The McGill Tribune Vol. 30 Issue 13

HIKING THE HIGH HIMALAYAS, PAGE 9

FENCERS FIGHT FRENCH FOES WITH FOILS, PAGE 17

Published by the Tribune Publication Society Volume No. 30 Issue No. 13

AUS attacks its debts

M for Montreal rocks Metropolis

Marshall Plan is a blueprint for recovery

By Tori Crawford Editor-in-Chief

In the face of numerous unan­ ticipated financial difficulties that have come to light this semester, the Arts Undergraduate Society’s Executive unveiled their Financial Recovery Plan to the AUS Council last Wednesday.

“Like the real Marshall Plan, this isn't just us throwing foreign aid at something,” he said. “It's a plan to allow all parties to recover them­ selves.”

In addition to the deficit of ap­ proximately $30,000 incurred by Frosh, the AUS owes $18,000 to both the federal and provincial gov­ ernments in back taxes, as well as $83,000 to the Faculty of Arts due to the organization's failure to pay their share of the Arts Student Employ­ ment Fund.

The Marshall Plan, which is based around the four tenets of ac­ countability, automation, solvency, and growth and partnership, is de­ signed to address the AUS's current financial challenges and to ensure that similar issues do not occur in the future. The first step in this process, Marshall said, was re-evaluating the organization's business partnerships both within and outside of McGill.

The assessment resulted in the dis­ missal of the AUS's former accoun­ tant and the hiring of RSM Richter, a professional accounting firm, to

An enthused member o f Misteur Valaire shows offhis best bass face. (Alice Walker / McGill Tribune)

manage the society’s books.

“One of the main advantages that attracted us to RSM Richter was the fact that they were able to provide us not only with an audit service, but with an entire team, a team that includes a tax attorney, legal advisors, and an accounting service,” said Majd al-Khaldi, AUS VP finance.

Thanks in part to RSM Rich­ ter’s negotiations, the AUS's federal tax debt is now settled. While Mar­ shall is still in negotiations with the provincial government, he said he is hopeful that situation will soon be remedied as well.

“We're now reaching out and trying to get help, because we've realized that the traditional perspec­ tive o f ... some student leaders ... to kind of take on challenges and ... re­ fuse to ask questions, has been dam­ aging for the AUS,” Marshall said.

In addition to revisiting the AUS's accounting structure, al-Khaldi and Marshall have been working with the group's banking institution, the Royal Bank of Canada, to revisit the AUS’s investments. According to al-Khaldi, this is long overdue.

“The AUS has had investments in the past, and since the financial crisis I would hazard to guess that they weren't revised properly,” he said. “In that sense, we haven't been using our money to its fullest poten­ tial.”

See “AUS” on page 5

Carleton University battles its student unions over fees Undergraduate and Graduate Student Associations allege that university owes them millions

By Maria Flores_________________ News Editor

Carleton University’s Under­ graduate and Graduate Student As­ sociations have had their funding cut off by the administration since November 1. Both student unions refused to sign a new agreement with the university’s administration

and board of governors, and as a re­ sult the administration has refused to give the CUSA and GSA their stu­ dent fees. • Over a year ago, Carleton’s au­ ditors recommended the provision of audited financial statements by CUSA and GSA to demonstrate that the $7 million distributed yearly to the two student unions are in fact dis­

tributed for the purposes for which it was collected. Both student unions refused the proposal and have been negotiating since.

Jason MacDonald, Carleton’s communications director, said that the financial audits are required to fill a transparency and accountability gap that currently exists, but stressed that the administration has no inter­

est in dictating how the money gets used. “[CUSA and GSA] resisted, be­ cause they say they are independent and we acknowledge that,” Mac­ Donald said. “We just want to know that [the funds] that are being col­ lected are actually dispersed to their determined purposes, but it’s up to them to decide which student groups

get how much money.”

According to the student unions, however, the agreement contains provisions and assurances above and beyond what the auditors originally called for. The student unions are concerned that this could give the administration far-reaching powers, such as the ability to refuse to collect See “U N IO N S ” on page 4

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

CAMPUS

Students and professors showcase ideas at TEDxMcCill Speakers discuss multimedia technology, Nicaraguan schools, and a quest to save one million lives

By Trip Yang Contributor

The second annual TEDxMcGill conference took place on Sat­ urday, with Henry Mintzberg, the acclaimed McGill business profes­ sor and 15 others sharing their ideas.

Themed “Relentless Curiosity,” the talks centred on rediscovering the creativity and imagination that is commonplace in children but often lost in adults. The diverse for the event held at the Marché Bonsecours included presentations on user-cre­ ated applications that transform the classroom experience, a personal account of establishing a school and safe haven for abused Nicaraguan girls, and a serial entrepreneur’s am­ bition to use social network sites to save one million lives.

TEDxMcGill was conceptual­ ized last year when two students applied for a licence to organize an independent McGill event under the TED brand. TED, an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and De­ sign, is a non-profit organization that hosts global conferences featuring prominent speakers such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, evolu­ tionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and primatologist Jane Goodall.

TEDxMcGill shares the par­ ent organization’s vision of “ideas

worth spreading.” The volunteer student team planned the event with a $70,000 budget over the past eight months and sought funding from various Montreal companies and McGill groups.

Student speakers were encour­ aged to apply through a standard application process, while faculty and professional speakers were chosen based on their backgrounds and areas of expertise. Speakers were given nine to 15 minutes and creative freedom to talk about their ideas, research, or narratives.

“We go for the best, most inter­ esting speakers'and ones that balance each other. We try to get a break­ down of 50 per cent students, 25 per cent professors and faculty, and 25 per cent special guests not affiliated with McGill,” said Jan Florjanczyk, a computer science Master’s student at McGill and executive organizer of TEDxMcGill. “It was a very dif­ ficult process for us to choose, but we could usually tell if someone was going to be a good speaker.”

One of the best-received talks was entrepreneur Amruth Bagali Ravindranath’s presentation on cre­ ating multimedia technology that helps educators teach math, lan­ guage, and social sciences to pri­ mary school students. Ravindranath reflected on his own childhood ex­

periences as a bored student in the classroom when developing class­ room learning tools that would put teachers at the centre of education.

“Can we do to interactive edu­ cation content what bloggers did to writing?” asked Ravindranath. “Our programs democratize the process of creation, it lets you edit and improve upon others’ educational animation and teaching tools in a way similar to Wikipedia. We see that by com­ bining teachers with technology, we get adaptive education.”

While several other talks also demonstrated technology’s contri­ butions to society, personal narra­ tives equally engaged the audience.

Salma Moolji, U2 international de­ velopment studies, spoke about her emotional experience opening a school for abused, poverty-stricken girls in a Nicaraguan slum. Moolji was motivated after hearing the tragic story of a 13-year-old girl who hung herself from an orchard tree due to sexual and physical abuse.

While the school closed within three years due to.a lack of infrastructure, an overstretched police force, and gang problems, Moolji was moved by its lasting impact.

“The unfortunate reality is that not all development projects suc­ ceed, and not all those that succeed will survive,” Moolji said. “This is

what motivates me to study develop­ ment. Failure is only a part of suc­ cess. The school, while it ran, did incredible things for many people.”

TED and TEDx conferences are no strangers to passionate state­ ments, and LemonadeBoy Inc. CEO and social media business consul­ tant Com Mirza’s goal of saving one million lives was probably the most zealous.

After collecting $5,000 from do­ nators, Mirza and two other friends travelled to Pakistan for three weeks to help a new person each day. By the end of the visit, they managed to save 125 lives by organizing and funding vaccinations, sustainable food projects, and eye cataract sur­ geries. Mirza hopes to eventually save 999,875 more lives.

“Average people can make a difference when we unify our voic­ es. Every time our voices send out one single message—it is very pow­ erful,” Mirza said. “All we need are five things—an Internet connection, a personal computer, an email ad­ dress, a profile on a social network, and active participation—to gener­ ate income for our cause.”

Though the conference lasted for over seven hours, the sold-out audience remained enthusiastic until the end. Tanya Mulamula, at­ tendees coordinator, was relieved to

(Choucri Bechir / TEDx)

see the positive reception from the conference participants and was par­ ticularly impressed by the student speakers.

“Inspiration, passion, and a connection to the audience are what TED talks are about. Even through the computer screen, somebody is able to keep you listening for 15 minutes,” Mulamula said. “Student speakers tend to be captivating be­ cause they’re very young and they’re quite nervous, so their passion for what they’re saying tends to be way stronger.”

CITY

Nicolo Rizzuto murder the latest hit on mafia family With death of patriarch, three generations of a Montreal mob clan killed in the last two years

By Richard Ramcharan Contributor

Students opening city newspa­ pers last week saw pages upon pages covering on mafia leader Nicolo Rizzuto’s funeral. This is the latest in a string of headlines pertaining to the Montreal Mafia, which has been under mysterious attack for more than a year.

The notorious Rizzuto family and its associates have fallen vic­ tim to a kidnapping and a string of murders, the most recent being when Nicolo, 86, was shot and killed at his home in the borough of AhuntsicCartierville on November 10. At the time, he was still on probation for tax evasion.

The murders began in August 2009, when Frederico del Peschio was murdered outside La Cantina restaurant on St. Laurent Boulevard.

He was a close associate of Nicolo Rizzuto — they were arrested and charged together in Venezuela on cocaine charges in 1988. However, in this instance, according to Cont-

able Anie Lemieux of the Montreal Police Department (SPVM), the in­ cident “does not appear ... related to organized crime.”

Another murder followed when Nicolo Rizzuto Jr., grandson of the mafia patriarch, was gunned down in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on December 28. Antonio Nicaso, a journalist who specializes in mafia coverage, spec­ ulated that the murder of the junior Rizzuto, 42, was a clear indication that the family was being targeted and its leadership being threatened.

In an interview with CBC News, Nicaso said the Rizzuto fam­ ily has been facing leadership prob­ lems since the arrest of Vito Riz­ zuto, 63, Nicolo Sr.’s son, in 2004 in connection with three murders in Brooklyn during the 1980s. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Colorado.

On June 29, another associate of the Rizzuto clan, Agostino Cuntrera, and his bodyguard, Liborio Sciasciathis, were both shot and killed in front of Cuntretra’s food warehouse in St. Leonard. It wasn’t

a chance killing, said one detective from the SPVM. “He was really the target,” said Inspector Bernard Lamothe of the SPVM to CBC News on July 1.

In May, Paolo Renda, thought to be an adviser to Cuntrera, was kid­ napped. His car was found unlocked, with the windows down and the keys still in the ignition just off of Gouin Boulevard West in the Cartierville area. Renda was not only another member of the Rizzuto circle, but was Vito Rizzuto’s brother-in-law.

According to former crime re­ porter, Michel Auger, this particular kidnapping was strange. This type of kidnappings frequently take place within these circles, he said, and many of them are never reported to police, but the victim usually is freed after a few days. Renda, however, is still missing The hardships of the Rizzuto family started in 2006 when Project Colisee, a crackdown aimed at or­ ganized crime in Montreal and con­ ducted by municipal, provinvial and RCMP, was in full swing. Hidden

cameras, microphones, and phone taps were set up at the Consenza Social Club in Montreal, which was eventually found to be a hub for ma­ fia-related business.

Implicated in this operation were Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. and other members of the Rizzuto clan. Many trials have still not been completed from the two-year long investiga­ tion.

It’s further alleged that other gangs of non-Italian background have had a falling out with the mafia.

Durcame Joseph', allegedly associ­ ated with the Bloods gang, is one of the suspects in Nicolo Rizzuto Jr.’s murder case.

Durcame himself narrowly avoided death in March after 50 bul­ lets shot into his Old Port boutique, killing his bodyguard and a civilian.

Whether there’s a connection between the mafia’s activities and the recent fire bombings that have taken place at Italian-owned estab­ lishments is still unclear. There have been over 25 of these incidents, 15 of which have taken place since Au­

gust.

The most recent took place early Thursday morning at Cavallaro, a café in Westmount. This came as a shock to many, especially the police, as this type of attack usually takes place in the less wealthy neigh­ bourhoods in northern and eastern Montreal. The police, though, were reserved in their allegations.

“Anything is possible when cases like this happen” said Le­ mieux.

Media representatives of the SPVM did not want to comment on any possible connections between the slayings in the Rizzuto fam­ ily and the recent attacks on Italian businesses in the city.

The police also declined to com­ ment on a rumour that was brought lo light by crime expert Andre Cedilot claiming that an Ontario mafia family ordered the hits.

4

C u riosity D eliv er s, w w w .m c g illtr ib u n e .c o m

P R O V IN C IA L

Quebec nurses’ union strikes historic deal Health care professionals move off the picket lines and back to the hospital

By Dylan Doyle

C ontributor

It was a banner day last week­ end for the province’s largest nurses’ union, the Quebec Interpersonal Health Federation (FIQ). After a year of tense negotiations with the provincial government, the FIQ reached an agreement in principle, which will provide significant gains to the 58,000 members of the union.

The agreement stipulates an an­ nual 3.45 per cent pay increase for shift work, and a two per cent pay increase per year for nurses working regular day shifts in CLSCs (local community service centres) and other public institutions.

The 3.45 per cent raise comes as a result of the approximately 15 minutes that nurses typically spend at the end of their shifts exchang­ ing patient information with the next nurse on duty. Remuneration and recognition were two important tenets during negotiations, accord­ ing to FIQ Vice-President Michele Boisclair.

"Time worked is supposed to be time paid, and we've been fight­ ing for that for 30 years," she said.

“Now at least our nurses will be rec-

ognized and paid for it.”

Another gain for the union was the government’s commitment to re­ duce the use of privatized nurses by 40 per cent. Nurses from such agen­ cies can earn up to 20 to 25 per cent more than unionized workers. But Boisclair said there are problems with using these private companies.

