McGill Tribune November 1, 2011

Tribune The McGill

Published by the Tribune Publication Society Volume No. 31 Issue No. 9

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Movember: moustaches a must-have

3 Students exonerated Cyber-bullying 4 Movember 10-11 Antoni Cimolino 13 November playlist 13 Hockey Martlets lose 16 10 questions with Bielby 18

qc drop-out rates, page 5

SSMU hosts Consultation Fair Event aims to improve communication

By Bea Britneff Contributor

Justin Trudeau kicks off Movember in Montreal. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune)

Last Wednesday, SSMU hosted the inaugural Consultation Fair, a joint effort by SSMU, McGill faculty and administrators, and a number of other members of the McGill community.

The fair, initiated by the Working Group on Consultation and Communication, was designed to respond to calls for a more transparent administration and to address frustration over limited participation in important areas of student life. The event’s organizers hope that this was the first in a series of Consultation Fairs that will facilitate and improve communication between members of the McGill community in the coming years. “[We] want to put an end to the belief that administrators [are unwilling] to listen,” Provost Anthony Masi said in his introductory speech. “Today is the first step in … a continuing effort to get student voices on a variety of perspectives that will shape the direction McGill will pursue.”

The fair provided an opportunity for students to engage in faceto-face discussions with faculty, administrators, and representatives of various student services about what can be done to improve the student

experience at McGill.

Participants divided in 10 discussion tables, covering a different topic each. Discussions ranged from Survey Evaluations and Food and Dining Services, to Students in the Strategic Research Plan.

Consultations were divided into three 15-minute sessions, allowing for rotation and participation in multiple discussions.

Dean of Students Jane Everett facilitated discussion at the Academic Advising table. Participants were particularly troubled by the indifference of academic advisors.

“Education students feel their concerns are … brushed off,” U1 EdUS Secondary Representative Latoya Belfon said. “Students come out feeling like a burden [to advisors].”

Other important issues included poor online publicity of available resources, and the need for advisors to have inter-faculty knowledge.

“Sometimes advisors don’t know enough about other faculties and students end up bouncing back and forth between advisors,” one U2 arts and science student said.

A proposed solution was the creation of peer advisor associations for each faculty. Making student advisors available to incoming and current undergraduates could See “CONSULTATION” on page 3

Referendum period opens with ballot on CKUT and QPIRG Both organizations place their existence on the line with bold new questions for student voters

By Carolina Millán Ronchetti News Editor The fall referendum campaign period opens this week, and features two questions on whether QPIRG McGill and CKUT’s student fees should cease to be opt-outable via the Minerva online system and in-

stead be refundable directly though each organization. Students will be able to vote on the questions from Nov 4-10.

Every five years, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) and CKUT, the official campus-community radio station, hold referenda in which the student

body votes on the organizations’ existence. A ‘yes’ vote enables the groups to renew their Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the administration, a document that governs each group’s relationship with the administration. Both MoAs will expire in June 2012.

Fee levy refunds were avail-

able through each individual group until fall 2007, when McGill moved opt­—outs online to Minerva. That same fall, the General Asembly voted to reinstitue the old system and in winter 2008, students passed a referendum mandating SSMU to lobby for an end to the Minerva optout system. The administration did

not change the system either time.

Since the system changed, there has been a marked increase in opt—out rates for all opt-outable organizations, with a divergence of only 0.5 to 1.5 per cent across the different student groups. This semester, several campus organizaSee “REFERENDUM” on page 2

News Referendum continued from COVER tions, including QPIRG and CKUT, mounted their own campaign in response to the opt-out campaign called “Our Campus, Our Community” to raise awareness of projects funded with student fees.

to the groups’ individual offices to receive their refund. Manicom said that CKUT also intends to set up a table in the SSMU building during the refund period so students can get a refund on campus in addition to CKUT.

Drain on the organization Anna Malla, QPIRG’s internal coordinator, explained that the primary reason for the referendum question was the current system’s drain on QPIRG’s human resources.

“It’s very difficult when [the opt-out campaign is] not held accountable by any rules or standards, but QPIRG obviously as an organization is, so one of the primary reasons is that it’s a huge drain on our human resources, on our board and staff,” Malla said. “A lot of time and energy is spent, is misspent in my opinion, in defending ourselves against the kind of attacks that are just baseless and against misinformation instead of focusing on the really great work that we do on campus.”

Caitlin Manicom, CKUT funding and outreach co-ordinator, explained that the reasons for CKUT’s referendum are very similar to QPIRG’s.

“We simply cannot continue to exist with this type of blanket opting out,” Manicom said. “It’s a huge, huge drain on us, not only financially but also organizationally.

When you have unregulated opt-out campaigns happening on campus, they encourage students to opt out regardless and so they blanket opt out of a number of different organizations without learning anything about them.”

Last year, the fee levy for QPIRG was approximately $186,000 before opt-outs and $156,000 after. This year’s projected values are $190,000 before and $157,000 after, Malla said. Similarly, CKUT’s projected budget for will be $16,020 less than it would be without online opt outs. Last year, its operating budget was decreased by $27,191 after opt-outs, out of a budget of $422,572. CKUT’s budget is much larger than QPIRG’s due to its sponsors and funding drives.

If QPIRG and CKUT were allowed to administer their own optouts, students would have to go over

Question clarity Some students believe that the wording of the referenda question may pose some problems for voters. Stephen David, U3 mining engineering, noted that the question combines two very different issues.

“I don’t support or oppose either [QPIRG or CKUT], but the problem is they’re forcing people to accept their methodology regarding the opt-out process,” David said. “I [kind of] feel like I’m being screwed. If you want them to continue to receive funding, you have to accept the terms of their opt-out scheme. If you don’t want to fund them, they’ve made your life harder.”

When asked why the two questions were combined, Malla pointed again to the drain in resources arising from the current system.

“Our very existence is at stake with the current system, and that is both in terms of our human resources at QPIRG as well as in terms of not being able to predict our finances for the year,” Malla said. “We actually will not be able to continue to exist under the current system, so it is an existence question.”

The wording of the question may pose challenges to QPIRG and CKUT with the administration.

Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning Morton Mendelson declined to answer whether the university would return the opt-out system to the 2007 system if the referenda passed, calling the situation “hypothetical.” Nevertheless, he stressed the need for referendum questions to be clear and to effectively reflect student opinions.

“We have asked student groups going to referendum for confirmation that students approve of their continuation to do so with a question that is clear and to the point. A confusing question does not provide a clear answer,” Mendelson wrote in an email to the Tribune. “We have not been able to implement some fee referenda when the questions have

Yearly opt-out numbers for CKUT and QPIRG during fall and winter semesters. (Eric Mauser / McGill Tribune) been incomplete or ambiguous.”

A question of existence Malla did not disclose QPIRG’s options in the case that the majority of students vote no to the referendum question, although she did say that becoming part of SSMU is not an option.

“This is a question that we’ll have to address after the results of the referendum,” Malla said. “But if we don’t get a ‘yes’ vote we will no longer receive undergraduate student funding … so essentially it would mean that our organization would not exist.”

A “no” vote for CKUT would reduce the organization’s funding by over a third and may also cause the radio station to lose its location and broadcast license, Manicom said.

CKUT is not looking to continue as a club under SSMU. “[CKUT occupies] two floors of the building that we exist in, a very large space, [with] over 300 volunteers … it is a campus-community radio station,” Manicom said. “I don’t think it’d make sense to be a club under SSMU. And I don’t think it would be financially feasible either.”

SSMU President Maggie

Knight commented that an end to CKUT and QPIRG would have a notable effect on student life.

“If CKUT ceased to exist, that would be a huge blow to the Montreal community and a lot of students on campus that are very actively involved in radio production. We don’t have a journalism school … CKUT is the McGill school of radio in its own way,” Knight said. “As far as QPIRG goes … they have a lot of groups involved in a lot of causes, [and] many are dear to the heart of lots of students. It’s not only activism based on campus but also activism linked to the direct community.”

The McGill Tribune is accepting applications for the position of News Editor.

To apply, send a CV, Cover Letter, and three relevant writing samples to editor@mcgilltribune.com

3

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Consultation continued from COVER release some of the pressure on academic advisors.

Director of Social Equity & Diversity Education Office Veronica Amberg facilitated consultation at the Diversity and Equity table.

While McGill works hard to ensure that everyone has access to the same rights and services on campus, the consensus was that there is room for progress.

“The people who need the system the most are unable to access it […] and don’t necessarily have confidence in it,” SSMU Vice President University Affairs Emily Yee Clare said.

Participants expressed a desire for McGill to be known for its diverse and equal environment as much as for its achievements in academics and research.

“When people come to McGill, they know they cannot plagiarize, whether they read the university’s statement or not,” PGSS President Roland Nassim said. “It should be the same way for diversity and equity—people should perceive McGill as an inherently safe and respectful environment where some things simply aren’t appropriate.”

Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning Morton Mendelson chaired proceedings at the Freedom of Expression on Campus table.

Mendelson asked whether free expression at McGill—including picketing and pamphleting on cam-

pus—should be subject to substantive constraints.

“It’s very hard to draw a line if one wants to prohibit expression of certain viewpoints,” University Affairs General Secretariat Janina Grabs said. “I believe it should not be prohibited except if it is clearly targeting people who don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

McGill permits demonstrations on campus, provided that they don’t disturb the university’s day-to-day activities. Participants questioned why some noisy demonstrations, such as last spring’s vote mob, are tolerated while other peaceful protests, such as the recent Y-intersection student protest in support of MUNACA, are deemed ‘disruptive.’

“It’s difficult,” Mendelson said.

“I get pushback from students about allowing certain activities […] but also for not allowing certain forms of expression.”

As the fair drew to a close, many participants left pleased with how the consultations unfolded.

“I’m really happy with how the event turned out,” Grabs, who was instrumental in the organization of the fair, said. “I think it was a great opportunity for [a] better exchange of ideas.”

“A lot of students weren’t afraid to say how they really felt,” U2 voice major and Music Undergraduate Students’ Association President Katie Larson said. “I think [the administrators] were very receptive.”

Campus

Students exonerated for protest SSMU VP among those cleared for holding MUNACA rally

By Anand Bery News Editor McGill students Joel Pedneault and Micha Stettin were exonerated Friday on charges of disrupting university activities due to their involvement in a demonstration in support of MUNACA on Oct. 11.

Pedneault, VP External of SSMU, and Stettin, Arts Representative to SSMU, were originally accused of violating two sections of the McGill Code of Student Conduct which included ‘disruption of university activities’ and ‘unauthorized presence.’

Both were cleared of any offences after an interview on Friday morning with Associate Dean of Arts Andre Costopoulos. Costopoulos found the evidence against them to be inadequate.

Stettin and Pedneault were both satisfied by the outcome.

“It was clear throughout the half hour interview that the evidence was patently false on numerous counts and deliberately selective and exaggerated where it described actual occurrences,” Stettin said in an email to the Tribune.

Pedneault had not been present at the demonstration. His name was mentioned in a report by McGill’s head of security to the associate dean, likely because he is a notable activist and supporter of the Mob

Squad, the organization that planned the demonstration. Pedneault said he feels that the university had taken issue with the anti-administration stance of the demonstration.

“It’s almost as if [McGill security was] saying, ‘these people are guilty by association, so please be advised to go after them,’” Pedneault said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt as to why they decided to go after [us]. We’ve been in the media a lot to support labour rights on campus and speak out against the administration’s approach to labour relations.”

In the days following the announcement of the allegations, the claims received much attention from local media. On Oct. 25, Pedneault and Stettin appeared on CBC’s Daybreak Montreal to discuss the accusations.

While he wouldn’t comment on the specific incident, McGill’s Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning, Morton Mendelson, told the Tribune that expression of free speech is always permitted on campus, but that it must be done in an organized way so as to not disrupt the workings of the university.

“All kinds of opinions are welcomed on campus,” Mendelson said.

“There are constraints, [however], on forms of expression. Bullhorns outside a building with classrooms, [for example], aren’t acceptable.”

“Permission is granted independent of the content, as long as the content is legal,” he said. “If there is a barbeque to promote cause A versus cause B, there is nothing taken into account that says ‘well, we agree with cause A but we don’t agree with cause B, so we’re going to let cause A hold a barbeque and cause B not.’ That’s not what we do at a university.”

Stettin disagreed with Mendelson’s comments.

“The administration has a robust disdain for any freedom of speech and assembly directed against them and their interests,” he said.

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Campus

SSMU opens discussion on General Assembly reform Student society acknowledges shortcomings of the GA in representing student opinion

By Elisa Muyl News Editor There are many ways in which students can participate in student government. Short of being elected to SSMU Council or another faculty association, however, the most direct way to engage in campus politics is through the General Assembly, where students can have a say in how SSMU operates.

“SSMU’s General Assemblies can propose, amend, rescind, or uphold any policy of the Society,” the description on the SSMU website reads. “General Assemblies have, essentially, the powers of Council, with the exception of a few powers that are, legally, reserved for a council or board of directors.”

With such power, however, come concerns over just how representative the forum is. The General Assembly, plagued with systemic issues regarding its actual representation of the student body, is often the subject of criticism and debate.

This criticism manifested itself most recently last January, when then SSMU president Zach Newburgh led a controversial movement to abolish the GA entirely. This year’s attempt at reform takes a more nuanced approach, seeking to address specific issues within the Assembly rather than doing away with it entirely.

