The McGill Tribune Vol. 30 Issue 24

Tuesday, M arch 22, 2011

MACDONALD’S MAC VS PC RUNDOWN, PACE 13

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SINGING STUDENT WINS OPERA CONTEST, PAGE 14

Published by the Tribune Publication Society Volume No. 30 Issue No. 24

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By Matt Essert News Editor

Guy Boucher, a McGill alum, now coaches the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. See story page 1 0 . (Elisha Lerner/ McGill Tribune)

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Two McGill students were recently awarded first prize in the fourth annual TD Go Green Chal­ lenge. David Morris and Omer Dor, both U3 chemical engineering stu­ dents, beat out competition from 59 schools, winning $100,000 for sustainability projects at McGill, $20,000 in cash, and paid summer internships at the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

To win first prize, Morris and Dor produced a video detailing how they would turn the roof of the Ferrier Building into a greenhouse that would harness the building’s heat and greenhouse gas emissions. Their plan, called the Integrated Energy and Food Greenhouse, would grow food for use on McGill campus and could also house biological reactors containing microalgae which could be used to produce carbon-neutral biodiesel.

Morris explained that he met Dor last semester during CHEE 595, a graduate-level class called “Ener­ gy Recovery, Use, & Impact.” Tak­ ing the class as undergraduates, the two became fascinated with technol­ ogies that could be used to increase sustainability in energy projects.

Dor said that sometime in

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November, he and Morris started “throwing out ideas ... and from there we just came up with a better idea and innovated it.”

Morris also explained that the pair wanted to try to create some­ thing large-scale, because McGill already has several small sustain­ ability projects.

According to Mary Desjardins, executive director of the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, a selection committee of about six or seven people went through the 132 entries to determine the winner and award the prize money.

“We know that [the $100,000 prize is] going to be used from some­ thing really great here,” Desjardins said. “[McGill] already [does] some great things and I think they will be able to do even better with that gift.”

Jim Nicell, associate vice-prin­ cipal (university services), who has a leading role in McGill’s sustain­ ability projects, said he was excited about the possibilities ahead.

“Ultimately, to create a culture of sustainability at McGill, every­ body has to be engaged in it,” Nicell said. “McGill University could be a living laboratory for the exploration of ideas. Things like the sustainabil­ ity projects fund make that a realSee “PROPOSED" on page 4

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D e a n T o d d s a y s a d m i n i s t r a t i o n is “ d i s a p p o i n t e d ” b u t h a s n o p l a n s t o r e - e x a m i n e its f u n d i n g m o d e l

By Ivan Pi__________________

Contributor The provincial government fined McGill more than $2 million last week in response to the univer­ sity’s controversial tuition hike for its MBA program, which raised to tuition to $29,500 per year.

The massive increase in tu­

ition—which had previously been $2,068 for Quebec students and $5,668 for students from other prov­ inces—was announced last year as part of a shift to a self-funded model for the program, rather than one reli­ ant on government funding.

McGill has argued that the move was essentially a necessity.

Under the previous funding model,

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McGill received approximately $12,000 per year in revenue from tuition and government grants. The MBA program costs about $22,000 per student to run, forcing the uni­ versity to subsidize the program with funds from other areas to the tune of $10,000 per student each year.

Other Canadians universities have taken similar steps in recent de­

cades. Queen’s University switched their MBA program to a self-funded model in the 1990s, and the Univer­ sity of Western Ontario, the Univer­ sity of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia have done so as well.

Despite repeated warnings from Quebec’s former education minis­ ter, Michelle Courchesne, and the

current minister, Line Beauchamp, Faculty of Management Dean Peter Todd said he had not expected the $2 million fine—the equivalent of a $10,993 penalty for each MBA stu­ dent.

“We’re surprised, we’re disap­ pointed, and we’re a bit puzzled,” Todd said.

See “INCREASING" on page 2

N ews EDUCATION

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F a c e s i m p e a c h m e n t a f t e r d e f e n d i n g Isra e li A p a r t h e i d W e e k

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By Eric Mauser

Continued from COVER Quebec City, however, has characterized McGill’s tuition hike as a unilateral violation of the rules governing university funding in the province. In a press release, Beau­ champ said that “keeping univer­ sities on equal financial footing is crucial to making them accessible to all.”

“McGill’s decision violated current budgetary rules,” she said in the press release, “and a penalty will be applied until the situation is corrected.”

Current students and alumni of the MBA program have expressed mixed feelings about the dramatic increases in tuition. Bob Dorrance, a 1977 MBA graduate who is current­ ly the president and chairman of TD Securities, reminisced about the low tuition when he attended McGill.

“When I was in MBA, we used to pay $400 a year,” he said, “and in my second year, tuition actually decreased.”

But the increase, Dorrance said, is necessary now for McGill to compete on a global level. In a state­ ment, Pat Tenneriello, the president of McGill’s MBA Student Associa­ tion, echoed this sentiment.

“We as students believe that the increased costs are a necessary part of McGill’s efforts to make this program into one of the best of the

Contributor Students at Queen's University are deciding whether or not their rec­ tor, Nick Day, should be impeached, after he wrote a public letter, signed with his position, to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff praising the con­ troversial campus event Israeli Apartheid Week.

On March 7, Ignatieff issued a statement condemning Israeli Apartheid Week, which prompted Day's response. Ignatieff s statement called the event “an attack on the mutual respect that holds our society together” and “a dangerous cocktail of ignorance and intolerance.”

Day, who was elected as rector to represent undegraduate and grad­ uate students, felt Ignatieff had mis­ represented Israeli Apartheid Week.

“When Michael Ignatieff pub­ lished his opinions on Israeli Apart­ heid Week, I published a letter on Rabble.ca sharing my thoughts on the issue,” Day said.

The three-page letter criticized Ignatieff for “ignorance” of the facts brought out by Israeli Apartheid Week. Day's letter said it was wrong to condemn the week as anti-Semitic (as a line in Ignatieffs statement had implied).

“If you were ignorant of these facts, I understand why you made

the mistake you did in your state­ ment. Now that you know, please rescind your statement and issue an apology or retraction,” Day said in his letter.

The last paragraph of Day’s let­ ter that was the most problematic.

“I was elected to represent the approximately 20,000 students of Queen's University,” he wrote. “If I ever used the influence of my office and the power of my public voice, as you have, to insulate from criticism the perpetrator of a mass-slaughter, I would have a very difficult time sleeping at night.”

He then signed the letter with his official title as rector of Queen's University. Some students felt that Day abused his position to champi­ on a personal cause. By signing the letter with his office and noting that he was a representative of Queen's University students, Day spoke for a cause with which many students do not agree. As a result, the Queen's Conservative, Liberal, and Israel on Campus groups circulated a petition calling for impeachment proceed­ ings to begin against Day. “Nick Day purported to rep­ resent all students at Queen's in his actions, when in fact, his words hurt many and contributed to alienating many national and religious groups on campus,” said Dan Salvatore, a leader of the Queen’s University

Conservative Association Salvatore described Day's ac­ tions as “unethical” and stated that the movement to impeach Day originated from “a strong consen­ sus among Queen's students and the Kingston community that his actions were unethical.” There isn’t howev­ er a consensus about what the duties of a rector shuld be.

“Some Queen's students claim that a Queen's Rector and student representative should not be allowed to engage in public political debates, while others have argued that it is the responsibility of a representative to do so,” said Day. The petition circulated by vari­ ous student groups aimed to bring Day's impeachment to the entire student body for a vote. The petition gained well over twice the number of necessary signatures, and was ap­ proved by the Alma Mater Society, the Queen’s student government.

Today and tomorrow students will vote on whether Day should be im­ peached. The Alma Mater Society will report the results to the Univer­ sity Council, which will use them to make a final decision.

The Queen's University ad­ ministration was unavailable for comment on this story, and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieffs media re­ lations office told the Tribune that he had no comment on Day's situation.

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a g r e e m e n t world,” he said. “We oppose any actions taken that may hinder the university’s attempt to make this a reality.”

McGill’s efforts to improve the program may have paid dividends in at least one important measure. In its ranking of MBA programs this year, the Financial Times ranked McGill 57th in the world—a leap of 38 spots over its ranking last year. In addi­ tion, magazine recently reported that students en­ tering McGill’s MBA program have the highest average GMAT scores of any university in Canada.

In the wake of the fine, McGill has no plans to re-examine its tuition model, Todd said.

“We are carrying on with our program,” he said. “We don’t have a choice but to operate this way if we want the program to thrive.

McGill, he said, has not yet de­ termined how it will make up the $2 million gap in funding. The univer­ sity remains in discussions with the province about the fine, however, and Todd has hopes for reaching an agreement.

“I do believe, despite the appli­ cation of this fine, that the minister has left some doors open,” he said.

Canadian Business

Additional reporting by Meyer.

T h e o

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

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P r i n c i p a l w o u l d like s t u d e n t s t o “ b e a b l e t o c o m e t o M c G i l l i n d e p e n d e n t o f t h e i r f i n a n c i a l n e e d ”

By Theo Meyer

Managing Editor Principal Heather MunroeBlum sat down with reporters from the McGill Daily, Le Délit, and the Tribune earlier this month to answer questions about the upcoming tuition hikes, the ratio of graduate students to undergraduates, and McGill’s Strategic Reframing Initiative.

In response to questions about provincial tuition increases, which the provincial government an­ nounced in its budget on Thursday, Munroe-Blum stressed the need to raise tuition fees to a level more similar with those in the rest of the country. In addition, she reiterated McGill’s commitment to dedicate 30 per cent of any new revenue from tuition to increasing student aid.

“My hope is that while I’m principal—and I’ve got a few years left as principal—that we would be able to say that every qualified student would be able to come to McGill, independent of their finan­

cial need,” she said.

Munroe-Blum has previously stated that she would like McGill to be able to compare itself to research­ intensive public universities in the United States, such as the University of North Carolina.

In the interview, Munroe-Blum said that the student bodies of such universities typically have a slightly higher percentage of graduate stu­ dents than McGill does—say, 70 per cent undergraduates and 30 per cent graduates, as compared to McGill, which is about 75 per cent under­ graduate. She feels there is room to increase the number of graduate students at McGill in proportion to undergraduates.

“There are many things that would indicate that if we increase the graduate student proportion a little bit, the quality of undergradu­ ate education will be better that it is today,” she said, citing possible ben­ efits such as smaller class sizes.

Earlier this year, McGill’s ad­ ministration also touted the role

played by two senior members of McKinsey & Company, a presti­ gious international consulting firm, in carrying out the Strategic Refram­ ing Initiative, an effort to improve many of the university’s administra­ tive practices.

In recent weeks, however, McKinsey has found itself at the centre of a massive investigation by the American federal government into insider trading. In a March 9 article in the Financial Times, John Gapper wrote that “the scandal goes to the heart of McKinsey’s business model.”

Asked whether the accusations against McKinsey had given her pause about working with the com­ pany, Munroe-Blum downplayed the company’s role in the initiative.

“We’re not working with McK­ insey,” she said. “We have a gover­ nor who is a senior person at McKin­ sey, who is an alumnus, and we have another alumnus. The two of them are pro bono giving us guidance.”

The company’s normal modus

McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum. (Holly Stewart / McGill Tribune) operandi, she said, involved a large team of McKinsey consultants com­ ing in, doing evaluations, and mak­ ing recommendations, which did not happen at McGill. She was follow­

ing the investigation, she said, but was not concerned about its effect on the initiative.

“I don’t worry about it contami­ nating McGill at all,” she said.

Tuesday, M arch 22, 2011

3 NATIONAL

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S y r u p T r a p t o i m i t a t e p o p u l a r A m e r i c a n I v y G a t e , will a i m t o c o v e r “ n e w s , g o s s i p , s e x , a n d s c a n d a l ”

By Tori Crawford

Editor-in-Chief Whether justified or not, Cana­ da and Canadians have a reputation for their pleasant, kind demeanour.

Syrup Trap, a recently launched website that aims to cover “news, gossip, sex, and scandal” at some of Canada's top universities, will test whether the gossip blog format popular on some American cam­ puses can thrive in this climate of congeniality.

The blog, which posted its first article on February 19, was started

by Nick, a University of British Columbia student who wishes to remain anonymous. While making his decision about which university he would attend, Nick came across the gossip blog IvyGate, which pro­ vided the inspiration and model for Syrup Trap.

“I thought the same sort of con­ cept of the website could work for Canadian universities,” he said. “I thought we needed a small dose of

snark to lighten things up a bit.”

IvyGate was started in 2006

by Chris Beam and Nick Summers, both students at Columbia Univer­ sity at the time. (Beam is now a staff writer for Slate, while Summers is a senior writer for Newsweek and the Daily Beast.) Covering gossip and scandals at the eight Ivy League uni­ versities, the blog exploded in popu­ larity when it broke the story of Yale student Aleksey Vayner's ridiculous video resume.

“There was enough tabloid-y stuff happening at the Ivy League schools that we thought we could start a blog and have fun with it,” Summers said. “It's a crazy place that functions well as tabloid fod­ der.”

Since Canada has no group of branded universities comparable to Ivies, Nick chose to focus on the six Canadian universities he felt would be the most likely to generate interesting and entertaining news: McGill, Queen's, the University of Toronto, UBC, the University of

Waterloo, and the University of Western Ontario.

Both Summers and Peter Finocchiaro, one of IvyGate’s two current editors-in-chief, credited the site's success in part to the emotions the mere mention of an Ivy League school invoke in many people, rang­ ing from reverence to self-loathing.

Nick, for his part, said similar feel­ ings of superiority can be found among students at the Canadian universities featured on Syrup Trap.

And while there may be no official community of institutions similar to the Ivies, he hopes.Syrup Trap will be able to at least foster a sense of one.