“The employers who are going through a private agency are divid­ ing the system. They are asking to have labour on a day-to-day basis, which not only limits stability but reduces the quality of care,” Bois­ clair said. “How can the government be willing to pay more for the care given by these agencies, yet not give better conditions to those supporting the public health care system?”

There was tension between the FIQ and the Health Ministry until a summer cabinet reshuffling made Michelle Courchesne the new Trea­ sury Board president. According to Boisclair, this was a turning point for negotiations. Courchesne has been credited as having the “po­ litical will” to finally reach the fiveyear deal.

“Since [Courchesne’s] nomina­ tion we’ve seen a big difference,” Boisclair said. “Before it was al-

ways ‘no, no,’ and they never gave anything. Now we have been able to reach our goals.”

The agreement did not materi­ alize without compromises. How­ ever, according to Boisclair, the FIQ originally lobbied for the implemen­ tation of a four-day workweek for all members. The Health Ministry, how­ ever, opposed this motion. Boisclair claimed that the fight is not over.

“Right now, we’re just going to see what kind of schedule works, while trying to reduce the amount of days worked per week, and the amount of weeks worked per year,” she said. “It will be done locally, and we’ll see have to wait and see what the results will be.”

For the past monts, the FIQ re­ ceived support from more than 600 health organization and other labour groups, including the Canadian Fed­ eration of Nurses Union, and the In­ ternational organization in Solidarity for the Labour Movement.

“That was a major thing, the fact that they supported us,” Boisclair said. “They knew that we were try­ ing to change something to be there for our patients and the public health care system. It was a good message to the government that things need

to change.”

Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc said in a press release that the deal "is going to help the nurses, it's going to help the doctors, but mainly it's going to help the patients."

Mélanie Lavoie-Tremblay, an assistant professor in the McGill’s School of Nursing, agreed.

“The retention of nurses, new and old, is very important. There are good strategies out there now, but we need new ones as well,” she said.

“One strategy won’t be enough to foster the retention of this new gen­ eration of nurses.”

Lavoie-Tremblay was happy with the agreement, and stated that the gains would match the desires of most nurses at the ground level.

“Nurses are calling for more rewards, meaning a good pay and being paid for the work they are doing,” she said. “A lot of nurses don’t have access to training due to their schedules, so it’s great that they got so much from this agreement.”

The agreement in principle was presented to union delegates last Thursday and Friday. The details of the deal will be given to the nurses before a vote.

NEW S AN A LYS IS

McGill’s admin not the only one under fire Concordia students criticize administration for lack of beverage consultation

By Zach Connerty-Marin Contributor

At Norman Bethune Square on October 27, the Concordia Student Union, Überculture, Free Education Montreal, Sustainable Concordia, and Tap Drinkers Against Privatiza­ tion (TAPThirst) gathered to protest the Concordia administration’s deci­ sion to sign an exclusive PepsiCo contract without student consulta­ tion.

TAPThirst, an organization that advocates against the bottled water industry, was the most outspoken of the groups and had been heavily involved in talks with the adminis­ tration.

Laura Beach, sustainable am­ bassadors coordinator for Sustain­ able Concordia and a member of TAPThirst, issued a mise en de­ meure—a legal notice expressing student concern—to several mem­ bers of the administration after they failed to consult with students before signing the contract with PepsiCo. Beach said the administration prom­ ised her verbally, and in an email, that students would be included in the negotiation process.

» “Traditionally, we do not in­ clude students in negotiations for contracts,” said Chris Mota, director of media relations at Concordia.

Mota said the administration had intended to seek student input on the contract, and discussed set­ ting up a meeting between student groups and PepsiCo. However, ac­ cording to Mota, Concordia ran out of time and had to sign the contract because it needed a provider.

“A decision was made at the se­ nior level to sign the contract with Pepsi,” Mota said.

The Concordia protest occurred a few weeks after McGill students rallied on September 22 against the closure of the Architecture Café.

Like those at Concordia, McGill stu­ dents complained that they were not consulted.

Both the Concordia and McGill administrations have tried to make amends. The PepsiCo contract con­ tains a clause that gives the univer­ sity the option to stop the company from selling bottled water. In addi­ tion, Roger Côté, the interim vice president of services at Concordia, is talking with student groups about the issue.

The McGill Senate recently created a “working group to exam­ ine how consultations and related communication with students are currently handled at McGill, and to recommend improvements,” said Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson, ac­ cording to a press release issued by the university on October 19.

Michael Di Grappa, who start­ ed his position as the vice president of administration and finances for McGill on November 15, is a recent import from Concordia University.

Di Grappa was vice president of services for Concordia and heav­ ily involved in the PepsiCo contract discussions. He didn’t agree with the view some students hold of the Con­ cordia administration.

“I don’t think that you can ex­ tract from one particular issue ... that there were problems,” said Di Grap­ pa. In addition, he said, the contract included scholarships and job op­ portunities for students.

Di Grappa added that students were concerned only about bottled water.

“When someone is talking about the beverage contract with all

of those elements, and someone is talking about bottled water, that is an infinitesimally small portion of the overall contract,” he said.

Beach, however, said there is more to student concerns.

“What happened this summer wasn’t just about bottled water,” she said. “It was about a more sustain­ able beverage contract.”

The Environmental Advisory Committee at Concordia made rec­ ommendations on the contract, and 35 members of the university’s fac­ ulty, from every department, signed on to the recommendations. The Committee’s suggestions, Beach said, were overlooked by the admin­ istration.

In addition to the environmental impacts, Beach said, “I haven’t met any student that wants to turn their university into a mall, [but] that’s what’s happening.”

Di Grappa said that while the administration tried to understand student concerns, “It [was] not clear who was speaking on behalf of the students and that [was] part of the problem.”

Unions are suing Carleton Continued from COVER

new levies decided by student refer­ endum, terminate leases for offices, and take over management of the campus pubs.

“Carleton’s demands are both inappropriate and unnecessary,” CUSA President Alex Sirois said in an email to the Tribune. “The university wants to grant the board of governors the ability to override the democratic will of students and ignore referenda results. They also want the ability to terminate leases for businesses and offices that we have operated for decades.”

According to Sirois, both stu­ dents’ associations have strict finan­ cial controls to make sure that they spend students’ money properly.

CUSA employs a full-time chartered accountant and both associations are audited yearly by external licensed public accountants.

In an effort negotiated in good faith, the two student unions made amendments to the university’s proposals in August. This attempt, however, was unsuccessful.

“If we are actually acting in the best interest of our members we cannot agree on some parts of the new agreement,” said Kimalee Phil­ lip, GSA President. “We told them if you do not get back to us we are going to file an application to the court. They did not get back to us and so we filed an application.”

Although going to court was not an easy decision to make, Phillip explained that it was what their legal counsel advised them to do. Similar­ ly, the administration admitted that the route taken was not optimal but that the university would vigorously defend itself against the actions.

“Obviously, from our point of view it’s not ideal that we would end up in court, particularly when what we are asking for is a fairly basic element of financial accountability and transparency for an organiza­ tion managing $7 million of student money,” MacDonald said.

CUSA and GSA have been op­ erating with retained earnings and have taken steps to control costs.

The groups have also secured a line of credit with their bank. Accord­ ing to their financial administrators, though, they will only be able to op­ erate until January at the latest.

Services such as financial aid, emergency grants, and campus em­ ployment may have to be removed.

“The Carleton administration is really trying to control every as­ pect of campus life and I think this is just another way of doing so,” Phillip said.

T uesday, N o v em b er 2 3 , 2010

SPEAKERS ON CAMPUS

Panelists urge greater actions to defend children’s rights Representatives from United Nations and International Bureau for Children’s Rights speak at McGill

By Amanda DeSouza Contributor

How can it be that 250 mil­ lion children under the age of five are alive right now and don’t have a birth certificate? How can there be 13 countries currently listed by the United Nations’ Security Council that are at war with children engaged as combatants, as cooks, or as ser­ vants? How can there be an estimat­ ed 150 million children worldwide who are engaged in various forms of child labour?

These were some of the ques­ tions posed by United Nations Chil­ dren’s Fund representative Susan Bissel on Thursday at panel dis­ cussion on international children’s rights.

In a room of roughly 20 McGill students and faculty members, Nadja Pollaert, the director general of the International Bureau for Children's Rights, joined Bissel to address the topic of protecting children’s rights worldwide.

In her remarks, Bissel stressed that even in today’s globalizing world, where social and economic issues are increasingly integrated, issues of children’s rights go largely unnoticed. She said this is a major issue that we ignore all too easily.

Bissel explained that a birth certificate is a document many peo­ ple take for granted, but children

without such documentation lack an internationally recognized identity.

“Children without birth cer­ tificates, in theory, don't exist,” she said. “They can fall victim to ex­ ploitation and violence and no one would even know.”

Bissel believes that robust inter­ national law could be the key to im­ proving children’s well-being. She cited the Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC) as an example of the highest international organiza­ tion recognizing the need to not only address but also codify solutions.

The second speaker, Pollaert. focused her discussion on child traf­ ficking, calling it “a trendy issue” in our current political and social land­ scape.

Her organization focuses on the key areas of sexual exploitation of children, children in armed conflict, children and justice, and general promotion of the CRC. Pollaert addressed the ' critical role of the police in the issue of chil­ dren’s rights.

“Police are the beginning and sometimes the end of child victims,” she said.

Pollaert explained that in some countries, instead of a source of protection, police are a main source of corruption, leaving the child nowhere to turn if they are being abused.

Pollaert also spoke on the in­

creasingly difficult problems that have arisen in the children’s rights domain with the introduction and spread of the Internet.

“Young girls and boys are pre­ senting themselves on the Internet and exchanging sexual favours for goods such as BlackBerrys or jeans,” she said. This leaves these children a vulnerable position locally and in­ ternationally.

After the talks, audience mem­ bers were invited to give their thoughts and engage in a dialogue with the panelists.

Sam Goldman, a McGill alum­ nus and former history teacher, didn’t want to downplay the sever­ ity of the issues presented, but felt the most important issue was over­ looked: permanent genetic malfor­ mations due to poor maternal health.

Without tackling this problem at the source, he said, “we are dooming a considerable portion of the human race. This is a large problem getting bigger all the time.”

Bissel acknowledged the im­ portance of this issue, but refrained from offering a comprehensive an­ swer. She claimed that it was unfor­ tunate that such a critical problem goes largely unnoticed but acknowl­ edged that a significant portion of UNICEF’s $4 billion dollar budget is being spent on maternal health.

In her closing remarks, Bissel hoped for a future increase in the

Susan Bissel speaks in M cG ill’s Chancellor Day Hall on Thursday. (Holly Stewart / McGill Tribune)

protection of children’s rights.

“The challenges are enormous,” Bissel said. “But so too are the pos­ sibilities for action, collaboration,

and great outcomes for children and their families.”

AUS sketches plan Continued from COVER

Marshall also emphasized the assistance the AUS has received from the Faculty of Arts administra­ tion, particularly with regards to the debt they owe on the Arts Student Employment Fund.

“With regards to ASEF, we do have the dean's support for a pay­ ment plan, so that’s going to be paid over the next few years,” Marshall said.

"The Faculty has had discus­ sions with the AUS about the Arts Student Employment Fund, and we are working together on a plan that ensures that students continue to benefit from the Fund and allows AUS to meet its obligations with­ out putting further stress on its cash flow situation,” said Dean Christo­ pher Manfredi of the Faculty of Arts in email to the Tribune. “Student associations are independently in­ corporated entities whose relation­ ship to the university is governed by memoranda of agreement. For the most part, the relationship should be governed by the provisions of these

agreements, but everyone obviously has an interest in collaborating to ensure that funds are properly ad­ ministered.”

Despite the difficulties they have faced this year, both Marshall and al-Khaldi emphasized that all student organizations can learn from the AUS's experience. To help ensure that a similar situation doesn't affect another campus group, the Execu­ tive is working on a document that will outline standard financial, legal, and tax procedures for student-run corporations in Quebec.

“For legal purposes, we all have to be companies, but we aren't great at running them, clearly,” Marshall added. “I'm hoping to share this with all student associations because there's a huge benefit to sharing this sort of thing. I don't want anyone else to ever have to go through the experience we went through with all of this. But it’s a great year. Student services haven't been affected ex­ cept in the positive.”

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Dear sex,

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On the one hand, you seem like a real catch. Everyone brags about having you in large, large quantities, the positions, the or­ gasms, the stained sheets. The conquering, the gratification of dominance.

Once I was with you and it w asn’t a conquest. I lived in a beautiful illusion for a while; we were intertwined in identity, tighter and tighter each time.

How deep, meaningful, even spiritual you were. You immersed my senses; I dreamt in ecstasy. I wanted to possess you. I didn’t want to expose you, to pollute you with the outside world. You were mine and I loved you.

But I realize now that you were a fantasy. It felt powerful to have you like that, but I w asn’t making love with a person, I was making love with an idea. That fell apart when you started to challenge my assumptions. The illusion was shattered. You made me feel worthless for having

E xchanging M in d s

M o h a m m e d A sh o u r mashour@mcgilltribune.com

Who defines anti-Semitism?

When does legitimate criticism of the state of Israel become antiSemitic?

At first, this question sounds like a paradox. If criticism of Israel is legitimate (conforming to the law and well-argued), then how can it be anti-Semitic (prejudiced against Jews)?

Of course, this is only valid if you accept my definitions, which you might not. To you, “legitimate” or “anti-Semitic” may mean com­

given you all my energy. You had seduced me; I felt like a sucker.

Sex, there just isn’t a good way to deal with you anymore.

I look around and I see people falling into these traps—the ide­ alizing and the idealized, the conquering and the conquered.

We heard we were liberated but w e’re too confused, scared and intimidated to express how it doesn’t feel like that at all. When we trade stories about you, w e’re condemning anything that might be meaningful.

I don’t think w e’re actually talking about you at all. You’ve become too shrouded in mystery.

My idealizations of you never re­ ally matched up to your reality.

You’re stuck between sacred and profane, between being too mean­ ingful and too meaningless.

