudent L iving no

% c h o m a tfe

By Shannon Kimball Features Editor

I was walking through the Milton-Park intersection on Halloween when it started to snow. I didn’t care that it was still October and that most people were roaming the streets in slutty costumes; I was in the mood for hot chocolate and Christmas carols.

With Second Cup, Presse Café, and El Mundo within 50 feet of each other, it’s hard to resist an effortless mug of hot cocoa. But I’ve made a promise to myself to no longer shell out $4 for coffee shop drinks, with their powdered flavours and syrups. Hot chocolate

is easy to make, and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand. You can even make the same varieties available at coffee shops. All of these recipes serve two cups of hot chocolate, because who really stops at one?

Basic hot chocolate Ingredients

• 2 c. milk • 4 oz. finely chopped dark chocolate • 2 tbsp. sugar • Vi tsp. vanilla extract • Vi c. heavy cream, chilled • 1 tsp. powdered sugar

2. Remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the chocolate until smooth.

3. Add the vanilla.

4. Optional: with a hand-held frother (available for under $5 at kitchen stores), lightly froth the drink.

5. Whip the cream and powdered sugar with a whisk in a separate bowl.

6. Garnish with whipped cream and a pinch of chopped chocolate.

Peppermint hot chocolate

.

7. Prepare hot chocolate as described above. Use a very dark Directions chocolate to balance the strong 1. In a small saucepan, bring milk peppermint flavour. to a boil. Whisk in the sugar.

8. Replace vanilla extract with !4

tsp. peppermint extract. of heavy whisking until the drink 9. Garnish with a candy cane and is smooth. If it begins to clump, whipped cream. run it through a strainer.

3. Garnish with a pinch of Mexican hot chocolate cinnamon or a whole cinnamon Ingredients stick for extra spice.

• 2 c. milk • 1-11/2 tablets of finely chopped Coffee and hot chocolate Oaxacan or Mexican chocolate, 1. Mix equal parts coffee and hot such as Ibarra or Nestle’s Abuelita. chocolate for a sweet caffeine (Both are available at Librairie boost.

Espagnole or Sabor Latino on St. Laurent.)

If you’re too lazy to do any of • Cinnamon sticks the above, purchase Camino hot Directions chocolate mix for $6 at Marché 1. Boil the milk.

Lobo. It comes in dark chocolate, 2. Whisk in the chocolate until milk chocolate, or chili and spice. smooth.

Because Mexican Each container easily supplies 20 chocolate is mixed with sugar and servings of hot cocoa. spices, it may take a few minutes

W ebC T stupidity o f th e w eek S u b je c t: A u th o r:

Political Science D a te :

1 was just wondering if anyone would be willing to send me any notes they've taken starting from the point after our first midterm. I always take notes but I don't believe I'm doing it very efficiently because they did not help me very well for the first midterm. I'd really like to see how other students take them, then maybe it can help me to become b etter at it. So any or all notes from that time would really be appreciated. Thank you!

R e p ly

S u b je c t: Organic Chemistry A u th o r: student

D ate:

Dear Professor: If it is possible, it would be much appreciated if you could hold the second midterm at an earlier time so that I can watch the Canucks beat the Habs.

Sincerely, A Canucks fan living in Montreal R e p ly S u b je c t: A u th o r: professor Dear Canucks fan,

* D ate:

I'm sorry, but it’s not feasible for the Canucks to beat the Habs. It's also not possible to move the exam time due to rooms at McGill being totally overbooked this year.

Be careful, as your name is attached to this post, so autom atic minus 5 points for you! Unfortunately, I forgot to w rite down the name of the guy who was w earing the Leafs jersey in the last exam. That would be minus 10 points!

R e p ly

Are your WebCT discussion pages rife with idiocy, typos, or grammatical errors? Send them to features@mcgilltribune.com.

13

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

O N CAMPUS

W hy you shouldn’t take your iPod to the gym Locker theft leaves student “fat and pissed off’

By Elisa M

u

y

l ___________

C o n trib u to r

A stranger turned around and looked at me, wide-eyed and a little bit accusingly. “Where’s my stuff?” she half-asked, half-whined. We were in the gym locker room, and she’d opened her locker to find it empty.

A series of locker robberies sweeping the McGill gym locker room have left gym-goers feeling

vulnerable. Another victim of theft, Hattie Pearson, a McGill exchange student, came back from a fitness class to find her lock cut open and her wallet and USB stick gone. She immediately contacted the front desk, where she met a girl who had her laptop stolen. She then filled out a report and one of the building’s supervisors helped her look for her missing things, unsurprisingly to no avail. She was told that 20 other lockers had been broken into that

day.

Pearson received a call half an hour later telling her that her wal­ let had been found in another locker that had been broken into. All of the money was gone except for some pennies.

“It’s just not a nice feeling at all,” Pearson said, adding that she felt violated and that she had suf­ fered an invasion of privacy. “It makes you feel vulnerable.”

The source of many students’ frustration is that they are doing nothing wrong: they have locked their lockers, and have trusted that that is enough. Many, like Pearson, are coming straight from campus to one of McGill’s workout classes.

Unfortunately, it appears that most thefts have occurred around these peak times, deterring many from coming to the gym at all.

“It just leaves me fat and pissed off,” Pearson said.

The facility’s staff is limited in their ability to protect against theft in private areas like changing rooms.

Nevertheless, staff members are tak­ ing steps to reduce the thefts, said Assistant Manager of Events Eyal Baruch, while working in collabora­ tion with McGill Security to educate the student body.

Locks may not help at the Gym ( Miranda W hist / McGill Tribune )

“This started years ago, ever since the gym opened. It’s not a se­ cret ... once you are in the building, the locker rooms are an obvious tar­ get,” Baruch said, adding that post­ ers have been put up outlining what has always been the facility’s advice: lock your stuff up, and don’t bring any valuables to the gym. Baruch and the rest of the facility’s staff rec­ ommend using the small lockers pro­ vided by the gym that can be rented

at a cheap price and can be publicly monitored, rather than using those in the changing rooms.

Despite these efforts, McGill students continue to fall victim to what appear to be well-planned and well-executed heists.

“We think it’s a team of two,” said Baruch, adding, “It’s a wellthought-out process.”

H O W -TO

Scoring your reference letter You’re all set if you’re a keener with a box of chocolates

By Tori Crawford________________ E ditor-in-C hief

If you’re a U3 student think­ ing of applying to grad school or an internship, you know what time of year it is: reference letter season.

While different schools and pro­ grams all place varying emphasis on this component of an applica­ tion, it’s still important to put some thought and effort into your letters.

Here are some tips on how to ensure you get glowing reviews from your professors.

Start early: It may seem silly, but it’s best to start thinking about which professors you are going to approach when you are in your sec­ ond or third year. Any prof will see right through a student who tries to cozy up during the first month of class and then asks for a letter. This means making a concerted effort to get to know your profs by approach­ ing them after class with questions and going to their office hours. This

is the only way you can make your­ self stand out in a large class; even if you’re in a smaller group it shows the prof that you are interested in the material.

