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News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Free HIV testing in the Village Eduardo Doryan and Erin Hale The McGill Daily

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POT, a free and anonymous HIV testing facility, opened in Montreal’s Gay Village this July for the exclusive use of gay and bisexual men, as well as heterosexuals who have sex with other men.

The three-year pilot project is a joint research initiative to help curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic and conduct research on the subject through the collaboration of 16 organizations, including McGill, Concordia, Université de Laval, Université du Québec à Montréal, and numerous community groups including the Séro-Zéro, a group that supports the sexual and emotional health of gay men, including sex workers.

The project also receives financial support from the province, through the Québec agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal, and l’Institut national de la santé.

Thomas Haig, a co-investigator from Séro-Zéro, said that SPOT is unique because of the heavy collaboration between research and community organizations.

“One of the very innovative and exciting things is that it brings together academic and communitybased researchers under one roof.

That’s a fairly new thing to do – have them be partners and have a community researcher as a main partner,” Haig said.

Haig also explained that testing

will specifically target men because they are the most at-risk population for HIV/AIDS in Montreal.

“Between 60 and 70 per cent of all new [HIV] infections in Montreal occur between men who have sex with men. The funding applications [for SPOT] were all done specifically in addressing this epidemic,” Haig said.

“The prevalence rate for HIV for men who identify as gay, who identify as bisexual, or men who might identify as straight but who have sex with men is 15 per cent. Compare that to the overall prevalence rate for Canada, which is 0.04 per cent [in 2007],” Haig said.

The Canadian AIDS Society notes similar statistics on their web site, as well as the fact that almost half of all reported cases of HIV in Canada remain within the demographic of men who have sex with men – though it has decreased from around 80 per cent in the eighties.

SPOT offers both conventional and rapid HIV testing. Rapid HIV tests can produce results in as little as five minutes and only require drops of blood using a finger prick, rather than the traditional method of drawing blood with a needle.

However, the test requires the infected person to have contracted the virus at least three months prior. While it’s expensive, the clinic offers the rapid test for free.

In a CBC interview, McGill Faculty of Medicine professor and SPOT investigator Mark Wainberg noted that one in three HIV-positive

Sally Lin / The McGill Daily

Projects target popuation hit hardest by HIV: men who sleep with men

15 per cent of men in Montreal who sleep with men are infected with HIV. Canadians don’t know they have the virus, and this population is most responsible for new infections.

Wainberg’s fellow Faculty of Medicine professor and co-investigator Bluma Brenner said that SPOT attempts to address this problem.

“When people are newly infected they can infect others – that’s a time of high transmission. Unfortunately it’s very hard to detect symptoms of HIV. People need to be routinely tested,” Brenner said. “What

we’re trying to do is offer routine HIV testing together with innovative counselling approaches, to do a proactive approach to eliminate male sex infection.”

A member of the Conseil québécoises de gais et lesbiennes speculated on why HIV infection has gone unchecked in the past. “[The stigma associated with the virus] is probably one of the major reasons people don’t go for testing, though definitely not the only one,”

he said. “Some people don’t know enough about the consequences of the disease - they think ‘I’ll take a pill and be okay.’”

When asked whether the establishment of the clinic indicated that HIV testing is not yet accessible enough, the representative pointed out that “if an organization decides to put [up] a clinic, it probably means that it is not accessible for people to get tested when needed [with the current facilities].”

McGill faculties deal with budget cuts Courtney Graham The McGill Daily

U

niversity-wide budget cuts have required departments to slash spending this year, leading to fears that the number of TAs would be reduced.

Departments across campus were unsure how many TAs they would be able to employ this semester, and whether that number would meet student needs, adding to the usual uncertainty surrounding class enrolment numbers following the add-drop deadline.

According to the 2009-2010 University Budget, departments were required to reduce spending by at least 1.5 per cent. Despite the need to tighten spending, departments will not be significantly decreasing the number of TAs. “The last thing we want to cut are teaching budgets,” said Provost

Anthony Masi, explaining that while the University made suggestions, they would not give a set list of cuts that had to be made, and that major decisions would be at the discretion of the specific departments.

The University has suggested that departments cut travel and hospitality expenses, which can include anything from food purchases for departmental events to staff conference trips.

Masi added that departments should “make a choice that saves you the money,” but not a choice that sacrifices intellectual integrity, or causes the University to deviate from its basic principles.

It follows that potential reductions in TA numbers would be the result of departmental – not University – decisions. However, departments continue to face tough choices when dealing with cuts, which is especially true for programs that already experience regular shortfalls in their

yearly budgets.

Professor Sebastian Sobecki, TA coordinator for the Department of English, said that departments are forced to use their own resources to fill these gaps.

According to Sobecki, no one has necessarily mapped out what the best ratio of TAs to undergraduate students would be in each discipline; however, the faculty of arts does set a general ratio at the beginning of each academic year.

Sobecki added that while faculty members in the English Department have met the proscribed ratio this year, the number of students to TAs could still be lower, a result that many fear will impair undergraduate learning.

Professor Scott Bohle, Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry, stating that cutting TA budgets would also do a disservice to graduate students who learn much by teaching and earn a salary

for their teaching hours.

The budget cuts will further affect graduate students employed at the University if the administration’s proposed $1-million reduction in employee health benefits is passed this year.

The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), which negotiates TA contracts, is in consultation with the University regarding the proposed cuts.

Masi commented that tough decisions are needed if the University is to meet its mandated deficit limit of $5 million, while simultaneously fulfilling its obligations to give students the intellectually rich community promised at McGill.