You need to stop hiding in the shadows. Everyone is either afraid of you, or has fallen for your tricks. W hen I try to talk about you, no one understands me; we shouldn’t have to speak in these terms. I don’t think I’ve ever had a coherent discussion about you.

This letter isn’t really to Sex at all. It’s for people who feel that the liberation doesn’t apply to them. People in the haze o f the ideal and the craze of the con­ quest. People who don’t know what they want, or why they want you. People who thought they were being careful by wrapping their dicks in plastic and swal­ lowing pills, but who are begin­ ning to realize that maybe there’s more to it all than that.

pletely different things. Without an absolute standard or a universal definition, you and I will continue to be “right” in our own minds and any effort to reconcile our differences will necessarily fail. Thus, we need to agree upon clear and unambigu­ ous meanings for these words.

But that raises two questions.

First, who defines these words?

Second, what gives them the right to do so?

For example, the Anti-Defama­ tion League defines anti-Semitism as “the belief or behaviour hostile toward Jews just because they are Jewish. It may take the form of re­ ligious teachings that proclaim the inferiority of Jews, for instance, or political efforts to isolate, oppress, or otherwise injure them.”

In 2004, the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia expanded these crite­ ria, adding “accusing the Jews as

Fleeting outrage

Earlier this year, Hugo Al­ fredo Tale-Yax was murdered on the streets of New York at around 6 a.m. He had tried to prevent a knifewielding man from attacking a woman. Homeless and 31 years old, Tale-Yax was repeatedly stabbed as the woman fled the scene. Security tapes show him attempting to pur­ sue the assailant before collapsing on the cement.

Reminiscent of the famous Kitty Genovese case that sparked cascades of social psychological research into the now well-known term, “the bystander effect,” the Tale-Yax death also demonstrates— this time eerily captured on film— the inaction of the observers. Some passed by, uncomfortably glancing at the bleeding body. Others stood and stared. He was a corpse before somebody called emergency ser­ vices for help.

Outraged commentary writ­ ers fed off this news story as they have countless others. There were moral outcries and questions about the state of society. But this atten­ tion is temporary. Heads are shaken, and then we move on. Yet is this not perhaps the journalistic equivalent of leaving the man on the street?

Are we merely glancing up before moving quickly on? If there seems to be a strong initial reaction to see­ ing a person left to die, where does that reaction come from and why are we OK with letting it dissipate? Six months after the incident, the name

a people of being responsible for wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group” and “deny­ ing the Holocaust.”

Thus, when the German-Jewish political activist Hajo Meyer said “the Israelis tried to dehumanize the Palestinians, just like the Nazis tried to dehumanize me,” he was brand­ ed an anti-Semite. It did not mat­ ter that he qualified this statement later. It also did not matter that he spoke as an 86 year old Holocaust survivor who suffered 10 months in Auschwitz. The fact is, Meyer com­ pared Israelis to Nazis. To some, that is anti-Semitism.

So, as long as we abstain from drawing historical analogies and use credible facts and abide by the law, does this mean that we are free to criticize Israel for its human rights abuses? Does this mean we can dis­ cuss the fact that illegal settlements continue to be built in violation of

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax doesn’t ring a bell for many.

Being outraged at a lack of ac­ tion is not enough. Ethics cannot be founded on mere emotion. Arguing a moral point because it feels right (or good) is shaky in theory, and it rarely translates concretely into practice. Actions require thought and discussion. Should Tale-Yax have been helped because—from a universal perspective—it’s always necessary to help another in distress and always wrong not to? Or per­ haps because we have all agreed it’s the right thing to do?

It’s also important to consider the role Tale-Yax’s homelessness might have played. Perhaps it is evolutionarily maladaptive to have members of a species living off the efforts of the rest of the species, as homeless people are sometimes per­ ceived to be doing. Maybe there’s something primitive in us that make it harder to help someone like TaleYax than it would be to help some­ one wearing a suit.

Maybe it’s completely accept­ able that a man was left to bleed to death on the street. If the origi­ nal reaction of disgust toward the bystanders’ indifference fades so quickly away, then maybe there’s something there.

My question is not so much about why Tale-Yax was not helped, but why we assume that he needs to be helped. To really understand in­ cidents that generate moral outcries, the assumptions behind those re­ sponses need to be understood. Only then will we have a solid ground from which to act, instead of an un­ steady sea that merely carries fast­ sinking ships of mere feelings.

international law, the reality that Palestinians die from being denied medical care, the fact that Palestin­ ians are used by Israelis as human shields in war, that their homes are illegally demolished and their families are evicted, without risking being smeared as anti-Semites?

It depends. You see, in addition to the above, you risk being labelled an anti-Semite if you repeatedly single out Israel in your criticisms.

This is true even if your arguments are grounded in sound evidence, and even if the Israeli government continues to engage in inhumane practices.

The disturbing part is that you may earn the title of anti-Semite for different reasons by different organizations, but the effect of the label is always the same. All at once, you are suffocated with disgrace, accused of moral inferiority, and stripped of intellectual credibility.

------------------------------------------------ \

Think your Movember moustache is more im­ pressive than this?

Drop by the Trib­ une office, Shatner 110, on Friday between 1:00 and 3:00 to have your effort immortalized for all time in the McGill Tribune. <____________________________ >

Errata Last week’s editorial, “SSMU should reconsider new equity policy,” implied that equity commissioners have the ability to sever club funding.

In fact, they can only make recommendations to Council, which then retains power to make funding decisions. The Tribune regrets the error.

And all it takes is for you to say one thing that upsets one criterion of one lobby or group.

This may explain why so many people seem scared to criticize Is­ rael. They fear that their sincere efforts to speak out against human rights abuses will be rewarded with harsh labels that, by their very na­ ture, tend to shut down any mean­ ingful debate.

As of today, we have no uni­ versal definition for anti-Semitism.

We have no way of regulating how (and by whom) it is defined. So long as this is the case, the scope of this allegation will continue to expand unchecked. And the more the title is applied, the less seriously it will be taken until, eventually, it will lose all meaning.

Wouldn’t that be ironic?

T h e McGill

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Tribune WWW.MCGHi.TRIBUNE.COM

-------------------------7 ----------------------- E -----------------------d it o r ia l

Editor-in-Chief Tori Crawford editor@mcgilltribune.com

Fighting the anti-free speech frenzy

Managing Editors Mookie Kideckel mkideckel@mcgilltribune.com Theo Meyer tmeyer@mcgilltribune.com Production Manager Iain Macdonald imacdonald@mcgilltribune.com Senior Design Editor Zoe Brewster zbrewster@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Matt Essert, Sean Wood, and Maria Flores news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editor Ricky Kreitner opinion@mcgilltribune.com Features Editors Alison Bailey and Shannon Kimball features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Brahna Siegelberg and Ryan Taylor arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Sam Hunter and Walker Kitchens sports @mcgilltribune.com Photo Editors Holly Stewart and Alice Walker photo@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Gaby Lai and Kathleen Jolly design @mcgilltribune.com

Three protestors shut down a speech by Christie Blatchford at Waterloo by chaining themselves together on the stage. The president of York University threatens to sue a rabbi for encouraging people to pro­ test a speech by George Galloway.

The Carleton Student Union shuts down a pro-life club. Anne Coulter shut up at Ottawa. There’s an epi­ demic of student-led censorship in this country, and we hope it doesn’t make its way to McGill.

The tropes go that university is a place for students to come into contact with different ideas that can challenge them—ones that may even offend them. Unfortunately, a vocal minority of students across the coun­ try have shown themselves increas­ ingly hostile to that idea over the last few years. Their justifications have often sounded noble enough. “Rac­ ist!” was the epithet hurled at Christie Blatchford when she tried to speak in Waterloo this week. “Our goal was to not let her speak,” boasted one of the

activists who stopped her. “We ac­ complished that.”

Nobody wants racism or hate speech on their campuses. Unfortu­ nately, there seems to be little agree­ ment on what those words mean.

Once reserved as labels for only the most vile bigots, the definitions of racist and oppressive language seem to have expanded faster than most people can keep up with. Blatchford was called racist because she failed to mention treaty violations against Aboriginal Peoples in her discus­ sion about policing of the Caledonia blockade. She didn’t incite violence against aboriginals nor did she say that she didn’t like them. If her mes­ sage is offensive, there’s a debate to be had. But like most issues it is not black and white. A term like hate speech needs to be well-justified. At that point, “racist” replaces “I dis­ agree with you.”

A recent National Post editorial contended that this was only an issue of the radical left shutting down right

wing speakers. Though the campus left across the country appears to have been more successful at shut­ ting down their opponents, they don’t have a monopoly on the prac­ tice. Many people fling accusations of racism, terrorism, oppression, and conspiracy far too easily, whether the conflict is Israel-Palestine, QPIRG funding, or abortion rights. It’s also not something limited to univer­ sity campuses: from protests against newspaper cartoons and South Park to laws banning religious garb, at times the entire world seems to be in an anti-free speech frenzy. There are surely valid grounds for why some events should not go on, and there are times when labels like hateful have meaning. But whether claiming religious discrimination as grounds for enforcing religious orthodoxy, or public safety as an excuse for per­ secution, charges of hate are just as often used to crush dissent, and that is wrong.

At the Controversial Events

Town Hall last year, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson was flabbergasted by stu­ dents asking why offensive events were not prohibited by the university.

When his generation was in univer­ sity, Mendelson told the crowd, they were fighting their administrators for the right to free speech. Now it’s ad­ ministrators fighting to protect that right from zealous students.

McGill has been lucky to most­ ly escape the shenanigans that have taken place at other universities. But it’s time for this campus to have a real discussion. Obviously, hate speech should not be allowed, but what is hate speech? Where is the line? It has moved from incitements of violence or hatred apparently towards points of view that individuals merely find offensive. It’s strange to have to de­ fend free speech, especially at a uni­ versity campus. But it’s a discussion that needs to happen. And please, if you disagree with us, please let us know.

Copy Editor Kyle Carpenter Advertising Manager Dallas Bentley cpm@ssmu.mcgill.ca

AUSies back from down under

Publisher Chad Ronalds

C on trib u tors Choucri Couturier,

Bechir,

Zach

Connerty-Martin,

Vincent

Dylan Doyle, Amanda de Souza, Natalia

Evdokimova, Arielle Frank, Mari Mesri, Richard Ramcharan, Adam Sadinsky, Maxime Sawicki, Trip Yang

T ribune O ffices Editorial Shatner University Centre Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 T: 514.398.6789

Advertising Brown Student Building Suite 1200, 3600 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 1Y2 T: 514.398.6835 F: 514.398.7490

Earlier this semester, the Tribune expressed concerns over the Arts Un­ dergraduate Society’s $30,000 deficit it ran from 2010 Frosh. We were bothered by what we perceived as a lack of transparency and urgency about the entire situation. However, in light of new information, and after seeing the organization’s financial recovery plan, released last Wednes­ day, it’s clear that many of our con­ cerns were misplaced.

The so-called “Marshall Plan” hopes to build a solid financial foun­ dation for the organization through substantive, practical changes. Many important steps have already been implemented: the AUS has hired a new, professional accountant, revis­ ited their banking and investment practices, and worked closely with faculty administration to pay off their debt. Executives have also es­ tablished a commitment to transpar­

ency, pledging to place all financial documents and reports on the AUS website. These are all important and necessary changes which should help prevent a similar situation from hap­ pening again.

Many of the challenges the cur­ rent AUS executives have faced are not all of their own doing. While the Frosh deficit happened under their watch, the unpaid taxes and missing Arts Student Employment Fund con­ tributions did not. These problems have been years in the making, and just happened to come to light this year.

These latter issues are indicative of the potential problems faced by all student-run groups at McGill. Every year, there is major turnover in the leadership of most faculty organiza­ tions and major clubs, the Tribune included. Students who often lack any business training, knowledge, or

background are then handed a mas­ sive cheque from McGill, with their only source of information regard­ ing standard business, financial, and legal procedures often being an exit report from an equally inexperienced predecessor. Unlike the Students’ Society, which has multiple full-time employees, an office manager, and a comptroller, other organizations are left almost completely to their own untested devices.

Given these circumstances, it’s surprising that something like the un­ paid taxes debacle hasn’t happened to another group at McGill already.

Something similar could easily have affected any club, media outlet, or faculty organization.on campus. In­ stead of taking a holier-than-thou ap­ proach to the AUS, we should all be doing our best to find out how this happened and ensure that all McGill student groups avoid a similar situa­

tion in the future.

David Marshall has made it his mission to do just that. He’s working with accountants and the McGill ad­ ministration to prepare a guidebook detailing standard tax, business, and accounting procedures, which can be then given to the leadership of each student organization. This document will be a valuable resource for years to come.

It’s all too easy to criticize, but the entire AUS Executive should be commended for its handling of a dif­ ficult situation that they to a large extent inherited. It was practically inevitable that such problems af­ flict some group on campus at some point. McGill students are lucky that it happened to an organization with Marshall and his colleagues at the helm.

RE: “Too Asian?” in Ma­ clean’s While I applaud the author’s attempt to delve into intellectual discussion about issues pertinent to a minority group, Maclean’s “Too Asian?” article falls far short of discussion. The author selectively quotes a small group of people from

privileged backgrounds to represent a wide spreading phenomenon as part of his self-serving agenda of perpetuating stereotypes, that Asians are “high achievers and single-mind­ ed,” that Asians are too academical­ ly focused at the expense of “having fun.” The underlying racist tone, rooted in sweeping generalizations about a minority group, is both hurt­ ful and juvenile in nature. (Imagine for a minute the outrage that would ensue from an article entitled “Too black”? or say, “Too Jewish?”) The Maclean’s article is provocatively

offensive, prejudiced, and an exam­ ple of poor anecdotal journalism.

