Volume 99, Issue 3
September 10, 2009
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Eating cheap in Montreal Mind & Body 7 Culture 14
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After years on the bench...
The Daily is stepping back up to the plate Once upon a time in 1911, The McGill Daily began as a sports rag. According to legend, sometime in the eighties the editorial board decided they were too cool for sports. They were wrong. Buy us some peanuts and differential power relations. This Monday, The Daily is getting a sports section. Game on.
News
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
3
La Presse threatens to go out of print Newspaper hemorrhaging as recession squeezes ad revenues Niko Block
The McGill Daily
M
anagement at Montreal’s largest broadsheet French newspaper has announced that it will go out of print unless its workers accept a new contract by December 1. La Presse’s unionized workers issued a public statement “deploring” the publisher’s hard-line tactics after the announcement was made on September 3, but the two sides have since commenced negotiations toward a new contract which Gesca Ltée – the paper’s parent corpoation – hopes will be $13-million less than the current one. Like dozens of other daily newspapers across North America squeezed by declining ad revenues amid the current recession, La Presse has sought to cut its costs wherever possible. After announcing last June that the paper will be running a deficit of over $200-million by 2013 unless it radically restructures, management has
sought to decrease its expenses by $26-million annually. Having already decreased the physical size of the newspaper and discontinued its Sunday edition, Guy Crevier, the president of Gesca Ltée, is demanding that the remaining cuts must come from the unions – namely, that the 600 unionized employees there start to work five days a week, as opposed to four, and accept a six per cent cut in pay. In a press release issued last Friday, La Presse announced that while negotiations are ongoing, representatives of Gesca Ltée and La Presse’s unions would not make comments to the media. In recent months, labour relations have deteriorated much more dramatically at one of La Presse’s rival publications, the daily tabloid Le Journal de Montréal. After the contract of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l’information du Journal de Montréal (STIJM) expired on December 31, the union and management were unable to agree upon a new contract, and the STIJM’s 253 employees have been locked out
“[Management] is asking us to make concessions that really are not in proportion with the actual crisis and the way it’s affecting our paper” Pascal Filotto Secretary General of STIJM
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
ever since. Pascal Filotto, the Secretary General of the STIJM, said that the problems workers at the La Presse currently face are similar to those of his own union. “We thought that we had offered them a lot of concessions, but they really haven’t budged much from their initial position,” he said. “They want to essentially outsource accounting, and a lot of the classified ads workers they want to get rid of. That’s more than a third of our membership.” Filotto added that negotiations at La Presse are likely to fare better than they have at Le Journal because Gesca will be forced to dis-
close its financial accounts during the course of its discussions with the union. Le Journal’s parent company, Quebecor, on the other hand, has kept its numbers hidden. “If you have real numbers then you can talk seriously,” Filotto said. “[Management] is asking us to make concessions that really are not in proportion with the actual crisis and the way it’s affecting our paper.” STIJM’s previous contract included stipulations designed to keep corporate interference out of the newsroom. Filotto said that the union intends to maintain such agreements in its next contract, despite management’s intentions to omit them.
The Montreal Gazette, Montreal’s most popular English daily, also switched to a smaller-sized paper last spring as a result of the financial pressures it has been facing. Gazette columnist Henry Aubin stated that workers at his paper have “backed off from pressure tactics” as the financial problems facing the paper, and its parent corporation CanWest Global, have come to light. “I think everyone’s going to have to reduce their expectations. French news has had four-day papers, and I think it’s very naive to think that’s going to continue,” said Aubin, adding that workers at La Presse typically make more than those at The Gazette.
$750-million Griffintown development goes forward Plan made with consultation of community groups Erin Hale
The McGill Daily
T
he historic Canada Post distribution centre, located on the border between Little Burgundy and Griffintown, will be dismantled this coming year. The City has approved a $750-million project to disassemble the building and construct 2,000 low-rise residential units and 30,000 square feet of commercial space. The development, known as Les Bassins du Nouveau Havre, is one of five projects intended to rehabilitate Montreal’s harbour front by the Canada Lands Company – a selffinancing crown corporation that redevelops government properties. Development schemes have not always been well received by local residents and community groups in the working-class neighbourhoods of the greater Southwest borough.
Community groups have fought large development projects in the past, such as the plan presented by Devimco – a Quebec based commercial developer – which would have levelled much of Griffintown in favour of a massive suburbanstyle project. In contrast, the Les Bassins project has received approval from three major community stakeholders: le Regroupement economique et sociale du Sud-Ouest (RESO), Batir son quartier, and the Little Burgundy Coalition. The project has incorporated many of the requests made by the three groups in 2005 – notably in regard to job stimulation and the provision of social housing. Vincent Perez, the coordinator of the Little Burgundy Coalition, said, “We’ve had lots of meetings with Canada Lands to keep the project close to our principle objectives. The project in this moment is good for us because it’s been what
we expected. We’ve received almost everything we asked.” Around 400 units have been earmarked as cooperatives for lowincome residents and 200 units have been set aside as private, affordable housing. Canada Lands has also estimated that 94 per cent of the Canada Post building’s materials can be “reused, recycled, or recovered” for use in the new project, or sold off for use by other companies. AJ Kandy, whose blog, Save Griffintown, tracked much of the Devimco controversy, pointed out some of the positive long-term aspects of the project. “I would say that while I initially had some reservations, it appears that this project has been very sensitively designed. The proposed building heights don’t conflict with the three-storey neighbourhoods around…and it provides a decent amount of residential density,” wrote Kandy in an email to The
Daily. “This is important because you need a certain amount of density to support locally-owned shops and services, so I see it as a general economic boost to the area – as well as a blow against sprawl suburbs and chain-store malls,” he added. Basil Cavis, the General Manager of Real Estate (Quebec) for Canada Lands, said his company spent a year in consultation with community groups before the initial plan was drafted. “In 2007, we started the process of consulting with community stakeholders – chambers of commerce, elected officials, neighbours around the site. We set up a special committee. RESO, a group to stimulate job creation, was on the committee. Bartir Son Quartier put together a plan for public housing,” said Cavis. “We had a vision project in May 2008, and got 100 or so [individuals] to provide comments – and
used that mostly to plan at the end of the summer in 2008.” The entire development is projected to take 12 years, with the initial deconstruction lasting a year. No architectural plans have been revealed yet, as the task will be outsourced to independent firms. When asked if Canada Lands was concerned with undergoing a huge project in the middle of a recession, Cavis remained confident. “We’ve already invested $18-million to buy, and it will cost us $1-million a year to maintain. Not doing anything is very expensive,” Cavis said. “The project is being done over 12 years. The economy will get stronger. But the Montreal real estate market has really held its own.” Cavis added that Canada Lands would continue to receive income from other projects to fund the postal site initiative.
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News
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
5
Activists run to save Quebec river Province says hydro project will create jobs, green energy Pamela Fillion
The McGill Daily
A
lliance Romaine, a local environmental activist group, is launching an ambitious marathon campaign to demand protected status for the Romaine River, and a reform of the province’s energy policy. Starting this week, a team of 30 volunteer athletes will run relays from James Bay to the Lower North Shore, ending the run at the Romaine River – the site of a proposed $7-billion, 1,550-megawatt hydroelectric complex approved to be constructed by Hydro-Québec. The marathoners will run 2000-kilometres over five weeks, visiting communities across the province to raise awareness about continued development on Quebec’s rivers. Since 1960, 14 of Quebec’s 17 largest rivers, including the St. Lawrence, have been dammed or altered by hydroelectric projects – with the power used in the province of Quebec or exported to Ontario and the U.S. Fran Bristow, a representative of Alliance Romaine, stated that too
NEWS BRIEFS McGill Appoints New Ombudsperson The Board of Governors has appointed Professor Spencer Boudreau as McGill’s newest Ombudsperson for Students. Boudreau had previously been a professor in the Department of Education for the past 20 years. The Office of the Ombudsperson provides members of the McGill community – students, faculty, and the administration – with an independent, confidential, and informal venue for resolving disputes by mediation. While the Ombudsperson for
many of Quebec’s major rivers have been altered and that the development on rivers – and the Romaine River in particular – will have severe ecological and environmental ramifications. The organization has demanded a halt to the hydroelectric project and protected status for the full length of the Romaine River. The group is also calling for good-faith land title negotiations with First Nations peoples, the adoption of a conservation-based energy strategy that supports small-scale renewable energy, and an end to energy subsidies for big business. “The marathon is a chance for us to help [publicize] our demands,” said Bristow. “ It is a chance to highlight these demands and also to talk to people in the communities affected [and] to hear the demands that they have.” In a press release issued in May, Hydro Québec stated that the project would “encourage the establishment of businesses and maximize job creation through various special training programs.” Hydro-Québec claims that it has provided host communities with environmental impact studies since 2004, and that it will conduct exten-
sive environmental follow-up with the participation of local Innu communities until 2040. Alliance Romaine has received little recognition from the provincial government to date, although Briscow says that Québec Solidaire has been supportive of their efforts. The organization is not alone in its opposition to the hydro-electric development project. The Sierra Club of Quebec and Fondation Rivières have also criticized the environmental impact of the Romaine Project. In addition to the four dams, the project will involve the construction of 500 culverts and 27 kilometres of new roads, which may in turn provide forestry and mining companies with access to the region. The Innu community of Uashat Mani-Utenam near Sept îles has also petitioned for an injunction against the hydro-electric project. Although Hydro-Québec has signed agreements with some Innu communities, the Innu of Uashat Mani-Utenam are opposed to the project, especially the placement of transmission lines, which threaten to damage their traditional territory.