Masi added that targeted cuts and reassessments are carried out with quality of education in mind, in order to maintain the “self-fulfilling prophecy of excellence” for which the University is known.

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No significant cuts to TAs this year

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Budgeting, Sponsorhip & Fundraising Earning and Managing the Big Bucks Thursday, October 1, 5:30-7:30pm (downtown campus) Wednesday, October 7, 5:30 -7:30pm (Macdonald campus) Wondering where you can go to get funding on campus? Off campus?

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Board members gather at least once a month to discuss the management of the newspapers, and make important administrative decisions.

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News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Tasers overused and unreliable Polytechnique professor condemns taser lethality, inconsistent performance John Lapsley The McGill Daily

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Aquil Virani for The McGill Daily

lecture held at McGill Monday night warned that overuse and risk of malfunction make tasers far more dangerous than previously believed.

Pierre Savard of the École Polytechnique de Montreal led the audience through his research on the effects of electric stimulation on the human heart, demonstrating that use of electric stun guns can at

times cause fatal complications.

“For many subjects with individual susceptibilities, the taser is in fact lethal,” Savard said, pointing out that individuals with heart disease and drug users face greater risks.

“The taser shock is analogous to the stress test hospitals give heart patients to test for defects,” Savard said. “These shocks stimulate flexors, extensors, and every nerve ending in the body.”

According to Savard, the danger present in these so-called “non-

Tasers are not regulated by medical or weapon regulations.

lethal weapons” is further exacerbated by what he saw as the RCMP’s gross overuse of tasers.

Savard illustrated this point with instances in which police used stun guns to wake up a subject sleeping on a bench and to pacify a grandmother who was making too much noise at a nursing home.

“It’s so easy to silence a subject [with a taser],” Savard said. “Too many policemen use it like the mute button on a remote control.”

Savard, a professor of electrical and biomedical engineering, began his investigation into taser safety after the October 2007 death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.

Dziekanski could not understand English and became lost shortly after arriving at Vancouver International Airport.

After an agitated Dziekanski threw a comput-

er and small table to the ground, RCMP officers tasered him five times. Dziekanski died almost immediately.

Dziekanski’s death spurred a Michener Prize-winning CBC-Radio Canada investigation into taser safety, which found that at least 10 per cent of the stun guns currently in use in Canada malfunction outside of manufacturer specifications, putting subjects at greater risk of death.

Several individual police forces in Canada launched concurrent investigations that supported CBCRadio Canada’s findings.

Based on these studies, groups like Amnesty International and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP stepped forward, condemning taser overuse and urging a moratorium on stun guns until further research could be done.

Taser International, the sole manufacturer of tasers, responded dismissively to these studies.

Peter Holran, the company’s spokesman, called it regrettable that “false allegations based on scientifically flawed data” could raise such concerns and reaffirmed the quality of Taser International’s products.

Savard was concerned by Taser

International’s lack of transparency.

Savard noted that medical instrument manufacturers have “traceability,” meaning that a defective medical instrument can be traced piece by piece back to the raw materials, allowing selective safety recalls. Weapons manufacturers also undergo strict objective scrutiny from outside safety agencies. Tasers, however, qualify as neither medical instruments nor weapons, and are therefore subject only to the manufacturer’s testing standards.

Savard quipped, “If it’s not a weapon and it’s not medical equipment, it’s a toy.”

Tasers, however, still rank among police officers’ safest methods of applying force.

Savard cited a 2006-2007 study of Calgary police officers’ force interactions which demonstrated that out of all non-lethal force methods, stun gun interactions least frequently necessitated medical attention for the subject or the officer.

Savard himself admitted that tasers are among the safer means of subduing suspects, but firmly reiterated that more research into stun gun lethality, and more transparency in the manufacturing process are necessary if police officers are to continue using them on suspects.

Rwandan war criminal awaits sentencing Rana Encol News Writer

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ésiré Munyaneza, a Rwandan residing in Canada, was convicted last May of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the Quebec superior court in Montreal.

His lawyers returned to court last Tuesday to debate the terms of his sentence, which will be given on October 29.

He is the first person to be tried under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, passed in 2000 that allows for residents who committed war crimes abroad to be prosecuted in Canada. The decision will follow two years of proceedings that have involved over 60 witnesses and a cost of $1.6 million.

Frédéric Mégret, an associate professor of law at McGill and director of the McGill Clinic for the Sierra Leone Special Court, acknowledged the complexity of the case while appraising its national significance.

“Rwanda is in Canada, and not just in an abstract way. There is a large [Rwandan] community here and this is part of our duty to

uphold peace and certain values,” Mégret said. “We don’t want criminals running into their former victims.”

Munyaneza, a Hutu from Butare, Rwanda, has been found guilty of murder, sexual assault, and inhumane treatment of Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide of an estimated 800,000 Rwandans.

He came to Canada in 1997, and was refused refugee status as a result of RCMP investigations that ultimately led to his arrest in 2005.

Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya, a genocide survivor and head of the Truth and Justice Commission of PAGERwanda – a Montreal-based association for parents and friends of genocide victims – commended Canada’s involvement in prosecutions.

“There are so many [war criminals] that if Rwanda takes it on themselves it will be a long time to achieve justice,” Nyilinkwaya said, adding that the legislation sends “a strong message that Canada is not a safe haven.”

There are an estimated 1,500 war criminals and humanrights abusers known to reside in Canada.

While many hoped that the fear of facing prosecution would

deter such individuals from entering the country, many continue to land on Canadian soil.

Nyilinkwaya argued that the process of granting refugee status for individuals who enter Canada should be more rigourous, even suggesting that the process slow down or stop altogether until suspicious criminal claims are fully investigated.

