September 21, 2011

Tribune The McGill

Published by the Tribune Publication Society Volume No. 31 Issue No. 3

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Winning week for Martlets, Redmen

3 7 10-11 13 14-15 19 20

MATTHEW DUBÉ GA ENDORSEMENTS EWB POP VS JOCK POP MONTREAL MARTLET HOCKEY VENICE BEACH

Mob squad, MFLAG mobilize at union rally

By Holly Stewart Managing Editor

Ann-Sophie Bettez scored with 15 seconds left in the 3rd to down Queen’s 2-1. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune)

POP VS JOCK, page 13

Students and faculty members grabbed placards and joined MUNACA at the intersection of McGill College and Sherbrooke on Friday morning in what was the largest and loudest rally to date. The protesters, who occupied half a block of McGill College, chanted and cheered while speakers addressed the crowd from a stage.

MUNACA’s President, Kevin Whittaker, was joined by a representative of the McGill Faculty Labour Action Group (MFLAG), who told MUNACA workers, “You are truly indispensable.”

After a strike mandate from their members, which passed with an overwhelming 88 per cent, MUNACA joined the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), an umbrella labour union, under a service contract and began the strike on Sept. 1. David Kalant, Vice President of Finance for MUNACA, cites PSAC’s support as indispensable to the strike. “We’ve been, up until recently, a completely independent union and we really thought we didn’t have the strength to make a major push for what we think is fair, even to support a strike if necessary,” he said.

Members of the Mobilization

Committee, also known as the ‘Mob Squad,’ an informal organization of students whose mandate is to support mobilization efforts on campus, were also in attendance.

“We’re primarily interested in defending student rights, but that encompasses, in our view, solidarity with workers,” said Niko Block, campaign coordinator for SSMU and member of the Mobilization Committee. “We just want to do enough damage to the McGill name, we want to do enough damage to the McGill brand, that they will start to realize it’s no longer in their interest either [to withhold from MUNACA’s demands].”

Should the strike stretch into the coming months, continued Block, the Mobilization Committee would continue their support of MUNACA through various demonstrations.

Students weren’t the only nonMUNACA members in attendance.

MFLAG, whose members cheered alongside MUNACA staff and students, is made up of approximately 40 faculty members who banded together two weeks ago in an organized effort to show support for the strikers. “We’re going to show our coworkers that we stand with them and they have a right to a fair and just contract,” said Derek Nystrom, an Associate Professor in the EngSee “RALLY” on page 2

Council endorses MUNACA on behalf of students Student consultation a point of contention

By Elisa Muyl News Editor SSMU’s endorsement of MUNACA, Teaching Assistants’ contract negotiations, and a proposal to replace tenants of the Shatner cafeteria were on the agenda at the

first SSMU legislative council of the year, held last Thursday.

The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) presented on Teaching Assistants’ ongoing contract negotiations with McGill and were invited back to speak at additional

councils.

During the meeting, SSMU announced its intention to seek new tenants for the second floor cafeteria of the Shatner Building. Potential tenants include Lola Rosa, Burritoville, Green Panther, and Thali.

“This was a perfect opportuni-

ty to go for smaller businesses that are more student-friendly,” Shyam Patel, VP Finance and Operations, said in a follow-up interview.

The Society also passed a resolution in support of MUNACA and a speedy resolution of the strike. This differs from the SSMU executive’s

previous endorsement of the union via email and on its website; the motion now backs MUNACA on behalf of the Society’s entire membership.

There seemed to be tension between the promises of transparency and consultation—two buzzSee “COUNCIL” on page 2

News Speaker on campus

Trudeau talks change at International Day of Democracy Tells McGillians to make their voices heard

By Jonny Newburgh Contributor Justin Trudeau, MP for Montreal's Papineau riding, spoke Thursday at a Liberal McGill event held for the UN-sanctioned International Day of Democracy.

The international observance, held each year on Sept. 15, aims to encourage governments to strengthen programs that promote democracy.

The event, attended by roughly 100 students, was held in coordination with the Young Liberals of Canada International Working Group (IWG) and the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY).

Mateusz Trybowski, the VicePresident of the IFLRY, opened the Liberal McGill event by expressing enthusiasm that the International Day of Democracy would encourage students “to be agents of change within [their] communities."

Trudeau furthered Trybowski's message by imploring McGillians to promote positive change.

"Everyone makes a difference in the world with everything [he or she does]," Trudeau said. "Your actions have impact; They have mean-

ing."

Trudeau told students that while it is easy to be an activist and simply get up and rage, it is much harder to take iniative and step forward to work towards change.

As a McGill undergraduate roughly twenty years ago, Trudeau was a member of the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students' Society (SACOMSS) and the McGill Debating Union, and recommended that students "take an interest in all the various campus clubs."

Trudeau expressed disappointment, however, in the consistently low levels of youth participation in Canadian elections, and said that "voting will always be a profoundly uncool act" because it means that people are saying “‘I care enough to step out and put an X on this block.’”

When questioned on his Party's poor performance in Canadian federal elections, most recently in May, Trudeau jokingly asked whether he "might be really lonely after the next election."

Nonetheless, he said that Bob Rae has been doing “a great job” as the interim leader of the Liberal Party, following the resignation of

Michael Ignatieff, and that they are working hard to "address the root causes" of the decline of popularity in his Party especially "getting more and more [young voters] involved in the Liberal Party." Trudeau said that "[we Liberal MPs] have to shift in our minds what we want to achieve," and only then can they begin to realize their goals.

As a rising member of the Liberal Party, Trudeau's name has been raised as a possible permanent replacement for former leader Michael Ignatieff. He is, however, "not interest[ed] in looking [at Liberal] leadership right now."

Nicolas Méthot, U1 political science, praised the MP for being "in the league of making politics more accessible to everyone."

Trudeau even came prepared with some advice for the five freshman MPs who, until recently, were all students at McGill University: "Learn. Don't be in a rush. Ask questions." They must arrive in Ottawa not to represent Parliament to their constituents but to represent their constituents in Ottawa.

Eric Hendry, Liberal McGill's Vice President Relations, said that it is "an exciting time to be a young

First SSMU council report Continued from COVER words frequently used by the current executive—and the importance of a speedy resolution to the strike. Motions were made to table the resolution until subsequent legislative meetings, citing insufficient student consultation. This was countered by representatives from the faculties of Engineering and Medicine, among others, whose constituents have been particularly affected by the strikes in terms of research, labs, and their graduation schedule.

“We did not table this motion because we believed that it was more important [to pass it, given] the time constraint, but I believe that more extensive student consultation would [result in] a more well-rounded resolution,” Arts Councillor Isabelle Bi said in a follow-up interview. She’d been in support of gathering more information on student support for MUNACA. She also thought representatives of MUNACA and the McGill administration should have been invited, as with the AGSEM representatives, before passing the resolution.

Within the resolution was a clause devoting SSMU’s research resources “to gathering and compiling information relevant to the

strike.” According to VP External Joël Pedneault, this will involve researching and gathering information on McGill’s budget, which he maintains will be beneficial for SSMU’s constituents in the long run.

“There’s not a lot of coherent information out there about what real financial pressures McGill is facing,” Pedneault said. “I think that’s something that could be really valuable to have a very nuanced [and] detailed understanding of.”

The researcher is a permanent staff member who normally works on “the political issues of the day,” said Pedneault. “If there were no MUNACA strike ... he would be working on an external policy related to government policy on postsecondary education, which ties into what financial pressure McGill faces.”

The debate eventually ended and the resolution passed in what Pedneault called a symbolic gesture.

Councillor Bi disagreed with the urgency of the resolution’s passing. “[The] SSMU executive has already discussed and delivered a public statement about MUNACA ... [That] is enough for us to wait two more weeks and really talk to our constituents and individual re-

spective legislative councils and get a broader sense of [where] students stand on this issue [before passing the resolution].”

This concern regarding insufficient consultation is salient as this resolution speaks for all of SSMU’s membership. Both Pedneault and Bi recognized this and spoke out in favour of increased consultation.

“Constituents should talk to their representative honestly and frankly ... if there’s enough evidence [that students do not support the resolution], we can bring this up again in a different council.” Bi said. “I encourage everyone to write in: for, against, neutral ... just so we can get a clear student message about this strike.”

“This is still a discussion. I don’t think the motion was intended to put a period at the end of a sentence,” Pedneault said. “If people disagree with [the resolution], then that’s a discussion that needs to happen. The forums we have for that are Council & the General Assembly.”

This year’s first General Assembly will be held Monday, Sept.

26.

Trudeau addresses McGill students. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune) Liberal." At a time when the Party is desperately trying to find its feet following a crushing election defeat,

Trudeau certainly came to express one thing to young voters, and it was clear: "You can have an impact."

Students support rally Continued from COVER lish Department whose research has been affected by the strike. The McGill administration maintained in an email to the student body that MUNACA’s package is, altogether, similar to that of support staff at other universities in Quebec.

Michelle Hartman, a member of MFLAG and an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, began the semester by teaching a first-year seminar course off campus in an effort to avoid crossing the MUNACA picket lines, an action that she and the chair of the Islamic Studies department had believed to be acceptable under McGill’s legislation. Her salary was threatened by the administration and as a result she returned to teaching her class on campus.

“The Dean of Arts…said to me directly, that if I was saying that I would not cross a picket line to teach a class, it meant I was not crossing a picket line for any reason, therefore I was not performing my academic duties and I would not be paid,” said Hartman.

Christopher Manfredi, Dean of Arts, responded to Hartman’s case by citing the University Policy on the Non-Performance of Academic Duties During a Legal Strike, which

stipulates that Professors must fulfil all of their academic duties during a strike in order to receive their full salaries.

“With respect to teaching, professors cannot work around this rule by moving their courses off campus during a strike,” said Manfredi in an email. He added that students in classes being taught off campus had been unable to return to campus in time for other classes.

A communiqué was issued to all academic staff this week on behalf of Provost Anthony Masi stating that “the University has an obligation to deliver classes in a location that is least disruptive for students” and that off-campus locations would not be covered under McGill’s insurance policy, increasing the risk for students.

Allegations of scab workers on campus surfaced last week. According to MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker, a report by officials from the Quebec Labour Commission, who are investigating the use of casual employees to replace MUNACA workers, will be released at the end of the week.

“That report has been submitted to the labour board and it should be brought to us by Friday.”

3

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

National

Brian Topp vies for NDP leadership McGill alumnus first to declare candidacy

By Carolina Millan Ronchetti Contributor On September 12, NDP President Brian Topp launched his campaign for leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Topp’s announcement kick-started the leadership race to select a Leader of the Opposition, who will be elected at a leadership convention in March 2012.

Topp graduated with a BA from McGill ’83 and chaired an NDP campaign in 1988. After a few years in Saskatchewan’s provincial politics, he returned to the federal stage, most recently serving as Jack Layton’s Senior Advisor during the 2011 election campaign. This past June, Topp was elected party president.

Topp’s background shows his skill at organizing on both the party and government level, explained Richard Schultz, Chair of the McGill Department of Political Science and an expert in Canadian politics.

“Topp seems to have incredible experience in terms of not just the backroom of the NDP but also working with the government, in particular the government of Saskatchewan,” Schultz said. “More so than Pierre Trudeau or Brian Mulroney [at the time of their election as party leaders], he’s familiar with

Topp began his run for NDP leadership on Sept. 12. (ipolitics.ca) how decisions are made and the difficulties of making decisions.”

Jimmy Gutman, U1 Canadian Studies, is a member of NDP McGill and noted that although Topp has demonstrated strong leadership in the past, his position in the race is hard to evaluate without knowing who he is running against.

“He had support one time and he might have it again,” Gutman said. “But we don’t have all the names yet, so it’s hard to give a holistic judgment of the leadership

race.”

For Schultz, Topp’s lack of experience within the House of Commons as an elected Member of Parliament is a drawback.

“My preference is for people to have been elected and served in the House of Commons before becoming party leader,” Schultz said.

“Like in the case of Trudeau or Mulroney, the impression that you don’t have to be a Member of Parliament [to be party leader] suggests that parliament is not that important,

and I think parliamentary experience should be important.”

To fill the power vacuum left

by Layton, an ideal candidate for the NDP would need to be fully bilingual and appeal to the average voter, both Schultz and Gutman said.

“The ideal candidate also has to have the skin of a crocodile, because the Conservatives are nasty fighters,” Schultz added. “Already, they are trying to label Topp as a tool of the union movement and to portray him as a man who represents only

minority interests. [The next NDP leader] will need to be thick-skinned and willing to fight hard.”

In the interim, the main challenge for the NDP will be avoiding polarization within the party. The leadership contest could potentially lead to party members differing in their policy suggestions.

