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News

3

Miranda Whist for The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

ASSÉ protest draws 500 Students, profs take to the street to protest Bills 38 and 44 Humera Jabir The McGill Daily

F

ive hundred demonstrators took to the streets last Thursday to protest Provincial Bills 38 and 44 – legislation that will change how Quebec’s universities and CEGEPs are governed. The demonstration is the largest to date on the issue, uniting multiple college and university associations that represent over 130,000 individuals.

The demonstration was organized by the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), with official participation from the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d’université, Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ), the Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique, and the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TACEQ) – of which SSMU is a founding member.

Students, professors, and staff from across the province were in attendance. Buses brought students from Outaouais, Sherbrooke, and Quebec City, while students at CEGEP Marie-Victorin in northeast Montreal missed classes and went on strike for the day to protest the proposed legislation.

McGill students were also present, though VP External Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan noted that SSMU did not organize a specific meeting place for students.

“We didn’t organize a place for

all of us to come as one group, but I definitely had a pretty successful postering campaign, so the message is definitely out there...through Facebook, the [SSMU] web site, and the [SSMU] list serv, and so students were aware of it,” he said, adding, “I think that ultimately [this] affects McGill and that we should act in solidarity with our counterparts in other universities, with the unions that work in our schools, and universities.”

If passed, Bills 38 and 44 will change the composition of Quebec university and CEGEP boards of governors. Bill 38 requires that independent members compose 60 per cent of universities’ boards, in addition to an appointed government representative, while Bill 44 adopts a 65 per cent independent quota for CEGEPs. Both types of institutions would also have to adopt strict rules on the disclosure of public information.

While the Ministry of Education believes that the changes will improve governance and transparency, others see the legislation as a sign of further private and commercial control of the province’s educational institutions.

Demonstrators chanted, “Le savoir n’est pas marchandise; l’école n’est pas une entreprise,” as they marched along Ste. Catherine through downtown Montreal. Some students dressed in suits, ties, and white masks marked with dollar signs. Others handed out newsletters informing bystanders of the

reasons for the demonstration.

Mathieu Melamcon, a graduate of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and vocal demonstrator, commented, “We thought that this was completely illegitimate to put private institutions at the head of our universities because those people have no idea how to run our colleges. We prefer to have public institutions that are ruled by public servants because those people have the…[incentives] to search for our best interests, and not the [profitability] of our institutions – which is not in our opinion a business.”

Jean Trudelle of FNEEQ, a union of CEGEP teachers, part-time university teachers, and graduate students employed at McGill, also joined the demonstration. He commented that the changes would drastically alter how CEGEPs and universities are governed.

“The institutions are governed based on group participation of teachers, support staff, and professors, and also students. All those groups have in a way or another, access to the way things are run….

[The Ministry of Education] want to restrain the participation of people from the inside, to the profit of people from the outside...and we all think that [institutions] should be governed the other way around,” Trudelle said.

Vaughan Dowie, Executive Head of Public Affairs at McGill, commented that while McGill already has more than 60 per cent independent representation on its board of

governors, Bill 38 could have serious implications for student representation. The bill also legislates how long each member is required to serve: three years for members, and two years for students.

“The McGill tradition has been that the presidents of SSMU and the McGill Post-Graduate Students’ Society have seats for one year – and if it’s two years, that might mean that the current president of the society would not be able to sit on the board,” said Dowie.

Minister of Education Michelle Courchesne introduced the bills in an effort to bring sound governance to all public institutions. The legislation is viewed by many as a response to the mismanagement of real estate by UQAM’s board of governors, which resulted in $400million bailout by the provincial government.

Jonathan Rioux, External Affairs coordinator for the Association étudiante du Secteur des sciences de l’UQAM argued, however, that the legislation is not an appropriate response to the UQAM debacle.

“It is very ironic. I know they say that it is a reaction to UQAM being $400 million in debt, but as you can see, in most of the news, the people who voted for the acquisition were the external members. The internal members, students and teachers, voted against,” Rioux said, adding “Unlike companies, universities are made to create knowledge, and act toward tomorrow’s society, so it is very important that the people who

take action are directly connected to the reality of the university. You cannot ask people who work nine to five to make decisions that won’t be influenced by [their] positions.”

The Ministry of Education held a consultation on the bills this month.

Kim Ledoux, spokesperson for the Ministry, said in an interview after the protest that Courchesne took opposition into account.

“She listened carefully to all the groups, she is open to some modifications and changes, and she indicated this many times, when the consultations were happening. The majority of the groups are agreed with the principles of the bills,” said Ledoux.

Demonstration organizers Christian Pépin and Étienne Guérette for ASSÉ said, however, that they were unsatisfied with the consultations and that there was too much opposition for the bills to go forward.

“I think if we don’t get the Minister’s attention now, that that will demonstrate that she is not listening to people who are doing the CEGEP and university, and that will show her arrogance toward the union movement and student association movement,” Guérette said.