Mégret agreed on the importance of exercising discretion during the refugee status process, but cautioned that it should not come at the expense of hampering the majority of civilians and victims of conflict who seek asylum in Canada.

Superior Court Justice André Denis is slated to hand his sentence down on October 29.

Observers expect a life sentence, but the defendant’s lawyers are also expected to appeal for a reduced parole period.

Defense lawyer Richard Perras will argue for leniency, citing the fact that the judge’s verdict found his client guilty of participation, but not of planning and deliberation.

Mégret said that the judge might take into account whether or

not Munyaneza was a ringleader in the events.

“The ICTR [UN International War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda] was never meant to judge all of the accused.

Its mandate is to indict and prosecute leaders, and Munyaneza was simply not one of them,” Mégret said.

Nevertheless, Nyilinkwaya said that the Rwandan community is watching the trial closely, which will set a precdent for future war crimes trials in Canada.

Sally Lin / The McGill Daily

Landmark case prosecuted in Montreal under new Canadian law

6 News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

NEWS BRIEF Concordia opens LEED certified building Concordia opened a state-ofthe-art green building last Tuesday, constructed in accordance with the environmental standards set by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The John Molson School of Business (JMSB) building at the corner of Guy and Maisonneuve features a wall of solar panels with cells that will heat the building and produce up to 10 per cent of the building’s energy.

Yves Gilbert, Director of Engineering and Building Performance at Concordia, said the building acquired official certification for its energy efficiency and environmentally friendly construction. “[The building] is 25 per cent more efficient than the required model energy code buildings,” said Gilbert.

Concordia developed the building with the help of a subsidy provided by the Canadian government.

Gilbert estimated the subsidy was around $500,000 – half of the original $1 million price tag.

Concordia usually only accepts energy efficiency projects that the university can pay back in seven years or less, but the subsidy enabled them to adopt a larger project.

“[Normally] the payback is over 20 years [but] because of the subsidy the payback is below seven years,” said Gilbert.

However, Gilbert felt that the energy-saving technology in the Molson School of Business building is unlikely to become the standard for the rest of Concordia’s buildings in the future.

“There are more conventional ways to save energy,” he said.

Gilbert noted options such as heat recovery, pre-heating buildings, and motion-activated lights as cheaper ways to make buildings more energy efficient.

However, the project has not been completed without criticism. According to an editorial in the Link, Concordia’s independent newspaper, the building LEED has a four-level certification framework: certified, silver, gold, and platinum.

The new building has been certified for the lowest level of approval.

“The new JMSB building is LEED certified. That’s it. We’re doing the least we can to earn our certification,” the editorial read.

The only platinum-certified building in Canada belongs to the University of Calgary, and some Concordia students are wondering why their university isn’t aiming as high. But Gilbert noted that the university’s efforts are limited by the availability of funds.

“This is not something we would normally do...[and] without financial help from the government, we wouldn’t,” Gilbert said.

Nathanaël Corre for The McGill Daily

Off-Campus Eye

Flash mob protests climate change Over 100 Montrealers formed a noisy flash mob at Place-des-Arts this Monday as part of the international Climate Change Wake-Up Call demonstrations, organized by tcktcktck campaign members Avaaz, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and others. Participants rang cellphone alarms and bells, played drums and harmoni-

cas, clapped, and cheered well past the proposed five minutes starting at 5:35 p.m. Afterward, they phoned the Prime Minister and other Canadian MPs’ offices, urging them to pass Bill C-311, which would mandate an 80 per cent of CO2 reduction below 1990 levels by 2050, before the end of the year.

A similar event took place at 12:18 p.m. at the Roddick Gates Monday, signalling the last day of talks to be held at COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen from December 7 to 18 this year.

—Max Halparin

— Henry Gass

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The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Niko Block / The McGill Daily

point since then, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has launched a UAV to monitor the river.

T

he abandoned customs building lies at the intersection of Island and International roads, the latter of which connects to Cornwall Island’s two bridges. To the south the suspension bridge leading to New York state punctuates the sparsely forested landscape. A billboard facing north urges passers-by to “Win Big at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino” and features an ecstatic white woman brandishing a fan of hundred dollar bills. The obverse side reminds patrons to drive safely.

On the southwest corner is the Akwesasne People’s Fire, where a group of middle-aged and elderly activists, including Pyke, run a flea market and maintain the bonfire that has been burning since May 1.

“It took a lot of soul-searching to come here and be involved, and I’m just happy that I did it. I just hope that it comes to a good result in the end,” said Pyke as we sat down amidst the detritus of the flea market.

She went on to say that the protests during the summer have united the community in a way she had not seen in the two decades since violence broke out in 1989-90, stemming from an internal dispute regarding the admissibility of gambling on the reserve. As casinos cropped up on reservations throughout the United States in the eighties, anti-gambling advocates at Akwesasne argued that the establishment of federally-regulated businesses on their reserve detracted from the community’s objective of sovereignty. However, the Mohawk Warriors Society fanatically defended the enterprise as a means of economic independence, and at times militantly defended the reserve from state troopers.

During the year-long conflict, groups both in support of and opposed to the casinos erected roadblocks along the adjoining Route 37, anti-gambling rioters looted and trashed casinos along the strip, a military

Akwesasne The Mohawk Nation Territory straddles the Ontario-New York-Quebec border, but few residents recognize the international border.

helicopter was shot down, live hand grenades were thrown, dozens of cars were torched and vandalized, thousands of rounds of live ammunition were spent, and over 2,000 of the community’s residents were evacuated.