The sentiment that immigrants are overachieving and therefore, “taking up university spots” is outra­ geous. Let’s remind ourselves: Can­ ada is a multicultural nation made up of immigrants; it’s a land of op­ portunity, not a land of entitlement, dispelling any notion that there exist substitutes to hard work and ability (well, except Lady Luck). We ought to judge people not on the colour of one’s skin, or ethnicity, or race but on the content of one’s character!

In light of this article, however, let there be continued dialogue, dis­ cussion of issues addressed in the ar­ ticle, of race and identity, of integra­ tion and segregation, of cultural in­ dividuality within multiculturalism, and not shy away from controversy.

It will help explore, shape, and mold the Asian-Canadian identity that has been tested with the piercing proc­ lamation that universities, and Can­ ada, too, are becoming “too Asian.”

How tactless.

Shen Chen Science Rep to SSMU

The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a stu­ dent society of McGill University. The content of this publica­ tion is the sole responsibility of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact 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 of the author and do not necessar­ ily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.

8

Commentary S S M U Equity C o m m ittee and Social Justice Days Coordinator

Trib is wrong on new equity policy Last Tuesday, the Tribune edi­ torialized on the passing of a new equity policy by SSMU Council.

We were deeply disappointed by the number of factual inaccuracies and lack of context around the debate.

Though one of our functions is to answer questions and receive feedback about equity proceedings, none of us were contacted for the article. Moreover, it did not realisti­ cally represent the role or scope of the equity committee on campus.

The Tribune, as a respected cam­ pus newspaper, provides an integral service by contributing to an atmo­ sphere of collegial debate. Thus, the editorial board must remain account­ able for its publication decisions.

The editorial said, “That an ap­ pointed committee has the power to remove a club’s funding ... is anti­ thetical to the stated purpose of en­ couraging open discussion.” Firstly, neither the equity commissioner nor committee is appointed; there is a competitive application process ac­ cessible to all qualified students, as advertised on the SSMU ListServ.

Commentary Chloe Turner Bloom

Canada’s not half bad Why can we never be satisfied with what we have and what others do for us? It appears as if problems and controversies can always be generated, even in perfectly agree­ able situations. The uproar over the “secret law” enforced during the G20 meeting in Toronto this past summer exemplifies this point. To­ rontonians, and many others, were shocked at the violence and their own government’s capability for de­ ceit during the event.

The authorities told the public a law was in place stating that any­ one who came within five metres of the security fence in downtown To­ ronto could be searched and asked to provide identification by the po­ lice, and if they refused they could subsequently be arrested. Yet right after the G20 came to a close, it was revealed that the law only ap­ plied to the area within the security

Secondly, the equity committee does not have the power to remove a club’s funding, much less revoke a club’s status. We are not a decision­ making body; our role is to provide support to students and make rec­ ommendations to SSMU Council.

Thirdly, as the equity committee is a consultative body, we have no struc­ tural power to “censor” students or student groups. Ultimately, council makes all final decisions.

Council has a very clear proce­ dure for passing policies that allows students to make amendments and present their views. The policy went through three readings over several weeks and there was sufficient time for recommendations. After a lively debate which engaged councilors and members of the gallery, the new policy was passed with an over­ whelming majority of votes. Also, the policy is always open to amend­ ment, vote, and ratification in coun­ cil, as with any SSMU document.

The new policy does not radi­ cally differ from the 2008 docu­ ment; it situates equity in a history of student movements and initia­ tives and further defines key terms like “oppression.” At the last council meeting, Councillor Spencer Burger highlighted valid issues with the original definition. Consequently, members of our committee and Councillor Burger re-examined the definition and came to a consensus, which strengthens the policy as a whole.

The amendment, “Oppression

means the exercise of power by a group of people over another group of people, with specific consideration of cultural, historical, and living leg­ acies,” was questioned in Tuesday’s editorial. The Tribune asserted, “This is grammatically convoluted to the point that it effectively means nothing.” However, we feel that this is not a problem of grammar but of semantic interpretation.

The phrase “cultural, historical, and living legacies” was particu­ larly criticized in the editorial. Op­ pression is a systemic issue rooted in discriminatory practices over a period of time, with long-lasting ef­ fects upon cultural dynamics and the lives of individuals. As such, iden­ tification of a specific instance of oppression must take both context and effect into account. It should also be noted that there is no pre­ defined dichotomy of oppressor and oppressed. Each case of oppression must be evaluated according to the intersections of history, culture, and personal situation—these are the legacies that equity must consider.

It is appropriate to criticize the documents that govern us—this is integral to creating an atmosphere of respect and change. However, it is important to approach the debate with accurate knowledge instead of conjecture. We encourage anyone who has questions about the new policy or equity to contact us, at emily.clare@mail.mcgill.ca.

fence and what the public heard was merely a rumour spread by of­ ficials. This was seen by many as a breach of people’s rights and free­ doms as Canadians. Nevertheless, Premier Dalton McGuinty claimed this seeming lie was for everyone’s safety. Regardless of McGuinty’s claim that people were going crazy, how could we ever trust our govern­ ment again after they have admitted to lying to the people for their own safety and well-being?

There are many countries in the world which have corrupt and misguided governments, and these countries have problems that our safe, protected minds could not pos­ sibly comprehend. Despite this, so many people continue to waste their time and energy on bashing the Ca­ nadian government for their actions regarding safety at the G20. What they fail to notice is that the govern­ ment was acting purely in the pub­ lic interest. They must have done something right since there were no deaths, despite extensive property damage and violence.

What other intention could the government have had in pushing a rumour about a secret law other than everyone’s safety? None, unless you want to fabricate ridiculous explana­ tions. Things are sometimes simpler than people make them out to be.

The rumour was for the safety of the public; we should be thankful our government has such intentions.

We should pause before we criticize, and really appreciate what we have. If we cannot even trust the Canadian government, we are lost.

You cannot function on your own even if you think of yourself as com­ pletely independent and beyond the guidelines set forth by the govern­ ment. This is apparent for matters concerning food and drug regula­ tions and health care, which the gov­ ernment controls for our well-being, especially here in Canada.

Think deeper and enjoy where you are and what you have. Canada is a great place and McGill an in­ credible university. Not everyone is out to get us all the time. We spend too much time thinking everyone has harmful goals and thus criticize their actions. This feeds on itself and creates an atmosphere in which neg­ ative conclusions seem to always be the first, and everyone has some­ thing to complain about. Looking at the bigger picture would allow us to see the good that is overlooked, and be thankful for what we have before letting the criticism gush out.

Chloe Turner Bloom is a U2 philosophy and psychology student, and can be reached at chloe.turnerbloom® mail, megill. ca.

Commentary Darcy Drury

McGill’s best course

Did you know that McGill of­ fers a course in Applied Gravity?

It takes place on Fridays from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., and there is no charge for taking it. Typically, only about eight students attend on a weekly basis. You’ve probably never heard of this course because they’re the same eight students every week.

What’s the catch? There is no pro­ fessor. These students teach them­ selves and each other everything.

How do they do it? By diving.

Class takes place on the three springboards at Memorial Pool.

Rather than purchasing equipment or textbooks like most courses and activities, the diving team requires minimal investment: a bathing suit.

There are several instructors present each week, like the nationally certi­ fied Eric MacDonald, who continues to mystify lifeguards, swimmers and onlookers who peek into the win­ dow on their way to the gym with his show diving skills. According to diving regular Cory Stout, “Most people see Eric dive and think, there’s no way I could do that. But just because Einstein knew quite a bit about physics, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be studying it.”

Although this sounds silly, fear is the main thing involved with diving. But here’s a fact: you don’t get vertigo from three metres. Your body is capable of nearly anything you can convince your mind to do.

As a 6’5” rugby-player-tumed-diver, Matt Banks points out, “I began this semester hoping to hit the water

RE: Don’t get it wrong on the G20!

For two days in Seoul, the leaders of the G20 gave us the im­ pression that they were in disagree­ ment.

But don’t get it wrong! Most of them did agree, thick as thieves, on everything that really matters: • Letting the destiny of our world in the hands of rich people, banks, and big corporations; • Despoiling poor countries with a sophisticated set of economic, political, and military measures to subdue them, stop their march towards democracy and justice, and reduce their populations to

without hurting myself. But the more I dive, I realize it’s not a physi­ cal sport so much as a mental one.”

As an applied physicist for two years now at McGill, I have come to realize how fast people can learn technique, compared with conceptu­ alizing a flip in the air.

The strangest thing about div­ ing is that it’s the most social sport I have ever been involved with. In the past years, there have been two or three people each week, but this year it began with three, and has ex­ panded at a rate of one person every two weeks since October. Why is it now growing? Because people are getting better, and better able to explain how they performed their tricks. The more people, the more explanations. I remember spend­ ing an entire semester working on a trick called a double-gainer (two reverse back flips). Now it takes roughly three sessions for an enthu­ siastic diver to reach this trick, since there are so many different ways to explain doing it. In the case of the double-front flip, the two divers ca­ pable of the trick went consecutive­ ly, and three more divers followed right after, all three landing their first successful double-fronts.

This article is partially trying to raise a bit of awareness for div­ ing, but not to crowd the boards each Friday. We don’t dive to stay in shape, trust me. It is about expe­ riencing the third dimension, hitting zero-velocity four metres in mid-air, the experience of free-fall, and the harnessing of all these difficulties in your mind in a single jump. Finally, there is no Redmen diving team to make you feel embarrassed, just a group of people who know that you can do any trick you want, as long as they support you. Come out to div­ ing, take the plunge.

Darcy Drury is a U2 political science and economics student, and can be reached at darcy.drury@ mail.mgill.ca.

poverty and obedience; • Maintaining democracy in its embryonic state in rich countries and doing everything to stop it in the poorest countries, by pri­ vate control of information and entertainment in the rich ones, by force and intimidation in the poorest ones; • And at all cost preventing the sharing of powers that would lead to real democracy, and thus to equality and justice.

I can already hear someone asking: “But what can we do?”

Well, we can start at the beginning.

We can start talking with our friends and colleagues about things that matter for us: justice, fairness, de­ mocracy, equality. Questioning our world is certainly the first step and a huge step towards a better world.

Bruno Marquis Gatineau, QC

S tudent L iving TRAVEL

Himalayas provide haven despite harsh temperatures Trekking through the Annapurna trails in January

By Walker Kitchens Sports Editor

There’s no better way to expe­ rience a perfect blend of adventure, the outdoors, and rich culture than by trekking through the Annapurna Circuit in the Nepalese Himalayas.

Considered to be the best hike in the world, the 17 to 21 day route trav­ els through the Annapurna mountain range and crosses the Thorong La Pass, which is 5,416 metres above sea level. The advantages of jour­ neying through the Annapurna re­ gion, besides the sublime mountains, is that trekkers travel between small Buddhist villages and stay in tea­ houses at each stop. Travellers can hike for long periods of time without having to carry a tent or food.

It was winter in Nepal when I made the trek last year. That meant that it was going to be cold at high elevations and if it were to snow it would be impossible to cross Thorong La because of possible ava­ lanches. I dismissed my parents’ and the guidebooks’ warnings about the weather, reasoning that my-Canadi­ an blood would keep me warm and that luck would keep the snow away.

It was the dry season and snow was uncommon at the time. Thankfully, I stubbornly pursued. So after dozens of inumerable vaccinations, hours spent reading Lonely Planet and In­ ternet blogs, countless emails and calls to trekking companies search­ ing for flight deals, and getting prop­ erly outfitted with warm clothes, I was ready for the Himalayas.

I went to Nepal with my room­ mate John. Due to our inexperience with high altitudes, we decided to hire a guide, Prem, and a porter, Surendra. Guides cost $25 per day, and all other living expenses add up to less than five dollars per day.

With our crew in place we drove

to the trailhead at Besi Sahr. As we began walking beside the Marsyangdi River, Mount Monusulu (8,163m and the world’s eighth tallest moun­ tain) lay in the distance. Children ran by asking us for gifts and candy and one even tried to steal my cam­ era. The scenery was a surprise as well. We weren’t walking through snow-capped mountains, but rather river valleys entirely terraced into rice fields.

That night we drank Everest Beer and ate dal bat (potato curry, lentil soup, and rice) while we learned to play Nepali card games with Prem and Surendra. This be­ came our nightly routine and one of the highlights of each day. Our guide and porter initially dominated us in their own games, but as John and I became comfortable with the rules—and as we drank more local whisky—the games became highly competitive and often ended with Prem yelling at us.

Trekkers must share the An­ napurna trail with donkeys, horses and people carrying whatever sup­ plies are needed in the villages. With no paved roads, it’s impossible for cars to access any of these com­ munities. It was incredible that a holiday for me was the daily life of someone else. I suddenly didn’t feel so adventurous.

As we gained elevation, the culture and scenery began to change.

It quickly became normal to see Buddhist prayer flags, stuppas, and prayer wheels everywhere. It also became a challenge to communi­ cate. We had countless encounters of drinking Nepali tea while sitting in small kitchens and talking to Bud­ dhist monks during which commu­ nication was very limited. By this time, it was getting cold and were in the heart of the Annapurna Moun­ tains.

Breathtaking Himalayan landscapes. (Walker Ktchens/McGill Tribune)

As we left the town of Lower Pisang on the seventh day, we had climbed nearly 3,000 metres. We began what was to be the most spec­ tacular day of the trek with a visit to the one-roomed Pisang monastery.

The monastery is located high on a hill above Pisang and directly faces the enormous and jaw-dropping mountains of Annapurna II (7,937m) and Annapurna IV (7,525m). The in­ side is covered with brightly coloured Buddhist paintings and mandalas.

When we left the monastery we climbed over 500 metres. Without a cloud in the sky, I could see for miles. As Annapurna II and IV faded into the distance we approached An­ napurna III (7,555m). I’ve done a lot of travelling and hiking in my life but the views of the Annapurna’s on this day were among the best sights I’ve ever seen. It’s this unique blend of Buddhist culture and mountain landscapes that make Annapurna such a wonderful place.

