The McGill Tribune Vol. 30 Issue 4

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COMEBACK KID RETURNS WITH NEW ALBUM, PACE 14

Published by the Students' Society of McGill University Volume No. 30 Issue No. 4 WÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊmÊmm

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Guidelines proposed for laptop ban

Redmen fall victim ta Concordia comeback

Prohibition would end in-class use

By Nick Frid

____

C o n trib u to r The days o f over-the-shoulder Face book stalking and bemoaning the poor Tetris m oves o f the girl sit­ ting in front o f you could be coming to an end. A work group made up o f a Teaching and Learning subcom­ mittee o f the Academic Policy Com­ mittee has developed guidelines for professors to outline the kind o f ac­ tion they can take regarding mobile device use in M cGill classrooms.

This has led to talks o f banning lap­ tops. or at least restricting their use.

Arash Abizadeh, a McGill po­ litical science professor, has already taken advantage o f the new guide­ lines by com pletely banning the use o f mobile computing or communi­ cation devices in his classrooms, barring extenuating circumstances.

Abizadeh cited multiple stud­

about the way it was adopted and the

ies linking evidence o f the use o f such devices in the classroom to poor academic performance, greater distraction for users and fellow stu­ dents, and decreased ability to “di­ gest and synthesize” main points.

Although evidence exists sup­ porting these claim s, it could be­ com e a problem for students who depend on their laptops take notes legibly and keep them organized.

Katherine Barry, U 2 chemical engi­ neering, said the use o f her tablet PC is essential to staying organized, and the programs are extremely helpful for work pertaining to her major.

“A lot o f m y classes involve drawing graphs, com plex formulas, and pictures,” she said. “The tab­ let laptop allows me to draw those

See “CUTS” on page 2

See “LAPTOPS” on page 3

Redmen fens go crazy at the Fill the Stadium game on Friday. See article on page 18. { John Kelsey / McGill Tribune )

McGill no longer subsidizing French classes International students to pay full tuition for university FRSL courses

By Matt Essert_________________ N ew s Editor After several years o f subsidiz­ ing French as a Second Language class fees for international students, McGill has determined that it can no longer afford to offer the program at such a low cost.

Last spring, the university de­ cided that it would raise internation­ al tuition rates for FRSL classes in

to improve M cGill’s severe deficit.

According to Students’ Soci­ ety Vice-President University A f­ fairs Joshua Abaki, the Ministry o f Education subsidized the fees which allowed international students to pay Quebec tuition rates for French classes at McGill until 2008.

“When [the Ministry o f Educa­ tion] stopped providing that subsidy because o f deregulation o f interna­ tional tuition, M cGill still continued

enabling international students to pay Quebec rates,” he said.

The lower tuition rates were of­ fered as part o f the Principal’s Task Force on Diversity, Excellence and Community Engagement’s policy o f encouraging international students to learn French and better assimilate into the Montreal community. After the Ministry o f Education stopped subsidizing the fees, M cGill contin­ ued to offer the lower tuition rates,

but has since decided that this is no longer possible.

“The university is severely underfunded,” said Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson. “It simply cannot af­ ford to deliver services like this for free.”

The change has raised concerns

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N e w s CAMPUS

Lunchtime science Students line up for free, delicious soup

By T h e o M ey e r

Managing Editor

For McGill students, Midnight Kitchen is usually the best bet for snagging a free lunch on campus.

But for one week at the beginning of each semester, Soup and Science edges out the vegan cooperative, of­ fering free soup, sandwiches, and lectures by some of McGill’s bright­ est young professors.

The idea behind Soup and Sci­ ence, said Faculty of Science Dean Martin Grant, originated several years ago when McGill was in the midst of a hiring boom.

“We hired so well and so fast that we lost track of who everybody was,” Grant said.

As the university hired dozens of new professors each year, various departments held mixers in which scientists would briefly explain their research over wine and cheese or, less traditionally, cookies and beer.

About five years ago, those informal discussions grew into Soup and Sci­ ence, which celebrated its 10th an­ niversary last week.

Every day for a week, four or five recently hired McGill profes­ sors address a packed house of un­ dergraduates—and a few graduate students—in the Redpath Museum’s auditorium. Each professor has

three minutes to explain his or her research, after which professors and students line up for soup and sand­ wiches in the museum’s lobby.

Fitting several years’ worth of research into three minutes is a tre­ mendous feat of concision, which each scientist approached it differ­ ently at last week’s event.

Christopher Barrett, a charis­ matic chemist who researches new ways to mimic organic phenomena, spoke rapidly, giving several exam­ ples of the kind of natural phenome­ na from that inspires scientists—ev­ erything from seashells to spiders.

“You want to see the world’s best solar cell?” he asked. “Go take a walk in the woods.”

Barrett is currently working on mimicking one of nature’s least appealing substances: mucous.

Human bodies, he said in his brief lecture, often reject artificial organ transplants because of the devices’ unfamiliar metal surfaces. His lab is working to create a synthetic mu­ cous with which doctors can coat such organs.

After the presentations, Grant asked students in the audience tech­ nical questions about the information the scientists had just breathlessly spewed. When a student got an an­ swer right, Grant lobbed a rolled-up Soup and Science t-shirt to the lucky

S tu d en ts atten d S oup and Science in th e R edpath M u s e u m a u d ito riu m . ( C a b riela C ilm o u r / M c G ill T rib u n e )

undergraduate. Às they slurped soup after the presentations, many undergraduates stood in small semicircles around the professors who had spoken, ask­ ing questions about their research.

Getting more undergraduates involved in research is a major goal of Soup and Science, said Victor Chisholm, the Faculty of Science’s undergraduate research coordinator, who has run Soup and Science since its inception. Because most of the scientists who speak are fairly new to McGill, they are also more likely to need help in their labs.

Undergraduate interest in re­ search has picked up since the event began, Chisholm said. “In the last year or two, I’ve got more questions from students about research, even [those] in U0,” he said.

Many students who attended were enthusiastic about spending their lunch hour listening to the sci­ entists’ presentations.

“It’s been absolutely wonder­ ful—probably just one notch below Frosh,” said Alex Geller, a U1 mi­ crobiology and immunology student who went twice last week.

Geller, who works in Donald

Sheppard’s microbiology lab. on campus, said Soup and Science can help undergraduates feel comfort­ able approaching their professors.

“This sort of bridges the gap between being a student and doing research,” he said.

Students aren’t the only ones who hold Soup and Science in high regard, though. At the end of his pre­ sentation, Barrett grinned.

“I learn a lot from these things, too,” he said with a laugh.

CITY

Cuts concern VP University Affairs Bat found with rabies C o n tin u ed fro m C O V E R

time frame for notifying students.

“Normally [McGill] does such a good job of telling the students [about fee increases], and they al­ ways give students enough time to plan ahead,” Abaki said. “This time that wasn’t done.”

Mendelson, however, said the university made numerous attempts to let affected students know of the tuition increase for FRSL classes.

“Websites were updated in early April to convey this information to students and an email was sent to students registered in the courses in order to give them enough time to change their programs, if they wanted to, without penalty,” he said.

“For the summer term, students who were newly registered for the pro­ grams were notified in early May.” Abaki maintained that students were not realistically given enough time to “actually plan ahead and budget.”

Abaki also pointed out that the fee increase schedule has been

Animal discovered at Roddick Gates pushed back for graduate students, giving them more time to take FRSL classes with lower fees.

Ryan Hughes, VP external of the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill Univeristy, explained that graduate students were not informed of the fee increase until September 1 2010, so the administration did not increase these fees for the fall.

"The waiving of fees for the Fall semester was not [the PGSS’s] doing,” he said.

Hughes added that although graduate students have had more time to prepare for the changes, he is unhappy with McGill’s decision. ' “I find these increases prob­ lematic considering our diverse stu­ dent population and their ability to both comfortably perform at McGill and appreciate the vibrant culture of Montreal,” said Hughes. “Obvi­ ously McGill is trying to balance the budget and of course, we are in hard economic times, but what the administration is doing is extremely short-sighted.”

The issue will be addressed at

Wednesday’s Senate meeting, and Abaki is hoping a resolution can be reached so that McGill can make a commitment to provide all students the opportunity to enroll in FRSL courses if so inclined.

“If that means setting aside a lot of money raised from tuition for financial aid specifically for those courses, that would definitely help the situation,” Abaki said.

“Of course another thing would be to consider postponing the tuition increases maybe until the winter se­ mester, or until next year, just so that students have enough time to plan ahead,” he added.

“Charging tuition that we must, and which we are entitled to charge, shouldn’t be seen as a lack of sup­ port for international students who are trying to engage more fully with the Quebec community and society,” Mendelson said. “We do, of course, try to help students who find them­ selves in financial need and in this case students were invited to contact the Scholarships and Student Aid Office if they needed help.”

By Sean W ood _____________

Sports Editor

A deceased bat found Septem­ ber 10 at the corner of Sherbrooke and McGill College has tested posi­ tive for rabies, according to Mon­ treal public health officials.

Officials are looking for anyone whom the bat may have scratched or bitten. One person was bitten while trying to put the bat in a box, Là Presse reported Friday, and officials have urged anyone else who may have been in contact with the animal to seek medical assistance or exami­ nation, even if they have no visible symptoms of rabbies.

“In the case of a bat, [the] bite can be very small and not cause you concern,” said a notice from the Montreal Public Health Depart­ ment.

Rabies is transmitted when in­ fected saliva enters the bloodstream, which can take place through an open cut, the mouth, or the nose. If left untreated, rabies is fatal, but an

infection can be treated easily with­ in the first 21 to 90 days of initial contact.

According to the Gazette, the bat was captured and taken to the Biodome for analysis. Last week, test results were issued indicating that the bat was carrying rabies.

Most of Montreal’s bat popula­ tion is harmless, while only a small percentage are rabid, according to the Gazette. In 2000, a Quebec resi­ dent died after being bitten by an in­ fected bat. Although deaths in North America are rare, 50,000 people die of rabies each year around the world.

Officials have posted warnings around the McGill campus, and are asking people with information or questions to call Info-Santé at 81! or McGill Health Services at 514398-6017.

Septem ber 21, 2010

3 CITY

World Energy Summit tackles Canadian tar sands WES discusses the future of fossil fuels; various views and options for energy alternatives addressed

By Z ach C o n n e rty -M a rin

Contributor

Greenpeace protesters greeted delegates at the World Energy Con­ gress 2010, a triennial energy sum­ mit held at the Palais de Congrès last week, while covered in molasses in an attempt to resemble crude oil—a protest against drilling in the Cana­ dian tar sands.

“The Charest government must announce an immediate moratorium on exploration for oil and gas in Que­ bec,” said Virginie Lambert-Ferry, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace, in a press release.

Activists said they were con­ cerned about the drilling process, which increases carbon dioxide emissions and creates excess sulfur deposits, damaging the environ­ ment.

The tar sands, however, are vi­ able sources of oil. particularly for the United States. According to Rod Sobchishin, the director of business development at Willbros, a Calgary company that builds oil pipelines, the tar sands are the largest source of oil exported to the U.S. Oil is cur­ rently being extracted from three tar sands in Alberta, which account for over 40 per cent of the domestically produced oil in Canada, according to the WEC 2010 Survey of Energy Resources Executive Summary.

After their initial protests, Greenpeace took action through bu­ reaucratic channels on Wednesday.

Julien Vincent, also a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace, spoke at a WEC issue session on “public awareness and involvement in decision making.”

He greeted the crowd of energy

executives saying, “We are here to remove your social and political rights to operate as dirty energy companies.”

Vincent then explained Green­ peace’s “Energy Revolution” sce­ narios, which suggest that carbon emissions can be reduced up to 84 per cent by 2050 using renewable energy. The German space agency developed the software that Vincent uses to create models which are then verified by the European Renewable Energy Council and local experts.

Helene Pelosse, interim di­ rector-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, spoke later on Wednesday saying that 50 per cent of the world’s energy could be renewable energy by 2050. This is contradictory to Vincent’s 100 per cent renewable energy scenario.

During Q&A for the public

awareness session, a member of the audience asked Vincent about his views on nuclear power, a muchdiscussed topic at WEC. Vincent re­ plied that he does not support nuclear energy because of its associated dan­ gers. Pierre Guimond, president and CEO of the Canadian Electric As­ sociation, who chaired the session, then mentioned that Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, was in support of nuclear energy.

Many other speakers promoted nuclear energy at this year’s WEC, discussing the need to educate the public on the benefits and safety of nuclear power.

“Energy security is in the fore­ front again,” said Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of AREVA. “Once we build the [nuclear] plant, we know how much it will cost for the next sixty years.”

Petr Shchedrovitskiy, deputy

director general of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosa­ tom, discussed recent advancements in nuclear technology. Nuclear “fast reactors” are theoretically capable of using spent fuel from thermal reac­ tors and carbon-free generation.

The final WEC press release stated: “included representatives from various sectors of the energy industry and Greenpeace have con­ firmed that it is impossible to expect successful implementation of proj­ ects if citizens are not involved in the consultation process.”

However, Vincent expressed disappointment in the integration of executives and delegates.

“The level of involvement in civil society in this congress has not been what it should be,” he said.

CAMPUS

Laptops a distraction

AUS VP Events Londe steps down Personal reasons cited as cause for resignation

C o n tin u ed fro m C O V E R

by hand when needed. I also use a program called OneNote, which lets you take screen clips of any of the content published online. I can get the notes online and insert them into my personal notes to keep every­ thing in one place.”

Some students who use laptops in class, though, admit it can be a distraction. Stas Moroz, U3 eco­ nomics and political science, said he uses his laptop for certain classes but it sometimes affects his focus.