Students does not advocate on behalf of students necessarily, the Office ensures students that their Universityrelated problems are addressed in a fair and objective manner. McGill has been without an ombudsperson since August 2008, when Norman Miller’s term expired. Associate Dean of Students Linda Jacobs Starky was named as interim ombudsperson following Miller’s departure, which raised concerns of a possible conflict of interest given her other position in the administration. Boudreau has worked closely on issues that affect student life, serving as a Director of the Office of Student Teaching, Chair of the University Grievance Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Student Affairs. His appointment to the position of Ombudsperson came into effect as of September 1.
Parti Québécois Offers Free Membership to Students
— Humera Jabir
In an effort to expand its support among young people, the Parti Québécois (PQ) announced last week that it would start offering free memberships to students. The move was announced as part of a broader campaign that includes bringing PQ Members of the National Assembly to speak at CEGEPs, and a new web site for the party’s youth wing, the Comité national des jeunes du Parti Québécois (CNJPQ). “It was an idea to encourage students to involve themselves in politics in general, and especially in the PQ, because a lot of them don’t know very much about the PQ,” said Gabrielle Lemieux, the Vice-President of Communications of the CNJPQ. Selling $5 party memberships on CEGEP and university campuses
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
was often banned by student unions or administrations, and the party hopes that by removing the membership fee it will be able to bypass such restrictions. “We have noticed that student unions are a little bit cold to the idea of letting members of [CNJPQ] go on campus to solicit students,” said Lemieux. “I think it’s too bad that it’s like that these days; political parties used to be very present on campuses.” —Niko Block
Grad Students Petition to Leave CFS A petition is underway asking graduate students if they wish to hold a referendum on whether their student union, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS), should remain a member of the Canadian
CONTRIBUTORS
Federation of Students (CFS) – the largest student organization in Canada. “My understanding is this is part of a growing dissatisfaction with CFS for the better part of the last decade,” said PGSS President Daniel Simeone. “A large number of students don’t see it as an effective organization, but as a marketing tool. The CFS has been used to push students towards particular health care plans, or engage [them] in commercial activities.” Simeone also pointed to a scandal that erupted last year when $150,000 was discovered missing during an audit of the CFS’s Quebec branch. Ten per cent of the postgrad student body – roughly 760 people – will have to sign the petition for the question to be brought to a referendum. —Erin Hale
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6 News
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
Montreal’s dirty deeds The Daily discusses City Hall corruption with the legendary judge John Gomery Born and raised in Montreal, John Gomery graduated from the McGill Faculty of Law in 1956. After working as an attorney for 25 years, Gomery was appointed to the Superior Court of Quebec, then rose to national prominence in 2004 when he led the federal government’s inquiry into the notorious sponsorship scandal of the late nineties. Last month, Gomery announced that he would manage fundraising for the fledgling third party of municipal politics, Projet Montréal. McGill Daily: What was the historic significance of the sponsorship scandal in Montreal politics, and what was your involvement in it? John Gomery: The national government had chosen to initiate a program whereby money was made available to community groups at various times, to enhance the visibility of the federal government in Quebec. They had been shocked by the closeness of the 1995 referendum. The problem was that the program was a well-kept secret and administered in a very unusual way. It got out of control rather rapidly. There were a series of scandals that came to light only several years later …[relating to] this money being used to enhance the image of the Liberal Party rather than the image of the federal government in Canada. The Auditor General, Sheila Frazier, initiated an inquiry…[and] the prime minister of the day – Paul Martin – chose to take a number of initiatives, named a commission of inquiry, and probed more deeply into what exactly had happened. That was the public inquiry I headed. The Liberal Party was defeated in a motion of no confidence in
Parliament, and there was a federal election that threw the Liberal Party out of office. A lot of people think the main reason the Conservatives won the election was because of the sponsorship scandal. MD: What are some more contemporary examples of corruption in Montreal? JG: Looking back on recent years, there have been some scandals surrounding the current administration. For example, there’s the famous water meter contract scandal. The City decided that from now on, users of water for commercial use would have to pay some sort of tax. In order to have that tax, you have to have meters. The City had to enter into a contract to install [them], and it was apparently one of the largest contracts – awarded for the sum of $300 million. People started to ask questions because other cities had contracts at a lower cost per meter. [It turns out] Frank Zampino, chairman of the City’s Executive Committee, the inner circle of municipal government, had a close relationship with the individual who was most closely associated with the consortium of companies that got that contract. MD: Projet Montréal is seen as
having a moral edge. What has its role been in battling corruption? JG: Projet Montréal is a municipal political party, and its main focus has [actually] been environmental issues such as urban transit and anti-pollution measures. But it has never elected a mayor, and is really thought of as the third party. I would call it a highly idealistic party. One of the things that concerns it is election funds and financing, which is an area I became identified with as a result of the inquiry. The party announced certain measures that would have an effect in eliminating interested political contributions. That was one of the reasons why I decided to get involved in politics. MD: What are some other problematic trends you’ve seen in Montreal? JG: I think another issue is the whole structure of our municipal government: it’s complicated. This is a result of the merger of various municipalities a few years ago, which many municipalities and citizens viciously opposed, so much so that the provincial government came in and passed a law allowing the municipalities to demerge. Those mergers were annulled but the conditions under which they were annulled left them with a very strange form of municipal government. There are so many different levels of government, and decisionmaking is extremely complicated. I think the effect of that has been to concentrate an abnormal degree of authority on the executive committee and the office of the mayor. MD: I read in the Gazette that you’ve “never been so discouraged by Montreal.” Can you explain? JG: I’ve lived in Montreal all my life. I’m sad at the present time because I think the city is viciously
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
in a bad state. Things like road and infrastructure repairs seem to take forever to be dealt with. The state of streets and roads are pathetic – like the third world. There’s a certain apathy that affects the population. I’m old enough to remember the days of Expo 67 – remember when people were excited to be in the City. We had Major League Baseball, the Olympics. We were an exciting city. I don’t think Montreal is looked at the same as it was, either from without or within. MD: What have you noticed about the passivity and apathy seen in Montreal’s citizens? JG: Projet Montréal has a pro-
gram that would encourage citizens to live in city. One of the phenomena we see in Montreal is that people seem very anxious to leave the city, and after the work day or weekend to go to the suburbs or country. They’re less and less inclined to stay in their home city. I think that’s a sign of a certain malaise. I don’t think the city is a welcoming place for people to live. There’s not nearly enough attention paid to parks and activities in the city. That’s part of the program of Projet Montréal, to make the city a more livable, enjoyable place. – Compiled by Erin Hale
STM bus drivers fight bike lane Want to write City and provincial government stall infrastructure changes for news? Come to news meetings every Monday at 4:30 Shatner B-24
Sam Neylon
The McGill Daily
S
ociété de transport de Montréal (STM) bus drivers worried about the high probability of accidents on the St. Urbain bike lane are pressuring the City to move the path to the east side of the road. A 1,183-signature petition from the bus drivers’ union, the Syndicat des chauffeurs d’autobus de la Société de transport de Montréal (SCFP 1983), was first sent in late August to the Commission de la santé et de la securité du travail (CSST) – the province’s workplace and safety board. After the CSST
rejected it, the City told the union to discuss the changes with STM last Friday. It will be the first of many meetings to decide the fate of the lane in a process that promises to be long and drawn-out. Tom Moutheros, Anglophone spokesperson for SCFP 1983 explained that the bus drivers are simply worried about a dangerous situation. “We just want to prevent an accident – it’s a very badly made intersection,” Moutheros said. “A bus driver goes into shock once this happens – and who gets the brunt of this deal? It’s going to be the cyclist who might hit a car or a bus.” The CSST rejected the petition
after stating that their mandate was to protect the bus drivers – not those outside the bus. “Even the employees of the CSST agreed with us. But it’s a matter of politics, as you know, the mayor’s going into election [this year],” Moutheros said. “Honestly, I think with an election coming, it’s a hot potato for [Mayor Tremblay]; he’s not going to take it right now. He’s going to take a look at it after the election. If an accident happens in the meantime, I just feel sorry for the cyclist and the bus driver.” Chris Erb, a contributor to the urban blog Spacing Montreal, which has followed issues such as
municipal transportation, explained that any changes the City wishes to make would be long-coming. “If any kind of change has to be made, it can’t be done overnight. Any sort of major change in government services has to go through a whole series of impact studies and consultation,” Erb said. “There’s a lot of focus on building these bike lanes – and they are building them – but they aren’t doing enough to see how well the bike lanes do after they are built, and making needed changes. I think its ‘greenwashing.’” STM Chief Michel Labrecque was not available for comment by press time.