Select carefully: Most impor­ tantly, make sure you select profes­ sors who genuinely know you as a student. A good rule of thumb is that if the prof doesn’t know you by name, it’s not worth asking. While your PSYC 100 prof may agree to write you a letter, it will be very clear to whoever is reading it that this per­ son doesn’t actually know you and has simply inserted your name into a form letter. Also, it’s important to make sure that the professor has the capacity to write you a good letter.

There is nothing wrong with ask­ ing this straight out, and most profs will be honest and suggest you ask someone else if they don’t feel they know you well enough to act as your reference.

Be organized: Although writ­ ing reference letters is part of a pro­

fessor’s job and you should never feel guilty about asking them to do so, professors get inundated with requests during the first couple months of the fall semester. Try to ask them as early as possible so as to give them ample time to write a high-quality letter. Most profs will probably ask you to send them a copy of your CV as well as any per­ sonal statement you may have to submit, so make sure you have those ready as well. It’s also courteous to buy prepaid envelopes, address them yourself, and drop them off at your professor’s office so they don’t have to pay for postage themselves.

Finally, ask them to follow up and let you know when the letters have been sent out.

Say thanks: After the letters have all been sent out, be sure to thank whoever wrote you the let­ ters with a card and a small gift. A box of chocolates, homemade baked goods, or a small plant is always a good idea.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology McGill University MIMM 501/502 Undergraduate Students host

Marc Ouellette, Ph.D. Scientific Director CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity

An Odyssey in Molecular Studies of Antimicrobial Resistance November 5, 2010 Lecture 1:30 PM

Dinner 6:00 PM

Amphitheatre Lyman Duff Medical Building

Ballroom Thomson House

3775 rue University Montreal, QC

3650 rue McTavish Montreal, QC

For dinner ticket purchase or more information, contact Josh Gillard: joshua.gillard@mail.mcgill.ca

S U S 'v M cGill j EST *@* MISAS

' ÜCItNCt UNCC»S«»CUAtt «JMH

Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

1 4 ------------------------O D D S & ENDS

TRAVEL

Three leaves + glue

W yom ing’s paradise

The worst Halloween costumes of 2010

Horseback riding in the isolated Bighorn Mountains

By Alison Bailey

By Shannon Kimball

Features Editor

Features Editor

Everybody loves Halloween.

It’s the only time of the year you can dress up or dress down. Some people opt for a creative costume while oth­ ers play it safe and go for something more traditional. Whatever you de­ cided to dress as this year, here are some of the best and worst decisions students at McGill made.

The politically incorrect costume: The Chilean Miner

It’s too soon. This costume wasn’t as bad as what I’ve seen in previous years—for example, a dis­ tasteful A1 Qaeda terrorist, or Hitler.

But despite this recent event having a happy ending, it’s still way too early to joke about.

The sluttiest female costume: Mother Earth

This costume is scarily simple: three leaves and glue. To date, this is the best way I ’ve seen to leave as little as possible to the imagination.

I know girls love to seize the mo­ ment to shorten their skirts and flash a little cleavage, but this was truly pushing it.

The sluttiest male costume: Premature Ejaculation.

Simple, to the point, and cheap, in a slightly more appropriate way: a guy without a shirt and his belt un­ buckled. Although I can appreciate the wit behind it, this was either a last minute makeshift costume or an

excuse for a guy to take his shirt off and show off his abs.

The most popular female costume: Katy Perry

Apart from the standard sexy cop, tirewoman, or flight attendant, Katy Perry seemed to be one of the most popular costumes this year. The costume is taken from Perry’s “Cali­ fornia Gurls” music video: a bright blue wig, short shorts, and a bra with what looks like two delicious baked goods on top and cherries right in the centre. You get the idea. At least it wasn’t Lady Gaga.

The most popular male costume: Morphsuit

This lycra spandex costume in bright metallic colours covers you from head to toe. And in case you’re wondering, you can drink through the Morphsuit.

The worst costume:

It’s a toss-up between Mother Earth and the girl I saw who wore nothing but corset and a thong.

The best costume: Tetris Team

Groups have a tendency to turn out the best, but you they must have put in a lot of thought into this type of costume. This year the best one I saw was a group of Tetris blocks running around the McGill Ghetto, stopping in the middle of the street and making Tetris formations with each other.

Principal Heather Munroe-Blum invites M cG ill students, faculty and staff to an open forum to discuss issues

I ’ve always been a city girl.

Growing up in downtown Chicago, I only applied to universities in large cities, and once declared Carmel, California—a small ocean town of retired actors and millionaires with a slew of art galleries—the most bor­ ing place on earth. This is why it’s so surprising that my favourite place in the whole world is in northern Wyo­ ming. It’s the only place a city kid can really feel like they know and understand a horse.

My family travels 1,500 miles every summer to ride horses in Wyo­ ming’s Bighorn Mountains, an iso­ lated extension of the Rocky Moun­ tains. The Bighorns are not easy to get to. The trip involves a flight to Billings, Montana, then a long drive through Montana’s rolling yellow hills. Risk-taking travellers can hop on regional airlines’ prop planes to nearby Sheridan, Wyoming, but fre­ quent storms and high mountains make for a bumpy ride and many cancelled flights. Alternatively, you can road trip on the 1-90 across the Great Plains, and then onto US-16 to ascend the Bighorns, which are vis­ ible from the grassy lowlands 100 miles away.

The natural elements of the Bighorns are both stunning and dev­ astating. Temperatures can change 50 degrees farenheight overnight.

During the summer, hailstorms are common and snow dusts the wildflowers on cold mornings. The dry air on a hot day is akin to a day in Flagstaff, and the wind at the top of the Hunter Mesa forces horses to bow their heads in mercy. The dry air and wind took their toll in 1988, when a fire destroyed much of Big­ horn’s forests. As a frequent visitor, it has been astonishing to witness the growth of a new forest, patches of wildflowers amidst young trees, and the return of wildlife to the once singed territory. But patches of grey remain at higher altitudes.

My family has always stayed at Paradise Guest Ranch, but cheaper options abound. Day rides, hiking,

( old-scotch.ch )

and camping are easily accessible.

Paradise’s riding, staff, and scenery are superior, with over 100 horses and a few dozen log cabins nestled in a valley. Snowy peaks, a yellow mesa, and rolling green hills surround the ranch. Guests spend the day riding or hiking the ranch’s trails and getting to know their horses. The high altitude and clear skies allow for incredible stargazing.

Once the riding is over for the day, the horses stampede out of the corral and up towards the mesa, where they graze and sleep until the wranglers herd them in at dawn. The wranglers aren’t playing the part of cowboy for the guests, but instead are horsemen and women from the surrounding area. They care much more about the horses than their riders.

These horses are nothing like the burned-out pony you may have ridden as a kid, or the rule-abiding horses in equestrian. Raising them together builds a camaraderie evi­ dent even to an inexperienced rider.