While increasingly calamitous news reached the local media, then-governor of New York Mario Cuomo insisted that reports of shootings were exaggerated, and did not give the order to send state troopers into Akwesasne until May 1, 1990 when Pyke’s younger brother Matthew, as well as another young man named JR Edwards, was shot and killed.

“It’s very difficult for me to be here at times, because some of the people that were shooting at you [then] are your comrades now. Even though it’s 19 years later, there’s still pain there,” said Pyke. “As long as there’s no guns, I can support this.”

T

his past week, CBSA guards at the new checkpoint began confiscating the cars – at a repossession fee of $1,000 – of Mohawks who had crossed onto the island from the south shore without first driving into Cornwall to notify CBSA that they had re-entered Canada.

The Mohawk community sees this policy as nearly extortion.

“It’s an act of aggression,” said MCA Grand Chief Mike Mitchell. “They’re pushing [the Mohawk community] into a corner…. And if they push us too far into a corner, then we’re going to have to react.”

He added that MCA has footed the recovery bill in many of the cases. “These are working people, but they’re low-income,” he said.

He estimated that about 12 vehicles had been seized so far.

“They’re pushing the Mohawk community into a corner, and if they push us too far then we’re going to react” Mike Mitchell Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Grand Chief Casinos at the time were a uniquely attractive source of income for some of the Mohawks of Akwesasne. Following the construction of the St. Laurence Seaway in the fifties and the establishment of a number of caustic industries, (including Alcoa, Domtar, and a recently-shuttered GM plant), upstream from the island, Akwesasne became one of the most polluted locales in North America and its traditional and self-sufficient means of living were all but completely wiped out. By the late eighties, some of the fish caught in the river had become too loaded with toxins to even be sold as fertilizer, and it was virtually impossible to raise livestock due to the levels of toxins in the soil.

T

he Mohawk struggle for independent governance has long been at the crux of their complex relationships with Canada and the United States. Though the tobacco trade and the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino (which was established under U.S.-federal regulation years after the violence in the late eighties) have been adversely affected by the border dispute, each of the residents that I talked to expressed hopes that the departure of the CBSA from the island would ultimately mark a significant step toward sovereignty.

Most of the activists at the Akwesasne People’s Fire expressed little faith in the ability of MCA to gain additional autonomy due

to its financial relationship with the federal government. Unlike conventional municipal governments that work with fixed budgets and independently determine how to spend them, the MCA is required to submit proposals for public works projects to the Ministry of Indian Affairs.

“How can you put yourself in a negotiating position where you’re biting the source of your funding?” said Pyke’s husband Billy Beattie, referring to the MCA’s reliance on the federal government. “We could be self-sufficient. We have plenty of doctors and nurses and pharmacists…. We could set up our own banking system here. We have to somehow, some way become completely independent of the Canadian government. We’re going to become strong and we have to stick together as a group. And a lot of the people that work for [MCA] don’t understand that.”

An 18-year-old named Cody who had recently moved to Akwesasne from Tyendinaga, a reserve near Belleville, Ontario, expressed a similar sentiment: “The [MCA] council is operated through Canada, through Indian Affairs, which is a part of the federal government, and basically, they have to do what their employer tells them to do.”

But while many in Akwesasne see the Grand Chief of MCA as being ill-equipped to apply any meaningful pressure on the federal government, the CBSA’s impounding of Mohawks’ cars has certainly ruffled some feathers.

“If [CBSA is] going to vacate [the island] and there’s a vacuum [of governance,] then we have to make up the difference,” said Mitchell. “When Canada says that [Cornwall Island] is still sovereign Canadian territory, we would call a question to that because we see it as no longer a part of Canada’s jurisdiction. We’ve refrained from doing this because we put a lot of good faith in what we’ve undertaken in cooperation with Canada to find a peaceful resolution, but this action does not go in that direction any longer.”

10Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

HYDE PARK

HYDE PARK

Queering Montreal How a guerrilla gay bar can make a space safer for all Adam Wheeler

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he struggle for gay rights in Canada is over. Or at least that’s what many people would have you believe. Same-sex marriage and increasing legal recognitions for gays and lesbians have led many of us – queer and straight alike – to believe that society is becoming inclusive and accessible to all.

Of course this is far from the truth. Queers face discrimination and violence throughout even the most liberal and cosmopolitan of cities – Montreal included. And what about the queers who don’t live in the big city? Historically, marginalized communities have made their own spaces to live, love, and keep on truckin’ despite on-going oppression. Claiming these spaces and trying to make them safe for queers has always been a war, with “deviants” on one side and the “moral” masses on the other.

Fears that the homos, freaks, and fetishists moving in next door will drive down property values and corrupt the children are nothing short of timeless. Space always has been, and always will be, political. If the A-Side nightclub on St. Laurent claims to be inclusive, does that mean that it is? Of course not.

I don’t feel any safer there when someone calls me a fag than I do anywhere else.

So what does it mean to queer a space? In our heterosexist society where queers are still subjected to individual and structural violence, making a space specifically queerpositive aims to provide an escape from the everyday. Queer spaces – ideally – should be free of the gender and sexual policing and value systems that we face daily. They should offer us a place where everyone can express who they are and be validated for it.

Obviously, things don’t

always work out this way, and queer spaces may be unsafe in other ways – for example, by failing to challenge racism or classism. Addressing the complexity and intersectionality of oppressions and power dynamics in a space is always important, and queer spaces aim to create an environment where sexual and gender oppression (at the very least) are confronted and overturned.

This makes the whole thing sound incredibly abstract and theoretical, but it’s really quite simple: in a society that tells people who they should be, there’s nothing wrong with making space for people to be who they are.