Mind & Body
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
7
Time to reconnect with your food The McGill Farmers’ Market builds ties among campus groups, links to larger community Braden Goyette
The McGill Daily
T
he McGill Farmers’ Market is back for a second year – and it’s bringing students in contact with fresh food and the people who grow it every Tuesday into late October. “As students especially, with budgetary and time constraints, we tend to be extremely disconnected from our food source,” explained Sarah Bleiwas, U3 Philosophy and co-coordinator of this year’s expanded edition of the Farmers’ Market. But with this Market so accessible in [Three Bares Park],” she added, a number of different McGill and community groups are bringing the question of where your food comes from right to you. Representatives from farms within around 60 miles of Montreal were present at the Market’s opening this week, with offerings ranging from organic garlic to zucchini bread to local crafts. Ferme Machabée, offering organic produce from southwest of Montreal, was one of two food providers returning from last year’s Market, along with McGill’s Organic Campus. “When you go into a supermarket, there’s all this uncertainty about the conditions everything was produced under – in terms of the treatment of the workers, the treatment of the soil,” said Max Halparin, U3 Geography and Market co-coordinator. “The point of the Market is to remove that doubt in your shopping, and for you to know that you can talk to the people growing it if you
do have doubts.” Halparin, a former Daily editor and current chairman of the Daily Publications Society, used his geography background to create a Google map of the farms participating and their proximity to Montreal. Full disclosure: the event has quite a few Daily connections, this reporter included – I originally showed up as a favour to Halparin, intending to move tables around, and ended up making a classroom announcement to some 200-odd people in Leacock 123 before a couple of last-minute decisions landed me covering the event. Conflicts of interest notwithstanding, there is good reason for the overlap. This year’s Market comes out of a convergence of numerous groups around campus who’ve been working toward related goals – including bodies within the McGill administration. The project originally came out of the spring 2008 Rethink conference, when the brainstorming sessions revealed that, in discussions about concrete, immediate ways to advance on sustainability, a lot comes down to the way we eat. It’s something concrete and positive that everyone can get behind – in short, everyone loves a farmers’ market. The project met with support from McGill Food and Dining Services, the Green Fund, and the William and Mary Brown Fund, as well as from SSMU. Student groups like Midnight Kitchen (MK) and Gorilla Composting also have a hand in things, with MK serving on Market days, and Gorilla Composting planning to give one of the upcoming
Miranda Whist for The McGill Daily
interactive workshops planned for each week. The McGill Food Systems Project, a collaboration between students, Food Services, and the McGill Office of Sustainability, held a presentation and film screening after the close of the opening day introducing their activities. The vendors’ passion was also palpable on Tuesday, as a bee-keeper from Le Mouton à 5 Pattes – producers of organic honey from Howick, Quebec – explained how they make their honey without exposure to pesticides or use of artificial heating during the extraction and filtration processes. Minda Forcier, a Native
woman who runs a small business called Anokian Nature, started her company in part to pass her knowledge of making soaps and creams with local ingredients down to her children. And Philippe Nieuwenhof of Ferme Biophile, specializing in artisanal flours and grains, is a former McGill engineering student, who left to take on the family farm. There are, of course, ongoing questions about organic food and the concept of eating locally in general – whether organic produce is actually more nutritious, for instance, or whether farmers’market-type schemes are viable on
a larger scale. Bleiwas emphasized the importance of carrying out these debates, and expects them to continue in the workshops. The coordinators plan to bring in a nutritionist, and would like to set up a box where students can submit any nutritional questions they might have. They also hoped to see the Market expand and develop in coming years. “Maybe in five years,” Bleiwas added, “the goal will be for students to buy their groceries here.” See mcgillfarmersmarket.blogspot. com for more information.
Cheap, plentiful, and healthy: delicious meals for the thrifty student pan. In the meantime, prepare the vegetable stock in the largest pot you have.
The budget bon vivant Justin Scherer 1. Afro Stew: This is my adaptation of an “African stew” recipe. I don’t know if there is anything particularly African about it, but I do know that it can feed a ton of people, is delicious, relatively inexpensive, vegetarian, and nutritious. I made this so often last year that my roommates named our wireless Internet network “Afro Stew.” Ingredients: Chopped ginger, onion, 6-8 cups of vegetable stock, yams (the more the better), 1 can undrained chickpeas, 1 cup brown rice, some garlic, 1/4 cup peanut butter, chopped kale, a squirt of lemon juice, lots of ground black pepper, hot pepper rings (and juice if you have it), 1 tbsp. soy sauce, celery, and hot sauce to taste. Method: Saute ginger, onion, and garlic in a wok or large
Add the peanut butter, lemon juice, black pepper, hot sauce, and optional hot pepper juice to the pot. Add yams and brown rice. Simmer the pot for about five minutes before adding the sauteed veggies. Simmer the whole shabang until the yams and rice are cooked. Add the chickpeas and kale a few minutes before serving to give the kale time to wilt and the chickpeas time to heat up. The stew should be thick and not too watery. If there isn’t enough liquid to cover the ingredients, add a bit of water. For the carnivores, you can add chicken breast slices or cubes to the sauté at the beginning. Just make sure the chicken is no longer pink in the middle before you add it to the pot. You can adjust the amount of any ingredient according to taste, but the trick to a perfect Afro Stew is to balance the very strong flavours of all the ingredients so that nothing overpowers the others. This recipe is a lot of fun to play around with.
2. Mom’s Cucumber Salad: This is a staple at the dinner table back home. My mom made it all the time, and now, I do the same. I’ve changed the recipe a bit, but she’d probably still kill me if she found out I was giving it away. It is awesome for lunches and as a side dish for dinner. Ingredients: The largest cucumber you can find, 2 plum tomatoes, 1 green or red pepper, 1 smallish red onion, 1 small can drained chickpeas, (1/2 block of very firm tofu if you’re into that sort of thing), olive oil, mustard (preferably dijon mustard or whole seed mustard), apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, and dill or parsley if you have it. Method: Slice cucumber, optional tofu, onion, tomato, green or red pepper and add to a large salad bowl. Drain chickpeas and add them to the bowl. In a separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup oil. Add a squirt of mustard, a pinch of sugar, dill, and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix the dressing thoroughly and add to the veggies. Mix it all up and serve. Again, how much of each vegetable you want depends on taste, but I would warn you that onion has a tendency to overpower anything it touches, so use less of it than the other ingredients. This salad should easily keep for a few days in the fridge. The budget bon vivant will appear every other week.
