Tuesday November 8,1988
Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
Candidates debate : not so great by Shannon Aldinger Standard national issues domi nated last week’s St. Henri-Westmount candidates’ debate in the Fieldhouse Auditorium. While candidates Ruth Rose (New Demo cratic Party), David Berger (Lib eral) and Keith MacLellan (Pro gressive Conservative) generally supported their respective party leaders and doctrines, all three candidates said little in terms of their personal plans of attack on regional issues. Panel and floor questions were mainly concerned with the issues of post-secondary funding andFree Trade and its effect on employ ment opportunities. Although questions focussed on specific regional matters, answers most often aimed at general national levels. In questions directed to educa tion funding and its effect on McGill, candidates replied on na tional and provincial funding rather than on regional. Both Rose and Berger agreed that Canadian uni versities were in crisis. Berger outlined a multi-step plan to im prove funding to be proposed if the Liberals come to power. Rose was
less specific as to how the NDP would improve the situation, but did promise to increase funds to post-secondary institutions. MacLellan quoted statistics about past Conservative improvements
_n Rose proposed govern qK1(> M a MacLellan rt pllan claim ed t that the able. claimed students. Conservatives had already moved ment scholarships to help finance students from underdeveloped in this direction. countries that Canada currently Candidates gave very vague an aids. In a question concerning stu swers concerning Free Trade and dent loans, both Berger and Rose its potential effects on Montréal/ s Québec employment. Speaking IJ5 against Free Trade, Berger and l'a Rose admitted that employment (2 opportunitieswouldbecreatedbut that the negative effects of the Free 2 Trade Agreement would far out0 weigh the positive ones. Rose continued saying that while Mulroney promises employment, he does not specify where. Her pre diction for supposed job gains is in the area of natural resources for, she explains, natural resources are
Volume 8 Issue 10
what the United States want from Canada. Rose feels this will not be a great gain because Americans already own up to 50% of the natural resource companies in Canada which create these jobs and that the end result will be fewer quality positions and more menial “burgerflipping” jobs. MacLellan spoke for Free Trade and prom ised the creation of many job openings. He used the analogy of Chicken Little (ie“the sky is falling, the sky is falling”) to describe the appar ent insecurity of his rival candi dates concerning the trade issue. Audience attendance was good for the two-hour debate, but mass exoduses occured as the discus sion dragged on into dinner time.
Redmen kick their way to Vancouver Liberal candidate David Berger... a cinch for best dressed. to education. All candidates agreed agreed that the loans system should that Canada should end any dis- be nationally standardized and that crimination against international more funds should be made avail-
Johnathan Drysdale’s goal in the 20th minute combined with Bert Lee’s solid goal tending and an im penetrable Redmen defense deliv ered the win for the young squad. The Redmen Soccer team fin ished the regular season 6-3-3 overall (4-2-2 in conference play), and ranked 10th in Canada. Their 1-0 win against Concordia Oct. 30th in the QUSL semi-final put them into the finals against Sher brooke. Every year at this time, we gram, meeting with their student for an hour or so per week. It is the seem to hear about Redmen soccer frequency and regularity of the success. It was only five and six meetings that results in progress in years ago when they won not only fighting illiteracy. Those students one, but two Canadian national who are unable to make a regular championships. Last year, they time committment are welcome to took the QUSL championship for assist the projectas canvassers and the seventh time in eight years. As with previous teams, this team is administrative workers. For more information on the De impressive, however, unlike the velopment andPeace program, call past, their youth and inexperience 398-4308. There will be a general makes this year’s victory particu meeting o f the group on Wednes larly sweet. Only four veterans are found on day November 9th, from 16h30 to 17h30 in Union B09-10. All those the team, but labeling them veter interested infinding out more about ans may be inaccurate. Sandrin the literacy program and Develop explained that most of his third ment and Peace’s work in general and second year players did not continued on page 3 are invited to attend.
by Mike Martin The Redmen soccer team con tinued its dominance of the QUSL Sunday, defeating the Sherbrooke VertetOr 1-0 to capture their eighth Championship in nine years.
McGill group to fight illiteracy by Paul Michell Development and Peace, a McGill group, is embarking upon a program to combat illiteracy in Montréal, and is looking for stu dent volunteers to act as tutors and canvassers. The group, which has tradition ally focused on the Third World, has in recent years considered certain issues in Canada as within its realm of endeavour. Specifi cally, the plight of Canada’s native people and now, the problem of functional and total illiteracy amongst the general Canadian population have been deemed to require the group’s attention. Development and Peace Co-or dinator Killian Holland explains the group’s philosophy; “It’s development through peace and peace through social justice, basically. We felt that the problem of illiteracy was a particularly pressing one, and also one that we could tackle with the resources that we have, which is not a lot of money but instead a lot of potential student tutors and workers.” Ther group has proposed a twopart plan, in conjunction with RECLAIM (Reading Council for Literacy Advance in Montréal), which seeks to train tutors and to find students. Finding students is one of the most difficult problems facing any group which seeks to fight illiteracy, but with an esti mated 21.4% of all Canadians and
28.4% of all Québecers function ally illerate, there is a wide pool to draw students from. “It’s quite tragic - there are liter ally thousands of [functionally il literate persons] out there. They really have to be coaxed out of the woodwork and encouraged to become students in the program so that they can overcome their illit eracy.” Functional illiteracy is a condi tion whereby the afflicted person has great difficulty in reading and writing even basic words, such as ‘cat’ or ‘stop’. Many functionally illiterate people are dropouts from an educational system which does not cater well to special needs or are immigrants to a largely am bivalent and even actively hostile society. It’s hard to imagine what life must be like for those who have great difficulty even writing their own names. “There’s a lot of shame involved when it comes to illiteracy. These people aren’t stupid, it’s just that they haven ’t had a real opportunity to learn the language,” said Hol land. Those who can’tread or write often remain stuck at low-paying jobs and become increasingly frus trated with their lives. The Development and Peace/ RECLAIM program uses the Laubach method of language instruc tion, which is based on the “each one teach one” philosophy; stu dents are taught on a one on one
basis, which helps to overcome much of the nervousness and embarrassment that illiteracy cre ates. The system also provides for rather rapid progress on the part of students, and students can begin the program at any level of ability, ranging from total illiteracy to some familiarity with the alphabet to basic reading. Holland is quick to emphasize the two-pronged thrust of the pro gram; “One of RECLAIMS’ ‘prob lem s’ is that it has more tutors than students. It’s incredibly difficult to get in contact with those who need our help - how to you get in contact with someone who can’t read? The newspaper? So we need to get tutors and students.” Development and Peace is hop ing to reach illiterate people through cooperation with McGill Radio CKUT (90.3 FM) and through word of mouth. Referral to the program by friends and rela tives of illiterate people is also a very important mode of attracting students to the program. “The outreach part of the pro gram is probably the single most important aspect - if we don’t at tract illiterate students, then every thing else is for nothing, isn’t it?” said Holland. McGill Students who are inter ested in becoming tutors take a twelve-hour course and must make a strong committment to the pro
Inside:
Deli W ars...............................Pg-6 U2 M aking Noise.................pg.8