They look out for each other, and riders wonder if they’re secretly en­ gaging in conversation during trail rides. The riding seems effortless: the horses know how to cross a creek without tripping, how to smoothly jump over a fallen tree, and when there might be a moose up ahead.

That said, riding a horse at Par­ adise Ranch is not an easy ride, and this is reinforced by the wranglers.

Riders must be just as attentive to

the trail as to the horses, and not get caught up in the majestic scenery.

These horses aren’t docile: they’re smart enough to know the dozens of trails surrounding the area and are always ready to gallop for an expe­ rienced rider.

The trails in the Bighorns take riders and hikers through constantly changing scenery. After riding for a few hours in a homogeneous for­ est, one may come upon a bright red canyon, interlaced with green grass.

My most unforgettable experi­ ence came when a wrangler let us race through a valley. He promised us that once we started the ascent up the other side, the horses would become exhausted and eventually stop. (Note: this wrangler broke just about every rule in the book, but everyone survived.) I tied my reins in a knot and let them fall on my horse Modak’s neck, knowing that my guidance was useless; he would know if he had to stop or make a turn. I leaned forward, grabbed his mane, and gave him a hard kick.

There’s something about being alone in the mountains with a horse, with the howling wind in the dis­ tance, that allows the rider and the horse to understand each other. It’s the stuff of epic western movies, but inexplicably unique to each traveler.

Being alone with one’s thoughts in such a tremendous landscape lends itself to relaxation, and an incredible feeling of smallness.

o f relevance to the M cG ill

If you go:

community.

Paradise Ranch provides guests with an unforgettable experience: they can learn to ride, herd cattle, or just take in vistas while reading a good book. These experiences, how­ ever, don’t have to come with the price tag of a week-long ranch vaca­ tion. The Bighorns can easily be ex­ perienced as a lone road or camping trip. Go to bighornmountains.com to plan your trip.

® M c G ill 6 :0 0 • 7:30PM

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 M O LS O N HALL, C O M M O N RO O M

It's o u r university, let's talk a b o u t it.

Information: townhal[@mcgill.qa • www.mcgill.ca/townhall

( trouttrekm aps.co m )

A&E FASHION

Q uebec C outure

Museum of Fine Arts celebrates Denis Gagnon's marriage of art and architecture

By Brittany Rappaport___________ C o n trib u to r

Who Denis Gagnon is and what he does goes much deeper than a basic understanding of fash­ ion culture. Celebrating 10 years of creation, Gagnon is not only a fash­ ion designer—and an adored one in Quebec—but a couturier, a man who is true to his craft in its most ultimate form. The exhibition Denis Gagnon S ’Expose/Shows All marks a milestone at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as it’s the first time a Quebec couturier’s work has been displayed as an exhibit in the muse­ um. Both Quebecers and Canadians are brought together by Gagnon’s passion for design, innovation, and recreation through his undisputedly deserving recognition.

“He is assembling material in a form that is aesthetically accom­ plished,” says Stéphane Aquin, cu­ rator of both the exhibition and the MMFA’s contemporary art collec­ tion.

Rather than looking at his work retrospectively, like with the recent Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, the Ga­ gnon exhibit presents one year of his creations through fringe, chains, stripes, and zippers. Using black as his motif and personal touch, each collection represents its own spe­ cific vision using materials like lace and leather. Although each series is designed around one predominant theme, his collections are fluid and

consecutive, with each one tying into the next.

Aquin describes Gagnon’s art as conceptual, which is demonstrat­ ed through his use of eclectically woven materials. He is able to cre­ ate things that are completely unrec­ ognizable yet still connected to the origin of his design and art.

“Gagnon’s work falls into the fashion world,” Aquin says. “But before all, it is a form of art and crafting that dresses the body.”

Although each of Gagnon’s pieces performs a specified function, Aquin affirmed that it is a “faux-de­ b a t (“false-meaning” in french) to say that this utility takes away from any of its artistic value. Within the context of the museum, integration of such “other” forms of art has been actively shown throughout the years, and therefore there is no reason not to consider couture a true art form.

Although Gagnon’s art is fea­ tured on the 20 or so half-manne­ quins wrapped and suspended from the ceiling of the room, another creative and talented mastermind is commended for his architectural in­ novation within the exhibit: Gilles Saucier. “[Gagnon] said he really want­ ed to work with Gilles Saucier, a very well-known Canadian architect and celebrated Canadian artist and [that] it’d be a chance of a lifetime,” says Aquin.

With both of these renowned artists demonstrating excellence in

P

Glee Grows Up

Glee. The word is instantly rec­ ognizable, and not just because it’s part of the English language. The ubiquitous television show has be­ come an unstoppable machine since its inception, and its popularity has reached staggering heights in recent months. Now in its second season, the show delivers a weekly dose of heartfelt emotion, theatrics, and bit­ ing sarcasm with pomp and circum­ stance. Celebrities are chomping at the bit to appear in cameos and fans are lining up for anything with the Glee name stamped on it. But, as the saying goes, everything that goes up must come down.

It would seem that Glee has had

its biggest hiccup yet with the re­ cent appearance in GQ magazine of three main actors. If you haven’t yet heard (or rather, seen), the controvery stems fom actors Lea Michele, Diana Agron, and Cory Monteith appearring in the men’s magazine in various states of undress. More specifically, Michele and Agron are provocatively dressed and posed as naughty schoolgirls. This is not a big surprise. Rarely does a celebrity or a pop culture sensastion burst onto the scene without doing some sort of rabble-rousing photo shoot (see the Miley Cyrus Vogue debacle). And we all know GQ doesn’t exactly shy away from racy photo shoots. Still, the most recent issue has parents all over America up in arms. The rea­ son? It would seem that parents are upset with actors who portray high-

Gagnon is the first Québécois couturier to be featured at the Museum o f Fine Arts ( mmfa.qc.ca )

their own individual realms of de­ sign, fashion, and architecture come together beautifully in the exhibit.

Every detail encompasses both Ga­ gnon and Saucier’s vision of aesthet­ ics.

“The same goes for architecture as it goes for couture—these are two forms of art that shelter the body, and no one would say that architec­ ture isn’t art,” she says.

The blend of Gagnon and Sauc­ ier’s creations is revealed in an al­ most natural way: they complement each other’s ingenuity in a symbiotic relationship. Images of the origin of each series are displayed on the wall and in the background of each of the

o

p

lÿ

ie

to

collections which, in Aquin’s words, “Speaks of each element in the vi­ sion of art: you see something, trans­ form it, and it lives.”

Although this was a more chal­ lenging exhibition than others due to the large video screen and other structural elements in the room, Aquin says that good artists ulti­ mately make the right decisions in terms of how to arrange their work.

This is evident in both Saucier’s and Gagnon’s use of detail.

“Craft has always been a visual element of art and we’ve totally for­ gotten that,” she says. “And these guys have been holding onto craft as something important.”