“Sometimes I’ll check my email and check the news, and when the professor is saying important stuff, I’ll miss it,” he said.

Some students believe the bur­ den is on the professor to keep them

interested and engaged. Theo Lyons, U3 political science, noted, “If the professor is boring, then I get dis­ tracted, but if the professor is really engaging, then the laptop doesn’t distract me.”

While it may be difficult for some students to give up laptop use in class, it will be seen as a positive for others who take notes by hand and could avoid being preoccupied by other student’s laptops.

“I don’t mind if people just have their Word document open and they’re taking notes,” said Trenton Millar, U2 political science and reli­ gious studies. “It’s distracting when they’re on Facebook, and then CNN, then some blog, then Wikipedia and they’re all over the place.”

U n d e r th e proposed reg u latio n s, professors could ask s tu d en ts to tu rn o f f laptops and o th e r m o b ile devices in class. ( A lissa Fingold / M c G ill T rib u n e )

By M a ria Flores

News Editor

Arts Undergraduate Society Vice-President Events Nampande Londe resigned her position on Tuesday, citing personal reasons.

Londe had recently come under fire for allowing Arts Frosh to run a budget deficit and faced the pos­ sibility that AUS Council would im­ peach her. But she and AUS Presi­ dent Dave Marshall denied that this was the reason for her resignation.

“Confusion has come out of all this, at least the perception is that she resigned as a result of this unfortunate deficit,” Marshall said. “[But] she’s no longer a student at McGill, so she is ineligible to be the vice-president events and she had to resign.”

Marshall also denied that the AUS was planning to impeach Londe, although the decision to do so was ultimately in the hands of AUS Council.

“Right off the bat,even though, of course, as a body we were dis­ cussing a variety of different ways of taking responsibility for this, there was no plan to go ahead with an impeachment,” Marshall said.

Londe, on the other hand, never considered resigning, but conceeded that impeachment did cross her mind after AUS realized Frosh had run a deficit.

“I stood by what we did, you impeach someone because they

do something unlawful, wrong, or unethical,” she said. “There was nothing unethical about opening up Frosh to more kids or restricting it to first years in the Faculty of Arts. It was a risk that we took in consulta­ tion with the Frosh coordinators.”

AUS executives first became aware of the deficit in the aftermath of Frosh. The event, they said, did not actually run over budget. Instead not enough first-years registered for the event to break even.

“From all the information that we had there was no reason to pre­ dict that it was not going to work,” she said. “[What went wrong] in my opinion was mostly that we had a stricter policy regarding who was al“ F rom all th e in fo rm a tio n th a t w e had th e re w as no reaso n to p re d ic t th a t it w as n o t g o in g to w o rk.

[W h a t w e n t w ro n g ] in m y o p in io n w as m o stly th a t w e had a s tric te r policy re g a rd in g w h o w as a llo w ed to re g is te r.”

— N a m p a n d e Londe, fo rm e r A U S V P events

lowed to register.”

In addition, Londe explained that there are no institutionalized procedure within AUS regarding the way budgets are done, and how re­ cords are kept to make sure informa­

tion is passed on to future years.

“It seems that in previous years there was just this sort of idea that it didn’t matter which events were over budget so long as at the end of the year they broke even,” she said.

“My policy going out of Frosh was that any event that should be put out there should cover its own expens­ es.”

As for future events in the AUS portfolio, both Marshall and Londe said they will not be affected, main­ ly because the vast majority of AUS services are funded through inde­ pendent fees.

“We did run a deficit for frosh, but the way AUS is run, that is not going to affect the rest of student services for the year,” Londe said.

“Also the details of the budget are never looked back at, so this does not mean that the rest of the events are not going to be less quality events.

“I feel [that] people sometimes have a tendency to jump to conclu­ sion and get really agitated about things before having enough facts to have a real perspective of what’s going on,” she added. “AUS is still taking steps towards making sure that no other events this year run a deficit.”

The AUS wiill hold a byelection at their council meeting on Wednesday to fill the VP events po­ sition.

Curiosity Delivers, www.mcgilltribune.com

4 SCIENCE

In Italy, patients anaesthetized by doctors an ocean aw ay

Using McSleepy, M cGill anaethesiologists perform world’s first remote sedation

By A n n e H a ld a n e __________________ Contributor

You are about to undergo inva­ sive surgery, and the anaesthesiologist begins to administer the drugs that will put you to sleep while he sits in a lab 8,000 kilometres away.

This situation is now a reality thanks to an interface developed by Dr. Thomas Hemmerling and his team from McGill’s department of anaesthesia.

Several years ago, Hemmer­ ling created McSleepy, a software system that automatically infuses anaesthetizing drugs into patients.

On August 30, his team operated the software remotely, using an Internet connection to monitor patient body signals, transmit system commands, and video chat with doctors per­ forming the surgery abroad.

“It’s an extraordinary tech­ nological development that could be enormously useful to help with anaesthesia in remote locations,” said Fernando Cervero, director

of McGill’s Anaesthesia Research Unit.

Collaborating with Dr. Cedrick Zaouter’s team at the University of Pisa, Hemmerling’s group sat at their “anaesthesia cockpit” in Mon­ treal and anaesthetized 20 patients undergoing thyroid surgery in Italy.

In addition to using automated sys­ tems, Hemmerling conducted a pre­ operative assessment of the patients using Skype video conferencing, including discussion of patient his­ tory and measurement of patients’ airways using rulers held by staff in Italy.

“We had two automated sys­ tems communicating with each other [and] communication was controlled through an automated system with us here in Montreal,” Hemmerling said.

From the cockpit, Hemmer­ ling’s team gave the system com­ mands to administer the drugs for general anaesthesia.

“The systems are specifically designed so that they deliver an­

aesthesia in the safest possible way, probably even safer than if you do it manually. There are many, many safety checks,” he said.

During surgery, laptops showed four video screens monitoring the surgery and various biological sig­ nals of the patients, providing doc­ tors with the same information they would have if they were present in the room.

“If for some reason the local doctors don’t like what the automat­ ed system is doing, they can always stop it or override it,” Hemmerling said. “Even if communication breaks down, the local automated system would still function during our re­ establishment of the connection.”

A particular focus of the test procedure was to determine the fre­ quency of manual overrides or Inter­ net misconnections. Neither prob­ lem occurred in any of the surgeries, though.

Hemmerling and other anaes­ thetists envision multiple potential uses for the combined technology

of video conferencing and automatic anaesthesia.

“There is big incentive from the World Health Organization to develop more and more of what we call ‘telemedicine,” he said. “Trans­ continental anaesthesia is definitely part of this.”

Many, countries in Africa have very few anaesthesiologists. An au­ tomated system, Hemmerling said, could make anaesthesia more acces­ sible even in remote areas.

“At this point, we do not have enough specialists in remote areas, even in Canada when you go to rural areas up north,” Hemmerling said. “Even if you are a specialist, you might have to deal with very complicated cases where you would prefer to have an automated system helping you and an expert team as a backup, with whom you can consult in real time.”

Besides helping isolated doc­ tors, Hemmerling said he foresees the possible use of the technology as a teaching tool for training residents

and for providing preoperative as­ sessments remotely without having patients travel to the hospital.

Groups in the military and space industries have also expressed an in­ terest in making use of the technol­ ogy for surgery in locations with few or no specialist doctors available.

Steven Backman, chair of McGill’s department of anaesthesia, emphasized the novelty of Hemmer­ ling’s process.

“You are able in real time to get a lot of biological information about the patient and also control the delivery of drugs over a long dis­ tance,” Backman said. “It’s impor­ tant to bear in mind that it doesn’t replace the anaesthesiologist, but it certainly allows you to provide an­ aesthesia care with the input from doctors over any distance.

“We’re very excited about this,” he added. “We look forward to see­ ing how this is going to evolve. It’s very, very new technology.”

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S ep tem b er 21, 2010

NEWS IN BRIEF

CAMPUS

TaCEQ gears up for a second year Safety Week delights Provincial lobbying group aims to fight tuition hikes

Security makes its services visible

By N o ah C aldw ell-R afferty

By M a ria Flores

Contributor

The Quebec Student Round­ table (QSR, or TaCEQ in French), a provincial student lobbying group, is gearing up its campaign for the coming school year.

TaCEQ represents the student associations of the undergraduate and graduate students of Laval Uni­ versity, the graduate students of the University of Sherbrooke, and the Students’ Society of McGill Uni­ versity. According to SSMU VicePresident External Myriam Zaidi, the organization represents roughly 65,000 students in total.

“We’ve been working already in conjunction with these associa­ tions that are a part of TaCEQ right now,” Zaidi said. “We meet once a month, at a roundtable of the asso­ ciations.”

TaCEQ, which was started last fall, spent much the last year draft­

ing its bylaws and campaigning to introduce paid practicums for Edu­ cation students. This year, however, TaCEQ plans on tackling a number of issues facing Quebec universities, including the tuition hikes scheduled to be rolled out in 2012.

“We are trying to get different actors in Quebec to endorse alterna­ tive solutions to underfunding in­ stead of tuition increases, whether it’s businesses, university adminis­ tration, or the government,” Zaidi said.

The coming tuition hikes are being approached in different ways by the different student lobby group, throughout the province. Others in­ clude the Quebec Federation of Uni­ versity Students (FEUQ), and the Student Union Solidarity Associa­ tion (ASSE).

“They all go at it differently to a certain extent just to make sure that they offer something different to their constituents,” Zaidi said. “We

will be going at it in the sense that we really want increased govern­ ment funding for universities.”

This differs from FEUQ’s cam­ paign, which, according to their website, is focused largely on the management of finances in univer­ sity administrations.

However, there is some overlap when these different groups come together at the Table of University Partners (TPU). “It’s a roundtable of all the partners in Quebec universi­ ties. That includes student groups, professors’ unions, teaching assis­ tant unions, and others,” said Zaidi.

TaCEQ is in the process of ob­ taining recognition by the Quebec government, which would allow them to get government funding.

Zaidi is also working on increasing the group’s visibility at McGill by promoting TaCEQ’s English-lan­ guage acronym, QSR.

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OMSAS

www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/

News Editor

Starting as “Safety Day” at McDonald Campus and continuing downtown over the next four days, the second annual Safety Week took place at McGill last week. The event was opened by Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, and included a series of presentations, games, and a clos­ ing barbecue.

“Safety Week’s purpose is re­ ally to get as much of our informa­ tion out to the community, and for the community members to know exactly what we do, and who we are,” said Pierre Barbarie, associate director of university safety.

A Safety Week tent was located on Lower Field where tables repre­ senting security, emergency mea­ sures and fire prevention, and en­ vironmental health and safety were accessible to students and staff.

In addition, some student clubs, such as McGill First Aid and McGill Walksafe, were at the tent, as well non-McGill organizations like the Commission for Health and Securi­ ty at Work (CSST), who showcased what they do for the university com­ munity.

“That was a positive for us too, to really get our partners involved in

Safety Week,” Barbarie said.

Issues including hostile intrud­ er, ergonomics (health and safety), and self-defence were among the topics of the presentations. Ten dif­ ferent sessions were held throughout the week, which people could attend by registering online.

While last year’s concept was kept the same in terms of what McGill Security offers to the com­ munity, Barbarie explained the mar­ keting and advertising aspects were done differently this time around.

Emails in the form of “All-notes” to students and staff were used as an attempt to attract more people, and the registration was done through myMcGill, which brought a lot of positive feedback.

“We tried to get out there a lit­ tle more in terms of trying to attract more people, so we did a little more advertising,” Barbarie said.

On average, attendance in­ creased to 25 people per presenta­ tion compared to six or seven last year according to Barbarie. The number of people who came into the tent and stopped at the tables was also greater than it was last year.

“We really want to keep this an annual thing [and] visibility is huge, so we definitely want to increase the numbers,” Barbarie said.

Ontario Medical School Application Service S ep tem ber 15, 2010: Last day to create an account for the online application O ctober 1, 2010: Application deadline

0LSA S

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Ontario Law School Application Service N o vem b er 1, 2010: Application deadline for first-year English programs M a y 1, 2011: Application deadline for upper-year programs

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O p in io n

Scrap th e Q u e b e c T u itio n M o d el Unlike some students at McGill, I have been largely satisfied with Heather Munroe-Blum as our Principal. Her administration has brought common sense and innova­ tion to a university defined by bu­ reaucracy and hierarchy. The recent creation of the Service Point, for ex­ ample, is a welcome change.

More than her peers, MunroeBlum has advocated strongly for tuition reform in Quebec. She lob­ bied aggresively for this in McGill’s recent report to the Quebec National Assembly, and she has been taking flak for the decision, which however was made correctly, and has been a long time coming.

Quebec has simply never had a sustainable tuition model. To para­ phrase Margaret Thatcher, the state eventually runs out of other people’s money. A financial double-edged sword threatens McGill’s poten­ tial—a government whose contribu­ tion is consistently weak, and also students' demands that tuition rates be frozen at artificially low levels.

The Quebec model is loved within this province, and despised in the rest of Canada. This is because it is paid for, in part, by the nearly $8 billion in equalization payments that flow to Quebec City from Ot­ tawa every year.

There is no solid evidence that the Quebec model improves educa­ tion. In fact, Quebec lags behind Canada for proportions of young people holding a university degree.

Quebec’s graduation rate lies well below the OECD average. Mean-

while, Quebec has had the lowest rate of increase of those holding de­ grees in the entirety of Canada since 1992.

At the expense of quality, in­ frastructure, and competitiveness, Quebec’s universities have suffered from obscenely low tuition rates that don’t even serve their intend­ ed purpose of improving access to post-secondary education.