The SSMU executive, led by President Maggie Knight, is overseeing an initiative to solicit feedback from students in the form of an online survey and a series of Town Halls, to be held this week.

“Proposing to abolish the GA is one way of generating feedback but, at least in my experience ... it meant that it became a very polarized and reactionary discussion,” Knight said. “What we’re trying to do this year is break it down into some of the key choices of how we’re moving forward.”

SSMU’s survey questions highlight aspects of the Assembly that the executive believe need im-

provement. This includes particular concerns over quorum, the GA’s accessibility, and the distortion effects of participatory democracy.

Currently, for motions to pass, voters must reach a quorum of 100 students from at least four different faculties. Critics of the GA question how democratic this benchmark renders decision-making, considering SSMU is composed of roughly 21,000 members.

Furthermore, the GA is only open to as many students as can fit inside the allocated space for the Assembly. In the case of contentious motions, democracy is effectively enacted on a first-come-first-served basis. In this vein, there are concerns that smaller forums like the GA are distorted by special interest groups of the student body. Students who care enough to propose, debate, and vote on motions may not be representative of the 20,900-odd others who then have to abide by the adopted motions. Finally, there have been concerns that the Assembly’s

accessibility is limited to those who are already active within SSMU; short of even authoring a well-written motion, the rules of decorum and procedure—governed by Robert’s Rules—are foreign to most students and even take a while for councillors to master.

The survey addresses some of these issues by offering tentative solutions, and seems to serve as a prompt for in-depth discussion at this week’s Town Halls. Among other things, it discusses the option of raising or lowering quorum, allowing students to introduce motions from the floor of the GA, and revising or doing away with Robert’s Rules.

“I think in the past, consultation that’s been done on the GA has been very broad and general,” Knight said in an interview. “We wanted to get specific feedback on specific issues, like voting mechanisms and whether or not you can introduce motions from the floor.”

If the survey has been any in-

dication, students seem to be very interested in GA reform and are actively engaged in reform discussion.

The survey’s latest numbers, taken Thursday evening, showed that 63 per cent of students who responded to the survey had never been to a General Assembly before. “[This] indicates that ... there are people who aren’t the people who go to the GA all the time [who] are still interested in the GA, its structure, and what it could be,” Knight said.

Students wishing to contribute to the GA reform discussion can fill out SSMU’s survey, available on the Society’s Facebook page, and can also attend this week’s Town Hall meetings. The Town Halls will be held Wednesday, Nov. 2 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 3 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Lev Bukhman room, on the second floor of Shatner.

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Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

CAMPUS

McGill doctors honoured

Two alumni inducted into Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

By Lisa Yang Contributor Last week, two McGill alumni were announced to be among the 2012 class of inductees to the prestigious Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame comprises 88 laureates and recognizes inspirational figures who have made remarkable and innovative contributions to the field of medicine. Dr. F. Clarke Fraser and Dr. Peter T. Macklem both attained their M.D., C.M. degrees from McGill’s faculty of medicine and spent much of their professional lives at McGill University and in hospitals of the McGill University Health Clinic (MUHC).

Dr. Fraser (M.D., C.M ‘50) is being honoured for his accomplishments in medical genetics, a field of study which he is credited to have pioneered in North America.

His specific research involves multifactorial disease and the genetics of cleft palate. He has directly improved the wellbeing of countless patients through his contributions to the creation of genetic counselling,

and his founding of the now-named F. Clarke Fraser Clinical Genetics Centre at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, the first of its kind in Canada.

Dr. Macklem (M.D., C.M. ‘56) is being recognized for his contributions to advancements in the field of respiratory medicine. His work involves significant innovations in small airway physiology and the discovery of the causal link between early heart damage and smoking. Dr. Macklem has served as Physicianin-Chief at the Royal Victoria Hospital, the chair of the department of medicine at McGill, and Physicianin-Chief of the Montreal Chest Institute. He passed away in February, 2011.

The induction of two McGill alumni with close ties to the university and the MUHC reflects the quality of McGill’s faculty of medicine both in training and drawing the brightest of the medical profession.

“Whenever a member of the MUHC and McGill family is recognized nationally and internationally, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to attract and retain brilliant,

dedicated professionals,” the Hon. Arthur T. Porter, MUHC Director General and CEO, said in a press release.

The recognition also affirms and adds to McGill University’s prestige internationally. “McGill’s international reputation is built on the shoulders of exceptional individuals, such as this year’s laureates, Dr. Fraser and Dr. Macklem, from the university’s faculty of medicine and its teaching hospital community,” the Interim Vice-Principal of Health Affairs and Interim Dean of Medicine, Dr. Samuel Benaroya, said.

The 2012 induction ceremony will be held in Toronto on March 21, 2012, where Fraser and Macklem will be recognized alongside five other inductees: Dr. John James Rickard Macleod, Terry Fox, Dr. Armand Frappier, Dr. John Dirks, and Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui. Twenty-one previous laureates have shared connections with the MUHC, McGill University, or both.

News in brief McGill Medicine once again number one in Canada McGill's medical school was once again ranked as the best in Canada. The rankings, compiled

by Maclean's magazine, were published on Oct. 27.

This marks the 21st year that Maclean's has published medical school rankings for Canada.

“We are gratified by this recognition,” McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum said in a university press release.

“As McGill celebrates its 190th anniversary this year, we are determined to remain among the world’s leading universities, committed to excellence in teaching, research, and service to communities in Quebec, Canada, and internationally,” she said.

“These results reflect the remarkable quality and dedicated efforts of our faculty, students, and staff,” she added.

This was the seventh year in a row in which McGill was ranked number one by Maclean's. According to the magazine, there were several key reasons that McGill has

consistently placed so well.

“For one thing, McGill’s students win more national awards than Toronto’s,” the Maclean's website stated. “Another big factor is its student-faculty ratio. Toronto places dead last in the category (15th), while McGill is fifth. On top of that, McGill dedicates more of its budget to scholarships and bursaries than any other school in the category.”

After McGill, the other top five medical schools in Canada were the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, Queens University, and the University of Alberta respectively.

According to the Maclean's website, rankings were based on 14 numerical indicators across three categories: quality of students, libraries, and finances. Maclean's also puts schools into one of three tiers based on research funding, program offerings, and graduate programs.

–Eric Mauser

National

Cyber-bullying a growing concern in Canadian schools Study shows overwhelming support for increasing educators’ roles in dealing with online harassment

By Vanessa Pagé Contributor The issue of cyber-bullying has increasingly become the subject of media attention, particularly after the recent suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley. Hubley’s parents attribute his death to cyber-bullying targeting his sexual orientation. On Oct. 21, the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association released a study that revealed that almost 70 per cent of students and 84 per cent of parents request that schools would take action, even if cyber-bullying occurs outside of school hours.

According to Dr. Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor in McGill’s department of education and the director of Define the Line, an anti-cyber-bullying organization, the issue affects McGill students.

Shariff noted that currently, the administration can only get involved in cases of cyber-bullying if students are being harassed in residence or if the bullying is negatively affecting a student’s classroom experience.

However, the administration is taking steps to prevent cyber-bullying.

“We’re developing some workshops with [the] senior administra-

tion that will probably, next year, be offered to students and faculty and people in residences,” Shariff said.

“We’re getting more and more complaints; enough that we need to do something about it.”

Presently, McGill may not be prepared to deal with an emergency. A representative from McGill’s Mental Health Services said that they have not yet dealt with cases of cyber-bullying. Similarly, Ted Baker from the McGill Counselling Service responded that none of its staff “has any expertise or experience with cyber-bullying.” Shariff recommends making professors aware of any cyber-bullying or talking with the Dean of Students and looking for counseling when appropriate.

“I think that they really need to make someone aware – they need to talk to someone they trust that will handle the issues sensitively and not get them in worse trouble with their perpetrators,” Shariff said. “Get support. That’s the first thing; don’t try to deal with it yourself and not tell anyone because that’s when it ends up like the boy who committed suicide.”

Due to the relative novelty of this kind of bullying, education

Cyber-bullying still needs to be addressed in educational institutions. (Alissa Fingold / McGill Tribune) students might not be learning the proper skills to deal with cyber-bullying if it occurs to students in their classrooms. Although Shariff says she includes anti-cyber-bullying modules in her courses, the topic is not currently in the departmental curriculum.

Cyber-bullying has become a large enough problem that the Canadian government is responding, both at the provincial and national level, Shariff explained.

“A lot of bullying and cyberbullying is homophobic, and students are picked on even if they’re not gay,” she said, “so the Quebec ministry has just announced that they’ve put in $8 million to reduce homophobic harassment.”

Shariff also noted the need for collaboration in funding for research on legal responses to cyber-bullying.

“Now the federal government [has] brought in their legislation on victim safety, but it causes prob-

lems because they want to change the criminal code to include cyberbullying as a criminal offense. So you know, are we going to jail a little kid?” she asked. “But it’s also important for universities, for students here to know what they could get themselves [into], you know, if they do engage in something that ends up being considered a criminal offense.”

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Tuesday November 1, 2011

Provincial

Quebec’s drop out rate highest

Provincial government tackles low secondary graduation rate

By Julian Moss Contributor Quebec’s high school drop out rate is by far the highest in Canada.

The provincial government estimates that the 2009-10 school year saw the graduation of only 73.8 per cent of students under 20. Mounting popular demand has pressured legislators to adopt aggressive goals and implement a variety of unconventional strategies to address this.

A conference of concerned citizens, orchestrated by financial executive Jacques Ménard, met last Wednesday after a three year interlude. The group examined the Quebec government’s new initiatives to improve graduation rates and discussed potential improvements.

These government initiatives include an effort to keep companies from employing teenagers for too

many hours a week, as well as robotics programs in Montreal secondary schools. The government has also pledged to reduce elementary school classroom sizes in a bid to stop children from falling behind at a young age. A recent ad campaign broadcast public messages urging kids to stay in school. The government has negotiated agreements with school boards, which include new incentivized targets for graduation.

Some question whether these measures are a step in the right direction, and it could be quite a while before results can be seen. Ménard believes that time is a crucial part of the process of improving graduation rates. By 2020, the government would like to see the graduation rate climb to 80 per cent.

Sophie Harnois, director of Réunir Réussir, believes it will take up to five years to notice any effects.

Her non-profit organization is in charge of distributing a $500 million fund, half of which is provided by the government. Its goal is to improve education within the province and raise graduation rates.

“I think over the next five years we’ll see progress in some regions that have a bit more experience, that are more advanced in establishing their plan,” she said.

Quebec’s low graduation rate does not necessarily indicate a poor education system. For the better part of the last decade, Quebec students have, on average, scored well on the PISA test (Program for International Student Assessment, administered by the OECD). While these scores indicate that Quebec’s education system may be above par, its drop out rate shows that there is plenty of room for improvement.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

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• Involved in a student club, service or organization as an executive, organizer or event planner?

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

These workshops were created to give you the chance to develop and build on your leadership and life skills. Attend a minimum of five workshops throughout 2011/12 academic year and receive a certificate of completion.

Come and check out workshops on the downtown campus:

Dealing with Different Personalities in Your Org’n Tuesday, November 8, 5:30-7:30 Is there a clash in personalities in your organization or club? Learn techniques and strategies that will allow you to handle difficult conversations and difficult people with skill and confidence.

Agents of Change: Making It Happen Tuesday, November 15, 5:30-7:30pm How do you become an agent of change and make something socially positive happen? Making effective, impactful changes is a true challenge. This workshop will provide the opportunity to explore and learn about how to be an effective agent of change.

Building Sustainable Student Initiatives Wednesday, November 23, 5:30-7:30pm

city

Safe injection site considered

Officials debate installing facility modeled after BC’s InSite

Interested in making a difference on campus? Many students have started campus-wide initiatives that have made significant contributions to the way things are done today. This workshop will focus on how we can take an initiative and passion from theory to practice.

Registration now available via Minerva!

More Info:

By Jonny Newburgh Contributor This year, Montreal hopes to open its own supervised injection facility, modeled on Vancouver's InSite. Representatives of the city of Montreal are working on a plan to set up the facilities at preexisting medical facilities throughout the city.

“Traditionally, public health is all about prevention, immunization and vaccination, and health education,” Dr. Nick King, a professor at McGill’s School of Medical Ethics, said.

Rather, supervised injection facilities are a form of harm reduction.

Rather than simply targeting drugseeking behaviour and drug abuse for eradication through abstinence campaigns, harm reduction programs seek to reduce the negative effects of drug usage itself.

There is already a non-profit organization in the city, Cactus Montreal, that seeks to educate and to amass resources for drug users and sex workers. It was originally founded in 1989 as the first needle exchange program in North America.

“Cactus Montreal is an autonomous, nonprofit organisation which helps persons who use illicit drugs, or those with potentially risky sexu-

al behaviour, to reduce the risks associated with those practices while improving their quality of life,” its website says.

“Rather than taking charge of people, Cactus’ goal is to empower them to regain control over their lives and to present them with choices so that they become ‘acting subjects’ once again. It is a global, generalist approach without restrictions, which allows the creation of egalitarian relationships that consider the whole person,” the website adds.

From the last year for which statistics are published (2008-2009) Cactus reports having over 25,000 visits. Over that time period, Cactus also distributed 308,777 sterile needles to patients both at its site and on the streets.