Since presenting his spring col­ lection at both Montreal and Toronto Fashion Weeks, things are looking up for Gagnon.

“Fashion can prey on couture as it can prey on Converse sneakers and mackinaw wool shirts,” Aquin says.

“They are not even seen as fashion, they’re not even couture. But fash­ ion is a phenomenon and couture is a form of art.”

ship, diversity, and acceptance.

The most ridiculous allega­ tion and empty argument is that the shoot is “pedophiliac.” Objectifying women in schoolgirl costumes is pretty much a time-honoured tra­ dition. Not to mention, playing a schoolgirl on TV does not a naughty schoolgirl make. The Parent Televi­ sion Council needs to save its out­ rageous and loaded accusations for the real deal and move on to a cause actually worth fighting for. For ex­ ample, has anyone seen the acting in “Secret Life of the American Teen­ ager”? Somebody get the FCC on the line.

Was it absolutely necessary to depict these actors in seductive poses? Probably not, but is it really any different than any other celebri­ ty appearing half-naked on the cover

of a national magazine? Countless celebrities before these three have done similar photo shoots, some even more provocative, and not been attacked in the media. These actors are way past high school age, so who’s to stop them from posing on the cover of GQ in barely-there outfits? Just because the Glee cast is, well, the Glee cast, doesn’t mean that all of their future endeavours have to be in the vein of high school inno­ cence (and we all know high school isn’t that innocent). Miley Cyrus’s shoot was definitely offensive, as she wasn’t even close to legal age.

But let’s get real, people—the Glee kids aren’t- really kids, and they won’t be portraying kids for much longer, either.

Denis Gagnon S’Expose runs through February 13 at the Montreal Museum o f Art in the Jean Noel Desmarais Pavillion. Admission is free.

More information at mmfa.qc.ca

r ic

school kids on television appearing in sex-charged pictures.

The whole debacle is preposter­ ous. Glee deals with, shall we say, in­ appropriate subject matter in almost every episode. One teenage char­ acter got pregnant. Another lost his virginity to impress a girl. The entire cast performed a rendition of “Push It.” This isn’t a show that shies away from sexuality, so why should it do so on the cover of a popular maga­ zine? Glee may have been promoted as the ultimate kid-friendly family show, but that doesn’t preclude its cast from appearing in “scandalous” photo shoots. It would seem parents are conveniently forgetting that the cast and the show are two separate entities, neither of which ever prom­ ised to promote morals of any kind save for the importance of friend­

—Liya Adessky

16

Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

M O VIE REVIEW

POETRY

Fair C am e breaks th e rules Valerie Plame scandal hits the silver screen

Looking M o n treal in th e Eye

By Nicholas Petrillo______________

By Matthew Kassel

C o n trib u to r

C o n trib u to r

Warning: If you don’t remem­ ber the Valerie Plame affair of a few years ago, you should brush up on the scandal before going to see Fair Game, the new movie based on the story.

Naomi Watts plays Valerie Wil­ son (know to her colleagues by the pseudonym Valerie Plame), an un­ dercover spy who strong-arms some shady individuals across the globe in exchange for top-secret weap­ ons intelligence. Her husband, Joe (Sean Penn), is a self-righteous am­ bassador to Niger, instructed by the White House to investigate a pos­ sible yellowcake uranium exchange in Africa. Confirming that such an exchange ever occurred would have enormous consequences, namely, verifying American suspicions that Saddam Hussein had been housing a nuclear weapons program. Suffice it to say, Joe never finds any evidence of a yellowcake exchange. Months later, the United States invades Iraq anyway.

The secontf ’half of the film is where things gét interesting. Joe, infuriated by a war that started on false pretenses, writes an article on “what he didn’t find in Africa.” A counter-article is published that be­ smirches him and exposes Valerie’s identity as a CIA operative, thus putting the Wilsons’ careers, friend­ ships, and marriage in jeopardy. The story shifts from the Iraq War to the emotional battle that wages between the Wilsons and the rest of American society, which at this point, has be­ come anxious for answers.

The White House is portrayed as nothing more than a political clique

Being a spy can be tough on a marriage. ( Boston.com )

riddled with incompetence. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer is easily in­ timidated by the media and stumbles frequently during interviews.Scooter Libby bullies and tries to coerce CIA agents into consenting to a military strike.

It shouldn’t be too hard to dis­ tinguish the good guys from the bad guys, as both present their ar­ guments as loudly as they can. The CIA insists that pictures showing metal tubing, potentially used to en­ rich uranium, are inconclusive and cannot justify a military strike. The White House makes the argument that Saddam Hussein’s regime is openly hostile to the United States and therefore should be challenged with a preemptive strike regardless of the status of their weapons pro­ gram. It’s pretty obvious which side of the argument the movie takes, but if you’re still confused about who’s good and who’s bad, here’s a simple rule: the bad guys are the ones who pronounce “nuclear” as “nucular,” and the good guys are the ones who end up crying at some point in the film.

The movie fails to discuss how it was not the ruthlessness of the American media that led to the leak­ ing of Valerie Wilson’s position, but former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage who gave the tip to a news reporter. Since Armitage is left out of the film, Joe Wilson’s cru­ sade is against the media. He goes across America talking to anybody who will listen: MSNBC, Chris Matthews, and college auditoriums.

Omitting Armitage does, however, portray the media as particularly vi­ cious, simplifying what was a com­ plicated political scandal.

Fair Game is as intriguing on the big screen as it was in real life.

For the sake of the audience’s pa­ tience, the movie reduces the sub­ sequent trials and investigations to a footnote at the end of the film. It may sound like a lazy way of wrap­ ping things up, but in reality it closes the story perfectly. There’s a fine line between including as many facts as possible and keeping the movie en­ tertaining. In this case, they nailed it.

There’s an exhibit of Jenny Holzer’s sometimes-incendiary conceptual art on view at DHC/ART until November 14. But you needn’t have seen it to attend Early Warning Systems: Inflammatory Poetry by Six Montreal Poets, a poetry reading honouring her work.

Holzer has often used text as images in her art, notably early in her career with Inflammatory Essays from the late 1970s. They weren’t really essays, but rather 100-word blocks of text miming dogma, po­ etic in their flow and terseness.

On Friday, October 29, five Montreal poets gathered in the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts to demonstrate the connection between Holzer’s art and poetry.

As the readings progressed, it seemed like the poets were jury-rig­ ging an association. In other words, the connection is too literal, and too obvious for poetry to deal with di­ rectly.

As Carmine Stamino, emcee and poet, pointed out, language in Montreal is not stable, and instead teeters on a linguistic seesaw. The purpose of the poetry, he said, would be “to dramatize the invigorating re­ ality of bilingual situations.”

The readings alternated be­ tween French- and English-speak­ ing poets, all reading work they had published or were working on. In that way, the dissonance between the themes of their poetry and the theme of the event weakened the emotional weight of the poetry itself.