“I saw that we have this sort of small community of well-known in­ stitutions where students think rath­ er highly of themselves,” he said. “A large part of what we were thinking as we were starting the blog, apart from the lack of engagement and school spirit deficit on Canadian universities, was this idea that there wasn't anything that united us. We're

trying to build up a community, not exploit [an existing one].”

Some of IvyGate's most popu­ lar and entertaining stories have evolved out of tips the editors re­ ceived through their website, which their writers then research and de­ velop into full stories. In the past these have included a story on a Yale student who dropped out of school to become part of Kanye West's en­ tourage, and one about a Princeton class president who was accused of setting fire to a squirrel. While Syrup Trap's posts have so far focused pri­ marily on aggregating stories al­ ready published in various campus newspapers, Nick plans for the site to venture into investigative report­ ing as visitor’s to the site and tips from students increase.

According to Finocchiaro, it's the quality of reporting and writing that provides the best formula for popularity.

“If you do it right you can cap­ ture the same sort of success in any collection of schools,” he said. “It

just depends on having good con­ tent and good writing, and getting students at these schools to check in and see what's going on, and really engaging them that way.”

Summers explained, however, that good writing has to be combined with the right kind of story.

“A lot of what makes IvyGate tick is just that awfulness, and the completely atrocious behaviour of the people who go to these schools,” he said. “My American's under­ standing of Canada is that it's a nicer place. I'm not sure that nice works on a blog.”

Nick is optimistic, however, that Canadian students have the same propensity for scandal and that Syrup Trap will eventually reach a similar level of popularity as Ivy Gate.

“Our ultimate goal would be to be a semi-popular blog that people go to for a laugh,” he said. “This isn't going to be a for-profit venture; We just want to become a small part of the university landscape.”

SPEAKER ON CAMPUS

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D o v i d K a tz , a self-described “ c h a ris m a tic lu n a tic ,” d is c u ss e s la n g u a g e ’ s h istory o f p o w e rle s s n e s s

By Ricky Kreitner

Opinion Editor Dovid Katz, a world-renowned scholar of Yiddish and self-de­ scribed “charismatic lunatic,” deliv­ ered a lecture in the Ferrier Build­ ing on March 14 called “Yiddish and Power.” In a room filled with mostly Jewish studies professors and elderly civilians, Katz explored how the development of the Yiddish language has been intertwined with various social, religious, and politi­ cal disputes.

“There’s something strangesounding about the combination of Yiddish and power, when Yiddish is seen as the embodiment of power­ lessness,” Katz said.

Because Yiddish is among what Katz calls “stateless languages,” whose adherents have never held political power, a more abstract form of power developed—one that oper­ ates less through brute political or military force and more through in­ fluence and affecting the behaviour of others. Eastern European Jews, Katz said, through a high regard for cultural and intellectual achieve­ ment, wielded this second form of power as forcefully as their Western­ ized children do now.

When Yiddish first developed as a vernacular language about a thousand years ago, it formed only

Katz lectures at the Ferrier building. (Matt Essert/McGill Tribune) one leg of the East Europeari Jewry’s trilingualism. According to Katz, power and prestige only belonged to those scholars in the community with knowledge of the other two languages—Hebrew and Aramaic.

Part of the Jewish heritage, he said, is this deeply ingrained respect for scholarship, study, and the printed word.

“The heroes of the society were scholars instead of strongmen,” he said.

Another major theme of Katz’s talk was the relationship between the Yiddish language and various social, political, and religious movements that have seized the Jewish people in the last millennia. For instance, at the end of the 19th century and

the beginning of the 20th, East Eu­ ropean Jews were strongly attached to diverse revolutionary movements, such as anarchism and radical so­ cialism.

“Those were the movements that, by the nature of things, took the language of the people and tried to raise it against the languages known only by the elitist rabbis against whom they had many taynes, many complaints, anyway,” Katz said.

Even today, Katz said, Yid­ dish—often considered a dead language—is enjoying a small re­ surgence among those non-Zionists who reject Hebrew as too tainted by its association with the modem state of Israel and all the crimes it has been accused of committing. Yid­

dish has a certain attraction for these young Jews because it was never the “language of conquerors.” This at­ tractive powerlessness has brought back to Yiddish those with certain political ideas, such as non-Zionism and firm commitments to human rights and gay rights, in particular.

The other area of contemporary Jewish life in which Yiddish thrives is on the far right, with the ultra-Orthodox Chassidic Jews. The Chas­ sids cling to the Yiddish language as the embodiment of the Eastern Euro­ pean tradition they fault the modem world for caring so little about.

Katz sees in this paradox the modem manifestation of the per­ petual entanglement of Yiddish in communal disputes. “The political attachments of Yiddish do contin­ ue,” he said.

Katz was bom in the “dull, bor­ ing, grey streets of Brooklyn” in 1956. That his father, Menke Katz, was a famous Yiddish poet meant that the language was an important part of Katz’s life from the begin­ ning. He later studied at Columbia University and the University of London, before founding the Yid­ dish studies program at Oxford in the 1980s. Katz later founded and is still the director of the Vilnius Yid­ dish Institute in Lithuania, which offers an opportunity for people to study Yiddish in what was before

the Holocaust the capital of Yiddish culture.

“Professor Katz is such a lead­ ing light,” says Eric Caplan, chair of the Jewish studies department at McGill. “To have someone of his stature come to McGill and to not have him talk would be a shame.”

Anna Gonshor, a McGill lectur­ er in Yiddish language and culture, who sponsored the talk, said she particularly admired Katz’s work as a scholar of “Judaism as a civiliza­ tion.”

“It’s a complex, fascinating story that is still not known or ap­ preciated in terms of the vitality of Jewish life and community existence and the development of Jewish intel­ lectual life over the centuries,” she said.

In an interview after the talk, Katz emphasized that while he doesn’t try to persuade or coerce anyone into studying Yiddish, he thinks it important that there be re­ sources available to a student who decides they want to.

“I think it’s natural and healthy for people to want to immerse them­ selves in their own past and their own heritage and their own family backgrounds and their own immedi­ ate ancestry,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything extreme, exotic, or far-fetched about it.”

Curiosity Delivers, www.m cgilltribune.com

4 SCIENCE

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N e w s in B r ie f b a s i c s

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M c G ill p ro fe s s o r D a n ie l Levitin reads b e tw e e n th e note s

By Kat Sieniuc

Contributor When a performance of his fa­ vourite Mozart concerto failed to hit the spot, McGill psychology Profes­ sor Daniel Levitin decided to find out why.

“I love the piece,” Levitin said.

“He’s playing all the notes, but I found myself thinking, ‘Why is it that some recordings and perfor­ mances move us to tears of joy, and others to tears of boredom?’”

Levitin’s most recent study ex­ plores how musical performances communicate emotional expression, examining when and why emotional responses vary. His results showed that differences in timing played a more important role than differences in volume.

According to Levitin, the au­ thor of the bestselling books and musical expression is largely communicated by the way the musician plays the notes. Levi­ tin and his colleagues examined the way in which such variations served to communicate emotion by manip­

Thisis YourBrainonMusic TheWorld inSixSongs,

ulating timing and amplitude in per­ formances of classical piano pieces.

But how exactly can an emo­ tional response to a musical perfor­ mance be measured?

Using a disklavier, a specially modified piano keyboard with sen­ sors beneath the keys. Levitin and his colleagues measured the precise and nuanced movements made by a concert pianist during his musical performance.

“We had a professional piano player from McGill's Schulich School of Music come to the lab and play several pieces expressively,” said researcher Anna Tirovolas.

“Then we systematically altered his performance to sound less expres­ sive to see if people could hear the differences between them.”

Researcher Bianca Levy ex­ plained that participants listened to 30-second excerpts of these piano performances which varied in tim­ ing, loudness, and pedalling chang­ es. They then rated how emotional they thought these performances were on a scale ranging from “not at all emotional” to “very emotional.”

Variation in timing had a great­

er effect on the subject’s ratings than amplitude modulation.

Levy was surprised that the results didn’t follow an exact linear trend.

“Participants were more sensi­ tive to manipulations of timing and amplitude in the middle of the range than at the extremes,” she said.

Tirovolas said that although musicians appeared to be more sen­ sitive to the cues, musicians and non-musicians alike could perceive very subtle differences in expres­ sivity. Non-musicians, Levitin said, were consistently able to recognize and choose the more expressive ex­ cerpts.

“This tells us that even very subtle differences in performance are readily identified—even by av­ erage listeners,” he said. “I found that astonishing.”

Levitin added that one of the hopes of this kind of research is that it will aid in understanding the al­ chemy of a moving performance.

“It’s really a big step forward in capturing and quantifying why music is emotionally moving,” he said.

New Quebec budget includes tuition increases Quebec Minister of Finance Raymond Bachard released the province’s budget on Thursday, which included university tuition in­ creases of $325 per year per student over the next five years, starting in the 2012-13 academic year.

“Without a doubt, accessibility will be an issue with these hikes,” said Students’ Society Vice-Presi­ dent External Myriam Zaidi.

The tuition increases will not only affect Quebec-resident tuition.

Out-of-province and international students who are in regulated pro­ grams such as the Faculty of Arts will also pay more.

“Their fees are calculated with Quebec fees as a base, and then there is a percentage which is added,” Zaidi said. She added that it is a common misconception that the hikes will only affect Quebec students.

“It’s going to make McGill the most expensive university fin Cana­ da],” she said.

According to Zaidi, whether or not McGill will be able to get rid of their deficit depends on how the new revenues are allocated.

“The University of Toronto always has a deficit and they have higher tuition than we do. There may be some correlation but there is no causation,” Zaidi said. “It de­ pends how the university prioritizes the money. Clearly McGill doesn’t prioritize student life, but rather re­ search and infrastructure.”

Zaidi also argued that the cur­ rent financial aid system, which gives students between $500 and $700 a month, is also inaccessible.

But she added that McGill’s tuition hikes will not follow the usual pat­ tern, in which the government di­ minishes its aid when fees are in­ creased.

In the final weeks of her tenure, Zaidi’s priorities will be to inform as many students as possible on the effects of the hikes, and to lay the groundwork for next year’s students to mobilize against them.

“The government has already listened to students—it’s not impos­ sible,” she said. “In 2005 we did succeed through the student strike in making the government go back on what they had planned.”

— MariaFlores

CITY

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Continued from COVER Because of McGill’s central of ideas.” location in the city of Montreal and After approximately two next to Mount Royal, Nicell said,

By Kyla Mandel a board meeting on March 30. In a Three years ago we closed an el­ months of work that included re­ certain building restrictions exist Contributor press release, EMSB Director Gen­ ementary school in Montreal North search, planning, and the actual film­ for structures over a certain height. eral Robert Stocker said “it is only at and another in Point-Au-Trembles,” ing of their entry video, Dor said the Furthermore, though the greenhouse On Wednesday, the English that regular board meeting on March Cohen said. pair had arrived at something that would produce a lot of food, food Montreal School Board Council of 30 that Council will decide ... which Whichever recommendations “wasn’t just an idea, but one that’s growth isn’t McGill’s “primary Commissioners held an information recommendations for major school are selected by the English Mon­ service,” meaning that this project unique and also practical.” session regarding possible changes change ... shall be retained for public treal School Board will be officially But while the video mapped out would add more functions to the to Montreal schools. consultation.” adopted in July 2012. Schools that a seemingly practical strategy for the university’s portfolio that it isn’t Michael Cohen, a spokesman Only after decisions are made may possibly be affected by these implementation of this project, there necessarily equipped to handle. for the EMSB, said in an email to can schools respond formally, ex­ changes include James Lyng High, are a number of problems that might Nicell said that that this kind of proj­ the Tribune that the main goal of plained Cohen. The schools’ reac­ Royal Vale Elementary and High make the realization of Morris and ect could have a place at Macdonald these proposed changes is "consoli­ tion to these changes is therefore School, Marymount High, and Ban­ Dor’s idea impossible.

Campus, however, which is about to dation of enrolment.” unknown. croft, among others. These schools “It can’t happen,” said Jona­ undergo a process of renovation and Among the specific changes The public consultation process could close, merge with another one, than Glencross, a U3 environment updating. under consideration are the “de­ following the March 30 meeting will or move.

“We have a completely out­ student who was instrumental in the velopment of multiple scenarios include governing boards, school While the Wednesday meeting , creation of the university’s $2.5 mil­ dated system out there, and here’s per cluster of schools,” addressing and centre principles, the Central was an information session, EMSB lion Sustainability Projects Fund. a good opportunity to think about schools that have an enrollment Parents’ Committee and municipal chairman Angela Mancini stated “What’s amazing about it is how recovering the heat, recovering the under 200, and reviewing elementa­ jurisdictions. Final decisions on the that “the commissioners will have creative and intentional it was and C02,” Nicell said. “We also have ry schools with two different French scenarios will be taken in January an opportunity, after being briefed how it demonstrates to people the a strong interest in biofuels out at programs, “schools and centres that 2012, after having gone through on the contents of the documenta­ type of solutions that are possible. Macdonald campus, so the question share one facility” and “specific public hearings in December 2011. tion, to request via a formal board It’s just that for that specific context, is: can we wrap this kind of idea into project schools.”

In the past 13 years, the EMSB resolution that an evaluation of ad­ it’s not [possible.]” that larger project?”

All possible scenarios for major has closed 15 schools. “Last year we ditional scenarios be performed by Glencross echoed this senti­ Glencross explained that be­ school changes will be voted on at did some French program changes. our administration.” sides the structural issues involved ment, saying that the project is high­ in building such a structure on top of ly transferable and “gives a concrete the Ferrier Building, such a green­ -example to people who don’t really house would also need a dedicated think systematically about where staff.

S E E T H IS ?

A L L O F T H IS C A N B E Y O U R S . fuel comes from, what you can do “This as an idea for the down­ with the byproduct, how it can be A P P L Y T O B E A N E W S E D IT O R B Y F R ID A Y @ 5 P .M . town campus would be, I think, a used for an essential service like challenge for a number of reasons,” food.”