There is a concern from those who would use the proposed public facility that their drug usage would become a matter of public record.

“It’s a different approach to public health,” King said. He added that it attempts to reduce harms that accompany drug use. Similar to how a helmet protects a cyclist or a seatbelt saves passengers in collisions, supervised injection facilities save people’s lives.

The two main camps in favour of and in opposition to supervised

injection facilities disagree on two main issues: illicit drug use, and the reduction of deterrents against illicit drug use.

Those in favour of the facilities are generally “agnostic about what the activities are,” said King. Saving people’s lives is more important.

King added that other positive benefits include cleaner streets because of fewer dirty needles being tossed around, as well as lowering longterm health care costs.

He did caution, however, that despite little evidence in support of these claims, most recent studies do support the idea of an economic benefit to the health care system as a result of these facilities.

The program’s opposition, meanwhile, hinges on the possible promotion of drug use by removing deterrents from the equation, and also the use of public funds to make illegal activities safer.

In the last few weeks, the Canadian Supreme Court squashed the Conservative government’s hopes of shutting down the only supervised injection facility in North America, InSite, and Quebec’s Health Minister, Yves Bolduc, announced a new provincial initiative to provide services for drug abusers.

www.mcgill.ca/firstyear/leadertraining/ or drop by the First-Year Office in the Brown Building, Suite 2100 or call 514-398-6913

MMPA

Master of Management & Professional Accounting

• Designed primarily for non-business undergraduates • For careers in Management, Finance and Accounting • Extremely high co-op and permanent placement To learn more about the MMPA Program, attend our information session: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 11:30 am – 1:00 pm Room 5001, Brown Student Services Building, 3600 McTavish, McGill University

www.utoronto.ca/mmpa

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Opinion Abraham Moussako

amoussako@mcgilltribune.com

To walk or to wait Jaywalking is a practice that is only nominally illegal in most North American cities. However, Montreal seems to be taking a different approach.

The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has begun its annual pedestrian safety campaign. Like most measures by government to raise “awareness” of a problem, there is a punitive stick as well as a pamphlet, and as usual, the stick is the traffic ticket.

Police are now giving out $37 traffic tickets to leave an impression upon scofflaws. But whose fault are traffic accidents, and is jaywalking even a major problem?

In a recent editorial, the Montreal Gazette inveighed against “groups of pedestrians crossing against the light, impudently blocking cars that have the right of way.”

The piece cited bad behaviour by drivers, but by and large the editors of the Gazette, especially through such devices as juxtaposing the number of pedestrian fatalities with the number of jaywalking tickets given, seem to believe that pedestrians—those damned yokels crossing out of turn—are at fault for most traffic collisions.

The general assumption in any discussion of pedestrian deaths, that the pedestrian is at fault, is often written into the law. Several U.S. states, such as Maryland and Virginia, prohibit victims of pedestrianvehicle collisions from suing drivers if they are judged to have contributed in any way to the accident­—the “contributory negligence” doctrine.

Compass Rose Noah Caldwell-Rafferty noahcr@mcgilltribune.com

Geuss’s winning maxim Last October, philosopher Raymond Geuss stood in a graveyard in Cambridge, England for a mysterious filmed interview. In an eery setting, Geuss communicated an inspired statement: knowing the historical context of what you stand for “will change your attitude toward the world and toward yourself ... It will prevent you from identifying in too fanatical a way.” Geuss is more of a muser than a fixer, but to me his words have serious practical applications. The philosopher’s

Thus, a driver going several miles above the speed limit at the time would be able to avoid liability if the victim was simply listening to an iPod at the time of collision.

More to the point, evidence from other urban areas, such as San Francisco, shows that cases of drivers violating pedestrian right of way are more frequent than the other way around. That cars are a much larger danger to pedestrians than the opposite seems to be lost in the concern over jaywalking. Efforts to reduce pedestrian fatalities would do well to target driver and not pedestrian behaviour.

One way to improve driver behaviour is road design. To their credit, the editors of the Gazette do put forth helpful suggestions such as better pedestrian signalling. But this only addresses part of the problem.

Lowering and controlling speeds is a main factor in reducing traffic fatalities. Montreal did just that several years ago, reducing limits on residential city streets from 50 km/h to 40 km/h, while retaining the 50 km/h speed on major streets, since dramatic increases in pedestrian fatalities are observed once speeds go up from the 40 km/h range.

All of that said, a lower speed limit means nothing to pedestrians if the limit isn’t actually respected, and this is where a strategy called “traffic calming” enters the picture.

Through changes in road design like curb extensions and speed bumps, traffic calming is meant to slow down drivers, and studies show that these methods are effective in both reducing speeds and traffic fatalities.

The idea that jaywalking is a major cause of traffic fatalities is predicated on the fundamentally flawed idea that drivers are less at fault than pedestrians when the two collide on the road. True progress in combating pedestrian fatalities starts with not blaming the victim.

1975 was one fine year for the beaver fan, especially for those with a particular fondness for the Castor Canadensis—the Canadian beaver.

That year marked the start of the beaver’s official role, alongside the maple leaf, as a Canadian national symbol. However, 2011 has proved to be a much more traumatic year for beaver aficionados. Nicole Eaton, a Conservative senator, has advocated that North America’s largest rodent—whom she calls a “toothy tyrant”—should “step aside” as a national emblem, and be replaced by the more “splendid mammal,” the polar bear.

Such a proposal is, I believe, as unnecessary as it is unfair. A defence of the beaver as Canada’s national emblem must therefore be raised before this anti-beaverist movement gains any further momentum.

The polar bear may be, as Sen. Eaton claims, more “majestic” and photogenic than the beaver. But national symbols are about relevance to national character, not beauty pageants. And the beaver embodies far more of what it means to be Canadian than the polar bear. Of course the polar bear is bigger and more powerful; no one is saying otherwise. But physical strength does not necessarily make for strong symbolism. The polar bear uses its strength to be a vicious predator which preys on weaker animals, sometimes even humans.

This makes the polar bear an atrocious Canadian emblem for two reasons: firstly, it seems bizarre to have a national symbol which has

words hold particular credence for two instances of today’s rampant political polarization: the Chilean student protests and the Occupy Movements.

Since May, the young adult population of Chile has risen up, asking for affordable education and state involvement in curbing private institutions. Building upon the “Penguin Revolution” of 2006, when high school students protested—in black and white uniforms, hence the name—the scale of the current uprising has become gargantuan. A June 30th march brought out more than 100,000 students. Earlier that month, 100 schools had been occupied by the restless youth, and there began a comical accompaniment of flash mobs and kiss-ins.

Due to the historical contextualization inherent in their message, the Chilean students’ mission is as-

tonishingly coherent. Students share an awareness that the current crisis is a direct result of cuts to public education by the Pinochet regime of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Private control of the university system initiated by that conservative government has dominated until today, driving up the price of tuition while student numbers increase. Since Pinochet’s time in office, no new public universities have been founded.

The historical determinants of the current crisis are so strong that they pulse through a generation which never experienced them firsthand. All the same, the solid ground of historical justification allows the protests to be proactive, instead of solely reactive. The movement has produced the Social Agreement for Chilean Education which formulates its wishes, such as increased financing of public universities and

Off the Board Richard Martyn-Hemphill

Paws off the beaver

killed a fair few of that nation’s citizens; and secondly, having a predatory animal as the national emblem smacks of an imperial mindset reminiscent of the British lion or the American eagle—a desirable trait for those who wish for Canada to adopt a more hawkish foreign policy, but not one that reflects the reality of Canadian neutrality. The beaver, on the other hand, possesses an array of wonderful qualities which are much more akin to what many Canadians either strive for, or ought to be striving for: with their vegetarian diet and small scale logging projects, beavers are champions of sustainability; with their strong sense of family ties and monogamy, they are paragons of responsibility; and with their complex infrastructure projects which adapt the landscape intelligently to their needs, they are exemplars of innovation. A beaver may not have the same strength as a polar bear, but it is far more creative, constructive, and industrious with what strength it has: can a polar bear chop down trees with its teeth?

Even history is on the side of the beaver: the lure of valuable beaver pelts kickstarted the economies of early Canadian settlements, and fuelled the settlers’ desire to go west. With good reason it was the beaver that appeared on Canada’s first stamp, not the polar bear.

A nation should never try and escape from its past, nor should it be disloyal to its traits: replacing the beaver with the polar bear would therefore be as groundless, arbitrary, and unjust as replacing it with a walrus. Besides, Coca Cola already lays claim to the polar bear—does Canada really want to be seen aping a private company? I think not.

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enforcement of laws against profit in higher education. Chileans aren’t just saying “No!” They’re pointing to the past and changing the future.

Where is the same coherent message from the Occupy Movements? Grievances against the broken financial system are reactive, and have not resulted in unified proposals for change. “No” is the necessary first step, but it needs historical context in order to induce a comprehensive transformation. Deregulation under Ronald Reagan catalyzed the shift from an industrial to financial economy in the U.S. The GarnSt. Germain Act of 1982 deregulated bank savings and loans capabilities.

The dreaded Credit Default Swaps resulted from the extreme financial leniency of Reaganomics. The trend is more nuanced than purely a Republican incentive—Carter and Clinton deregulated finance too, the

latter drastically so. And as we can see from Occupy Movements here in Canada, the trend and its consequences were not contained in the U.S. alone.

Regulation is a wonderful thing. It keeps asbestos out of homes and drilling stations afloat. But plunging regulation down throats as an unmovable demand scares people. Simply screaming at GoldmanSachs won’t solve anything. What can are specific regulations that will undo the risk-based finance created in the last 30 years. James Madison wrote in 1787 that “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.” With this in mind, today’s protestors should take a page from the Chileans: assume the liberty to articulate your faction’s message, after finding the historical context to do so.

Tribune

7

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, Elisa Muyl and Carolina Millán Ronchetti news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editor Richard Martyn-Hemphill opinion@mcgilltribune.com Features Editors Kyla Mandel and Kat Sieniuc features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Nick Petrillo and Ryan Taylor arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Steven Lampert and Adam Sadinsky sports@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editors Ryan Reisert and Sam Reynolds photo@mcgilltribune.com Senior Design Editor Kathleen Jolly kjolly@mcgilltribune.com Design Editor Susanne Wang design@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Marri Lynn Knadle copy@mcgilltribune.com Advertising Manager Cori Sferdenschi cpm@ssmu.mcgill.ca Publisher Chad Ronalds

TPS Board of Directors James Gilman (Chair): chair@mcgilltribune.com Johanu Botha, Kathleen Jolly, Shannon Kimball, Zach Newburgh

Contributors Rebecca Babcock, Bea Britneff, Matt Essert, Rebecca Feigelsohn, Emma Hambly, Alex Knoll, Christopher Liu, Mari Mesri, Julian Moss, Jonny Newburgh,

Online gateway toward greater accountability Following the lead of Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa, the City of Montreal has created a website— donnees.ville.montreal.qc.ca—opening up its municipal data to the public. The website, known as an open data portal, is intended to be a universally accessible resource for municipal information, ranging from government contract details to parking ticket revenue statistics. This new openness is extremely timely, given that the public inquiry into the possibility of corruption in the construction industry was commissioned just two weeks ago by the Quebec government.

The website is still in a foetal stage: most of the links have not

been activated yet, and a wealth of data remains to be uploaded. But the Tribune believes the initiative to bring this information within a few clicks of the public is a noble one, worthy of applause. There may not be as much content as is ultimately desirable, but its very existence heralds a positive step in the direction of greater government transparency, and consequently, increased accountability.

That being said, we should not deceive ourselves into believing that the promised land has been reached.

The municipal administration was not a voluntary benefactor of its information; rather, it did so because of the pressure imposed on it by the

tireless work of Montreal Ouvert, a voluntary organisation of “hacktivists.” There is still a great deal of work to be done before Montreal’s governance can be called transparent; newspapers and the public alike must be proactive to make sure that the municipal government is not only forthcoming about supplying information, but also that such potentially revealing data is not left unexamined. Good investigative journalism is therefore needed to keep the information flowing, and to ensure it is used for the good of Montreal.

Initiatives from Montreal Ouvert such as zonecone.ca (an open data portal showing where road construction is taking place) and resto-

net.ca (a database of restaurants who have been fined for poor hygiene) have already had positive impacts on the accountability of restaurants and construction projects; it is now harder to disguise excessive road repair projects, and less likely that restaurants will not adhere to decent hygeine standards. If the municpal government’s website is encouraged to be expanded, and all information is made available by the municipal government, a similar effect could be the result: malpractice and corruption will prove harder to keep in the dark.

Consultation reaps rewards on niche issues SSMU should be commended for their efforts at giving McGill students a voice with the various consultation fairs and strategic summits that have been held so far this semester. For years, SSMU has been talking about better student representation via improved communication with students, and this year they have implemented those ideas. These changes have been positive across the board—BaSIC, the Arts & Sciences faculty association, recently surveyed their members before taking a stance on the MUNACA strike, perhaps inspired by SSMU’s approach.

Other faculty associations would do well to follow this example.