Anita Lahey, poet and editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, read from

her first book, Out to Dry in Cape Breton. During her reading of a poem about boat racing, I couldn’t help wondering how it was inflam­ matory, not that it had to be. When I started to take the poems as poems, I began to enjoy them more. But that meant I had to abandon the night’s theme.

The best and most effective poems came when the poets were not tiptoeing around the intended meaning of their work to fit some larger, exterior arc of logic.

“This first poem is more about inflammation,” joked poet Asa Boxer, before adopting a thick Scot­ tish brogue and unfurling a humor­ ous tale of sexual gratification and regret, titled “Bums Rimfire.” He reminded the audience how effec­ tive a well-read poem can be.

Carmine Stamino’s poems, crisp and clever,, rendered the stuff of everyday life mysterious and ex­ citing, with titles like “Our Butch­ er” and “Smell of Something Bad, Kitchen.”

I ’m not quite fluent in French, so I can’t adequately comment on the French poetry. The two Franco­ phone poets in attendance, Thomâs Mainguy and Vincent Charles Lam­ bert, both spoke softly, delivering short poems that I could almost un­ derstand.

As I leaned forward, trying to translate in my head, I realized that Carmine Stamino might have been right all along, just not in the way I expected. I couldn’t ignore the ex­ tent of my misunderstanding. In one poem, Stamino tried solemnly to ad­ dress the locus of his angst: “Look at me when I talk to you.”

LITERATURE

D efinitely d e c a f Alexander McCall’s The Lost Art o f Gratitude provides more than literary comfort

By Emma H am bly C o n trib u to r

The Lost Art o f Gratitude is the literary equivalent of a warm cup of tea: it’s calming, unhurried, and a welcome escape. The plot meanders like a lazy river, driven by characters rather than action.

The book is the sixth in the Sunday Philosophy Club series by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, best known for the No. 1 La­ dies’ Detective Agency novels. The series follows the exploits of Isabel

Dalhousie, moral philosopher, new mother, and novice sleuth.

Isabel lives in a dreamlike world in which any problem can be solved through thought and honesty.

This little bit of fantasy takes place in Edinburgh, a thriving historic city that the author clearly loves. Smith must also have a soft spot for his protagonist, as he’s given her a near­ perfect life. Isabel is beautiful, in­ telligent, wealthy, and engaged to a handsome young musician. This is a risky combination, but Smith seems to pull it off by imbuing the Scottish

lass with a great deal of conscience, spunk, and imagination.

The back cover of The Lost Art o f Gratitude promises two battles of wits: one with the devious finan­ cier Minty Auchterlonie and another with Isabel’s academic foe, Profes­ sor Lettuce. I began the book hoping these would be the book’s engaging mysteries. It turns out they were not.

Isabel has a mild confrontation with Professor Lettuce, a philosopher who falsely accuses her of plagiariz­ ing. She also has a couple of slightly more-than-courteous confrontations

with Minty, who uses Isabel as a pawn to intimidate her enemies.

These non-mysteries were just covers, though. The book is really a warm, philosophical take on repu­ tations, art, motherhood, and love.

Smith channels Jane Austen in his attention to social interactions, and brings life to the atmosphere and characters with flowing language.

It’s odd to read a book with almost no plot. Like a cup of tea, it may be cozy and comforting, but it’s certainly not exciting.

The clever and charming pro­

tagonist is the one outstanding fea­ ture of the The Lost Art o f Gratitude.

When McCall pairs a similar strong female, Botswanian sleuth Precious Ramotswe, with enthralling myster­ ies in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, he truly succeeds.

If readers are looking for an escapist book, they may wish to try Precious Ramotswe’s rich bush tea over a cup of Isabel Dalhousie’s Scottish Breakfast.

S ports R O W ING — O N TA R IO UNIVERSITY C H A M P IO N S H IP S

HOCKEY— M CG ILL 6, CARLETON o

Top-ranked M artlets peck Ravens Rowers finish strong Martlets domination makes Ravens say “nevermore”

By Rebecca Babcock

By John Hui_______ ‘_____________

C o n trib u to r

C o n trib u to r

The McGill Martlets returned to Quebec University Hockey League competition after a two-game so­ journ to the United States and blew out the Carleton Ravens 6-0 on Saturday. With the win, McGill re­ gained the top spot in the confer­ ence rankings from Concordia by tying them with six points. Buoyed by their success against Harvard and Dartmouth, McGill never let up on Carleton. The score could have eas­ ily been 10-0 if the crossbar wasn’t merciful to Carleton goaltender Tamber Tisdale.

“The games against the Ameri­ can teams were great,” said Head Coach Peter Smith. “There was just a lot of excitement, especially in the game against Harvard. We played a spectacular third period and tied it in the closing minutes. I just think that energy and enthusiasm carried over into this afternoon’s game.”

Star sniper Ann-Sophie Bettez scored 8:22 into the game, putting home a rebound on the power play.

Utilizing an aggressive forecheck, and a tight 3-2-0 low formation, the .Martlets forced a desperate Ravens team to submit to their will. Every time a Ravens defender tried to clear the puck out of their zone, a Martlet would be there to intercept it. After Alyssa Cecere made it 2-0, rookie forward Leslie Oles scored what was perhaps the highlight of the night.

Taking advantage of another Car­ leton turnover, she fought and won a puck battle against two defenders along the boards, walked out into the

Women’s lightweight four advance

Gillian Ferrari earned the third star i a win against Carleton (Maxim e Sawicki / McGill Tribune)

slot, and fired home a hard slapper into the top comer of the net.

From the second period on­ ward, however, it was centre Jordanna Peroff who stole the show.

Her line consistently created scoring chances on the rush, but it was their work down low that reaped benefits in the second.

“I was just going to the net hard tonight and I got rewarded,” Per­ off said. “On the first goal, we just worked hard along the boards and Kim spotted me cross crease. [She] made a beautiful pass and all I did was put it in.”

In such a lopsided game it’s easy to herald the scorers and for­ get the defenders who allowed them

to do their jobs without worrying about defensive lapses. The defence showed remarkable poise in keeping the Carleton offence to the outside and making the first pass in transi­ tion. Their contribution to the win was exemplified by Gillian Ferrari’s performance, which earned her the third star of the game.

“I was just playing my game, and competing hard for the puck,” Ferrari said. “We are a puck posses­ sion team so it’s really hard for the other team’s offence to be a threat when they don’t own the puck most of the time. We emphasized speed in transition so that probably helped in stifling their offence.”

This past weekend, the McGill rowing team competed at the Ontario University Association Championships. Despite a rocky season, the team performed well at the regatta and six McGill boats made it to the OUA finals.

The women’s lightweight four was M cGill’s only boat to qualify for the Canadian Championships.

Their impressive third place finish earned them a spot at the CIS final. They will .be travelling to Victoria, British Columbia, next week looking to finish the season with a strong performance.

The men’s boats finished with impressive third, third, fifth, sixth and eighth place showings, while only the women’s lightweight four made the finals.