The problem is only com­ pounded by the grant system; at least, what can barely be described as a grant system. While Quebec falls safely in the middle of Cana­ dian provinces in terms of general operating grants per student, it does not compensate for artificially low tuition. The result is that Quebec falls chronically below the funding per student of nearly all other North American jurisdictions.

The Quebec model is dying, and will probably not survive the deficit cutting that will define gov­ ernment legislation for the foresee­ able future.

I would never argue for the American tuition model. MunroeBlum is certainly not making that argument. Her suggestion is reason­ able: raise tuition to the Canadian average, where more students are going to school despite the increased cost of education. By increased cost, I do not mean to a level that will suddenly force low-income students out of university. That hasn’t hap­ pened in Ontario, Alberta, or Brit­ ish Columbia. It will not happen in Quebec. We must balance the af­ fordability of our education with a simple reality: someone has to pay for it, and if we don’t, the govern­ ment won’t either.

So I give this message to Mu­ nroe-Blum: soldier on. You are rat­ tling sabres that other Quebec uni­ versities refuse to. In the end, it will give this university the resources it needs to achieve its potential. These are sabres that need to be rattled.

Polarize M e M arko Djurdjic 4k. mdjurdjic@mcgilltriburîëTcom^

M cG ill once too m any I despise the “McGill Once, McGill Twice” cheer. The words are as follows: McGill once, McGill twice, holy fucking Jesus Christ. Wham, ham, God damn, son of a bitch, shit! Three cheersfor McGill: Fuck!

Fuck! Fuck! Three cheers for fuck­ ing: McGill! McGill! McGill!

Since the first time I heard that song, I never thought it to be any­ thing more than a crude little piece of cheering that had little to do with the spirit of McGill. Yes, I get the point of the song. It’s supposed to be funny and to reflect a sense of school pride, but its vulgaritycombined with the amount of boor­ ish behaviour I witnessed at the McGill-Concordia football game Friday night—is beyond annoying.

Yes, football is a spectator sport, and it invites all sorts of lewd and debaucherous behavior, which is fine—as long as it’s in tune with the game. However, when you’re talk­ ing to your friends, swinging around

your five dollar can of Molson Ex with your back turned to the game you supposedly came to watch (fea­ turing a team from the school you supposedly support), things get a little bit pointless. Screaming and waving to your friend 50 rows back while you block my view is alright for maybe 10 seconds, but holding a full conversation while drunk from that distance gets quickly irritating for those caught in between.

My rant is especially addressed to the young gentleman from Mc­ Connell Hall, who wouldn’t shut up with the “McGill Once, McGill Twice” song, or stop smoking for the whole first half. I get that it’s cool to look like you’re the one starting the cheers all the time, and it makes you proud and allows you to fist pump with the boys when the cheer is done and you’ve officially done some­ thing for the university, but trust me, you’re not the first to try to rally the student body into singing a song that is, in itself, pretty bad. The cheer that exists to belittle Concordia would have made much more sense given the fact that we were, in fact, play­ ing a football game against Concor­ dia. This cheer, although also in the crass department, was maybe heard twice through the first half, while the “McGill Once, McGill Twice” cheer was sang every three minutes or so.

The fascination with a song that has nothing to do with sports or rivalries or mentally intimidating the oppos­ ing team still astounds me.

I’m all for school spirit. I enjoy championing McGill, but this cheer has nothing to do with school spirit.

My qualm with the song is that stu­ dents will find any opportunity, in or out of school, to scream it at the top of their lungs. This is especially true during Frosh. On Lower Field, around other students, after a bunch of beers, cheer this song to your heart’s content. However, I do take offence when you’re screaming it on St. Catherine Street while a 10-yearold walks by, hand-in-hand with his mother. As a leader, I tried my best to vocalize the song strictly within the bounds of the campus, but there were always groups who were very raucous in their support of the cheer.

I may be alone in my distaste, but even so, a modicum of decorum whilst cheering would be appreci­ ated. I know the Concordia song is difficult to learn, longer, and more complicated, and I sympathize. But if you’re at a sporting event where we’re playing our in-town rivals, think about learning it. Maybe next time we can scream it together.

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On his blog for the New Re­ public, the neo-liberal magazine he owns and edits, Marty Peretz recent­ ly wrote of American Muslims: “I wonder whether I need honour these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”

This shocking and seemingly racist line, which he later apologized for,

is an example of how the alwaysdifficult debate on the role of Islam in American culture has recently be­ come even more difficult, and more uncomfortable.

One of his critics, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, argued that Peretz’s statement is re­ flective of “how venomous and de­ based the discourse about Islam has become.” That one sentence indeed did not help Peretz make his argu­ ment, which was otherwise well thought out.

In the blog post, Peretz argued that there has never been any seri­ ous condemnation by Muslims of the heinous actions of some of their co-religionists. He pointed out that when Muslims kill other Muslims in the Middle East and Africa, few Muslims publicly speak up in criti­ cism.

Peretz was roundly criticized for his line, “Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims,” for which he did not apologize. Peretz also wrote: “I want to believe that Muslims are traumatized by the un­ relieved murders in Islamic lands ...

This intense epidemic of slaughter has been going on for nearly a de­ cade and a half ... without protest, without anything.” This is in con­ trast to when, for instance, the Israeli intelligence agency killed a Hamas operative in Dubai a few months ago, and the world was outraged and protested vehemently. There seems, to both Peretz and to me, to be a double standard at play here.

Kristof, who called Peretz’s statement racist, said the “suggestion that Muslims don’t value human life is ... a slur.” But describing the sad state of affairs does not mean he is

encouraging it. Peretz wasn’t mak­ ing a racist comment, but simply noting the absence of free discourse and open dialogue in Muslim soci­ eties. If Muslims do disagree with the actions of their fellow Muslims, they seem to stay mostly quiet about it, whether out of fear or jiist igno­ rance.

My main problem with Peretz is that he tends to generalize. He writes that there has not been a “sin­ gle demonstration aimed at Muslim or Arab interests or their commit­ ments to foreign governments and, more likely, to foreign insurgen­ cies and quite alien philosophies.”

It is unacceptable for a prominent writer to generalize that all Muslims have the same views and loyalties.

Throughout the article, he uses spe­ cific, cherry-picked examples to in­ dicate that all Muslims act and think

alike, which only reflects his igno­ rance about Muslims, and especially Muslim-American culture.

This generalization can have consequences beyond inaccurate re­ porting. Newsweek quoted a Taliban operative who argued that by virtue of the protests against the “mosque” near Ground Zero, “America is doing us a big favour. It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.”

The kind of extremism exhibit­ ed by the mosque’s opponents—and

by Peretz at his worst—only sup­ ports the cause of Islamic extrem­ ists, and undermines those Ameri­ can Muslims who might otherwise be more confident in speaking out against their violent brethren.

T h e M cG ill

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E d i t o r i a l ----------------------------Hiring tenure-track professors the way to go The Tribune commends McGill’s commitment to increas­ ing its number of tenure-track staff as part of its academic renewal pro­ gram. It is a welcome shift from a North American trend of reducing tenure-track professors in favour of course lecturers hired on short-term contracts. Confusion in the campus press, stemming in part from the am­ biguous and non-committal language of the McGill budget, had led many to believe that McGill was also re­ ducing its tenure-track hires for the foreseeable future. However, so far as we can tell from the budget, and through clarification by campus ad­ ministrators, this is not the case.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of tenure, a status that grants the professors who earn it guaranteed employment for life bar­ ring just cause for dismissal. For one thing, this is an important means of attracting the best teachers and re­ searchers to McGill. Tenure offers job security and, usually, higher pay.

This is significant for professors rais­ ing families, especially when hiring the best often means asking people to relocate across municipal, provin­ cial, and sometimes national borders.

This administration has argued for high administrative salaries in order to compete for the best in that field; surely the financial concerns of the teaching staff, who actually interact with students, are crucial too.

Tenure is also important for more qualitative reasons. It ensures continuity, allowing students to build relationships with professors over the course of their academic career. It is also a crucial guarantor of academic freedom, keeping professors who pursue controversial or unfashion­ able research safe from dismissal on such grounds. Of course, tenure can be abused, as when professors use it to protect themselves from suffering the consequences of laziness. Yet ac­ ademia is, at least in theory, supposed to be a higher calling. PhD students and non tenure-track scholars often face pressure to produce marketable material. A mechanism ensuring a more pure pursuit of knowledge is something we feel is worth defend­ ing. That the university has chosen to do so is something we applaud.

Yet concerns remain. Despite a promise to increase salaries for some staff, McGill’s budget promises to cut expenses as bought-out tenure-

track professors will be swapped with “replacements ... hired at a lower salary and benefit costs (pen­ sion contributions) will likely be lower.” As living costs rise, McGill is pushing academic salaries down.

This hardly seems like the way to attract the best professors, who after 10 years or more of post-secondary education are, love of the trade not­ withstanding, probably looking for an income on which to build a com­ fortable life.

While the Tribune is encour­ aged by clarifications from McGill administrators, it is concerned that vague and evasive wording in the budget has created such confusion.

The McGill Daily’s claim that aca­ demic renewal is “essentially insti­ tutionalizing professor turnover,” is dramatic, but not entirely inaccurate.

The budget aims to increase the ab­ solute number of tenure-track pro­ fessors to 1,636 by 2016. After that, it calls for a “stabilisation” of this number, even as it asks faculties to “stabilise or increase (where capacity exists) undergraduate enrolment, and significantly grow research graduate enrolment in the short to medium term.” The only ways of reconciling

the goals of stabilised tenure-track staff and increased enrolment are by increasing class sizes—asking staff to work more for their reduced wage—or by decreasing the propor­ tional number of tenure-track profes­ sors as contract lecturers or graduate students are hired to handle the boom of students. Both of these options threaten the quality of education at McGill. The administration must be clearer regarding how long it intends to maintain its target level of tenuretrack positions, and needs to adapt to changing demographic situations.

There are many elements of the McGill budget worth applauding, but the Tribune has reservations about certain ambiguities as well as about the pay reductions that the budget outlines all too clearly. McGill’s bud­ get deficit is a real concern. But as an academic institution it is at least sup­ posed to have ideals above corporate efficiency. So long as McGill admin­ istration’s chief goal is fostering the best possible academic environment, and so long as its actions are consis­ tent with that aim, it will be pursuing a goal the Tribune can endorse.

easier for the two groups to coexist.

Are pedestrians scared of cy­ clists? McGill has not told us of any serious research into how pedes­ trians feel about sharing the road.

Professor Jacob T. Levy (School of Urban Planning) has looked into the issue, and concluded that most McGillians feel comfortable sharing the road with cyclists. So is McGill overlooking the facts?

The policy also creates borders between road users that could make it difficult to reintegrate in the fu­ ture. Some individuals are already starting to believe that cyclists and pedestrians are incompatible, which goes against the best practices and examples of cities around the world.

McGill’s most elaborate coun­ ter-argument is: “What’s the big deal? Is it that hard to walk your bike?” This is not a matter of lazi­ ness or stubbornness. It is one of coexistence among road-users. It could even be seen as an exercise in campus democracy.

I propose a better policy: “Bike: with respect and care of others.”

Biking should be allowed during non-peak hours (which are basically all the time, except during those 20 minutes in which thousands of students walk from one class to another), and at slow speeds. Most cyclists self-regulate: if a road is packed with people, we will walk our bike. If it isn’t, we will continue

pedalling with care.

Care is the key word. The McGill administration is scared of reckless cyclists, but the guards are not stopping this problem. An abso­ lute ban even creates an incentive for reckless individuals to push bound­ aries. Traffic-calming designs, such as those used in cities like Portland, New York, Amsterdam, and Bogota have helped make roads safe for pedestians and cyclists alike. Using McGill’s research capital to find out more about this type of option and helping make cyclists more aware of pedestrians are what will really keep reckless bikers at bay.

Many McGillians (pedestrians, cyclists, students, staff, alumni) as well as urban planners believe this “no-biking” policy will not work in its current form. The way to ensure safety for all users is to actively en­

gage students, staff, and professional research to create a sustainable cam­ pus in which intelligent inclusion is the norm.

If you have an opinion about this situation, University Services and the Students Society of McGill University will be having an open forum on the matter next Thursday, September 23rd on SSMU’s 3"* floor from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

You could also email Jim Nicell to let him know you are a car­ ing cyclist that wants and deserves to share the road in a respectful way at jim.nicell@mcgill.ca.

C h a d R o n a ld s

Contributors Noah Caldwell-Rafferty, Lane Cameron, Zach Connerty-Marin, Marko Djurdjic, Nick Frid, Anne Haldane, Alexander Hamilton, Lilian Jordy, Walker Kitchens, Kelly Malfara, Christian Scott Martone, Katherine Messina, Mari Mesri, Nicholas Petrillo, Ruzbeh Tamjeedi, Brendan Steven

Tribune Offices Editorial

C o m m e n ta r y Christian Scott Martone W h y I still ride m y bike on c a m p u s * I

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Advertising B ro w n S tu d e n t B u ild in g

“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

—Martin Luther King Jr.

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The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous news­ paper published by the Students’ Society o f McGill University in collaboration with the Tribune Publication Society. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those o f the Students’ Society or McGill University. Let­ ters to the editor may be sent to letters @ mcgilltribune. com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Sub­ missions judged by die Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those o f the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff.

Please recycle this newspaper.

I have decided not to obey McGill’s new “no biking on cam­ pus” policy. Why? Because it was not based on serious research or consultation, no alternatives were considered, and because it is an ob­ stacle to creating a truly sustainable campus. Simply put: McGill got it wrong.

McGill’s principal argument for defending the “no biking” policy is pedestrian safety. The adminis­ tration argues that there have been a number of accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians, yet, no statistics have been shown. More­ over, these accidents occurred while cars were still allowed on campus.