Guérette also speculated that given the Liberal majority in the National Assembly, many expect that the bills will pass. In that case, Guérette promised a larger mobilization, and that student unions will continue to challenge the legislation at their respective councils.

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News

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

5

McGill hosts Angela Davis Academic and activist draws hundreds to talk on the criminalization of race

Emilio Comay del Junto News Writer

H

undreds of students, staff, and community members packed into the Leacock auditorium Thursday evening for a speech by renowned activist and philosopher Angela Davis.

Part of a Media@McGill speaker series, Davis’ speech on what she called the “criminalization of race” attracted such a large turnout that organizers had to open two other rooms in the building so audience members could watch a live broadcast of the speech.

Davis launched her talk with a discussion of the January 1 shooting of Oscar Grant. Grant, a 22-year-old African-American man from Davis’ home town of Oakland, California was unarmed and had been forced

to the ground when he was shot in the back by transit police.

Davis used the Grant’s case to frame her remarks, citing “the ubiquity of surveillance, and the relationship between media and surveillance” as well as how “actors on both sides of the criminal legal system attempted to deploy emerging forms of new media.”

After outlining the details of Grant’s shooting, Davis talked about the unique activism and extensive video surrounding the event, while also linking it with a “long history of racial violence.”

Davis, who teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz, became well known in the sixties and seventies as a civil rights leader and Black Power activist.

She was charged with murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping in 1971 after a gun registered in her name

was connected with the kidnapping and killing of a federal judge by the Black Panthers, but was acquitted in a trial following international public outcry.

Davis described her experience of “being attuned to the absence of black televisual representation” as a child growing up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. She went on to explain, “There was a major exception to that mediated invisibility...which was the hypervisibility of black criminality. Most photographs of black people in the white press were mug shots.”

Describing the origins of the “symbiotic relationship of racialization and criminalization”, Davis highlighted the implementation of “black codes” in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. She described vagrancy, absence from work, breach of job contracts,

Olivia Davis/ The McGill Daily

and possession of firearms as acts that were criminalized only when the person charged was black.

Returning to the present, Davis applied the “notion of imputing crime to colour” to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and noted that while many white people who took things from stores were described as foragers, black people were described as looters.

Davis emphasized that racial profiling by police is not an irrational holdover from forms of racism that have otherwise been abolished.

“The constant monitoring and surveillance of communities of colour by law enforcement and penal systems, oftentimes assisted by the media, continues to reflect the degree to which populations of colour are seen as a threat.”

Instead of these forms of policing, Davis suggested the need for

“jobs and education and recreation and health care.”

Concordia political science student Clio Windust said that Davis had “mellowed compared to her earlier writing.”

Windust added that speakers like Davis play a crucial role in North American discourse because “there are still a lot of problems in the U.S. It hasn’t gone away, just improved a bit.”

Davis said that there is currently a “new opening, a new historical conjuncture.... I want to encourage us to build communities of resistance and to use alternative media, dominant media when possible, to bring together academics and activists and artists and labour organizers to create transnational solidarity that reaches across nation and race and gender and sexuality.”

Choose Life cancels “Echoes of the Holocaust” Decision follows SSMU Council censure of the club’s proposed pro-life event Naomi Endicott News Writer

S

SMU Council voted 15 for and two against with two abstentions this Thursday to censure a Choose Life event, “Echoes of the Holocaust.” The club had invited Jose Ruba from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform to give the talk, that many believe would violate SSMU’s Constitution and Equity Policy. It was argued that the talk would slander women who had decided to have abortions, and belittle atrocities committed by the Nazis.

The motion included a clause that would render the club ineligble for SSMU funding if they followed

through with the event.

During the debate, VP Clubs and Services Sarah Olle, who co-authered the motion with Arts Senator Sarah Woolf argued that likening the Holocaust to abortion – and comparing post-abortive women to Nazis – violated human dignity, and that the comparison was disrespectful to Jews and other communities.

“Respecting human life also means respecting the dead,” Olle said, later adding, “This event seeks to use the millions of dead in the Holocaust to manipulate emotions."

Clubs and Services Representative Corey Omer also took issue with the premise of the event, suggesting that Ruba’s

reference to the Holocaust would not be academic but rather aimed to shock and appeal to emotion.

Omer noted that other SSMU clubs, including Hillel McGill, had petitioned against the event.

Choose Life President Natalie Fohl, however, argued that the event would not seek to compare the Holocaust with abortion, as they are two events which “cannot be quantified or compared in any way." Instead, Fohl said that the talk would confront the question of whether unborn children are dehumanized by the medical profession in a similar way to that in which the Nazi regime dehumanized Jews. Fohl added that the prohibition of this event would be an abuse of SSMU’s power.

VP External Sebastian RonderosMorgan took issue with the graphic images of fetuses that would be used

by Ruba during his presentation.