Student consultation gives students a sense of empowerment,

whether or not any concrete changes actually result from the consultations. That’s not to say that consultation without results or follow-up is a positive thing, but a campus with an active voice is better than a campus that feels that it has no say. Committees, summits, and fairs are incentives for students to be informed and involved with campus events and politics. Otherwise, it’s difficult for students to care about issues like the name changes of SSMU clubs and the changes to Frosh when they feel like there are no venues in which they can voice their own opinions.

Compared to previous talks with McGill’s administration, student-mediated consultation is a less explosive and less reactionary way

of garnering a sense of campus opinion, and the administration would do well to take advantage of this, in both its presence at the consultation events–-which has been positive to date–-and as they consider policy changes in future.

Topics at consultation forums will be most effective at changing McGill’s policies when they focus on the small things. While it is essential to discuss big issues like the MUNACA strike, it’s also important that those topics don’t prevent small issues, like those relating to academic advising, from being discussed.

McGill’s administration will be more likely to effect change in those small ways, and in a sense, SSMU is doing their jobs for them—in order to make

this a better university, student input is necessary on administrative matters.

It seems that no amount of consultation or discussion will bring back the Architecture Café, abolish tuition fees, or end the MUNACA strike, and thus efforts at consultation should be more focused on other issues than just the big, controversial issues. But, similar to the consultations that occurred after the café was closed, SSMU’s consultations go a long way towards reconciling the sense of alienation from administrative decisions amongst students, certainly more so than previous SSMU councils have managed to do.

Vanessa Pagé, Joshua Prizant, Reid Robinson, Jonathan Rosenbluth, Will Smibert, Lisa Yang

Tribune Offices

Letters to the Editor

Editorial Shatner University Centre

Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 T: 514.398.6789

Advertising Brown Student Building

Suite 1200, 3600 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 1Y2 T: 514.398.6835 F: 514.398.7490 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 letters@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. 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.

Re: James Gilman’s column “Keep opt-outs the way they are” (Tribune, Oct 25, 2011). It flabbergasts me that I was not only quoted out of context in Ken Sun’s original Tribune article (March 22, 2007), but that Gilman is capable of requoting me, again out of context, years later, long after I’ve left McGill. He need only to have read the Tribune letters page one week later (March 29, 2007) to find my letter pointing out the original error—although I suppose that would have undermined his ability to quote me in support of his argument.

Let me be explicit then, since that’s obviously what’s required: I did not (and still do not) support the McGill administration unilaterally setting up online opt outs for independent student groups. The

problem is not fee levy refunds per se (whether online or not)—QPIRG McGill has allowed students to optout of the levy since at least 1990.

The problem is an opt-out system which was imposed without consulting the groups involved, and which gives students no idea of the breadth of services and programs being undertaken by the groups which they’re opting out of.

At the very least, one would expect Tribune writers quoting previous issues have done their reading fully. Or should I be checking campus media every fall, irrespective of where in the world I am, just to make sure that I’m not being quoted in support of views which are the opposite of those I myself hold?

Sincerely, Ed Hudson McGill PhD, ‘10

R.I.P. Franklyn Davis Kimball 1953 - 2011

8

Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

Commentary Judy Rebick

The importance of QPIRG at McGill I have just returned from the 100th anniversary of the McGill Daily. I was a writer and editor from

1964 to 1967. The McGill Daily set me on my path both as an activist and as a journalist.

Needless to say the 1960s were an exciting time at McGill. We fought for and won the idea that a university should provide a centre for a constant discussion of ideas inside and outside of the classroom.

For me, my activities outside the classroom were far more important.

In an era where inequality is growing and our civilization is staring down major environmen-

Letters to the Editor

University years are unique in the richness of experiences they offer. Campuses abound with diversity of people and ideas. Nowhere are individuals more primed to learn and to be challenged.

With upwards of 20 working groups linking students with community and international issues, QPIRG McGill (like PIRGs all across Canada) contributes to the vitality of campus life. Whether or not one agrees with the causes and the stands advanced by these working groups, their contribution to a healthy debate on campus is undeniable.

In my work as a parliamentarian, I’ve always relied on student groups like PIRGs for advice, mobilizing public opinion and organizing around solutions. Of course, there are times we may disagree with each other, but that’s the essence of democracy. The resolution to such disagreements can only be found through engagement.

For years, students have supported QPIRGMcGill and the services it provides to campus life and the global community. It’s a tradition worth maintaining.

Paul Dewar NDP Member of Parliament I read with interest your editorial regarding union tactics, and I must say I am surprised you got the position you are in. Did you check your facts? Are you just repeating ad naseum what you have been told by the administration?

Has McGill provided you with proof that these indescretions did in fact occur?

Are you going to also blame MUNACA for the walkouts at the hospital site today and yesterday? Because it is a FACT that they had nothing to do with it.

Is it right to have someone arrested— someone who is herself an alumnus—for distributing flyers? I don't believe anyone was harassed, has had things thrown at them, has defaced property, because if these things had happened, you can be sure more people would be arrested. McGill is playing hardball.

Childish tactics? What would you do if all your rights had been taken away from you?

If your place of employment imposes injunctions which completely destroyed your ability to peacefully demonstrate—and all this at a university—higher education—freedom of speech. Try investigating before writing.

Donna Cormier A disgruntled employee who is not a member of MUNACA

tal and economic crises, the role of organisations advancing alternative discourses on these matters is even more important. More than ever ,linking environmentalism and social justice is critical to an understanding of the challenges we face.

For 30 years the Quebec Public Interest Group (QPIRG) has brought innovations such as recycling to campus, queer friendly space stickers, campus gardens, Social Justice Days, Radfrosh, and more.

With upwards of 20 working

groups linking students with community and international issues, QPIRG McGill (like PIRGs all across Canada) contributes to the discussion and learning of students.

Whether you agree with the causes advanced by these working groups or not, it is always important to keep in mind the role they play on campuses and in communities. The education of everyone is enriched when conventional nostrums are challenged and we are exposed to different experiences and perspectives.

Moreover, offering alternative spaces for communities and voices that do not conform to the mainstream is integral to a vibrant democracy.

Keeping organizations like QPIRG and the initiatives it supports alive and thriving requires stable funding. I therefore encourage McGill students to continue to value the work of QPIRG McGill and to engage with them and learn more about the work they do.

Student Living Odds and ends

One senator’s request causes a polarized debate Should Canada change its national emblem?

By Kyla Mandel Features Editor The beaver is thirty-six years into its tenure as Canada’s national emblem, and last week it faced its biggest challenge yet. As Senator Nicole Eaton said in a statement to the Canadian Senate, the beaver is both an outdated symbol and a destructive rodent. She believes we must choose a better symbol and suggests the polar bear. As Eaton stated, the polar bear represents “strength, courage, resourcefulness, and dignity.” According to a state-

ment made to the Globe and Mail, Eaton is such a fan of the polar bear that she has posters of the animal plastered all over her office walls.

Let’s take a closer look at these two noble beasts, and the roles they play within Canada.

Beaver pelt was a highly valuable resource to the European explorers in the 17th and 18th centuries—so essential that the Hudson’s Bay Company incorporated it in their coat of arms. The search for this pelt drove much of the exploration of Canada, and so the role of the beaver in this country’s his-

(wallpaperslibrary.com)

tory is deeply entrenched. The polar bear, on the other hand, is found in Canada’s Arctic region, and has played its most significant historical role in the lives of the Inuit, who hunted them for food and fur. The Inuit, naturally, were here before the Europeans were.

The beaver is found on our nickel. The polar bear is on our toonie. But, since it’s our current national symbol, the beaver is featured in significantly more coats of arms and stamps, as well as a statue on top of the entrance to parliament.

It’s hardly going to be an easy task to make new coats of arms, not to mention reworking international rhetoric.

Eaton argues that the beaver is destructive. Yes, it does gnaw into trees and construct dams, turning rivers into wetlands and then many years later into dry forests. But don’t humans construct dams and change ecosystems in even more damaging ways than the beaver? If the beaver is too destructive a creature, should it really be replaced with one that, due to changes in the Canadian environment, is increasingly dangerous to human populations?

In Churchill, Manitoba, there is a regular polar bear patrol to protect the community. Where is the beaver patrol?

What’s more, if we do indeed change our national symbol to the polar bear, it should be assumed that

(haigoarts.blogspot.com) this would mean an increased effort on the part of our government to preserve this creature. As global warming becomes more and more harmful, polar bears’ lives are greatly jeopardized. Certainly the Canadian government would undoubtedly make ending climate change its top priority—as it can safely be concluded that our national symbol is of utmost importance to current politics. Perhaps then, given the state of our climate, this would be a very proactive decision to make.

But, as Carelton professor Michael Runtz told the BBC, the bea-

ver is much more representative of the Canadian temperament: “They are like Canadians. Their demeanour is very pleasant.” The majestic beaver is known throughout the world as a symbol of Canada, along with the maple leaf. Out of all the changes that should be made to the international image of Canada, one would hope that peace building and championing of the environment would outrank the beaver vs. polar bear debate.

Mcgillian after mcgill

One McGill graduate’s fruitful job hunt A former editor at the Tribune, now an editor in the big apple

By Matt Essert Contributor Last week, my one-time coeditor at the Tribune, and now fulltime friend in real life, wrote about his post-McGill life and argued that McGill really is an amazing place.

Something he mentioned, and I’ve been thinking about for the past five months, is that you don’t realize how great it is until it’s too late and you’re walking off the stage on the Lower Field with a diploma that may or may not help you get a job in the real world.

Besides the fact that graduation signals the end of the best four years of your life, the main problem with a McGill diploma is that it’s written in Latin. So, unless you’re like me and took seven years of Latin in middle and high school, it’s going to be difficult to know what to do with it. But, I do know some Latin, which

is why I was able to use my degree to get a real job.

After I left McGill, I worked at two unpaid internships in New York City, where I now live. I was an editorial intern at MarcusSamuelsson. com—a celebrity chef’s food blogtype website—and DOWNTOWN Magazine—a Lower Manhattan lifestyle/fashion magazine. These were my fourth and fifth unpaid summer internships in New York City—the first three were at a comedy website, an investment bank, and an investigative television magazine, in that order. After enough unpaid labour, I eventually did get a job out of one of them.

I am now an editor at DOWNTOWN Magazine. I officially started in September and have been with the company, in one capacity or another, for about five months now. My main day-to-day job entails running the publication’s website. Because the

magazine is currently a quarterly, everything that happens the rest of the year goes online. So, while we’re not technically a news organization, I spend a fair amount of my time reliving my glory year as a news editor at the Trib, reporting on things that are really, really important.

Also, as part of my editorial duties, I (yes me, Matt Essert) have my own interns. Just a few months ago, I was an intern, and now I have three interns who report to me and rely on me for college credit and general approval. And yes, it’s just as awesome as you’d imagine.

Besides the website, I also do a lot of work on the magazine. We have a very small staff of about 15 people and produce a book of roughly 120 pages every three months. I write when needed, and I edit most of the articles that go into the magazine. For the upcoming winter issue, I interviewed NHL bad-boy Sean

Avery about his interest in fashion.

It was pretty ace.

I never really put much weight into the idea that I’d be using my editing and writing skills for a real world job, but so far, so good. Part of this stemmed from that fact that I didn’t really start writing or editing until about two years ago, when I started doing it competitively, professionally, and publically.

I’ve learned two things since leaving McGill. First, you have to get kind of lucky, no matter what you’re doing. In some economic climates, there might be more or less luck to go around, but no matter what, you have to get lucky.

Second and perhaps more usefully, you’re going to need experience to get a job. It’s pretty ridiculously unfair that almost every job you apply for asks for “2-5 years experience”—how am I supposed to get any experience if I can’t get that

first job? But while you’re still in college and still have time to enjoy yourself, get involved in extra curricular activities that might apply to what you want to do after you graduate. During my fourth year at McGill, I was, in one way or another, involved in five campus media outlets. The more actual, out-of-classroom experience you have, the more attractive your resume will appear.

Also, try to get summer internships in a field that interests you. Sure, making money during the summer is great, but in the long term, it might be better to sacrifice some money now for a real job later.

But don’t worry; it’s not all bad.

Living in an awesome city like New York, having a dope job as an editor at a magazine and trying to make it in this crazy economy is working out pretty well so far.

m e mov

uc eni i S at

By K

T

oday marks the first day of Movember (the month formerly known as November), a full 30 days dedicated to the grooming and acknowledgment of the moustache—the Mo. This is all done in order to raise money and awareness for men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer. The rules: each Mo Bro (participant) must begin on Nov. 1 with a cleanshaven face and, for the entire month of Movember, must grow and groom a moustache. There is no joining of the Mo to your sideburns or of the handlebars to your chin (those are considered beards and goatees, and do not qualify as a true Mo). This hairy, sometimes scraggly, upper lip is the ribbon of the cause and what has made the Movember movement so successful in changing the face of men’s health across the world, and especially in Canada.

Adam Garone, a native of Melbourne, Australia and CEO of Movember, was in Montreal on Thursday to help launch this year’s campaign. He came up with the campaign idea nine years ago when he and a few of his mates decided to bring back the ‘70s moustache as a funny fashion statement.

“It had nothing to do with prostate cancer that year,” Garone said.

“But we got so much grief that we had to turn it into a campaign to raise awareness for something, so we could get away with it, and clearly prostate cancer is the number one cancer that affects men.” What started as a lark over beers on a Sunday afternoon quickly turned into a truly grassroots initiative.