So why this discussion all of a sudden? Queer McGill is holding a “Guerrilla Gay Bar” event tonight.

According to the event’s manifesto, the organizers “will take over a ‘hetero’ bar in Montreal for one night only… and recontextualize the bar – [one that] you might not otherwise check out – [turning it] into the queer scene you’ve always wanted.”

Deliberately queering spaces outside of the Village is incredibly important. If the Village is our only escape from heteronormativity, what does that say about how progressive our

society really is? It’s a neighbourhood that’s largely home to white, gay, non-trans men, and as such excludes the majority of the queer community.

We need to keep challenging bars, restaurants, and venues, both within the Village and beyond, to become more inclusive of all queers.

And what better way to challenge them than by bringing in a host of queers for a pervy party!

Adam Wheeler is a U1 Sociology student and the Political Action coordinator for Queer McGill.

For more information about the Guerrilla Gay Bar, write him at political.qm@gmail.com.

To be or not to be: composting on campus David Gray-Donald

O

ften rated the best university in the country based on its academic excellence, McGill has the opportunity on September 29 to build its reputation for practical projects that combine global thinking with local action.

The student group Gorilla Composting was formed in 2005 in response to the lack of composting facilities or processes on campus.

After working with Food Services and the Office of Sustainability, Gorilla Composting has recently proposed a system that would see food waste collected from McGill Residence kitchens delivered to a processing machine on campus, and then used as a fertilizer on campus grounds. This local solution reduces landfill space, carbon emissions from transport, and the need to purchase fertilizers, which are themselves carbon intensive. It is a win-win-win situation (unless you own a garbage hauling or fertilizer company).

Through running pilot programs, support and connections have grown with University Services, administrators, and academics. Years of work have gone into building awareness, working through the complexities of implementation, and finding funding from different levels of government. On September 29, University Services will very likely make a final yes/no decision on whether or not to compost on-campus.

Much of the capital cost of the project has been secured by Gorilla Composting with the help of SSMU, the Quebec Generations Pact, and other outside sources.

The key issue is not so much the up-front capital but how to fund the additional labour required each year to keep the program running.

Depending on who is contracted to do the work, the annual labour would cost between $11,000 and $40,000. With projected savings from waste disposal fees at around $4,000 per year, there will still be a certain financial burden to keep the project afloat.

Compared to many other projects, this could be an easy step toward building our reputation for

sustainability. While universities such as Concordia, Yale, UBC, Harvard, and U of T have gained international recognition for their campus projects and related academic collaborations, McGill has yet to find its place.

The folks at Food & Dining Services understand the “image” part of business, especially as food at McGill has had a dismal reputation for decades in external rankings like Maclean’s.

Not even salmon steaks and stoneoven-baked pizzas at New Rez have been enough to offset this image, though there might be a few snooty clients there.

This isn’t just about positive reputation. The municipal and provincial governments have both mandated that institutions divert 60 per cent of their waste from landfills by 2008. Few institutions have achieved that target yet (though Mountain Equipment Co-Op is above 90 per cent), which leaves room for us to become leaders. Composting is one important step toward and beyond compliance. It also shows students, alumni, and the public that local action is possible, and the University’s initiatives would encourage others to follow suit.

Gorilla Composting is handing this project over to University Services because it is time for composting to become a regular part of university life. They have the right people to make this a resounding success. Let’s hope McGill can engage its staff and students the way other schools have – University of Ottawa, for example, has a program where staff who have moneysaving ideas receive half the money saved. University Services has been very receptive and supportive of this composting project, though some of the details have yet to be worked out – in particular, the longterm labour costs. Let’s hope that on September 29, a functional composting system will be established for our campus.

David Gray-Donald is a U3 Environment and Biology student and also a coordinator for Gorilla Composting, but the views expressed here are his own. Write him at david.gray-donald@mail. mcgill.ca.

om discontent c . ily a with what you illd g c read? m s@ write r e t let a letter.

Claudine Benoit-Denault for The McGill Daily

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

11

HYDE PARK

Spock would have sung “Chicago” Manosij Majumdar

I

t was said in a recent Hyde Park that Engineering Frosh is sexist, based on the author’s reading of the (imprecisely quoted) “Chicago” song.

Engineering is a male-majority faculty, no doubt. Individual departments range from metals and materials (if you’ve met two girls from MetMat, you’ve met every girl in MetMat) to chemical (Fem. Eng, any one?). It is pointless to deny a fact, but I must protest that being a minority does not necessarily imply facing discrimination.

I recognize that a lot of shoddy anti-engineering career advice is given to girls in middle and high schools, and engineers resent this more than non-engineers possibly can. Some may not ascribe sensitivity or morality to us (because we are, after all, mostly straight men, which in contemporary culture makes us cavemen until proven innocent), but it’s undeniable that we have a maddening passion for impassionate reason. Engineering is by definition applied science as a profession, and prejudice is neither scientific nor professional. It requires the constant improvement of our state of knowledge to keep up with the

demands of increasingly more complex technological challenges, and our discipline is gravely disadvantaged by being denied access to half the talent pool.

If you think you’re angry because girls are being shooed away from coding and welding, you should consider how much more frustrating it is for us to see the progress of mankind impeded by illogicalities.

Our patron saint Spock is definitely a feminist, which does not keep him from being a hero to us straight male engineers. (Scoring Uhura?

With that haircut? While framing sentences like “I foresee a complication?” There is hope for the rest of us.)

In Frosh, though, we do go out of our Vulcan minds for a week or so, then repeat the performance at Blues Pub every Friday in the McConnell basement (plug, plug).