8 Commentary
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
COMMENT
Whose culture is it? Taking on the myth that Quebec’s culture belongs to a select few William M. Burton
L
ast week I wrote about a popular strategy that politicians employ to scare up votes: invoking the spectre of English contamination. This week I’d like to dissect another ploy, used by the media to sell papers – fear mongering about foreigners. Which is to say, xenophobia. Let’s go back to September 3 and read La Presse’s headline: “ALLOPHONES MAJORITAIRES,” written in huge, alarmist print. “Mais où sont passés les francophones?” it continued. Inside the issue were statistics that told of the decline of first-language francophones in public schools on the island of Montreal, the increase in foreign students coming to the city, and a list of the island’s most multiethnic schools – hotbeds, I assume, of cultural dilution. (It should be noted: “foreign” is defined by La Presse as “coming from anywhere outside of Quebec.”) But this twopage spread wouldn’t be complete without a photo of a hijab-clad mother with two daughters, one of whom is – horrors! – also wearing a hijab. They don’t dress like us, and they don’t speak our language at home. Save us! In its details, the coverage is
less worrisome than at first glance. Tucked away in a corner of the spread is a tiny article pointing out that more and more allophones – the term refers to those whose first language is neither English nor French – attend French-language schools. There’s even a column, conveniently located on the following page, about how children don’t pay attention to ethnicity. But this wishful thinking doesn’t outweigh the headlines, layout, statistics, visuals, and interviews. The overarching effect of the coverage in La Presse is to fan the flames of a very old fear: that Montreal’s cultural syncretism will dilute, if not destroy, the culture of French Canada. Now, I understand and support the push for the protection of endangered languages and cultures, like revival movements in Scotland or Catalonia or in indigenous communities all over North America. In these cases, it’s clear that one group has been dominated by another and needs safeguards. And indeed, French culture in this country has historically been subjugated by English Canada, thus the need for Bill 101 and similar legislation. It is an absurdity, however, to think that non-francophone immigrant communities in Montreal could endanger the French language in this province, or change the dominant
culture from French-speaking to something else. They simply do not have the demographic weight. In the end, though, the language issue is a red herring. Most migrant languages are replaced within two to three generations by the majority language of the arrival country. This nervousness about language is the surface representation of a latent anxiety about the culture of Quebec. Who owns this province’s culture? The real fear is not that allophones will outnumber francophones, but that allophones will not assimilate into French-Canadian culture. According to an article published in Le Devoir this summer, 60 per cent of francophone Quebeckers think that immigrants should abandon their customs and traditions and become more like the majority of people in this province. Forty per cent of all Quebeckers, regardless of native tongue, believe Quebecois society is threatened by the arrival of non-Christian migrants. These attitudes, the media coverage of demographic changes, and the rhetoric of politicians like Nicolas Montmorency, whose actions were discussed in a comment piece last week entitled “Mean Streets” – all point to a fear that the “other” will dictate Quebec’s cultural destiny. The kind of worried discourse that permeates Quebec’s provincial
Justin Long / The McGill Daily
conversation about immigration presupposes that one’s culture has its foundation in issues like modes of dress or religious heritage, and ignores the fact that cultures are constantly changing. The members of a culture can change it as they see fit, regardless of their religion or ethnic origin, or linguistic heritage. The culture of this province is made in Gaspé and in Kahnawake, in Westmount and in Montreal
North, and it’s made by French Canadians and English Canadians, Pakistanis, Haitians, and everyone in between. Culture is the common possession of all Quebeckers, not just the people that first colonized this country. William M. Burton is The Daily’s Commentary & Compendium! editor. He’s also a U3 Honours student in Lettres et traduction françaises.
HYDE PARK
Free tuition doesn’t free working students Peter Hurley
T
he price of attending McGill for a Quebec resident is about $3,500 a year for tuition and fees. But that doesn’t come close to accounting for the full economic cost of university education. This larger cost is the reason why decreased, or even free tuition, is unlikely to make universities much more accessible to students from low-income families. Apart from tuition, the two greatest financial obstacles most students incur are establishing a new household, and most importantly, forgoing three or four years of fulltime income in favour of studying. Getting a Bachelor’s Degree usually makes long-term economic sense, as most people earn substantially more with a degree than without. But for those students coming from backgrounds of lesser means, giving up years of income is often difficult to impossible, regardless of what tuition costs. Even working a low-paying hourly job for a year could cover annual tuition at McGill three or four times over. Giving up that
potential income is very hard to do if you lack the resources to support yourself. Wealthier families tend to have a range of resources available to finance education, from cash savings to assets that can be used as collateral for loans, and the ability of high-income parents to co-sign student loans. The median Canadian family in which the breadwinner holds a university diploma or higher has about $168,000 more in assets than the median family in which the breadwinner has just a high school degree. Those resources make it much easier to support a student through a postsecondary education. The issue of access to a university education is distinct from the issue of tuition. Limiting the debate to tuition tends to benefit those students who can afford the full cost of university education without assistance. If everyone’s tuition is free, low-income students will still face the immense barriers of potential lost income and housing costs, and students who would have been easily able to pay high tuition for the massive benefits a McGill degree confers will have gained an unneeded taxpayer subsidy. “Free” education has the potential to be a
windfall for the wealthiest among us at the cost of taxpayers, including working-class taxpayers, whose children still won’t have an equal chance to attend university. A more sensible approach would impose higher baseline tuition, such as the rate charged to international students, provide transparent discounts and bursaries based on demonstrated need, and include cost-of-living subsidies for the neediest students. This isn’t an untried system, either - in the United States, Harvard charges an incredible sum, $37,012 U.S., for basic tuition and fees. But that amount is cut drastically based on student need: anyone coming from a family earning less than $180,000 is charged about 10 per cent of income, and anyone from a family earning less than $60,000 per year is not expected to pay any tuition and is entitled to free room and board. This system provides opportunities to students who need them, without subsidizing the education of the wealthy. It’s a model McGill should follow. Peter Hurley is a U3 Philosophy student and The Daily’s former Web Editor. Write him at peter.hurley@ mail.mcgill.ca.
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Commentary
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
9
HYDE PARK
Let’s celebrate real Labour Day Andreas Mertens
O
nly Canada, the U.S., and Bermuda celebrate Labour Day on the first Monday of September. New and confused international students may be more familiar with International Worker’s Day, or May Day, which is celebrated by the majority of the world on the first of May. While this sort of behaviour could be expected from the U.S.’s rebel self, some might wonder how Canada got dragged into this one. Labour Day actually joins the Canadarm, IMAX technology, and fantastically childish comedians as a Canadian export. It has its origins in an 1872 labour conflict between
a convenient way to take attention away from May Day, which was both communist and embarrassing. The day was chosen at the Second International, an 1889 gathering of socialist and labour parties, and celebrates the international struggle for an eight-hour work day. It commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Affair. During a three-day general strike in Chicago, a protester threw a bomb at the police. The police responded with brutal force. The incident was then used to convict eight union members for their political beliefs rather than direct connections to the bomber. Four of the eight were hanged. Since then, America has continued to struggle against May Day and its socialist roots. After World War
Creating Labour Day was also a convenient way to take attention away from May Day, which was both communist and embarrassing Andrea Zhu for The McGill Daily
HYDE PARK
Engineering Frosh is sexist Sarah Mortimer
O
n their way to Upper Campus to launch their own makeshift rockets, a crowd of new male and female engineering students could be heard singing this traditional drinking song several yards from where they marched: “I used to work in Chicago, in a department store/I used to work in Chicago. I did, but I don’t anymore….” This song, born from male tavern culture and known for its sexually aggressive lyrics, continued with the following variation in 1945, when it was first printed: “A lady came in and asked for a hat/I asked her what kind she’d adore/Felt she said, so felt ‘er I did/I did but I don’t anymore.” Nearly 65 years later, variations of the song, which I first heard at McGill Engineering Frosh, express increasingly violent intent toward women. The new lyrics make light of serious offences like rape (“A lady asked me for a rooster/Rooster she wanted?/My cock she got!”), and forcible AIDS transmission (“A lady came in for some help/Some help from the store?/Help she wanted, AIDS she got!”). The song’s violent content is already enough to make many McGill students uncomfortable, but there’s worse: misogyny. Besides aligning McGill with the degrading, anti-women views represented in “I Used to
Work in Chicago,” the Faculty of Engineering’s celebration of the song during Frosh reconfirms the idea that within the field of engineering, the male voice dominates. As one fourth-year female computer engineering student points out, girls who have decided to study engineering at the university level may already be insecure about their minority status. Last year, when Mia Hochar interviewed prospective female McGill engineers, she found that many had been discouraged by teachers from entering the field, and that many still thought of engineering as being more compatible with traditionally male traits like aggression and strength. Frosh rituals in the Faculty of Engineering have the potential to worsen these women’s insecurities. The Faculty of Engineering introduces itself to its female students as a straight man’s club in which the way to acceptance requires a woman to sacrifice certain feminist values to the ways of the dominant group. At once the victims of the obscene violence in this song and eager to fit in with their male peers, new female engineering students are likely to find themselves in what Marilyn Frye describes as oppression’s “double bind.” In her article “Oppression,” Frye describes the “double bind” as “situations in which options are reduced to a very few and all of them expose one to penalty, censure, or deprivation.” As an example she writes,
“It is often a requirement upon oppressed people that we smile and be cheerful. If we comply, we signal our docility and our acquiescence in our situation. We participate in our own erasure…. We acquiesce in being made invisible, in our occupying no space…. Anything but the sunniest countenance exposes us to being perceived as mean, bitter, angry or dangerous….” Female engineering students are put in the double bind when they have to choose between protesting the song and appearing shrill, or participating in the devaluation of their gender in an effort to be like “one of the boys.” Many of the female engineers I interviewed for this article were quick to defend “I Used to Work in Chicago” by explaining that girls sing along to it during Frosh and sometimes make up rebuttal lyrics. The argument these interviewees put forth is that if girls participate in the misogynist ritual themselves, they are equally empowered. Yet, as Marilyn Frye would say, “smiling” and singing along is no demonstration of freedom from oppression. The fact remains: this brutal song, as a Frosh ritual, sets the terms for a woman’s entrance into a male-dominated field, and uses her desire for equality as its ammunition. Sarah Mortimer is a U3 History and Cultural Studies student. Write her at sarah.mortimer@mail.mcgill.ca.
the Toronto Typographical Union and the Globe newspaper (precursor to the Globe and Mail). The union demanded a 58 hour work week and the Globe didn’t care for their tone. After the police arrested 24 of the union’s leaders, several unions staged a protest in Ottawa on the first Monday in September. This prompted Prime Minister Macdonald’s promise to repeal antiunion laws. The next summer, the laws were repealed and the typesetters got their demands and lived happily, or at least happier. With the help of union leaders, some of whom had organized the protests in Ottawa, the first American labour parade was held in New York on a similarly placed Monday in 1882. Twelve years later, President Cleveland’s moustache fluttered as he declared that the first Monday of September would be Labor Day. The same year, Canada’s prime minister, Thompson, did something very similar, but without the moustache and with a u after the o. Creating Labour Day was also
Two, President Eisenhower even chose May 1 to celebrate Loyalty Day. Nearly every president since, including the past five, has officially recognized this day. While American labour organizations are having something of a renaissance, both the Employee Free Choice Act and the movement for public health care that has overshadowed it have been called totalitarian and communist. These attacks come despite America’s comparatively business-biased labour laws, and the fact that they are nearly alone in lacking public healthcare. America also has the highest per capita poverty rate of any developed nation. With over 12.7 per cent of its population living below the poverty line, perhaps it is time America stopped being the exception. When the lives and well-being of so many are at stake, perhaps pragmatism should replace fickle political labels. Andreas Mertens is a U3 Secondary Education student. Write him well at andreas.mertens@mail.mcgill.ca.