Cyclists and pedestrians behave dif­ ferently when cars are on the road.

Once cars are gone, it is actually

Christian Scott Martone is a U3 student in Sociology and Inter­ national Development Studies, and can be reached at Christian.scott@ hotmail.com.

The Tribune urges all students to attend the Rally for Saving the Architecture Café tomorrow, Wednesday September 22, at 2 p.m. outside Leacock. The rally has been intentionally planned to coincide with the beginning of a Senate meeting taking place inside the building, in order to show the Senators how much McGill students really care about preserving one of the last student-run food operations on campus. Nearly 1,500 students have declared, via Facebook, their intention to attend the rally, but that’s not everyone. Show your support for this worthy cause, and send a clear message to the administration, by at least making an appearance. Remember to wear your McGill clothing or the colour red.

8 C o m m e n ta r y Katherine Messina

O p e n letter fro m an A rc h ite c tu re s tu d e n t I would like to begin this let­ ter by thanking you, students of this university, for your outpour­ ing of support regarding the matter of the Architecture Café. It warms our hearts to know that, despite our faculty’s detachment from the rest of the student body, our cause is not lost on you. Thank you. We appreci­ ate you. Moreover, a special thanks for those of you who have taken the time to write articles for the Daily, the Tribune, the McGill Reporter, Le Délit, and even Concordia’s paper, the Link—we needed to get the word out, and you were all quite successful in that respect.

It is important to tell this story from my point of view, if not from that of the all of the students in ar­ chitecture. Please bear in mind that this might not be the opinion of the Architecture Students’ Association, the Engineering Undergraduate Society or the Students Society of McGill University. It is, however, the opinion of a former ASA presi­ dent, former Café manager, alum­ nus, and curent graduate student.

Our curriculum and pedagogy isolates Architecture students from the rest of the university. We have very few electives outside Architec­ ture, we tend to work a lot, and we operate on a schedule that is not al­ ways normal. As the semester draws on, we lose touch with our friends on the outside, and even those on the inside who don’t happen to be sitting right beside us in studio. However, we have had, since 1993, if nothing else, at least one tether to the world at large: the Architecture Café. And we understand that the Architecture Café does not, in any way, belong to the Architecture students. Yes, we

First of all, thank you for the support you’ve shown the Architec­ ture Cafe. It is greatly appreciated, as information is what really em­ powers students on campus.

However, I am writing con­ cerning last week’s article: "Archi­ tecture Café shut down by McGill.”

I am sure that the subject had been researched prior to publishing, but there are certain errors which need immediate correction. Katherine Messina is not the current president of the ASA, and her opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the asso­

might eat there, we might run opera­ tions and work there, and we might be the ones who do the dishes , at the end of the day, but besides that, have you ever seen any of us sitting there? No. The Architecture Café is a gathering place of students of arts, geography, political science, music and more. And we love it for that.

We love it for belonging to every­ one. We love it because all are at home there—students and faculty alike, no matter their background.

The Café is an oasis of individuality and placeness (architecture refer­ ence, look it up), in an often sterile and detached university environ­ ment. No place like it exists on cam­ pus, and therein lays its value.

Furthermore, there are fewer and fewer “places” for students on campus. Although I understand some of the reasons for closing the Café, it is important to stress that I do not agree with the way this deci­ sion was made. Students were not only left out of discussions concern­ ing the future of the Café, but also deceived about the reasons and bul­ lied into not asking questions. I do not believe a university should treat anyone, especially its own students, in such a way.

I want everyone to know and understand that despite all our ef­ forts, we may not succeed in sav­ ing the Architecture Café. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. This is about more than saving the Café.

It is about creating a place for stu­ dents to belong—where they feel comfortable taking off their shoes, laughing until coffee comes out of their noses, and changing the music without asking for permission. We are all members of this university and of this community. If we do not succeed in saving our beloved Café, it must remain a space for students, a place that belongs to all of us. Stay posted—this isn’t over yet.

Katherine Messina is an Archi­ tecture Master’s student. She can be reached at katherinemessina@ gmail.com.

ciation. Study space is obviously a valuable resource within the campus that is often taken for granted. But the Architecture Cafe represented much more than a mere study space.

Although many students balanced coffee cups on stacks of textbooks, it also provided an opportunity to socialize, relax, and grab a decent meal.

Student-run initiatives offer many benefits not covered by the basic curriculum, and give students a chance to bring about positive change within the McGill commu­ nity. I look forward your continued support in this matter.

—Kyle Burrows, ASA President

A m e ric a ’s M o s tT ru s te d C o m e d ia n Last week, New York Maga­ zine put Jon Stewart’s cherubic face on its cover, accompanied by a bold headline: “The Jon Stewart Decade.”

In the article, Chris Smith out­ lined a fairly familiar argument: that Jon Stewart is our generation’s Wal­ ter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America at a time when the issues facing the country seem tailor-made for mockery.

But Smith takes his point a bit further. When Stewart took over as The Daily Show’s host in 1999, Americans were still wringing their hands over President Clinton’s Oval Office shenanigans—a scandal giftwrapped for comedians.

In the following decade, how­ ever, Stewart and his comedic cor­ respondents faced an increasingly

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bleak line-up of issues: terrorist at­ tacks and two wars. As American politics has grown ever more po­ larized, Stewart has tried to inject himself as an unlikely champion of moderation, lampooning Democrats and Republicans alike.

He’s also taken aim at the more shrill elements of the news media.

In 2004, Smith writes, Stewart ap­ peared on Crossfire, CNN’s fa­ mously combative current affairs program, and “delivered a nuanced, impassioned plea for Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson to ‘stop hurt­ ing America’ by peddling mindless bickering as partisan debate.” The network cancelled Crossfire months later.

Jon Stewart is, of course, a co­ median. But in his decade of hosting The Daily Show, Stewart has walked a fine line between wisecracks and serious political commentary—a line he may have just stepped over.

On Thursday’s episode of The Daily Show, Stewart unveiled his long-anticipated “big announce­ ment”: a massive event on the Na­ tional Mall in Washington, D.C., called “The Rally to Restore San­ ity,” The rally, which Stewart has

also called the “Million Moderate March,” is set for October 30.

The event, Stewart said, is de­ signed to combat the political ex­ tremism displayed by both Demo­ crats and Republicans in recent years, with leftists calling President Bush a war criminal and right-wing­ ers smearing President Obama as a socialist.

Like so much of Stewart’s comedy, the rally is only half in jest.

Staffers will be distributing signs to protesters with slogans like, “I Dis­ agree With You, But I’m Pretty Sure You’re Not Hitler.” And Stephen Colbert will lead a parody of the rally on the same day called “The March to Keep Fear Alive.”

In the midst of an endlessly petty midterm election campaign, Stewart’s faux-rally seems to have tapped into a very real desire among Americans for a more sane political landscape. Stewart may not be our generation’s Cronkite, but the en­ thusiasm for the Million Moderate March suggests he might be filling a more important role. Amid the discordant screeching of American politics, Stewart is a voice of comic sanity.

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The Department of Microbiology and Immunology presents T h e 2010 B oehringer Ingelheim lecture C h e c k p o in t B lo c k a d e N e w

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James P. Allison, Ph.D. Chairman. Immunology Program Director, Ludwig Center of Cancer Immunotherapy David H. Koch Chair in Immunologic Studies Attending Immunologist, Department of Medicine: Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical institute.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

When James Allison was a young man, his mother died of cancer. He also lost two uncles to cancer and witnessed how chemotherapy's nausea pain, and fatigue afflicted them before they passed He became a biologist in part because he believed there "must be a better way" to treat cancer patients.

Allison is getting closer to fulfilling that aspiration in more ways than one. Using knowledge gleaned from decades of his and others' research about the immune system, he has developed a drug that is now being tested for its ability to treat different late-stage cancers. Also, as the newly installed director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, he facilitates new approaches to cancer care.

The journey from basic research to a possible new treatment for cancer has been years in the making. During that time, Allison has investigated how the immune system defends the body from pathogens and cancer, focusing on T cells, a class of immune cells that provide some of the protection. Along the w ay he uncovered key and previously unknown mechanisms about T cell behavior. With that knowledge, he has been able to manipulate the T cell system to make new therapies.

TH U RSD A Y , S E P T E M B E R 23, 20 1 0 . 1 1 :3 0 a m -1 2 :3 0 p m , LYMAN DU FF A M PH ITH EA TRE, D uff M e d ic a l B ld g , 3 7 7 5 U n iv e rs ity S t., M o n tre a l, Q u e b e c H3A 2B 4

S t u d e n t

L iv in g

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Olive et Gourmando: the Old Port’s trendiest lunch spot Salads, sandwiches and expensive ice cream

By S han n o n K im ball

Features Editor

Old Montreal is famous for its history and French vibe, and, unfor­ tunately, its overpriced food. Tour­ ists abound in this part of the city, and restauranteurs have taken note, feeling free to charge as much as $5 for an ice cream cone. Olive et Gour­ mando is one of the few café-bistros left that doesn't cater to tourists or charge outrageous prices.

Soups, salads, and sandwiches dominate O+G’s menu. The vegan sandwiches with tofu, homemade hummus, arugula, and pickles would please even a carnivore. Their Cuban Panini with ham, homemade spicy mayonnaise, and gruyere is a

lovely French take on the classic deli sandwich. Other must-eats include a chicken, mango, and guacamole sandwich and a nutty, oriental Her­ bivore Salad.

The tomato platter is like a caprese salad on steroids: fresh heir­ loom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and croutons neatly stacked like a game of Jenga, all drenched in sundried tomato dressing. At $15 per platter and a dozen tomatoes per serving, it’s best shared by two.

The soups change daily, and are served with paninis and salad on wooden cutting boards.

For a quick breakfast before a walk in Old Montreal, O+G serves up excellent coffee and local pas­ tries. Customers line up by the

( A lissa Fingold / M c G ill T rib u n e )

( A lissa Fingold / M c G ill T rib u n e )

dozen to sample tarts with seasonal fruit, brownies with Valrhona choc­ olate, and sweet and salty “Every­ thing Cookies.” Their famous bri­ oche is filling enough for breakfast and lunch combined, and the perfect complement to their freshly brewed coffee.

What really sets Olive et Gour­ mando apart from typical lunch spots is the atmosphere. It’s a lively, truly Québécois lunch spot full of young Francophone professionals on their lunch breaks. Homemade jams and sauces, crispy granola by the bag, and nut mixes line the walls for those wanting the O+G experi­ ence at home. French music blares over speakers, and signs displaying “eat” or “yum” send a subliminal

message to diners. O+G seems busy even when it’s not, and is not a place to read the morning paper (you can do that on a bench in the Old Port), but rather to make friends and rave about the food.

Olive et Gourmando’s ordering process is a cross between the tra­ ditional and take-out service, and is designed to maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction. The coffee and pastry bar is at the front, and the sandwiches, soups, and salads are at the back. Order in person at either of the bars, and the food is delivered to your table. Although this design is a little awkward, it allows O+G to have a manageable load in the kitch­ en. With fewer waitresses scurrying around taking orders, more tables

can be added to the floor. Diners can decide how long they want to eat and enjoy the ambiance.

Despite its location and French vibe, feel free to speak English. The restaurant is so bustling that the staff knows English-speakers can’t un­ derstand rapid-fire French. The staff also knows that O+G is not short on customers, so expect curt service.

They’re not open past 6 p.m., and like many restaurants in Montreal, they’re closed on Sundays and Mon­ days. O+G seems to like to keep people waiting.

HOW -TO

Get rid of fruit flies An easy solution to a disgusting problem

By S han n o n K im ball &. lain M a c d o n a ld

T u e s d a y -F r id a y

T u esd a y

Grameen America Week

THbune General Meeting The Lev Buhkman Room, 7 p.m.

Features and Online Editors

These nasty little bastards can smell fruit and alcohol from a mile away, and they breed faster than bunnies. Drosophila live for a month, and their favourite activities are eating and reproducing, both of which are possible in a fruit bowl. A single fruit fly from an unsanitary grocery shelf can wreak havoc in a kitchen. Luckily, they’re not very smart, and can be easily trapped with fruit and plastic wrap.

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Slice a banana into thirds and place each piece in small sepa­ rate bowls. Alternatively, pour wine, beer, or even dish soap into the bowls.

Cover the bowls with plastic wrap. Stretch the plastic wrap as tight as possible. The top should be wrinkle-free.

With a small, sharp knife, cut a few small holes in the plastic wrap. The holes should be big enough for the vermin to enter, but no larger.

Distribute the bowls around your kitchen.

The pests should be trapped within a few days. To kill the trapped flies, put the bowl in the freezer and rinse thoroughly.

Every day this week, you can learn more about how McGill students help in microfinance initiatives in the developing world. Go to ssmu. mcgill.ca/sned/ for the activities list.

Want to become involved in the McGill Tri­ bune? Come to the annual general meeting and learn about each section’s contribution opportu­ nities.

W ed n esd a y

T h u rsd a y

Rally to save the Architecture Café Outside of Leacock 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Rhythms for Rights Les Trois Minots 8 p.m.

If you want to protest the closure of the Ar­ chitecture Café, join the rally before the Senate meeting.

McGill’s Journalists for Human Rights is hosting a benefit concert featuring Total Ecstasy, Bam Owls, and McGill Improv. For more infor­ mation, go tojhrmcgill.wordpress.com.

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m kashmiR Com piled by Alison Bailey

Since the end of British rule in rest in the disputed territories.