Our pace slowed for the next four days. To properly acclimatize and avoid altitude sickness, we had to take frequent rest breaks and could only climb 300 metres per day. It became much harder to breathe and simply walking became a strenuous exercise. The temperature rarely rose above freezing. At 3,540 metres, Manang is the last permanent Nepali town until the pass. The next 2,000 metres of the trail took us through untouched alpine landscapes. By the end of the ninth day we were at base camp and one night away from at­ tempting the Thorong La Pass.

To avoid the dangerous weather that often develops later in the day, we woke at 4 a.m. and began hik­ ing by headlamps. We reached the World’s Highest Pass at sunrise. As I hugged the group in celebration I realized just how terrible the eleva­ tion was making me feel. At that mo­

ment all I wanted was to get off the mountain. After a brutal 2,000 metre decent we reached Muktinath, which was our stop for the day. Thankful­ ly, it was finally warm. We quickly changed into shorts, t-shirts, bought a bottle of local apple brandy, and played cards, experiencing senti­ ments of relaxation, relief, and cel­ ebration.

A couple days later we ended our trip and flew out of Jomsom.

This is four days before the tra­ ditional end of the trek, but due to recent road construction, the trail is supposedly compromised after this

point. I flew out in awe of the cul­ ture, people, and landscape in an air­ plane that looked like it had not been repaired in decades. At that moment I was reminded of a Nepali saying; “We do not fly when it’s cloudy because our clouds have rocks in them.” I now understand why. It felt like flying through a tunnel; despite being at cruising altitude, the moun­ tains were still hundreds of metres above us. Even in a plane, it was impossible to escape the grandeur of the Himalayas.

By Shannon Kimball

wo weeks ago, students voted to renew the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students’ Society’s 75-cent fee. SACOMSS has faced some challenges in the past: it was shut down in 2006, and its office has moved several times in the past de­ cade, undermining its role as a stu­ dent service. Both SSMU and McGill aim to provide resources for victims of sexual assault and harassment on campus, but according to some vic­ tims, they are not entirely accessible or transparent.

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ictims of sexual assault should contact the Montreal police to launch a criminal investiga­ tion and reach out to SACOMSS for emotional support if they feel they need it. Sexual harassment, however, unlike assault, is not a criminal of­ fence, so victims must abide by the McGill administration’s protocol for addressing complaints.

According to the university’s policy, anyone who feels they’ve been the victim o f sexual harassm ent—de­ fined by the university as conduct of a sexual nature which is unwelcome, may impair performance, or which is manipulative in some w ay—must first contact an assessor. Assessors are fac­ ulty members and administrative staff who have been judged by a selection committee to be impartial.

“I think a great deal o f thought has gone into choosing people who will be impartial and willing and able to listen,” says Lydia White, Associ­ ate Provost (Policies, Procedures, and

V

Equity). “T here’s always going to be two sides in these kinds of situations, so they do have to be able to listen to both sides.”

Assessors receive training on the university’s policies and procedures, how to remain impartial during an investigation, and, as practice, they examine case studies. Assessors then conduct an investigation, and submit their findings to the provost. The pro­ vost can agree or disagree with the recommendation of the assessor,'with­ out any further investigation.

But according to Meghan M arsh*—who issued a complaint against a faculty m em ber—this pro­ cess isn’t transparent. After contacting all 12 assessors listed at the time, she only found three who had the time to proceed with the investigation. Fur­ thermore, she felt she was not properly informed of the progress of the com­ plaint process.

“I have never met [my assessor] and I have no idea what was said about me in response, so 1 had no opportu­ nity to respond to any counter-allega­ tions,” she says.

However, White stresses that students are encouraged to meet with their assessors—at least initially—if they want to do so.

“The first meeting is informal; you don’t have to launch a complaint right away,” White says. Students can discuss their options in an informal setting, and decide to pursue action later.

“It may sound a bit intimidating— thinking you have to launch straight

into a formal procedure—but that’s actually not the case,” she said.

While policy and procedure doc­ uments are available online, White thinks that improvements could be made to make information about the assessors more accessible. Currently, there’s just a list of names and contact information, leaving victims with little information about who they will be speaking to, and whether that person might be a good fit for the investiga­ tion.

“You might want to make your choice of who to pick on the basis of what department they are in or they are not in. And I also think it could give a little bit more information about each assessor,” White says. “So the infor­ mation is there, but perhaps it’s a bit too bare-boned at the moment.” She hopes to expand it in the near future. n M arsh’s case, the assessor concluded that sexual harass­ ment had occurred and advised that punitive actions be taken. Marsh re­ ceived a copy of the final recommen­ dations, but not a full investigative re­ port. However, the provost at the time disagreed with the findings o f the as­ sessor and determined, in M arsh’s words, that “the evidence was not suf­ ficient to support sexual harassment, but was rather a gross impropriety and violation of academic behaviour.”

Section 5.5.6 of M cG ill’s Harass­ ment, Sexual Harassment, and Dis­ crimination Policy states that, “The Provost is not required to meet with the Complainant or the Respondent

I

before or after rendering his or her de­ cision.” The university does not reveal the investigation documents, meaning that either the complainant or the re­ spondent may have difficulty under­ standing how the provost came to his or her decision. Marsh considers this to be a huge problem.

“In any adjudication there’s an opportunity to respond,” Marsh says.

“But in this case, I’m not only not of­ fered the opportunity to respond, but I ’m also not allowed to know what is being stated about me.”

White says that this stipulation prevents the provost from conducting a second full investigation.

“If the provost had to meet with one party they would also, for fairness reasons, have to meet with the other party, and then you’ve sort of got the assessment going on all over again,” White says. Such a process could be stressful and exhausting for everyone involved.

“The provost is supposed to be at arms length in the process, and that’s why he doesn’t meet with either side,” she says.

This stipulation is contingent on the impartiality of the assessor and the assumption that the provost adequate­ ly reviews the investigation. Before launching a formal investigation, stu­ dents can choose an assessor based on their confidence in their assessor and their assessor’s ability to interpret the events that transpired.

The provost’s decision, however, is not final in a legal sense. The policy states that victims of harassment may,

*Name has been changed

I f you o r anyone you know has been the v ic tim o f

Internal Recourse

sexual harassm ent, M cG ill has a c o m p la in t procedure.

I f yo u ’ve filed a c o m p la in t and aren’t satisfied w ith the p ro v o s t’s decision, there are o th e r o p tio n s.

Contact Assessor

Assessor Gondii Investigation ► C O LLE C T EVII

G O TO W W W .M C G IL L .C A /H A R A S S /C O N T A C T / FOR A LIST OF ASSESSORS

External Recourse V

at any time, seek out other internal or external resources to pursue the m at­ ter. M cGill students are protected under the McGill Charter for Stu­ dents’ Rights and the Quebec Char­ ter for Human Rights and Freedoms, and may lodge their complaints with the chair of the Senate Committee or through the Quebec Human Rights Commission, respectively. Victims may also pursue legal action under the Civil Code of Quebec, or contact the x ombudsperson. Assessors are encour­ aged to make these options—as well as less formal rem edies—clear to stu­ dents. ictims of either assault or harassment may feel angry, scared, and even guilt for what has oc­ curred, according to Professor Perry Adler, a clinical psychologist in the McGill department o f family medi­ cine. Part of good therapy, therefore, is to explain to the victim that they are not to blame, and to explain some emotions that they may experience after such an incident.

In almost any society people will try to find explanations for what goes wrong,” Adler says. “Unfortunately men or women who have been sexu­ ally assaulted may feel like they’re to blame, in part, for what happened.” ' Section 5.2.3 of the harassment policy states that, “An Assessor shall not consider a Complaint where the action, behaviour, conduct, or decision which is the subject of the Complaint occurred more than one calendar year prior to the date of the Complaint.”

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S

CE A N D FILE A C O M P L A IN T

C O N T A C T M C G IL L LEG AL A ID FOR LEGAL REP R E SE N TA TIO N

This stipulation protects the uni­ versity from allegations that are diffi­ cult to investigate. However, because victims of harassment may experience negative emotions upon recalling their experience, they may be reluctant to come forward within the required time frame. W hite acknowedges that this is problematic, but encourages victims to come forward in some way as early as possible.

“It’s fully understood that it’s very upsetting and people don’t want to do it right away,” she says. “But the longer you leave it, the harder it is for some third party to assess what hap­ pened.”

W hite believes that the formality of the complaint process may be deter­ ring, but that informal options are also available.

“My suggestion would be that if somebody feels concerned and doesn’t feel up to making an official request to an assessor, if they could at least talk to somebody else earlier than a year,” she says.

Between her troubles in contact­ ing her assessor, and what she saw as the opaque nature of the investigation, Marsh thinks that regardless of the re­ sults, the complaint process was deter­ ring enough for her to avoid seeking further help. . “It takes an enormous amount of momentum to do this,” Marsh says.

“It’s very draining ... I thought this was as much as I could give.”

Adler says that any type of barri­ ers to seeking help may have negative psychological consequences.

“If an assault victim is repeatedly met with barriers in his or her efforts to access help for their psychological needs, they may ultimately give up trying to access help,” Adler said in an email. “This can be tragic, as their on­ going suffering is unnecessary given that progress is often made when the individual obtains help from qualified professionals.”

Adler says that another reason victims may hesitate to reach out for help is often due, paradoxically, to the human nature of trying to find expla­ nations to the incident.

“Well-meaning people might say, ‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t have been there or done this,’ trying to determine what can be done to avoid another as­ sault. Unfortunately this has a bad ef­ fect on the person w ho’s being told the advice,” he says. “People might avoid coming forward because they don’t want to be subjected to that naïve or ignorant type of intervention.”

Addler added that many victims simply don’t want to relive the expe­ rience by talking about it or dealing with it. When Marsh learned of other women who had similar experiences, she reached out to them. Their reac­ tion, however, indicated that they were hesitant to discuss their own situa­ tions.

“At first I was alarmed that none of the other women were willing to talk to me, but upon reflection, I do sort of understand why one would run,” she says. “There’s an overwhelming de­ sire to run and just make it stop.”

“Many times they would rather

just try to forget,” Adler says, “but it’s not that easy to forget such things.” espite her frustrations with how her complaint was handled, Marsh says she’s moved on.

While the option was available, she chose not to sue the university. After finishing counselling, she’s looking forward to her post-graduation life.

“Learning to love my life again — and learning to love my life anew — made it just more valuable to let go and accept and forgive. Forgiveness became more valuable than justice, and I value justice highly,” Marsh said. “My life had to become just that good in order for me to forego how important I think justice is.”

At the same time, she worries that future students may face similar prob­ lems to the ones she did. Marsh is con­ cerned that no one knows how compli­ cated the process is until they actually need it. White stresses that “ [The uni­ versity] is here to help in these kinds of situations” and she doesn’t want the complaint process to be intimidating.

For both White and Marsh, student feedback will make the difference.

“Unless there’s some noise about it, it’s going to stay the same,” Marsh says. “So if people who aren’t em o­ tionally drained by this already w on’t say they want it to change, then it w on’t change.”

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Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com 1

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O D D S A N D ENDS

Study drugs don't replace old-fashioned hard work One student’s disappointing experience with Adderall

By Krista Seville Contributor

When it comes to drugs, wheth­ er medical or recreational, experi­ mentation doesn’t appeal to me. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve smoked pot, and I don’t even take Tylenol unless I’m in so much pain I can’t function. Last year, however, I experimented with the drug that appeals to so many Type A university students: Adderall.

For many reasons, but mostly due to simple procrastination and poor time management, I found my­ self staring down the prospect of five essays in two weeks, and with that, numerous all-nighters in Cybertheque. Having avoided a sleepless study night for my first two years of university, I was a total amateur when it came to this university rite of passage. By the time I got to essay number three, with less than 24 hours to research and write 12 pages, I decided there was no way I could handle it without some as­ sistance.

In typical McGill student fash­ ion, first I did my research. I wanted to make sure that any “study drug” I took wouldn’t land me in the hos­ pital, or make me so erratic and twitchy I wouldn’t be able to write a word. After 15 minutes of Goo­ gling, the consensus seemed to be that Adderall was the most effective stimulant. I asked my friends who I thought were most likely to have connections to this sort of thing, but no one seemed to have any idea where to get some. Then, one of my most unsuspecting friends pulled me into the foyer of McLennan and handed me a bottle full of tiny blue pills. “Don’t hurt yourself,” he said.

From what I’d read on the In­ ternet, it was crucial that you be doing the work you intend to com­ plete as soon as the drug kicks in, since that’s inevitably what you would be intensely focused on for the next eight hours; so if you’re on Facebook when the Adderall takes effect, expect to meticulously comb through the profile pictures of every one of your friends. I set up my com­

puter and books in one of the lovely Redpath carrels, took a drink from my water bottle and popped two of the supposedly magic pills in my mouth.

From that point, every time I had an essay to complete and a long night ahead of me, I thought the so­ lution would be to reach for my pre­ cious supply of Adderall. I told very few people what I was doing, and in the back of my mind it always felt like in some way, I was cheating.

Ultimately, however, the study drug proved to be a disappointment.

I was able to stay awake through the night, but that was likely due to copious amounts of coffee and Diet Coke. The intense concentration that online commentators described never happened for me. I still found myself wandering onto Facebook, searching the Internet for Christmas music to listen to, and staring out the window at the people arriving to work at 6:00 a.m. The only benefit the drug provided me was a com­ plete loss of appetite, which meant I didn’t have to leave my carrel on

(Alice W alker/M cG ill Tribune)

a desperate search for a granola bar at 4:00 a.m.

Admittedly, I have no control group since I never pulled an allnighter without the Adderall. Maybe I would have been more tired and less focused. Regardless, the prom­ ises of limitless energy and complete focus may be myths. With ignore, exam, and standardized test season

upon us, these drugs may seem all the more appealing. However, the advantage these pills will give you is nowhere near worth the $100 you’ll spend on them. Block Facebook on your computer and buy a $2 coffee instead.