Nicell said.

En g lish school bo a rd looks to c o n s o lid a te e n ro llm e n t

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O pinion Polarize Me M a rko D ju rd jic

W h e n y ou spin y o u can really love You enter the gym. The ceil­ ing lights are off. The only source of light comes from two or three rented lights that spin and/or change color. Of course, the light may just be coming from the lights in front of the speakers that the CD player is plugged into. Your friends gyrate to Ja Rule and LFO. And then, you hear it, the greatest sound in the world: the opening strings, gently pulsing, a top layer and a bottom layer perfectly intertwined to cre­ ate a wonderfully serene environ­ ment suitable for spinning in place for five minutes. It is, of course, “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith (off the Armageddon soundtrack), and the context under which this would occur is the ritual of the school dance.

What is dancing if not purely a pickup tool? I don’t care how much you “like dancing,” you don’t go to clubs just for the music. Now, high school is one thing, but an 11-yearold kid should not be made (and in my middle school we were made) to go to dances. Forcing children to try to find a dance partner, to ex­ perience rejection and sit against a wall alone, is not the best way to in­ spire confidence and self-esteem at that age. In high school, we got to choose whether to go to the dances, as we get to choose if we want to go clubbing now. But forcing preteens to try to participate in these types of mating rituals is just weird. I can picture my 12-year-old self feeling like a G because I got to slow dance to K-Ci & JoJo and hold a girl real

i&p3?RflSX32 M e if iC t o d ] #; mkassel@mcgilltribune.com

T h e idea o f d rugs I’ve never considered myself a psychonaut. The prospect of taking any drug usually frightens me more than it excites me. I’ve dabbled, though.

In my first few years of high school, I smoked pot semi-regularly—partly because I wanted to and partly because I thought I should. I grew out my hair, or rather, my curly Jewish locks.

(I’d hoped for some waviness, but what can you do?) I often wore a

close when the teachers weren’t looking, but is that really a positive thing? Is forcing preteens into an overcrowded, poorly amplified gym the best way to get kids to spend an afternoon?

Last weekend, my 17-year-old brother came to visit me in Mon­ treal, and we ended up going out to Vinyl. I rarely go to clubs, mostly sticking to Korova if necessary, and even then mostly on hip-hop night.

Yet what I realized last Friday night was that there is a transition from middle school, through high school, into university, that puts an emphasis on going to “dances,” in their vari­ ous forms, as a type of mating ritual.

Little has changed in the years since the middle school dance, except that the supervision is more lax. We still go to these events so we can hold on to someone and hopefully get their name and number. Today, we drink and take drugs to make us feel sexy and uninhibited (let’s be honest, no one is ever sober at clubs) but I’m still missing the point. Perhaps I’ve always been more of a concert per­ son. Or perhaps I don’t necessarily like dancing, or know how to dance all that well. The usual extent of my “dance” abilities is grooving to Prince as I walk to school. But I will still dance and go to clubs and buy giant PBRs and spend all this money on getting in and drinking because dancing is the world’s oldest pickup tool. You don’t even have to be par­ ticularly good at it to survive a night at Tokyo, Muzique, or wherever.

And maybe that lack of re­ quired is still my biggest problem with dancing. Maybe I just miss the spinning. There was no pretending, no hiding, no booze: just me and my partner not wanting to miss a thing. Grinding is not hard, it’s just that, to me, the spinning was more like dancing than anything we do now. Things were better then. You don’t need a fifth of whiskey and Ed Banger to realize that.

tie-dye shirt, along with a pair of Birkenstocks, and listened to jam bands. I was conjuring a cultural past—the hippie movement of the 60s—that didn’t really jibe with who I wanted to be. Smoking pot, I realized, made me self-hating and quiet. If that was liberation then I wanted nothing of it, but I still didn’t know what exactly I did want.

Near the end of high school, after I’d decided to stop smoking pot altogether, the joint inevitably came my way at parties. “It makes things too real,” I’d say, turning down a puff. “It exacerbates my analytical proclivities,” not even sure myself what that meant.

I’ve lately been thinking about drugs because, a little over a week ago, Owsley Stanley died.

A wacky LSD cook—and revolu­ tionary soundman for the Grate­

As the semester comes to a close, I usually find myself stress­ ing—not about school but about finding a summer job. Last year, I started my search in November, and by the time April rolled around still wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do in the summer. Most of my friends don’t start searching for a summer job until reading week and when I tell them I’ve been attending CV workshops and mock interview events for months, they’re usually surprised.

My desire for a summer job isn’t simply due to the fact that I like having something to do with my four months of summer. As an Arts student, I’ve always been con­ scious of the fact that I don’t have a direct career path, like Engineering or Management students. Lining up summer jobs, becoming exposed to different industries, and networking are even more important for students who won’t have a clear career lined up at the end of their four years of study.

My sister claims that I spend more time writing about how hard it is to find a summer job than actu­ ally applying to summer jobs—but I promise I don’t.

Finding a summer job is not only difficult; it’s actually a full­ time job in itself. Some days I find myself spending more time on my job applications than school work.

One of the biggest challenges stu­ dents face today is the increase in demands from employers. Not only do employers want straight-A stu­

dents, they also want employees with relevant work experience, tons of extra-curriculars, and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures.

Talk about high expectations! It’s starting to become a little unreal­ istic, and the problem is that there hasn’t been a way to directly engage with Canadian employers and ex­ press these feelings.

It turns out that some Cana­ dian organizations are trying to get the voices of our generation heard.

Last year I stumbled upon a Cana­ dian job site and career resource for new grads called TalentEgg.ca, and I started writing for their on­ line magazine. When they wanted to start a campaign engaging with Canadian employers, I immediately submitted my story to their project called Student Voice. So far, lots of stories have been shared and hope­ fully this will start informing em­ ployers that this job process is unfair to students.

One of things that I find par­ ticularly unfair is the lack of feed­ back given to students who spend an enormous amount of time applying for jobs. I once had to submit over 20 essay questions with an applica­ tion. After putting in a lot of time and effort, I was hoping to receive at least a standard confirmation email that they received it. I didn’t. This is part of what makes the job process so frustrating.

Finding a summer job for a good student with lots of extra­ curricular experience shouldn’t be this hard—or should it? Is this just preparing us’ for reality, showing our generation that finding a job is not easy and it’s a lot of hard work?

That may be true, but it is also true that we deserve to see a change in this job process—and it starts with letting employers know our con­ cerns.

For now, it’s back to the draw­ ing board, also known as my Google search engine.

S_________________ >

ful Dead— Stanley concocted, popularized, and set the standard for the purest acid in the 60s. Be­ fore him, acid was not a cultural phenomenon. He made it one.

The first and only time I did acid, last summer, I didn’t really feel like it expanded my mind. I hallucinated and thought some deep things while staying up all night in a park. But in the morn­ ing, I felt more proud than enlight­ ened for having lived through the experience.

I think acid has definitely lost its spiritual and ethical lus­ tre since the 60s. That goes for most hippie values. Despite this, I still feel there is a sort of anxi­ ety o f influence that permeates my generation—an ambiguous indebtedness to the hippies (and unknowingly, to Stanley). It’s not immediately evident, but I think

it’s there.

Perhaps that’s why I feel a sense of weakness whenever I turn a joint away at a party—I know what a joint is supposed to offer me, but I also know how I will really feel if I accept it—or why I felt accomplished for hav­ ing done acid: I can check it off the list.

In the 60s, drugs (and I mean psychedelics) represented more than they could actually offer.

Not that they don’t offer any­ thing: you can learn from tak­ ing drugs. But the idea of drugs, in my mind, seemed to override their actual effects.

In 1963, when Stanley was researching how to make acid in the library of UC Berkeley, he came across The Kybalion, a book that outlines the ancient principles of alchemy. In a rare interview

with Rolling Stone in 2007, Stan­ ley described those principles as “mental transformation.” “Ev­ erything is connected, because it’s all being created by this one consciousness. And we are tiny reflections of the mind that is cre­ ating the universe. That’s what alchemy says,” he elaborated. To me, that means self-discovery: a noble pursuit. But I think the hip­ pies watered down that notion. It became a platitude.

It took me about three years to realize that I probably shouldn’t smoke any more pot. I didn’t understand what paranoia meant until I smoked enough pot to know it personally. But that was surprisingly sobering in it­ self. I was making my own selfdiscoveries through drugs, just not in the way I— or, probably, the hippies—could have imagined.

The summer job search

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

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TheM cGill

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E d ito r-in -C h ief Tori Crawford editor@mcgilltribune.com M an a g in g E d ito rs Mookie Kideckel mkideckel@mcgilltribune.com Theo Meyer tmeyer@mcgilltribune.com P ro d u c tio n M an a g e r Iain Macdonald imacdonald@mcgilltribune.com S e n io r D esig n E d ito r Zoe Brewster zbrewster@mcgilltribune.com N ew s E d ito rs Matt Essert, Sean Wood, and Maria Flores news@mcgilltribune.com O p in io n E d ito r Ricky Kreitner opinion@mcgilltribune.com F e a tu re s E d ito rs Alison Bailey and Shannon Kimball features@mcgilltribune.com A rts & E n te r ta in m e n t E d ito rs Brahna Siegelberg and Manisha AggarwalSchifellite arts@mcgilltribune.com S p o rts E d ito rs Sam Hunter and Walker Kitchens sports@mcgilltribune.com P h o to E d ito rs Holly Stewart and Alice Walker photo@mcgilltribune.com D esig n E d ito r Kathleen Jolly design@mcgilltribune.com C opy E d ito r Kyle Carpenter A d v e rtisin g M a n a g e r Dallas Bentley cpm@ssmu.mcgill.ca P u b lis h e r Chad Ronalds

C on trib u tors

Rebecca Babcock, Andrea Bever, Steve Chamberlain, Ivan Di, Marko Djurdjic, Monique Evans, Natalia Evdokimova, Gabriela Gilmour, Emma Hambly, Alexander Hamilton, Matthew Herzfeld, Matthew Kassel,HaarisKhan,ShannonKimball,KarenLacombe, ElishaLemer, KylaMandel, EricMauser, Kat Sieniuc, MartySohl, VickyTobianah T ribune O ffices Editorial Shatner University Centre Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 T: 514.398.6789

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r a i s e s

According to a recent survery released-by McGill’s MBA Student Association, 70 per cent of MBA students believe the cost of their program is at or below a reasonable level. When even students are stand­ ing up for tuition hikes, that’s when the province needs to stand down.

It’s unclear what the QuebecMinistry of Education intended to accomplish when it slapped McGill with a $2 million penalty for switch­ ing to the self-funded model for its MBA program, but the gesture comes across as little more than a symbolic slap on the wrist. The Tri­ bune has voiced its support in previ­ ous editorials for the change in the MBA program, but the reasons are worth revisiting. Prior to last year’s drastic increase, a $10,000 deficit between operating costs of the MBA program and funding from tuition and government subsidies for it was offset by pilfering funds from the tuition paid by McGill’s under­

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graduates. Even after the recent tu­ ition increase, MBA students—who often have worked for several years before entering the program and can expect salaries around $80,000 when they graduate—will still be paying far less in tuition than the national average of $40,000. It makes sense for MBA students, who consider the high cost of their education as a worthy investment in their future, to pay for their own education. Since switching to the self-funded model and raising tuition to $27,500, the program has gone from 95th to 57th in the Financial Times’ rankings of international business schools. Also, with increased revenue, McGill has been able to offer better financial aid, claiming to offer students an average of $12,000 to offset the increased costs related to the switch to a selffunded model.

Despite the increase—or, rather, by increasing tuition—McGill has been able to cater to the interests and

l e a d e r s

Queen’s University students are set to vote on a referendum ques­ tion which would recommend to the university council that it move to impeach Nick Day, the university’s elected rector. Day—whose posi­ tion is the third highest in the uni­ versity and is mandated to represent students—drew national attention last week when he posted a note on Rabble.ca criticizing Michael Ignatieff for condemning Israel Apartheid Week. Day wrote; “I was elected to represent the approximately 20,000 students of Queen’s University. If I ever used the influence of my office and the power of my public voice, as you have, to insulate from criticism the perpetrator of a mass-slaughter, I would have a very difficult time sleeping at night.” Controversially,

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needs of students far better than the pandering provincial government has cared to. While McGill has in­ creased the amount of finanical aid given to MBA students, Quebec now considers McGill MBA students in­ eligible to receive aid. If the province really considers the recent increase a burden to students, it should help them shoulder the burden, not make it even worse. Quebec’s displeasure at the tuition increase seems more of a punishment for McGill’s daring to defy provincial orders than an act in defence of accessible education.

The fine follows through on former education minister Michelle Courchesne’s promise last spring that Quebec would reduce McGill’s subsidies to keep it at the same level of total funding as Other MBA pro­ grams in the province. While this is the overall goal of the self-funded model—to offer higher quality of ed­ ucation without relying on subsidies from governments and non-MBA

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students—the $2 million shortage for this year will directly affect the stu­ dents, necessarily subtracting from the quality of the program or the quantity of student aid offered by the university. Holding back the quality of McGill’s MBA program for the sake of arbitrarily maintaining the lowest MBA tuition in Canada (when the MBA students themselves sup­ port the increase), and at the expense of other students, isn’t a strategy for making post-secondary education accessible. Especially in light of the recently announced tuition increas­ es across the board, the $2 million shows the Quebec government to be more interested in empty gestures than in fulfilling the responsibilities of effective government.

McGill should stay the course; students should continue to make their voices heard; the Quebec gov­ ernment should reconsider its inten­ tions and priorities, and should ulti­ mately back down.

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he signed the letter as “Nick Day, Rector, Queen’s University.”

While it seems true that, as Day later contested, he never claimed to be speaking his 20,000 Queen’s constituents, it is obvious that by signing the letter with his position he sought to add more authority to his views than merely writing his name would have gotten him. It is com­ mon practice to assume that a letter invoking someone’s position means they are writing in that specific ca­ pacity, and not as a mere layperson.