The Indian response has been India in 1947, a territorial dispute between Pakistan and India has left repression and reprisal in order to the Kashmir Valley in continuous gain control over the violent demon­ conflict. Despite some political di­ strations and establish order. Recent visions in the population, which is protests in the capital, Srinagar, have predominantly Muslim, the major­ led to the imposistion of a 24-hour ity of Kashmiris want independence curfew, and security forces have from India, and would like to see the been given shoot-on-sight orders for regions of Jammu and Kashmir be­ violators This approach is fuelling the crowd’s resentment, leading to a come a single, independent state.

The Indian government has vicious cycle of violence.

Overall, media reports on the worked hard to find solutions to this serious internal crisis, especially conflict in Kashmir have been in­ after pro-independence demon­ complete because curfew exemp­ strations erupted this past summer. tions are not permitted to reporters.

Every effort to calm Kashmiris has Journalists have pressed the army provenfutile, resulting infurther un­ for passes, but to no avail. Histori-

J u ly 30

I am now in Srinagar. Things are horrendous here. The streets are filled with thousands of militants and the Indian army. I’m really get­ ting worried, and I think it was fuck­ ing stupid to come here. We need to get across the whole city by car to get to the road to Pahalgam. Riot­ ers are everywhere. We have had to drive through two big protests so far, and at each the others in the car have covered my head and laid me down. Stones have been flying at the car and people have been throw­ ing themselves against it. When we got through the second protest, we thought we were clear but saw cars with smashed windscreens and in­ jured people coming towards us.

Chaos was reigning, and blood was oozing over the ground. The protes­ tors were fleeing across the fields.

I have just seen a boy no older than eight or nine, too small to out-

run the army, being beaten by a sol­ dier. He was held up against a van and was slapped across the face, and the soldiers wouldn’t let him fall to the ground. My request to stop was ignored and we drove on. I knew it was going to be bad, but this is bru­ tality like I have never seen.

As I am writing this I am about 10 kilometres down the road from where I just saw the poor boy being beaten. We have been stopped but the army says there is more danger ahead. Five trucks full of heavily armed troops have just gone past.

The two people that I am trav­ eling with have been praying to their Lord Shiva. I am not scared, I just feel very stupid for doing all of this.

We are now in a particularly shit po­ sition. We have gone too far to turn back and the only hope for safety tonight is down this road. The army has told us that if nightfall comes and we still can’t get through then we will go through in an army truck

clly, there has been a wide discrep­ The following is a compilation of a entries offer a first-hand account of ancy in death tolls in Kashmir. For few of his journal entries. Although the ongoing chaos in Srinagar. example, official Indian estmates never intendedfor publication, these claim that between 1989 and 2002, the death total was around 40,000, An article published by K ashm ir M edia Services on whereas the Hurriyat Conference— July 31 described the situation M iller was about to encoun­ a coalition of pro-independence and ter. pro-Pakistan groups—claim it is “ Srinagar, July 31 : In occupied Kashm ir, the authorities closer to 80,000. have announced im position o f curfew in [the] entire K ash­ On July 30, 2010, John Miller*, m ir Valley to prevent people from holding protests against a British citizen, went to Kashmir to the killings o f four civilians by police and CRPF [Central complete an important Hindu pil­ R eserve Police Force] m en on Friday. [...] Four persons grimage, the Amarnath Yatra, lo­ were m artyred and over 200 injured on Friday when Indian cated 140 kilometres away from Sri­ troops and police personnel resorted to firing, heavy baton nagar. Miller was one of few tourists charge and excessive tear gas shelling to disperse protesters to venture into this part of the world in Sopore and Pattan areas.” this year, and the onlyforeigner to do the pilgrimage in the pastfour y ears.

to a police and army barracks and spend the night with guards set up outside.

Just this minute a man has told me that five people have been killed and many more injured. Ambulanc­ es are zooming past, away from the carnage. There are injured people in the back of pickup trucks caked in blood trying to get into the centre of Srinagar, going away from the riots.

Even within writing that last paragraph, more news came. A boy has been killed. I hope to God that it wasn’t the boy I saw.

We have been told that the road behind is clear so we are head­ ing back to North Srinagar. I was offered a flight back to Delhi this evening but I have refused. I want to do this, and now I can safely say I understand the risks.

I leave at 4 a.m. tomorrow, . heading along the same route that we tried yesterday until we were stopped. We hope the road will be

Pilgrim s fro m d iffe re n t social classes m a k in g a

clear, and tonight they pray for our safety. International news is now covering what’s going on here.

What am I doing here?

It’s likely that tomorrow the riots’ will be even bigger after the

death of a child. It’s whether or not we can get through before they start.

Getting back is a whole other story, but I will cross that bridge if and when it comes.

On July 24, O nelndia N ews published an article about an attem pted terrorist plot targeted at A m arnath Yatra, a w eek before M iller com pleted the pilgrim age.

“Jam m u, July 24: A plot by m ilitants to disrupt the ongoing A m arnath Yatra was on Friday, July 23 foiled by the Indian Army. Arm y personnel who were conducting a search operation near the Jam m u-Srinagar highw ay in the Banihal area o f Ram ban district recovered a large quantity o f arm s and am m unition.

G iving the details o f the operation, [a] defence spokes­ person said that the personnel recovered a gunny bag hid­ den in a hollow o f a tree around 7:30 a.m.

The bag had 34 detonators, 12 anti-personnel m ines, nine RC IED boxes, 36 IED circuits, five RPG charges, 36 m etres o f safety fuse, 15 m etres o f cordex wire, one U BGL grenade, one hand grenade, and 36 pika rounds, the spokes­ person added.”

28 k ilo m e te r tre k

up to th e A m a rn a th Y atra cave ( John M ille r / M c G ill T rib u n e )

J u ly 31 Today was not a success. There is another path up to Amamath cave, which is only 28 kilometres rather than 68, so we decided last night that we would head that way instead. Again, the streets are com­ pletely deserted except for the mili­ tary. We got about 15 kilometres and then were stopped once again by the army. More protests, more rock throwing, more beatings, more bodies. Luckily, today I did not see anything nearly as bad as yesterday, just soldier-filled trucks heading to the trouble. It turns out that the place at which we were stopped yesterday was burnt to the ground, at one point we were going to stay there. It was burnt down at 5 a.m., around the time we had planned to get there this morning. Something is on my side.

A ugust 2 I did it yesterday and still cannot really believe it. The early morning drive was a good idea, we got through but you could sense an attack on the army was imminent.

The people were truly amazing on the pilgrimage.

There are people from differ­ ent social classes, from doctors or judges being carried up to 70 year olds with no shoes slowly making the ascent. I even saw an amputee on crutches heading towards the cave. It is fascinating to see their willingness to sacrifice for what they believe in. This walk is bloody hard. They chant what translates as “Shiva is waiting” and “God bless you.” But this determination is not exclusive to these pilgrims, the Kashmiris show the same grit. They are prepared to martyr themselves and put their families at risk for what they believe in. Somewhere in this, admiration must be granted.

It took nearly five hours to get

All these men are talking or arguing all day about our plans and nothing is in English. I’m being kept in the dark which is really infuriat­ ing. When I ask a question the an­ swers are vague and indefinite. It’s one thing being in a situation like this, it’s another thing being in a situ­ ation like this when you don’t know your arse from your elbow because all the arrangements and risk assess­ ments are being done in Hindi.

The news covers the army building burnt down and says noth­ ing about the atrocities committed by troops. The headline reads “Army station burnt down, 6 killed.” What it doesn’t mention is that the “6 killed” were not soldiers, they were four children, one man, and one woman murdered during the protests.

I have received another bit of news which I just cannot get out of

my head: the boy I saw being beaten was one of the four children killed.

Just moments later the scumbag shot the poor boy. How can any man do that? I am trying to forget it but for the time being I can’t stop picturing it, and it just fills me with rage. Nine years old! Killed in cold blood. I hope that coward of a soldier shakes

back down, as the slopes were se­ vere and the horses tired. The drops are over 1,000 metres in some plac­ es and the horses were right on the edge. We got back around 8 p.m. and tried to leave, but the army has stopped anyone from leaving. On the road back to Srinagar, where we drove through yesterday morning, the protest that I wrote was going to happen left another 11 dead.

I am writing this now from a shelter in this camp. We had to stay the night and I really want to get out of here. Hygiene is becoming an issue. I have been wearing the same clothes for six days now, and other than some nuts, haven’t eaten in two days. There are no running water fa­ cilities and no toilets.

Hopefully the army will let us through at some point tonight and it will be possible to get to the air­ port. People are getting frustrated with waiting. I am so close yet so far from getting out of here.

It is now evening and we are still stuck here. It turns out that there

have been two killings in another one of the towns we pass through.

This place is turning very volatile.

People are getting very angry, and verbal abuse is already starting to­ wards the soldiers. Some think it’s only a matter of time before things turn violent.

It’s a terrible situation here, over 4,000 people are stuck and the army is doing nothing. There are old women and children and at no point has the army come to see if they are alright. Some people don’t have enough money for food. I’m doing what I can but I am no saint. The army should be helping.

guys I’m with will get a horse but I am determined to do it on foot. The slopes are steep and icy anyway, and I don’t see how a horse is any safer.

So that’s the plan, up and down in a day.

hands with death very, very soon.

I’m going to stop writing about it, I am just thankful I did not see the whole thing.

I have one last chance tomor­ row to do the pilgrimage and I am going to take it. We will leave at 4 a.m. We drive to Baltal camp, and start walking straight away. The two

On A ugust 1, the B B C ’s Chris M orris reported that an arm y building was blow n up the same place where M iller was going to stay overnight.

“A t least nine people have been killed in violent clashes between local residents and po­ lice and param ilitary forces in Indian-adm inistered Kashmir.

Four o f them died when a police station was set alight near Srinagar and its explosives dum p blew up.

• Locals were angry that police had opened fire on a dem onstration against Indian rule, kill­ ing tw o participants.

In nearby Pam pore, at least three protesters w ere killed after Indian forces opened fire.

Thirty-tw o people have now been killed in clashes with police and param ilitary forces in the K ashm ir valley in the last seven w eeks.”

The New York T im es’ Lydia Polgreen wrote on A ugust 4: “D ozens o f people have died this sum m er in violence in K ashm ir [...] and the unrest has prom pted new questions about the state’s leaders ability to control the restive region.

D espite the security forces’ shoot-on-sight orders to enforce curfews aim ed at cooling rage on the streets, thousands o f people openly took to the streets W ednesday, to no apparent consequence.

[...]

The violence reached such a peak that even separatist leaders, who often urge young protesters on to the streets, appealed for calm and an end to the burning o f governm ent property.”

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A u g u s t 2, M id n ig h t

A ugust 3

Stroke of luck! We were al­ lowed out at midnight. We made it back to Srinagar around 4 a.m. and left for the airport around 6 a.m. just to make sure we got here because the army has been closing the road quite often. With a little bit of luck, I will be in Delhi this evening.

I am very glad that I have come here, seen what I have seen, and done what I have done. I knew this would be something a tad different and some­ thing I would hold with me for life. I’m not sure how I would even begin to tell people about this, and if truth be told, I don’t want to.

Enough of this, I will be on a plane soon enough I hope, and without jinxing anything, I have made it out in one piece. Cheers Shiva. *John Miller is a pseudonym

Thousands of refugees set up their tents at a camp ground at the bottom of Amarnath Yatra where they are forced to stay by the Indian army ( John Miller / McGill Tribune )

12

Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

FOOD GURU

Cooking for one: all the blame but all the leftovers One isn ’t always the loneliest number in Matt Essert’s kitchen

By M a tt Essert

News Editor

As Harry Nilsson famously sang, “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.” One has to wonder if Mr. Nilsson was lament­ ing his lonesome nights in his kitch­ en, cooking just for himself.

As many university students know, cooking in itself can be diffi­ cult, but cooking fpr one can some­ times be a whole different ball game.

However, it can also be extremely fun and rewarding. One of my fa­ vourite ways to spend time is alone in my kitchen with my music and my cast-iron pan. No, it’s not weird.

It’s actually fun. You’re in total con­ trol of the meal and don’t have to worry about anyone else’s schedule, taste preferences, or dietary restric­ tions. Whatever you make, you will eat, and if it’s bad, you are the only person to blame. Inversely, if your

meal turns out well, you can take all the credit and don’t have to worry about sharing. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you know you are the only diner for a meal.

Will you be wanting leftovers?

If you don’t mind having left­ overs the next day or for the next couple of days, then you can eas­ ily cook any amount of food and freeze or refrigerate whatever you can’t finish. However, some things are better for leftovers than others.

Anything saucy—like a curry, a stew, or chili—will usually hold up well for a few days. And, if you add some rice or noodles, you can easily prepare a completely new meal.

If you do refrigerate your left­ overs, plan to eat them within the next 36 hours. Otherwise opt for the freezer, but make sure whatever you put the food in will hold up to the cold temperature. Some Ziploc bags

are freezer proof, while others let in too much cold air, leaving your deli­ cious meal with freezer bum.

Roast a whole chicken It might seem counterintui­ tive to make a lot of food if you are only feeding yourself, but roasting a whole chicken can work well if you like leftovers. Not only will the first meal be excellent, but you will have delicious leftover chicken that you can use in pasta, sandwiches, wraps, tacos, salads, taco salads, or any­ thing else you can think of. Roasting a chicken can seem like a daunting task, but it really isn’t. You might want to cut the chicken butterfly style before roasting it so you don’t have to worry about the inside cav­ ity, and the chicken is more likely to cook evenly without drying out.

Be wary of recipes While recipes in cookbooks

or online are great, you need to be careful if you are just cooking for one. Most recipes specify a serv­ ing size for anywhere from two to eight servings. Once again, if you like leftovers, cook away, but if you are making something like chicken cutlets, you need to divide all the ingredients by the appropriate num­ ber to get the serving size down to one. This is especially true of any recipe involving sauces, where you will not need as much sauce as what is called for if the rest of the recipe serves four.