“The key thing for a political party in the opposition is that it not be taking three or four positions on any one issue, because the government would pounce on them and show that they’re divided and not capable of governing,” Schultz said.

“So it’s going to be very important for them over the next six months to be as coherent and united as possible. In the House of Commons they’re going to have to speak as much as possible with one voice.”

McGill alumnus and recently elected NDP MP Matthew Dubé acknowledged the need for party unity during the leadership race.

“I think that at the end of the day, our goal is to make sure that, rather than be something divisive, this is a discussion of ideas,” he said. “No matter which candidate you support or who endorses who, everyone's goal is to form an NDP government in four years.”

exclusive interview

Interview with MP Matthew Dubé Former McGill student talks Layton, NDP policy, and preparing for Parliament The McGill Tribune sat down with Matthew Dubé, who found himself thrown into Ottawa’s political arena after his surprise victory in last May’s election, to discuss Jack Layton’s legacy and the future of the NDP. A former McGill student, he spent the summer between his constituency and Ottawa, preparing for the first session of Parliament which opened this week.

What was it like working with Jack Layton? How will Jack’s vision and values continue with the party?

One of the great things I’ll always remember is how he treated everyone with the same sort of respect, and as someone who’s younger than the average politician, I really saw that. In the first conversation I ever had with him, before I was even a candidate, I got to speak to him for a good 15 minutes. For a leader of a federal party, that’s precious time.

At the same time, you know he left us with a great project to continue with. None of us expect to fill his shoes and I don’t think any of us want to either, we have to take our

own shoes and continue on the path he set us on.

How does the NDP feel about the Conservatives’ renewal of their anti-terrorism legislation?

First of all, we find the comments Stephen Harper made on The National referring to "Islamicism" as a major threat to Canada absolutely shameful. Security is important for the NDP, but at the same time there's nothing indicating that we're at risk in any way and right now people's priorities are issues like the economy, especially job creation and security. We feel these security issues are non-existent and it's divisive politics, plain and simple. The Omnibus Crime bill, jokingly referred to as the Big Brother Bill, is problematic and illustrates that Conservatives' priorities are out of whack.

Have you formally endorsed an NDP leadership candidate?

For myself I think that it's a bit early to say. Leadership was obviously on people's minds [at the NDP’s general caucus] in Quebec City. We are potentially going to

be supporting different candidates but no one has a problem with that.

From feedback I've been getting in my riding there’s a lot of hope in Quebec that Thomas Mulcair will present himself as a candidate. As for my own personal endorsement, I'm definitely going to see once all the candidates are there and official, and I can make the decision then.

What do you see as challenges for the NDP stemming from the Leadership race?

At the end of the day our goal is to make sure that rather than be something divisive that this be a discussion of ideas. Lots of candidates do have connections to Quebec, which is a natural consequence of the breakthrough that happened in this province in the last election. Thomas Mulcair and Brian Topp, like Jack Layton, are McGill graduates. I compare the process to a family debate at the dinner table about politics. It can get heated at times and not everybody necessarily agrees 100 per cent but at the end of the day it's shared values, it's a fam-

ily and we definitely want to be in government in four years so we're all going to work together.

Do you feel you and your peers’ electoral success says something about youth empowerment and breaking out of the mould that young people, especially those who want to get into politics, find themselves in?

People had some reservations about the number of young people who got elected—and that’s fair.

At the same time [we younger MPs know] that we’re hard workers, that we can have just as much a say and impact as someone from another generation. At the end of the day, it’s up to us to show that to people. It never hurts to have a new set of eyes on the problems we face as a society.

We want to show people that young people can people work positively in this environment and contribute in an important and positive way.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

—Compiled by Anand Bery

Matthew Dubé, MP for ChamblyBorduas (politwitter.ca)

4

Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

campus

Powwow promotes cultural understanding Aboriginal Awareness Week draws crowd

By Kat Sieniuc Features Editor A lively combination of drumming, dancing, and booths adorned with native art drew a large crowd to Lower Field on Friday.

“I was just coming from my bio lab, and I heard all of the music, so I came by to check it out,” said Kevin Dick, a U1 biology major making his way through the festivities.

The spectacle was McGill’s tenth annual powwow, an event put on each year by the school’s First Peoples’ House to educate McGillians about Canadian aboriginal heritage.

“I think it’s perfect,” Dick said of the event. “It’s a good way to get people out [and] introduce them to this type of culture.”

This year’s powwow was part of a broader, week-long project: the university’s first ever Aboriginal Awareness Week (AAW), which ran from Sept. 12 to 15.

Aboriginal Awareness Week is intended to provide greater opportunities for non-aboriginal students to learn about and engage in aboriginal traditions.

According to the Arts Undergraduate Society, the focus of the week was to showcase First Nations cultures and values in a manner that encouraged collaboration with partners in the community.

“This week-long event also stems from a broader effort to increase both understanding of and appreciation for aboriginal perspectives and values in higher learning institutions,” read a promotion in

Powwow on Friday showcased the best of Aboriginal art and culture. (Ryan Reisert / McGill Tribune) last week’s AUS listserv.

Paige Isaac, co-ordinator of the First Peoples’ House and chief planner for the project, stressed the importance of the aboriginal community’s presence on campus for more than just one day a year.

“With four days of events, we wanted to target the whole campus to learn about different issues other than just dancing and singing,” Isaac said.

All events were free and open to the public, and included two nights of music and spoken word from aboriginal artists, a stone carving workshop, a media panel on representations of aboriginals in public spaces, a book reading by broadcast journalist Waubgeshig Issac, as well as a closing feast. The finale was a powwow on lower field.

Supporters of the project included the First Peoples’ House, the

Social Equity and Diversity Education Office (SEDE), the Office of the Dean of Students (represented by the Aboriginal Outreach Coordinator) and the Office of Sustainability at McGill.

“The school has always been very open and well-receiving of our people,” said Lance Delisle, the powwow’s MC. “Every single year it’s very well received and that attests to McGill University and exactly what

type of school this is: very diverse and open to new ideas.”

The First Peoples’ House plans to keep the momentum of Aboriginal Awareness Week going with a series of monthly events. The next one will be held in October.

“We want to meet as many students as we can and we want everyone to share and learn and engage,” said Isaac.

local

French to become a minority language in Montreal OFQL report shows French in decline as language spoken at home

By Nathaniel Finestone Contributor A report published earlier this month by the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OFQL) stated that in 20 years, French will be a minority language on the Island of Montreal. According to the report, only 47.4 per cent of those living in Montreal will speak French at home by 2031, compared with 54 per cent in 2006. Montreal’s recent influx of immigrants is likely the major factor behind the decline of the French language in the city. However, both Premier Jean Charest and McGill Professor Charles Boberg, a sociolinguist, caution that these numbers should be taken in the context of the greater Montreal area, and Quebec

as a whole.

Boberg explained that immigration keeps Quebec’s population numbers from dropping.

“Quebec francophones, like Canadian anglophones and most western Europeans, have seen a dramatic drop in the birth rate owing to a number of social and cultural changes that have been developing since the 1960s,” Boberg said.

Booming immigration has forced Quebec to face problems of integration, and encouraging immigrants to speak French is a top priority for the Quebec government and the OFQL. According to several Montreal residents, this policy appears to be working. An IT consultant for Accenture, the world’s largest consul-

tancy firm, works almost exclusively in French while speaking her native Tamil at home.

“I was brought up speaking Tamil and English at home, but I went to French school and learned French,” the consultant, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “Now I teach French and all my nieces and nephews speak French, because ... the younger generation is speaking French.”

However, this move towards French is not universal. Saddiq Akbar, who works in McGill food services and owns a restaurant on Saint-Laurent, never learned French and has been getting along very well living in Montreal for the past 13 years after moving here from Pakistan.

“It’s good to know other languages, but practically if you want a job you should know English. I own a restaurant and in four years I’ve lost business maybe two or three times because I don’t speak French.

Before I came over I was worried it would be hard because I didn’t know any French but my in-laws said it was fine and it has been,” Akbar said.

Premier Charest, in his response to the study, claims that most immigrants do learn and are in fact speaking French, thanks to the Charter of the French Language instituted in 1977.

Newcomers to Montreal tend to install themselves among others who share their language, customs, religion, and food. On the

other hand, an expanding group of middle-class Francophone families is leaving Montreal for the suburbs of Laval, the North Shore, and the South Shore.

As for the future of a French Quebec, Professor Boberg cautions that there is a big difference between the island of Montreal and Quebec at large.

“Let's remember that Montreal and Quebec are very different: as soon as you move a few kilometers away from Montreal, Quebec is 95 per cent francophone, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. The large anglo populations that were once found in the Gaspe, Quebec City, the Eastern Townships, and even the Outaouais are now effectively gone.”

5

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

speaker on campus

Canadian senator and nuclear activist visits McGill Douglas Roche cautions against nuclear complacency

By Eric Mauser News Editor The annihilation of the human race by nuclear war is probably not something that has been on the average student's mind since the end of the Cold War. But according to Douglas Roche, it should be.

Roche, a former MP, Senator, Canadian Diplomat, and anti-nuclear weapons activist, recently gave a speech at McGill as part of a speaking tour of 23 universities across Canada. “I want students of today's generation to understand the nature of the nuclear weapons problem, what is being done about it, and what they can do about it too,� Roche said.

Roche noted that the issue of nuclear weapons has fallen to the wayside, especially among those too young to remember the Cold War. He strongly emphasized that the issue of nuclear weapons is still of great importance. “Nuclear security is as relevant today as it was in the Cold War,�

Roche makes a speaking tour stop at McGill. (theworldmarch.org) Roche said. “It would be foolhardy to think that everything will be fine in a nuclear world because it very well might not be."

Lack of public consciousness over the issue of nuclear safety, according to Roche, could have disastrous consequences. At the begin-

ning of his speech, Roche held up an apple and explained that an applesized amount of enriched plutonium was enough to cause huge destruction and an inestimable loss of life.

He also elaborated on the theft of nuclear materials and the risk this might pose.

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esting. “When I looked at the notice outside, it said [the topic] was 'Nuclear Weapons,'� Heider said. “I was pretty interested because it's a very radical topic, especially in Pakistan, where I come from. It's a topic that has raised quite a lot [of conversation] because we have nuclear weapons and it's an issue that does have controversy, and I wanted to see what Douglas Roche had to say.� “I found the task of how to raise the issue amongst the younger generation important,� Heider added. “We should know the kind of dangers that are associated with nuclear weapons.�

Roche was enthusiastic about speaking to students. “I'm happy to speak at McGill,�

Roche said, adding that he hopes students came away with “a better understanding of the danger the world faces with the continuation of nuclear weapons and how the movement to abolish nuclear weapons is gaining strength in the world.�

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“However tightly nuclear materials are guarded today, they are not guarded tightly enough,� Roche said.

The event was organized by the Montreal branch of the Canadian International Council (CIC), an organization committed to bringing international issues such as nuclear proliferation to the forefront of Canadian politics.

The event coordinator, Kyle Matthews, was delighted that the Honourable Douglas Roche had time to speak with the CIC and with students. “We're always looking to bring in interesting, high level speakers ... I thought it was very important that we invite him to talk about our nuclear security and safety disarmament to our membership,� Matthews said.

While the event was designed for the general public, many McGill students attended, including Shehryar Heider, U1. Heider was not sure what to expect of the event at first, but found it informative and inter-

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Opinion Piñata Diplomacy Ricky Kreitner rkreitner@mcgilltribune.com

Pay no attention It was the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw who first compared writing a column to standing under a windmill: as soon as you’ve dodged one blade, another is rounding the bend and heading straight for you.

As a writer, I find the comparison apt. As a reader, however, you should be alarmed, and perhaps ask the following question: “Is it really just the pressure of deadlines that prompts you to pen these screeds, these columns you invest with all the rhetorical force of a man, in good faith, setting forth to solve the world’s problems? And you expect that I’ll be guilted into reading them? Are you really so conniving and cruel?”

The short answer is yes. I didn’t want to write this column.

I spent the last two days scratching my head, etching notes in class and crossing them out, struggling to think of something to say. This is what I’ve come up with: about 650 words that, if nothing else, fill up the Tribune.

Like every other, this newspaper, the one in your hands, is filled cover to cover with pieces like this, even if they don’t come out and admit it: the makeshift byproducts of prejudice, haste, and contingency. The ambitions and needs of writers are cloaked in the vesture of authoritative voice and semi-official proclamation from the land of hard, certain truth. The paper waits on the stands, instills guilt in your heart, and bids you to read it or risk being ill-informed.

Both as opinion editor for the Tribune last year and as a writer for a fairly well-read online magazine this past summer, I have closely observed how articles are pulled out of the ether. When I feel positively about the whole writing enterprise, it feels like a miracle. This didn’t

exist before, and now it does. With my name on it. When I have my eyes open, though, and am not blinded by my own journalistic aspirations, it’s plain trickery.