Queen’s students are appropriately upset about Day’s mistake.

It is important, in light of the controversial nature of the topic, to be clear about what is at issue. Ev­ eryone is free to agree or disagree with the stance Day took in support-

ing Israel Apartheid Week; the more important discussion is about a stu­ dent leader who used his position in a way he was not elected to do. We have seen this at McGill recently, too, when Students’ Society President Zach Newburgh sent emails from his president account to make contacts with other student leaders regarding Jobbook.com. Both Newburgh and Day made errors in judgment. The Tribune believes it is inappropriate for student leaders to use their posi­ tions of authority for advocating on issues not directly related to student life and on which it is far from clear they have a mandate from students to speak on their behalf. If Day wanted to invoke his position in the online letter, he should have made it clear that he was speaking for himself

only. Student leaders are elected to speak for students in a certain con­ text; the Day controversy shows that when leaders exit that context, they need to be especially clear who they are representing and how.

Day published a statement in the Queen’s Journal this weekend argu­ ing that one of the duties of the rec­ tor is to “foster academic dialogue” among Queen’s students, and that his publishing the letter falls under this category. This is a gross misinterpre­ tation of why people are upset. Day needs to apologize for abusing his title. If he continues to insist, as he did in the Journal article, on his er­ roneous conception of the duties of a student leader, the referendum ques­ tion urging university council to im­ peach might not be such a bad idea.

My comments were totally inappro­ priate and I would never harm my fellow students. I have never been a violent person and I have never had any violent altercations in my life. I came to McGill University wanting to contribute, not destroy.

My comments on Twitter last week have caused quite a bit of con­ cern for some students on campus, McGill security services, school administration, and the police. I rec­ ognize the gravity of the situation considering the nature of my tweets, which were meant in jest. After re­ flecting on my comments, I can only say that I truly regret saying them and that it was a very poor decision.

One question that seems to come up a lot is why I reacted the way I did to the documentary screen­ ing hosted by Conservative McGill

and Libertarian McGill. Really, it had little to do with the movie itself and more to do with the negative at­ titude I had going into the event, my pre-existing ideological differences with those at the event, and the fact that I wasn’t in the right state of mind at the time.

I am anti-Zionist. The IsraelPalestine conflict is a very sensi­ tive subject and it’s easy to become worked up about it if you care pas­ sionately about the issue. I also re­ alize that anti-Zionism tends to go hand in hand with anti-Semitism because of the complex relationship between the Jewish identity and Is­ rael. This creates a fine line when it comes to criticizing Israel and Zi­ onism. I do not harbour any hatred towards Jewish people. My Jew­ ish sister-in-law, whom I love very

dearly, and my niece who is Jewish by tradition are both people that are close to my heart and their cultural or religious backgrounds have noth­ ing to do with how I see them.

I think that Jewish culture is colourful and its history is inspira­ tional. My objection to the policies of the state of Israel and the treat­ ment of the Palestinians are purely political and in no way reflect how I view Jewish people.

I apologize to those who were at the screening of and any other people who were of­ fended or felt threatened by my tweets. It was never my intention to be a divisive or antagonistic figure at McGill. I have strong opinions and a strong passion for justice. My goal now is to channel that into a more responsible discourse.

for

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H aaris Khan TheMcGillTribuneisaneditoriallyautonomousnewspaper publishedbytheSociétédePublicationdelaTribune, astu­ dentsocietyofMcGillUniversity.Thecontentofthispublica­ tionisthesoleresponsibilityofTheMcGillTribuneandthe SociétédePublicationdelaTribune,anddoesnotnecessarily representtheviewsofMcGillUniversity. Letterstotheeditor maybesenttoletters@mcgilltribune.comandmustinclude thecontributor’sname, programandyearandcontactinfor­ mation. Lettersshouldbekeptunder300wordsandsubmit­ tedonlytotheTribune. SubmissionsjudgedbytheTribune PublicationSocietytobelibellous,sexist,racist,homophobic orsolelypromotional innaturewill not bepublished. The Tribunereservestherighttoeditallcontributions. Editorials aredecideduponandwrittenbytheeditorialboard.Allother opinionsarestrictlythoseoftheauthoranddonotnecessar­ ilyreflecttheopinionsoftheMcGillTribune,itseditorsorits staff.Pleaserecyclethisnewspaper.

A n a p o lo g y My name is Haaris Khan. I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a ter­ rorist. I am not a threat to my fellow students on campus. I can be an idiot sometimes, though. I’ve learned that using my voice in a public forum comes with great responsibility. Pol­ itics can be nasty and human emo­ tion can lead to colossal errors. In my case, I can only say that I erred in such a way. For that I am very sorry.

Indoctrinate U

A n t i - S e m i t i s m is real The morning before we pub­ lished the story about Haaris Khan’s tweets last week, I think I startled one of my fellow editors. She was convinced that the story was a huge deal, that there would be a unani­ mous outcry, that this was one of those things that transcends politics and gets right to the roots of how people are supposed to treat each other. I was a bit more blasé. Sure, I said, this is some scary stuff. But we’re talking about words that men­ tion Jews here. That’s not “real rac­ ism.” A lot of people will be upset about this, but many will find ways to dismiss it as nothing, thinking that so much as printing that article is little more than another conserva­ tive attack against innocent Muslims daring to question Israel’s hegemon­ ic power. She disagreed, and I hoped my cynicism would be disproven.

Unfortunately, in this case, I think I turned out to be right.

In fairness, Khan has issued an eloquent apology in this week’s Tri­ bune. This article is not about him, but about reactions to his tweets.

And there was no shortage of atten­ tion to the original article from those outside this campus. Major media outlets like Global and the Toronto Star covered the story, and conser­ vative bloggers aplenty expressed their distress. The world outside McGill was hardly silent.

But in comments on the article, in threads on Facebook, and in the lack of posts on Facebook by some hyper-involved people who usually publicly discuss every article about topics remotely controversial on their profiles, one thing was evident: for many people, this was an issue of politics, not prejudice.

From the very first comment on it, last week’s story mirrored the fate of almost all articles about cases of anti-Semitism. There was question­ ing of whether tweeting about killing Zionists could really be considered to be threatening to Jews; whether a stated fantasy of shooting was tanta­ mount to threat; whether this needed to be taken seriously.

At the risk of engaging in a counter-factual hypothesis, I would propose that the reactions to these tweets were far milder, especially from certain comers of the campus left, than they would have been were they directed towards a different group. If he had spoken of a femi­ nist, rather than Zionist, conspiracy, would there have been any question of whether he was antagonistic to­ wards women? If he had mentioned

wanting to shoot a roomful of gay students, rather than conservative ones, would there be any debate on whether his tweets constituted more than an exercise in poor judgment?

As for those who pointed to a fairly moderate note he had writ­ ten about Israel, that was an inter­ esting piece of information but of little other value. If somebody tried to condemn a student based on his views on Israel, those same ones looking to exonerate him would surely be up in arms.

Student activists last year had little trouble arguing that Choose Life’s Echoes of the Holocaust event and general anti-abortion pos­ turing constituted violence against women. Consistently, writers in the campus press justify violence at protests by arguing that oppressive state institutions constitute the real violence. Surely they should be able to perform the far less onerous men­ tal gymnastics required to conceive of these tweets as violent against Jews. But they in general chose not to, and this is a scary portent for the future.

It is time to stop pretending that anti-Semitism doesn’t exist.

That Jews have not faced thousands of years of oppression and people like John Galliano, Julian Assange, and Haaris Khan are the persecuted ones. That Jews are somehow just “white people” (a study of early 20th century writing about Jews belies this) and that white people are fair targets for discrimination to begin with. It is fashionable these days to complain that anti-Semitism is thrown around too often. It be used irresponsibly, and it’s always wrong when it is, but I can recall reading far more complaints of un­ just anti-Semitism lately than actual instances of it.

We need look no further than recent synagogue destruction in Montreal, or derogatory comments about Zach Newburgh upon his election and since, or even com­ ments on a recent Tribune article accusing the whole paper of being under the sway of me and the Zi­ onist conspiracy at Hillel McGill, to know that anti-Semitism is alive and well here at McGill. Moreover, something like the recent bombing of a Chabad house in Mumbai indi­ cates where anti-Semitism—given a pass because it fits in with anti­ imperialism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Israelism—can end up.

All prejudice is awful. And if we are to seriously consider our­ selves to be against it, if we want to put into practice the anti-oppressive rhetoric that gets touted so much at McGill, then it is about time antiSemitism stopped being considered a right-wing issue. It is real, it is here, and we should all be con­ cerned about it.

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Full disclosure: Mookie Kideckel is ZachNewburgh’s room­ mate.

H&R Block offers students like me special student pricing I take advantage of it every year. Best of all, they'll get me back an average refund of $1,000.

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By Monique Evans__________

Contributor

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This past Saturday night was a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine, and naturally an oppor­ tunity for some baking fun. I had another friend over to help out, and together we made a very cute, reasonably simple, and impressive looking cake: Chocolate Crepe Cake. This cake is made by layer­ ing chocolate crepes with spiced whipped cream and semi-sweet, heavily spiked chocolate. When sliced into, the cake reveals tons of layers and looks truly impressive.

With well-made crepes and heavy layers of cream and chocolate, the texture becomes fluffy yet deca­ dent. It’s not your average birthday cake and the variations are end­ less. What’s more, you can always double the crepe batter and make a delicious little breakfast for you and your friends.

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Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups cold milk 4 eggs 1/4 cup sugar 1 cup flour mixed with 3 tbsp

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cocoa 3 tbsp dark rum, brandy, or grand mamier. (The liquor re­ ally brings out the darkness of the chocolate).

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melt­ ed 2 1/2 cups heavy/whipping cream 1 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar 1/2-1 tsp allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg 6 to 9 ounces of semi-sweet bakers chocolate

Directions: In a large bowl, mix together the milk, eggs, sugar, flour, liquor and butter (in that order). Blend with a mixer on high speed for three minutes. To adjust the consis­ tency to your preference, add more milk or flour and blend again for 30 seconds at a time. Cover and re­ frigerate for two hours.

If you have a crepe pan, use it.

I do not have a crepe pan, so I used a small non-stick skillet. Spray the pan with cooking oil. PAM is ac­ tually very useful in this situation, because if does not over-grease the

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pan. You want some oil, but not so much that you make a greasy crepe. Using a 1/3 cup measure, pour some batter into the middle of the pan and swirl it around to make a reasonably uniform shape.

These are very thin pancakes and are easy to overcook. You will be able to see when the bottom side is cooked and ready to flip. A spatula and some resilient fingertips will do just fine. Keep making crepes with a uniform amount of batter so that they are as similar in size as possible. Once they are done, set them aside to cool.

Whip together the cream, va­ nilla, sugar, and spice until stiff peaks form. Do pay attention so that you don’t over whip the cream and create butter. You don’t want the cream to be the light, fluid top­ ping you would make for pie, but too much whipping will not create the desired consistency either (near solid): Meanwhile, make a double boiler on the stove to melt your chocolate. Boil some water in a saucepan and put a bowl ontop.

Melt down the chocolate and re­ move it from the stove. Mix in your

(whatsforlunchtodayhoney.net) liquor of choice until it is well com­ bined and smooth in consistency.

On a plate, layer a crepe, and then cream, and then a crepe, and then cream, and then a crepe, then chocolate and then cream, and then a crepe ... you get the idea. Make a stack of crepes with layers of chocolate and cream, leaving some whipped cream at the end to cover the entire outside of the stack. I would recommend sprinkling sugar over the crepes as you layer them

for added sweetness. Chill the cake in the fridge for four hours before serving.

We decorated our cake by dusting the top with cocoa powder through a heart stencil we made with baking parchment. The cake was very popular and is a concept that can be the basis for many other flavour combinations. I’m plan­ ning a raspberry, whipped cream, and grand mamier crepes cake for next time.

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L .fall, stem, and with a prominent U scar on his right cheek, Guy Boucher looks like the prototypical hockey coach. He speaks in short, tothe-point sentences, yells at his play­ ers and uses phrases like “all piss and vinegar” —things you could only hear in a hockey dressing room. Behind the veneer, however, is a McGill graduate with both an Arts degree in history and environmental biology and a Science degree in agricultural engineering.

W hoever said there were no smart guys in hockey never met Guy Boucher. rVV>ucher was bom in Notre1 » J Dame-du-Lac, Quebec, a town that, despite joining with nearby Cabano in 2009, has just 5,000 citizens.

While it was in rural. Eastern Quebec that Boucher first tied up his skates and hit the frozen pond, the first-year head coach o f the Tampa Bay Lightning at­ tributes much o f where he is today to his alma mater.

“W e’re all the products o f what we learn in our lives and the people we meet in our lives. At McGill, there are courses you learn from but I strongly believe that what you learn the most is from people and I’ve been surround­ ed by amazing people coming out o f McGill. I’m still lucky to have [former McGill coach] Marty Raymond around me. H e’s Mr. McGill. I’ll be wearing my M cGill tie tomorrow.” ["V ou ch er’s connections to McGill I * J are many, and they remain deep. He first came to the school in 1991 and played right wing at M cCon­ nell arena for the Redmen until 1995.

After a brief, one-year hiatus in France, Boucher returned to Montreal to work

as the Redmen’s assistant coach under Martin Raymond, who would eventu­ ally become Boucher’s assistant, first with the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs and today in Tampa Bay. A Assistant coach Raymond has ^ iJ p o th in g but praise for the man he helped into the coaching business and who he now works under. The re­ lationship is one o f respect and friend­ ship as both men acknowledge that their careers have had very similar tra­ jectories.