We diss universities we’d feel proud to go to, and we insult the very faculties we consider for grad school.

It’s all in good fun, and if even Management and the Bumblebees can figure that out, we don’t see how it’s so hard for you. Now comes the meat of this article – the main thrust, if you will.

Yes, it is sexist.

Like Russell Peters is racist and Ricky Gervais is an egotist. It’s sex-

Re: “The dregs of orientation” | Features | September 21 Last year, I attended AUS Frosh.

Did I drink more than I should have? Yes. Did I do some questionable things? Yes. Did I know what I was getting into? Yes. Anything I did during Frosh was my doing, and neither my Frosh leaders nor the institution of Frosh should be held responsible. Nobody was holding a gun to my head telling me to take that extra vodka shot. Frosh was a unique chance to indulge in some good-natured hedonism – an outlet, not a cause.

should live long and prosper. fans of Ina Fried’s column don’t really care very much that anyone is female, gay, or transgendered. A contributor is a contributor is a contributor.

Manosij Majumdar is a U3 Chemical Engineering student, a previous Engineering Frosh leader, a former EUS Representative to SSMU, and a former EUS Senator to SSMU. Write him at manosij.majumdar@mail. mcgill.ca.

I am so sad about the new Red Bull vending machine at the Athletics Centre.... We really don’t need more crappy food in this school.

Letters Stop beating a dead Frosh

ist in that ye ancient song that ye referred to is hilarious when you’re drunk and a bit fuzzy in the company of loud and happy folk, and it’s sexist in that we take it lying down from the girls just as we dish it out.

With all due respect to “Chicago,” “Godiva” is more the anthem for us, and if you read it in its glorious fullness you will find literary leering, alcoholism, infidelity, regionalism, and bestiality with anti-Arts, anti-Queens, and anti-U of T verses.

You will also find that many of the verses poke fun at engineers, and it ends with a sexist, ageist, and ableist verse sung by women engineers claiming higher levels of alcoholic prowess than men. We can and do separate the frivolous part of life from the thoughtful one.

Both female and male engineers Can’t you?

Straight male engineers know we can’t go at it alone if we are to humour, just as I do not apologize keep this Eternal September world for using the word “mankind” earfrom falling apart. We have the lier in this article or for our obsesutmost respect for the brilliance of sion with painstaking wordplay and our female colleagues in class and sci-fi references.

It’s easy to yell “sexist” (or “racin the office; we are deeply appreciative of the parents who encour- ist,” or “classist,” or “homophobic”), age their daughters to take up math and there’s really no concrete way and science, and the teachers and of disproving it. To paraphrase advisers who enforce that with pro- Wolfgang Pauli, that’s not right, and it’s not even wrong. All we can say gressive inspiration.

We do not, however, apologize is that engineers who revere Grace for our silly moments and bawdy Hopper and Alan Turing and are

Olivia Ferguson for The McGill Daily

Sexism hurts engineering, and, worse, is illogical

Adriana Celada “Red Bull gives you wings... and kidney problems”

After reading Noah Hansen’s article, the most recent in a series of Frosh-related tirades, I simply feel bad for Frosh organizers. They do their best to create something enjoyable and valuable for incoming students only to get ripped apart for not guaranteeing a perfectly PC experience for every single participant. As for Frosh being “childish,” groups of people getting together to drink and be rowdy is not a practice reserved for students new to the “world of adulthood and responsibility.”

A glance down Crescent on the night of a bachelor party should be enough to convince anyone that “grown-ups” can pull just as

many shenanigans as froshies.

I understand the need to examine critically the rituals in which we partake, but give Frosh a break. It’s a voluntary tradition that is obviously trying to evolve and adapt to the needs of students. Constructive criticism is great, not to mention necessary for that evolution, but the pounding that Frosh has been taking in The Daily since the beginning of the year is just getting mean-spirited. Find some new issues to beat to death. Thanks.

Emma A. H. Ryman U1 Philosophy

Red Bull gives you wings... and kidney problems I am so sad about the new Red Bull vending machine at the Athletics Centre. What is this place?

Don’t we know enough about all the terrible damage those beverages cause? We really don’t need more crappy food in this school.

This is an educational institution where people are supposed to act like they KNOW, not like the administration is earning a couple bucks for messing with student health. What a SHAME. Adriana Celada U2 Animal Biology

One two three four Uno dos tres cuatro I know you want me You know I wantcha Write for Commentary commentary@mcgilldaily.com

Do it now!!

Being on campus on car free day was relaxing and quiet. I don’t quite understand the problem with making campus car-free immediately – why do we have to wait until the “end of 2010?” Do it now!!

Julian Gitelman U3 Biology The Daily received more letters than it could print this issue. The rest will appear soon. Send your thoughts to letters@mcgilldaily.com from your McGill email address, and keep them to 300 words or less. The Daily does not print letters that are transphobic, or otherwise hateful.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

12

Get your fill of culture Quebec-wide festival provides free weekend pass to arts and entertainment The McGill Daily

T

he thirteenth edition of Les Journées de la culture is taking place all over Quebec this weekend, from Friday through Sunday. The festival promises a smorgasbord of over 2,200 free cultural events hosted by a plethora of the province’s art organizations.

The key word for us culture vultures on a student budget is “free” – on the menu are writing workshops, visual art, hip hop demonstrations, world music, theatre, architecture, and much more, all open to the public.

The activities vary from interactive, get-your-hands-dirty stuff, to performances, to discussions and conferences run by professionals and members of the artistic community.