Ronderos-Morgan felt Choose Life had broken a verbal commitment made last autumn to not use disturbing visuals. “[It is a] shame they have misled Council,” Ronderos-Morgan said.

“I would speak in favour of this motion."

However, Law Rep Joël Lightbound and Residences Rep Mark Bay expressed concern that a censure would limit the opportunity for discussion on campus. Olle also explained that because the event was scheduled outside Shatner and was not sponsored using SSMU funds, the Society could

not directly censure the event.

Following Council, Olle explained that she helped to put forward the resolution to show SSMU’s stance against the event.

On Friday, Fohl confirmed that the talk was cancelled, but emphasized that the decision to cancel was not a direct response to SSMU’s decision, which the club opposed as a restriction of the right to freedom of expression.

She said the decision had been made voluntarily given that the majority of her club’s membership felt it was not the right time to hold the presentation. Though Fohl indicated the threat to the club’s funding was considered in their decision, she said the club has never received funding from SSMU.

6 News

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

Quebec Commission levies heavy fine Chinese immigrant workers awarded $164,000 in damages Laurin Liu News Writer

T

he Quebec Human Rights Commission ruled this September that 15 Chinese workers should receive $164,000 in damages from their employer, Calego International, for racial discrimination in the workplace. It is the heaviest fine to be levied by the Commission in a human rights case to date.

The Commission asked that $10,000 be paid in moral and punitive damages to each worker and $5,000 paid to two workers who were forcibly thrown off the company’s premises in plain view of coworkers.

The incident took place in July 2006, when a group of 40 employees were called into a meeting with Calego International’s president, Stephen Rapps. The workers testified to the Commission that Rapps yelled at them, saying, “You Chinese eat like pigs!”

He Yong Han, a former employee and Chinese immigrant now residing in Montreal, reported to The Daily that Rapps told the workers to wash themselves daily, and that they were no longer in China.

He said that Rapps chastised the workers for unsanitary work conditions, warning them not to get urine on the floor when using the toilet.

Of all the employees at Calego International, the Chinese workers

were the only ones who were called to the meeting.

He reported further that workers walked out immediately after, returning the next day to demand a written apology from Rapps, a cleaner work environment (workers say that at the time, there were no janitorial staff working), and compensation for what they saw as discriminatory actions. The demands were turned down, leading many of the workers to quit their jobs.

The workers then filed a complaint through the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

Calego International is a Montreal-based children’s backpack and accessories manufacturer.

Rapps, a supervisor, and Agence

Vincent, the placement agency through which the Chinese workers were hired, will share the payment of damages.

Julius Grey, the lawyer who represents Calego International, has denied that the incident took place.

Despite the fact that the fine is the largest sum that the Quebec Human Rights Commission has recommended in a racism case, Fo Niemi of CRARR, who helped these workers file their complaint, stated that the amount is less significant when the amount of damages awarded to each individual worker is considered.

“This may be why discrimination still goes on, because if we had the kind of damages awarded as in

the United States, where we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, many people would think twice before committing racial discrimination,” Niemi said.

The former Calego employees have received support from the Montreal Chinese community, in the form of encouragement, assistance, and monetary aid. The Montreal Chinese Cultural Centre helped the workers find lawyers and gather information for their case.

Niemi notes that very few complaints are filed from people of Asian backgrounds, although Asian workers are a large number of the immigrant workers who are often forced to work in substandard conditions.

NEWS BRIEF The Trib’s Status

At SSMU Council Thursday, VP Clubs and Services Sarah Olle announced that a referendum question to finance an independent McGill Tribune has been pushed back to next term.

In an interview after the event, Olle explained that the Tribune had not been able to complete the necessary work to hold the referendum this term, as originally planned.

“The Tribune has to incorporate, but that hasn’t been initiated. Their final budget hasnt been figured out because they haven’t [determined] what’s needed in terms of permanent staff to figure out their fee [on the referendum question],” Olle said.

When asked about the delay, the Tribune’s Editor-in-Chief Thomas Quail was not worried.

“As it stands now, it doesn’t seem to be a problem.... It’s a matter of time,” Quail said.

If the referendum is approved by students, the question will then be presented at the Board of Governors, McGill’s highest ruling body. Olle said that “ideally” the Tribune will be independent in September 2010.

At Council, VP Internal Alex Brown’s resolution regarding the waste generated from student poster campaigns also passed, changing a by-law to reduce the amount of posters students can put up during campaign period. Brown celebrated the resolution’s success by saying, “Someone tell The Daily!”

— Naomi Endicott

Off-Campus Eye

Amnesty petitions for Gaza Photo by Victor Tangermann Last Thursday, volunteers outside Berri-UQAM metro Amnesty International asked passersby to stop and sign a petition demanding an end to the Israeli military’s ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. In recent months, Amnesty has criticized both Gaza’s Hamasled government and the government of Israel for violations of the laws of war during last January’s spate of violence in the region. A UN report leaked to the British press last week stated that the effect of the

blockade on the people of Gaza has been “a gradual process of de-development across all sectors, devastating livelihoods, increasing unemployment and resulting in increased aid dependency.” Seventy per cent of Gazans live on less than a dollar per day, and 60 per cent do not have day-to-day access to drinkable water.