The regatta normally takes place on Saturday, but due to some horrific weather, many of the races were postponed until Sunday. For McGill, the boats that had to race on Saturday were at a severe disadvantage. “ [T]he heavyweight eight boat did not do so well,” said rower Jenny Jones. “We were rowing through white caps and our boat was full of water.”

Team member Madison Leia echoed Jones’s frustration with the poor weather.

“I am disappointed with our race,” she said. “Not because we raced poorly but the weather conditions did not allow us to show the improvements we have

made throughout the season.”

The McGill women’s heavyweight eight also struggled with weight restrictions and inexperience throughout the year.

They saw this season as a chance to develop into a potentially powerful boat in the future.

“Many of us ‘heavyweights’ have not achieved the recommended weight of 160 lbs.”

Leia said. “Five out of the eight women in our boat were novices last year, and it takes two to three years to become a developed rower. We are also racing against girls 20 to 50 pounds heavier than us. However, I think we have made a solid foundation to be a competitive team next year.”

Prior to the OUA’s, the season had not gone particularly well for McGill. Early in the year, only two teams finished with a medal at the Brock Invitational. But this weekend, the team showed how much they had improved in two months thanks to their daily 5 a.m. practices and dryland training.

“Everyone worked really hard with the coaches and improved a lot in the short Reason,” said coxswain Ronald Yeung. “We would see improvements from regatta to regatta.”

“Our boat rowed a great race, the best we’ve done this year,” Evan Kelso added. “This year was very much a developmental year—next year should be super competitive for McGill. The lightweights have had a stellar year, doing better than any previous season.”

T IM ID M A X IX Bird courses, Boise State, and the BCS We all know them. Some of us might even be them. Those people who brag about the kind of GPA that you could only dream of. These aren’t necessarily the best and the brightest, but they’re the people who have found perfectly legitimate ways to use the system to their advantage.

Maybe they’ve padded their semes­ ters with easy courses, or chosen an easier school to boost their average.

Let me introduce you to the Boise State Broncos. The rest of the college football establishment looks down on Boise State. “Who have they played?” is the common refrain.

To be fair, the boys from Idaho don’t host the Alamabas and Ohio States

of the nation on their blue turf. But this isn’t because they don’t want to play them, but because the bigger schools won’t accept games against low profile opponents. As it stands, Boise State is stuck in the West­ ern Athletic Conference and has to play a schedule against teams like San Jose State and Louisiana Tech, hardly examples of fpotball great­ ness. Just like our friends with the easy courses and the easy schools, Boise does very well, going 56-2 since the 2006 season. You would expect the Broncos to have a couple of national championships in their pocket by now. But they don’t, be­ cause of the Bowl Championship Series, which is run by the wealthi­ est athletic conferences and backed by the big television networks. Even going undefeated can’t get the poor Broncos a chance at playing for a

national championship. The voters and the computers that make the rankings belittle Boise’s strength of schedule in the same way some of us might look down on those friends of ours with inflated GPAs. “Surely if she (insert: went to McGill/was a physics student/didn’t take Intro to Japanese Animation) she would not have received such astronomi­ cal grades,” we say. Admittedly, if Boise State played in the prestigious Southeastern Conference they would not be able to amass such an incred­ ible record, but this is irrelevant be­ cause the system is flawed.

I’m not here to say that we should all take easy classes and switch to easy schools. Rather I’m arguing that the attitude of looking down on people who do so is wrong, just like the way the BCS establish­ ment looks down on the Boise State

Broncos is wrong.

There is a solution: to get into most grad schools there are standard­ ized tests and they are open to who­ ever wants to take them, regardless of grades. They present an oppor­ tunity to judge the people in harder programs alongside students in eas­ ier ones. It’s like playing a game on a neutral field: we get a good indica­ tion of who the better team is.

Grad schools have this solu­ tion, college football does not. The college football equivalent of a stan­ dardized test would be a playoff sys­ tem in which each conference cham­ pion and a couple of wild cards get to face off with a chance to reach the title game. The Broncos would line up against the feared Crimson Tide, the Miami (FL) Hurricanes could lock horns with the Miami (OH) Red Hawks. The small schools would

likely lose, and the best team would likely win the championship. Boise State probably isn’t the best team in the land, but what if they are? They deserve a chance to prove it.

Some of us think of the friends with high GPAs and plenty of spare time as cheating the system. Boise State, though, is in their situation by force, not by choice. They are being cheated by the system itself. Justice does not exist in college football.

I take hard courses at the hard­ est school in this country. But I don’t deserve anything more than anyone else because of that fact. Judge me on my personal merit. Judge the Broncos on their merit as a team, not by who they compete against. If I had a BCS ballot, I definitely know who’d be sitting at number one.

—Adam Sadinsky

Curiosity Delivers, www.mcgilltribune.com

S O U T H W E S T DIVISIO N

IknraiS

Dallas Mavericks: The Maver­ icks have three bench players who could start on any other team: Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, and Shawn Marion. Point guard Jason Kidd continues to defy age and Dirk Nowitzki remains one of the most consis­ tent power forwards of the decade. If the Mavs want to make any noise in the play­ offs, though, swingman Caron Butler will need to return to all-star form. If the pieces fall into place, Dallas should be able to clear its reputation of being just a “good regular season team.”

San Antonio Spurs: The clock is ticking on the aging Spurs’s window to win one last championship with their current

group. Much of the team’s success hinges on the health of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan. Youngsters George Hill, DeJuan Blair, and Tiago Splitter must continue to improve if the Spurs hope to make headway in a talented division. Ana­ lysts continue to sleep on the Spurs, but look for them to make one last push while Duncan is still playing at an elite level.

Houston Rockets: The major storyline surrounding the Rockets is the return of all-star centre Yao Ming. It re­ mains to be seen whether Yao can be ef­ fective in only 24 minutes a game—doc­ tors’ and coaches’ orders—but his size and presence is a huge boost for this scrappy

squad. Luis Scola is one of the most un­ derrated and hardworking players in the NBA. The Rockets are talented and will sneak into the playoffs as the team nobody wants to face.

Memphis Grizzlies: The Griz­ zlies have one of the most balanced start­ ing fives in the Western Conference, but that’s all they have going for them. The lack of depth on Memphis’ bench (save for Darrell Arthur) will prevent this team from reaching the post-season. The Griz­ zlies expect a big year out of fourth-year point guard Mike Conley, who desperately needs to improve his decision-making.

Memphis’ pride is budding star centre

Marc Gasol, who has all the tools to be just as good as older brother Pau. New Orleans Hornets: You would think that the team with the best point guard in the NB A would be able to snag the eighth seed in the Western Confer­ ence, but that’s not the case with the Hor­ nets. Chris Paul is a wonder to watch on the court but the rest of the team lacks his determination. Emeka Okafor has reached his ceiling while Trevor Ariza hurts New Orleans with his terrible shot selection.

We can only hope that Paul gets traded to a contender so the league can appreciate his magic in the playoffs.