While Les Journées de la culture is held throughout the province, Montreal is the hub of all that this weekend-long celebration of art and culture has to offer. The number of events on offer is almost overwhelming, so we at The Daily have given you some suggestions on where to begin. But don’t simply take our word for it; check out the rest of the program at journeesdelaculture.qc.ca.

Association for Contact Improvisation (contactimpro.org) In collaboration with Studio 303, an organization that aims to promote art and affordable work spaces for artists, the Association for Contact Improvisation is putting on an introductory workshop in contact improvisation. The movement, which began in the sixties in New York, is founded on a variety of artistic and athletic expressions including dance, martial arts, gymnastics, and psychocorporal work.

When the interactive workshops end, later in the afternoon, you can sit back and watch a show by the dance collective Performance Improvisation Exchange.

Sunday from 10:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Studio 303 is located at 373 Ste. Catherine O. Suite 303.

Chris & Alix Bijoux Couture (chris-alix.com) Chris & Alix Bijoux Couture is a duo of Montreal jewelers, Christine Loertscher and Alexandra Scherzer, who make handmade jewelry.

Chris and Alix are offering their expertise and artistry to all those who have broken or passé jewels lying around at home. Channel your inner artisan and receive a consultation with a professional in order to recycle and reuse your old junky pieces. It’s an ecologically-friendly way of repurposing your accessories – come with a broken pair of peacock feather earrings and leave with a necklace.

All graphics by Rebbecah Hartz for The McGill Daily

Tiana Reid

Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at Chat des artistes (2205 Parthenais, #317).

Cine-Peace Festival (cinepaix. fsq2009.org) In collaboration with the Forum Social Quebecois, a movement that aims to rethink our response to market conditions while encouraging social responsibility, the sixth annual Cine-Peace Festival will screen a collection of short films followed by a discussion with the directors. The festival offers visibility to young directors, while asking the audience to imagine, at the very least, an alternative to the global economic order. This year’s theme is “La jeunesse et la mondialisation,” or “Youth and Globalization.”

Films will discuss and critique the omnipresence of neoliberal globalization, while also considering topics like war and conflict resolution.

Friday 6:30 pm – 9 p.m. at UQAM’s Salle des Boiseries, 1435 St. Denis.

Circuit-Est, Choreographic Centre (circuit-est.qc.ca) Fortier Danse-Création, the Montreal dance group that’s home to internationally renowned dancemaker Paul-André Fortier, is opening a rehearsal of Cabane to the public. The work is a contemporary dance performance that takes place in a “disturbing universe removed from reality,” and uses installation art to take the audience on a voyage through unexpected locations, such as an indoor parking lot and a ballroom.

Friday 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. at Édifice Jean-Pierre-Perreault, 2022 Sherbrooke E. Circuit-Est is also putting on a public rehearsal by Le Carré des Lombes, a dance company led by one of Quebec’s most innovative choreographers, Danièle Desnoyers. A

more interactive experience, this event will give you insight into the making of and meaning behind a dance production, featuring explanations by Desnoyers and a discussion with her, the dancers, and the rehearsal directors.

Friday 4 p.m. – 5 p.m. at Espace St-Andre, 1881 St-André # 100.

site to discuss their future homes. In addition, there will be guided tours of the heritage site on which the project will be built, and a variety of urban performance pieces.

Saturday 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. at Brigide-de-Kildare Church, 1151 Alexandre-DeSève.

Festival Danse-Mur (dansemur. blogspot.com) City of Montreal, Borough Plateau-Mont-Royal Bike Tour (ville.montreal.qc.ca) Ride your own bike (or a rented Bixi) through the Plateau and MontRoyal to discover artists and cultural organizations alongside municipal representatives of the aforementioned districts. A bike tour is an environmentally-friendly way to discover these culturally-rich boroughs. This is also an opportunity to try out the Bixi phenomenon, a must-do before the weather turns frigid. Beware: cancelled in the event of rain.

Saturday and Sunday; 514-8685190 for information.

Co-op Radar (coopradar.ca) Co-op Radar is a project aimed at building a cooperative housing community for artists behind the Brigide-de-Kildare Church in VilleMarie. The proposed plan, already underway, is set to be finished at the beginning of 2011. The building will be composed of 42 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Learn more about this urban development project at Co-op Radar’s presentation of photographs, sketches, and architectural plans. Members and future residents of Co-op Radar will be on

Danse-Mur is an event consisting of urban artists collaborating to paint large murals at various Plateau locations. Buildings and walls will be painted or repainted in an attempt to beautify the neighbourhoods. The event will also

include conferences, speakers, dancers, and other artistic interventions. Artists contributing to the murals include Frank Lam, Zema, 500m, Peru, Sbire, Omen, Narc, and Bobo. Also sure to be interesting is the urban art conference with filmmaker and curator Pablo Arevena and anthropologist Raphaelle Proulx. Installations and dance performances feature the likes of Grasshoppa Dance Exchange, Francois Gourd, Soirée Rap Maudit, Chasing Bright Lights, and Le front d’action stupide.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday; see web site for specific locations and times.

Friperie La Gaillarde (friperielagaillarde.com) La Gaillarde is a non-profit clothing boutique that aims to provide ethical and ecologically-friendly clothing. Using recycled fabrics and materials, the clothing is made by local designers and bolsters the St-Henri economy. Start your afternoon off at 4:00 pm with a chic cocktail while browsing new collections. After mingling, set your eyes on the Fall/Winter collection in a fashion show featuring eco-designers Isabella Pasinato for Dita&bella, Tamara Rubilar for Estralla, Deborah Adams for Second Skin and Yana Gorbulsky for Supayana. The recent wrap-ups of New York and London fashion weeks ain’t got nothin’ on this.