—Niko Block

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

Tuition skyrockets amidst state’s financial turmoil Kallee Lins News Writer

S

eptember 24, the first day of classes at most California universities, was marked by a state-wide walkout. Tens of thousands of students protested a 32 per cent fee increase announced in July for the 2009-2010 academic year in the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems.

Olgalia Ramirez, Director of Government Relations for the California State Student Association, explained that rising tuition fees are largely a reaction to the recent funding cuts to the state’s public university systems.

“Little or no notice was given to the students,” Ramirez said. “The decision was made in the summer, after [the students] had left school in the spring paying the usual fees.”

Victor Sanchez, president of the University of California Student Association, said that students there have faced a 100 per cent tuition increase since 2003.

“The problem goes a lot deeper; there has been an $800-million reduction to the UC budget since 2008.”

Students in the UC and CSU systems, the latter of which accommodates a larger student population, had been warned of a 10 per cent fee increase in May, but an additional increase of 22 per cent was announced in July.

Students in groups like UC Berkeley’s Solidarity Alliance began mobilizing prior to the announcement, as the pressures facing the

UC system became increasingly evident when the state’s public finances began to fall into disarray last spring.

Ricardo Gomez, a third-year UC Berkeley student and member of the Solidarity Alliance, began a web site called berkeleycuts.org, and a Facebook group, in order to bring attention to the issue and appeal to different student associations for action.

Gomez’s efforts, in conjunction with those of other student activists, resulted in the Senate of the Associated Students of University of California unanimously passing a bill in support of the walkout.

“There’s been a snowball effect among teachers, students, and union members, culminating in a walkout that was 5,000-strong [on the Berkeley campus],” said Gomez.

Sahcnez explained that the state’s mid-September announcement that faculty members would be forced to take unpaid furlough days galvanized student protests across the state.

“The student action actually began with the plan to implement furloughs, so the idea really started with faculty and university unions.

By the time [students] realized there were plans to increase our student fees by 32 per cent, we thought this was our opportunity to take action and engage with the public,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez also referenced the workforce shortage that is slated to hit California around 2025.

“It’s not only higher education that’s at stake, it’s the future of California.”

Ramirez said that the university

system is not producing enough graduating students to keep up with the demands of the workforce – a situation that will only be exacerbated by the funding cuts as increasing numbers of students are unable to afford post-secondary education.

This fee increase can be traced back to the $26.3-billion deficit facing the state of California in the 2009-2010 year, which resulted in a deficit within the state-held general fund from which money is directed to both the UC and the CSU systems.

Due to this funding deficit, the CSU Board of Trustees and the UC Board of Regents decided to implement the fee hikes to compensate for the lack of funds.

“We have limited discretionary funds from the State. That’s the pot we draw our funds from,” said Ramirez.

A decade ago, the state provided about $600 million more to the UC and CSU systems than it provides today, even though the CSU alone has taken on 100,000 more students within that time period.

The recently implemented furloughs will save the CSU system an estimated $275 million annually.

But that also means students will get less time with their professors.

“I’ve already faced a whole bunch of cuts to class offerings. About 10 to 20 per cent of the classes have been cut,” said Gomez.

Many staff members have also been laid off. Gomez said that campus cleanliness is beginning to deteriorate due to the limited number of employees.

Sanchez echoed Gomez’s concern saying, “Most students would

say we’re paying more for less.”

This lack of state funding in education is more of a hot-button issue in California than in most other states. In the sixties, the California legislature adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education that articulated the state’s commitment to its higher education system. It has gone through multiple revisions since its original drafting, and was most recently reviewed in 2002.

“The Master Plan for Higher Education promised to make California education affordable, accessible, and of quality. We see California turning their backs on that promise,” said Ramirez.

Though faced with many challenges accompanying this year’s fee increase, students across the state are beginning to see the benefits of student activism. Prior to the 32 per cent fee hike announcement, students in the CSU system had successfully lobbied for student aid to remain intact amidst the deficit budget. As a result, the CSU will reserve one-third of the revenue from fee increases for financial aid.

“Students need to organize,” said Gomez. “There are more students than there are faculty members, more students than there are administrators. It just takes commitment, effort, and energy.”

Though no further fee hikes are likely to be announced this year, Ramirez spoke of the possibility of students’ associations from all three levels of the university system – the University of California, California State University, and the community colleges – coming together in collective action this spring.

