Inside this Week M
tr iD iin e I
Tuesday January 10, 1989
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Published by the Student's Society of McGill University
Volume 8 Issue 14
Two McGill students missing, presumed dead B Y R O B E R T STE IN ER McGill Biology student Michael Bryant may never know what hap pened to his roommate Vija Eger and friend Jonathan Deitcher in a stormy Caribbean Sea twelve days ago. One of the largest search operations in the Eastern Caribbean failed to find even a trace o f Vija, 19, or Jonathan, 20. Both arepre-med students at McGill. Along with V ija’s 18 year-old brother Acron and 46 year-old mother Frances, both o f Vancouver, they were among five Canadians aboard the speedboat Longshot when it disap peared o ff S l Vincent on December 30. “No trace has been found which would suggest that anyone from that boat family is still alive,” Art Wright, Canada’s High Commissioner to Bar bados, told the Tribune yesterday. Wright explained that while search efforts involving the coast guards of six countries officially ended at 6 p.m. yesterday, relatives of the disappeared decided to stop sending private air craft to the search zone on Sunday. “U.S. Coast Guard officers told the family Sunday that currents and winds would have pushed any individuals or wreckage into a very open area o f the sea,” he said. A body sighted Sunday evening is most likely that of a French national lost in a boating accident January 2 and pushed by currents into the search zone, he said. Wright added that a U.S. Coast Guard station in Puerto Rico would
continue to monitor any traffic in that area. Friends o f the Eger family in Van couver asked yesterday that the U.S. Coast Guard make one final sweep of a large area where the Longshot was lost. In Montreal, V ija ’s roommate Michael Bryant echoed the plea from Vancouver. "There’s always the chance that they could be on some island,” Bryant said. “We have sent telegrams to the Prime Minister’s Office and to the Department of External Affairs. W e’ve received no response.” Bryant described Vija Eger, of Vancouver, and Jonathan Deitcher. o f Toronto, as “exceedingly good stu dents”. “Vija wanted to be a doctor. Jon athan was interested in going into some professional field like medicine or
dentistry,” he said. Vija was also a regular contributor to the Pillar magazine. At its peak, the rescue operation involved the coast guards of six Carib bean countries, including the United States. The Canadian govemmenthired four private aircraft in St. Vincent to help in the search. “It was very much the biggest search we’ve ever been involved in here,” search coordinator L t Cmdr. David Smith, of the Royal Navy, said in a telephone interview from St. Vincent. “All we can tell about what hap pened is that the Egers went out on a very stormy night,” Smith said. Canadians chartering boats in the Caribbean should make sure the crafts carry flares and radios, he suggested. “In this case, the Longshot had no way of letting anybody know where it
The School of Computer Science opened one of its two new undergradu ate terminal rooms yesterday. These rooms, which are replacing the exist ing rooms in Burnside Hall, are lo cated in rooms 105N and 106N of the McConnell Engineering building. When the move is finished the two rooms will have a total of forty- eight terminals between them, up from the twenty that were in BH 112. There will be twenty terminals connected to both UNIX and MUSIC in each room, and in addition, there will also be two PC’s and two Macintoshes connected to UNIX and MUSIC that will also be able to perform file transfers. However, the move is not yet fin ished, and there have been some prob
Alleged Rape Victim Finds Lawyer B Y K IM F A R L E Y The victim of the alleged gang rape on the Zeta Psi Fraternity House grounds last September 22nd has found a lawyer to plead her case in a civil suit. Julius Grey, a renowned civil law yer and McGill professor, was ap proached by the alleged victim in December and agreed to represent her should she decide to press a civil suit against the three men who allegedly assaulted her. At present the alleged victim has left Montréal, but will have to return shortly for an examination if she de cides to proceed with action. Action taken thus far has been to issue letters of demand to three per sons, none o f whom have yet re sponded, according to Grey.
After the Crown decided that there was not enough evidence to proceed with a criminal trial, the woman had difficulty finding a lawyer to pro ceed with her in a civil suit. Grey took the case because,’I f her version of the facts is correct then she de serves a trial.” In many ways, Grey asserts, a civil trial is better for a rape victim. “While in a criminal case the vic tim must prove that the events occured beyond a reasonable doubt, a civil case focuses on the balance of probabilities. We must prove only that it was more probable she was raped than that she was not raped.” Grey will be able to use the evi dence gathered in the police investi gation into the alleged rape in the suit The amount the victim is suing for has not yet been set.