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10 Feature
The Arcadian An excerpt from a novella by Kian Slobodin
A
nd Michael he said Ah Christ here’s how it goes. I grow up and get skin like Tom down at the grocery store all knotted and pocked up with pus and eyes sore and glaring out of my thick skull while I shuffle my feet and push a mop or run a tractor to make shit money and come home to a wife that hates the sight of me only she’s just as ugly as I am and we have three stupid kids and we all got bad teeth just awful teeth and then I get a bit older and my hair starts to fall out and my fingernails get yellow and we’ll have a dog that smells and pees inside and one day I’ll start coughing and they’ll tell me I have lung cancer and that’s it maybe they put me in a nice coffin maybe not either way I’m dead and if I’m lucky I’ll die at fifty or sixty and that will be that.
M
y father said the O’Leary place was a damned eyesore. Whenever we delivered feed for the O’Leary cows, he would point to the moss growing on the roof of the leaning farmhouse and say, “Look at that, Christopher. John should be ashamed. And his grandfather kept it up real nice. Must be rolling in his grave now.” My father had even less regard for the O’Learys themselves: Mrs. O’Leary who wore a blue bathrobe even while hanging clothes upon the clothesline. Ezekiel and Theresa, the babies still in diapers, who howled all the day long through their snot and pacifiers. And Michael’s father, John O’Leary, whose rattling pick-up often roared past our own in a haze of blue smoke. My father said, “A sorry bunch.” “Hush,” my mother said. “Mind Christopher. And judge lest ye be judged. Think of poor Michael.”
To which my father responded: “Poor nothing! Little bastard’s a fighter. I’d have him for the Towhees if John weren’t so tight-fisted. A scrapper. And tall for his age, too.” “He’s just a boy still.” My father spat into the fireplace and whistled. “Well, that won’t last long.”
B
y early summer, the hayfields rustled hot and dry in the damp breeze that blew inland off the ocean and bore the reeking scent of seaweed and herring roe. Michael’s father waited until the end of July to cut his crop of hay. One Saturday, the mower weaved unsteadily through the fields. The next day, Peter and I waited for the baler to roar up and down the piles of clippings, but the fields stayed silent. Michael said his Dad was sick. We sat on the gate and watched the dragonflies glinting as they hummed over the cut grass, feasting upon the newly exposed insects.
It rained three nights in a row, but still the baler sat idle, cobwebbed and dusty, in the barn. On the fourth day, Michael drove it in crooked lines over the hay until his father dragged him cursing from the cab. In the O’Learys’ orchard, the crows slouched amongst the twisted appleboughs. They tore dime-sized holes into the firm skin of the ripening fruit and left a thin film of white shit over everything. One morning, Michael’s father took the shotgun out to the orchard and waited in the knee-deep grass. He gave the dead bird to Michael to string up from one of the lower branches. It hung there, a sullen dark shape, until the rain loosened its feathers and washed them with the leaves to the ground. By that time, the crows were gone anyway. When the land flooded, O’Leary’s fields lay fallow and the hay rotted on the ground. As we drove past, my father said, “Damned waste of good hay.” I nodded. “A crying shame.” My father didn’t take his eyes off the road. He said, “When I was a child, I spake as a child.” I leaned my head against the window and watched the crows swoop and dive over the mouldering piles of wet grass. Sometimes I just plain hated Jesus.
A
s the storm season moved along the coast, the men of Kwalhioqua took shelter in the tiny café at the back of the General Store. On colder afternoons, they clustered barna-
cle-like around the plastic-topped tables: legs sprawled loose and long before them, thick hands wrapped around white mugs of black coffee. They wore blue jeans, soiled stiff with salt and dirt, flannel shirts rolled back to expose wrists like jutting rocks, and ball caps pushed back on their heads or pulled down low over their eyes. On their feet were leather boots with steel toes and hard soles. The old men sat apart in the shadowy gloom toward the back wall. Some balding, some grey-haired, all with skin roughened and red like sandstone, all with deep wrinkles weathered into the corners of their eyes from years of squinting directly into the sunlight. The old men were silent. They chewed toothpicks and worked over crosswords or stared straight ahead at nothing. Sometimes one would mention crops or storms or oysters and the rest would nod and cough and shift their weight in their seats. “It’s just like that. I seen it only the other day.” Michael’s father sat with the young men lounging by the window at the front of the café. The sunlight illuminated the tangled clouds of cigarette smoke moving sluggishly toward the ceiling. The young men smoked only Drum tobacco. As they spoke, their fingers fiddled restlessly with spoons or creamers or lengths of wire. “It’s a headache just talking to those sonsovbitches.” “I don’t know what they’re crying about. Damn Indians traded their land for booze
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
and cigarettes. They made their bed.” “Not to hear them tell it. Only happy so long as they’re getting handouts from the government. And whitemen have to work for a living.” Standing by the cash register, Michael O’Leary listened to the talk and waited to be noticed. His tall, thin frame bent forward like a crooked twig. The slightness of his body was made even more pronounced by the oversized black jacket draped over him like a shroud. He stood immobile except for the dirty fingers of his right hand which picked at a scab on his upper lip. His father, looking up from the newspaper spread out before him, took notice of the boy. John O’Leary’s face was clean-shaven and his hair was slicked down with water. He smiled and gestured. “Michael.” Michael moved forward into the thick smells of the café: frying bacon, strong coffee, and onions. His hands stuffed deep into his pockets and his chin tilted downward. “Ed, Tom, this is my boy Michael. My eldest.” His father’s hand rested warm on the boy’s shoulder. Michael allowed himself to exhale. Ed’s eyes flicked over the boy. “I’ve seen him down on the beach, with the buckets. You a hard worker, boy?” Michael’s father’s hand pressed into his shoulder. “He’s tough. Never complains. Works harder than those Vietnamese.” The men laughed. The sound was dry and
grating, like the dull convulsions of a rusted engine. Ed said, “Don’t we all? He’s bound to, if he works for you, John.” His father grinned and slapped Ed on the back with his spare hand. Michael felt his father’s grip tighten. “Don’t get any ideas now. He’s not for sale.” Michael spoke. “Mother sent me. Wants to know did you bank that check from the insurance people.” His father’s fingers slid from his shoulder. He looked toward the window and lifted his mug to his lips. “Tell her not yet. Tell her tomorrow.” Michael’s hands worked themselves deeper into his pockets. “She says –” The mug struck the tabletop forcefully. Michael’s arms jerked. “Didn’t I set you to working on that woodpile this morning?” “Yes.” “Well, get to it then.” The men looked away. Outside, Michael released his hands from his pockets. The cool air dried the sweat into creased lines of white against the grime of his palms.
W
inter came early that year. It brought a deep, steady cold that bit at the bone and stung at the eyes and throat. When we walked to school, our breath hung solemn and stubborn in the chill air. Michael wore his father’s cut-down black overcoat every day. He looked like a scarecrow, but nobody laughed at him. It was a man’s coat, anyhow.