Inspiration Alternatively, try using the recipes for inspiration and coming up with your own concoction that is simple and easy. Aim for simplicity to avoid screw-ups and problems.

When you’re working alone in the kitchen, you don’t have anyone to help you, so avoid any dish that

requires a ton of prep work. Some­ thing simple like a salted pork chop and rapini with salt, pepper, and chili flakes is a great dish that requires very little Work and can be made in one pan. I also like a breaded chick­ en cutlet with an arugula and tomato salad for a simple, delicious dinner.

Cooking for one gets easier with practice and time. After several years of cooking, you’ll understand what is easier to make, how much food you’ll need, how much time it takes to do wjiat, and you’ll become more comfortable in the kitchen.

The more comfortable you are in the kitchen, the easier everything becomes. The easier everything be­ comes, the more fun cooking gets.

And the more fun cooking gets, the more delicious your food will be.

? fcmræji iViHMais

( A lic e W a lk e r / M c G ill T r ib u n e )

ODDS & ENDS

A letter o f apology to the Ottawa Em ergency Services A boating trip gone horribly wrong

By A lison Bailey

Features Editor

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to take my family’s newly purchased boat out on the Ottawa River for a romantic sunset cruise. We had wine and a small snack, and I must admit, I thought I might even get a little lucky that night. Instead, we spent at least two extra hours stuck in the middle of the river with a dead engine, at which point I decided to call the Ottawa Emergency Services.

Right away I should have sus­ pected something was wrong, as the boat wasn’t going its normal speed and wasn’t able to hydroplane. Truth be told, I know very little about boats.

About halfway between the Parliament Buildings and where we took off, the engine gave out. We thought this was due to a shortage of gas, so we switched the tanks, and hooked up the full one. We played around a bit with the gas pump, and the boattook off again, this time mak­ ing it to the parliament buildings and then started on our way back.

Once again, the engine gave out, but this time the sun had fully set and we knew it wasn’t an issue of gas. So my boyfriend, assuming the testosterone-driven, patriarchal role that he had been raised to fill, gave me his sweater and started playing around with the engine, doing things that I.can’t even begin to compre­ hend, while I tried my best to be useful.

Immediately I went for the emergency kit. But of course the emergency flashlight decided that this was the best time to run out of batteries. By this time my boyfriend had given up the manly man role, so I looked for the next tool in the kit: an air horn. Poised for the blast, I covered my ears and waited for him to blow it. The word “anticlimactic” has never been more appropriate,, the horn sounded like the last breath of a dying seal.

So I called my dad. His exact words were “Well, what do you want me to do?’Thanks, Dad. He suggest­ ed we flag down another boat to tow us in. Great advice, but there weren’t any boats to be seen, so I called 911.

They transferred me to the fire de­ partment, at which point I had a very

composed and amiable conversa­ tion with the dispatcher. He asked if anyone was in distress to which I answered no, but explained that I just wanted to go home and not sleep on the Ottawa River that night. The dispatcher then explained to me that if they did come and rescue us, we would have to put the anchor down and leave the boat overnight.

You would think that I would have, at the very least, known where the anchor was, but I didn’t. So I got back on the phone with my dad and had him explain where to find it. As I was relaying the directions to my boyfriend and speaking to my dad, my boyfriend found the anchor. It was in the water. We had driven the whole way to the Parliament Build­ ings and back with the anchor in the

water.

Turns out neither of the Bailey sisters are too bright when it comes to boating excursions. My sister had been the last one to take the boat out with her friends, and had decided to anchor at a sunny spot. Her friend volunteered and threw out the an­ chor, forgetting to check if it was actually attached to the boat. Well it was attached to the boat, but my sis­ ter was none the wiser, and thought that they had just lost the anchor, so she also drove home with the anchor still in. High five sista!

Had our situation taken a turn for the worst, this really would have qualified for a Darwin Award.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

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By M a tt Essert

F in a n c ia l M a rk e ts G ro u p For the business-minded among us, the Financial Markets Group is a club that offers students the chance to discuss and learn more about the complex world of financial markets. the group brings in guest speakers, analyzes investment strategies and risk management, and hosts invetopedia competitions with cash prizes.

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Two thousand six hundred M cG ill students w andered the halls o f the Shatner B uilding last Tuesday and Wednes­ day during Activities N ight to learn about the different clubs and services tht the university has to offer. In case you w eren ’t able to attend, here is a list o f a fe w clubs you m ight be interested in joining.

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f G o C lu b Go is a game that originated in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago and has recently risen to popularity, with roughly 27 million players worldwide. Often considered the ultimate strategy game. Go is traditionally played on a 19-by-19-space grid with black and white stones. The goal of the game is to capture more territory, or space on the board, than your opponent.

While Go is based on a relatively simple concept, it is a game filled with intense strategy and complicated game theory. The club meets once a week to discuss strategy, hold lectures on various topics related to the game, and play. All levels of players are welcome to attend and encouraged to learn as much as possible. As they say, “A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.”

Contact fmg,mcgill@ gmail.com to learn more.

The group meets Thursday nights at 7 p.m. in the Trottier caf­ eteria. More information can be found on the McGill Go Club Facebook group, or by contacting mcgill_go_club@hotmail.com.

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G o rilla C o m p o s tin g One of the several McGill groups dedicated to a greener to­ morrow, Gorilla Composting works to divert all organic waste away from the trash bin and towards an on-campus composting facility.

The group is working on an organic recycling plan for the McGill community while also teaching people about the importance of composting and living green.

This year, Gorilla Compositing will be focusing on vermiculture. It is in need of many volunteers in order to stay on track with its mission to make composting a “necessity and responsibility.”

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M ovem ber A men’s health charity started by a group of Aussies in 2004, Movember is a monthlong event in which men around the world grow moustaches to raise awareness for men with health issues. The Movember Foundation was launched in Canada in 2007 and raises money for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada.

Because it can be difficult (or embarrassing) to grow a mous­ tache without any support, a McGill club has been formed to provide support and guidance to charity participants. Men can participate by growing moustaches and collecting money from friends and rela­ tives, whereas women, or “Mo Sistas,” provide much needed sup­ port and attend the end of the month gala parties. Perhaps best of all, McGill will be filled with sweet-moustachioed dudes for an entire month.

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Fall 2010 screenings take place at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Lea­ cock 26. Check out the Cinema Politica (McGill) Facebook groupfor more details. \ (r

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M c G ill P r e - L a w S o c ie ty McGill’s pre-law society helps aspiring lawyers navigate the tricky trail of applying to law schools. Their mission is to “provide invaluable opportunities and services to inform [their] members about the field of law.” The MPLS offers a mentorship program, a volunteer program and publishes a news journal called Fiat Justifia.

As a new group, the MPLS is looking for membership and is eager to help students with an interest in a future legal career.

More information can be found on ca.movember.com, their Facebook group, or by contacting movembermcgill@gmail.com.

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C in e m a P o litic a M c G ill Not only are documentaries a great way to learn about an issue in 90 minutes, they are also an interesting medium for accessible in­ formation sharing. Cinema Politica McGill screens documentaries “pertaining to relevant political and social issues in an effort to raise global awareness on the McGill campus.”

Cinema Politica is an international media-arts, nonprofit orga­ nization trying to inform people about various issues through by-donation screenings around the world. This semester, the club will be screening 10 documentaries on subjects such as the pharmaceutical industry of sex and the history of the portrayal of First Nations in Hollywood cinema.

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More information is available on brefugee.blogspot.com or by contacting brefuge.montreal@gmail.com.

Check out gorilla.mcgill.cafor more information.

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B R e fu g e BRefuge is a refugee-oriented student club that works to “pro­ mote intercultural interaction and understanding” around McGill and Montreal. Throughout the year, BRefuge hosts talks and film screenings in order to shed light on issues related to refugees.

The club also organizes group events and outings with McGill students and refugees to exchange stories and help the refugee new­ comers learn more about Montreal and Canadian life. Also, this year BRefuge will be launching its Buddy Program, which will match small groups of students with refugee or refugee claimants to vol­ unteer together at partner organizations. Not only is this a great way to help the Montreal community, but the program also offers the opportunity to help a foreigner get acquainted with a new life, which can be an extremely difficult and scary task.

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Check out ssmu.mcgill.ca/MPLS or contact mcgill.pls@gmail. com for more information.

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---------------- A&E MUSIC

Comeback Kid sure does live up to its name W innipeg band returns with

By Kyle Carpenter Copy Editor

Winnipeg isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of the Canadian music scene, but there’s a good case for bumping it a bit higher on your list. The city has produced some amazing bands over the years: the Guess Who (and spin-off BTO), Propaghandi (and spin-off the Weakerthans), and a lit­ tle artist named Neil Young. Come­ back Kid represents the heavier side of the ‘Peg, and has carried on the city’s DIY punk tradition. “There’s always been a healthy underground following for the punk hardcore kind of thing,” says Comeback Kid guitarist Jeremy Hiebert. “I’m 34 years old and it’s never been super hard to find people who book local stuff throughout the years. There’s still kids doing that, renting com­ munity centres or whatever.”

The band has since moved out of the rec centres and onto a massive tour—three back-to-back tours, ac­ tually-spanning Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia, and South Ameri­ ca. For the Canadian leg, dubbed the “Through the Noise Tour,” they’re joined by fellow punks Mad Ball—a band whose music influenced the band’s transition to hardcore in the ‘90s—A Wilhelm Scream, Living With Lions, and Devil In Me. The tour started in Victoria, and the bands have been working their way east, playing a mix of big cities and small towns.

“There [are] places that we’ve played before that have always been great for us that we’re stoked to get back to. On the Canadian run in par­

S y m p to m s + C ures

ticular we’re doing some cities we haven’t hit before,” Hiebert says.

“Being a small town kid myself, I kind of look forward to playing these smaller cities and bigger towns for the first time. They don’t get shows quite as often, so kids are usually pretty stoked, especially if it’s Fri­ day or Saturday night and there’s nothing else going on in town.”

The band is touring in support of their fourth album, Symptoms + Cures, which was released August 31 on Distort Records.

“We don’t really sit down and say ‘We want to write this kind of a record’or ‘This worked for us before so we should try to capitalize on this kind of thing,”’ Hiebert says. “We just come up with the ideas that we have song by song and it just kind of all comes together as a record.”

Sure, the music’s hard-hitting, but it’s got a pretty wide range of song styles, from chant-along an­ thems like “G.M. Vincent and I” (Hiebert’s favourite song to play live) to speedy, frantic tracks like “Crooked Floors.”

“You’ll hear songs that are a lot heavier, you’ll hear more melodic songs—it’s just kind of all over the place,” Hiebert says. “But it repre­ sents where we are musically as a whole.”

Losing any member is tough on a band, but the departure of a lead singer can be career ending. At the very least, it changes the band’s sound; it’s not hard to hear the dif­ ference between Black Sabbath with Osborne versus Dio, or Van Halen with Hagar instead of Roth. When Comeback Kid singer Scott Wade left the band in 2006, guitarist An-

P

W hen dinner goes down the red carpet Celebrities have been known to make outlandish scenes on the red carpet—whether it’s for public­ ity, a personal crusade, or a political statement involving sporting a meat dress. For those of you who saw the recent MTV Video Music Awards, you know what I’m talking about.

Not since Jennifer Lopez’s Dolce and Gabbana V-neck that went all the way down to her navel have so many jaws dropped so fast. You can thank Franc Fernandez for his car­ nivorous couture creation. Fernan­

dez, the designer of Lady Gaga’s dress, created the unusual garment out of slabs of meat, complete with a matching hat, purse, and shoes.

As usual, Gaga justified her dress by saying it was a political statement, this time in response to the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The statement was meant to convey that if we don’t stand up for our rights, we will have no more power than the meat on our bones. Funny enough, when Gaga told Ellen DeGeneres about her ploy, she responded by giving Gaga a bikini made out of kale.

Gaga certainly makes it no secret that she is a crusader for gay rights, an undoubtedly worthy cause. However, while Gaga may be

tour

W in n ip e g ’s fin e s t punks, C o m eb ack Kid is brin g in g th e ir m usic aro u n d th e w orld ( Sarah Piantados )

Scott Wade,” Hiebert says. “In the last three or four years that he’s been fronting the band, he’s developed his own style with Comeback Kid. He wanted to have that vocal style that he does live a lot more on the record.”

And it shows; the Comeback Kid on Symptoms + Cures have not only adapted—they’ve matured.

“We didn’t know it would get

to this point,” says Hiebert of the band’s success.

But if their 11-week tour is any indication of their work ethic, it shouldn’t be a surprise. It doesn’t hurt that they can shred, too.

fee without seeing her face or hear­ ing one of her songs.

than her fifteen minutes of fame since the release of her first single, “Just Dance,” two years ago. And it would seem that if the 24-year-old can keep up her never-ending stream of shocking videos, ridiculous red carpet appearances, and quote wor­ thy sound bites, her reign over the world of pop music could sustain itself. Hopefully she has enough tricks up her sleeve left for that.

drew Neufield stepped up to replace him. Symptoms + Cures is his sec­ ond album on vocals, (following 2007’s Broadcasting...). However, this album has given him the oppor­ tunity to come into his own.

“With the last record I think the focus was picking up where Scott left off. We didn’t want to have a completely different vocal style, but at the same time Andrew is not

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standing up for the rights of some of her fans, her dress alienates others who might have strong views on the treatment of animals, such as PETA supporters and vegans.