Waste management firm sued Locals accuse GSI of neglect and mismanagement of landfills Shirine Aouad News Writer

G

SI Environment, a company specializing in organic waste management, is facing charges for a number of violations of the Environment Quality Act. The Quebec Ministry of Environment has decided to sue the company for the contamination of GSI’s waste treatment sites, as well as in response to civilian complaints about the stench emanating from their landfills.

L’Ange-Gardien, an Outaouais municipality, is only one of the communities affected by GSI’s apparent neglect of the composting sites. The municipality has request-

ed an injunction from the Quebec Superior Court to either force the company to abide by environmental regulations or to discontinue their operations.

Alain Descarreaux, the General Manager of the municipality, said that the company has not been active at the location for over a year.

“What pushed us to take legal action was the smell. We received a number of complaints from residents located near the site,” explained Descarreaux.

The treatment site has fallen into disrepair since GSI abandoned it – a problem linked to the presence of non-compostable materials such as septic waste, plastic bags, and “garbage juice.”

“They’ve stopped using the fac-

tory and receiving waste products,” said Descarreaux. “I think the principal issue was that the company received larger quantities [of waste] than what it was able to manage on site. With so much accumulating, there was no way all materials could be treated inside the plant.”

Steve McLeod, founder of Compost Montreal, an independent composting service, is concerned that corporate endeavours in waste management do not prioritize sustainability.

“If the motivation is economic or political, then the results are not going to be as ecologically friendly as they could be. We’re trying to increase the amount of [waste] treatment infrastructure and instead we’re facing massive reductions [in the quality of waste treatment] because of contamination issues.”

GSI also faces charges of environmental infractions stemming from complaints of mismanagement

of its landfills in the communities of Lachute and Saint-Basile.

McLeod mentioned that systemic neglect and improper aeration is a likely cause for the smells associated with composting. “It’s a risk we’re all running if we’re not paying attention to how we’re doing things,” he added.

McLeod also commented on L’Ange-Gardien’s initiative to have the site closed.

“I would rather not see the city’s passive involvement. We should be paying attention to the quality of what comes out [of the site] to create demand for the compost. At the end of the day, we’re still a capitalist society. We need to find a balance between the economic and the ecological.”

The company officially remains in operation, and is expected to resume management of its sites.

GSI, a subdivision of EnGlobe Corporations, was unavailable for comment.

WHAT’S THE HAPS

California students protest fee hikes

7

Young Defenders: An Evening with Chrissy Swain of the Grassy Narrows First Nation Tuesday, October 6, 7 p.m.

Chrissy Swain will speak about ongoing efforts against logging and mining in her community. She helped to begin a logging blockade in 2002, and will have just completed the 1,800 km walk for Mother Earth from Grassy Narrows to Ottawa. The film The Scars of Mercury will also be shown. Presented by the Indigenous Solidarity Movement. Free.

Controversial Events Town Hall Meeting Thursday, October 8, 5:30 p.m.

Shatner, Lev Buckman Room Co-hosted by Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson and VP Clubs and Servies Sarah Olle, the town hall will provide an open forum for students, SSMU, and McGill administration to discuss what events should be allowed on campus. Issues of freedom of expression and safe space will be discussed.

Dr. Yuri Melini: Human Rights Activist Speaks Friday, October 9, 2:30 p.m.

Peterson Hall, 3460 McTavish Dr. Yuri Melini, Director of the Centre of Legal Action in Environment and Social Issues (CALAS), will discuss environmental activism and the need to regulate Canadian mining abroad. He survived an attempt on his life in 2008 for his environmental work. In June 2008, CALAS won a case in Guatemala’s Constitutional Court to change opencast mining laws in the country.

The Quebec Social Forum Thursday, October 8 – Monday, October 12 CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal Over the course of five days, more than 380 activities will be presented: workshops on aboriginal residential schools, youth in MontréalNord, the issues of secularism, the development of wind energy, the future of Quebec’s regions, nuclear development.

Six symposiums will be held with international panelists such as French philosopher Albert Jacquard and Aminata Touré, Malian community activist. Registration $25.

Visit fsq2009.org

The Rabbit Hole Café: Vegan Collective Kitchen Every Friday, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Yellow Door, 3625 Aylmer The Rabbit Hole Café is a vegan collective kitchen that runs every Friday. Meals are provided from 12:30 – 3:30 p.m. for a suggested donation of $2. Meals are provided with the help of Yellow Door volunteers. For more information, you can visit yellowdoor.org

Letters

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

8

I don’t know many women who have undergone abortion who have also attempted to invade Poland.

Sana Khawaja Saeed Master’s I Islamic Studies

The right to remain stupid I’m not a supporter of Choose Life, but I do agree with their right to exist on campus, as a SSMU club – or rather a group of their sort. My last boyfriend, Voltaire, said it best when he said that he may not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. Cutting off Choose Life would be, in my opinion, somewhat similar to the ridiculous campaign working on cutting off financial support to QPIRG. I don’t agree with all the events held by QPIRG, but I agree with their mission to give voice and venue to otherwise marginalized voices. I don’t agree with Choose Life (neither with their name nor with their, ironically enough, morally reprehensible tactics) but I do believe that such a group should be given the right to exist on campus because we are in an academic setting that requires debate for intellectual and personal growth.