—Jon Rubenstein

NORTHWEST DIVISIO N Portland Trail Blazers: Port­ land is due for a breakout season. Despite back-to-back 50 win seasons the Blazers have yet to join the Western Conference elite. This season they will make the jump if they can avoid the injuries that plagued them last season. All-NBA guard Brandon Roy averaged 21.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game and he just keeps getting better. All-star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, veteran point guard Andre Miller, and emerging star Nicolas Batum all join Roy to compose a team that has the makings of a Western Conference powerhouse. If Greg Oden can finally stay healthy and produce, the Blazers might just shock the basketball world and win the conference.

Oklahoma City Thunder: The Thunder were easily the most improved team in the NBA in 2009. The young team quickly matured behind superstars Kevin

Durant and Russell Westbrook. Durant became one of the league’s top three play­ ers by averaging an incredible 30.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and Westbrook turned into an elite point guard by scoring 16.1 points while still averaging 4.9 re­ bounds and 8.0 assists per game. Despite their rapid improvement, the Thunder should experience some growing pains this season, as they will struggle to find reliable production from the role players.

Jeff Green, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka will all need to step up for Oklahoma City to win the division. While it looks like they will fall short of the Northwest title, they should easily make the playoffs.

Utah Jazz: The Utah Jazz have quietly become a regular season jugger­ naut by averaging over 50 wins a season since 2006. However, it has not translated into post-season success. This off-season, the Jazz revamped their roster by replacing

all-star power forward Carlos Boozer with all-star A1 Jefferson. While Jefferson is very talented, he has never been a winner, and needs to find his niche on a stacked team. Deron Williams could be the best point guard in the league and Paul Millsap, Andrei Kirilenko and Raja Bell are all valuable players. The Jazz will struggle early, as future Hall of Fame coach Jerry Slaon learns to integrate Jefferson, but by midseason the Jazz should once again be one of the conference’s best teams.

Denver Nuggets: Denver is a team in decline. After a tumultuous off­ season in which franchise player Carmelo Anthony wanted to be traded and Kenyon Martin voiced his displeasure with his contract, the Nuggets will straggle to make the playoffs. Adding A1 Harrington will add talent to the team but it will not solve the chemistry problems. If this team is not looking like a title threat by the halfway

point, look for Carmelo to be traded away.

That only leaves the team with Chauncey Billups and a bunch of misfits. Unfortu­ nately for Nuggets fans, it looks like its about to be rebuilding time in Denver.

Minnesota

Timberwolves:

The Timberwolves have the misfortune of being stuck in a division with four very good teams. While it is a lock that they will finish in the Northwest’s cellar, there are still some bright spots in Minnesota.

Kevin Love is an absolute beast having averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds per game last season. They have a young tal­ ented roster with second-year guard Jonny Flynn, Miami castoff Michael Beasley and rookie Wes Johnson. This season should be focused on developing these young players and creating a unique team identi­ ty. While the playoffs are out of reach, the future is finally starting to look brighter.

—Walker Kitchens

PACIFIC DIVISIO N rU P P E S S .

Los Angeles Lakers: The Lakers held their championship ring ceremony be­ fore last Tuesday’s home opener and look poised for another championship run. Phil Jackson’s squad is virtually intact from last season, and they have added Steve Blake at guard and the scrappy, defensivespecialist Matt Barnes at forward. The two will eat up minutes and allow Ron Attest, Lamar Odom, and an aging Derek Fisher to remain fresh during the 82-game regular season grind. Once again, Kobe will prove that he is the best player in the NBA. The Lakers will easily win the Pacific and make a serious ran to three-peat.

Los Angeles Clippers: The Clip­ pers have reason for optimism this year.

Even though this franchise has only fin­ ished with a .500 record or better three times since the 1991-92 season, they could surprise the Pacific. Blake Griffin will

make a ran for rookie of the year after recovering from the broken kneecap he suffered last preseason. Chris Kaman will have to be even better than the 18.5 points and 9.3 rebounds that he averaged last sea­ son for this team to contend for a playoff berth. Most importantly, new coach Vinny Del Negro will need to light a fire under the underachieving Baron Davis. Davis is not only a leader on the court, but a veteran voice in the locker room. If Davis can play like a superstar the Clippers should post a rare winning season.

Phoenix Suns: It was a tough loss for the Suns when Amar’e Stoudemire took his talents to the Knicks, and Hedo Turkoglu is not much of a consolation prize. The Suns will be hard pressed to match their 54 wins from a season ago and by mid-Februaiy, Steve Nash may be asking himself if he made the right choice by resigning.

However, the Suns are still a great threepoint shooting team and will play a fourout offence that will be tough to defend.

The Suns will also be a better defensive team this year with the help of Channing Frye and Robin Lopez, who are both very solid post defenders. Look for the Suns to contend for the playoffs but not challenge for the conference title.

Golden State Warriors: Al­ though the Warriors only won 26 games last season, they may be closer to putting a winning product on the floor that you would think. Golden State has one of the best young cores in the NBA, new team­ mate David Lee, 27, is the oldest player on the team. Adding Lee to the likes of Ste­ phen Curry and Monta Ellis should make the Warriors even more dynamic than they were last year. Ellis is coming off a break­ out season in which he averaged 26 points

per game, and if it weren’t for Tyreke Evans, Curry would have been the clear choice for rookie of the year. Look for the team to be more focused defensively as new coach Keith Smart creates a more structured system than Don Nelson.

Sacramento Kings: Times have been tough in Sacramento. As much as we would like to blame the poor attendance records on the economic downturn, the Kings just haven’t been competitive since the glory years of Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic, and Chris Webber. That could change this year. Tyreke Evans, last season’s rook­ ie of the year, has welcomed rookie cen­ tre DeMarcus Cousins and savvy Canuck Samuel Dalembert. This team is still a couple of years away from contending for the playoffs, but the Kings think they are building a foundation for the future.

—Christophe Boyer

Hiesday, November 2, 2010

IF W Ü W ATLANTIC DIVISIO N Boston Celtics:

They looked like world-beaters for the first 12 minutes of the season, holding the Heat to a paltry nine points (prorated, that’d be 36 a game, a point more than Kobe averaged in 05-06).

Then they were underwhelming against the Knicks and the Cavs. This team is too old to bring maximum intensity against the bottom feeders in the East, but they’ll contend come playoff time, particularly when they get Kendrick Perkins back in the pivot. Until then they will have to deal with starting five all-stars and playing in an extremelly weak division.

Philadelphia 76ers: Philly should have been better last year and I’m count­ ing on a bounce-back season this time around. I’m still not sold on Evan Turner

as a potential star, but he should be good off the bench. Losing Samuel Dalembert won’t hurt much and Jrue Holiday, Marreese Speights, Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams are also still young and have room to improve. Led by versatile advanced-statistics-all-star Andre Iguodala, this team could be primed to charge up the Eastern charts.