Editorials are whipped together not quite so that the editorial board can make its opinions known, really move things and perhaps shake them, too, but because editorials just have to be written; that’s how newspapers work. In the online world, mania for page views overrides care for content. Publications exist for themselves, not for us. Even if writers don’t have anything necessarily pressing to say, the whole structure of media as an industry forces them to write anyway.

What results is not just profits, not just subservience from the masses who foolishly consider the media the place to go to find out what’s really going on, but a whole sphere of base gossip and purposeful propaganda that masquerades as intelligent discourse.

This is the most amusing lie: that by reading about Michele Bachmann’s hair instead of Kim Kardashian’s sex life, you are being “serious.” In truth, though, it’s really the same base human instincts being appealed to, and I rather respect someone who reads People more than someone who reads the New York Times, because the tabloid reader has the guts to come out and declare themselves as base and crude and small, whereas the “news follower” tries pitifully to hide that they are all those things.

Let’s reclaim that great line, and finally heed it this time: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” When we do pay attention to the Wizard of Oz, we find that attention is exactly what he needs. He is lonely, forlorn, and homesick. His needs are, in a way, just as great as the needs of his guests, Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Lion, and Toto.

The same goes for the media.

Its needs are great, and we suffer. I propose a boycott: withdraw your consent, and let the system reform itself. Let it conform itself to our needs. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

Compass Rose Noah Caldwell-Rafferty noahcr@mcgilltribune.com

Montreal’s fine arts Imagine strolling through campus on your way to the studio for CERA 335, Introduction to Ceramics, in a blissful jaunt that stirs your creativity with each step, making you wish you were already sitting at the pottery wheel. You remark, “How wonderful it is that I can study fine art at such a good school!

In such a nice city!” To experience this feeling, you’d have to be a student of Concordia University.

What’s a Redman to do, then, when he wants to step into a Bumblebee’s shoes?

Concordia offers dozens of BFA programs, ranging from dance to film to computational arts to fibres (if rickety old textile mills stir your passions) to, yes, ceramics.

Our neighbour to the east, UQAM, similarly offers graphic arts and design majors. In fact, Montreal’s arts culture seems to surround the McGill campus. Five minutes down Sherbrooke to the west is the Musee des Beaux-Arts, a veritable hotbed of permanent and temporary art, ranging from Greek vases to pieces

by Yoko Ono; for the modern art purveyor, the DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art lies just five minutes into the Old Port.

The vibrancy of the Montreal art scene outside of McGill is no accident. Just look at the Quartier des Spectacles. The city’s newest quarter sports opera halls, bars, cinemas, museums, and libraries, spanning more than ten blocks and three metro stations. You can do anything from attend the largest jazz festival in the world, to sit on a park bench and watch denizens run through multicolored fountains on the new Place des Arts plaza. While McGill keeps turning a blind eye to the creative arts, the city of Montreal is picking up the slack. The magnitude of the $120 million Quartier even breaks the current international trend. The

Send us your commentary opinion@mcgilltribune.com The Tribune is currently looking for Arts, Opinion & Sports editors. Email editor@mcgilltribune. com for more information.

U.S. National Endowment for the Arts barely gets $150 million per year for the whole country, and even Holland, once the most supportive arts society in the world, is now cutting its subsidies in half.

Most would be surprised to know that McGill had a Fine Arts program 60 years ago. But true to McGill’s research focus, details of the Fine Arts program are scarce, like a ghost fleeing campus memory with haste. Tracing my way through a maze of obituaries online, one of the few places where records of McGill’s BFA still exist, I tracked down a graduate from as late as 1949. At long last, I found a Gazette article from 1965 in a tangled cobweb of cyber archives. The pure BFA was terminated in 1952, and thereafter a revamped Art History department kept some studio courses. Even then, the aim wasn’t vocational training. Rather, for the students to judge and study creativity, they needed some understanding of what being creative entailed.

If you can find the date of the final moratorium for the fated McGill studio arts, email me—it seems to have vanished into thin air.

Interested in photojournalism?

While McGill keeps turning a blind eye to the creative arts, the city of Montreal is picking up the slack.

Instead of being disappointed with McGill’s lack of Fine Arts courses, this seems the perfect reason for indulging in Montreal’s offerings. Stay a while after graduating. Take up mural painting (legally, of course). Independent art schools are numerous in the city’s downtown. Montreal’s proclivity for enhancing the arts seems boundless, and you don’t have to worry about whether you’re a Redman or a Bumblebee to explore the finer sides of Montreal living.

Join us in covering news, arts, and sports.

Email photo@mcgilltribune.com for details.

Tribune The McGill

Editorial

www.mcgilltribune.com

Editor-in-Chief Shannon Kimball editor@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Sam Hunter shunter@mcgilltribune.com Holly Stewart hstewart@mcgilltribune.com Production Manager Iain Macdonald imacdonald@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Anand Bery, Eric Mauser, and Elisa Muyl news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editor opinion@mcgilltribune.com Features Editors Kyla Mandel and Kat Sieniuc features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editor Ryan Taylor arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editor Adam Sadinsky sports@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editors Ryan Reisert and Sam Reynolds photo@mcgilltribune.com Design Editor Kathleen Jolly design@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Marri Lynn Knadle Advertising Manager Corina Sferdenschi cpm@ssmu.mcgill.ca Publisher Chad Ronalds

Contributors Jeff Downey, Trevor Drummond, Bailey Greenspon,

7

The Tribune’s GA endorsements Resolution regarding democratic reform of the SSMU Board of Directors—YES The SSMU Board of Directors is the highest decision-making body at SSMU and must consist of only Canadian citizens or permanent residents. This motion would increase the Board of Directors from seven people to 16, and give more power to the legislative council, who are currently underrepresented on the board.

Due to the intricacies of Quebec’s liquor laws, this would also allow the SSMU to retain its liquor license.

The Tribune fully endorses this motion in favour of representation, so show up to the GA, vote, and get the job done.

Resolution regarding accessible education—YES, with reservations The Quebec government has announced tuition increases of $325 annually over the next five years for Quebec residents, and will soon announce the increases for out of province students. SSMU is currently mandated to actively oppose all tuition hikes and actively promote accessible education. The Tribune endorses this motion and its long-

term goals, but encourages SSMU to investigate and support alternative funding models, including a more extensive financial aid fund for students most affected by the increased tuition. Although aiming for free post-secondary education is a noble cause, it might be unrealistic given the tuition trends across the province.

The Tribune hopes that the aims of this motion are attainable in the long term, but recognizes that other solutions may be better for current students.

Resolution regarding the Sustainability Assessment—YES This motion mandates that SSMU update the Sustainability Assessment annually. The assessment will include, among other things, an overview of green student groups’ projects, evaluation of the year’s progress, and recommendations for the following year. This assessment was performed in 2008, but has not been updated since then. The Tribune endorses this motion and sees it as a vehicle for transparency between students and sustainability efforts on campus. Turnover is inherent in a campus community, and an annual sustainability assessment which

provides reports on past projects and future goals will undoubtedly prove useful for future McGillians.

Resolution regarding reappointments—YES This motions argues that students should be represented on the consultation committee for reappointments of the provost, deputy provost, and vice principle, and that SSMU should employ all measures at their disposable to change McGill’s policy on the reappointment committee. As it stands, student representatives are only involved in the initial appointment of these members. Students are represented in the appointment and reappointment of faculty deans, and for good reason—all of the above positions affect student life. Therefore, students should be consulted in the case that a member may not warrant reappointment. For the love of student-consultation, the Tribune fully endorses this motion.

Resolution regarding labour disputes—YES, with reservations This motion would mandate SSMU to extend and modify its current policy of standing in solidarity

with workers on campus. The updated policy would require SSMU to collect varied perspectives on campus union strikes, disseminate this information to the student body, and support workers in their strike. The Tribune endorses the SSMU’s support of campus unions and its collection and dissemination of much-needed information regarding disputes. It is in the best interests of students to be well informed of campus workers’ disputes. While the SSMU may counter information brought forth by the administration—as was the case at the start of the MUNACA strike—students deserve an unbiased account of these disputes. The Tribune is concerned that SSMU’s blanket statement on all future labour disputes could cause conflict.

Although many students support the MUNACA strike, this may not be so in the case in future disputes.

The Tribune is glad to see that students have put forth motions more serious than installing a stripper pole in Gerts or holding a bake sale to rescue AUS from its debts.

The SSMU General Assembly will be held at 4:30 on Monday, Sept.

26 in the Shatner Ballroom (third floor, SSMU building).

Nathaniel Finestone, Joshua Freedman, Emma Hambly, Alex Knoll, Steven Lampert, Marie Leaf, Chris Liu, Vivian Mau, Mari Mesri, Jonny Newburgh, Nicholas Petrillo, Pascal G. Richard, Carolina Millan Ronchetti, Bea Santos, Abir Shah.

Off the Board Elisa Muyl

Tribune Offices Editorial

Shatner University Centre

9/11 - A memoir

Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 T: 514.398.6789

Two Sundays ago marked the 10th anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11. I don’t have anything to say that hasn’t already been said. All I can offer is my personal experience.

My fifth grade class was in the middle of story time when we heard the terrible bang that heralded the end of one world and birthed another, colder and more terrible. Later, in Spanish class, we ducked under our desks and hugged each other, certain that the fighter jets that flew overhead were on their way towards us. All logic suspended that day, it made indisputable sense that an elementary school on the Lower East Side would be next.

After school, I went to my neighbour’s apartment and watched as the towers collapsed again and again, as small black dots took their fatal leaps a fourth, fifth, and sixth time. I watched from my bedroom as awful black smoke marched up First Avenue and enveloped us in its terrible, terrible truth.

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The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a student society of McGill University. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune. and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to editor@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. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.

I don’t think I said anything that day. All I could do was absorb my surroundings, and even then my 10-year-old brain never processed the awful reality broadcasted in repetition on my neighbour’s television. The pretty buildings were falling. The view from my window had been altered. We couldn’t reach my father, who had an office on Maiden Lane, and for the first time in my life, my mother was not in control.

I knew the world was different because it hurt to inhale the black air that filled my apartment and left a sharp, mean taste in my mouth. We were literally breathing in death, the charred remains of our neighbours.

My father was the only one to cough it back up; that same day, we escaped to New Jersey.

In the weeks and months following the attack, my mother and I read the victim profiles in the New York Times, crying at the kitchen table but forcing ourselves to finish each one.

It was our duty to commemorate each life as it, and our understanding of what had happened, slipped like sand through our fingers.

I was in shock at first; then I was sad. Now, I am angry.

When Osama bin Laden died I, not typically bloodthirsty or religious, breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God. I really don’t want to see an-

other picture of the burning towers. I don’t want to think about it anymore.

Over the past few days I’ve felt like a train was rushing me towards the anniversary and I panicked, not yet ready to face that day. This 10 year anniversary has forced me to process what I never could when I was ten. The fist in my gut tightened, then slightly unclenched. Ten years is still too soon, but it is enough time to begin to reflect.

Last week, Yale Professor Jay Winter wrote that we have no choice but to remember; that it is a moral act to mark each death.

“They did not have the good fortune to die one at a time. That is why we must remember them one at a time.”

That day, in my city, the world and my place in it were irrevocably altered. My neighbours died, fighting to save themselves and each other and, when the time came, launched themselves out into the blue sky or crumbled beneath the avalanche of steel and concrete and souls. I am so lucky that I was in no real way affected by the events of that day. The best I can offer to those who were is to remember them, and, even all the way from Canada, offer my memory of that day to the mosaic of collective memory in an effort to preserve and honour them all.

Were you born with a red pen in your hand?

The Tribune needs an Opinion Editor.

Please send a letter of intent, CV, and three writing samples, including a sample op-ed, to editor@ mcgilltribune.com.

Student Living Travel

The challenges of making a lasting impact A student’s experience teaching abroad

By Marie Leaf Contributor I almost feel disingenuous about my volunteer experience, as if my whole trip’s purpose was to answer the dreaded question: “So, how was your summer?” I keep my answer brief and superficial: “Great, yours?”

A month hardly seems sufficient for what I had set out to do. I volunteered at Baan Unrak Children’s Village, an orphanage in central Thailand on the border of Burma.

There they house, feed, and educate refugee children from Burma and the surrounding area. Characteristic of any good international development studies student, I was full of enthusiasm to change a small part of the world.

Baan Unrak was hesitant to take on a volunteer for less than six months, but I didn’t understand why. After pleading with them for a summer spot, I was on a plane to Thailand. It was not the pretty ‘voluntourist’ picture painted in brochures. My living conditions were harsh, and supplies for my projects were non-existent. What’s more, the children I wanted to help seemed apathetic.