What I also do not agree with is the group’s monolithically religious and

aggressive nature. Actually, the more I write, the more I realize how I don’t like anything about the group. Damn, sons. An anti-abortion group has the right to be on campus and have our support; it does not, however, have the right to implicate those who have undergone abortion as Nazis. I don’t know many women who have undergone abortion who have also attempted to invade Poland. Choose Life needs to rethink its tactics and nature. If you want men and women to rethink abortion, how about adopting a new, less aggressive approach?

How about some intelligent engagement? Photos of aborted fetuses and signs of regret from those who have had abortions clearly hasn’t worked out well – why not try something new? Repetition of failed attempts is just a sign of stupidity anyway. Oh wait. Never mind. Obvious stated.

Sana Khawaja Saeed Master’s I Islamic Studies Daily columnist

Birks: Where better to fuck with the papacy?

Re: “Dress code flouted in Birks Chapel” | Compendium! | September 28 The “campus pagans” who are cited in the “serious news” article of September 28 are following a long tradition of “thumb[ing] their noses at the papacy” in the halls of the Birks Building. The building began life as a Methodist college, and the faculty of religious studies continues to have strong ties with the United, Presbyterian, and Anglican theological colleges. There is a certain view of history that sees such Protestant denominations as “thumbing” their noses at the papacy in the theological sense, so the “campus pagans” were certainly in good company.

Daniel Simeone Master’s I History President of PGSS

Zoog rambles incoherently Re: Pop Montreal | Culture | September 28 Hello Daily, Hello World, Hello Alternate Worlds?

Reading the Pop Montreal insert, I discovered a tear in the fabric of reality....

The student bands playing also exist in an alternate universe....

Everyone wears funny hats and speaks in tongues.... Daily, was this a figment of my imagination? Am I committable, or a prophet of the imminent musical paradise?! Will co-conspirators follow us into this unknown void/heaven on earth?

Will we find the so-long-sought-after alien civilizations? Will we come back whole, or will our atoms be reconstituted by mysterious providence?!?!?!

With these queries and many more, yours sincerely until the coming end of time, Zoog Devon Welsh U3 Religious Studies, Drama & Theatre

The Dark Motorcyclist rides again Re: “Tasers overused and unreliable” | News | September 24 Hello Daily, Has John Lapsley considered the entertainment value of these tasers?

How could we expect a policeman to go mad from boredom without the handy taser, man’s best friend?

“The Dark Motorcyclist” Devon Welsh U3 Religious Studies, Drama & Theatre

Pissed off? Pleased by what you read? Tell us about it. Send your thoughts to letters@mcgilldaily.com from your McGill email address, and keep them to 300 words or less.

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Call for Referendum Questions!

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Student Initiated Referendum Petitions can be found at electionsmcgill.ca

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All petitions are due at 16:00 on October 16 Shatner, room 405 (514) 398-6474 elections@ssmu.mcgill.ca

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

9

Can you keep a brain alive in a jar?

The Split Brain Daniel Lametti

I

n Roald Dahl’s 1966 short story, “William and Mary,” before the main character William dies of cancer, he writes his wife Mary a letter to be opened seven days after his death. When the time comes, Mary is hesitant to read it. William wasn’t a very affectionate husband and she figures the letter might be filled with a list of instructions on how she should live her life without him: “Don’t smoke, be thrifty with your money, don’t drink cocktails.”

But the length of the letter, some 15 pages, intrigues her – a list of instructions would surely be much shorter.

And so she decides to read it.

While he was lying in his death bed one day, wrote William, a neurosurgeon named Landy came to visit him with a proposal: when William dies, Landy wants to remove his brain from his body and, by attaching the appropriate veins and arteries to an artificial heart, keep it “alive,” floating in a white basin

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of saline solution. At first, William thinks the idea is crazy – why would he want his brain kept alive if he cannot talk, hear, see, or feel? “We’ll leave one eyeball attached,” retorts Landy, emphasizing that, as simply a brain and an eyeball, William will have few sensory distractions and thus great clarity of thought.

William is eventually convinced, and at the end of the letter he leaves instructions for Mary to come visit him in Landy’s laboratory. Without spoiling the rest of the story, I’ll simply say that Mary does go to visit her husband in his basin and, in classic Dahl fashion, the ending has a disturbing twist. After reading the story this past weekend, the idea of keeping a dissected brain alive had piqued my interest and so I decided to research the topic. As it turns out, the experiment has been done – not with humans, but with monkeys.

In 1963, Dr. Robert J. White,

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technology run completely mad,” an enraged scientist reported to the BBC in 2001 when asked about White’s experiment.