In the cold, Michael’s eczema bloomed in angry red roses over his cheeks and hands. He scratched the sores, and they bled. During recess, he rubbed his dry knuckles against the brick walls to ease the itch. The raw skin cracked and wept yellow pus. In November, John O’Leary had a bonfire. For a day he worked steadily, pushing a barrow to and fro across the dirt yard as he added refuse to the pile: mounds of damp, dead leaves, stacks of rotting timber pocked with rusty nails, empty beer flats, mouldy cardboard boxes, fallen tree branches. He buried the empty cans and bottles beneath the garbage. When the pile was nearly as tall as he was, he drained a small can of gasoline. He soaked his pocket handkerchief in alcohol and tossed it, flaming, onto the heap of trash. When Peter and I walked Michael home from school we arrived to a blaze almost five feet high. The wind whipped small cinders from the coals and snatched at the thick grey smoke as it billowed upward toward the darkening sky. The glowing coals emitted a circle of dry red heat in the cold air, which carried the heavy stench of burning plastic and wet wood. John O’Leary stood with his back to us. We couldn’t see but knew his eyes were watching the flames. His figure formed a crooked silhouette: weight resting on his right leg, his hard lean body underneath the oversized flannel jacket tilting also to the right, the stiff back and shoulders sloping forward so that his upper body hunched over toward the flames.
11
Hands loosely in his pockets; hands that we knew were as hard and thin and unyielding as the rest of him. The coarse red skin stretched tightly and split over work-swollen knuckles, the shining grey of the palms and fingertips, the grease and dirt worn into calluses that no amount of soap could wash away, that were part of the skin itself. The chipped nails, the ends of which were never trimmed but instead gnawed and torn off by hard teeth and spat onto the ground. Man’s hands. Hands that grasped and squeezed and pounded; that didn’t stroke but shoved, roughly, that slapped, soundly; that touched steel and sawdust and rubber; that grasped shovel and hammer and axe; that smelled of gasoline and soil and metal. Working hands, not a boy’s hands. That sometimes held a fork, crookedly, unsteadily; that trembled sometimes, or shook, and not secretly; that held like death to a bottle and tilted its neck up again and again. Man’s hands that tore blindly at the night and grasped weakly come morning; that hid, shameful, sometimes; but still, a man’s hands. We stood, shivering, our school books clutched tightly to our chests. The wet wood bubbled and hissed as the flames snapped and twisted in the wind. His back told us that he knew we were there; still he did not turn around. As we watched, his right arm lifted a slim bottle to his lips. He drained it steadily, and tossed it onto the coals. At last, he spoke. “Get on home now, boys. Michael, come.”
Letters
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
12
Re: “Winds of indie change” | Culture | September 3
“The use of the term ‘indie’ to describe our music or any music seems misplaced and unnecessary. Why can’t we just be ‘musicians’?” Devon Welsh “What, no Zoog?”
And what about the Neo-Pagans? Re: McGill Groups | Disorientation Guide | August 31 For the most part, I really enjoyed this year’s Disorientation Guide and found it a useful resource. I was concerned, however, by the selective offering of McGill groups printed on the back. It’s great that the Muslim Students’ Association [MSA] was listed – but why no mention of Jewish, Christian, or other religious groups on campus, which certainly rival the MSA in membership and activeness? Why such affinity for Tadamon!, that, as a QPIRG working group essentially got double billing, since QPIRG – not even a SSMU club – was listed as well? I appreciate that The Daily has limited space, so in the future, kindly let other clubs on campus know how we, too, can get free advertising at the beginning of the year. Mookie Kideckel U2 History Hillel McGill President
What, no Zoog? Re: “Winds of indie change” | Culture | September 3 I am a member of the Pop Winds, and although the article titled “Winds of indie change,” which appeared in the September 3 issue of The Daily (coincidentally my birthday), was excellent and highly appreciated, I have some corrections to make. The use of the term “indie” to describe our or any music seems misplaced and unnecessary. Why are we “indie” musicians? Why can’t we just be “musicians”? I would like to officially dissociate the Pop Winds from anything that erroneous title implies. Second, Kyle Bennett and I had been playing music together and hoping to play shows for close to a year before we saw Andy White play at the launch party for Folio Magazine. Although we told the interviewer, Marlee Rubel, that Andy was an inspiration at the time, that does not mean that we took the idea to play music in Montreal from him. I quote the article: “The band’s initial desire
to play in Montreal was motivated by seeing local talent Andy White perform for the first time – an experience they still speak of with a distinct joie de vivre sparkling in their eyes.” Andy is a wonderful musician and a wonderful person, but I didn’t want the article to suggest that we hadn’t been working our asses off for a long time before the aforementioned concert – because we had. Lastly, I would like to clarify that the Pop Winds and I are 100 per cent behind the sale and purchase of all music being made by struggling musicians and artists. I don’t want to buy a Metallica CD to help the rich get richer, but I encourage everyone to support local musicians by purchasing the music they have to offer and enjoying it. Thanks for hearing me out. Once again the article was very nice – a big thank you to Marlee Rubel. I simply wanted to clear up some issues that I had with the content. Devon Welsh U3 Religious Studies and Drama & Theatre
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Culture
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
14
Movie-a-minute Local festival showcases 60-second films
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
Tiana Reid
The McGill Daily
T
here are a lot of things I can do in a minute. I can sing “Happy Birthday,” I can type 70 words on my laptop, and I can read a page of a novel. Can I watch a film in a minute? Less likely. But the burgeoning 60-second film genre is changing that, and there’s a festival to prove it. Our alwaysinnovative Montreal is celebrating the amateur and professional film community through the showing of over 70 one-minute films in the second annual Montreal 60-Second Film Festival (M60). There are five film lovers behind the festival, all of them Montrealers. Only one of the founders had prior involvement in the film community. Really, they just
wanted to make and watch films. My initial thoughts upon hearing about the festival were on the way that it plays into modern culture. M60 seemed just the thing to satisfy our ever-shortening attention spans and obsession with immediacy. Our feelings, news, and opinions are now reduced to 140-character Tweets, and even my mother squirms through films over two hours long. Indeed, McGill grad student Brian Scarth, who is the director of a film being screened during M60, says that “the fact that [60-second films] are so short means you are almost guaranteed not to be bored.” But satisfying the cultural demand for instant information wasn’t the motivation behind the festival. Sean Michaels, one of the organizers of M60 (and the director of a film being screened), explained to me
that 60-second films don’t necessarily try to tell the whole story. “The short films that succeed most elegantly are those that give you a glimpse of something, or a 60-second glimpse into a world,” Michaels says. These ultra-short films aren’t trying to fool you into thinking that they’re featurelength works. Scarth explains that “you don’t have time for much plot, so mostly you are expressing something very simple, a feeling or a little joke. It’s surprising what people can do with 60 seconds.” Dawson College film student Joel Bernstein highlights ultra-short film’s potential as an arena to delve into previously untold stories. “My favourite kind of short films are the ones that look at some kind of unconscious quirk that everybody does but doesn’t really think about,” Bernstein says. “Ever notice
how people always tend to leave an empty seat between them and the next person on the bus?” he continues. “[That] would make for a pretty boring full-length feature film, but it could probably make a funny short. 60-second films have the potential to tell those stories.” Beyond the length of the films presented, what makes M60 unique is its unconventional modus operandi. As an open event, there are no judges, no submission fees, no rankings, no winners, and no losers. Films are admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. Are all the films the cream of the crop? No, but that isn’t to say that they don’t deserve to be shown. “Within the context, the terrible movies become integral, fun parts of the whole thing,” says Michaels. “The festival’s weaknesses are also its strengths.” The motivation
you feel less guilty about eating poutine.” But the “patatine” isn’t the only thing meant to ease your conscience. The prices at Patati are so low, you won’t have to break the bank to hit up this eatery. One of their tiny but satisfying beef burgers rings in at a whopping $1.75. Add a side order of fries with a salad, and you’ll only be doling out $5.90 after tax. The delectable BLT and “Club Machin,” meanwhile, come in at $2.50 and $3.50 respectively. Even the diner’s most expensive items are budget-priced: the filet of sole, for instance, is $5.50, and a meal-sized poutine is only $4. And for the vegetarians out there, don’t worry. Patati Patata offers a végé sauté for $5.50, and a tofu burger for the same price as its beefy counterpart. Then, of course, there’s the allday breakfast. A traditional breakfast – consisting of an egg, toast, potatoes, fruit or tomatoes, and your choice of tea or coffee – comes in cheapest at $3.50. Second cheapest are the French toast and crepes at $4. And coming in third is a twoegg omelette, with all the available sides, for $5. For an extra dollar, feel free to add cheese, bacon, or ham to
any of the breakfast menus. No matter what you choose, you’ll still get away with a cheap petit-dejeuner. But Patati Patata’s charm extends far beyond its menu – each visit makes for quite the experience. As you slip onto a stool or settle in line, you’ll be asked to write down your condiment selections. Then prepare to be amazed as the skilled and friendly staff sprint around the tiny open kitchen. Watching the six-foot-four Francisco – one of the
behind the festival was to bring together anyone and everyone, amateurs and professionals, to create and view films. Differing styles, perspectives, and technical capacities result in “an earnest electricity,” according to Michaels, that permeates the festival. Tickets for the screenings on September 9, 10, and 11, where all the films are shown consecutively, will set you back a mere $7. This is, without a doubt, the most inexpensive way to see about 70 films. Arrive early – if you’re even a few minutes late, you’ll miss some films entirely. The Montreal 60 Second Festival’s screenings take September 9-11 at La Sala (4848 St-Laurent). For more mation, visit m60.ca.