New York Knicks: For all the doubters out there who thought Amar’e couldn’t do it without Nash—if his play through the first couple games is indica­ tive of a trend—your theory has been de­ bunked. While Amar'e has looked incred­ ible, his supporting cast hasn’t. Raymond Felton and Danilo Gallinari are as incon­ sistent as ever. Landry Fields looks great,

but he’s a glue guy. Wilson Chandler has been nice off the bench, but this team is still a few pieces away from being any­ thing more than a fringe playoff team/first round fodder for the Miami Heat.

New Jersey Nets: My desper­ ate man-crush on both majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov and part-owner Jay-Z may be cause for bias, but I love this team.

Brook Lopez is a straight-up stud, Devin Harris was a top-10 PG in ‘08 and has the potential to return to form, and Anthony Morrow is the best knockdown three-point shooter in the league. Derrick Favors, the number three pick in the draft, oozes po­ tential, as do sixth man Terrence Williams and Trailblazers cast-off Travis Outlaw.

Still, potential should not be confused

with wins, and this team will struggle to get those.

Toronto Raptors: What is there to say about a team whose best player is An­ drea Bargnani? Nothing good, and that’s what we can expect from the Raps this sea­ son. The roster is replete with role players, so you can expect a lot of unselfish play to go along with the double-digit losses.

DeMar DeRozan and Sonny Weems have freakish athletic abilities, but the fraction of NBA players that make the transition from jump-out-of-the-gym athletes to star players is miniscule. The ever-optimistic Bryan Colangelo has already counted his team out of the playoff picture, so antici­ pate disaster.

—Sam Hunter

game placed him in the top five of re­ bounding and three-point shooting. The addition of speedy sophomore point guard Darren Collison should finally solve this team’s longstanding deficiency at the one.

Still, as it stands, the Pacers don’t have enough talent outside of Granger to make the playoffs.

Detroit Pistons: Rip Hamilton aside, Pistons players are either burned-out stars—Tracy McGrady, Ben Wallace—or prime time disappointments like Charlie Villanueva and Jason Maxiell. Hard team defence and timely shooting from Hamil­ ton and Gordon will win some games, but in all likelihood, the Pistons will lose a lot of them by halftime. Teams without inside scoring rarely win, and it’s hard to get the whole team involved with a shoot-first point guard like Rodney Stuckey. Look for the Pistons to finish near the bottom of

the conference despite solid contributions from role players Jonas Jerebko and Tayshaun Prince.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Everybody will be shocked if the Cleveland Cavaliers win 30 games this year. Every player on the team will have to adjust to a teamoriented style of basketball after having spent the last few seasons getting out of Lebron James’s way. Now Lebron’s gotten out of theirs, giving Mo Williams, Ander­ son Varejao, and Anthony Parker room to play together. This should also providê the opportunity for JJ Hickson to shoulder the load and develop into a perennial all-star If talented coach Byron Scott can motivate them, the Cavs will win some games to prove that their previous success wasn’t all LeBron. One thing’s for sure: we get to find out if it was.

—Gabe Pulver

million deal. Mike Bibby’s starting role at point guard will be a question mark for the Hawks, as he is getting older and slow­ ing down. Still, Josh Smith, Marvin Wil­ liams and A1 Horford keep improving and should keep the Hawks competitive with the East’s big guns. Ultimately, the Hawks will be good but not great in an improving Eastern Conference.

C harlotte Bobcats: The Bobcats will be looking to improve on their 44-38 record in 2010, fresh off their first-ever franchise playoff berth and with new owner Michael Jordan. Charlotte’s deci­ sion not to re-sign point guard Raymond Felton leaves a hole, and the combina­ tion of D.J. Augustin and Shaun Livings­ ton won’t fill his shoes. Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace are great pieces, but

the Bobcats just don’t have enough star power or offence to make it back to the post-season.

Washington Wizards: One year removed from the Gilbert Arenas-Javaris Crittenton gun saga, the Wizards are look­ ing for a fresh start. The team is actively trying to move Arenas and there is good reason to believe that he will be gone by April. Washington is John Wall’s town now, and if the athletic former Kentucky star adjusts quickly to the NBA, he will be an instant star. Wall may already be the fastest player down the court with a ball and could approach LeBron’s level of dynamism in the open court. Wall’s weak supporting cast, however, will earn him another high-pick teammate next season.

—Adam Sadinsky

CENTRAL DIVISIO N Chicago Bulls: In the NBA’s most competitive division, Chicago should win and fill the void left by Lebron James’ departure from Cleveland. When Carlos Boozer returns from injury, he will team with Joakim Noah to make one of the best frontcourts in the league. Together, they will fight for every rebound and secondchance point. All-star point guard Derrick Rose is absolutely sublime on both ends, and a great season will put him in the MVP debate. The addition of Boozer, coupled with the continuing maturation of Rose and should-be all-star Noah, will make this team one of the best in the Eastern Conference.

Milwaukee Bucks: If All-NBA centre Andrew Bogut hadn’t mutilated his arm last year, the Bucks would have upset Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs.

They play hard and fast, and they shoot

well. This is mostly the same 46-win team that made the entire NBA “fear the deer,” and they’ll have a healthy Bogut.

The Bucks are a team with a tremendously high ceiling. Still this team will battle hard under the leadership of blue collar coach Scott Skiles. The battle between 21-year old star point guard Brandon Jennings and the Bulls’ Rose will be one of the best sto­ rylines in the NBA. Behind Jennings, the Bucks will fight for the Central crown all year and should easily make the playoffs.

Indiana Pacers: Finishing .500 would be fantastic for the Pacers. They are counting on a myriad of unproven players to compliment all-star SF Danny Granger’s wicked two-way game. Mike Dunleavy and TJ Ford have never been reliable scorers, and colossal centre Roy Hibbert has yet to find his NBA game.

They’ll miss Troy Murphy, whose varied

SOUTHEAST JDI VISION Miami Heat:

What hasn’t already been said about this team? Miami ended up with all the spoils in one of the most intensely scrutinized off-seasons in sports history when they signed Lebron James and Chris Bosh to play alongside Dwyane Wade. Questions of whose team this is and who will take the last shot in close games are poor attempts to belittle this team’s obvious star power. The Heat’s role play­ ers aren’t of the Robert Horry-variety but they’re a lot better than most would expect given their top-heavy lineup. The Heat have three of the best players in the NBA and as good a shot as anyone to win the Eastern Conference and maybe even the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Orlando Magic: In Orlando, fans are gearing up for another run at the Eastern

Conference crown. But their task just got harder with the meteoric rise of the team a few hundred miles down the highway. The Magic are led by the unmatched interior strength of Dwight Howard, something the Heat lack. As always, Orlando will get great shooting from outside and will score a ton of points. Don’t be surprised if the Magic put away the hyped Heat and win their fourth straight divisional title but only if V.C. can finally deliver when it matters the most.

Atlanta Hawks: A great season for a perennially mediocre franchise came apart in the second round, as the Magic swept them in four embarrassing games.

Atlanta didn’t do a whole lot to improve in the off-season, standing pat by signing star shooting guard Joe Johnson to a $124