I taught English and computer skills, drafting grant proposals in my spare time for things all kids should have access to. I wanted to make every single failing thing better,

make procedures more efficient, and set up better infrastructure and specialized computer programs. I found myself tirelessly teaching the older kids to expand their Internet skills beyond Youtubing Justin Bieber and Google Image searching Robert Pattinson. It was exhausting.

During English class, I had the children talk about what they wanted to be when they grew up.

A surprising majority wanted to be tour guides, a very respectable job in Thailand. Others wanted to be policemen, “to put all the bad people in jail.” This answer made me uncomfortable, picturing all the violent ‘bad people’ in these kids’ lives. I asked if anyone wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer. “Too much work, too much work,” they would say. The brightest student in the class told me she just wanted to be able to learn.

They had completely different motivations than I did at that age.

But these children were happy.

They had been through traumatizing experiences, yet had a startling calmness about them. Instead of driving home a certain idea of what kids needed to learn in high school, I started interacting with them and was surprised at what they wanted to learn. At first they could not sit still in class. They ran out the door the second the school bell rang.

Then one day someone asked me about war—a topic they were all too familiar with. I started explain-

Are you a living student?

Write for student living. features@

(Marie Leaf / McGill Tribune) ing the United Nations. Although the UN was an unknown concept to them, having no lectures to attend or newspapers to read, I was impressed by how quickly they understood issues of food supplies, human rights, and national security. Even with broken English, they couldn’t ask me enough questions, and everyone stayed in class through their lunch break with their eyes glued to me. I had broken through.

I gradually became attuned to Baan Unrak and found great joy in

teaching the kids about things they were genuinely interested in. We swapped music, talked about life, and they were all eager to add me on Facebook. Although a month seemed like an unfairly short amount of time to be in these children’s lives, I hope I made an impact beyond a month’s worth of course material.

For more information about Baan Unrak visit http://www.baanunrak.org/. To order from their store, visit http://www.border-weaving.org

mcgill tribune .com

ODDS & Ends

How to humiliate yourself in forty minutes or less The woes of playing intramural soccer

By Shannon Kimball Editor-in-Chief Last Friday, at approximately 9 p.m., I endured the most humiliating forty minutes of my life: I played intramural soccer. As it turns out, I have all of the coordination of a drunk gorilla, and all of the soccer competitiveness of an MLS team.

Co-Rec-C is too advanced for me.

When a fellow editor suggested that an intramural soccer team would promote team bonding, I was excited. However, I failed to realize that I would have to play soccer.

As editor-in-chief, my duties consist of a lot of delegating, emailing, and telling people what to do, how to do it, and why they are wrong. I assumed I could use the same skills as the intramural team manager or water-boy.

From what little I saw of the World Cup, soccer consists of running, taunting, and faking injuries,

all with minimal ball contact. This seemed simple enough. I consider myself an athletic person: I run fifty miles per week, I went to fencing nationals four times, I have a decent jump-shot, and I can do one-and-ahalf pull-ups. If I can execute twelve consecutive moves with a sword in my hand without killing anyone, kicking a ball around shouldn’t be hard. But then again, I also once struck out in an epic game of fourth grade kick-ball.

When I was eight—the peak of my soccer career—I played defence on a co-ed team because kicking boys in the shins seemed like a good way to flirt with them. Since then, my tactics haven’t changed too much. Because I wanted to have as little contact with the ball as possible, I chose to hang out as far away from our team’s expert offence. They were doing all sorts of moves that I could not handle: kicking the ball, passing the ball, and even shooting

it, all without tripping. Moreover, they always aimed. But it turns out that the defence is responsible for making sure the other team doesn’t score, so avoiding ball contact is the definition of doing a bad job.

Knowing that I’m as useful on the field as a chimpanzee doing the Macarena, I hoped to sit on the bench for at least half of the game so that the Tribune FC had a shot at winning. When I realized that all four girls on our team we required to be on the field for the entire game, I nearly cried. None of my “athletic prowess” mattered when a firstyear laughed in my face that night.

I could outrun most of the guys, but I couldn’t follow that up with anything else.

The highlight of the game for the six spectators from Upper Rez was when I saw a potential header.

I was hoping to redeem myself from the assist I had made to the other team earlier in the period. I closed

my eyes and propelled my head forward like Zinidine Zidane. I missed.

By twenty feet. And, I may have pinched a nerve in my neck.

In all fairness, the Tribune Football Club played a very good team, and I’m convinced their captain is Pele’s cousin. To those drunk kids on the sixth floor of Gardner who spent the whole game laughing at (presumably) me, I tried my best.

Sadly, I was not drunk, but that might be my strategy for Game Two. While I didn’t learn to juggle, pass, dribble, or do one of the backward-flip-and-score-moves (I was really hoping I would learn that), I did learn that some people actually care about intramurals and take them seriously. I missed that memo while I was doing the Macarena.

Come cheer for the Tribune Football Club in our next match, Saturday at 8 p.m. in Molson Stadium. If you’d like to see a Tribune vs.

Daily grudge match, email sports@ mcgilltribune.com and sports@ mcgilldaily.com. And if you’re a girl, please take my spot.

(hahastop.com)

9

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Gizmos & Gadgets

3G at the top of the world

Cell and Internet service brought to Mount Everest

By Kyla Mandel Features Editor “Because it’s there,” was George Mallory’s response when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest.

Mallory, an English mountaineer, took part in one of the first three British expeditions to Everest in the early 1920s. 90 years later, climbing has come much farther than anyone might have imagined: 3G service has finally managed to conquer the highest reaches of the earth.

After Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s historic ascent in 1953, some 3000 people have now reached the mountain’s summit.

During the first years of climbing, runners transmitted messages to the nearest telegraph office. Next came 220 pounds of satellite phone equipment which climbers lugged to the summit, enabling communication with the earth below. Now, the Nepalese telecoms firm Ncell provides climbers with the highest 3G base station to date, located near Everest’s base camp at 5200 metres.

(traveladventures.com and linneareacu.org) Making the news only a year ago, this service now allows mountaineers to surf the web all the way to the summit. Just think, after making the gruelling ascent up the slope, you may look around, pause, and then post a Facebook status update along with a mobile upload of your

face with the Himalayas as a background.

China Mobile has offered mobile coverage on Everest’s Chinafacing slope since 2007, but this was voice only. This new 3G service is certainly an improvement and will undoubtedly prove helpful in cases

of emergency. What’s more, plans include increasing cell phone coverage in Nepal to 90 percent of the population by the end of 2011. To date, only about one third of the population has access telecommunication services.

The first official 3G call from

the summit was made by Kenton Cool, an English mountaineer with an awesome name. On May 6, 2011, upon reaching the summit for his ninth time, Cool called his wife, Jazz. As his YouTube video depicts, Cool’s eyebrows and eyelashes are covered in frost as he dials his wife’s number. “It’s ringing!” he said excitedly, “Oh my god!” After telling her he’s made it to the top, he reassures her that everything is okay. As for any typical wife whose husband is climbing the infamous mountain, yet again, nerves are probably a natural reaction to a phone call from the summit. After hanging up, he emotionally exclaims “I just called my wife from the top of the world!”

It’s still somewhat mind-boggling that the life-taking, mountainof-all-mountains now has internet and cell reception. Much like Mallory’s answer, the response to why 3G was brought to the pinnacle of the world can be “Because it’s there.”

FAShion

Leopard print, denim, and Blue Jays spotted on campus Six campus trends to look for this fall

By Bea Santos Contributor I am so happy to be back in the land of skinny skinny men, with skinny skinny jeans, and skinny skinny lattes. I'm also pleased to say that McGill hasn't lost its style swag over the summer. But when I say “swag,” I'm not talking about the girl sitting next to me in Hunters, spandex, and a painfully symmetrical middle-part—that is a cliché.

Here are six trends on campus which still pack a punch.

Denim shirts all over the place this month, both on guys and on girls.

Extra points for those who make a snazzy little Canadian Tuxedo, when paired with jeans. This is a campuswide trend we'll definitely be seeing more of in the coming year.

It seems like everyone came back from exchange with Vagabond knockoffs. These practical, allweather booties are the new lace-up oxford boot. I hope. They're not just for Norwegian Femme-core radicals anymore.

The good ol’ leopard print pattern has managed to claim another piece of everyone’s wardrobe, now appearing on skinny jeans, cardigans, and anything that can be produced in pony hair. Somewhere in Queens, Fran Drescher is giddily

Stylish McGillians heading to class. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune) dusting off boxes she hasn't opened since 1987.

This trend is just barely circulating enough at McGill to be called a trend, but I'm partial to it anyway: the slip-on loafer (even better if in velvet). I chased down a girl wearing a royal blue velvet pair with a

sun on one foot and a moon on the other. Whoever you are, I've already put out a Missed Connections post for you on Craigslist. Please respond promptly.

I was hoping that the extra trend-savvy girls would be sporting ombre'd hair, and they did not disap-

point. Lots of curly brown ombre'd locks all over. I even found some blue and purple dyed tips walking around, so kudos to you, punky girl, heading into McLennan.

Blue Jays pride is not new, but it doesn’t seem to be dying out any time soon. We may not know any-

thing about the team, but any girl born in the '90s will never be able to shake her love for backwards caps and home-team jerseys. Keep it coming, guys.

ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS In 2000, two engineering undergraduates finished their studies and asked themselves “What do we do now?” But the most important question to them was, “how can we put ourselves to good use in order to serve society?” Out of these questions, and the burning desire to do something other than an office job, Engineers Without Borders (EWB) was created. Students across Canada are now involved in this organization, which aims to improve the lives of rural Africans by taking action in Africa and in Canada. Students are at the core of the operation, bringing innovation, energy, and motivation to drive change. Students are also crucial in uniting the organization’s two parts: the African part and the Canadian part. Their experiences shed some light on the strength of the connection between McGill students and many rural Africans, young and old, who fight hard to finish basic schooling all while earning money for their families by harvesting and selling vegetables.

The following are stories from this summer’s Junior Fellows.

Bailey Greenspon, U3 International Development Studies, Youth Leadership, Ghana

A meeting discussing sanitation.

After telling my friend that I had spent the summer in Ghana, he asked me whether my parents lived there or if I was doing voluntourism. Why were these my only two options? People often dump on development and its workers. I can understand why, and I even used to do it, until I went to Ghana and became a development worker myself. While I may not object to many development organizations, I’ve discovered that we really don’t know much about anything: we in the West can’t figure out what actions are right and which are wrong.

This past May as I was settling down in the northern village of Sagnarigu and becoming familiar with the Dagombas, my host family. I felt that women were subjugated in Ghana, and I saw an unequal division of labour and submissiveness. Naively, I assumed this meant that Ghanaians were wrong and Canadians were right. Female empowerment was black and white. Thinking it was my duty to enlighten my new friends, I tried to start conversations with my host sisters about the issue I saw. I wanted to rock their worlds. As it turns out, my sister Illy changed mine. I asked her why she wasn’t looking for a husband yet at the age of 20 and she explained that women who are dependent on their husbands are, in so many words, screwed.

I squeezed her hand, overjoyed to hear these wise words. Illy is studying for her hairdressing certificate so she can open a small business. That way, when she gets married she can be self-sufficient. Confused, I asked why she still cooks for her older brothers but won’t eat with them. Illy laughed the question off; it was irrelevant. Illy has taught me that empowerment isn’t as simple as freedom versus servitude. Being a married woman in Ghana won’t deny all tenets of feminism. Trying to understand and operate in another culture, I then realized, would be over my head.

At times I wanted to quit development forever. Not knowing what to do can become haunting. In July, I was interviewing Fati. She was about 40 years old. Her kids were everywhere. She invited the translator and I into her hut, hiding from the burning midday sun. I wanted to know how an Engineers Without Borders program had affected her, and how her husband felt about her business. The translator shook his head. Her husband was dead. Instinctively, I apologized in Dagbani. We went outside and I could see that the compound was falling apart. Ghanaians normally disguise poverty behind such a high wall of pride and dignity. During two months in Ghana I had not seen such obvious signs of poverty as a collapsed roof. I moved on, asking if she increased rice production in the last year. She pointed to her leg. The translator told me it had been causing her too much pain to farm.

She described the symptoms and it sounded like arthritis. I felt tense. She said something, and the translator laughed, shaking his head. I pushed to find out what she said, and finally the translator relented. “She wants medicine.

She asks that you should send medicine from your place.” I asked what kind of medicine. They didn’t know, just something to make the pain go away. I reminded myself that this isn’t sustainable; that at EWB we don’t do handouts. Overcome with guilt and confusion, I ended the interview abruptly and returned to my compound, where my host sister had prepared lunch.