These days, White, now 84 and retired, spends his time drinking Diet Coke in a Cleveland McDonald’s, sharing his stories of transplanting monkey brains with anyone who is willing to listen. A

surprise ending to an illustrious scientific career – an ending that not even Roald Dahl would’ve have guessed.

Daniel’s column will appear every other week. Send your final deathbed instructions to thesplitbrain@ mcgilldaily.com. Don’t worry, he’ll leave one eyeball attached.

Electronic medical assistants helpful but not always effective Marzieh Ghiasi

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Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

Diagnosis gone digital The McGill Daily

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a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital, removed the brains of several monkeys and attached them to artificial circulatory systems. In the experiment, used blood dripped from the isolated monkey brain into an oxygenator; from the oxygenator it ran through a pump that pushed it back into the brain via tubes connected to the monkey’s carotid arteries – the main arteries that supply the brain with blood. With the oxygenator and pump humming along, the exposed brain – remarkably – appeared to show signs of life. That is, electrodes placed on the brain’s surface recorded signs of neural activity.

Of course, since brains on their own have no way to communicate with the outside world, White couldn’t tell whether they were actually conscious. To test this, in 1970, he removed the entire head of one monkey and attached it to the body of another monkey. “It woke up and almost bit me,” White said in an interview. “It moved the muscles in its face. It blinked its eyes. It chewed on pencils.” Or, in the words of Mary Shelley, “It was alive!”

In 2001, White repeated the experiment and showed that the transplanted head was not only conscious, but that it could see, hear, taste, and smell. “This is medical

lmost every field has adopted digital technology, and medicine is no exception. However, the transformation of health informatics in the past decade has not simply been a change in tools of the trade, but a change in the very way knowledge is acquired and applied.

As a discipline that brings together health care and information science, health informatics is involved in setting up resources like search engines that doctors can use to retrieve clinical data. These tools can be grouped into two categories – information retrieval systems (IRS) and clinical decision support systems (CDSS).

Pierre Pluye, a physician and associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University, investigates these electronic resources. He explained how IRS provide a way to filter the staggering amount of available information down to only the most

relevant.

“There are 57 million abstracts on Medline [an online biomedical database]. Physicians do not have time [to read every single one]… because basically you would have to read 24 hours a day, seven days a week just to keep updated,” said Pluye.

CDSS differ from IRS in that they provide patient-specific information. Clinicians can use calculator-type programs that look at a patient’s history to determine their likelihood of contracting diseases or experiencing medical complications.

Still, the existence of such readily available information can create tension in the clinical setting. The digital diagnoses sometimes conflict with the clinician’s assessment and experience. But Pluye points out that physicians are under no obligation to incorporate new information into their practice.

“All physicians know tools like Medline…[but] a study by researcher Marc Berg found that often physicians will turn the tool off when they disagree with it,” said Pluye.

At other times, recommendations provided by digital support systems clash with peer or hospital policies.

“You have to talk to your peers, your group, consult with them, ask, ‘Do we want to do this?’” Pluye said.

While some studies have indicated that decision support systems improve practitioner performance, these tools have yet to be adopted on a larger scale, and clinicians still seem skeptical. A 2005 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that effects of these decision-making systems on medical outcomes are still inconclusive.

Pluye makes certain to note, however, that clinicians are much more likely to use technology to look up comparable medical research rather than to base a clinical decision on the results.

“There is something appealing about the myth of automatic medicine. The patient enters the room, you enter the information, and results appear,” Pluye said. “It’s not like that at all. There are very

few decision support systems…. In daily practice, people use the information retrieval systems.”

Recently, artificial intelligence technologies have been developed to aggregate relevant data faster, and to learn from patient histories and diagnoses to improve future results. How the field of medicine and the role of physicians will accommodate and adapt to this new technology remains to be seen.

With more patients using online information sources, and physicians using electronic knowledge resources, the dynamic of physician-patient relationships has changed. Pluye, however, saw no threat to the future of the profession. Instead, he pointed to the stronger communication between patients and physicians that will follow new technological developments.

“Do you prefer a clinician that supposedly knows everything? Do you prefer to meet and share negotiations with a clinician?” Pluye said.

“Whatever the machine, or the book, or your brain says, the issue is compliance. With such tools you can have better communication with patients.”

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

13

Ces sacrés jurons! Seeking: a new approach HYDE PARK

to anti-abortion activism

The French connection

Laura Werschler

Joël Thibeault

V

I Lukas Thienhaus / The McGill Daily

Every other week, Joël Thibeault writes a column for French learners, as a way of encouraging them to practice their French. ous marchez sur Sherbrooke en direction de votre cours situé dans le pavillon des arts. Vous croisez deux hommes qui échangent quelques mots: -Esti qu’t’es cave!

-Mon tabarnak, pour qui tu t’prends?

-Tu m’as compris! T’es un câlice d’épais.