BITS A N D PIECES O F M C G IL L

W O R D W OES

The wise old owl

“Hipsters” aren’t hipsters

McGill prof leaves his mark on campus

When trendy changes to smug, hipsters suffer

By Alison Bailey Features Editor

Above the entrance to the Mac­ donald Engineering building is an owl, situated at least 30 feet above eye level—where owls belong. One of architect Percy Nobbs’ many sig­ nets, the owl symbolizes wisdom.

Nobbs was an architecture pro­ fessor on campus in the early 1900s, but he is most famous for design­ ing and remodelling several McGill buildings. Some of his most notable

contributions to campus include the Osier Library, the northernmost part of the Redpath Library, and the Pathological Institute. Old stone facades characterize his buildings.

Additionally, Nobbs always paid particular attention to the orienta­ tion of his buildings as well as to the placement of the windows.

It seems Nobbs had a finger in every pot. His hobbies included fish­ ing and fencing, and he even repre­ sented Canada in the 1908 Olympics as a fencer.

By Kyle Carpenter Copy Editor

Nowadays, it seems that when a subculture springs up it’s given a name before a proper definition. Re­ member the word “emo?” All of a sudden there was an umbrella term for a group made up of wildly dif­ ferent characteristics: Dashboard Confessional fans lumped in with The Cure fans, people who wear scarves indoors on top of their Pen­ guin polos coupled with guys wear­ ing black nail polish and mascara.

But emo took an ugly turn and became a derogative term, meaning a person whose state of mind involves any combination of being sensitive,sad, whiny, and self-centred. And that’s only my interpretation—ev­ eryone’s is different.

Thankfully, emo has fallen out of common use. But the past cou­ ple years have seen the explosive popularity of an equally problem­ atic term: hipster. What originally was synonymous with “trendy” has largely become a derisive term for a smug and inauthentic person who’s into liking things because they’re current, ironic, and are, or appear, inexpensive (drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon is about half the battle).

But for the most part, what people find off-putting about this imagined hipster persona is the same thing that people scorn in any style or subculture: an all-for show mental­ ity. Droves of guys wearing deep vnecks with sparkly patterns on them and $300 jeans, and people who own a rainbow of Chuck Taylors and paid money for anything with an anarchy

symbol on it all send the same mes­ sage, and nobody likes a poser.

But what about the real hip­ sters? You know, the ones who have been wearing the same wool Christ­ mas sweater since junior high (when their grandma knitted it for them) and started listening to Broken So­ cial Scene back when “Lady Mar­ malade” was your favourite song?

The term hipster leaves out real hip­ sters, because in order to be a called a hipster you have to not really be a hipster, capish? The term complete­ ly misses the mark, and it’s time to put it to rest in the annoying phrase graveyard next to “uber” and “raise the roof!”

WebCT quotation o f the week

The owl is said to be a distant cousin o f Hedwig. (Holly Stewart/McGill Tribune)

13

TXiesday, November 23, 2010

FOOD

G IZ M O S A N D GADG ETS

Back to blog basics

Suprising space savers

Don’t settle for mediocre food blogs

How to clean up your work station without a trip to Ikea

By Shannon Kimball________

___

Features Editor

Cooking is a science, and a fun and delicious one at that. And like any science, experimentation is key.

Julia Child meticulously tested her recipes, which is why they’re still the heart and soul of so many kitch­ ens. Unfortunately, Child is partly to blame for the plethora of food blogs on the Internet. Julia and Julia gave hope to food bloggers everywhere that they too might make a mess of their kitchen (and their marriage) and turn it into a feature film. These blogs present a challenge for compe­ tent cooks, who may follow a blog’s recipe to the teaspoon, but end up with polenta that’s as hard as con­ crete.

Good food bloggers find a recipe, decide to change something and then see if it works. If not, they repeat the process until it does, and then the post their results. Just like a lab report, they outline their cooking methods in detail so that other cpoks can predict potential problems.

Bad food bloggers find a reci­ pe, incorrectly or incompletely copy it onto their blog, and make changes that aren’t scientific or practical.

Worst of all, when their soufflé col­ lapses mid-making, they post a sto­ len photo of a perfect soufflé and write that while their effort didn’t turn out perfectly, it was delicious.

Like most university students, I don’t have the money to purchase Jacques Pepin’s cookbook series, but I would like to know how make a French omelet or perfect dinner rolls. Scouring the web for a recipe usually results in hits from several dozen food blogs, but here are some of the ones you should trust: Smitten Kitchen: With hun­ dreds of tried-and-true recipes from Deb Perelman’s five years of blog­ ging and cooking available on the website, you’re sure to find what you need fast. Perelman is honest about her mistakes, and always tries to find ways to improve her work.

Her wry sense of humor and tiny New York City kitchen are easy to relate to for just about any cook.

Living the Sweet Life in Paris: David Lebovitz, former pastry chef of Chez Panisse, shares his expertise in pastries and savory cooking on his website. Having trained in Paris and worked in the U.S., Lebovitz can help you bring the best of the culinary world to your student apartment kitchen.

Real Baking with Rose: Rose Levy-Beranbaum, the legend be­ hind The Cake Bible, has all of her recipes available on her website, and blogs about her latest experimenta­ tions. An expert on all things baking, she prizes scales over volume mea­ surement, and it pays off. Best of all, she answers readers’ questions daily.

For perfect cookie, cake, pastry, and bread recipes, go to realbakingwithrose.com The Best Dishes: Former Tri­ bune writer Francesca Ferenzi can sympathize with university students who have small kitchens and bud­ gets, but big culinary dreams. After studying abroad in Italy, Ferenczi knows what good food is, and how to make it on a dime. Ferenzi finds amazing restaurant food and then recreates it herself. Follow her food adventures at frenchietbd.com.

The Front Burner: For all you vegetarians out there, Emily Ma­ lone’s blog offers healthy, simple, and delicious recipes. Since Malone is a recent graduate of a prestigious American culinary school, you can be certain the recipes you find here won’t be disappointing. Malone also includes an occasional gratuitous photo of her two adorable dogs.

Ceci n’est pas un food blog: Al­ though not limited to the traditional recipe only format of other food blogs, as the title so clearly insists, former Tribune editor Vincci Tsui provides the occasional recipe along with the blog’s other food and nutri­ tion related posts. A Registered Di­ etician currently living in Calgary, Tsui often includes information on the nutritional content of the recipes she posts, but doesn’t limit herself to salads and granola. Her recipe for Margarita Cupcakes is especially amazing.

The Tribune is searching for a Features and Student Living editor. Send a letter of intent, CV, and three writing samples to editor@mcgilltribune.com

By lain Macdonald________________ Production Manager

During exams, your apartment is probably going to end up looking like the site of a pipe bomb explo­ sion. It also means you won’t have the time or money to make another trip to Ikea for assorted Scandina­ vian organizing junk. Instead, some ordinary household objects can be used to tidy up and manage the ever growing mess that is your desk while making your cheap lifestyle a little easier.

Book

The biggest complaint about eBook readers is that “I don’t get the same feeling I do when I read a book.” Problem solved: glue the pages of an old book together, carve out a nook using a kitchen knife, and conceal the eBook reader inside. If you choose War and Peace, the new, stylish case for your reader both protects it from damage and makes you look a lot smarter while reading Twilight. Who knows, it might even rekindle your interest in reading.

Wire Binder clips <®^cord holder Binder clips are great for just about anything, including keeping those pesky power cords tied up. The more appliances you have, the more tangled the mess around the surge protector becomes. By fastening a binder clip to the edge of a table and running the head of the cord through the clip’s handle, the cord becomes retractable and stays put. String eight or ten of these together for a nice, tidy power station.

eBook case

cable fastener

I’ve got more electronics in my apartment than a Best Buy. This creates a spaghetti style traffic jam when I try to manage which cables belong where. Using old bits of elec­ trical wire to manage the scrambled mess makes this task a lot easier. By rolling up a cord and winding some wire around both ends, you can pre­ vent it from getting tangled up when it’s stored, or you can shorten the cord so that the excess doesn’t get in the way. You can also do this to

University of Ottawa

bind several cables together when running them from A to B.

Old beer cans

pencil cups

Don’t toss those old PBR beer cans just yet—you can reuse them to hold pens, pencils, and anything else you like. By carving off the top of the can, lining it with electrical tape to protect from sharp edges, and weighing the whole assembly down with a counter-weight rock, you can create a quick and cheap pencil cup for your desk.

Old CDs

coaster

If you’re too cheap to buy coast­ ers, you can steal them from bars, or you can just use old CDs. By putting a bit of tape across the centre hole, the CD should catch all of the con­ densation that forms on the drink, preventing it from damaging your nice Ikea table. The best candidates for the job are old Windows install CDs and Justin Bieber albums.

Graduate Studies

Discover the w ide va rie ty of programs offered at the Faculty o f Arts • Medieval and Renaissance Studies • Music • Orchestral Studies • Organizational Communication • Philosophy • Piano Pedagogy Research • Religious Studies • Spanish • Theatre • Translation Studies • Visual Arts

• Canadian Studies • Classical Studies • Communication • Conference Interpreting • English • Geography • Government Communication • History • Information Studies • L ettre s fra n ç a is e s • Linguistics

To learn more about our graduate programs visit

» uOttawa

www.arts.uOttawa.ca

F a c u lt é d e s a rts F a c u lty o f A rts

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A&E FILM

Destroying Voldemort means leaving innocence behind Warner Bros, releases the penultimate Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part I)

By Brahna Siegelberg A&E Editor

It’s been six years since Harry Potter, living in the broom closet of his uncle and aunt’s house, first re­ ceived the news not only that he is a wizard, but that Voldemort—the most powerful dark wizard in the world, and the one responsible for the untimely death of his parents—is looking to kill him, too. Having been given the tools to vanquish the “Dark Lord” over these years, Harry, along with friends Ron and Hermione, is now ready to triumph the forces of love over evil, once and for all.

In Harry Potter and the Death­ ly Hallows (Part I), the penultimate film in the series based on J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally successful books, there is no more quidditch, no more awkward teenage kisses, no more petty fights in the hallways of Hogwarts, and no more Dumbledore. Harry has only one goal: find the Horcruxes—the objects into which Voldemort has split parts of his soul to evade mortality—and thereby rescue the wizarding world from the nefarious Death Eaters.

Although the action kicks off immediately—the film begins with several good guys taking potion to look like Harry and act as decoys for the lurking Death Eaters, resulting in both George Weasley’s ear, Mad-Eye Moody, and Harry’s beloved owl Hedwig getting hit with curses— Deathly Hallows is a psychological thriller, centred on the toll that dark­ ness can take on the optimistic mind

of youth. The Potter films never fail to capture Rowling’s distinctive brand of British wit, but this time the quips and banter are kept to a mini­ mum in favour of darker themes.

Ties of kinship have been cut off, reminding us that there is noth­ ing and no one standing in between Harry and his mission. Harry’s par­ ents, Dumbledore, and his godfather Sirius Black are all dead, and even Hermione, in a tragic, altruistic act, casts a spell on her parents to make them forget she ever existed. To em­ phasize its intended gravitas, this film is not the usual parade of fa­ mous British actors, but focuses on the three main characters.

Deathly Hallows is somewhat reminiscent of Lord o f the Rings, with the three friends camping out in the woods—getting increasingly grimy as the journey wears on—and taking turns carrying the horcrux that they must find a way to destroy.

Wearing the horcrux one day, Ron explodes with fury, accusing Harry of stealing his not-so-secret love, Hermione, and eventually leaves the two altogether. There is a very poignant moment in which a grim­ faced and depressed Harry takes Hermione’s hand to dance amid the literal and metaphorical darkness. As music plays, the two have a laugh, although they immediately sober up when the song is over.

One thing that both the books and the films brilliantly accomplish is the fusion of realism with far-out fantasy. Rowling has produced no Middle Earth; rather, she has created

Concert Recap M for M ontreal

M for Montreal celebrates its fourth birthday this year with a broad display of some of the most talented musicians in the city. While the festival is no doubt an insider’s event—industry types flock to the city from all over the world to sniff out the local talent—it’s also a cel­ ebration of the city’s contribution to the music world.

The final party at Metropolis on Saturday was exactly that. The line­ up featured a strange collection of artists, most of which would likely not have the chance to play together under normal circumstances. But, that’s not to say that it didn’t work.

Priestess, a hard rock band that have been making waves since their 2006 debut, Hello Master, didn’t hold anything back. Sure, their long

hair and shredding harmonic gui­ tar solos clashed with the crowd of dominated by people with neatly tucked-in plaid dress shirts under v-neck sweaters, but that was kind of the point. Montreal’s music scene isn’t all indie pop rock; it spans into many genres, some heavier than oth­ ers.

Montreal indie rock institution the Dears also performed, as did Misteur Valaire, an up-and-coming electronic/hip-hop band. DJ Ghislain Poirier capped off the night, further added to the strange yet in­ triguing tapas that is a true showcase of Montreal music.

—Kyle Carpenter

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Crint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) gear up for the treacherous adventure before them, (msnbc.msn.com)

a space for magic within the world we know and understand. Not only does much of the story take place in contemporary London, but the in­ stitutions of the wizard world—the mindless bureaucracy, the second­ ary school system, the potential for malevolent forces like totalitarian­ ism, and the tendency of people to do what’s easy as opposed to what’s right—all echo our own world.

As Ron listens to the names of the dead on his radio, we are suddenly reminded of the survival mental­ ity into which people are thrown in

times of turmoil.

Another instance of the film’s maturity is exhibited through an ani­ mated sequence in which Hermione reads the tale that gives the film its namesake, the Deathly Hallows. As we hear her voice in the background, a story about three wizards who try to conquer death unfolds on the screen in an Eastern-style sequence.

The artistic nature of the sequence’s execution signals a move past the childishness of the earlier Potter films and into artistic maturity.