I spent three months in Ghana and all I learned is that I know nothing.

It now seems silly to think that I could decide that this NGO is good while that student trip is bad. All we can do as a society is keep asking questions, always being critical, and push the right people to be just as critical, so we can get things right.

Vivian Mau, U3 Bioresource Engineering, Water and Sanitation, Malawi I am sitting in the back of a pickup truck riding along a dusty dirt road winding its way up the mountains to bring me to Chikwina, my host village. Once I arrive, I familiarize myself with the place where I will be living and working from May to August. Brick houses with thatched roofs are spread along the hillsides of the mountains. Maize and cassava fields line the valleys where streams run. Electricity only reaches a handful of households, and safe drinking water is only found in boreholes. The main dirt road cuts across this setting, connecting to the main market, the elementary school, the church, the football pitch, and the health clinic. I came to this community in Northern Malawi with an objective: to understand what really happens on the ground when Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is implemented. CLTS is used mainly in rural areas in Asia and Africa to motivate communities to take action against the spread of diarrheal diseases, which leads to millions of unnecessary deaths every year.

Maria, who spends her summers harvesting and selling tomatoes and cabbages, is risking death from poor sanitation. The community where she lives has already come a long way in preventing the spread of diarrheal diseases, which spread when humans come in contact with feces through contaminated water or food, or through flies carrying germs from the feces to the food. Latrines can stop humans from accidentally ingesting these germs and becoming sick.

Maria’s family has a latrine, as do all her neighbors. But latrines are not enough; washing hands after latrine use is a crucial step. Without running water, they need to construct a simple facility using a bucket and a cup to scoop water and wash their hands. These are rare in Maria’s home, her school, or the market where she sells her vegetables. If you ask her about hand washing, she will explain its importance. Despite this knowledge, few people use these facilities.

Maria and the average student have something in common. If we substitute using latrines with brushing teeth, and washing hands with flossing regularly, her story is more familiar.

Brushing teeth is simple, but flossing is a different story. Usually after visiting the dentist you are able to floss a little more regularly, but the new habit is easily forgotten. It’s different, it’s time consuming, and many people wonder if it will make a difference. For Maria, using the hand washing facilities is the same thing: not part of her routine, time consuming, and not obviously beneficial.

The challenge in this community is to help Maria and her friends, family, and neighbors to adopt this new behavior. At the center of this problem are individuals’ decisions. More money going to dentists will not make you floss regularly, so why would simply investing more money into the development sector close the gap in sanitation?

Hand washing facilities set up by CLTS.

Pascal G. Richard, U3 Bioresource Engineering, Agriculture, Ghana Arriving in a rural village in Northern Ghana, I was overwhelmed by the heat and the sun, but mostly by the food. Almost all the meals are corn-based, protein is scarce, and there are no opportunities to eat between meals. I figured this would be manageable, but that was before I tried farming. In the savannah of West Africa, farming is at the center of people’s livelihoods. It is engrained in the culture by tradition, and forced upon them by the need to feed onself.

There is one growing season, the end and beginning which are dictated by the rains. Not many farmers are able to build up their savings, and most of the season’s harvest is eaten or sold at the local market. At the end of the dry season, when last year’s supplies are running low, there is less food to come by and more work to be done. People grow lean and alert, aware of the hardships ahead. Some rely on God, but most pick up their hoes and plough the fields tirelessly. As Abass would say, “it’s not easy.”

Abass is my best friend in the village. He gave me a small plot which I dedicated to yams and soybeans. The farming would often make me weak and dizzy from hunger. Abass completed junior high school, a level very rarely obtained in the village. It is his dream to move on in his studies, but the fees for senior high are out of reach. What’s more, it is now his son’s turn to go to school.

For most men like Abass, the rainy season arrives at a time when money is scarce. This means that farmers can not hire tractors, buy fertilizers, herbicides, and seeds. At first glance, this problem could be solved by a small loan at the beginning of the farming season that would be paid back upon harvest. In Canada, banks lend more money to farmers than to anyone else. But we have tractors and we have insurance. In Ghana, yields are as unpredictable as the rains upon which they depend.

Access to technology and the best agricultural practices is limited. Banks are not ready to commit to uncertainty and so they prefer to abstain from lending to farmers.

Some local private entrepreneurs saw this challenge as an opportunity; they tried to make a profit by providing ploughing services to farmers in exchange for part of the harvest. For each acre ploughed at the beginning of the season, the farmer must pay a 100-kilogram bag of maize. The surplus bags can then be kept for consumption or, if the yields were good, sold to the same company who will transport them to processing.

This summer, I worked with two local agriculture businesses providing this service. Supporting the private sector in agriculture links farmers to a market, providing them with the help they need to escape subsistence farming and food insecurity. My role was to find out what the challenges were which prevented the companies from investing more in their farmers.

In Canada, it can be easy to demonize the private sector, but in rural Ghana, agribusinesses have an incentive in seeing farmers increase their production. Donor funding is easy to spend, especially in NGO projects where the staff is only accountable to the donor, and not to the farmers. With the help of businesses, people like Abass might be able to save enough money, enabling him to plough and plant without a loan, and maybe even to send his children, or himself, to school.

Harvesting of maize.

Engineers Without Borders McGill is a club with activities ranging from political advocacy for a more transparent aid sector in Canada, to development learning nights at schools. Applications for the 2012 Junior Fellowship in International Development Program will open soon. For more information on EWB’s work in Africa and in, Canada visit www.ewb.ca or blogs.ewb.ca.

Abass at work.

—Compiled by Kyla Mandel and Kat Sieniuc, photos by Vivian Mau and Pascal G. Richard

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Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

ODDS AND ENDS

Anderson Cooperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity crisis An unexpected debut into daytime TV

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By Kat Sieniuc Features Editor It has been nine days since Anderson Cooper became Oprah Winfrey. For those of you who have not yet heard of this rebirth, you can witness the Anderson show firsthand on weekday afternoons, or if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re without cable, you can also watch it on the Internet. I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still legal.

Over the past week, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve contemplated Andersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sudden leap into the abyss of daytime television.

(Because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve read his book twice, we are understandably on a firstname basis). I was just a toddler at the time of his first correspondence work in Myanmar, but I assure you it was epic. Cooper forged press passes and used a hand-held camera to sell homemade videos to Channel One, kicking off his career as a foreign correspondent in Rwanda, Somalia, and Bosnia, and as a news anchor and correspondent for CNN and CBS. I have since been a dedicated follower of his, so I feel more than equipped to provide some insight on the matter. To be frank, it disturbs me in ways which I can only equate to finding out that Christian Bale is Welsh (who knew?).

Anderson had always been a man of news, not talk. Talk show TV has many problems. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the

(andersoncooper.com) biggest one: itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not news. So you can see why I was alarmed when, in turning on my television (OK, my MacBook), and expecting to see a riveting interview with some controversial figure, I instead found Cooper chatting up the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

It appears that after all those years on 360, the man has now spun himself onto a cream-coloured couch with a significantly more hormonal audience. But from what I can surmise, there is only one reason for what has happened: perhaps Cooper is a diehard fan of the scoop. And really, really likes to gossip.

But I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean to use the term â&#x20AC;&#x153;gossipâ&#x20AC;? to suggest full-blown Perez Hilton dirt-dishing. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not forget that Anderson did go to Yale. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second behind Harvard, Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

McGill. What I mean to say is that Anderson sure enjoys sharing his feelings, not just feelings about himself, but feelings about other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feelings, too. The show delves into much of Cooperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s previously unheard-of childhood, his favourite pastimes, and that time he got a spray tan with Snookie. More importantly, he welcomes to his couch people like Kyle Richards and Mr. and Mrs. Winehouse. Soon he will be getting Botox and highlights like the rest of them (he probably already does, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no way that silver head is real).

Anderson may have left war zones and disaster areas for Hollywoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boulevards, but all things aside, news or talk, he can still tell a good story.

Camping Concoctions

How to stay alive when low on ingredients

In addition to putting up with plagues of insects, foul weather, and the threat of bears, campers will eat just about anything. The authentic wilderness experience just isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t complete without risking complete digestive malfunction. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my evaluation of some unorthodox parings that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve tried in the past: Scrambled eggs with dark chocolate: Logic dictated that chocolate would hide the taste of the hopelessly burnt eggs and make breakfast a bit easier to swallow. Additionally, it met the requirements of a personal challenge I had set for myself: to consume chocolate with every meal on a camping trip. It had the flavour of neither egg nor chocolate, but some sort of bitter gluey mass, and all the aesthetic appeal of a science experiment gone wrong.

Hot dogs with honey: Condiments come in heavy jars, and when space and weight are at a premium, they are typically left behind, but

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honey is the spoonful of medicine that can make any meal more enjoyable. Being a vegetarian, I was only a witness to this event, but from the looks on the faces of my fellow campers, along with the culinary reviews they gave, this dish might even be enjoyable back in civilization.

Dehydrated guacamole: Dehydrating food is a great way to cut down on space and weight, but some things survive the dehydration process better than others. Unfortunately guacamole was one of my least successful dehydration experiments, and the oxidized brown mass that resulted from it was inedible even by my standards.

Peanuts, peanuts and more peanuts: These legumes are practically a starch staple, the rice or pasta of campers. Peanut butter with canned sardines on crackers, peanut butter with cheese, peanut butter on pancakes, and of course good old raisin and peanut trail mix.

Hummus and Nutella sandwiches: These are an acquired

tasteâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;acquired through hunger, not through the careful cultivation of taste buds. Alternatively, eat the hummus sandwich and follow it up with a few spoonfuls of Nutella straight from the jar.

Dehydrated ice cream: Though itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a mind-boggling oxymoron that requires a stretch of the imagination to connect with its frozen relative, this strange pre-packaged dessert even comes in Neapolitan flavours and colours. It looks like a very dense marshmallow and even has the same melt-in-your-mouth consistency as ice cream, but with none of the brain freeze. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a tasty novelty food thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fun to surprise your friends with, but traditional dessert goods are still better.

Leftover porridge special: Combine leftover starchesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;couscous, rice, pastaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from the day before with a bit of oatmeal and call it porridge. With the aforementioned honey and maybe some dried fruit, it is wholesome and delicious.

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Campus Calendar

Monday

Monday

SSMU General Assembly 4:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 26 Shatner Ballroom

Movies in the Park Monday, Sept. 26: 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 28: 7 p.m.

Lower Field

SSMUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fall General Assembly will take place in the Shatner Ballroom next Monday. Come make your voice heard.

Tweet your selections to @theSSMU. Selections will be announced on Facebook over the weekend.

Totally free, bring blankets, snacks, and friends.

A&E pop montreal

Fire on the court, not just in the arcade Arcade Fire brings musicians and athletes together for charity basketball game

By Ryan Taylor A&E Editor There’s never any shortage of interesting and unique things to do and see at POP Montreal, but there’s been nothing quite like this in the festival’s 10-year history. This year, the festival hosts the first annual Pop vs. Jock Charity Basketball Match, an event organized by Arcade Fire’s Win Butler.

The game will benefit the DJ Sports Club, a non-profit organization in Montreal’s Little Burgundy that provides sports, education, and social programs for children between seven and 17 years old. Arcade Fire isn’t new to charity—the band has previously raised funds for Haiti relief—and Butler, a McGill alumnus, is a basketball enthusiast, so it’s fitting the two are combined to come together for a local cause.

“My brother and I play a lot of basketball and since I moved to Montreal I’ve played in these leagues run by Dexter John down in Little Burgundy,” says Butler. “He’s a great community leader and he runs all these after-school programs for kids and we’ve kind of just become friends over the years. I’ve been wanting to do an event to help him out for a while, so it’s the perfect chance.”

As its title suggests, the game will see Team Pop pitted against Team Jock. The former will be made up of Butler, his brother and bandmate Will Butler, Vampire Weekend drummer Chris Tomson, and San Antonio Spurs centre Matt Bon-

Win and Will Butler will take to the court Saturday. (popmontreal.com) ner, among others. Players from McGill and Concordia will make up Team Jock, including Martlet shooting guard Marie-Eve Martin and Redmen power forward Tristan Renaud-Tremblay. The inclusion of university-level athletes was a conscious effort to make the game more legitimate.

“Usually when you go to a celebrity basketball game it’s a couple

of retired guys on each team and then it’s a little bit more of a jokey sort of game,” says Butler. “I thought it would be fun to try and put together a somewhat competitive squad and have it be more of a proper game because it’s a little bit more fun to watch.”

For founder Dexter John, a Concordia alumnus, this event yields an extra bonus.

“The best part to me is to get Concordia and McGill on the same team … to get both universities together for a common cause.”

Martin echoes John’s sentiments.

“I have no issues. My brother played for Concordia for four years.