“I was at a point in my life where I wanted to do something that would give back to the community,” Garone said. “And I thought that with this idea of

growing moustaches that had generated so much conversation, we could add a cause to it so when people asked us about why we were growing moustaches, we could explain that we were doing it for prostate cancer and raise awareness about the cause.”

Much like doing a run or a walk for charity, Garone believed that committing to changing one’s appearance for 30 days was something that could generate contributions. 2004 was Movember’s first year as a fundraiser,

source: dominicleblanc.liberal.ca

with 450 men raising $54,000 for Prostate Cancer Australia— the largest single contribution that the foundation had ever received. “That really confirmed for me that Movember could be an amazing awareness and fundraising organization,” Garone said. Since those early beginnings, Movember has gained momentum not only in Australia, but officially in New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, the US, the UK, and several other European countries, as well as unofficially in places like Russia, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Antarctica, truly becoming a global movement.

Besides raising funds and making the moustache cool again, Movember is more significantly responsible for bringing the

previously dreaded and avoided subject of prostate cancer to the forefront of men’s conversations.

Garone explained that, although it’s easy to get wrapped up in numbers, it’s these conversations which the campaign gives rise to that are most important in making an impact on the disease. He gave an example of a young man who, after growing possibly the worst moustache in history, was asked about his upper lip at a family dinner, which initiated a first in conversations about prostate cancer between him and his father.

As a result of that conversation, he learned that his grandfather had prostate cancer. The young man was then able to tell his father, because of what he had learned through M o v e m b e r, that he was twice as likely to inherit the disease, which he had not yet been screened for. “That for me is far more important [than just the numbers] because that’s changing, saving, and influencing lives today,” Garone said.

Rebecca Von Gouetz, spokesperson for Prostate Cancer Canada, likewise described how influential the moustache is in raising awareness of the disease through these kinds of discussions among men. “This is a disease that men don't typically talk about, and now all of a sudden we’re getting younger men having conversations about prostate cancer which never ever in anyone’s wildest dreams would have happened before,” she said. “Who on earth would talk about prostate cancer in a bar or in the office boardroom? But during this month, that’s what happens.”

Von Gouetz concluded that the beauty of the moustache is that once men are comfortable with discussing their health, it is no longer weird to talk about prostate

Mo,” Matheson said.

With approximately 250,000 men living with prostate cancer in Canada, this year is Canada’s fifth Movember. Last year, 119,000 Canadians registered as Mo Bros and Mo Sistas, raising $22.3 million for Prostate Cancer Canada. A large number of Canadian Members of Parliament, including Trudeau, grew moustaches in Movember 2010, and this year they plan to go even bigger. “Obviously we had Jack Layton very much on the mind last year,” Trudeau said. “This year it will be even more than that.”

Right now Canada is the number one country in the world in terms of funds raised. “I firmly believe that [Canada] will eclipse every other country,” Garone contended at the Montreal launch party.

Quebec in particular is embracing the campaign, seeing seven to eight times the number of registrants as the rest of Canada, especially from the province’s many universities.

“Obviously growing a moustache is pretty awesome, but generally I just really like the campaign,” Max Gregory, executive member of Movember McGill and U3 arts student, said. “I definitely agree with their message of having to increase discussion of men’s health because obviously men hate talking about that kind of stuff, and, being a guy, I know what they mean.” Gregory encourages everyone to sign up for Movember, either as part of the McGill team or on their own. “A lot of people look to university students as the leaders

It’s the

most common

One in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime; one in three will be diagnosed if there is a family history of the disease.

cancer to afflict

Canadian men: it’s as prevalent in men as

breast cancer is in women.

in the community, and I think this is an important message to have,” he said. Eighty-six per cent of the funds raised by Movember in Canada go to its men’s health partner Prostate Cancer Canada to (a) finance better research for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment options, (b) fund support services including 1-800 numbers to call with questions, and nurse navigators to help diagnosed men through the journey, keep track of appointments, and tell them when they should see a urologist, and (c) run the 72 support groups PCC has across the country where affected men and their families can go to get advice, hear speakers, and find camaraderie.

“And [all this] stems from the moustache to men’s health in general, to getting checked up, and having a doctor,” Trudeau said about the application of funds. “Thinking about men’s health issues is now something that is more acceptable because of Movember.”

As Garone concluded, it is these innovations that in our lifetime—possibly within 10 to 15 years—we can live in a world where no man dies of prostate cancer. “We can,” he said, “because of this campaign, and because of these silly moustaches that we wear on our face, change the world.”

mber

photo by Rokas Darulis

cancer in January or July, moustache or no moustache, which is an essential element to increasing awareness.

MP Justin Trudeau, who was also in Montreal last week for the Canadian launch, accredits the moustache with the important job of making men’s health issues more acceptable to address. “If you think about it, for a guy, prostate cancer is kind of embarrassing. But wearing a moustache these days is kind of embarrassing too,” Trudeau said.

“So it’s an outward sign of ‘you know what? I’m confronting it straight on.’ And we’ve made what people would see as sort of wrong or uncool as cool.”

“Last year I went for a musketeer kind of look,” Trudeau said of his Mo. This year, however, he plans on going with a much bigger, stronger moustache. “I’ll be channeling my Tom Selleck.”

Matt Matheson, spokesperson for the Canadian Movember campaign, explained Movember is not just about men and their moustaches.

Women also get involved in the same way that Mo Bros do, by registering as a Mo Sista, and they are an equally crucial part of the campaign. Mo Sistas raise awareness and start conversations about men’s health, host events, recruit teams to raise funds, and are a vital support system, convincing men to get tested.

“They just don’t have to grow a

move

r e b

mo

On average, 70 Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer every day.

On average, 11 Canadian men will die of prostate cancer every day.

Over 90 per cent of prostate cancer cases are curable if detected and treated in their earliest stages. That means as of age 40 you need to talk to your doctor about PSA testing.

Prostate cancer develops as a result of dietary, environmental, and hereditary factors.

Men with a family history of prostate cancer and those of African or Caribbean descent are at a greater risk of developing the disease. photo by sam reynolds

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Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

odds and ends

Halloween weekend brings out the crazy and creative A review of the costumes seen around Montreal

By Marri Lynn Knadle Copy Editor The boulevards and venues of Montreal are always filled with interesting looks, both ready off-therack and cobbled together from finds in fripperies. But this Halloween weekend, the cement catwalks and bodyheat-heated clubs became an innovative monster mishmash of the ghoulish, the garish, and the great.

Whether it was the chilly weather or a burgeoning sense of good taste among Montrealers, people seemed less inclined to confuse fetishwear and lingerie for good costumery in the clubs and flats of the City of Sin. The well-established trend of slapping “sexy” before any species or classic Halloween concept may be on its way out; when skin showed, it was usually in service of costume accuracy rather than exhibitionism. (Whatever you think of the movie they’re from, the Nav’vi of Avatar just don’t wear very much, so a modest t-shirt would be out of place there.)

Another stroke of decency was the relative absence of racist costumes. The poster campaign launched by Ohio University’s Students Teaching Against Racism in Society, with its byline “We’re a culture, not a costume,” may be making its message clear. But not clear enough: “sexy squaw” and “me-love-you geisha girl” costumes were readily available in most of Montreal’s major Halloween supply stores, and a few–store-bought and home-made–still made it out onto the streets.

Outside of the few who had a bigger craving for candy and drinks than a taste for taste itself, Montreal’s costumes trended towards the

classic or the clever, with a strong emphasis on pop culture characters and icons. Duos were out in full force: Kick-Ass and Hit Girl from the 2010 film Kick-Ass, perfectly height- and age-accurate, crossed upper Saint-Laurent in broad daylight. Princess Bubblegum and Jake from the animated series Adventure Time hopped from house party to dance floor. Batman and Robin kept du Parc’s Cabaret Playhouse safe from doldrums.

Solo acts included Velma from Scooby Doo, well-done but lonely without the rest of the gang on the Metro with her. An Audrey Hepburn took advantage of a natural resemblance for a celebrity homage, and Animal from The Muppets rode the bus with a robot. (Guess which one was shedding everywhere.) A ballerina outfit became a unicorn with the simple addition of a cardboard forehead horn, and Wonder Woman resisted the urge to use her golden lasso for mischief.

The quality of the costumes was impressive all around, reflecting the city’s love for pageantry with its parties. Also out in noticeable numbers were a cadre of classics: zombies at every venue, each uniquely bloody; clowns ranging from funny to frightening; pirates with enough missing legs and eyes between them to feed the aforementioned zombie army; and enough sailor boys to sink a ship.

A few costumes stood out from the pack, privileging uniqueness over aesthetics—and sometimes comfort and mobility as well.

A person encased their head in a cardboard box emblazoned with the likeness of Mariah Carey, a nod to her album “Music Box.” More mobile ingenuity included the use of a

white shirt, white pants, and cleverly applied marker to make an iPhone out of an otherwise plain ensemble.

Less inspired, but certainly serviceable in a pinch, were a jogger, a DIY devil composed of mis-matched red clothes and a pair of horns, a mechanic in a jumpsuit, and Skittles in colour-matched outfits with white

‘S’s. Steampunk was not steambunk this year either, with a few inventors and airship captains in combo store-bought and home-engineered ensembles on display. All of this was just the first course before the real treats, spotted on streets and in parties the weekend preceding Halloween itself.

Whatever menagerie, quarantine zone, gothic cathedral, or happy hodgepodge you found yourself in this Halloween, hopefully you had the opportunity to take a bite out of Montreal’s costume culture while taking your bites of candy, too.

FOOD

A foodie’s paradise found across the world in Singapore Eating your way through xia long bao: there won’t be much left on your plate

By Reid Robinson Contributor Just two degrees north of the equator is a small island in South East Asia that is home to more than five million people and an infamous law forbidding chewing gum—Singapore is an unheralded paradise for foodies. I have traveled quite a lot in my life I’ve had some of the best hot dogs (pylsur) in Reykjavik, the spiciest Biryani in Dhaka, and the juiciest pork in San Antonio. However, no country has so completely blown me away with its variety, affordability, and quality as Singapore.

Singaporeans take their food

very seriously. At the U.S. commercial service, where I did an internship, my local coworkers knew every single one of my eating habits after my first month. I have to admit, they knew more about what I ate than my own mother does. The most shocking thing for them was that I would not eat seafood. It might as well have been printed on my business card. I was often introduced at meetings as “Reid, our intern who doesn’t take seafood. So strange, la.” However, they were reassured by my willingness to try any part of a land animal, from brain to feet.

One of the most commonly asked questions at the office was, “What

did you have for dinner?” or “Where are we going for lunch?”

The amazing thing about Singaporean food is that you could have almost anything you wanted at any time of day. My favourite nights ended at a dim sum restaurant that specifically opened for the late night crowd. Hawker stalls are great during the day, as you can find a wide range of small appetizers that will satisfy your every craving. Hawker centres were originally formed by the Singaporean government, and they never leave you hungry. Competition amongst the stalls is intense; there is absolutely no room for mediocrity. Uncles and Aunties (Singa-

poreans’ affectionate term for their elders) pump out massive amounts of food for the swarms that invariably pour in for lunch and dinner.

Singaporean food is as diverse as its population. China has the strongest influence on it, but there are also influences from Malaysia and India. The dish that really made me drool was xiao long bao. These “small dragons” are little dumplings that have a small pocket of hot soup in them and are eaten with vinegar and ginger. Perfectly prepared ones have an extremely thin skin that is just thick enough so as not to break when picked up. Of course, the national dish, Haiinanese chicken rice,

still makes my mouth water. The chicken is cooked in a delicious and well-seasoned broth, and can also be roasted for extra crispiness. The dish is then served with “oily” rice, chili sauce, and soy sauce to mix.

My favourite lunchtime meal was curry bee hoon, a spicy curry-based soup with yellow noodles, tofu, and chicken. It doesn’t sound like much, but the combination has been the cause of many a Singaporean lineup.

As graduation fast approaches, one thing is definitely clear in my head: I really want to return to Singapore—to eat.

A&E theatre

“Shake” and half-baked conspiracy theories Stratford general director says new film Anonymous is much ado about nothing

By Holly Stewart Managing Editor Shakespeare has joined the ranks of Godzilla, alien invaders, and apocalyptic Mayan predictions, with the release of Roland Emmerich’s latest film, Anonymous, in which we, the English-speaking world, are the unknowing victims of a political and literary conspiracy of titanic proportions. A conspiracy involving Queen Elizabeth herself and the most highly regarded dramatic works in the Western world, one which Antoni Cimolino, general director of the Stratford Festival, took less than 15 minutes of his talk at McGill to discredit, far shorter than the running time of Anonymous.

The Hollywood take on the question of Shakespearean authorship has sent Cimolino running for the hills.

“The idea that Edward de Vere wrote Shakespeare’s plays is about to be disseminated to a mass audience, many of whom will no doubt assume that it is based on some kind of historical fact,” he lamented to an audience of students, professors, alumni, and literary buffs at Moyse Hall on Monday, Oct. 24.