As Harry looks nostalgically at

his broom closet before leaving his childhood forever, I couldn’t help but feel like his brief nostalgia echoed my own—and probably that of all the other devoted fans who grew up reading and anticipating each new instalment of Harry Potter. Just as Harry and the gang have left behind the subtle comforts of childhood and somehow stumbled upon adulthood, so too must the children of the Pot­ ter generation watch the final films, and then leave the franchise to a new generation of children in search of a little magic.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

TH EATR E

Don’t check into this motel

By Natalia Evdokimova Contributor

In this motel, Philly is going to take care of you, and you might be in luck if it's a Wednesday. That's his sober day.

Suburban Motel, written by George F. Walker and performed by Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre (TNC), is a series of six one-act plays about the residence of a motel room in suburban Toronto. Diving into the issues that plague those at the bot­ tom of the social ladder, Walker cre­ ates an intimate space in which to explore the demons of our society's untouchables. Problem Child and Criminal Genius, the first two mini­ plays successfully fulfill Walker's aim to blur the line between right and wrong.

Problem Child centres on the relationship between RJ (Adam Finchler) and Denise (Rachael Ben­ jamin) after they lose their only child to Child Protection Services.

The social worker assigned to their case, Helen (Arlen Aguayo Stewart),

berates Denise for her irresponsible parenting, and praises RJ, eventually leaving Helen with nothing.

Stewart is superb as Helen throughout, playing a profession­ ally trained social worker more like an overbearing, controlling mother and adding humour to an otherwise serious plot. Despite Stewart's hys­ terical performance, Problem Child arouses confusion and unease as Denise's denial of her own agency in losing her child makes it hard to sympathize with her vendetta.

Using the same stage setup, Criminal Genius chronicles the story of four ill-fated crooks: Roily (Teis Jorgensen), Stevie (Marko Djurdjic), Shirley (Tara Richter Smith), and Amanda (Fiona Penny). At the start of the play, the father-son duo, Roily and Stevie, admit to not fol­ lowing their original plan to bum down a restaurant.

The costumes for Criminal Ge­ nius accentuate the play’s opposition between the family who abhors vio­ lence and the women who compare murder to ecstatic sex. Roily and

Stevie, dressed as 30s gangsters, and Shirley and Amanda, clothed in leather jackets and cowboy boots, butt heads as the ladies attempt to demonstrate the supremacy of their warmongering over pacifism.

To ensure a feeling of continuity, Philly (Cory Lipman) stars in both.

Opening the theater for the audience with a bottle in hand, Lipman deliv­ ers a riotous and heart-wrenching performance as the drunken, underappreciated, and over-abused motel keeper. Delivering a monologue ar­ ticulating the theme of Criminal Ge­ nius, Philly asserts, "Bad luck loves me like I'm its mother."

Director Johanu Botha holds true to Walker's values, demon­ strating how the motel room can be a familiar part of your world, yet completely detatched. Exceptionally staged, TNC's thought-provoking rendition of Suburban Motel deliv­ ers a complicated array of emotions.

Suburban Motel runs from Wednesday to Saturday at TNC (Morrice Hall 016). Tickets are $6.

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Fall Referendum Period Results The official results from the Fall 2010 Referendum:

e le c ti^ fis

Referendum Question Regarding SACOMSS 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 Centre o f McGill Student Society (Fall 2010 through Winter 2013)?

No: 618(19.4% ) Yes: 2534 (79.5%) Abstentions: 34(1.1% ) Total: 3186 Referendum Question Regarding SSMU Charity Committee and Fund Do you agree, To contribute $0.50 per semester (opt-outable) to a SSMU fund that will be distributed to disaster-stricken countries, and to the formation o f a SSMU Charity Committee that will oversee the fund and organize charity events at McGill (the specific structure o f the committee and details about the events it will organize can be found at www.votecharitvcommittee.tk)?

No: 746 (23.4%) Yes: 2415 (75.8%) Abstentions: 25 (0.8%) Total: 3186 Plebiscite Question Regarding Addition o f an Interfacultv Arts and Science Representative on the SSMU Legislative Council Do you agree, That SSMU should consider amending its constitution to allow a representative specific to the interfaculty o f arts and sciences to sit on Legislative Council?

No: 580(18.2% ) Yes: 2508 (78.7%) Abstentions: 98(3.1% ) Total: 3186

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

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Elections McGill at elections@ssmu.mcgill.ca

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Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

TH EATR E

Measure for Measure falls a few inches short Department of English performs Shakespearian comedy with a twist

By Theo Meyer Managing Editor

Measure for Measure, Shake­ speare’s tale of a Viennese man sen­ tenced to death for a trivial offence, is one of the bard’s more modest ef­ forts, an often-funny drama without the depth of Hamlet or the popular appeal of Twelfth Night. Likewise, the Department of English’s cur­ rent production is a similarly modest effort—a good production of a good play, but not a spectacular one.

Measure for Measure’s central plot is fairly simple. In the opening scene, the Duke of Vienna (Spencer Malthouse) announces his departure from the city on a diplomatic mis­ sion and temporarily transfers con­ trol to Angelo (Mike Ruderman), one of his deputies. The Duke, how­ ever, remains in Vienna disguised as a friar to spy on Angelo and his run­ ning of the city.

Shortly after the Duke’s depar­ ture, Angelo arrests a young couple, Claudio (Charles Dauphinais) and Julietta (Emma Fiske-Dobell), for fornication. Though betrothed to each other, the two are not legally married and thus technically in vio­ lation of the law. While Shakespeare implies that the Duke would have let the offence slide, Angelo orders Claudio put to death. It falls to Clau­ dio’s sister Isabella (Kate Sketchley), a prospective nun, to plead Angelo for her brother’s life while resisting his sexual advances.

The show’s actors and actresses are, for the most part, energetic and convincing in their roles. Measure for Measure is full of lyrical one-

liners (“In time the rod becomes more mocked than feared,” the Duke quips of the city’s previously lax law enforcement), and the cast delivers these with confidence. Sketchley, in particular, carries the show, lend­ ing Isabella an earnest intensity without making her making overly moralistic. The scenes in which she confronts Angelo are some of the play’s best. Thea Fitz-James takes on a challenging bit of gender-blind casting as the womanizing Lucio, to great effect, and Ben Hanff shines as Pompey, a flamboyant pimp whose livelihood is threatened by Angelo’s crackdown on Vienna’s sexuality.

The play runs into several prob­ lems, however, most of which seem to stem from its direction. Blessed with energetic actors, the director, Patrick Neilson, frequently fails to rein them in. Many lines come too quickly to be understood, especial­ ly in the beginning, and the actors’ enunciation is not as crisp as Shake­ speare’s complex dialogue demands.

In addition, many of the play’s char­ acters feel somewhat two-dimension­ al. Malthouse’s Duke, for instance, delivers his lines with enthusiasm, but his character only works on one level; when a scene demands quieter intensity, he rarely takes it down a notch. Ruderman’s Angelo plays off Isabella to great effect in his scenes with her, but he’s less convincing delivering his soliloquies.

Neilson’s most peculiar deci­ sion, however, was electing to set the play in contemporary Vienna, four hundred years after Shake­ speare’s time, and adding a vaguely Islamic flavour. Modem retellings

of Shakespearean dramas can work extraordinarily well, but the play’s chosen usually deal with timeless themes: Romeo and Juliet’s feuding families, Hamlet’s youthful, existen­ tial angst. Measure fo r Measure, in contrast, deals with themes that are more medieval then modem. It is difficult to imagine Isabella’s deci­ sion to preserve her own virginity over her brother’s life, reasoning that doing so would condemn her and her brother to hell, taking place the same way in modem Europe. Setting the play today also presents techno­ logical problems. The Duke uses an iPad in one scene, for instance, but he is never reachable by cell phone once he’s left the city. Despite its virtues, Neilson’s production might have been stronger if he’d simply let Shakespeare remain Shakespeare.

Measure for Measure plays Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Moyse Hall. Tickets are $5 students!seniors, $10 general admission. Ticket Hotline: 514-398-6070.

M U S IC

Golden Isles shine in a sea o f their own McGill band thrives on musical synergy and intuitive collaboration

By Arielle Frank Contributor

Commonality drives creation.

This seems to be the compelling notion behind the evolution and proliferation of the six-member Montreal band Golden Isles. After enduring two reincarnations and the added complexity of maintain­ ing the schedule of full-time McGill students for over two years, the band has generated an increasingly deep level of understanding that propels their creative process.

What began as Data Beta, a solo project, by Golden Isles’ cur­ rent keyboardist, Richard Wenger, soon developed into a six-member band known as Crystal Moustache, but changed to Golden Isles earlier

this year. Golden Isles singer and guitarist Adam Feingold describes the early days of the band.

“I sang, and then it just worked well,” he says. “So we just kept playing more shows, jamming more and more, writing more songs, just developing a style together because we all came from really different musical backgrounds.”

It was this difference in musical tastes and respective limited musical palettes that slowed the initial song­ writing process as Crystal Mous­ tache. Band members had different reference points, Feingold said, with some approaching the band’s music like hip-hop or trying to throw in other musical elements. Therein lay the importance of what Feingold calls “collective intuition.”

“If one guy doesn’t really un­ derstand where you’re coming from with a particular song or a particular way of approaching it or like a par­ ticular feel to the song then they’re not going to sort of intuitively react to it,” he says.

While the band began playing fast-paced rock songs, the group members’ expanding musical reper­ toires and all their time spent play­ ing together created an implicit and unspoken understanding.

“As we started writing songs together, we opened ourselves up to a whole new spectrum of sound,” Feingold says.

With this understanding, ex­ perimentation followed, enabling Golden Isles to incorporate various genres and stylistic elements (syn­

thesizers and drum machines being the two most heavily used).

“At this point in time, every­ thing is at one’s disposal,” Feingold says. “The amount of music that you have access to and technology, it’s just like limitless, literally limitless.

So there’s so much to do, there’s so many more colours to paint with now.”

Although Golden Isles cat­ egorize themselves as psychedelic rock, they are a departure from the traditional Montreal rock scene by infusing soul and R&B into their sound. Feingold cites Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus as two important influences.

Golden Isles recently signed with Aquarius Records to release their EP, Foreword, are gearing up

for a Western Canadian tour, and plan to release two albums next year.

“We have an understanding of where we want to go,” says Fein­ gold.

This understanding has guided Golden Isles to success that will only solidify and expand over time.

Golden Isles will be playing at Casa del Popolo on November 30 with Bear in Hands and Hesta Prynn. Tickets are $10.

S ports C A N A D IA N F E N C IN G

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McGill well represented at fencing world championships Students struggle to juggle course load with the demands of training and travel

By Sam H u n ter Sports Editor

The Canadian national fencing team, already accustomed to glam­ our from competitions in Saskatoo i, Kingston, and Repentigny, trav­ elled to Paris for the World Fencirg Championships earlier this Novem­ ber. The venue was the Grand Pal­ ais, which is more commonly used to host Chanel fashion shows than athletic contests.

These championships, held an­ nually in non-Olympic years, are the climax of the fencing season. At the end of a long career, a great fencer’s success can be defined by two sim­ ple measures: Olympic and Wor d Championship medals.

For those who aren’t familiar with the sport, there are three dif­ ferent types of fencing: sabre, foil and épée. Sabres are modeled on the cavalry swords that share the same name and can be used to slash'the opponent from the waist up. Épées and foils are both based on the ra­ pier and only their tips can be used to score points.

In all three weapons catego­ ries, the top 16 fencers in the world rankings skip the first day of the two-day competition and are seeded directly into a draw of 64. Lowerranked athletes fence a round robin against five or six other compel itors. Scores are compiled and the ! 6 fencers with the best win-loss and

Left: Joseph Polossifakis and Vincent Couturier square off. Right: McGill students and alumnus stand alongside their coach. (Vincent Couturier)

points for-points against records are seeded 17 through 32. Fencers who make it through a preliminary direct elimination stage take the remaining places in the draw.

Three current McGill students and two alumni were among the ath­ letes chosen to represent Canada at the competition this year.

Anthony Prymack, a Nursing student, competed in the foil event and compiled a perfect 6-0 record in the preliminary round, earning him­ self a bye in the tournament. Then, Prymack (seeded 31) drew the 34 seed Victor Sintes of France.

“There were probably 10,000 French fans there,” said Prymack, “That’s about a hundred times more [than] any crowd I’d seen before.”

Sintes was able to take a tied 10-10 score going into the third (final) period and turn it into a 15-11

win.

“I think he got the first hit and the crowd went crazy,” said Pry­ mack, “They would play bits of ‘We Will Rock You’ like the stomping, ‘boom boom che’ part, and it’s al­ most cheating because you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m concentrated and fo­ cused’ and then you hear ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ and you’re like, ‘OK that kind of threw me off.”

In the sabre event, alumnus Ni­ colas Mayer went 4-1 in pool play while Vincent Couturier went 4-2.

Joseph Polossifakis went a perfect 6-0 and had the number one record out of the pools, seeding him 17.

Unfortunately, Couturier and Polossifakis, friends ever since they started fencing together in second­ ary school, drew each other in the round of 64.

The two are much closer than

your average teammates since they’ve been travelling and com­ peting together from an extremely young age.

“That’s how real bonds are formed—from living in a hotel room for three months of the year together and sharing the same bed ... you have no choice but to get close to someone,” said Polossifakis, But the prospect of fencing his close friend wasn’t a welcome thought.

“It was kind of a buzzkill,” he said. “You’re doing well and you’re ready to take someone down from another country ... and you don’t want to go against a teammate. It sucks but it’s part of the game.”

Couturier went on to win before falling to reigning European cham­ pion Alexei Yakimenko of Russia in the round of 32.

In men’s épée, McGill alum­ nus and three-time reigning national champion Tigran Bajgoric had an underwhelming individual compe­ tition and didn’t make the top 64.

Still, in the team competition Ba­ jgoric anchored his group to a ninth place finish, the best for a Canadian men’s épée team in 15 years.

All five McGill and ex-McGill athletes have their sights set on the 2012 London Olympics. The quali­ fication period starts in April, and many athletes end up taking time off school in Olympic years.