P rin cip al Joh n ston stays for a n oth er te rm B Y P A U L M IC H E L L Principal David Johnston isn’t leav ing McGill after all. Johnston, Principal and Vice-Chan cellor o f the University since 1979, had announced that he did not intend to seek a third five-year term in the posi tion last year, but on 15 December 1988, M cGill’s Board o f Governors reported that Johnston had agreed to stay on until 1994. Principal Johnston, farmer Dean of the Law School at the University of
Western Ontario, was appointed Prin cipal of McGill at the ripe old age of 37. Ten years later, he had decided to return to one of his great loves, teach ing law. But in November, he agreed to submit his name to the Statutory Committee to Nominate a Principal, the ad hoc “Pick a Principal” Commit tee. Much has happened to McGill dur ing Principal Johnston’s stewardship at the helm. In 1979, many Quebeck ers were still questioning the role of what appeared to be an anachronistic
A new UNIX room B Y ESQUINO CONSEULO
New student federation ... page 3 Christmas' crop of movies ... page 6 & 7 Martlets win over Saint Mary's ... page 10
lems associated with relocating. The air conditioning that was supposed to be installed by the end of last semester is still not in place; as a result, room 105N opened with twenty terminals hard wired to UNIX (Calvin) that can’t access MUSIC. It also means that there will be no access via the phone lines (ie. modem access) until there is air conditioning. The installation o f the much-needed air conditioning, accord ing to Steven Joo from the physical plant, “should be sometime around the end o f January, or the middleof Febru ary”. He also added that this is only a rough estimate and that he would have a better idea as to when the air-condi tioning might finally be operational when project manager Marc Lauzon returns from holidays near the middle o f the month. The PC’s and the Macintoshes are
not currently available but should be towards the end o f the semester once the budget allows it. In the mean time, students who need access to MUSIC will be able to use the terminals in Burnside Hall room 112, which is being kept open for access to MUSIC only until access from the new terminal rooms can be guaran teed. For access to UNIX, students will have to fight for the terminals in the new room which will be open from lOhOO to 22h00 daily (tentatively). Any students interested in learning how to use UNIX on these new termi nals can attend the introductory semi nars this week, and the slightly more advanced seminars next week in room 105N. For the exact seminar times, check the posters in room 105N.
English bastion of power and priviledgerightinthe middle of a modern izing Québec awash with nationalist fervour. Principal Johnston has served McGill well in trying to integrate into the “New Québec”; up to 30% of McGill students are now francophones by birth. Equally problematic has been the underfunding problem which has af fected the entire university system in the province, but has struck McGill particularly harshly. McGill, as a world-renowned research centre and trainer of professionals and academics alike (a very expensive prospect) has been crippled throughout the 1980’s by a lukewarm funding formula which treats Ph.D. biochemistry students in the same way as undergraduate art history students for the purpose of dispensing government funds. Being seen as a rich Anglo institution by the majority of Québec taxpayers proba bly doesn’t do too much for McGill’s funding possibilities either. So Principal Johnston has had to face a decididly uphill battle when dealing with a succession o f Québec Education Ministers. While continu ing the fight to revise the funding for mula, something that is on the verge of becoming a reality due to M cGill’s proposals in the famous “Green Book”, Principal Johnston led a private fund drive, the McGill Advancement Pro gram, which raised $78 million over a three-year period, an unheardof amount of money for a university in Canada. McGill ’s endo wment is now over $300 million, the largest of any Canadian university.
Principal Johnston has similarly been active in inter-university affairs, as Chairperson o f C R E P U Q (Conférence des recteurs et des princi paux des universités du Québec) in 1985-86, and President of the AUCC (Association of Universities and Col leges of Canada). The Board of Governors was unani mous in its approval o f Johnston’s reappointment. Members of the Board certainly had nothing but good things to say about the Principal. One Governor, casting aside doubts that some had had about the Princi pal’s ability to deal effectively with the Québec government, said, “David Johnston has proven that a tactic of constructive negotiation with the Government [over the funding for mula] can be effective...he has done wonderful things for this university.” There was a general feeling from Governors that a third term for Princi pal Johnston would only aid McGill’s chances of playing a positive role in government decisions regarding uni versity funding.