This is just a game for fun and charity so I don’t think it has rivalry or anything like that.”

It also gives McGill and Concordia students the chance to play with their idols, musical or otherwise.

“Personally, when I heard that Matt Bonner was going to be there I was just looking forward to meeting him and playing with or against him,” says Renaud-Tremblay.

“I’m excited for that too, but not as much as [for] Arcade Fire,” laughs Martin.

Some may be surprised to learn that the musicians can hold their own on the court.

“With musicians it’s always sort of like they come out of the closet as being into sports,” says Butler.

“There’s a dream [basketball] team of indie rock guys, and not everyone’s available. I think [if] one day we get everyone on the court at the same time it’ll be a pretty good team.”

Butler himself stands over six-feet tall and played basketball throughout high school.

“He surprises a lot of people,” says John. “He’s a tall guy and he can play. He knows the game. I’d pick him on my team any day.”

Renaud-Tremblay was also im-

pressed by Butler’s basketball prowess.

“I had a little scrimmage with Win and he’s such a good competitor,” he says. “At first we didn’t want to bump him too much because he’s a celebrity so we went a little easy. He started throwing some elbows and started playing really pretty hard so we got after him. It was pretty good.”

As an added bonus for music fans, Arcade Fire member Régine Chassagne will be playing organ and taking requests throughout the game.

The halftime show will feature a DJ set from Kid Koala and the premiere of Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Perry’s bicycle symphony, “DRONES/Revelations.”

The symphony is a “site specific 20minute multi-channel composition for voice, woodwinds, strings, and synthesizer” that will be broadcast from speakers mounted on bicycles circling the audience for the length of the performance.

The event is inclusive, not alienating, and according to Butler, that’s ultimately the goal.

“We’re just going to try and make this as entertaining as possible. My dream with doing it during Pop Montreal is to try and have it so that people who aren’t really into basketball can still come and find it funny and entertaining.”

The game takes place Sept. 24 at the McGill Gym. Tickets can be purchased from popmontreal.com or the Red Bird Sports Shop at the McGill Sports Centre.

Theatre

Beauty parlour in the south sets stage for drama Strong performances abound in Players’ Theatre’s debut of Steel Magnolias

By Chris Liu Contributor It’s strange to consider the human condition as revealed in a beauty parlour. Steel Magnolias, however, accomplishes exactly that.

Upon the death of his sister, playwright Robert Harling interwove reflections on religion, tragedy, and the myriad complexities of human relationships in a script that is nothing short of a linguistic maelstrom. It’s a worthy season-opener for Players’ Theatre, and the cast and crew delivered an emotionally charged and rewarding performance.

Six women meet in the warmth and modest glamour of a Louisiana beauty parlour. Truvy, owner of the shop is the sass, fueling the ladies’ firecracker conversations. An-

nelle is shy, new to town, and eager to please. The adorably off-kilter widow Clairee delights in teasing the outrageously combustible Ouiser. Shelby, delicate of body but strong of mind, attempts to balance the realities of her situation with her dreams and aspirations. Her mother M’Lynn struggles with her instinct to protect versus the instinct to let go and trust in Shelby’s decisions.

As time passes, personalities clash, change, and grow, and the common bond between the women unites them in moments of deep sadness, and moments of great joy.

Rapidly paced and sharply acted, Players’ production was a whirlwind of laughter and joy interlaced with profundity and introspection. The overall performance was impressive, buoyed by the strong

talent of its small cast.

Just a few seconds in, it was clear that director Beatrice HutchesonSantos had amassed a commendable set of talent. Characterizations were solid; Lerato Islam’s Ouiser and Annie MacKay’s M’Lynn were especially impressive. While arguably the showiest roles of the piece, both Islam and MacKay filled every dimension demanded by their characters. At her best, MacKay was downright devastating, with a delivery possessing anguish, power, and grace in perfect proportions. Equally delightful was Clairee (Sarah Archibald), who maintained a dilapidated posture that fit the kooky nature of her character remarkably well.

The set was simple yet appropriate, serving well to convey the time period and location of the play.

The linear layout of the salon chairs subtly accented the flow of the machine-gun conversations. Although at times movement appeared to be limited by the set pieces, this was a non-issue in the long run. Sound was less successful, with some songs providing little benefit. Both makeup and costuming were fantastic; outfits were not just complementary to the characters, but exciting in their own right.

While an impressive production overall, Hutcheson-Santos could have turned the screws just a little bit tighter. Steel Magnolias features seemingly endless rounds of rapidly delivered lines. Throw the Southern accent on top of this, and it’s clear that the cast’s undertaking was no cakewalk. That being said, there were several moments when the tim-

ing was skewed, and while some of these may have been line issues, others required either a timely pause, or a snappier pickup. Occasionally, the reaction to a line arrived before the line itself. Fortunately, these are, for the most part, minor issues, and easily remedied.

Although many will be familiar with the 1989 film version, the snug setting of a theatrical stage truly complements the intricacy and intimacy of the script. These inherent strengths were not overlooked by the cast and crew at Players’ Theatre; the production was at times heartwarming, at others heartwrenching, and always a joy to behold.

Steel Magnolias will be running at Players’ Theatre, SSMU 3rd floor, from September 21—23.

14

Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

The Darcys

w e i v Pre symposium All the Mistakes You Can Make and How (Not) to Make Them

Friday, Sept. 23 14:30-16:00

Location: L’ancienne École des beauxarts de Montréal Getting It Together: From Concept to Application – How to Wrap Your Mind Around a Successful Grant Application Thursday, Sept. 22 14:00-16:30.

Location: L’ancienne École des beauxarts de Montréal

Even the indie music industry is still an industry requiring business sense and navigation. Those aspiring to be the next Arcade Fire can soak in the advice of five industry professionals, speaking on everything from labeling and booking, to management, publishing, and licensing. Special guest improv group The Bitter End will aid in demonstrating the top five indie music taboos no up-and-comer should commit.

This workshop promises to take the “starving” out of “starving artist” by educating participants about Canada’s creative grant programs. It provides a forum for individual consultation with representatives from the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings, the Société de développement des enterprises culturelles, and others. Bring your artistic ambition and your notebook to take down the insider advice.

With the forthcoming release of their self-titled LP, their first on Canadian label Arts & Crafts, The Darcys are back in action. The Toronto-based group’s last album, Young Believers, released over a year ago, represented a marked improvement over their 2007 debut Endless Water.

Despite increasing popularity and recognition over the last several years, The Darcys haven’t had such a smooth ride. Immediately following the debut of Young Believers, the band’s lead singer quit, forcing them to regroup and fit the remaining pieces together. Instead of bringing in a replacement, The Darcys embraced their new quartet status with guitarist/keyboardist Jason Couse taking over the vocals.

“It seems to be the best-worst thing that ever could have happened,” says drummer Wes Marskell.

"Somebody once told me from

a big newspaper in Toronto, they said, 'If you had your old singer you wouldn't be a band anymore,' and that's really telling because I don't think [the music] had the same appeal and it wasn't as interesting… if it hadn’t happened, we probably wouldn’t be a band anymore.”

Despite these internal troubles, The Darcys have made quite the comeback, continuing to garner critical acclaim for their mellow, yet complex, electric sound and performing what some are calling the best live sets in Toronto. Marskell and band are equally excited to be playing POP Montreal.

“We always get great shows in Montreal, and I think it’s such a beautiful and wonderful city.”

The Darcys play Saturday Sept.

24 at Casa del Popolo —Alex Knoll

(arts-crafts.ca)

Symposium, Art POP and Film POP compiled by Marri Lynn Knadle

www.mcgilltribune.com

broke?

want to see free movies?

catch up on the latest music?

Write for A&E! arts@ mcgilltribune.com

15

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The general consensus among rap artists and fans is that we all must protect hip-hop from the hordes of “wack MC’s” who threaten the legitimacy of the genre. Yet very rarely do we hear rappers who can preach the real hip-hop sermon and who have the lyrical enthusiasm to make us enjoy it, too. This is the case with Toronto-based rapper D-Sisive, a true workaholic whose four albums in the last three years have earned him Juno and Polaris Music Prize nominations.

“I really try to not look at it from an industry standpoint. I create a lot of music and I’m always working,” he explains.

D-Sisive’s latest album, Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye-Bye, was released on the Internet as a free download just eight months after the release of his Juno-nominated album Vaudeville. Although it’s available free of charge, D-Sisive insists Jon-

Marcel Dzama

Art pop

Friday, Sept. 23, 17:00-19:00 Location: L’ancienne École des beauxarts de Montréal The Raincoats

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 12:00-Sunday, Sept.25, 17:00.

Location: L’ancienne École des beauxarts de Montréal

The Women of Dr. Phil

École

des

Bloodied But Unbowed: The Birth of Vancouver Punk Rock 1977-82

Thursday, Sept. 22 19:30-21:00

Location: Blue Sunshine.

Dzama is best known for the art that has graced the album covers of bands The Weakerthans, They Might Be Giants, and Beck, among others.

This vernissage presents live music, a question and answer period with Dzama, and both the world premiere of his Death Disco Dance and the Canadian premiere of A Game of Chess.

The Raincoats, a collective comprised of Gina Birch, Ana da Silva, and Shirley O’Loughlin present Adventures, an exhibit of film, photography, and art. With artist statements as enigmatic and diverse as da Silva’s poem, Birch’s rallying mini-bio, and O’Loughlin’s prose-and-poem declaration, Adventures will showcase the creative efforts that evolved from da Silva and Birch’s musical collaboration in 1977.

Film POP

Wednesday, Sept. 21 16:00; looping daily.

Location: L’ancienne beaux-arts de Montréal

D-Sisive

estown 2 should not be given the preconceived judgments of a typical mixtape.

“That just bugs me. Not that I have anything against mixtapes, but when people think of a free album, they think the quality is going to be down. This is not throwaway material.”

By no means does his dissatisfaction with the zeitgeist of mainstream rap, particularly rap’s stubborn fixation with club-friendly hits, make his music any less accessible.

“I’m not making the same generic hip-hop … these were albums with original instrumentals.”

As evidenced by popular music’s declining record sales and the growing interest in indie rappers, listeners may also be growing tired of all the whack MCs. D-Sisive understands the importance of music that’s both catchy and emotional, and he knows how to present both in just the

This installation by Winnipeggers Clint Enns and Les Klassen, with music by Les Mouches, offers an unusual perspective on the television show of pop-psych celebrity Dr. Phil.

Stare into the soulless eyes of the lady audience adherents of Dr. Phil’s controversial (and probably ineffective) feel-good psychobabble.

Director Susanne Tabata and D.O.A. musician Randy Rampage will be present for the screening of this cinematic revelation of Vancouver’s influential punk-rock scene. The underbelly of the coastal city served as wetnurse in the 1970s to the music of the Young Canadians, UJ3RK5, D.O.A., and others. Let the narration of Billy Hopeless school you on this unorthodox heritage moment.

(flickr.com/photos/urbnet) right dosage. Feel free to continue listening to mainstream rap, but remember that you do so at your own risk.

D-Sisive plays Wednesday Sept. 21 at HOHM Private Club.

—Nicholas Petrillo

Extra happy ghost!!!

Extra Happy Ghost!!! is the project of Calgary musician Matthew Swann. His recently released debut album, Modern Horses, is a collection of nine experiments in hazy, minimalist psychedelia. The songs are simple and rarely feature more than guitar, bass, drums, and voice with the occasional harmony. There is no build, there is no release, and the production choices lie in actively employing non-production.

“It’s a fairly abrasive record in some ways and there’s a lot of dissonance and there’s a lot of intentional dissonance. We employed a lot of anti-aesthetic,” says Swann.

The “we” Swann speaks of is himself and fellow Calgarian and musical mad-scientist Chad van Gaalen, who produced and engineered the disc.

“He’s a really easy-going guy, immensely creative and [he] totally got the vision,” says Swann. “There’s a lot of similarities in terms of our influences, similar aesthetic approaches. It was really natural.

He understood the mood I was trying to convey and felt very comfortable going in that direction.”

(popmontreal.com)

The album takes its title from an incident at the 2005 Calgary Stampede in which nine horses died after falling off a bridge while parading into the city. Swann sees the event as encapsulating the feelings of separation and solitude of living in his hometown.

“The record itself is using this event to play with this symbol of this place that I live and in a sense to invert it into something representative of a dissonance and an alienation. It’s really weird that we’re parading these horses through the city and they’re existing completely outside of their familiar contexts. You’re confined to your own experiences and that is your world.

For me Calgary is very much a part of that,” he says. “It’s such a complex relationship which is partly why I’m interested in it and why I stay there.”