“I ’m waiting for my coach to send out the competition schedule so I can figure out what classes to take next semester,” said Couturier. “Of course, [during the Olympic period] it’s going to be even busier with more tournaments and more training but I still plan to stay in school.”

TD IR I) MAN IN Haile runs the show

Early this month, debut mara­ thoner Gebre Gebremariam won the 2010ING New York City Marathon, but another “Geb” stole the media spotlight. Noticeably absent from the top finishers was the clear fa­ vourite, Ethiopian superstar Haile Gebrselassie.

The 37-year-old Gebrselassie dropped out of the race coming down the Queensboro Bridge at mile 16.

Many fans could have predicted 1 is withdrawal—he complained of knee soreness prior to the race—but they could not have imagined what hap­ pened next. In an emotional press conference following the race, Ge­ brselassie announced his retirement.

“I don't want to complain any more after this, which means it’s bet­ ter to stop here,” Gebrselassie said.

The press conference ended shortly thereafter, leaving his fans and fel­ low runners heartbroken.

But last Monday, Gebrselassie announced that he would continue racing, planning to run the Tokyo Marathon in February.

Most male distance runners reach their peaks around age 30, but the Gebrselassie has recently shown that he’s still on top of his game. Ge­ brselassie won the Great North Run, a highly competitive half marathon earlier this year, eclipsing the field by two minutes. Last year he won the Berlin Marathon, one of the most competitive marathons in the world, destroying his own world record in 2:03:59.

His return is commendable and we look forward to seeing him dominate the professional marathon scene for at least another two years, while continuing to be a leader in his home country of Ethiopia.

Gebrselassie is the kind of na­ tional hero Ethiopia needs, and the kind America could use. While many American sports stars have recently been caught committing adultery or worse, this Ethiopian is quite the op­

posite. When he’s not running, this entrepreneur spends most of his en­ ergy trying to help his countrymen, employing 1,000 Ethiopians in his 10 businesses.

Gebrselassie has also said that he feels it’s his duty to stay in Addis Ababa. While he could live comfort­ ably anywhere else in the world, he says he must stay in Ethiopia to set an example for his countrymen. He has even stated an interest in poli­ tics, and with Ethiopia’s level of cor­ ruption, the country could certainly benefit from this honest athlete.

As a runner, it’s hard to debate Gebrselassie’s dominance, though many critics have tried. Some have pointed toward his tendency to run low-profile marathons on flat cours­ es, like Amsterdam and Dubai, and his use of rabbits—or pacers who drop out midway through the race— to run fast times. These doubters claim that Gebrselassie isn’t a racerunner, but uses these techniques to break world records. Many critics claim that he doesn’t have strong

race tactics, and can only run against the clock. They claim that he avoided higher profile marathons like Bos­ ton, London, or the 2008 Olympics because he was afraid he couldn’t run against the best.

The most glaring hole in the argument lies in Gebrselassie’s 12year professional track career, dur­ ing which he won hundreds of inter­ national calibre races, including two Olympic and eight world champion­ ship gold medals. In the 2000 Olym­ pic 10,000m final, he beat Paul Tergat in a dead sprint over the last 300 metres. Those who say Gebrselassie doesn’t have race tactics clearly haven’t seen that footage.

With only a few years of racing left, Gebrselassie needs to pick his races carefully. Only one victory is missing from his illustrious career: Olympic marathon gold. He’s smart to avoid burnout in this pursuit.

Gebrselassie’s decision to re­ turn to the professional running scene is admirable. It would have been easy for him to be satisfied

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with his athletic career and move on to other things. While he might be past his fitness peak, the Ethiopian is training harder than ever and we don’t doubt that he will continue to advance the sport of competitive running right up until the end.

Many professional athletes— Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, and Frank Thomas, for example—drag their careers out until they can’t play anymore. In the process, they receive more media attention than when they were at their most domi­ nant. Gebrselassie is different—he’s been setting records since he broke onto the international scene 20 years ago and will continue to do so. Ge­ brselassie’s announcement to return sparked joy in the hearts of all run­ ning fans, because they know he’ll keep winning. While the London 2012 marathon may be his final race, we look forward to it being great.

- Shannon Kimball & Iain Macdonald

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Curiosity Delivers, www.mcgilltribune.com

Around the Throwback fan experience at the “BigO” This past weekend the Montre­ al Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts squared o ff in the CFL Eastern Di­ vision Finals. Montreal trounced Toronto 48-17 in front o f their home crowd at Olympic Stadium. Sports contributor Adam Sadinsky went to the game, sat in the cheapest o f cheap seats, exchanged trash talk with passionate Alouettes fans and wrote about the game from a fa n ’s perspective.

On Sunday, Montreal’s most successful professional sports fran­ chise of the new millennium took on its Toronto rivals in a one game, winner-take-all division final with a trip to Canada’s oldest sports cham­ pionship on the line. I joined the crowd and took the metro to Pie IX (pronounced pee-neuf, for those to whom French is still a foreign lan­ guage) and the Olympic Stadium for the CFL’s Eastern Division Final between the Montreal Alouettes and the Toronto Argonauts.

First built for the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, the “Big O” is a throwback to the days when exposed concrete was the coolest feature of new buildings, sort of like our be­ loved Leacock and McLennan. Con­ crete is everywhere in the stadium, leaving everything with a dark, sombre grey tone that really damp­ ens the atmosphere when compared to newer stadiums. Some friends of mine were upset that they didn’t re­ ceive data service on their Blackber­ ries inside the stadium; clearly even the Internet isn’t strong enough to pierce through Olympic Stadium’s

concrete.

The throwback continued with the pre-game and halftime shows, which featured Jonas and the Mas­ sive Attraction. This wasn’t a run­ away Jonas Brother, but rather a classic rocker with a raw electric guitar sound, long hair, and a small fireworks show to boot. The pixel-y scoreboard, smaller than an adver­ tisement by the government of Que­ bec, did its part to make everything look like footage being shown on ESPN Classic. One fan noted that he felt like he’d been teleported to a different era.

The game could have been much more of a spectacle than it was. Unfortunately for the objective observer, Montreal ran away with the game right from the start, build­ ing a 17-0 lead before anyone could get comfortable in the stadium’s in­ terestingly shaped yellow and blue seats. People were clearly smaller 30 yéars ago, as a number of fans seemed uneasy with the chairs’ tight fit. Once the game was fully out of reach, many fans seemed more inter­ ested in folding their game programs into paper airplanes and throwing them into the endzone than see­ ing their team score. Montreal won 48-17, securing their third straight division championship.

While the stadium and the game left much to be desired (as do the concession stands, which by halftime listed beer as their only vegetarian option), the atmosphere among the fans way up in section 406 was quite the experience. Que­ bec may be a hockey hotbed, but is still loves its football. Fifty-eight thousand fans screamed at the top of their lungs, banged on their seats, and blew dreaded vuvuzelas while the Argos were on offence, but you could hear a pin drop when QB Anthony Calvillo and the Als were

at work. When Calvillo hit Kemal Richardson with a 46-yard pass for the first of many big plays for Mon­ treal, the silent crowd burst into cheers of approval before settling back down to let the future hall o famer do his work.

The crowd, it turned out, flocked to the game from all over the province. The Alouettes may play in Montreal, but they are the prov­ ince’s team, and fans from Granby to the Gaspé arrived in numbers to bid their boys “bonne chance” be­ fore their seemingly annual trip to the Grey Cup, this year to be held at Edmonton's Commonwealth Sta­ dium. For an out-of-province stu­ dent who spends most of his time in the McGill Ghetto, the chance to sit among Quebec’s football en­ thusiasts was a rare opportunity to practice my French. The peppering of Argos fans, some of whom stayed until the last bitter moments of the rout, made for a carnival atmosphere in the upper reaches of the large sta­ dium.

For the modem sports fan who judges a great stadium experience by the availability of sushi, wireless Internet and today’s pop music, the price of the metro trip, not to men­ tion your ticket, is not worth the ef­ fort. But if you consider yourself a die hard sports fan and feel at home with a hot dog, a beer, and the loud­ est fans I’ve ever witnessed, then an Als game at the Olympic Stadium may be your cup of tea. This is an experience no true sports fanatic should miss out on.

If you have yet to experience the spectacle that is Canadian foot­ ball, then tune into the 98th edition of the Grey Cup between the Mon­ treal Alouettes and the Saskatch­ ewan Roughriders on Sunday at 6 p.m. on TSN. - Adam Sadinsky

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For those o f you who d o n ’t keep TSN as your home page or Sports Illustrated as your bedtime reading, we know sports can be hard to understand. This section is fo r you.

The most unexciting 20,000 points you’ll ever see TIM DUNCAN; On Friday night, Tim Duncan scored the 20,791st point of his career making him the Spurs all-time leading scorer. Let’s take this opportunity to appreciate the incredible career of this aging superstar. As a two-time MVP, 12-time all-star, three-time NBA Finals MVP and four-time NBA champion, The Big Fundamental is arguably the best power forward to ever play the game. The Spurs are now 11-1 and he’s looking to end his career with another champion­ ship. He’s had an amazing r u n make sure you appreciate it before he retires.

Martinez makes Williams wilt BOXING: The knockout of the de­ cade happened on Saturday night.

Sergio Martinez hit Paul Williams with such a powerful and quick left hook that it was hard to see in real time. Williams was unconscious long before he hit the ground. You­ Tube the annihilation if you can stomach it..

Canadians invading Am erica’s game BASEBALL; Canadian Joey Votto easily won the National League’s MVP. Canadians are quietly rack­ ing up the hardware in America’s national game. With Votto, Justin Momeau, and Eric Gagne all win­

ning major awards within the last decade, Canada is starting to be known for more than just hockey players.

Raptors on road to extinction NBA: The Toronto Raptors pulled off the first significant trade of the season. They dealt Jarret Jack, David Andersen and Marcus Banks to the New Orleans Hornets for Peja Stojakovic and Jerryd Bay­ less. More importantly, the Raptors beat the Celtics 102-101 on Sun­ day. Cherish it Toronto fans, that’s going to be the best and most unex­ pected victory of the season. It’s all downhill from here.

Favre goes for all-time indecision record BRETT FAVRE: Brett Favre has retired and un-retired three times in his career. This is a retirement story that has no end. Now there are ru­ mors that he will retire during the middle of the season. If he retires what’s the over/under on games missed before he un-retires again?

Two?

Quote of the Week: “That’s why I love this game. You get to go smash somebody in the mouth, kick the shit out of them and you don’t get in trouble for it.”

- Montreal Alouettes defen­ sive end Anwar Stewart on defeat­ ing the Toronto Argonauts in the playoffs.

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The U.S. Commercial Service at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal will host an information session on December 1, 2010 to introduce the University of Southern California (USC) and its Master of Science programs in Engineering.

Prospective graduate students currently enrolled in or with an earned Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, Math or a Hard 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.

Please register by Friday November 2 6 , 2 0 10 at www.themconcept.ca or call 5 1 4 2 7 4 - O I 5 1 ext IO O

CAREER

USC UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

INFORMATION SESSION: December 1 , 2010 , 5:00 p.m. to 7 :oo p.m.

DAYLIGHT FACTORY 1030 St-Alexandre St., Montréal, Qc H 2 Z 1 P3 Square Victoria Metro

19

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

H O C KE Y— M C G IL L 6, ST. M A R Y ’S o

Top ranked McGill continues dominance with shutout Martlets explode in the second period with four goals in eight minutes to put the game out of reach

By Mari Mesri Contributor

On Saturday, the Martlets looked like the nation’s number one ranked team they are in a dominat­ ing 6-0 non-conference win against the St. Mary’s Huskies. The Martlets made use of their incredible speed to cruise past their overwhelmed op­ ponents.

As the first period started, the Martlets wasted no time getting set up in the offensive zone. But de­ spite numerous opportunities, the period ended scoreless. Plays finally connected in the second period as the Martlets registered four goals in eight minutes. Jordanna Peroff set off the scoring streak, followed by forward Katia Clement-Heydra, who also registered two assists in the period. Less than a minute later, defender Caroline Hill furthered the scoring gap with another goal. Copeluding the barrage was defender Cathy Chartrand, who established a 4-0 lead at the end of the period.

“We played really well. Even though we didn’t score in the first

period, we definitely had our oppor­ tunities and we started putting it in in the second,” Peroff said. “Once that started going, it didn’t stop.”

The third period saw more ac­ tion as McGill continued to attack the net. After only a minute of play, forward Kim Ton-That put another marker on the board. The sixth and final goal for the Martlets came from forward Darragh Hamilton.

The 6-0 drubbing may have been humiliating for their oppo­ nents, but the Martlets aren’t going to lose any sleep over it.

“We’re taught not to stop even if we’re up by a few goals because you never know what’s going to happen,” Peroff said. “So we kept on pushing.”

Senior forward Anne-Sophie Bettez put on a commendable per­ formance as she registered three as­ sists and was named one of the three stars of the match. Joining Bettez on the list were Peroff and ClementHeyrda.

For the Huskies, goalie Jillian Maclsaac shone in the losing effort.

In. the face of McGill’s 58 shots on

McGill goalie Charline Labonté recorded the 56 th shutout o f her career. (Joe Juda / McGill Tribune)

net, she maintained a respectable save percentage by stopping 52.

Although the Huskies were forced to the defensive throughout the game, they were able to find some breaks, concluding the match with 16 shots on net. However,

their efforts were not enough to get past McGill’s Charline Labonté. The match marked the 56th shutout of Labonté’s career.

The Martlets travelled to Ot­ tawa the next day and notched an­ other victory, defeating the Ottawa

Gee-Gees in another shutout game, 3-0. The undefeated Martlets, now 7-0 in conference play, will travel to face the University of Montreal Car­ abins next Friday at 7 p.m. as they continue their march to the national championship.

Enjoy the big game in comfort and style!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American students and faculty

Rugby hoodie • McGill blanket

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