The Oxfordian school of thought, which claims that Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is the true author of Shakespeare’s works, began when J. Thomas Looney’s book Shakespeare Identified was published in 1920. But questions of Shakespeare’s status as an author date back to the mid-nineteenth century, and coincide with the rise in popularity of the autobiographical form, and, as a result, an increased awareness towards the notion of authorship. Unfortunately for Oxfordians, the evidence supporting their case is fragile. Both The Tempest and Henry VIII are recognized as having been written after 1604, and “Edward De Vere would have had therefore difficulty writing, being as he was, well, dead,” at that time said

Cimolino mulls over the tragedy of errors in Emmerich’s latest. (mcgill.ca) Cimolino. The Tempest, in particular, contains references to events that occurred after 1604, but according to Cimolino, those allusions are not enough to disprove the conspiracy theories.

“Oxfordians counter that dating plays is tricky and that De Vere could have stockpiled works to be released after his death,” Cimolino said.

The complete absence of any letters and journals written by Shakespeare has led scholars to try and discern facts about his life from his works, a tricky and highly speculative task. Looney wrote in his 1920 book, based on his understanding of Shakespeare’s plays, that the true author must have been anti-materialistic and empathetic towards the lower classes, clashing with what little is known about Shakespeare’s

life: neither of these would be accurate descriptions of him, as he was a savvy investor and businessman, despite being a glover’s son with a grammar school education. Oxfordians also claim that there are references to De Vere and his family and friends in many of the plays: that, for example, there is a line in Hamlet referring to a quarrel between De Vere and another member of Elizabeth’s court in 1579, from which they extrapolate that Hamlet must be De Vere, Ophelia his wife, and Polonius as his father-in-law.

Cimolino, no stranger to knowing “what every word means, every nuance, all the ambiguity that might be there in every line” in Shakespeare’s works, disagrees with these interpretations. Trying to recognize subtle references to Elizabethan nobility takes away from our enjoy-

ment of the works, and for Cimolino, it is Shakespeare’s vast emotional terrain that makes these plays resonate even today. As a teenager, he was drawn to theatre and acting after he saw Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Stratford Festival.

“The story of four young men, enthralled in their hormones, they make a rash vow of abstinence from women—and then they find out they can’t live up to it,” Cimolino said.

“As a catholic teenager, that spoke to me.”

Adolescent humour aside, Cimolino’s aptitude for directing Shakespearean dramas comes from his emotional connection to the plays, his ability to form insights into the plays based on his own experiences with his children, his wife, and his work at the Stratford Festival. For the 2012 season,

he will be directing Cymbeline and he is particularly interested in how dream scenes function in the play: in Shakespeare, dreams often represent moments of lucidity and clarity in a world otherwise filled with lies and deceptions. To that end, he is considering an opening scene that suggests the entire play is one lengthy somnambulant journey, an ambition inspired by Cimolino’s understanding of Shakespeare the author, which leaves no room for questions of other authors.

“But in case, if I do end up staging it, I won’t be guided, I can assure you, by the spirit of an aristocratic dramatic amateur, who allegedly, in addition to writing the world’s greatest body of dramatic literature, also managed to pull off the world’s greatest literary hoax.”

Cimolino will be “putting [his] faith in the man from Stratford.”

Audience members left the talk inspired by Cimolino’s intimate understanding of, and faith in, Shakespeare’s plays.

“I’m not sure why it matters, firstly. I don’t know what will come of figuring out if it’s him or not,” Kaitlyn Findley, U2 History, said. “[Cimolino] described how you’d have to be willing to believe in a miracle if you’re going to say that a middle class man can write all these amazing things, but I find if you don’t believe that, you’re not very optimistic or you don’t have a lot of faith in society to do good things.”

Shakespeare fans at Cimolino’s talk, who nearly filled Moyse Hall, are more likely to be spotted lining up for tickets to the latest rendition of one of Shakespeare’s resonant political dramas like Macbeth than at the box office for Anonymous, which deals with a topic controversial enough to garner notoriety but whose premise ultimately rings hollow.

The Trib’s November Playlist Halloween is over, it’s not Christmas just yet, and November is hectic, not to mention cold. Here are some relaxing pre-winter songs to provide a soundtrack to decorative gourd season and get you through the grind.

Nick Drake: “From the Morning,” from Pink Moon (1972) Clazziquai: “Gentle Rain,” from Instant Pig (2004)

Final Fantasy (aka Owen

Pallett): “This Is the Dream of

Win and Régine,” from Has a Good Home (2005)

Portico

Quartet:“Cittàgazze,” from

Knee-deep In The North Sea (2008)

Aidan Knight: “North South

The Dodos: “When Will You Go,” from No Color (2011)

Awol One & Daddy Kev:

Zero 7:“Swing,” from Yeah Ghost (2009)

The Tallest Man On Earth: “Into the Stream,” from

The National: “Mr. November,” from Alligator (2005)

East West,” from Versicolour (2010)

The Tallest Man On Earth (2006)

“Rhythm,” from Souldoubt (2001)

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Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

Film Review

The men who knew too much

Documentary examines the negative consequences of human progress

By Rebecca Feigelsohn Contributor Surviving Progress, as the name suggests, is a film that questions our understanding of progress by pushing viewers to see progress as a movement that threatens humanity, rather than as positive advancement. The documentary, based on Ronald Wright’s best selling non fiction book A Short History of Progress, is a thought-provoking, engaging, and confrontational film.

Shot in Canada, Brazil, China, and the United States, directors Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks survey a vast number of thinkers in the field and gain varying perspectives on the issue. These intellects include, but are not limited to, Margaret Atwood, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, and David Suzuki.

Although the film largely consists of talking heads in banal settings such as offices and studies, these prosaic shots are interspersed with eye-catching visual imagery.

It is this display of the accelerated cityscape and the eventual inevitability of what Wright calls “the progress trap” that saves the documentary from mediocrity. Put simply, these “progress traps,” which are the main feature of the film, consist of seemingly positive innovations that result in an unsustainable use of the environment and “too much” progress.

The film is successful in several ways. First, it takes a concept which

some are familiar with, that modern technology is both the upside and downside of progress, and creates a space where scientific and economic concepts can be discussed, while at the same time appealing to a mass audience and not making assumptions about the viewer’s background knowledge. Next, although clearly motivated by revealing said downside, the filmmakers avoid pushing this idea down the figurative throats of viewers. Instead, they allow both sides of the discussion to be heard, and ultimately vouch for the attitude that society needs to stop acting as gods. The film contends that we should attempt to correct the mistakes that have been made through decreased consumption and acknowledgement of past failures.

It is impossible to deny the sharp and captivating images the filmmakers employ. The forest fire analogy in particular was one that garnered attention. The visual metaphor is used to morph an image of an illuminated downtown city into one that appears to be glowing with flames. This skilfully calls attention to our destruction of the planet through the technological progression that we naively praise.

A running juxtaposition is made throughout the documentary between humans and chimpanzees, showing that our society differs from these primates merely due to our ability to ask “Why?” We wonder what the unobservable phenomenon is that will explain the observ-

How long until the concrete jungle goes up in flames? (alliancefilmsmedia.com) able phenomenon in our everyday lives. This contrast is held until the final moments of the film whereby it appears that the chimp realizes the ability to balance both building blocks, pointing to increased knowledge of the apes and our similarities to the species.

Although other recent documentaries have addressed similar issues facing humanity, the filmmakers of Surviving Progress reveal society’s mistakes from a much greater perspective. Ultimately, the film aks difficult and critical questions facing humanity in a relatable, interesting,

and intelligent way.

Surviving Progress opens November 4th at Cinema du Parc.

Literature

Difficult to explain, easy to like

Giller Prize-winning Montreal author’s new collection of stories are stripped down and surprising

By Emma Hambly Contributor Sometimes authors face a chasm between the critical and the consensus.

Last year Johanna Skibsrud won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her debut novel, The Sentimentalists. Critics praised the book for its poetic language and complex themes, though many readers disagreed. Some found the work overwritten, and the storytelling murky, refusing to finish the book once they had started. Intentionally or not, Skibsrud averts these worries in her new release, This Will Be Difficult to Explain and Other Stories. The collection is stripped down and surprising, sometimes foreign, but utterly human.

The stories cover a lot of ground: middle of nowhere South Dakota; Hiroshima; Paris. Skibsrud takes us all over the world, visiting men and women with different backgrounds, places in life, and desires.

But the tales all have one thing in common—each details a seemingly ordinary sequence of events that turns out to be a crucial moment in the protagonist’s life. In one story, “Signac’s Boats,” an expatriate muses over pointillism. “Again and again she marvelled over the manner in which the small points of colour maintained themselves independently of the image they conveyed, while at the same time they gave themselves up to it entirely.” This is how Skibsrud’s stories work. Each one is a telling slice of life. In 20 pages or so, we know these people.

The main connecting threads between tales are the desire for more complete relationships and the exploration of limits. There is an interesting contrast at play between the stories. Characters either crave unadulterated freedom or the security of boundaries.

The standout stories sketch out men who still have a lot of growing up to do. “The Limit” tells the story of an absentee dad trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, interspersed with his childhood memories of a buffalo hunt. “Clarence” follows a gangly teen sent to interview an ancient town patriarch.

His best efforts are thwarted when his subject dies during their conversation.

Johanna Skibsrud’s writing isn’t perfect, but perhaps it isn’t

meant to be. The language twists with each story to suit the way the protagonist sees the world, incorporating run-on sentences and the use of passive voice. This Will Be Difficult takes the flawed pattern of human thought for its inspiration, rather than strict rules of ideal writing. That isn’t to say the writing is difficult. It’s clear, bare bones even.

The collection is mostly free of metaphors and figurative language— sentences don’t strike you with the beauty of language but the beauty of ideas.

At its best, This Will Be Difficult to Explain uses a poignant moment to explore a character and his or her unique outlook on life. These stories are memorable and thoughtprovoking. Unfortunately, not all the stories fit this model. “This Will

Be Difficult to Explain,” the story which forms the collection’s title, is intriguing but vague. The stark imagery of a few scenes is striking, but the characters are easily forgotten.

At the other end, two or three of the stories tell too much, not allowing readers to interpret for themselves.

Maybe this over- and undersharing makes sense though—sometimes we over analyze things, and sometimes our thoughts are fragmented. In any case, This Will be Difficult to Explain is an interesting and rewarding read. Skibsrud seems to have reined in the poetic and mannered writing of The Sentimentalists in order to provide us with thoughtful stories and beautiful musings on life. That’s something both the critics and the popular consensus can agree on.

15

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Album Reviews

Could Be Good

NOVEMBER 1-8 Sunparlour Players: Us Little Devils Us Little Devils seems like a name too deviously coy for a band that’s named after their hometown’s sunny climate. Yet Sunparlour Players’ latest release is certainly not lacking in contradictions. Within a scant 36 minutes, listeners are dragged through a disorienting mixture of frenzied, eclectic, pop-rock Canadiana. What results is an album that attempts to make up in heart what it lacks in focus.

Case in point is lead singer Andrew Penner: while his voice comes across clear, nuanced, and evocative in some songs, in others it’s downright inaccessible. This is only compounded when one takes the band’s sound as a whole. “One For You and One For Me,” with its reflective lyrics and banjo twang, so clearly conjures up an image of a paint-crackled porch under the wide blue expanse of the Saskatchewan sky. Then the album lurches to the cookie-cutter rock stylings of “Like An Animal,” which, despite the urgent “Want you to act like an animal/Want you to breathe like an animal,” is only alarming in its mediocrity.

Standout track “Don’t Be Afraid of That Spark” arrives late in the album. Clearly grounded in the realm of pop with its light smattering of piano notes and a lazy, strolling, infectious beat, even Penner’s voice sounds rounder, fuller, and more controlled. While Us Little Devils may not be rare amidst the sea of folk-pop in the Canadian music landscape, it is the endearing sentiments captured in those lines that the album conveys at its best.

Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials Florence is back and her machine is in full throttle. While the new album, Ceremonials, isn’t a total stylistic departure from Lungs—it has that same dark, dramatic sound that so pleased critics—its material offers a newfound catchiness and a slightly more conventional pop feel that might appeal to an even wider audience.

The album begins with “Only if for a Night,” a song that could easily be sung by a church choir.

It’s a striking song that makes you want to hear more. “Shake it Out,” the album’s first single, somehow makes you want to dance amid the powerfully chilling feel of Florence’s music. Elsewhere, “What the Water Gave Me” ends on a powerful note with Florence’s voice reverberating under some interestinglyplaced guitar. Despite the length of the album, there is no track which falls short of the unique, big sound that is both emotionally rich and beautifully intrepid. The deluxe version of Ceremonials offers a few bonus tracks, but the last song of the regular album is “Leave My Body,” which contains minimal lyrics but ends the album with a bang.

Ceremonials provides a tremendously bold, emotionally draining, gospel-like sound, accentuated

by Florence’s gut-wrenching vocals.

Each song builds up to a powerful end in which Florence sings almost to the point of explosion. Approach Ceremonials with caution, it may just lead you to that epiphany you’ve been waiting for...

Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto Coldplay have been around for over a decade now, and while immensely popular, they haven’t gone without criticism, often getting labelled as unoriginal and uninspired, both in their music and lyrics. Even so, they continue to produce music that their fans love. The band introduced a more upbeat, poppy sound with 2008’s Viva la Vida that was not seen on previous albums. Mylo Xyloto follows suit, but not in a good way.