“I’m very lucky, I’ve known Guy for a long time. We’ve always kinda followed each others’ footsteps in terms o f where are we and what are we doing in terms o f systems,” says Ray­ mond. Both men owe much o f their success to their work at the CIS level and, like Boucher, Raymond is grateful for his experience at McGill. “I think it’s made great strides since I remem­ ber playing in 1987 for McGill in the OU A. The support for athletics has im­ proved tremendously, especially for us at McGill. That’s really helped us get better athletes and give opportunities like the one I’ve had here and last year with Guy, that’s based on the support I had at McGill to showcase my tal­ ents.”

4T7n Hamilton, Boucher led his y te a m to an excellent 115 point season, good enough for top spot in the Western Conference. For his efforts, he won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as AHL coach o f the year. In Hamilton, Boucher was reunited with one o f his old McGill players who is now making waves in the NHL, Cana­

Cuy Boucher, McGill alumnus and Head Coach of the Lightning, addresses the media scrum.

diens left winger Mathieu Darche. On Wednesday, Darche even stopped by the Lightning’s Bell Centre practice to catch up with his old coach. Although they’re now on opposite sides o f the rink, Boucher still wishes the best for Darche.

“I’m so busy with the kids and my job that I don’t see the other [McGill] guys a lot. Mathieu, though, obvious­ ly I coached him last year and kept a relationship. His wife knows my wife pretty well now. Mathieu’s one o f those guys who likes to keep relationships, too. H e’s a good guy and I’m so happy he’s still in the NHL. Last year I was telling him at the beginning o f the year that I didn’t want him to be an Ameri­ can League leader, I wanted him to be an American League player that wants to go up to the NHL. H e’s a great ex­ ample for kids and guys for tenacity and persistence.” i . Jhe tenacity and persistence ^Jthat Boucher sees in Darche are traits he preaches to all his play­ ers. Nate Thompson, another steadfast, hard-working player appreciates the philosophy that Boucher has instilled in his team. “His philosophy is a little bit different with the mental aspect o f ev­ erything he does. I think with different team-building activities he preaches his enthusiasm and work ethic. W e’re hav­ ing fun but making sure that w e’re not getting too complacent or too satisfied.

We always want to get better every day and that’s how he’s really helped our team this year.” jmplacency is a killer at this joint in the season when most NHL teams have to deal with injuries

to top players. The Lightning have had the misfortune to lose both Steve Downie and Ryan Malone, two o f the team’s top-six forwards. In a desperate situation such as this, the philosophy o f a coach shines through more than the talent o f individual players. The coach is honest and realistic about his team.

“With two o f our top six guys out w e ’re not the same team. W e’re an average team that has to work very hard.”

Tn “average” team might be a bit jf a stretch. As o f Sunday, the Lightning sit 5th in the Eastern Con­ ference and are solidly in the playoff picture. Boucher and Raymond came to Tampa Bay at the right time. As a young team loaded up with high draft picks and smart free agent signings by new GM and hall-of-famer Steve Yzerman, the Lightning have gotten their ship in order and are sailing in the right direction. Mainstays from the 20032004 Stanley Cup champion team like Captain Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis have been joined by exciting new players. teven Stamkos, who would be [just a U2 student at McGill, woirTast year’s Rocket Richard Tro­ phy with 51 goals to lead the NHL. The budding superstar and former first overall draft pick has experienced three different coaches in his brief NHL ca­ reer and acknowledges that Boucher has been a key part o f the turnaround in Tampa.

“He and the entire coaching staff have been great,” says Stamkos. “We had a lot o f changes in this past off­ season and a brand new structure, brand new philosophy and atmosphere

The Tampa Bay Lightning gather around their coach as he details the strategy for the follow

heading in with a fresh start. Everyone seems to have bought into his differ­ ent and unique but definitely success­ ful system, and that’s why w e’re doing well. W e’ve picked up some great play­ ers obviously, but everyone’s bought into the system and worked hard. H e’s a demanding coach but you do the work and he respects you. That’s how you get results and wins.”

L -fie jovial atmosphere in the dressing room could be felt all around the team on Wednesday as the Lightning practiced for a St. Patrick’s Day tilt with the Canadiens (Montreal would win the game in a shootout).

Tampa Bay is on the verge o f its first playoff appearance in four years, and are looking for their first series win since hoisting the Cup before the lock­ out. In a season like this, every game is special, but games at the Bell Centre offer an opportunity for a homecom­ ing for many players and coaches. For Boucher, however, the novelty o f coach­ ing against the Canadiens has worn off.

It’s now all about business.

“The first game I had 80-some peo­ ple here, this time I didn’t call anyone.

Now I’m trying to keep it real focused.

I feel bad about it but with the position w e’re in right now with the team, put­ ting in a lot o f work with the assistant coaches and with the players, we just

need to be focused and get everything out o f it.”

Aj"7h the face o f the notorious jjQ u eb ec sports media, Boucher seemed happy to be spending his first season as an NHL coach in a city where he can walk down the street and not be recognized. “There’s baseball, football, and basketball that are the main sports down there. What’s been a shock is waking up every day with palm trees and nice weather. That kind o f shocks you a little bit. When it’s Summer it’s OK but com e winter time and you call back here and they say, ‘We just got a metre o f snow ’ and here you’re by the pool outside, water’s flowing and it’s 25 degrees out, that’s a different real­ ity. But once you get to the rink it’s the same: ice and boards and the guys are U5LU U J hockey.” focused on /en in the bright sunshine o f Florida’s G ulf Coast, Bouch­ @ ie er’s heart still clings to the game he’s grown up in. When the weather warms up in his home town and the playoffs get underway, Canadians will flock to their televisions to watch the unfolding drama. At one university in Montreal and in a small town in Eastern Que­ bec, 35,000 will be cheering for one o f their own to achieve the goal that every young Canadian dreams of: hoisting the Stanley Cup.

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light’s game against the Montreal Canadiens; the Habs won 3 -2 in a penalty shootout.

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Steven Stamkos is the frontrunner for the Rocket Richard trophy with 4 3 goals.

A r c 2 rs -J j

Guy Boucher and his captain Vincent Lecavalier confer over details of the Lightning game plan

12

Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

TRAVEL

M c G i l l ’ s

B a r b a d o s

c a m

p u s :

B e lla ir s

R e s e a r c h

I n s t i t u t e

H a v i n g f u n in t h e s u n , a n d s t u d y i n g t o o . . .

B y M a tt E s s e rt

News Editor

McGill is a terrible tundra of frigidness and despair. You can’t go to class without having your nose hairs freeze off or your feet succumb­ ing to terrible frost bite ... unless of course, you’re spending a semester at the McGill Bellairs Research In­ stitute in beautiful Barbados.

The Bellairs Institute is home to both Canada’s only teaching and research facility in the tropics and the complete opposite of what comes to mind when most of us think of McGill. Barbados is a beau­ tiful Caribbean island full of green monkeys, fields of sugar cane, and arguably the best rum in the worldpretty different from Montreal. And yet, the Bellairs Institute is a McGill oasis that offers students the facili­ ties to do real field work in a variety

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of academic areas. According to U2 biology student Claire O’Brien, the small facility in the middle of the west coast of the island provides ex­ actly what students need to conduct this research.

O’Brien explained that besides analyzing data and working on cer­ tain projects indoors, most students at Bellairs spend the majority of their time outside and in the field. “[The student facilities arel like residence basically,” she said. “It’s just what you need, because it’s an island so you’re outside a lot. Your projects and everything are in the field.”

Students generally take three classes over the course of the semes­ ter, one at a time, and will also work at an internship where they can gain valuable hands-on experience.

“It’s very much a mutual rela­ tionship that’s even more beneficial

q u o t a t i o n

Subject: Assigned Readings Author: Student l Will we require calculators for our midterm tomorrow?

Reply Subject: Assigned Readings Author: Student 2 You might, I won’t.

because you’re a student and these people you work with are like men­ tors. They run these organizations you get to work with,” explained O’Brien.

As for the classes, all 25-30 students at the institute take the same three: “Intro to Globaliza­ tion”; “Water Resource Manage­ ment,” which O’Brien described as more engineering-based; and “Urban Planning.” Because courses are taken one at a time, O’Brien said that the classes are “very sped up,” and students are often faced with class on a Wednesday, a midterm that Friday, and the final exam the following Friday, a situation that is not dissimilar to the time-crunched classes many students at McGill take over the summer semester.

Despite the fast-paced nature of the courses, O’Brien said that it’s easy to learn a lot because much of

the material is very relevant on the island.

“The really cool thing about the classes is that everything has to do with where you are. As opposed to learning at McGill in Montreal, you don’t read about these cases or you don’t have to look at textbooks. It’s literally all about what’s going on on the island.”

Unlike many McGill classes with hundreds of students and mul­ tiple-choice exams, O’Brien said the Bellairs Institute aims to create a close community between the stu­ dents present during the semester.

“There’s only 22 students and you live with them and you work with them and you study with them and you party with them, so it’s a totally different experience in that way.”

Originally, the institute was only open to graduate students and

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Reply Subject: Assigned Readings Author: Student 3 Douche.

Reply

professors for research opportuni­ ties. With the change to allow under­ graduates to attend the institute and engage in a wide variety of research, many students have been eager to take advantage of such an exciting opportunity—and why not? O’Brien, however, cautioned prospective stu­ dents to do their research before ap­ plying to the program. Although it could be thought of as an exchange program, all students at the institute are from McGill, but come from a variety of programs. This offers a particular experience that many will love, but others might not enjoy as much.

“I don't think it’s necessarily for everyone, it depends on what you’re looking to do going abroad as a McGill student,” O’Brien said.

“But it’s really cool that McGill has this. It’s like a mini-McGill on a Ca­ ribbean island.”

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T r a v e llin g by y o u r s e l f a i n ’t h a lf b ad

By Mookie Kideckel

Managing editor If you’re like me, being alone is one of those things you spend most of your time avoiding. Unless I’m in some kind of intensive study dispo­ sition or having one of those occa­ sional 20 minute introvert moments, I do very little by myself. Walking and talking, eating, grabbing cof­ fee, even taking naps are better with other people, and in some cases, I would even be embarrassed to be seen doing them by myself. So when en route to see a prospective grad school this weekend, I decided to stop in Boston for 24 hours by my­ self, where I experienced a bit of a culture shock. Because it was St. Patrick’s Day, I was under a moral obligation to do that most taboo of solo activities alone. And,

—drinking

frankly, it wasn’t half bad.

Travelling alone was al­ ways one of those things I just as­ sumed worked out. People go on exchange—they go to Europe, or South America, wherever, and they do it by themselves. Nobody really tells you how they dealt with the fact that they had to find their way from the airport by themselves, navigate an unknown city despite their ter­ rible sense of direction, and go to meals without feeling like the most awkward, creepy, unfortunate guy in town.

Those worked out alright.

Studying Google Maps for about half an hour before I took off didn’t hurt. The nice bus driver let me on for free when I didn’t have the right change and a delightful Bostonian spent about 10 minutes looking up directions to my hotel on his phone

when I took a wrong turn. The con­ cierge recommended a great break­ fast place where they seated me with a stranger, and we bonded over rec­ ommendations of things to do in the city, the craziness of the Tea Party, and delightfulness of Newfound­ land. As for walking around the city, the constant upward arch of my neck probably gave away my tourist sta­ tus, and the signs and maps all over the place made navigating even Bos­ ton’s nonsensical streets somewhat manageable. Plus, it was sunny, which is more than can be said for any walk taken in Montreal over the past several months.

No; the real challenge would be the drinking. There was no way I could be in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day during my first year of being legal in the prude United States and not grab a beer along the way. But,

whodrinkssolo?Alcoholics,mostly.

And even though everybody knows it’s impossible to be an alcoholic while still in university, I didn’t want to give off unseemly appearances. I tried three pubs in the morning—in­ cluding the original because I’m cliché—and breathed a silent sigh of relief when I discovered they were closed. By the afternoon, I de­ cided to just go for it. I stopped into a pub blasting Irish music, coughed up the $10 cover they were entitled to that day by happening to have the word “Irish” in their name, and sat down at a table by myself. I ordered a Guiness and the worst shepherd’s pie I’d ever eaten and tried to see if I could make some friends. But since the other patrons were a group of middle-aged businessmen and a drunken 23-year old (I know, it was her birthday) flirting with them, I

Cheers

opted to read my book instead. In fact, the main people I regretted not befriending that day were the two girls filming a parody of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” at 8 a.m. in the Boston Common.

Being alone can be pretty in­ timidating I suppose, but it also gives a lot of freedom. I woke up when I wanted, did what I wanted, and generally had an awesome time.

There’s also a certain confidence to be gained from not even having the option of being social—you kind of embrace the situation, and maybe find an outlet in concierges and hotel receptionists who are always willing to listen.

All of which is to say, Boston is beautiful. Go take a look. And you could even do it alone.

GIZMOS & GADGETS

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A r e M a c s m o r e t h a n j u s t p r e t t y t o l o o k at?

By lain Macdonald

Production Manager Over the years there have been a number of lively computer de­ bates, many of which remain un­ settled. There’s Vim versus Emacs, C++ versus Java, and whether or not P is equal to NP. All of these argu­ ments pale in comparison to the most disputed topic in both geek and non-geek circles: PC or Mac? This is a question that arises frequently when you or your friend thinks it’s time to get a new com­ puter. How do you know when that time has come? Typically, a comput­ er should last between three and five years. For laptop computers of this age, any repair costing more than ten or fifteen percent of the original computer price is likely not worth the expense. A desktop computer should last a bit longer, and these repairs are generally cheaper. You should always check to see if your machine is under warranty or not be­ fore replacing it.