Film place Rossa infor-
Mini but mighty Beggar’s Banquet This year, The Daily will be running a new series featuring restaurants around Montreal where you can get a meal – a real, honest-to-goodness meal – for under $10. Your first Beggar’s Banquet is being served at one of our favourite burger joints, Patati Patata. Julia Pyper
The McGill Daily
I
f the line to get into Patati Patata leaks onto the corner of Saint Laurent and Rachel, don’t be discouraged. This place is worth the squeeze, and it certainly won’t get a grip on your cash. When Louis Dumontier opened the tiny Plateau diner in 1996, he wasn’t set on making optimal profits. Instead, he chose to make the place accessible by keeping prices low. As a result, the 13-seat restaurant is always full – though never unwelcoming – from its 11 a.m.
opening to 11 p.m. closing. Contrary to what you might’ve thought, the name Patati Patata has nothing to do with potatoes. The closest translation from French to English is actually “yadda yadda yadda.” However, this place is all about the potatoes. The French fries are small and thin and deliciously saturated with flavour. Add some cheese curds, gravy sauce, and vegetables, and you have yourself a delicious “patatine” – one of their signature dishes. “The vegetables make you feel lighter,” says Yacine, a server who has been working at the restaurant since January. “Or, at least it makes
diner’s speedy cook-cum-waiters – navigate the tight space is a little taste of the Patati magic. “It’s one giant family,” says Francisco, as he whirls around the kitchen like the Tasmanian Devil. And he’s right. Patati Patata may be small in many ways, but it’s got a huge heart. So grab a pencil and paper, and get set to order! Patati Patata is located at 4177 St-Laurent.
Scott Baker / The McGill Daily
Culture
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
15
The cinema next door Film enthusiasts stage screenings in their backyard Marlee Rubel
Culture Writer
I
f you’ve ever heard the expression “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” disregard it immediately. Unbeknownst to many, there lies in the heart of the Plateau a cultural gem that happens to be completely priceless: Cinéquanon, Montreal’s only free weekly outdoor film screening. Cinéquanon was born of the energy constantly zinging back and forth between filmmaker Tim Kelly and film lover Pablo Toldeo Gouin. The project is still young, with only four months of screenings under its belt, but you’d never know. The event takes place in the duo’s dreamy backyard, made cozy with Chinese lanterns and a canopy of trees. On any Saturday night, the space can be found packed with film buffs and amateur cinema-goers alike. Kelly and Gouin, who take pride in their highly developed tastes in film, select all of the films screened at Cinéquanon. They are committed to showing at most 25 per cent American content. “There are so
many excellent films from elsewhere,” explains Kelly, “but it’s so much easier to go to Blockbuster. If you want to see something else, your options are quite limited.” Gouin is adamant about the fact that foreign directors have unique ways of portraying subjects that are different from the way North American directors approach things. “You probably don’t want to eat cheeseburgers your whole life,” Gouin comments, pointing to the need for variety among film offerings. While simply seeing the attendance at Cinéquanon’s screenings is enough to understand that it’s a successful project, Gouin and Kelly believe that the undertaking still has a lot of room to grow. Though the average eye would never notice, Cinéquanon’s films are projected onto a surprisingly large bed sheet pulled tightly over a frame. Eventually, Kelly and Gouin are aiming to gain access to an indoor screening space, enabling the series to continue into the winter months. Some day, Kelly says with confidence, they would like to turn Cinéquanon into a short film festival – in which case a new space
Rebecca Chapman / The McGill Daily
would definitely be necessary. After only 12 screenings, Kelly and Gouin are already experiencing complaints from their neighbours. Early on in the project, one particular neighbour made the effort to call the police during every weekly screening. Due to the minor nature of such complaints, the police generally wouldn’t arrive before the film had finished and the attendees had been sent on their merry way. The one time the cops did happen to interrupt the screening, they were faced, completely by coincidence, with the disturbing
scenes of police brutality found in Mathieu Kassovitz’s film La Haine. Since then, the police have left Cinéquanon alone. Kelly believes that the series has been so successful because of its uniqueness in Montreal. The location is convenient for many, and the film will always end in time for its audience to have an evening out ahead of them. But Kelly and Gouin agree that there doesn’t seem to be much in it for them. That said, they enjoy the intimate experience the film screenings create, and the sense of community allows them to
Let Caroline Keating spin you a yarn Lo-fi musician tells her stories through song
Pamela Fillion
The McGill Daily
“I
decide to share my music because I enjoy sharing it. I like sharing that connection with complete strangers. It’s something beautiful,” explains Caroline Keating. There are many aspiring artists in Montreal taking the long and winding independent road. Such artists are letting their music speak for itself and earning their colours as performers. Caroline Keating is one of them. Her music and charming personality have made this singer-songwriter one of Canada’s most interesting and promising musicians. “I just really love stories,” the Montreal-based musician says, describing what inspires her musical projects. “I love reading stories. I like making up stories. I’ve always loved doing it and at some point the piano just kind of became my
paper. Instead of writing it down, I made songs out of it and every now and then I come out from my little story world and I share it with people. That’s basically me.” Keating’s songs are peppered with influences from the likes of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan. For Keating, music has always been a part of her. While the stories she conjured up were once confined to paper, they come alive through the medium of her sprightly fingers and jazzy vocals, at once charming and nostalgic. These days, Keating has been listening to Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark and to a Swedish band called The Deportees. “No one really knows about them but everyone should know about them,” she explains. “Just really good music. It has a disco seventies Fleetwood Mac kind of feel.” More importantly, having returned from a tour in Germany, she has been in the studio lately working on her long-awaited
first album. According to Keating, the album started taking shape when she first met up with sound engineer Drew Malamud: “[Drew] is really good. He’s worked with Metric and Grizzly Bear. He decided to give me a shot and gave me some time in the studio,” she says. Keating was also recently awarded a Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records (FACTOR) grant: “This way, the government gives you half the money and pays you back after you’ve completed the product. You can do what you want. They’ve approved your musical project and so there is no telling what kind of songs you should make. It’s any musician’s dream. Uncompromised art. It’s more than just money, it’s your country’s support and it’s such an honour to receive it. “ In addition to working on her album, Keating is getting ready for some upcoming shows – at Bar St. Laurent 2 and at POP Montreal. This will be her third time playing POP. Of her first experience with POP,
Keating says, “The creative director, Daniel Seligman came to see me four years ago when I was playing Caf Dépanneur and there were four people there and he was one of them. He was sort of like, ‘What are you doing? Come on, do something, play shows, don’t hide in cafés!’ He invited me to play Fringe Pop and I played POP that year.” Keating spoke of her experience fondly: “POP is what I think of as like a family, and I like to consider myself part of that family. They really look after the artists that they are into.... They are a great festival because they really believe in what I think is left to believe in in the music industry. Music for the love of music and people coming together for the love of music.” Caroline Keating plays Bar St. Laurent 2 (5550 St. Laurent) on September 12 and L’Astral (1845 Ontario E.) on October 2. For more information, visit myspace.com/ carolinekeating
see the films in a new way. Take your cinema-loving friend, significant other, or even just yourself to this Montreal treasure while the warm summer nights are still around. It’s worth much more than the free entry might suggest. Cinéquanon is held three out of four Fridays a month, as well as on the occasional Saturday. Full details of the week’s film, as well as opportunities to submit your own work for screening during the pre-show event can be found on the group’s Facebook page.
Culture meetings, HUH! What are they good for, picking up sto-oories, say it again! Tuesdays 5:30 PM Daily Office Shatner B-24
16Culture
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
CULTURE BRIEFS
Art Alive
Most artists go about exhibiting their work after they have completed it. But Matt Shane and Jim Holyoak are not like most artists. The two Montrealers are the creative force behind Grayscale Rainbow, an installation that’s turn-
ing articule’s gallery space into an interactive art-making experience for the next month. The premise is simple yet distinctive. Instead of filling articule’s walls with finished works, blank paper will be hung. Then, from now until October, Shane and Holyoak will literally move into the gallery – not only working there, but also sleeping and eating in the space. During this time, viewers are welcome to observe the artists’ processes and engage in art-making themselves. There are dedicated “public drawing ses-
sions” on September 13 and 27, but gallery-goers can contribute to the work during articule’s regular opening hours as well. The project runs counter to the often opaque connection between creator and audience, promising an unusually involved role for viewers of the work, and a uniquely organic finished product. Grayscale Rainbow will be present at articule (262 Fairmount O.) until October 4. Stop by and have a hand in its creation. — Amelia Schonbek
Moving Pictures Photography is often thought of as a medium that depicts a single moment in time – stillness is seen as the order of the day. In his latest exhibtion, 8 secondes, Nicolas Ruel defies this conception. The internationally renowned photographer’s most recent work embraces motion wholeheartedly, resulting in a series of photographs that capture the feeling of the ever-moving world with incredible richness. Ruel produced each of the works that comprise 8
secondes by taking a series of longexposure photographs of various locations in cities the world over. The resulting images of each individual place were then edited down. What remains are, in the words of the artist, “eight second ‘micrometers.’” What the viewer sees is a series of photographic representations of the living urban landscape. 8 secondes runs through October 4 at Galerie Orange (81 St-Paul E.). — A.S.