Coldplay has taken every piece of criticism they’ve received in the past decade and swirled it into one big mess of an album. Mylo Xyloto makes no attempt at achieving a coherent flow. A few songs (“Us Against the World,” “U.F.O.,” “Up in Flames”) are reminiscent of their older, more sombre sound, but the rest of the album is full of experimental chaos. The first single “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” is filled with clichéd lyrics that have come to be expected, but also a strange mix of simple keyboard chords and an annoying, country-esque guitar riff that doesn’t fit. This inconsistency is also seen in “Paradise” and “Don’t Let it Break Your Heart.”

It sounds as if Coldplay is trying to explore new realms of their sound, but in so doing they stray too far from the signature style of previous releases. Fans can either continue on and accept the new sound or recognize their downward spiral.

Yukon Blonde Casa del Popolo, 4873 St. Laurent Tuesday Nov. 1, 8:30 p.m.

Vancouver’s Yukon Blonde are touring behind the release of their latest EP Fire/Water. Expect harmonies as lush as the band members’ beards. Toronto’s Dinosaur Bones opens. $12.

McGill Improv Showdown Gert’s Saturday Nov. 4, 7 p.m.

Come tickle your funnybone with future stars of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (That show is still on the air, right?) Tickets are available at the door on a pay-what-you-can basis.

music

In concert: Braids Ending where they started, Braids returned to Montreal last Thursday to cap their North American touring for the year. And what a year it’s been: the release of their Polaris Prize-nominated debut in January has had them touring almost nonstop around the world, honing their live skills in the process. The audience at Cabaret Mile-End clung to every note and cheered rapturously for every song. It couldn’t have been a better welcome home for one of this city’s most beloved bands.

—Alex Knoll

–Alex Knoll

–Christopher Liu (Will Smibert/McGill Tribune)

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Sports Hockey — Martlets 2, Montreal 3

Invincible no more, Martlet winning streak ends at 107 Carabins hand McGill first conference loss since Feb. 2007, first at home since Nov. 2004

blank sheet that’s been marred by the loss.

“I think every experience we have is valuable, we have a young team and with every experience we get out on the ice, with every practice we have, I think that we get better and better,” Smith said. “This experience is not unlike any of the other ones, it’s going to make us better down the road.”

By Sam Hunter Managing Editor It’s tough to write a story about the unthinkable, but that’s exactly what happened this past Saturday afternoon: the Martlets lost a Quebec conference game to the Montreal Carabins, 3-2.

The loss capped the Martlets’ RSEQ win streak at 107 games. It was their first defeat since falling to Ottawa on Feb. 10, 2007, nearly four years ago. Their last home loss came in November 2004.

McGill Head Coach Peter Smith wasn’t overly discouraged by the loss, or by the end of the presidential term-length winning streak.

“I think it was a good boot in the behind for our team,” Smith said.

“We’ve played some games that we probably should have lost before and we’ve ended up pulling them out of the fire. This one we didn’t end up pulling out of the fire and I think there’s a real lesson there.”

The Martlets put the wrong foot forward even before the opening puck drop, receiving a delay-ofgame penalty for failing to appear on ice the requisite five minutes before the contest started. The Carabins’ Jessica Gagné scored two seconds after that penalty expired, putting McGill in a rare early hole.

Leslie Oles and Melodie Daoust responded, notching goals at 10:10 and 17:15 of the first to put McGill up by one.

The second frame was a zerozero wash on the score sheet, but represented the beginning of a pa-

The streak in

perspective • 370,328,650 people were born between losses • Stephen two elections.

Harper won

• The Redmen football team won three games

Reckless penalties killed the Martlets on Saturday. (Ryan Reisert / McGill Tribune) rade to the penalty box for the Martlets—they took four minors in the period to Montreal’s three.

In the third, after an early equalizer by Montreal’s Maude Gelinas, the Martlets once again struggled to stay out of the box, receiving three more penalties—including a double minor—to Montreal’s one.

UdeM’s Ariane Barker finally broke the tie with 1:11 remaining in the game, giving Montreal the win and inflicting only the second career

regular season loss on McGill goaltender Charline Labonté, dropping her regular season winning percentage from 99 to 97 per cent.

“I didn’t think that we were particularly sharp,” Smith said of his team’s play. “I didn’t think we played with the sense of urgency that’s required—that our team generally plays with.”

When asked how he felt about the end of the team’s winning streak, Smith was obtuse. “What?” he said.

When pressed, he elaborated, “Two words: what streak?”

It seems as though his players also have short memories, since they travelled to Carleton the next day and whitewashed the Ravens in the Ice House for a 3-0 win.

“I thought in the game yesterday we got buy-in from everybody,” Smith said. “They stuck with the plan from start to finish.”

Smith and the Martlets view the season as a work in progress, not a

• The goals

Martlets scored 405

• On Feb.10, 2007, Barack Obama officially announced his candidacy for President.

Since then he has won the presidency and the Nobel Prize but lost the confidence of millions of Americans.

• When the Martlets last lost, Irreplaceable by Beyoncé was the top Billboard single.

Third Man in Nothing wrong with showing a little skin To my delight, my 11th birthday present was a subscription to Sports Illustrated. Being 11 and fairly unaware of my female counterparts, this subscription imparted more than I could have imagined—the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Female models? Fine. Swimsuits?

OK. Body Paint? Wow. By my 16th birthday, I decided to cancel my Sports Illustrated subscription in favour of an ESPN insider account. The account provided me with an issue of the ESPN magazine every two weeks, access to hundreds of exclusive “insider only” articles on ESPN.com, and some extra features—notably, the annual ESPN

Body Issue. The Body Issue, different from the SI Swimsuit edition, features professional athletes, instead of models, posing—GASP— nude. To clarify, though the athletes are fully nude, they are not fully exposed in the photos.

While the SI Swimsuit issue has been a staple for the magazine ever since its debut in 1964, ESPN’s Body Issue is more recent, and subject to some controversy. Criticism of the issue comes from several directions. Firstly, parents and devout Christians contest that the issue is too pornographic and thereby inappropriate for newsstands. Secondly, some sports purists feel as though ESPN is setting a dangerous precedent. They argue that ESPN brands itself as the worldwide leader in sports, yet it is clearly emphasizing sex, not sports, in the issue.

Let’s tackle these criticisms: first, the worried parents and devout Christians. Their arguments are essentially identical and totally understandable. I’m sure many parents would rather their young children not have access to racy images. However, they are looking at this issue from a purely sexual standpoint. Instead, they should give some consideration to the overexposure as being a testament to the athlete’s build and an example of true fitness success.

While nude athletes come off as sex symbols, why not praise athletes for their hard work in crafting their desirable bodies? Moreover, the issue sends a good message to young people, even if it comes with suggestive images. Instead of pressuring young girls to look like the Paris Hiltons of the world, the issue relays the message that being buff or muscular is

something that can be celebrated as well.

Second, to those purists who challenge ESPN’s integrity for publishing something seemingly unconnected to sports: undoubtedly, the issue lacks typical sports related content. However, it is still highly anticipated by some and a major seller each year. Even if the issue does not feature typical sports content, it profiles those athletes who make up the typical stories. Shouldn’t ESPN highlight these athletes in some fashion that is different from a standard game report? It is these bodies that allow athletes to compete at a high level in their respective sports.

We also can’t overlook the fact that ESPN is a business. Clearly, they understand that their Body Issue is edgy and that it helps increase sales.

ESPN editor-in-chief, Gary Belsky,

promises that the issue is more than a bid to double the magazine’s sales.

In order to compete with other major sport news outlets, such as Sports Illustrated and its swimsuit edition, it is foolish to assume that ESPN isn’t going to respond with their own effort. If anything, the issue widens ESPN’s market and earns them greater revenue than a normal issue.

This money primarily (at least we hope) goes to making their sports coverage that much better.

With this in mind, it would be foolish to abandon the Body Issue and fall to the demands of the critics.

Stay the course, ESPN, for me, and my 11-year-old self.

—Steven Lampert

17

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

football — ­ redmen 30, concordia 58

Redmen defence exposed in season finale McGill finishes winless for fourth time in five seasons

By Mari Mesri Contributor The Redmen wrapped up their 2011 season this past Saturday at Percival Molson Stadium, finishing with an 0-9 record after losing to the Concordia Stingers by a final score of 58-30. The game was preceded by a ceremony honouring former Redmen head coach Sonny Wolfe for his 36 years coaching in the CIS. Wolfe stepped down earlier this month after the Redmen lost their sixth consecutive game of the season, ruling them out of a playoff berth.

On top of the mid-season coach change, the team has been a revolving door at the quarterback position, rotating three players all year. For the final tilt, the Redmen offence went back to basics by starting senior Ryne Bondy.

Concordia took the lead early in the first quarter when running back Raul Thompson rushed for 35 yards into the Redmen end zone. McGill retorted promptly as Bondy connected with slotback Bobby Mikelberg for a touchdown. The back and forth battle continued well into the second quarter as the Redmen vied to catch up to the Stingers on the scoreboard.

Concordia padded their lead with two field goals, whilst the Redmen minimized the score gap with a 28yard pass for a touchdown to wide

McGill scored a season high 30 points, but allowed even more. (Elisha Lerner / McGill Tribune) receiver Michael Chitayat, and a 43-yard field goal by kicker Austin Anderson. The first half ended with the Stingers ahead 20-17.

In the third quarter alone, Concordia quarterback Reid Quest threw for four consecutive touchdowns.

He registered 356 yards by the end of the game, including 23 completions in 31 attempts. By the end of the third quarter, the gap had widened to 48-17.

Sophomore linebacker Max Caron registered six solo tackles and two assists, breaking the Quebec conference record for tackles in a single season. He also intercepted

two of Bondy’s passing attempts, returning one for 96 yards and a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Although the Redmen offence was not able to keep up with the Stingers’ scoring barrage, Bondy found good rhythm with Chitayat (12 receptions for 155 yards) and Mikelberg (10 receptions for 145 yards). “It was a tough one. We moved the ball well on offence, but we just didn’t put enough points I guess,” Bondy said.

Also contributing to the McGill scoreboard was sophomore linebacker Brenden Carriere who blocked a punt and recovered it for a

touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Mistakes by the Redmen defence proved to be costly as they ignited many of the scoring opportunities for the Stingers. Quest rotated amongst four receivers as his passing game repeatedly ripped apart the Redmen defence. “That was a very disappointing defensive performance, probably our worst in two years. Our offence finally moved the ball so the way I feel right now is that our team wasted a really good offensive day, ” interim Head Coach Clint Uttley said.

Bondy broke the Quebec conference record for single-game pass-

ing attempts with a total of 65­, 35 of which were completions, for 494 yards. “Well, I would rather have the record for completions,” Bondy joked. “When we have a lot of attempts [it] means we are probably down on the scoreboard or we are not running the ball well, so I’d rather have a more balanced attack but it’s something that’s cool I guess.”

The game was the last of their CIS career for six Redmen veterans – Bobby Mikelberg (SB), Michael Chitayat (WR), Ben Thompson (DL), Austin Anderson (K), Renaud Collard-Seguin (DE), and Courtney Bishop (LB).

The Stingers, who improved their regular season record to 4-5, will begin their playoff run against the conference leader Laval Rouge et Or in the Quebec Conference semifinals next Saturday.

As for the Redmen, the offseason will be a time for adjustment and building as Uttley looks to revamp the coaching staff and work on CEGEP recruitment strategies.

Despite the winless season, Chitayat remains positive of the team that he is to leave behind.

“We came somewhere this season even though the record wasn’t amazing,” he said. “I think next year going forward all the steps are in place—good coaching staff and a lot of talent.”

volleyball — ­ Martlets 0, montreal 3 (25-19, 25-22, 25-15)

Carabins spoil Martlets’ regular season opener Montreal wins all three sets en route to win

By Rebecca Babcock Contributor The Martlets came back down to earth this past Friday night. Two weeks removed from a bronze medal finish at the Martlet Invitational where they ended Montreal’s 23-game winning streak, McGill suffered a crushing 3-0 (25-19, 2522, 25-15) defeat against the Carabins in their regular season opener.

Head Coach Rachele Beliveau was confident before the game.

“We are feeling confident but we also know the conference will be challenging,” she said. “Any team could beat the other depending on how they play. We need to play the same way we have been in each preseason game, focus on each point, and the task at hand.”

The Martlets started strong in the first set. They attacked effectively and backed it up with great support defensively against Montreal’s

blocking and power hitting. They remained competitive with Montreal for most of the first set, but lost 25-19.

Neither team played well in the second set. Montreal started out slowly, which allowed McGill to hold a lead until the middle of the set, when the Carabins began their comeback. There were many service and hitting errors; balls went long or just wide of the court lines. This gave both teams equal opportunity to take advantage of the other’s mistakes. Ultimately, the Carabins came out on top 25-22.

The final set was the worst for McGill. They worked hard to set up their attack, but nothing could get by Montreal’s blocking wall and their defence failed to keep rallies going.

When McGill tried to counteract Montreal’s defence, balls were sent just wide time and again. McGill lost the set 15-25.

“I think we need to work on

our defence,” said power hitter Kristina Pavlovic. “We were flailing our arms and legs and it was not university level.”

Pavlovic was one of a few players who had a consistent game.

Throughout the match she played well both offensively and defensively.

“I don’t think we played to our potential,” Pavlovic said. “There were certain people at certain times that played well, but for our team to stand out and win we all need to be on the same track at the same time.