PETA dissenters aside, what about the fact that a dress made out of raw meat is just plain gross? Does Gaga really stand wholeheartedly behind the rights of her gay fans, or is she simply trying to generate even more publicity for herself via her never-ending fashion shenanigans?

There is no doubt that Gaga has a palpable amount of drive, ambition, passion, and intelligence to elevate herself to the position of fame that she now holds. She once famously told an ex-boyfriend that someday he would not be able to order a cof­

Comeback Kid is playing at Le Studio Juste Pour Rire on Septem­ ber 25. Tickets are $20.

ic

D o e s G a g a re a lly s t a n d w h o le h e a r t e d ly b e h in d th e rig h ts o f h e r g a y f a n s , o r is s h e s im p ly try in g to g e n e ra te even m o re p u b lic it y fo r h e r s e lf v ia h e r n e v e r - e n d in g f a s h io n s h e n a n ig a n s ?

This prediction has come true, and Gaga has certainly had more

—Lane Cameron

15

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

M O V IE S

E

a s y

A :

good girl gone bad ... sort of

High school girl works the rumour mill to her advantage

By Alexander Hamilton Contributor Everyone loves a good comedy, and in that respect Easy A does not disappoint. The movie tells the story of a scrupulously ordinary high-

schooler, Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone), whose clean reputation be­ comes unexpectedly tarnished when uber-Christian classmate Marianne (Amanda Bynes) spreads a rumour that she lost her virginity over the weekend. Although Olive was the

There’s no shame here as Olive (Emma Stone) reappropriates Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter for her own gain ( teaser-trailer.com )

one who originally started the ru­ mour, this is quickly forgotten as the situation snowballs throughout the first half of the film.

After Olive helps a gay class­ mate avoid bullying by pretending to have sex with him at a party, a further string of similar requests from other sexually-starved boys follow in quick succession. By the end of the first half, the situation has reached a point of crisis where Olive’s reputation has been compro­ mised by her desire to help others.

All she can do is ridicule the ru­ mours of her fake trysts by carica­ turing them with absurd outfits and outlandish behaviour, at which point her inability to stand up for herself becomes particularly apparent to both the audience and the other characters.

The first part of the film is em joyable due to the way director Will Gluck effectively situates the action in the setting of Ojai, California, making it both realistic and enter­ taining to watch. Sped-up shots of the high school campus mimic the hyperactive transfer of rumours

“Hell is other people”

through texts, emails, and Facebook gossip. Scenes of Olive walk­ ing down hallways surrounded by scrutinizing eyes subtly convey the alienation and objectification that comes with her predicament.

The film is carried by a strong performance from Stone, but is also sure to attract viewers due to its cast of mainstream Hollywood names, including Penn Badgley as Olive’s main love interest. However, the majority of the comic relief that makes Easy A successful comes from Olive’s progressive Califor­ nian parents, played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, who deliver an endless stream of hysteri­ cal one-liners. The film also features Malcolm McDowell, whose brief appearance is worth mentioning only for the blunt delivery of his line that a public school principal’s job is “to keep the girls off the pole and the guys off the pipe.”

With its glib, quick-witted hu­ mour and satirical portrayals of high school drama, Easy A has a strong script, carefully combining popu­ lar elements of previous box-office

hits like Juno and Mean Girls. The script also pays more than a passing tribute to The Scarlet Letter as an inspiration for the plot (Olive and her peers study the book in English class), from which Olive takes the red A she boldly wears—complete with corsets and Ray Bans—for the majority of the film. Olive’s parents comment that she “kind of looks like a stripper, [but] a high end stripper, for governors and athletes.”

Ultimately, what makes Easy A a success is also what makes it some­ what unsatisfying. The depiction of Olive’s outsider status is something that anyone who has gone through high school can relate to. But such dilemmas rarely resolve themselves this neatly. The cheesy Hollywood ending to Easy A—which I won’t spoil for you—will keep the aver­ age moviegoer happy but remains formulaic, trite, and entirely outside the realm of common experience.

By presenting the ideal resolution, Easy A leaves the audience on the outside, just like Olive.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM Leadership Skills Development Workshops - Interested in gaining skills in leadership?

- Involved in a student club, service or organization as an executive, organizer or event 3 ;■V M c G i l l planner?

Leadership Training Program - Looking for ways to expand First-Y ear O ffice and build your life skills?

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

Leadership

Development Workshops!

These workshops were created to give you the chance to develop and build on your leadership and life skills. Attend a minimum of five workshops throughout 2010/1 1 academic year and receive a certificate of completion.

This September and October come and check out...

Show Me the Money: B u d g e tin g , Spo n so rh ip & Fundraising Thursday, September 30, 5:30-7:30pm (Downtown campus) Wednesday, October 6, 5:30-7:30 pm (Macdonald campus) W o n d e r in g w h e r e y o u c a n g o to g e t fu n d in g on c am p u s? O f f c a m p u s ? Find o u t w h e r e th e b ig bucks a r e a n d h o w to g e t th em b e f o r e o th e r p e o p le do!

Diversity amongst Students Wednesday, October 6, 5:30-7:30 pm (Downtown campus) W h a t d o e s it m e a n to b e a w a r e o f d iv e rs ity issues? Is y o u r clu b , s e rv ic e o r o r g a n iz a tio n b ie n g as inclusive as it c a n b e ? C o m e id e n tif y thing s th a t y o u c a n d o to m a k e y o u r o r g a n iz a tio n m o re w e lc o m in g .

Fans of existentialist theatre are in luck as Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit runs September 22-25 at Players’ Theatre, 3480 McTavish St., 3rd Floor. Tickets cost $6 for students/seniors and $8 for adults (Kate Sketchley)

Registration available via Minerva!

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

16 MOVIES

H is town

Curiosity Delivers - mcgilltribune.com

CD Reviews

Affleck robs Boston

By Ruzbeh Tamjeedi Contributor At one point in The Town, Doug MacRay gazes upward at an airplane jetting through the sky, sig­ nifying the possibility of life beyond small-town Boston. But the image is as fleeting as the lives of the bank­ robbing bandits the film portrays, and it seems as though MacRay (played by a melancholy Ben Af­ fleck) is in this town to stay.

The film is based on Chuck Ho­ gan’s novel Prince of Thieves, and is yet another addition to the glut of recent Boston crime flicks. The plot centres around MacRay and three other members of his Charlestown crew as they scuttle across Boston plundering the weak spots of vari­ ous financial institutions. But the film does not rely on detailed and intricate heists in order to woo the audience. Rather, it focuses on the relationships that surround and de­ velop from the crimes.

MacRay develops a bond with Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), a young bank manager suffering from post-traumatic stress after MacRay and his masked crew rob her bank.

But while the relationship is pre­ dictable and dull, its dramatic pull is heightened by MacRay’s highstakes job and his fellow thieves.

MacRay’s close ties to his long­ time friend and fellow thief James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner) are much livelier than the one he has with his love interest, but unfortunately, it doesn’t receive the attention it de­ serves throughout the movie. None­ theless, a number of provocative subplots unravel, some of which involve MacRay’s relationship with his parents and his ties to a florist with ulterior motives.

What ultimately makes The Town's, two-hour running time fly by are the action-packed heist se-, quences. Though the car chases and gunfights are not as elaborate as you might expect, the scale heightens the sense of immediacy and person­ al connection with the characters.

This is Ben Affleck’s second picture as a director, and though not as strong and as moving as his debut, Gone Baby Gone, it marks a new chapter in Affleck’s Hollywood identity. From his abrasive Mallrats days to his appalling role in Gigli, Affleck, who has managed to re­ main a card-carrying Bostonian, has secured himself a solid place in the business as a man true to his town.

Rôyksopp Senior

Passion, Pain, <6 Pleasure — Trey Songz Trey Songz continues his steady rise to the top of the R&B charts with Passion, Pain, & Pleasure, his fourth album in five years. R&B and hip-hop may be almost one and the same these days, but with only two songs featuring shared vocal time, Trey pulls his own weight from start to finish.

The album, which he claims is his best yet, can be split into three sections: intimacy, heartbreak, and advice. The slower, more sensual songs like “Love Faces” and “Mas­ sage” are well produced and dis­ play Trey’s fantastic vocals. Almost every song is about sex, but what makes them all so great is Trey’s knack for describing feelings over blatant sexuality. His gentlemanly lyrics make it easier to sympathize with him when the heartbreak tracks like “Please Return My Call” and “Made to Be Together” inevitably roll around. But instead of feeling sorry for himself, Trey recovers and delivers his most poignant moment in the track “Unfortunate.”

Despite what is otherwise a seamless album, both his rap fea­ tures are completely unnecessary.

Drake’s appearance on “Unusual” falls flat lyrically and is completely forgettable. And if you still aren’t sure if you like Nikki Minaj, listen to her appearance on the club single "Bottoms Up.” I can’t decide if she’s unbearably obnoxious or the most entertaining woman in hip-hop. But at least Trey Songz has all bases covered, which is great news since he considers anything less than third base second rate.

Senior — Rôyksopp

Ask Rôyksopp fans to describe the band’s sound and you will get answers like “bold and bright yel­ low, like sunshine” or “beats with a fresh kind of energy.” But upon listening to the more ominous en­ semble of tracks on their newest re­ lease, Senior, I found that anything but sunshine came to mind.

On Senior, the Norwegian duo has taken an unexpected turn in the style of their dpwntempo creations.

While predecessor Junior is a set of solid disco tracks focused on colour­ ful harmony and vocal work, this in­ strumental follow-up represents its introverted, darker sibling. “The Al­ coholic” is a tune for contemplative rainy days while the middle track, “Senior Living”—the uncontested highlight of the album—freezes time with a graceful maturity.

These wistful tracks and their Unique sound production are unde­ niably beautiful. However, Rôyk­ sopp fans who enjoyed the vigour and energy of the band’s earlier al­ bums’ might lose patience with Se­ nior's drastically slower pace. This is not to say that it is stale; on the contrary, listeners have the chance to discover a different side to the electronic music visionaries.

To all fans of downtempo music, Senior is Rôyksopp’s most free-form album to date, with more attention than ever given to sound exploration.

Business Casual — Chromeo

Chromeo’s third album delivers the same blend of 80s synth-pop as previous efforts, replete with catchy hooks, tasty guitar riffs, and smooth­ ly polished production. There’s noth­ ing new about what P-Thugg and Dave 1 are doing, but there’s no de­ nying that they are damn good at it.

As with previous albums, Business Casual relies on a couple of stand­ out songs to elevate the otherwise seamless blend of tracks. “Night By Night” is a guitar-driven number, reminiscent enough of Journey to ensure repeated play without getting stale. Their first single, “Don’t Turn the Lights On,” is brilliantly written and sure to have you singing along with them: “Don’t turn the lights on/ ‘Cause tonight I want to see you in the dark.”

What makes Chromeo so popu­ lar has nothing to do with their com­ mitted and near-perfect evocation of a bygone decade—that’s something they’ve been doing for a while now.

Despite mixing it up a bit on this al­ bum—they wrote a song in French, “J’ai claqué la porte,” in tribute to their hometown Montreal—what will continue to carry Chromeo to commercial success is their abil­ ity to get people on the dance floor with their ‘80s-inspired singles (and remixes of those singles). By next week you should expect to hear their crooning vocals layered over break beats at a club near you. When you do, don’t forget to sing along.

—Lillian Jordy —Alexander Hamilton

Hurley — Weezer

Not content with the status quo of band photos and random artsy shots as album art, Weezer took a new route with their newly released album, Hurley (an ode to televi­ sion’s Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Lost's resident “dude”).

Gone are the sunny days of Beverly Hills, the Playboy Man­ sion, and islands in the sun. Here, frontman Rivers Cuomo’s songwrit­ ing draws on heavy themes of failed romances, self-destruction, and nos­ talgia. Life has been difficult for the band in recent years: their previous album, Raditude, was a critical flop.

Cuomo certainly has had inspiration flowing from under a dark cloud.

The record’s first single “Mem­ ories” is a relatable but otherwise forgettable rock song where Cuomo wishes the chorus away with a de­ sire “to go back there,” wherever life was good. Cuomo strikes a chord with the lyrics, but the accompany­ ing melodies fall flat.

But it’s not all bad. Gems in­ clude the acoustic “Unspoken,” a recount of a messy split, and “Hang On,” which features geek-chic actor Michael Cera on backing vocals.

The standout of the album lies in “Smart Girls,” a power-pop burst with catchy hooks and chugging guitars guaranteed to implant itself in your brain for days on end.

Although a definite change in direction from past works, Hurley is still a little hit-and-miss. Forget the first few songs and èontinue on to what Weezer does best: quirky pop anthems with engaged, clever lyrics—cocktail toast to love, pain, and wasted youth.

—Nicholas Petrillo -Kelly Malfara

Peter Gnass Galerie [sas] September 23 - October 30

Galerie [sas] presents Progres­ sions and Projections, a retrospec­ tive exhibition of works by Peter Gnass, an accomplished and prolific multidisciplinary artist.

The Tallest Man On Earth Le National Saturday, September 25 8 p.m.

He may not really be the tallest man on earth (not even close, actual­ ly), but Sweden's Kristian Matsson still stands heads above most of his contemporaries. On paper, he’s just another guy with a guitar in a sea of

folk singer-songwriters, but listen to him play and any and all notions of “average” disappear—he’s as gifted a songwriter as they come. If you missed his sold out show at Petit Campus last April, catch this Swed­ ish troubadour in the still relatively intimate confines of Le National. S. Carey (one of Bon Iver’s two drum­ mers) opens.—$17.50/$19

S

p o r t s

F O O T B A LL

In fr o n t o f b ig c ro w d , R edm en lose a n o th e r h e a rtb re a k e r S tin g e rs c o m e fro m

b e h i n d t o t a k e F ill t h e S t a d i u m

g a m e , 3 4 -2 9

By Sam H u n te r

Contributor

The Redmen started Friday night’s game off with a bang, as J.T. Thompson returned the open­ ing kickoff 102 yards for a touch4pwn. Concordia’s Kris Pickering, however, returned the favour with a 62-yard punt return touchdown with under three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, giving his team the comeback victory by a score of 34-29.