The Mac

Apple has made a lot of money by making pretty things. The Macbook and Macbook Pro are reflec­ tions of this: many are attracted to the sleek silver body and apparent simplicity of the design. When you open one up, the Macbook is just as attractive on the inside as it is on the outside. The Mac operating system has a sleek and polished user inter­ face. OS X is based on BSD UNIX,

meaning it is POSIX compliant. It’s a more secure, standards compliant operating system. Because Apple controls all hardware in every Mac, there are no driver issues, at least not with internal devices. Macs tend to not get sick, as most malware targets Windows users. Macs are compat­ ible with all of your other favourite Apple toys and come with a good set of prepackaged software. Apple has very highly rated customer service, despite their inaccurately labelled “Genius Bar.” The Mac does not offer very many distinct advantages over Windows, besides being pretty and somewhat easier to use—a debatable point anyway. However, the Mac has a very strong brand name by which many loyal costumers swear. Macs are usually more expensive than their PC alternatives, another hotly debated issue. Expect to pay 10 .to 20 per cent more for a middle-grade Mac than for a PC with comparable hardware. This is in part due to the restricted market for Macs. Many people will tell you that Macs are for artists and designers, a claim which isn’t as true as it used to be.

The PC

Microsoft made a lot of money by grabbing the market share early and hanging on for dear life. With Windows Vista behind us, Micro­ soft’s Windows 7 is not a bad operat­ ing system (although it isn’t a good one either). PCs come in all shapes and sizes, from many different man­

ufacturers. This increased competi­ tion leads to generally lower prices for middle-of-the-pack PCs, along with more selection. Almost all soft­ ware is distributed for, and runnable on, a PC. Many more device drivers exist for Windows, too. The popular­ ity of the PC means it is easier to find support. Additionally, if you want to play video games, you’ll probably need a PC. Furthermore, because of the design of most PCs, specifically, the lack of a unibody, repair costs will be lower.

PCs have some serious down­ sides too. As mentioned before, most malware targets the Windows operating system, so you will need antivirus software to deal with this issue. The operating system is also a bit less stable, although serious advances have been made since the days of Windows ME’s blue screen of death. Windows also suffers from issues like disk fragmentation and registry problems, although these are easily fixed. The less attractive interface is, perhaps, the biggest gripe many Mac users have when using Windows.

Despite the pros and cons for each side, the fact is that you’re prob­ ably not going to read this and come to a definite conclusion. In fact, your mind is probably already made up.

The decision is almost entirely a personal one. If you can’t reach a verdict, there’s always Linux, which offers the best of both worlds, with almost none of the cons. %

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The b est stories w ill be pub­ lished in the April 5, 2011 issue.

Runners-up w ill be published on­ line at m cgilltribune.com . Send your subm issions to editor@ m cgilltrib u n e.com before A pril 1, 2 0 1 1 , a t 11:59 p.m .

---------------------- A & E --------------------A&E NEWS

M c G i l l

s t u d e n t

t a k e s

t h e

N e w

Y o r k

M e t r o p o l i t a n

O p e r a

P h ilip p e Sly w in s p re s tig io u s c o m p e t i t i o n , p e r f o r m s at N o r t h A m e r i c a ’ s p r e e m i n e n t o p e r a h o u s e

By Sean Wood News Editor Most little boys dream of mak­ ing a crowd go wild, maybe with a game-winning grand slam in the World Series or a goal in the Stanley Cup final. For Phil Sly, a U3 vocal performance student at McGill, something similar actually happened on March 13. He was one of five winners of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, the most prestigious young-artist opera competition in North America.

“After I sang, I remember start­ ing to cry while I was bowing, and my hands were shaking. Only then did it really hit me,” he says.

The Metropolitan Opera, com­ monly called “the Met,” housed in New York City, is one of the premier opera houses in the world. Their 25 plus productions per year have world class casts, costumes, and sets. It is, in short, an easy place to get starstruck.

“You see really, really famous singers all the time backstage, in the cafeteria,” says Sly. “It’s an extremely well-known competition, everyone knows about it,” says Michael McMahon, a mas­ ter’s-level vocal coach at McGill who has had a long working rela­ tionship with Sly. One might think that competing there would be nerve-wracking, but Sly was surprised to find the oppo­ site to be the case.

“It’s a big family,” he says.

“It was much more welcoming and homey than I thought it would be.”

Nearly 1,500 singers entered this year’s competition. After com­ peting at district and regional com­ petitions in Buffalo, NY in early January, Sly was one of 20 singers selected to participate in the semi­ finals in New York City. Eight of those were selected to participate in the grand finale concert on March 13, and five of those were winners.

At the age of 22, Sly was the young­ est winner this year; the others were in their mid or late 20s.

Sly said he and his competi­ tors were supportive of one another.

“There was a great camaraderie be­ tween the eight finalists,” he says.

As a winner, Sly received a $15,000 prize, but his victory will most importantly jumpstart his ca­ reer, which is a huge bonus in an in­ credibly competitive job market. On the night of the final performance, the audience was full of important opera personalities.

“It’s a stamp of approval,” he said.

According to a Met press re­ lease, more than 100 alumni of the auditions are on the Met roster dur­ ing a normal season. With great ac­ claim, though, come great expecta­ tions. “There’s a feeling when you win a competition like this that you have to live up to, or even be greater than you are,” says McMahon. Sly has been inundated with job offers since the final, which he is still trying to sort through. After he graduates, he will spend the next year working for the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.

Though he won the competition

with his singing, Sly is also an ex­ cellent actor. In his performance as Nick Shadow in at McGill, he outshone the rest of the cast. His last performance here was as one of the two male leads in Janu­ ary’s which earned him strong reviews.

“He has an incredible imagi­ nation, he has a charisma [...] and [an] innate understanding of music.

It’s not something you have to teach him, you have to just help him dis­ cover that he knows [it] already,” says McMahon.

Sly attributed much of his suc­ cess to Sanford Sylvan, his McGill voice teacher. When he was a highschooler thinking about which music school to go to, it only took one les­ son with Sylvan to make McGill his first choice. He also said that Mc­ Mahon has been a great help, and was also grateful to Patrick Hansen, McGill’s director of opera studies, who has supervised Sly’s participa­ tion in McGill productions.

“Philippe first came to sing for me in high school, and I pushed him in a few different directions. He came to sing for me again and I was stunned by the talent of this young man,” says McMahon.

On the night of the final, Sly sang arias by 17th century composer Georg Handel and 19th century com­ poser Richard Wagner. He thought that he won in part because he chose pieces from entirely different time periods requiring entirely different singing styles.

A lot of practice also helped, said Sylvan.

TheRake’sProgress

LaBohème,

Sly shows off his falsetto through arias by Wagner and Handel.

(Metropolitan Opera) “[I drilled] him just like an ath­ letic coach. When you’re in such a state of terror, our body needs to re­ produce [your performance] wheth­ er your brain is there or not. It’s just like ice skating or diving.”

Though the competition has earned him a lot of things, he hasn’t

gotten a reprieve from his schoolwork.

“It hasn’t completely hit me yet, because I’ve got homework to catch up on,” he says. “But it felt so right when I was there, and I can’t wait for that to continue.”

THEATRE

T h e s e

p l a y s

a r e

s h o r t ,

b u t

M c G ill D e p a r tm e n t o f En g lish presents th e

By Alexander Hamilton________

Contributor Opening this Wednesday at TNC Theatre, the 2011 Directors’ Projects are the result of a stagger­ ing amount of preparation, coordi­ nation, and dedication. Comprised of 11 separately staged productions, the festival is an excellent example of the advantages of student theatre.

Each play runs about one hour in length and has been directed, se­ lected, and researched by a different member of this year’s “Directing for the Theatre” class, which is taught through the department of English.

For those unfamiliar with McGill theatre, the Directors’ Proj­ ects are a perfect introduction to this multifarious world—a unique exposition showcasing the variety in

the student theatre community. The plays range from family tragedy to absurdist parables. They contain ac­ counts of spiritual exploration and artistic creation, and describe both failing and hopeful relationships.

The many themes reflect the dispa­ rate personalities of the directors.

One of the few practical theatre courses available at McGill, “Direct­ ing for the Theatre” provides an un­ paralleled opportunity for students to grow and challenge themselves artistically. The class runs a full year in length; the first semester is dedi­ cated to preparing the 11 plays by deconstructing them and research­ ing their background. Casting and rehearsals start up at the beginning of the winter semester. There are few limitations placed on the selec­ tion of plays, apart from the obvious

2011

t h e y

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D ir e c to rs ’ Projects

problems of having to stage them all within the confines of TNC Theatre.

Most directors choose short one acts, though some decide to stage two half-hour plays back-to-back.

Overall, the course aims to give directors the ability to comprehen­ sively stage a theatre production by providing them with a toolbox of techniques and exercises for run­ ning rehearsals, helping actors, and structuring their productions. Ac­ cordingly, the focus of the festival is on this exploratory element; almost all of the shows lend themselves to experimentation or interpretation.

Rachel Penny, production man­ ager at TNC, said that staging shorter plays also prevents the festival from becoming too cumbersome, and that despite this the performances still “pack a punch.” *

Although you may recognize some of the playwrights featured, the plays themselves will be unfa­ miliar to most students. Each night features at least two different pro­ ductions. The performances have been matched along rough thematic lines, mostly to avoid overtly jar­ ring combinations. In the mix are a couple of comedies, a pair of pieces from absurdist playwrights Ionesco and Arrabal, and then some more intense selections: a Montreal fam­ ily drama by Michel Tremblay, an account of a troubled relationship from British Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, and two shorter one acts by Tennessee Williams. Just looking over the schedule, the broad range of selected plays indicates a diver­ sity of interests in both content and approach, brought to the table by the

11 students.

After speaking with various di­ rectors about their projects, this di­ versity could not be more obvious.

What remains constant, however, is the way in which each individual has become immersed in the world of their own play, each of which forces you to engage with its own internal logic and narrative. This challenge of engaging the audience is one that has been taken on whole-heartedly by the Directors’ Projects. By pre­ senting a wide array of thorough productions, the festival gives stu­ dents the opportunity to experience the full scope of theatre at McGill.

TheDirectors’Projectsrunfrom March23-April2. Evening$5, mati­ nees $3. Contact rachel.e.penny@ gmail.comfordetails.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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FILM

W e a th e r in g t h e s to r m A tr o u b le d

p a s t m e e t s a n u n c e r ta in

o f g o v e r n m e n t te r r o r p r e s e n t i n I c i a r B o l l a m ’ s Even the Rain

By Matt Herzfeld Contributor

Seeking to rewrite history, Ici'ar Bollaih's recalls the ways in which past confrontations can leave a mark upon the present.

Connecting the conquest of the New World with the 2000 Cochabamba Water Protests, is a dramatic marriage of indifference, deception, and hope, where reality and fiction coalesce. stars Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal as film di­ rector Sebastian, who brings his ac­ tors and small-budget crew to Bolivia to shoot a movie. While Bernal (who starred as Che Guevera twice, in and the madefor-TV movie no longer plays the revolutionary, Sebastian's artistic vision revolts against itself, with the help of some local protestors.

The film begins its journey in a realistic vein when a Spanish film producer, Costa (Luis Tosar), seeks cheap extras and labour (at a measly $2 per day) in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for a film that re-casts Columbus as

Eventhe Rain

the Rain

Eventhe Rain

Even the Rain

Motorcycle Diaries Fidel)

ny. Further, even the rain the locals collect as drinking water is subject to imperial ownership laws.

Anton (Karra Elejalde), the drunk who plays Cristobal Colon in Sebastian's film, provides with a necessary dose of humour and skepticism. Speaking to Sebastian about the film, he pro­ claims: “This isn't art, this is fucking propaganda!" Statements like these make the viewer wonder how much of this movie is constructed to incite temporary emotional responses, but in the end the film will stick with you for a while.

The dynamics of order and reality reach their height when the film set becomes the site of an ac­ tual power struggle between the corrupt police and enraged locals.

While the symbolism is not subtle, the message is provocative and com­ pelling. Though the final bumingat-the-stake scene is anxiously put onto film, celebration is muted by a mounting cry for action. In the most captivating charac­ ters seek their own crucifixion. For­ tunately, Bollafn and her crew coop­

The Sebastian and local Bolivians survey the scene, (jestherent.blogspot.com)

a cruel exploiter instead of a heroic explorer. Panning across an endless line of curious locals, the film fixes itself with the character of Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri), who speaks out frequently, inciting trouble out of a sense of personal injustice. Aduviri

steals the audience's attention with his genuine acting and half-playful, half-tragic face. Hiring the locals is efficient and dangerous, as tensions rise against the government in the wake of a 300 per cent increase in water prices from a foreign compa­

Rain,

Even

Eventhe

erated with locals and contributed little gifts to the barrio of each extra in the film (in a video interview she mentions donating 2,000 bricks for a school).

Why would the average movie­ goer labour through a foreign film about an equally foreign issue, the privatization of water? Screenwriter Paul Laverty realizes the futility of documentary style and breaks up the distance between the subject mat­ ter and the viewer by subverting the system of suspended belief (where viewers engross themselves in a fiction) and implicating the viewer in the reality of the characters who seem equally real.

Even good intentions can run awry, as Sebastien starts to embody the less-than-noble conqueror who wishes to be remembered as saviour, but forgets human reality in order to construct a golden throne (before it consumes his film). In a somewhat conventional Hollywood gesture, Costa proves that small, personable actions, not grand schemes, are what make a humanitarian.

The Students' Society Awards of Distinction are designed to recognize students who have demonstrated leadership in the University through significant contributions to students' activities and organizations coupled with outstanding academic achievement.

Three scholarships, valued at $2000 each, will be awarded. To be eligible, a candidate must be an SSMU member who will have completed twelve (12) credits during the current academic year (as of May 2011) and be studying at McGill or another academic institution in an undergraduate program in the 2011-12 academic year.

T o fin d

o u t m o r e a b o u t th e a p p lic a tio n

p ro cess,

v is it h ttp ://s s m u .m c g ill.c a /a b o u t/f u n d in g - a n d - a w a r d s / All applications are due by April 8th 2011 at 5pm.

Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

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FESTIVAL

“ F o k u s in g ” o n

film

a s a fo r m

T V M c G ill p u t s o n t h e f o u r t h a n n u a l F o k u s F ilm

o f s e lf-e x p r e s s io n

F e s tiv a l a t C in e m a d u

P arc

what is to be expected from this year's festival.

By Natalia Evdokimova Contributor

“A camera is a megaphone The Adventures of Bruno Unem­ through which you can express your­ ployed Superbear / Mark James (Animation) self,” says Sophie Dab. TVMcGill’s With soft jazz playing in the vice-president external, on why it is is a important to celebrate amateur film- background, making. The Fokus Film Festival, short animation starring Bruno, a an annual event held by TVMcGill bear in need of employment. Inspi­ since 2006, has grown from humble ration strikes Bruno in the form of beginnings to a legitimate film festi­ "an apple, and the Unemployed Su­ val. Taking place at Cinema du Parc perbear realizes a peculiar theme on Wednesday, the festival is sure to with Apple products. Presented impress even the seasoned film critic in the fashion of private detective with the 29 student submissions in movies, this film highlights society's five different categories. Here are obsession with Apple products and three movies that offer a sense of conversely, Apple’s fascination with

The Adventures

XTC

XTC

the letter “i.” Less than a minute long, innovatively forces the audience to reconsider our dependence on Apple and the “i” movement.

TheAdventures ofBruno Un­ employed Superbear

Clockwise from bottom left: Superbear, and Friday, g pm , a n d X T C .

(Natalia Evdokimova / McGill Tribune)

ecstasy trip, the narrator takes the au­ dience on a journey of what not to do while taking the drug. First, it would be wise to avoid blind dates. Second, consume water, not wine, since the latter will result in a “baptism” of appetizers on said unwanted blind date. Third and generally speaking, it would be best to steer clear from ecstasy while in a pessimistic mood about the world. Beautifully edited. portrays the narrator's discern­ ible inadequacy through a series of images ranging from newspapers to photographs to negatives and yearbooks. Coinciding perfectly with these images, the narrator's voiceover travels as quickly as the images. provides an excellent example of an experimental movie that successfully tells a story while conveying a subtle moral lesson.

Friday, 9pm / David Zangwill and Micah Dubinsky (Fiction) On Friday night, around 9 pm, a woman in a swanky black dress visits her bathroom in the hopes of getting ready for a night on the town.

Instead, she ends up mediating on what makeup does to the face and to her larger identity. Marie Minio's voiceover shows her thought process changing from simple, frivolous analysis to deeper scrutiny, which

she cannot easily suppress. As the film continues, Minio's inability to cope with her epiphany about her crumbling sense of self makes for a striking shot. She stands in front of her bathroom sink with two oppos­ ing mirrors showing two radically different sides of her face and her identity: one beautifully constructed and made-up and the other decon­ structed with pink lipstick freely ap­ plied to the cheek. Overall, is a profound social commen­ tary on the notion of covering our faces with makeup.

Friday,

9pm

XTC / Daphnee Vasseur (Experimental) Recounting the story of a bad

FINE ART

C o n te m p o r a r y C h in a w a v e s its r e d fla g M u seu m

By Emma Hambl

o f F i n e A r t s s h o w c a s e s C h i n a ’s a v a n t - g a r d e a r t i s t s a t n e w y

________

Contributor

sculpture, film, and even a tapestry made of human hair.

Despite this diversity of styles, all the pieces in relate to one resounding theme; the jarring disconnect between traditional Chi­ nese culture and modem, urban, industrialized life. Wang Tianade’s work, for example, includes photo­ graphs of classic Chinese texts re­ duced to ashes, and a traditional silk garment slashed and painted with Mandarin characters. Chen Jiagang’s melancholy photographs picture women dressed in mid-19th century clothing, looking displaced in set­ tings that show the dark side of rapid industrialization. Zhan Wang’s stain­ less steel sculpture seems to sum up these ambiguous feelings—his piece is an ancient mountain rock, covered in a shiny but distorted exterior.

Though it’s a small collec­ tion of artwork, the ex­ hibition is neither too spacious nor overcrowded. One massive red wall

RedFlag

Beautiful women stare out, lost in a bleak industrial landscape.

Naked bodies are crammed into tiny wooden compartments. The sound of barking echoes in the room—a short film portraying office workers as a pack of rabid dogs. These are just a few of the works that confront you at the newest exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,

Red Flag: ContemporaryChineseArt. RedFlagis a show that repre­

sents the versatile work of Chinese artists who have burst onto the in­ ternational avant-garde scene in the past decade. The work of these artists has been increasingly recog­ nized in the art world; in 2009, 29 Chinese artists were listed on the art market’s top 100, compared to just one only eight years before. The ex­ hibition includes works in many dif­ ferent media—photography, pottery,

e x h ib it

Red Flag

The Gao Brothers' T V N o. 6 displays the scandalous side of contemporary Chinese art. (Gao Brothers)

looms over the space, represent­ ing the Communist system that still underlies Chinese society. Unfortu­ nately the lighting leaves something to be desired, as what is likely meant as dramatic mood lighting is simply too dim.

The carefully curated pieces are quite strong as a unit, however, and together they form an intriguing pic­ ture of the booming Chinese avantgarde scene. Most interesting is the sense of overwhelming anxiety that these artists have about present-day China. Rapid changes, overpopula­ tion, mass production, Westerniza­ tion—these worries manifest them­ selves in powerful works that un­ flinchingly force the viewer to come face to face with the problematic elements of modem China.

Red Flag

isfreeat theMuseum ofFineArts, andrunsuntilJune5.

----------------- S ports------------PROFILE— ANDREA BEVER

B ever an d

F i l l e s d e la R o u g e m a k i n g w a v e s

In t w o y e a r s B e v e r g o e s f r o m

By Walker Kitchens Sports Editor

At the beginning of 2009, the only time Andrea Bever had ever rafted was during Frosh. Two years later, she became a Pan American Rafting Champion after winning the gold medal at the Pan American Championships in Brazil with her team, the Filles de la Rouge.

The Filles de la Rouge are one of the world’s best women’s rafting teams. They have won two consecu­ tive Pan American Championships and received silver medals in the last two Canadian Championships. This year the team consists of six mem­ bers: Captian Majorie Bourbeau, Marilou Salette, McGill alumni Diana Taneva, Stefanie McArdle, Karine Corriveau, and Andrea Bever.

Just as incredible as the team’s suc­ cess is Bever’s story of joining it.

Two years ago Bever never thought she would be a member of the Filles de la Rouge. In 2009 she applied to be a rafting guide on the

in e x p e r ie n c e d

Rouge River for the summer but didn’t expect to get the job.

“I just wanted to do something different for the summer and didn’t know what. I was looking into ev­ erything and applied to everything I could find on CaPS [McGill Career Planning Service],” said Bever. “I was surprised that they called me.”

After getting the call, Bever travelled to the Rouge River to com­ plete her training. She quickly real­ ized that she was getting into some­ thing far more intense than she had previously thought—she was rafting in freezing April waters and going down some serious rapids.

“It was terrifying,” she said.

“My first weekend there I thought I was going to die. [But I kept doing it] because of my pride and because [my friends] made so much fun of me when they found out I was going [I couldn’t stop].”

That summer she met and began to paddle with the Filles de la Rouge.

While she was working as a guide, the team needed a spare paddler and

Filles de la Rouge tackle a wave. (Karen Lacombe / McGill Tribune)

s u m m e r g u id e to

invited Bever to raft with them.

That summer the Filles had planned to travel to Sonamarg, India and compete in the Kashmir Cup. However it was a period of transi­ tion for the team with only two members of the team remaining and Bever was asked to join the squad.

Bourbeau, Salette, Taneva and Bever are the only members of the current team to have made the trip to India.

The Kashmir Cup was a learning ex­ perience for Bever as she had never raced competitively before.

“I’d trained two or three times before I went to India so it was com­ pletely new to me,” Bever said. “I had never done a slalom course be­ fore so the first slalom course I did was in India.”

The Filles de la Rouge finshed second in the Kashmir Cup and Bever began to train with the team.

During the season they train three times a week on both flat water and on rapids.

Last summer the team traveled to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil to compete in the Pan American Champion­ ships. The championships are held biannually and the Filles de la Rouge entered as the defending champions.

However, since their previous vic­ tory, two years earlier, there were some new members on the team.

“We didn’t really know what would happen because we were a new group of girls and it was one of our first times racing together,” said Bever. “Winning was our goal be­ cause we were defending our cham­ pionship but we didn’t know what would happen.”

In a competition there are four events; the Time Trial, the Sprint, the Slalom and the Downriver. Each

P a n A m e r ic a n

r a ftin g c h a m p io n

Bever (third from right) with team. (Andrea Bever / McGill Tribune)

event is different in length and tech­ nique, and worth a certain amount of points. The team that accumulates the most points in each of the events wins the championship.

In Brazil, the Filles de la Rouge entered the final event, the Downriv­ er, barely trailing a team from Costa Rica. Bever had sat out the first three events but was in the boat for the de­ ciding Downriver race.

“Since we went into the Down­ river in second place we knew we had to get first if we were going to win,” said Bever. “That was a lot of stress because I was doing the Down river and hadn’t done the other events.”

With Bever in the boat, the Filles jumped out to a quick start and led the entire way to win the gold.

“We got in front right in the be­ ginning and we stayed in front,” she said. “It was so exciting.”

This season the Filles de la Rouge are hoping to build on their success from last year. They’re com­ peting in and hoping to win the Ot­ tawa Valley Rafting Championship,

Canadian Rafting Championship, the European Cup in Finland, Gauley Festival in West Virginia and the Pre World Championship.

Moreover, they’re hosting the Rouge River Race on July 1. The race is a fundraiser for the team and is open to competitive and casual raf­ ters. In addition to the four standard events there will also be a rodeo in which competitors are awarded for having the best flip and surf.

In the long term, Bever and the Filles de la Rouge are hoping to compete in the Olympics. Rafting isn’t an Olympic sport, but at each Olympics the host country is able to choose trial sports for their country’s games. In five years rafting may be an Olympic sport since Brazil is hosting the 2016 Olympics and have the best men’s rafting team.

“We’re trying to get it to be an Olympic sport,” said Bever. “So our long term goal is to win an Olympic gold. I’m planning to raft for a long' time. I want to [go to the Olympics] and I want to be there when it hap­ pens. Hopefully we’ll make it in.”

THIRD MAX IX Roads n ot safe fo r ru n n in g

The triathlon and distance run­ ning community recently lost one of its brightest stars when Sally Meyerhoff, a 27-year-old triathlete, world class marathoner and Olympic hope­ ful failed to yield at an intersection while biking. She was hit by a pick­ up truck and died on impact. Police reports showed no signs of impair­ ment on the part of the driver.

It’s easy to label this accident another tragic result of reckless train­ ing, and indeed Meyerhoff should have yielded to the truck. But Mey­ erhoff wasn’t the first athlete lost in an accident like this, and she won’t

be the last. That’s because the fac­ tors that led to these tragedies aren’t going to change anytime soon.

The roads are becoming more crowded. Long distance and triathlon races have taken the casual exercise world by storm; anyone trying to get fit trains for an ultra-marathon, and most take to the roads for training.

Some athletes have access to moun­ tain trails and quiet country roads, but an ironman competitor living in Toronto must find a way to do weekly 100 mile training rides, and must resort to the streets for large portions of the ride. As dangerous as the roads are, many runners are also wary of training in city parks after dusk and before dawn.

Technology is the other cul­ prit, making it easier and easier to

get distracted. Listening to music, checking Garmin watches or other GPS devices, and even using a cell phone while working out have be­ come the norm. I’m waiting for Apple to release an iHypnosis app so unenthusiastic runners can be in a totally altered state of consciousness while grinding out a 20-miler.

Most elite athletes don’t use these devices, preferring to focus on the training itself. This creates anoth­ er problem—these athletes are so fo­ cused that they prioritize their train­ ing over their safety. They think that stopping for two seconds to yield to a car will hamper their workout, or some just get into their “zone” and don’t notice potential hazards.

There’s always been tension between drivers, bikers, and runners.

Bikers are notorious for weaving in and out of cars and running stop signs, and runners can’t move fast enough to get out of risky situations.

This tension can lead to even more dangerous behaviour.

As in most cities, the streets in Montreal aren’t wide enough to accommodate the bike lanes. Com­ pounding the problem, most bike lanes are often occupied by a traffic jam of commuters, joggers, and seri­ ous bikers trying to move at differ­ ent speeds. Bike lanes often aren’t clearly marked and often aren’t continuous. While running I’ve al­ most been creamed by a cyclist and flipped them off only to look down and realize that I was in the wrong.

West Coast cities with strong envi­ ronmental focuses like Portland or

Vancouver are more accommodat­ ing. But the eco-friendly aren’t the only ones that have changed their layouts—Boston recently widened and painted its bike lanes to make them more obvious.

Elite and amateur athletes need to take responsibility for themselves while training. There are some obvi­ ous safety tips that all road runners and bikers should adhere to: wear reflective gear at night, avoid unfa­ miliar or heavily trafficked roads, and look twice before doing any­ thing illegal. But if we want to make any progress towards being healthy or being green, the roads will have to be shared, or else there will be more Sally Meyerhoffs stories.

— ShannonKimball

Curiosity Delivers, www.mcgilltribune.com

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HOCKEY

P a c io r e tty h it ig n it e s H u n d r e d s g a th e r o u ts id e

r e a c tio n

in c l a s s i c

B e ll C e n t r e in p r o t e s t o f h e a d s h o t s in h o c k e y a n d t h e l e a g u e ’s r e s p o n s e pie milled around, a large percent­ age of whom either belonged to the media or were trying to get on TSN by standing behind John Lu. The meagre crowd quickly dispersed as spectators filed into the arena long before puck drop.

Even in the face of criticism and low turnout organizer Henriquez called the event a “success.”