I don’t know why but we weren’t there mentally and we need to be more of a team. That will take us to the level that we know we can play at.”

Coach Beliveau was not happy about the outcome either. “I feel we didn’t show up like we did the other games. We had so much preparation and we were getting momentum but then we had a break after

Emily Kyte gets ready to serve. (Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune) our last pre-season game and today it seemed like it took us a while to get into it and build that same momentum,” Beliveau said. “I expected more fight from the team. I hope we will be able to bring more fight to the game tomorrow against Laval.”

The Martlets bounced back on Saturday night by defeating Laval 3-1 (25-22, 15-25, 25-17, 25-22).

They will look to continue their success against Laval on Friday Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at Love Competition Hall.

18

Curiosity Delivers. www.mcgilltribune.com

10 questions with...

Steven Bielby, Redmen Swimmer and Olympic hopeful The Tribune chats with McGill’s top swimmer about training, the Phelps diet, and charity work

The one that they had at the Olympics was the Speedo LAZR and that one was a huge step from the last one. It feels like you’re gliding over the water, so it makes sense that they ban them. It’s definitely not a gimmick.

By Joshua Prizant Contributor The Tribune sat down with star McGill swimmer and London Olympic hopeful Steven Bielby in order to find out what the life of an elite university swimmer consists of.

What is the best perk of swimming for a university team?

I enjoy going and seeing different places. My first year when I qualified for the Canadian university team, we went to Serbia for the World University Games. On training camps we’ve been to Barbados, Hawaii, Florida, and now Aruba. It’s definitely a lot of fun and I really enjoy it.

What’s the day-to-day training of a swimmer like?

As a swimmer you just fall into a routine. We have training on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, [and] Saturday mornings, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights, so that’s nine workouts a week.

How long are these workouts?

They’re two hours each, so 18 hours a week. That includes pool and dry land workouts like the gym, too. It eats up a lot of your free time, which is problematic if you want to hang out with friends and stuff, but I enjoy it.

What kind of experience did you have before university? How is the Canadian high school circuit? Did it prepare you for the university circuit?

There is no Canadian high school circuit. There’s no training, practices, or anything, maybe one or two meets.

Can you see yourself promoting

Bielby has his sights set on London 2012. (Adam Scotti / McGill Tribune) the high school level of the sport?

I think it would be good to build on it, definitely, because in the States it is huge and it would also just get people more involved in sports, in general. It would be something to build on, for sure.

This is your last year at McGill.

How does it feel knowing you’re going to graduate soon?

Pretty good, scary at the same time. I honestly have no idea what I’m doing next year … I looked into a masters program, so hopefully that

Around the water cooler

In case you spent your weekend huddled around a Watercan, here’s what people were talking about around the cooler…

will work out.

What level of swimming do you plan on maintaining after you graduate?

We have Olympic trials coming up this April, so that’s the goal for the immediate future. That’s the main focus for this year. It will be tough, but I like to think I have a decent shot.

Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day to support his training.

Is that a classic training diet or he

BASEBALL — Headline writers everywhere had a field day as David Freese (deep freeze/freeze, frame/freezer burn/etc.) led the St. Louis Cardinals to an astonishing comeback in Game 6 of the World Series. Freese tripled and homered in the 9th and 11th innings, respectively, to help the Cards erase two late two-run deficits and send the series to a deciding seventh game.

St. Louis came out on top in Game 7, defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2.

Freese, born in Corpus Cristi, Texas and raised in St. Louis (seriously, the story writes itself) was named World Series MVP. BASKETBALL — While reports that a deal was close to getting done, the lockout is still going, and the league has cancelled more games. Boring. For those desperate for some hoops action, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Preseason rankings came out this week and the North Carolina Tar Heels are slated as the number one team in the nation. With a number of players, like the Tar Heels’ Harrison Barnes,

just a superhuman?

Maybe if you are in a training camp, training two or three times a day, every day. For training camp when you go 12 times a week, then maybe. But yes, 12,000 calories is absurd, that’s about three times as much as I eat during training.

There was a controversy around the Olympics about the use of wetsuits in competition. Do they actually make that much of a difference?

They make a huge difference.

passing on entering the 2011 draft out of fear of the lockout, this year’s college season should have the most talent we’ve seen in years. If the lockout persists, many people will realize that college basketball before March actually exists. It’s pretty exciting, too.

FOOTBALL — As the NFL divides itself into Super Bowl contenders, Suck for Luck hopefuls and the sad middle-of-the-pack-noplayoffs-but-not-high-enough-pick teams, the CFL heads into the final week of the regular season with tight races across the board. B.C., Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, and Winnipeg all sport identical 10-7 records, meaning that the majority of the league is tied for the best record. This weekend’s games will decide which two teams will get the luxury of a first-round bye, and who will have to slug through an extra playoff game. The hometown Allouettes travel to B.C. and will hope for Winnipeg to lose in Calgary in order to win the right to host the Eastern Final.

McGill swimming Head Coach Peter Carpenter mentioned the charity work the swim teams are doing at the Roddick gates. Tell me something about that.

Yeah, it will be this Tuesday, November 1 at the Roddick Gates.

Our assistant coach, Genevieve Gregoire, was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. She got over that and has a different form of cancer now, so we hope it will be good.

Last year we raised $2,000, so hopefully we will do well again.

For more information on the Cedars Cancer Institute, visit their website at cedars.ca

HOCKEY — Most NHL teams have hit the 10-game mark in their seasons, meaning that many squads have made tough decisions on whether to keep their rookie stars in the NHL or to send them back to their junior teams. The Oilers, off to a Western Conference-leading 7-2-2 start, opted to keep 2011 first overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the big club for the remainder of the season. Nugent-Hopkins leads all rookies with 11 points. The only other rookie on a Canadian team to make the Top 10 is Senators left-winger Colin Greening.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK — “Maybe if I had been wanting for money, it’d be different. But I make a good living. I wasn’t going to keep the country hostage for a ball.” – Dave Huyette, the man who caught David Freese’s game winning home ruan ball in Game 6 of the World Series. Huyette stuffed the ball in his pants but then gave it over to the team to keep.

19

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

mlb season in review

Baseball: 162 games in 140 characters

SCOREBOARD

By Jonathan Rosenbluth Contributor

REDMEN BASKETBALL *Lost 62-57 vs. Laurier *Won 80-75 (OT) vs. UNB *Lost 65-56 @ Ottawa

The MLB season in tweets

AL EAST Yankees: The Bronx Bombers won the division, but were bounced from the playoffs in the ALDS. Cano continues his ascent to stardom. #Jeter3000hits

MARTLET CROSS COUNTRY Finish 1 out of 8 in RSEQ championship REDMEN CROSS COUNTRY Finish 3 out of 8 in RSEQ championship

Rays: Maddon won manager of the

year, as down nine games in September the Rays stormed back and took the wild card. #whoneedsCarlCrawford

MARTLET FIELD HOCKEY Lost 4-2 vs. Western (OUA Quarterfinal) Won 2-1 vs. St. Mary’s (5th place game)

Red Sox: Poor start and a poor finish doomed Boston. Up nine games early in September, the lead vanished. Reports after the season uncover a major clubhouse mess. #beers+popeyechicken+videogam esduringrealgames=majorcollapse #pitchingstaffoutofshape

REDMEN FOOTBALL Lost 58-30 vs. Concordia (Shaughnessy Cup)

ries visit, and still nothing to show for it. The Rangers had a fantastic season despite dissapointing end. #atleasttheMavswon

Orioles: Pitching for the O’s was a major weakness, and will need to be addressed if they plan on being more competitive in the AL East. #Needpitching

Angels: The January trade of Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera for Vernon Wells seemed like a bad decision at the time, and looks even worse now. #worstcontractinbaseball

AL CENTRAL

A’s: The A’s missed the playoffs for

95 wins, the best pitcher in the AL, and a trip to the ALCS. A very successful season for the Tigers, as they look to defend their AL Central title next season. #CyYoung+MVPforVerlander?

Indians: After a surprising red hot

start to the season, the Indians fell back to earth, and finished one game below .500. #2good2betrue

White Sox: Franchise record $127 million payroll didn’t help much as the Sox finished third in the division. Result, press conferences will be less fun next season without Ozzie around. #AceVenturatime Former second overall draft pick Alex Gordon finally put it all together and ended the season with 23 home runs and a .303 average. #ASG2012

Royals:

Twins: Favoured by many to win the division, the Twins were a major disappointment, finishing last in their division. #helpwanted AL WEST Rangers:

Another World Se-

REDMEN HOCKEY Won 3-2 vs. Concordia Won 3-0 @ Ottawa

#CardinalsWinTheWorldSeries. (mlb.com)

Blue Jays: Exciting young talent struggled through growing pains, yet Jays showed great potential in an 81-81 season. #BautistaBombs #LawriefromLangley

Tigers:

(Scores since Oct. 25) *Denotes Exhibition

the fifth straight season. Best OBP on the team was only .332, doesn’t sound like moneyball to me. #couldPitthavehelped

Mariners: It is hard to win games when you can’t score runs. The Mariners scored the fewest runs in baseball this season and their lineup resembled a AAA team. #KingFelixrunsupport NL EAST Four aces in their rotation, and an NLDS exit. Dominating all season doesn’t matter if you can’t win in October. #notsosunnyinphiladephia

Phillies:

Braves: The wild card was seemingly wrapped up early in September, but then the Braves collapsed and blew an 8.5 game lead in 23 days to the Cardinals. #wouldthishavehappenedwithBobbyCox? Dishing out big money in free agency does not necessarily lead to success, as the Nationals finished well out of contention in the division. #strasisback

Nationals:

so friendly to the Mets as they won 43 wins on the road and only 34 at home. #resignreyes?

Marlins: Their last season as the “Florida Marlins” left few memorable moments. Ozzie Guillen will be the skipper next season in their new ballpark. #MiamiMarlins NL CENTRAL Brewers: Braun and Fielder led the charge all season, both posting MVP worthy numbers, and powered the Brew Crew to the NLCS. #Beastmode #Tonyplush Cardinals: The Franchises’ 11th World Series was its most improbable. The “Comeback Cards” defied the odds all season, and won in an incredibly exciting series. #WINNING #goodbyeAlbert?

Pittsburgh: After being above .500 in July, the Pirates returned to their losing ways and finished below that mark for the 17th straight season. #somethingsneverchange Another season, and still no championship. Even with Castro blossoming into one of the best short stops in baseball, the Cubs only won 71 games. #WelcomeTheo #Billygoat

Cubs:

Arizona: A young and exciting ball club, lead by Justin Upton, the DBacks made the playoffs for the first time since 2001, but came up short in the NLCS. #excitingfuture Even with a brilliant pitching staff, the defending World Series champs did not return to the playoffs due to an anemic lineup. #‘Vogelstrong’ #pandaisback!

Giants:

Dodgers: Divorce proceedings provided major distraction as the Dodgers won only 82 games. Matt Kemp has an MVP caliber season in an overall losing cause. #focusonthefield Rockies: Tulowitzki had a monster season, but ace Jimenez got shipped off after the Rockies were out of contention. #Rocktoberfestwillhavetowait Padres: It’s hard to compete when

the team leader in home runs only goes deep 11 times. #MissingAdrian

GENERAL TWEETS The most exciting World Series since 2001. If you didn’t see Game 6, you missed one of the most exciting games ever. #FreeseMVP

World Series:

Astros: By far the fewest wins in Free Agents: baseball (56). The Astros need to make major changes if they hope to compete in the years to come. #epicfail

Mets: That new ballpark just isn’t NL WEST

Pujols, Fielder, and maybe even CC. The Free agent crop is destined to dominate the sports page this offseason. #PujolstotheCubs?

MARTLET HOCKEY Lost 3-2 vs. Montreal Won 3-0 @ Carleton REDMEN RUGBY Won 45-5 vs. Sherbrooke (Quebec Semifinal) REDMEN SOCCER Tied 0-0 @ Montreal Won 2-1 @ Concordia MARTLET SOCCER Tied 0-0 @ Montreal Won 3-0 @ Concordia MARTLET VOLLEYBALL Lost 0-3 vs. Montreal Won 3-1 @ Laval

write for sports email sports@ mcgilltribune. com or come to meetings wednesday @ 6 in Shatner 110

hallo ween for hunge r Photos by Ryan reisert

In the last week, over 100 young people participated in a Free the Children campaign called Halloween for Hunger organized by the Montreal Mobilizers (MOB) and the McGill Free the Children group. With the goal of collecting canned goods instead of candy for local homeless shelters, Mobilizers, McGillians, and their friends went door to door asking for donations while raising awareness about the problem of homelessness in Montreal.

Halloween for Hunger is only one of several events hosted by the MOB throughout the year. The MOB is a group of 30 youth dedicated to making the world a better place and empowering others to do the same. Tired of hearing “we are the future of the country” and “we will make a change,” the Mobilizers attempt to show that youth can make a difference right now, just by putting their

passions into action. The MOB’s next event will be the Vow of Silence, a silent demonstration raising awareness for children’s rights taking place in St. Phillips Square of Nov. 20 from 1-2 pm.

For more information concerning the Montreal MOB, the McGill Free the Children group or upcoming campaigns, please contact montreal.mobilizers@gmail.com, or follow them on Twitter- @MtlMobilizers Robin Ivory Montreal MOB Leader