Saturday 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. at 4019 Notre-Dame O.

Culture

13

Danji Buck-Moore for The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Rachel Bonneau vocal jazz trio with Eric Hove on saxaphone play at Diese Onze.

Open mic jazz: a primer Accomplished musicians, look no further – Montreal has the scene you need Stephanie Lopez Culture Writer

M

ontreal is the historic capital of jazz in Canada.

Having birthed a plethora of famous jazz musicians, including Oscar Peterson, the city’s modern jazz scene facilitates the training and discovery of dozens more, whether through its famous international jazz festival and its vibrant jazz bars.

With this legacy in mind, some find it intimidating to try and establish themselves among such illustrious predecessors. But what you jazz-heads may not know is that Montreal is home to neophytes as well as celebrities. Indeed, a handful of smaller venues host weekly open-mic jam sessions that anybody can attend, provided they can keep up. Stephanie Lopez explored a few of these venues; below are her findings.

Upstairs Upstairs hosts its weekly jam session on Monday nights at 10 p.m.

Though the venue’s $5 cover may discourage some, the friendly staff and décor – cozy brick walls and candlelight – make up for the price of admission.

Drummer Jim Doxas, who coordinates the weekly event, opens the

night’s proceedings with his trio, made up of saxophonist Cameron Wallace and bassist Adrian Vedady.

A successful studio musician with a career in recordings for film and commercials, Doxas has been in charge of the jam sessions for two years. The trio’s favoured style of jazz is contemporary, but still remains rooted in the music of the forties, fifties and sixties. The trio’s line-up, however, is in constant flux, changing every month so as to give other players a chance at a regular gig.

Doxas maintains that the level of proficiency expected by the venue is high. Despite its standards, however, Upstairs remains quite accessible to newcomers; of the 25 or so musicians present when I visited, Doxas only recognized 10 as regulars. This ensures fresh, diverse attendance every week, attracting students and professionals from all over Montreal.

As for figuring out whether firsttimers will meet his standards, Doxas relies on conversation to clue him into prospective players’ skill levels. “When you talk to [the musicians], hopefully you’ll find out about their capacity,” he explained.

“Sometimes it doesn’t happen,” he added, “but this is very rare; I have around one night every year where I have to stop the [jam] and move on.” Doxas considers music to be

a form of language, with jazz possessing a particular vocabulary. His job is to detect whether musicians understand this vocabulary well enough that they can successfully communicate live.

Diese Onze Every Tuesday, Diese Onze invites amateur musicians to its spacious Plateau locale to accompany its house band through a number of jazz standards. The venue is the exemplification of a jazz bar, beautifully decorated with yellowish lights and exposed brick walls. Diese Onze attracts an older crowd – its regulars are usually out of school and over 25. Matching the crowd are the musicians, whose abilities generally outdo the expectations at Upstairs, making these jam sessions particularly memorable, if not as accessible.

As with Upstairs, the evening starts out with the house band, made up of Alex Bellegarde on the bass, Eric St-Jean on the piano, and Martin Auguste on the drums. Though the band specializes in swing, Bellegarde admits to letting a Latin influence seep into his playing, informed by his love of Cuban music.

Having managed the Tuesday night jam for 10 consecutive years, Bellegarde believes that Diese Onze’s appeal rests in its warmth: “it feels like a friend’s house; it’s an

intimate space. Additionally, it is uniquely jazz.”

At Diese Onze, I ran into a musician that I saw at various venues throughout the week, Alfonso Arzoz. A young electric bass player, he’s recently moved from Mexico to Montreal and has already gotten involved in the jazz scene, making Diese Onze his home base.

When asked about the process of playing open-mic nights, Arzoz says, “you can come and talk to Alex. There are different ways; it’s usually first come, first served.”

With regard to the preconditions for playing at an improv session, “the requirements are implicit,” notes Arzoz. “You need to have the necessary knowledge of basic tunes.

Basically, if you do not know them, do not even try to participate.”

Commenting on his own selection criteria, Bellegarde claimed that he could get a sense of musicians upon spotting them. “There needs to be common harmony and tonality between the musicians for a successful improvisation session.... The jam needs to maintain the same quality as the set played by the house band.”

Grumpy’s

this spot attracts a big student crowd from McGill and nearby Concordia.

Grumpy’s is more than a jazz bar – the venue also hosts blues, bluegrass, and poetry nights. The spot is homey, not posh. I felt like I was in a friend’s basement, with the bookshelf behind the stage, the old piano, and the soft lighting.

The guy running the soirée, Tom Eliosoff, acts as the house band’s leader and guitarist, pointing their jams in a bee-bop direction. The open jams, however, run freer here than elsewhere, accommodating for a wider skill range than either Upstairs or Diese Onze.

The student-filled crowd informs the feeling of the open-mic nights.

Not only are the evening’s contributors younger, but the house band’s members are as well. The atmosphere is also far more relaxed, clearing the way for mid-set conversations.

Of course, there are other options open to eager student musicians. To learn more about jam sessions, I suggest consulting Voir, which runs a list of weekly openmics. Otherwise, feel free to talk to other musicians. Get out into the world. The more people you meet, the more venues you’ll discover.

Last on the list is Grumpy’s, where the open-mic nights happen Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. Located on Bishop south of Ste. Catherine,

Upstairs is located at 1254 MacKay; Diese Onze is at 4115-A St. Denis; Grumpy’s is at 1242 Bishop.

16Photo Essay

Jamie Ross A visit to the ninth annual Akwesasne International PowWow on Cornwall Island.

The McGill Daily, Thursday, September 24, 2009