“We had one main objective, to get the opinion of the fans,” said Henriquez. “[And to that end] we received 1,100 signatures on our petition.” The petition demands that the NHL institute new regulations and measures against violent hits on

By Sam Hunter and Steve Chamberlain

A sparsely-attended “anti-headshot” demonstration held outside of the Bell Centre on Tuesday, March 15 demonstrated little aside from pettiness and partisan fanhood.

The rally, held before a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals was organized in response to the year’s rash of head injuries in the NHL and the league office’s inadequate response.

Montreal fans in particular have been up in arms over a March 8 hit on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty by the NHL’s biggest player: 6’9” Norris Trophy-winning defenceman Zdeno Chara. On the play, Pacioretty, age 22, chipped the puck past Chara and was checked into the boards as he attempted to chase it into the offensive zone. The play would have been an uncontroversial two-minute minor penalty for interference, but the angle of the hit sent Pacioretty’s head directly into a stanchion between the player benches, leaving him with a grade three concussion and fractured ver­ tebrae. The young forward is still out indefinitely, but the Canadiens have speculated he will make a full recovery and may even return within five weeks.

Chara received a 5-minute major and a game misconduct on the play, but the NHL handed out no supplemental fine or suspension, which hasn’t sat well with Habs fans. This injury, adding to headshot concerns raised by serious concus­ sions to Sidney Crosby and other stars, prompted three Montrealers, Victor Henriquez, Jean-Francois Dubé, and Arcadio Marcuzzi to or­ ganize the Bell Centre rally through Facebook.

In a week where listed Habs fans as the 11th worst in sports—citing the infamous riots and looting that followed Cana­ diens’ playoff victories in 2008 and 2010—the event was criticized by

GQMagazine

media and prominent hockey per­ sonalities. Bruce Boudreau, coach of the visiting Capitals, wondered aloud at a Tuesday press conference, “What if that was Hal Gill that hit David Krejci? I don’t think there would be a protest going on here today ... if you don’t like it, don’t come to the games.” Montreal fans were also attacked in national news­ papers and online blogs, with Deadspin posing the question, “Really, Montreal Fans?”

Despite substantial attention in the national media, and over 1,600 “attending” on the protest’s Facebook page, the actual turnout was significantly lower. At any one time, between two to three hundred peo-

and Marquette are the Big East’s last hopes for redemption, but don’t ex­ pect much from them as this year’s Big East seems to be a case of quan­ tity over quality. Big East? More like Big Least.

RELATIVE BRILLIANCE

The first week of the NCAA tournament is behind us— and what a week it was. The Big Dance was in full force as buzzer beaters, last minute comebacks, questionable officiating, and countless upsets led the Tribune sports editors and many others to tearup their brackets in shock, awe, and disgust. The unpredictability of the past week was vintage March Madness and the amazing roller coaster ride will continue over the next two basketball-packed weeks.

THE BIG LEAST The Big East Conference set an NCAA record by sending 11 teams to the Big Dance. Unfortunately for them, it looks like all 11 teams will be eliminated in near-record time— only two are still standing. The Big

H a b s s ty le

East’s top three teams, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, and Syracuse, choked in the second round, getting upset by Butler, Florida State, and Marquette, respectively. Not to be outdone, St. John’s, Louisville, and Georgetown were all upset in the first. UConn

How many times have you cursed out a player, through your television, for making a bonehead­ ed, idiotic play that cost you a bet, your bracket or your sanity? Well, I’m done with that. After watching the countless errors and miscues that separate the amateurs in the NCAA from the seasoned pros in the NBA, and gesticulating foully at my com­ puter as the numbskulls murdered my bracket (there’s so much red on there I could fight a bull with it), I’ve finally realized that nobody’s perfect. This comes on the heels of an intramural basketball game in which my team had the ball in the frontcourt, up one with 30 seconds remaining. In the proceeding sec­ onds, we managed to turn over the ball twice, once directly underneath our own basket, and capped it off by sending one of the other team’s players to the line with 0.3 seconds remaining. At least compared to my team, every play in the tournament so far has been a shining example of

hockey rinks.

Ryan Thorpe, a Westmount resident who attended the protest carrying a double-sided sign read­ ing, “Should Bettman’s Arrogance Bodycheck Player Safety?” and “NHL Staunch-On Ignoring Player Safety,” hoped the rally would serve to convince NHL executives that the fans are truly concerned about player safety.

“I still play at 61, and love the game,” said Thorpe. “I don’t think it should degenerate into a violencefilled affair where great players like Crosby get their careers ended pre­ maturely.”

Over 1,100 fans signed a petion demanding an end to violent hits to the head. (All photos by Steve Chamberlain / McGill Tribune)

basketball genius.

as potential first-overall selections.

CANADIAN CONTENT

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

There are higher than normal levels of flannel, maple syrup, and beaver pelt at this year’s NCAA tournament. Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ontario and Corey Joseph of Ajax, Ontario were headlining the show-down in Texas before referee­ ing errors and late-game mistakes derailed their run against Arizona.

Robert Sacre of Vancouver had the Gonzaga Bulldogs poised for a long, upset-ridden run after toppling the red hot St. John’s Red Storm in the first round, but the team got Jimmered in the secound round. Still, Sacre must have impressed scouts.

Standing at 7’0” and 260, he’s got an NBA body already, and moves with a rare fluidity for players his size.

Factor in good free-throw shooting and Sacre seems like he has the tools to compete at an NBA level already.

“I never had time to look back.

But now I get the chance to, so, I’m going to miss it. I mean, Morehead is now my second home. I’m going to miss each and every last person that came out and supported us. I’m going to miss my teammates, play­ ing with them, having a great time. ... I’m going to miss being coached as hard as I was by Coach Tyndall.

Even though it was hard, it helped me.”

—

2011 NBA DRAFTEES Speaking of the NBA, there are a ton of players still in the tourna­ ment who are currently slated for the lottery in what’s supposed to be an incredibly weak draft.

There’s little in the way of ex­ pert consensus, with as many as eight different players being touted

KennethFaried, MoreheadState Seniorforwardandall-time NCAA rebounding leader; onbeing elimi­ natedfromthetournamentandplay­ inghisfinal collegegame.

“I don’t know. It’s tough. You know, I want to win and ... I’m a competitor, man. I just wanted to win the game, I don’t care about a scor­ ing record or anything else, man. I wanted to get to the Final Four and I didn’t get a chance to do that.”

— Jacob Pullen, Kansas State Se­ nior, fightingbacktears after scor­ ing38pointsandsettinghisschool’s all-timescoringrecordbutmissinga crucial game-tyingfreethrowinthe finalseconds.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

1

9

INDOOR SOCCER

M a r t l e t s s o a r in s h o o t o u t w h i l e R edm en

R ed m en

l o s e h e a r t b r e a k e r in Q u e b e c s e m i - f i n a l ; M a r t l e t s a d v a n c e t o Since the match ended in a tie, it went to penalty kicks. In indoor soccer only three players from each team get the chance to take a shot, meaning penalties are even more pressure-packed than their outdoor counterpart. Both McGill and Sher­ brooke scored on their first two op­ portunities. Unfortunately for Sher­ brooke, they missed their third shot whereas McGill converted, winning the game and a berth in the final against the University of Montreal Carabins.

By Rebecca Babcock Contributor

M A RTLETS

Game Even indoors, McGill’s wom­ en’s soccer team dominated their Quebec competitors.

The McGill Martlets are head­ ing to the Indoor Soccer Provincial Championships after defeating the University of Sherbrooke in a nailbiting game that was finally decided by penalty kicks.

Entering the semifinal undefeat­ ed, McGill came to play. They scored 25 minutes into the first half and had multiple other chances, but were un­ able to convert. McGill fought off Sherbrooke’s comeback for almost an hour, but with 15 minutes to play, the Vert et Or equalized.

“The game was a good [one] against a tough team,” said Head Coach Marc Mounicot. “It was re­ ally physical out there but we domi­ nated ... and played well.”

Season Recap The regular indoor season was a rousing success as the team finished with six wins and only one tie. How­ ever, since Montreal had the same record and a better goal differential, the Carabins ended up first in the standings going into the playoffs.

“Now that we’re in the play­ offs we’re not just doing the best we can,” said Mounicot. “During the regular season, we were more oriented towards a process of de­

velopment with equal playing time and working on technical things, but now we’re trying to win.”

The indoor season was about improving the team as a whole.

Defensive organization was an area of special attention, to appreciable success. While the Martlets allowed two goals in their first game, they allowed the same number over the remainder of the regular season and finished the year with an impressive 0.57 goals-against per-game aver­ age.

McGill faced UQAM in the first round of playoffs and beat them soundly in a 3-1 victory, propelling the team into the semifinal against Sherbrooke.

“We have a very competitive desire and each game we’re trying to do a little bit better, if we win the provincial championship it will be a great thing for the program and we will be very satisfied with the sea­ son,” said Mounicot.

The championship game is

s tu m b le

p r o v in c ia l c h a m p io n s h ip

against the University of Montreal on March 27 at Trois-Rivières.

REDMEN Game Losing in the semifinals seems to be the Redmen’s fate.

The McGill Redmen were sent home Sunday night after losing to the University of Quebec at TroisRivières in a penalty shootout.

McGill entered the semifi­ nals with a 3-1-2 record but UQTR dominated the scoring early with two goals. McGill fought back and rallied to tie the score at two. Yohann Capolungo and Stephen Keefe scored the McGill goals. Capolungo was awarded McGill Player of the Game.

The match ended in a tie and went into penalty kicks. Both McGill and Sherbrooke scored their first two opportunities, but, unfortu­ nately for the Redmen, they missed their third chance and the Patriotes scored their final penalty kick to take

the victory.

Season Recap The Redmen were undefeated in their first four regular season games as they alternated between wins and ties. In their second last game of the season, McGill played a tough team in Laval and lost a close 1-0 game. This was an improvement from their last game in the outdoor season against Laval when they lost 3-0.

McGill allowed only six goals over the course of the regular sea­ son, largely due to the strong play of their goaltenders. Matt Gilmour had an impressive performance in his game against Concordia Uni­ versity where he had 10 saves and a shutout.

Heading into the playoffs, McGill upped their play. Despite only beating UQAM 2-1 in their regular season matchup, the Redmen controlled their quarterfinal matchup en route to a commanding 5-1 vic­ tory.

S P O R T S @ M C G I L L T R I B U N E .C O M LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM Leadership Skills Development Workshops •In tere ste d in g ainin g skills in leadership?

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

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First-Year Office

If the answer is ‘yes' to any of the above, then don’t miss this opportunity to sign up for the Leadership Training

A PPL Y

M a x w e ll C u m m in gs D istin g u ish e d Lecture Sponsored by th e Faculty o f Arts

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W R IT IN G

This March, co m e an d check ou t...

Public Speaking 101 W e d n e sd a y , M a rc h

2 3 , 5 :3 0 -7 :3 0 p m

(D o w n to w n

c a m p u s )

Do you get the jitters when speaking in front of your class? Public speaking can be a requirement for many professions. This workshop will help you face your fears, as well as give you tips on being a better speaker.

Professional Etiquette in the Workplace T u e sd a y , M a rc h

2 9 , 5 :3 0 -7 :3 0 p m

(D o w n to w n

S A M P L E S A N D Y O U R

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Professionalism in the workplace can be a pivotal point in your success in your profession. Come learn different ideas in improving your professional etiquette..

BY FRIDAY, T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 2 4 , 5 : 3 0 p .m .

Registration now available via Minerva!

To access the site and/or see a complete list of workshops offered this semester, go to our website at:

www.mcgill.ca/firstyear/leadertraining/

For more info, drop by the in the

B ro w n

B u ild in g , S u ite

F irs t-Y e a r O ffic e

2 1 0 0 ,

or call

5 1 4 -3 9 8 -6 9 1 3

5 P.M .

This event is open to the public. Reception to follow.

F o r m o re in fo rm a tio n , p le a s e c o n ta c t P ro fe s s o r Jo h n H ail at jo h n . a .h a ll@ m c g ill.c a

T H I N K Y O U ’RE M O R E A W E S O M E TH A N M ORE

A T -R E X F L Y I N G A N INCREDIBLE T H A N

INCREDIBLE

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FOR Y O U !

APPLY T O BE A TRIBUNE EDITOR NEXT YEAR. WE NEED EDITORS FOR NEWS, OPINION, FEATURES AND STUDENT LIVING, ARTS & ENTERTAINM ENT, SPORTS, COPY, PHOTO, DESIGN, ONLINE, MANAGING, PRODUCTION MANAGER, AND IN-HOUSE AD EDITOR. SEND A LETTER OF INTEN T, THREE WRITING, DESIGN, OR PH O TO SAMPLES, A CV, AND AN INDICATION OF YOUR AWESOMENESS TO EDITOR@MCGILLTRIBUNE.COM BEFORE FRIDAY, MARCH 25 AT 5 P.M.

L

PAY L E S S - P R IN T L E S S I n tr o d u c in g

• C h e a p e r : Copy and print costs for students are reduced to 6$ per single page and 20

$ per colour page (plus tax).

u P r in t,

• G r e e n e r : Default double-sided printing on recycled paper.

• F r e e s c a n n in g : Send scanned documents to yourself, classmates or professors via email.

a cheaper,

• F o llo w - m e - a n y w h e r e p r in tin g : Send your print job from any computer.

Then release it at any public uPrint printer on campus using your McGill ID card.

g reen er w ay

• P r in t n o w , p a y la te r : Costs are charged directly to your student account.

• N o m o r e c o p y c a rd s : Refunds will be available during the transition period.

t o p r in t, c o p y and scan

Each year, McGill printers and copiers produce 75 million impressions — a stack of paper U times the height of the CN Tower. Help us save paper while you save money. uPrint is launching in all McGill libraries, residences and public areas over the next few weeks.

a t M c G ill.

Learn more at http://kb.mcgill.ca/it/uprint

P r in t