Extra Happy Ghost!!! plays Wednesday Sept. 21 at Cagibi —Ryan Taylor

16

Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

Arts

Conference explores English-language arts in Quebec Anglophone arts community hopes to sustain recent successes

By Sam Hunter Managing Editor After the anglophone arts scene in Montreal fell apart in the turbulent political clime of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and after flights of anglo exodus before both the 1980 and 1995 referendum, English-language arts have enjoyed a resurgence here over the past decade.

Both to celebrate this success, and further, to examine how to ensure its sustainability, the EnglishLanguage Arts Network (ELAN) of Quebec will bring together a crosssection of Quebec artists at the State of the Arts Summit, running from September 22-25.

2010 was a year in which two Montreal novelists were shortlisted for the Giller Prize (one of whom, Johanna Skibsrud, won), Arcade Fire won a Grammy Award, and the Montreal-centric film of the Mordecai Richler novel Barney’s Version was a critical success. Figuring out how to keep the community’s momentum going without stepping on the toes of the francophone artistic community is a timely goal.

“We have no idea at the moment if this is a bubble that’s about to burst, or if this is the beginning of a beautiful future,” Guy Rodgers, ELAN’s executive director said.

“It’s really hard to say which way this is going to play out.”

On Sept. 22 and 23 there will be a closed conference—“Creative So-

lutions for a Creative Community”— wherein 120 artists from all disciplines, language groups, and stages of their careers will gather to discuss an action plan for the cultural sector.

Rodgers selected candidates based on a number of criteria to achieve as truly representative a sample as possible. But one trait was obviously near and dear to his heart. “[P]riority was given to people who, as well as being artists, are really involved in community development. So, they’re either involved in a collective, or an association or studio, so they wear the hat of both artist and community developer,” Rodgers said.

Community has long been Rodgers’s cause. He was instrumental in the founding of the Quebec Drama Federation (QDF), which in turn inspired the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF), and, eventually, ELAN. Following the two-day conference, there are a number of events that are open to the public. On the evening of Sept. 23, Centaur Theatre, Quebec’s largest anglophone theatre company, will host the publishing launch of Minority Report: An Alternative History of EnglishLanguage Arts in Quebec. The book was commissioned by ELAN and features essays by journalists and art critics. It focuses specifically on the oft-ignored contributions of English-language artists to Quebec’s major artistic disciplines.

On Saturday Sept. 24, ELAN

Johanna Skibsrud accepting the Scotiabank Giller Prize. (cbsnews.com) will host two discussion panels at the Atrium de la Maison du Conseil des Arts de Montreal. Between 12 a.m. and 2 p.m. the discussion will centre on the topic of “Many Peoples, One Official Language,” discussing the changing terms of the social contract between Quebec’s francophone majority and minority anglo- and allophone speaking communities.

From 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., “Invisible or Too Visible?” will be the subject of debate. Regarding the current and future visibility of English-speaking artists, the panel will have representatives from the Gazette, le Devoir, Festival Accés Asie, and Festival Voix d’Amériques—giving anglo-

phone, francophone, and allophone perspectives.

When radio-journalist Anne Lagacé Dowson, moderator for the two panels, was asked how difficult her job would be, she replied, “I think people feel really strongly about this stuff. There’s a lot of passion about the arts and about the arts community. It goes into issues of identity and self-expression so people get quite animated. I don’t think it’s going to be contentious necessarily. I think there’s going to be some strongly-worded stuff but I think the overwhelming majority of anglos have accepted the francophone fact. It’s not Bill 101, it’s Law

101, and for the most part, anglophones have accepted that French is the public language of Quebec. But they want to be able to function and operate in English, so it could be a little bit fractious. I think it’s really a fascinating sort of contradictory and interesting relationship.”

The finale of the festival will be the premiere of a new musical, The Season, written by Montreal rapper Socalled, and performed at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts. ***** The interesting question underlying all of this: why are there so many good anglo artists here?

According to Elise Moser, President of the QWF, McGill alumni, and author of Because I have Loved and Hidden It, there are a number of factors that have made Montreal so popular to artists, including its relatively cheap cost of living, as well as the draw of the language itself. “[I find it exciting] the way that the different language cultures in Montreal, primarily English and French, keep recombining in creative combinations … the way people start a sentence in one language and end up in the other, or the way people make bilingual puns ... It expands the way we are able to think about things to have more tools to think about them.”

For more information visit http://www.quebec-elan.org/pages/ about/StateoftheArts-Summit

film

Drive: In every sense of the word Gosling gets behind the wheel in getaway flick

By Emma Hambly Contributor Drive is not an action movie.

It’s not a superhero flick. It’s not grindhouse, gangster, or romance.

Drive is all of these things, and it works.

Set in some of the seedier parts of Los Angeles, Drive is pulled from the pages of James Salis’ 2005 novel of the same name. Ryan Gosling stars in this masterful mishmash as an unnamed hero simply called “the Driver.” The name fits. By day he performs movie stunts—chases, roll-overs, crashes. By night, he’s a wheelman—performing getaways that make sure the goods stay stolen.

The Driver is an odd character. He has little dialogue, no friends, and no back-story. But he is just like the disguised getaway car his boss describes: plain-Jane boring with 500

horsepower under the hood. Gosling imbues the Driver’s would-be steely composure with warmth and a subtle yet deep range of emotions. The Driver fights, intimidates, protects, loves—and as he puts it, drives.

This one word philosophy fuels our hero as well as the expanse of the movie. It drives, in every sense of the word.

Drive: (n.) instinct The driver leads a solitary life.

But when a few chance encounters introduce him to his neighbour Irene, played by the enchanting Carey Mulligan, and her young son, he jumps at the chance for connection. He follows that instinctual human need for some kind of relationship, and falls for the woman waiting out her husband’s prison sentence.

Drive: (n.) ambition Irene’s husband returns to civilian life ready to take advantage

of his second chance. But the local lowlifes refuse to forgive his debt.

They order him to help rob a pawnshop to wipe his slate clean. The Driver agrees to help. Things go wrong. Very wrong.

The take ends up being 25 times greater than they bargained for, and it’s mob money. A storm of dangerous forces—including Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman as frightening middle-aged mobsters—pursue the hero and the people he realizes he loves.

Drive: (v.) manoeuvring The chase scenes manage to tread a thin line between realism and spectacle. They’re impressive, exciting, and tense—but never overshadow the plot or the characters.

Drive: (n.) compulsion The climax of the movie follows the driver in his new role of protector. He vows to keep Irene

(pixwallpaper.com) safe—no matter the bloodshed.

Drive: (v.) to rush or dash violently Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn is known for his violent films—and Drive is no exception.

Viewers be warned: Drive showcases grisly, graphic, grindhouse gore.

Yet the film is treated with stunning cinematography that finds beauty in LA’s greyest corners. Fitting its mash up of genres, Drive patches together its style from disparate influences. Its neon titles and bleak

synth music hail to sleazy 80s action flicks, while its art direction pays tribute to old Hollywood.

Drive is not for the casual viewer. It is sometimes difficult to watch, and it’s challenging on the emotional level as well. But this is a powerful and rewarding film. The conflicting artistic inspirations and genres aren’t scatterbrained, but rather add to the depth of this tale of dark heroics. This movie will take you on a startling, original ride.

Sports Redmen soccer — McGill 3, Concordia 1

McGill banks on George for home opener victory George Banks’ three headers seal win over Stingers

By Mari Mesri Contributor The tenth-ranked McGill Redmen registered their second regular season victory in a fan-filled Molson Stadium for their home opener last Friday evening. Fifth-year striker George Banks proved unstoppable, lighting up the scoreboard with three headers that found the back of the net.

Head Coach David Simon was happy with his team’s progression during the game. “I’m pleased with the result,” Simon said. “I was not pleased with the first half. We looked nervous. It took the second half, and a bit more energy, to make a difference. Physically, we looked good in the second half. We took over the game.”

It took some time for both the Redmen and the Stingers to settle into the first half as both teams appeared tense in the back and forth play. Many of Concordia’s gaffes came in their half of the field, but McGill did not capitalize on these opportunities. The McGill defence, led by Alexis Pradie, a third-year transfer from Embry-Riddle, and fifth-year veteran Thomas Lucas, ensured thorough coverage as they consistently moved the ball to the offence. Pradie’s recruitment has been a coup for McGill, as he previously trained with the practice squad of Olympique Marseille of France’s Ligue 1 and was the 15th overall pick in January’s MLS supplemental draft, chosen by FC Dallas.

In the 27th minute of play, a cross from senior forward Axel

The tenth-ranked Redmen lived up to their standing in an impressive win. (Ryan Reisert / McGill Tribune) Dovi connected with Banks as he headed the ball in for the first goal of the match. After play resumed, it took Concordia less than two minutes to reply with an equalizer off of a penalty kick. Sophomore midfielder Karim Haroun unleashed a precise shot past McGill goalkeeper Matthew Gilmour. For the rest of the first half, Concordia was forced to play defensively as the ball was controlled by the McGill offence. Redmen midfielder Cory Marcon was relentless in his efforts to move the ball up the field.

The second half saw a much

more collected Redmen team as they continued their offensive campaign. In the 57th minute, Banks scored again, this time unassisted, as he headed the ball into the net.

Less than ten minutes later, Banks completed his hat trick, assisted by a corner kick from Lucas and a header from Dovi. “He was decisive and ran hard,” Simon said, of Banks’ performance.

The Redmen offence saw more chances to score as the half continued, but Stingers keeper Nicholas Giannone showed consistency as he guarded the net from further Red-

men attacks. The rivalry amongst the two teams was evident as numerous fouls were called on both ends and each side ended the game with two yellow cards.

“We really picked it up in the second half. We were winning every 50-50 ball,” Banks said. “Defensively, we didn’t give up any chances at all. I wouldn’t say our offensive touch was completely toned but it is going to get better as the year goes on. Everybody really gave it their all.”

This season, the Redmen roster is comprised mostly of seasoned vet-

erans with six newcomers. “It’s the most experienced team McGill has had in a while,” Lucas said. “Also, our first-years coming in have proven a lot and they are ready to step into the game.”

The Redmen travelled to Quebec City on Sunday to face the conference powerhouse Laval Rougeet-Or, and came away with a 3-2 victory. Their next game will be at home against the Sherbrooke Vertet-Or on Sept. 23.

Third Man in Not a class act, but Floyd’s not the dirty one Justice was served Saturday night in the Mayweather-Ortiz WBC Welterweight tilt. One of the greatest of all time celebrated in the middle of the ring with his corner men, while the dirty fighter was sprawled unconscious on the ground staring up at the bright lights of the MGM Grand.

It’s a common boast before a boxing match to tell the audience not to blink in case you miss a knockout, and the thematic underpinnings of this fight did indeed change in an instant.

Only two minutes into the fourth round, the crowd was clearly already on Victor Ortiz’s side. While every-

one recognizes that Mayweather is great, he can also be an insufferable egomaniac. Mayweather’s greatness had certainly been on display so far, consistently out-landing Ortiz with a lightning quick right without taking any damage in return.

It’s easy to imagine what Ortiz might have been thinking. Probably a mixture of curse words, ruminations about how quick Mayweather was, disorientation from being punched in the face over 60 times, and fervent hope that Denzel was cheering for him from the expensive seats. Whatever it was, Ortiz seemed to realize that with 30 seconds left in the round he had to do something quickly. In a moment of competence, Ortiz backed Mayweather into a corner, and unleashed a nice looking combination of rights and lefts.

Ortiz then backed off for a sec-

ond, probably expecting his opponent to fall to the floor, but realized that his best efforts had failed. At this time, Ortiz made the fight dirty.

In frustration, he launched his body back and head-butted Mayweather in the face.

A head-butt is a serious no-no in boxing, warranting a one-point penalty to the offending fighter.

More importantly, a head-butt can dramatically change the nature of a fight, and the receiving fighter’s career. A head-butt can cause cuts and swelling; cuts and swelling can end fights. Mayweather ending the fight on the losing end means no more $25 million paydays, and scar tissue from head-butts can increase the ease of future bleeding.

As the referee broke the fighters apart, Ortiz landed his second best blow of the fight, and gave May-

weather an apologetic kiss on the cheek. Mayweather seemed angry, and looked ready to fight. As the referee told the judges what to do, Ortiz tried to apologize again, and Mayweather shrugged him off. When the ref restarted the fight, Ortiz once again tried to apologize. Then came a one-two combination of unparalleled beauty from Mayweather to a defenceless Ortiz, and the fight was over.

I know what you’re probably thinking: Mayweather is a creep. But in reality, he did nothing wrong. Any kid who’s ever played sports has heard refrains of “keep playing until the whistle,” or “keep going until the referee stops you.” In this instance, the referee had restarted the fight, and in a moment of unnecessary pageantry, Ortiz tried to apologize with a hug for the third time before

getting clocked. In a sport where the sole purpose is to beat the other guy to a pulp, it seems pretty self-evident that normal societal etiquette no longer applies, and Ortiz should have been prepared to defend himself.

