Tribune The McGill
Published by the Tribune Publication Society Volume No. 31 Issue No. 7
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Massey lecture Occupy op-ed Keystone XL Chai tea CKUT festival Albertine Redmen hockey
4 9 12-13 16 17 19 21
SONNY WOLFE, page 20
Occupy Montreal takes over Square Victoria Movement against financial excess sets up tents in Montreal, sweeps through cities worldwide By Holly Stewart Managing Editor
Protestors at Montreal’s installment of Occupy Wall Street. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune)
What started as a small protest in Vancouver and gained momentum on Wall Street became a global force on Saturday, Oct. 15, with occupations taking place in hundreds of cities globally. Montreal’s Square Victoria, in the downtown financial district, became the meeting point for almost a thousand ralliers and 30 to 40 tents over the weekend. While the spirit of the movement was there, the message was less clear than that expressed on Wall Street. Most signs and supporters expressed dissatisfaction with the financial system and the lack of regulations which led to the financial meltdown in 2009. A few members of MUNACA were in attendance carrying banners, while others were waving Syrian flags. Others raised the issues of higher welfare for unemployed youth, native land claims, and environmental activism. Angelo Cinquino, a participant who carried a sign saying “Debt is the root of all evil,” acknowledged all the mixed messages of the occupation. “Everyone’s got their own —I’m not going to say agenda—but their own reason for being here, which is [what] I think they intended it to be, but I don’t think the people are getting to the root of the problem, which I was hoping they
would,” Cinquino said. The root of the problem and his reason for attending the protest is Canadian debt, which he believes could be eradicated through a better financial system. Others at the rally were not concerned by media reports of a the lack of a coherent, unified message. “It’s always great to see people doing something about things that make them angry. The critique of this movement … is that there’s no clear project, and I guess I understand that critique, [but] first you have to get together and figure out what you want to do,” Bob White, a professor of anthropology at the University of Montreal, who carried his young daughter on his shoulders, said. “But it’s hard, one of the problems in the movement is there’s an ethic of consensus, and there’s an ethic of egalitarianism and those things are great. But sometimes they limit the movement,” he added. Underneath tarps that kept the rain off, free food was handed out by several kitchen collectives, all of whom intended to return with more food for the duration of the occupation. At times, the rally seemed as much like a festival as a political movement, with music blaring and spontaneous bouts of drumming. A medical table was set up mid-afternoon. See “OCCUPY” on page 2
SUS motion budgets up to $4,000 for executive iPhones General Council votes 14 to 9 in favour of outfitting executives with society-paid iPhones and plans By Anand Bery News Editor On Oct. 6, the Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) General Council passed a controversial motion which allocates up to $4,000 of the society’s budget to provide SUS executives with iPhone 4 devices
and paid data plans. The motion, which passed with a vote of 14-9, had the support of all six voting members of the SUS executive and eight other representatives to the council. In addition to the executive, SUS General Council (GC) is comprised of two science student senators, three representatives from
SSMU, and 19 representatives from departmental organizations. The issue of the paid mobile plans first came up during a reading of the budget in late September, when a council member noticed the amount as a line item, a single expense listed simply as “phone plans.” Prior to the reading, no men-
tion had been made of the executive’s intention to use society funds for this purpose. According to other representatives, the iPhones had already been purchased with signed contracts. “They bought the [phone] plans [first], and then it was brought to council after that point,” Max Luke,
one of two science senators who sit on GC, said. “The budget was up for approval at this meeting, [and] someone asked about the phone plan on the budget. That was really the first time we heard about it.” Luke suggested that if no one had noticed the line item, it would See “SOCIETY” on page 3