Controlling the game for the first three quarters, the Redmen led 18-10 at the half and 24-13 at the end of the third. Concordia, however, outscored McGill 21-5 in the fourth to take the 42nd annual Shaughnessy Cup. Thompson’s touchdown was the first-ever score for a McGill player on an opening kickoff.

His 223 yards on four kickoff re­ turns broke a 26-year-old Que­ bec conference record for single­ game kickoff return yardage.

But individual accolades don’t mean much to Thompson.

“To be honest, I’d rather take away all the individual perfor­ mances that I had in order to get the W,” he said after the game.

Thompson gave due respect to Concordia’s gritty comeback, but believes the Redmen deserve better luck after dropping two tight con­ tests in consecutive weeks.

“We lose in overtime one week, and then this week it comes down to the last second, so the football gods just hate us right now,” he said.

Whoever you want to blame, you couldn’t have pinned it on the crowd. With an announced atten­ dance of 5,346, the Fill the Sta­ dium game was a rousing success.

W ith crow d s u p p o rt and a lead fo r m o s t o f th e g a m e , th e R edm en had e v e ry th in g in th e ir fa v o u r b u t th e fin a l score. ( John Kelsey / M c G ill T rib u n e )

Red Thunder had a large and loud contingent in attendance, along with the McGill Kendo team (notable for their enormous homemade Lego heads) and a variety of other varsity clubs. Additionally, McGill had its own “green man”—an enthusias­ tic fan in a skintight electric-green bodysuit—dancing up a storm on the sidelines.

Monika Fabian, co-founder of Red Thunder, was happy with the turnout. “The audience always spurs the athletes so I’m glad we were here,” she said. “We gave them all [we had] and they did the best they could.”

Mike Bird, the team’s opera­ tions manager and video coordi­ nator, noticed and appreciated the crowd’s enthusiasm.

“Love the crowd support,” he said. “[It] was awesome to see it.

Big, right at the opening kickoff they got into the game and they never got out of it, so it was really enjoyable for our guys for sure.”

While the crowd was energetic for the whole game, the players flagged at a couple of crucial mo­ ments. With less than five minutes to go, and a single-touchdown lead, the Redmen stopped a Concordia drive at the McGill 25-yard line. One play later, Taylor Kuprowski fumbled the ball at the McGill 27. Concordia re­ covered in prime field position and scored a minute later to even the score at 27 apiece.

After a two and out by McGill, the punt came to Pickering, who re­ turned for the score to give Concor­

dia its first lead.

McGill marched back down the field, using a wide variety of receiv­ ers, including Canadian Interuniver­ sity Sport receptions leader CharlesAntoine Sinotte, freshman Justene Edwards, and veteran Taylor Ku­ prowski to move the ball downfield.

The offence picked up quick yardage and forced Concordia into costly fouls while making its way to the Concordia 1-yard line, But Concordia’s last-minute goal-line stand stopped them from getting any further. QB Ryne Bondy’s final pass was tipped and picked off by Con­ cordia CB Kyle Smith as the game’s last seconds ran down.

Despite the loss, the team is staying positive. "[We’re going to have] the confidence that we can be

winning games and that it’s just a matter of playing the full 60 minutes and winning the game at the end,” Bird said.

For his part, Thompson knows that although the Redmen should have won this game, it means noth­ ing going forward. “‘Coulda,’ ‘shoulda,’ ‘woulda’ [are] not going to cut it in football,” he said. “You’ve just got to come out and take care of business. So we just [have to] reboot and come back hard against Montreal and try to get a win.”

The Redmen are at the Uni­ versity of Montreal next Friday and return home to play Sherbrooke for Homecoming on October 2.

the blame falls on one man: MLB commissioner Bud Selig. Selig and his associates should have dealt with the whole steroids issue in-house.

Rather, the commissioner sat back and watched his sport come back to life on Mark McGwire’s enhanced forearms after the disastrous 1994 players’ strike. Players began hit­ ting home runs at alarming rates and more fans started coming out to the ballpark.

As rumours of steroid use sur­ faced, it was never the government’s responsibility to police MLB. It was Selig’s job to oversee his league, and he failed. If he hadn’t turned a blind eye to an issue that he knew about all too well, he wouldn’t be stuck in

his own mess.

The MLB is a frustrating league to love. Every time we get to marvel at new young talents like Jason Hey­ ward, cases like Clemens’remind us of the embarrassing past that hangs over the sport. Clemens’ decision to continue his battle in court is adding insult to injury.

Clemens was a remarkable player on the field, but his off-thefield antics have left a sour taste in the mouths of sports fans. I do not care about the outcome of Clemens’ trial. I simply want this issue to be over so I can follow the game I used to love.

—Jon Rubenstein

T H IR D MAX R o g e r ro c k e tin g M LB to w a rd s u n w a tc h a b ility

Last week, police officers searched the offices of the Toronto Blue Jays and confiscated docu­ ments in connection with the perjury case against Roger Clemens. While baseball fans are asking whether he took steroids, what they should be asking is, “Who cares?”

In case you “misremembered,” Clemens’case began when his name was mentioned in the Mitchell Re­ port in December 2007. That report

was the result of former U.S. Sena­ tor George Mitchell’s 21-month in­ vestigation into the use of steroids in Major League Baseball. Clem­ ens denied the report’s allegations under oath before Congress, but was recently indicted on six counts of perjury.

Instead of reaching a bargain and ending this foolishness, Clem­ ens defiantly pleaded not guilty in an effort to clear his name. Perhaps he did not take steroids, but there’s a plethora of evidence against him.

The Rocket thinks that winning the case would prove once and for all that he stayed true to the integrity of the game.

Sorry, Roger, but the damage

has already been done. Everyone, especially this columnist, is fed up with you. The result of this case does not matter. Your continued as­ sociation with steroids has irrepara­ bly tarnished your name and legacy.

All you have done now is delay an inevitable outcome.

But Roger isn’t the only one to blame. It is completely unnecessary for the U.S. judicial system to be involved in the steroid mess. Why do we need players testifying before Congress in the first place? Why is the government intent on spending millions of dollars on these cases when this money could be used in more important matters?

More than anything, though,

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Curiosity D elivers, m cgilltribune.com

SOCCER

Red m e n lo se g ritty , ra in -so a ke d b a ttle C o m p e titiv e w ith to p - r a n k e d

By W a lk e r Kitchens

Contributor

Playing in the pouring rain, the McGill Redmen were unable to find the back of the net, losing 1-0 to the Laval Rouge et‘Or on Thurs­ day night. Despite many chances in the second half, the third-ranked Redmen could not score against topranked Laval.

“I’m not displeased with our performance. There were some very good things. Except the one huge difference is that we do not have the killer instinct,” said David Simon, McGill’s frustrated Head Coach.

“We generated a lot in the second half after they scored, but we were not able to capitalize. And that’s the

L a v a l, b u t u n a b l e t o c o n v e r t ; M a r t l e t s e a r n 4 -2 w in

difference between a champion and a team that is second.”

For the first half, scoring chances were few and far between as heavy rain slowed the pace of the game. The rain lightened after halftime, however, and the game quickened, resulting in more scoring chances for both teams.

Laval broke the deadlock in the 58lhminute when midfielder Samuel Georget took advantage of -a loose ball in the box. Redmen goalkeeper Jean-Lou Gosselin punched away a Rouge et Or free kick, but as the McGill defence frantically tried to clear, Georget found the loose ball and slipped it in.

Following the goal, McGill pushed more players forward in

search of the equalizer. The Redmen dominated the final 30 minutes of the game but couldn’t manage a goal.

Despite a disappointing result, Simon said that his team was still capable of beating Laval. “I do not think that [they were] quite danger­ ous, [but] they capitalized on our mistake,” Simon said. “So we need to be more efficient in front of the net and have the killer instinct and then we will be able to beat them.

Hopefully.”

McGill’s defence, led by Graeme Tingey, quickly dealt with almost all of Laval’s attacks. They only failed to clear the loose ball that became Georget’s goal.

It was not a great night for soc­ cer. It rained all day and continued to

pour throughout the night, creating puddles all over the field that made passing extremely difficult.

But Coach Simon would not use the weather as an excuse for the result. “I didn’t think we had to make any adjustments, with respect to rain,” Simon said. “In the first half it was more of a factor because the field was wet and [it was] hard for players to get the ball out of their feet. But I wouldn’t consider it a major factor ... it was a standard game.”

The loss was McGill’s first of the season, and it dropped their re­ cord to 1-1. Laval (3-0) remains in first place. The Redmen will look for revenge when the teams meet again in Quebec City on October 22.

Earlier Thursday night, the fifth-ranked Martlets dominated Laval with an impressive 4-2 win.

Junior Anna Smith scored twice, leading McGill over the previously undefeated Rouge et Or. With the win, the Martlets remain in first place in the QUSL standings with a 3-0 record.

The Redmen and Martlets will take on UQTR this Friday night at 7 p.m. in a doubleheader at Molson Stadium. They will travel across town to play the University of Mon­ treal on Sunday morning. The Mar­ tlets will look to stay undefeated, while the Redmen will try to put Thursday’s lost behind them.

C R O SS -C O U N TR Y

M a rtle ts c o m e w ith in o n e p o in t o f c h a m p io n W e s te rn A t M c G ill O p e n , c r o s s - c o u n t r y t e a m s g e t s e a s o n

By M a ri M esri

Contributor

Saturday’s McGill Open at the bottom of Mount Royal Park marked the beginning of the 2010 season for the McGill Martlets and Redmen cross-country teams. The Martlets finished in second place overall, only one point shy of the Univer­ sity of Western Ontario Mustangs, a cross-country powerhouse. The Redmen placed fourth overall.

In the women’s 4-kilometer race, second-year Sarah McCuaig finished in second place of 190 rac­ ers with a remarkable time of 14:38.

After a highly successful rookie year, McCuaig seems to have picked up where she left off.

Charlene Puél (15:14), Mad­ eleine Cummings (15:32), Catherine

Drouin-Audet (15:46), and Aimee Castro (15:54) also scored for the Martlets. The women’s team’s knowledge of the course gave them a leg up on the competition.

These experienced runners are trying to lead the Martlets to the pro­ vincial title, which they last won in 2007.

“We want to win QSSF [titles].

That is our ultimate goal,” McCuaig said. “Hopefully once we get every­ one at the top of their game, that will be possible.”

On the men’s side, the favoured Mustangs took the title, with four runners finishing in the top 10.

McGill’s top finisher for the 6-kilometre race was fourth-year Daniel Kramer, who placed 14th overall with a time of 20:32. Rookie Oliver Foster was a mere second behind

s ta r te d o n th e rig h t f o o t

Kramer—a promising performance in his first university-level race.

The Redmen are currently miss­ ing their 2009 season MVP Graydon Snider, who is injured with a stress fracture.

The men’s squad has experi­ enced an extremely high turnover this season with only three returning veterans. With seven new recruits, the team is exploring its young po­ tential.

“What is most important is to build a base and a solid team that will stay and be able to stand the test of time,” Kramer said.

McGill’s two major rivals with­ in the Quebec conference are Sher­ brooke and Laval. The two teams have emerged in the past few years and have now made notable appear­ ances at the national level. Kramer,

who has been racing against the top runners from Sherbrooke and Laval, is unsure of what kind of competi­ tion is ahead.

“It seems like there has been a lot of turnover in general. As for this whole season, it is going to be inter­ esting to see how the young runners come in.” Kramer said. “Because it is such a young field, it’s hard to put anybody in first or last. I think it’s anybody’s game right now.”

McGill experienced a number injuries during their 2009 season and have their fingers crossed this year.

Head Coach Dennis Barrett requires his athletes to train year-round and compete in indoor track & field in the winter semester. The intense and demanding routine can strain run­ ners who aren’t careful.

“You can pound out all the

Fueled by th o u san d s o f cans o f M o ls o n Ex, a big, row dy crow d o f 5,346 cheered on th e R edm en u n d e r th e lights Friday. ( John Kelsey / M c G ill T rib u n e )

mileage you want, but if you are not getting enough rest there’s not much you can do because your body is ex­ hausted,” Barrett said.

Barrett is hopeful for McGill’s chances to take the provincial title.

He is satisfied with the women’s performance this weekend and sees potential in the new and developing men’s team.

The Martlets and Redmen will travel to London, Ontario next weekend for the UWO Invitational.

The race is the one of the largest of the season, fielding top teams Guel­ ph, McMaster, and Windsor. It will certainly be an ideal opportunity for McGill to test the competition out­ side Quebec.

V a r s it y R o u n d u p Baseball Wed - McGill 18, Concordia 7 Fri - rained out vs. Concordia Women’s Basketball Sat - McGill 78, Queen’s 58 (exhibition)

Football Fri - Concordia 34, McGill 29 Men’s Lacrosse Thurs - Bishop’s 13, McGill 12 Men’s Rugby Fri - McGill 18, Concordia 6

Field Hockey Sat - McGill 8, Carleton 0

Men’s Hockey Fri - McGill 5, Carleton 3 (exhibition) Sat - McGill 6, Carleton 3 (exhibition) Women’s Hockey Sat - McGill 3, Laurier 2 (exhibition)

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Photos: John Kelsey and Patrick B o ghossian / M c G ill T rib u n e