Nothing Mayweather did was illegal, unlike Ortiz’s egregious breach of sportsmanship seconds before.

It wasn’t over for Mayweather yet, as his most challenging opponent arrived post-fight. I’m not talking about Manny Pacquiao, but rather 80-year-old HBO colour commentator Larry Merchant, whose verbal sparring with Mayweather after the fight would have made 50 Cent proud. In lieu of the seemingly never-to-happen Mayweather-Pacquiao mega-fight, let’s give fans what they want: Mayweather-Merchant.

—Joshua Freedman

18

Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

Martlet soccer — McGill 3, Concordia 1

Martlets soar over Stingers McGill claims soccer home opener against Concordia

By Jeff Downey Contributor Armed with a handful of new recruits and an added year of maturity, the McGill Martlets are seeking retribution and another shot at a National Championship.

The Martlets were back in action against Concordia, at home at Percival Molson Stadium Friday night, for the first time since their crushing 2010 season-ending playoff defeat. McGill entered the week ranked seventh in the country according to the first run of CIS rankings. By all accounts, the Martlets were the favourites in this matchup.

The pre-match odds proved correct, as the Martlets dominated the Stingers in both possession and goals in a thrilling 3-1 victory in the home opener.

The match began under positive and sporting circumstances as McGill Head Coach Marc Mounicot and Jorge Sanchez of Concordia went shoeless as a show of support for Right to Play, an organisation focused on giving underprivileged youth an opportunity to participate in sports.

Following the pre-match pleasantries, McGill was anything but friendly to the visiting side, taking only 45 seconds to deliver the first quality chance of the contest. The Martlets’ captain, star striker Alex-

Try as they might, the Stingers couldn’t hold onto the Martlets last Friday. (Abir Shah / McGill Tribune) andra Morin-Boucher, slipped past the sleeping Stingers’ defence and alone against the keeper, but delivered her right-footed chip just wide of the goalmouth.

McGill continued to apply pressure into the middle portion of the first half. The Martlets claimed several chances off of lively giveand-go passing up the left wing from Kathleen Wakeling and Jenna Holdham, but lacked the finishing touch to put the ball in the goal. This all changed in the 27th minute of play.

An expert corner kick from rookie Alexandria Hoyte found the head of Rebecca Green, who calmly placed it

beyond the keeper and into the back of the net. But following a phantom foul call by the referee that saw the goal disallowed, the Martlets again found themselves knotted at nil with the pesky Stingers.

It seemed destined to remain this way as the first half waned into its final minutes, with McGill dominating the possession but remaining scoreless. Finally, with only six minutes left in the first half, Kathleen Wakeling changed from supplier to scorer in a brilliant display of determination and skill. Streaking past her mark, she beat three hard fought tackles that ultimately rewarded her

with an open shot on net—which she coolly used to snipe the top right corner of the webbing, just past the outstretched fingers of the Concordia keeper. The first half ended with the score 1-0 McGill.

The crowd grew steadily during the half-time exposition and perhaps this played upon the nerves of the players, as the beginning of the second half was marred by sloppy touches and errant passes. It was Concordia who made the most of it, gaining their equaliser 68 minutes into play off a header from captain Jennifer Duff.

The surprising goal seemed to

revive the dozing Martlets, and their play improved in response. A torrent of activity and chances culminated in the go-ahead goal, this time courtesy of a scorcher off the left boot of second-year midfielder Selena Colarossi. From that point on it was all Martlets, who finished the game off in style with an injury-time goal that truly sealed Concordia’s fate.

The Martlets followed up Friday’s win with a road victory at Laval, which placed them atop the Quebec table alongside crosstown rivals, the Montreal Carabins.

McGill is back in town on Friday at 6:30 p.m., taking on Sherbrooke.

from the cheap seats In Baltimore, it’s all about the stadium In September 2004, the Expos played their final game in Montreal.

Since there was no way I was going to cheer for the Washington Nationals, I chose to hitch my fandom to the Expos star player, Vladimir Guerrero, who signed as a free agent with the Anaheim Angels. With no more baseball at the Big-O, my father and I began annual weekend voyages to see Guerrero and the Angels in action. This year our journey brought us to Baltimore, where Guerrero now plays for the Orioles.

One of the greatest aspects of baseball roadtrips are the different ballparks we get to experience. Unlike other sports, where the boundaries of the playing field are strictly defined, baseball stadiums are all very unique. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is one of baseball’s jewels. Opened in 1992, it was the first retro-classic

style ballpark and has influenced the design of nearly every baseball stadium built since. Complete with all the modern amenities such as luxury boxes and automatically flushing toilets, these retro-classic ballparks have an old-school feel to them, with green seats and exposed brick and stone construction.

The old B&O Warehouse serves as a backdrop in the outfield, its red brick creating a warmer and more intimate atmosphere than you might expect from a facility that holds 45,480 people. Unfortunately, the Orioles don’t draw nearly that many fans on a regular basis anymore.

Though the reported attendance for Sunday’s game was 27,471, only about half that many came through the turnstiles to watch the last place team. Fans like myself benefited, however, from the availability of tickets at a 25 per cent discount from face value on StubHub. Though the Orioles’ current roster fails to attract large crowds, the stadium experience is one of the

best around. Large posters of Cal Ripkin Jr., Mike Flanagan, and Jim Palmer adorn the walls of the stadium, reminding fans of a time when the Orioles used to contend for the pennant on an annual basis.

Entering through the centrefield gates, just in front of the warehouse, fans make their way along Eutaw Street, adorned by concession stands, souvenir outlets, and bronze baseball-shaped plaques marking the landing spots of some of the longest home runs ever hit at Camden Yards.

My favourite feature, however, was the Beers of the World concession, offering Becks, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, and Bass. Upon arrival, we were even offered a sample of each brew. Naturally we indulged, pleasantly surprised by the refreshing alternatives to Budweiser, which should be avoided at all costs.

Another charming feature of the ballpark was the warm and courteous staff. As my Angels enjoyed a 6-1 fifth inning lead on Sunday, Manny the beer vendor, kept us all updated

Camden Yards is a must-see park. (Trevor Drummond / McGill Tribune) on the Baltimore Ravens game, taking shots at a Titans fan sitting in front of us while they were ahead of Baltimore 23-13. The Orioles’ wives also got involved in the action, holding a charity silent auction of autographed Orioles memorabilia. I even got to shake hands with one of them as she congratulated me on my winning bid for an autographed Vladimir Guerrero bat.

All in all, Camden Yards is a must-see for baseball fanatics, and really for all sports fans. As one of

the oldest teams in American professional sports, the Orioles have a very rich history that is presented well throughout the ballpark. The smaller crowds allow fans the opportunity to get very close to the action for an extremely reasonable price. Though my Halos lost two out of three, Camden Yards was an absolute pleasure and will be a tough standard to beat by whichever ballpark I visit next. ­—Trevor Drummond

19

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

martlets hockey — ­ McGill 2, Queen’s 1

Martlets’ title defence off to a fast start Late goal the fatal blow as McGill takes down the Gaels

By Steven Lampert Contributor The defending champions are back. On Saturday afternoon at McConnell Arena, the McGill Martlets opened their exhibition slate against Queen’s University. The Martlets, coming off a national championship season where they finished 33-0 against CIS competition, got off to another great start, defeating Queen’s 2-1.

For the most part, the game was a defensive struggle as both teams failed to capitalize on scoring chances. The first real opportunity presented itself in the first period as fifth-year senior Ann-Sophie Bettez and sophomore Katia ClementHeydra connected on a beautifully executed give-and-go. However, the crossbar denied the Martlets their first goal of the season.

Head Coach Peter Smith noted the team’s initial struggle on offence. “I thought we played nervous, with seven new girls on the team and a couple of our big leaders missing, but we settled in and created scoring chances. The puck just didn’t go in for us,” Smith said. Those notable absentees included team captain Cathy Chartrand and goaltender Charline Labonte.

Well into the second period, Queen’s continued to successfully

Katia Clement-Heydra (right) had two assists in the 2-1 victory. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune) stall the McGill attack. Despite committing three penalties in four minutes in the middle of the period, the Gaels came out unscathed, as goaltender Melanie Dodd-Moher made a couple of key saves in killing off all three including a two-man disadvantage.

By the third period, the Martlets looked re-energized and were moving the puck well. After a face-

Around the water cooler

RUGBY­

more viewers than the Blue Jays game.

Canada’s next game ended in a loss

In case 24/7 coverage of the MUNACA strike prevented you from following sports this week, here’s what went down...

Canada got their World Cup campaign underway Wednesday with an impressive win against Tonga. A late try by Phil Mackenzie sealed the deal for the Canadians and the replay of the match on TSN drew

to the highly-respected French, but the Canadian team showed heart and hung around with some of the best in the world. Canadian rugby fans should be excited by their performance so far.

off win in the Gaels’ zone, secondyear forward Leslie Oles opened the scoring with great hands in front of the net. Queen’s answered back only 68 seconds later after a scrum behind the net left first-year defenseman Mary Coughlin open in front.

She received a pass and netted the shot to even the score at 1-1.

Progress is a running theme in the Martlets locker room. McGill

BASKETBALL In Lithuania, basketball fans were treated to a stunning display at Eurobasket 2011, the European qualifying tournament for the Olympic basketball tournament this summer. Spain defeated France 98-85 to take their second straight European crown. Macedonia was the Cinderella story of the competition as the world’s 47th ranked team finished fourth. The small Balkan nation will get another chance to qualify for the Olympics in July.

FOOTBALL The weekend was all about quarterbacks as Tom Brady and Cam Newton followed up dazzling week one performances, each passing for over 400 yards for the second straight week. The Sunday nighter was an emotional affair as Eagles pivot Michael Vick made his first start at the Georgia Dome since going to jail. Vick would leave the game in the third quarter with an injury, while his Falcons successor, Matt Ryan, would throw four TDs. HOCKEY The hockey world got a rare

lost five players from last year’s championship team and has introduced seven new, first-year players.

Leslie Oles noted that this transition will take time, but she is hopeful.

“Obviously at the start of the season we have seven newcomers, so we still have a lot of work to do. But part of what the season is about is to progress as a team,” Oles said.

During this transition, the Mart-

piece of good news in an otherwise dismal summer as Teemu Selanne announced that he will return for a 19th season as a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Winnipeg Jets fans will be circling Saturday, Dec. 17 on their calendars as the Finnish Flash will return to the place where he first broke into the NHL. BASEBALL When it seemed like there would be no real races for the postseason, baseball fans were caught by surprise when the Boston Red Sox lost six out of seven games against division rivals Tampa Bay between Sept. 9 and 18. A seemingly insurmountable nine game lead for Boston in the AL wild card race was trimmed to just two by Sunday night.

Elsewhere, the Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers clinched their divisions, punching their respective tickets to the playoffs.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Cody’s abs are like the Nile, un-ending, rippling, and impossible to look away from.” Ian MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun, about Cody Hodgson’s level of fitness going into training camp.

lets will look to veterans to step up in key moments. On Saturday, Ann-Sophie Bettez did just that. Late in the third, the Martlets were on a powerplay and had a face-off in their offensive zone. Bettez knew that her team had one more chance and she took it. A great setup by Katia Clement-Heydra and Adrienne Crampton led Bettez to a wide open net where she buried the game-winning goal with 15 seconds remaining.

Bettez was happy with how the team played, but knows that they cannot be completely satisfied. “We worked hard in practice and won our first game and I know there are things we did well, but there is a lot that we need to work on,” Bettez said. “It looks pretty good ... but I can’t wait for all of our team to be back together.”

While Bettez was quick to point out that the team’s main goal is to defend their championship, she realizes that they cannot get ahead of themselves. “Obviously we need to still look at the season shift by shift, game by game, practice by practice and the results will follow,” Bettez said.

The Martlets now head south for a five game stretch against NCAA opponents before opening the regular season on Oct. 7 against Concordia.

SCOREBOARD

(Scores since Sept. 14) *Denotes exhibition

Martlets fIELD HOCKEY Won 2-0 vs. Queen’s Won 2-0 vs. York Redmen Football Lost 38-9 @ Acadia MArtlets Hockey *Won 2-1 vs. Queen’s Redmen Lacrosse Won 15-7 vs. Trent *Won 17-4 vs. Concordia Martlets Rugby Won 38-0 vs. Ottawa redmen Rugby Won 50-5 @ Sherbrooke Martlets Soccer Won 3-1 vs. Concordia Won 1-0 @ Laval Redmen Soccer Won 3-1 vs. Concordia Won 3-2 @ Laval

Venice Beach

By Sam Reynolds