WIN ONE OF THE 75 DOUBLE PASSES TO THE MOVIE! Presented by
Original French Version with English Subtitles
A FILM BY RICARDO TROGI
A NICOLE ROBERT PRODUCTION
STARRING JEAN-CARL BOUCHER , CLAUDIO COLANGELO, SANDRINE BISSON
STARTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 Come by the McGill Daily Office (Shatner B-26) and get a free double pass to 1981. First come, first served. Student ID required.
Monday Monday Monday Daily Daily Daily Sports Sports Sports (see p.2)
Compendium!
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
Lies, half-truths, and pederasty
Lovelorn Wiccans seek advice Dilemma Divas Romantic questions answered by Miss Advised and Miss Heard Dear Miss Advised,
Dear Thunderstruck,
I’m crushing hard on this boy, but he barely knows I exist. I see him all the time buying crystals at the New Moon. I’ve given him all the normal signals, like brushing up against him, giving him locks of my hair, making him a pentagram with my face in the middle, and leaving him pastrami sandwiches – but so far there’s been no response. My friends think I should just forget about him but my magic eight ball says “future unclear.” What should I do? I’m going to see him this weekend at the Black Cat Bonfire – should I use my final love potion then? I know we’re meant to be, Miss Advised; we’re just like Willow and Oz.
Sounds like you’re having communication problems. Don’t be shy – introduce yourself! It’s a good idea for your crush to know your name and face. How accurate was your pentagram rendition? He might have been confused and thought you to be a high priestess – which is not necessarily a bad thing. It would be a very good idea for the two of you to have a conversation. Moving out of the ranks of shadowy stalker is a step in the right direction. Remember, you want him to love you, not fear you. It sounds like the two of you might have a lot in common; you should try to find something you can do together. Instead of simply leaving behind a sandwich for your crush to find, you could sit down and eat a meal together. Eating in front of your crush can be embarrassing, so you might
Édouard-Henri Avril
Signed, Thunderstuck
CAPTION CONTEST!! Send in your captions for this photograph and if we like yours best, we’ll publish a picture of you in The Daily!! compendium@mcgilldaily.com
want to choose foods that will not miss your mouth or drip readily. It is also wise to inquire about your crush’s food-related preferences and allergies – you never know these days. Do you both have a passion for the dark arts? Maybe you could get together and talk about your favourite gemstones and sacrificial altarpieces after the autumnal solstice bonfire! If all goes well, you might not even need a love potion. But of course, it is always wise to have one around just in case. I don’t leave home without it. Godspeed, Miss Advised
Dear Miss Heard, I am seeking a love like none other. How should I go about finding The Perfect One? I have already tried many lotions, ointments, and ritual sacrifices. I offer only the finest goats, ferrets, and Pomeranians, yet still my loneliness persists. Is it because I don’t wash my face or maybe I eat too many chocolate bars? My religion forbids me from using body wash and so for many years I have been making my own soaps using fennel root and Worcestershire sauce. I fear my odour is repulsive and my lifestyle, unlovable. Please help. Distressed and perplexed, Homely Hecate
Dear Homely Hecate, A wise man once told me that Pomeranians are so tiny that they often die from their noses growing backward into their skulls. Thus, what makes them cute also kills them. Perhaps you are suffering from much the same problem: Your uniqueness also makes you repulsive. Never fear though. In my line of work, I have discovered that there is at least something for everyone, if not someone. Perhaps you should try a different sort of love, like the love for which there is no name. Have you thought of dating a deli meat, pigeon, or the Berlin Wall? I know a very nice wax mannequin of Béla Lugosi that you might find pleasing to the eye. It has polite table manners and is well-versed in the art of conversation. Actually, your letter reminds me quite a bit of another one I have around here…. Where did I put that thing? Oh, I’m going to be late for an ear-candling. Ta-ta for now. Blessed, Miss Heard
Got a romantic query? Send it to missadvised@gmail.com care of Miss Advised or Miss Heard.
18
China axes leaders Westerners still care more about Tibet Bernadette MacDonald-Pjorkin The McGill Daily
A
Communist Party leader and police chief in the troubled western Chinese region of Xinjiang have been executed by axe, the official Xinhua news agency says. The moves follow days of ethnic unrest in the regional capital of Urumqi, in which at least five people were brutally beaten. Meanwhile, in the West, no one cares because Xinjiang is populated by Uighurs, a Muslim group of Turkic origin. This is because the Uighurs are to the Tibetans as the Alagoas Curassow is to the Giant Panda: just not cute enough. And a little bit too Muslim. In related news, another university student has put Tibetan prayer flags in his window after reading the Wikipedia article about the history of Tibet. The student was unavailable for comment.
19
The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 10, 2009
volume 99 number 3
EDITORIAL
editorial
Don’t give in to La Pressure
3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal QC, H3A 1X9
Last Thursday, the 700 employees of La Presse were greeted with a mass email from their publisher, Guy Crevier – who is also the president of La Presse’s parent company, Gesca Ltée – announcing that the venerable Montreal paper would cease its publication on December 1, should the eight unions representing its workers prove unwilling to make significant concessions over work hours, employment, and pay. These cuts – proposed earlier this summer by La Presse’s management as part of their effort to shave off $26 million from the paper’s annual running costs – would entail the loss of 100 of those employees, the transition to a five-day work week (up from four), and a six per cent decrease in pay for everyone. The measures are the latest moves in a larger strategy by Gesca – including the cancellation of the paper’s Sunday edition and a decrease in the paper’s size – to prevent a $215-million deficit predicted for 2013. Gesca’s threat to close La Presse is frightening news. The most widely read French-language newspaper in North America, the 125-year-old broadsheet is a provincial institution. As a largely federalist publication, it plays an important role in the public discussion of the “national question,” acting as a counter-weight to the generally sovereigntist stance of Le Devoir, Quebec’s other widely respected paper. What’s more, the zeal with which La Presse has pursued in-depth coverage of national and international issues has earned it a reputation for journalistic excellence. Gesca’s threat to cease publication ends the dialogue between workers and managers. Negotiations for the future of the paper are essential, and if Crevier is sincere in his hope to overhaul La Presse so it can survive these precarious times, he needs to ensure that these discussions take place. Though the New York Times Company and the Hearst Corporation set a dangerous precedent in similar situations with the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, it’s a failure of the imagination to think that the only way out of this impasse is to close the paper or make deep cuts. Gesca needs to come to the bargaining table and discuss alternative models for the paper with the unions. Only together can the workers and the managers find a viable way to keep La Presse afloat. For that to happen, negotiations have to be a dialogue of equals. With so much at stake, there’s no room for childish scare-tactics like Gesca’s. La Presse is too important to fail. We urge Crevier to drop his threat to close the paper and to start a real conversation with the unions about how to save this pillar of provincial media.
phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor
Stephen Davis coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor
Erin Hale
news editors
Niko Block Humera Jabir Sam Neylon features editor
Whitney Mallett commentary&compendium editor
William M. Burton
coordinating culture editor
Amelia Schonbek culture editors
Ian Beattie Nick Boisvert-Novak science+technology editor
Diane Salema mind&body editor
Braden Goyette photo editor
Dominic Popowich graphics editor
Sasha Plotnikova production & design editors
Kady Paterson Aaron Vansintjan web editor
William Vanderbilt copy editor
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Stephen Davis le délit
Stéphanie Dufresne rec@delitfrancais.com Contributors
The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the Daily Publications Society, an autonomous, not-for-profit organization whose membership includes all McGill undergraduates and most graduate students.
3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal QC, H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318
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advertising & general manager
Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily
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The Daily is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian University Press. All contents © 2009 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff. Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec. ISSN 1192-4608.
Errata The August 31 news brief, “SSMU loses parking revenues” stated that Sarah Olle is the VP Internal. She is, in fact, VP Clubs and Services. In the masthead of the same issue, we incor-
rectly spelt the name of Stéphanie Dufresne. Dufresne’s email address was also misspelt; it should have been rec@delitfrancais.com. In the article entitled “Neutralizing the net,” printed August 31, Marshall Eubanks was
incorrectly identified as Chair of the IETF. He is, in fact, Chair of the IETF Trust. The Daily regrets the errors.
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