Vous êtes persuadé qu’ils s’expriment en français, mais vous ne réussissez pas à comprendre ce qu’ils disent. Tout à coup, vous vous souvenez de ce qu’on vous a répété plusieurs fois avant de venir vous installer au Québec: «They don’t really speak French there. You should go to Europe if you want to learn real French».

Le but premier de cet article n’est certainement pas de prendre part dans ce débat. J’ai plutôt employé cet exemple en tant qu’introduction aux jurons québécois qui font partie, qu’on le veuille ou non, de l’histoire et du patrimoine de notre province.

La plupart des jurons utilisés au Québec sont tirés de termes religieux. Avant les années 1960, l’Église catholique était l’un des éléments qui influençaient le plus la politique québécoise ainsi que la vie des citoyens. Au début de cette décennie, cependant, des changements sociaux et politiques ont entrainé une diminution de l’influence ecclésiastique. Plusieurs linguistes croient que l’usage de ces expressions religieuses en tant que jurons a été un exutoire face au contrôle exercé par l’Église.

Il est quand même très important de mentionner qu’encore aujourd’hui, ces jurons sont considérés comme étant très grossiers.

C’est la raison pour laquelle chacun d’entre eux est accompagné d’un euphémisme, un mot similaire qui a une connotation moins vulgaire que l’original.

Assez de théorie! Je vous présente quelques-uns des jurons québécois les plus employés, accompagnés de leur réelle signification religieuse, de leurs euphémismes et d’un exemple contextuel.

Câlice. Ce mot provient de «calice», vase sacré de la liturgie catholique. Il est surtout utilisé afin de souligner la colère à la fin d’une phrase, exactement comme le fait le mot de quatre lettres en anglais.

On note aussi quelques expressions figées: «Je m’en câlice», afin de dire qu’on s’en fout, et «Câlice-moé patience» pour exiger de quelqu’un qu’il ou elle nous laisse en paix. Son

euphémisme le plus répandu est «caline».

Tabarnak. Il dérive de « tabernacle» et peut également être employé sous l’influence de la colère à la fin d’une phrase. Les Québécois, en outre, utiliseront ce terme en tant que synonyme de «coup de poing»: «Je vais t’en donner un tabarnak».

Parmi ses variantes adoucies, on compte «tabarouette» et «tabarnouche».

Esti, ostie ou sti. Ces mots, dont la connotation et la signification sont égales, témoignent aussi de la fureur du locuteur. Ils proviennent de «hostie» qui représente le pain béni. De plus, on remarque l’existence de la locution «Ostie que…» qui renforce une affirmation. Quelques exemples sont «Ostie qu’il fait chaud», «Ostie que je veux y aller» et «Ostie qu’elle est belle». Les euphémismes que les Québécois emploient le plus sont « ostine » et «esprit».

Finalement, la prochaine fois que vous entendrez quelqu’un dire «Esti de câlice de tabarnak», ditesvous que ces termes, dans un contexte différent, peuvent avoir une réelle signification. Par contre, si vous ne vous trouvez pas dans une église ou qu’il n’y pas de prêtre dans les parages, continuez votre route sans vous arrêter; cette personne ne désire très probablement pas être dérangée.

Pour écouter Joël lire cet article, allez sur mcgilldaily.com/blogs.

Vous pouvez également lui écrire à thefrenchconnection@mcgilldaily. com.

Vous aimez lire en français ? Pourquoi pas lire Le Délit ? Cherchez-le sur le campus demain.

speak for many of my prochoice colleagues when I say that we must gracefully decline Kathryn Sawyer’s invitation to be the pro-choice champion for McGill University’s campus abortion debate. While pro-life clubs all over this country yearn to debate resolutions like “abortion is morally wrong,” many of us who support a woman’s right to choose abortion are too busy working on providing sexual and reproductive health information, education, and services. We don’t have time to spare on debates so often orchestrated to become media spectacles.

After all, debating abortion is a no-win situation for both sides. The typical premise of “for abortion” versus “against abortion” is at fault.

Anti-abortion groups always seem

history began, and they will continue to do so until human history ends. Neither legal status nor public opinion impact women’s decisions.

Consider a study by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization published in October 2007 by the journal Lancet. It found that abortion rates in countries worldwide are similar regardless of whether the procedure is legal or not. “The legal status of abortion has never dissuaded women and couples, who, for whatever reason, seek to end pregnancy,” said Beth Fredrick of the International Women’s Health Coalition commenting on the study.

McGill’s pro-life club might also want to rethink the person they’ve chosen as their anti-abortion champion. Jose Ruba is from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, the organization responsible for bringing the Genocide Awareness Project

Even Catholic bishops do not support this kind of anti-abortion activism to assume that pro-choice advocates are “for abortion.” If they want a black and white debate framed in this fashion, they will wait a very long time for a willing opponent.

If debating “for” or “against” abortion is a useless pursuit, what might be of value is a commitment to contemplative dialogue around the issue. The word contemplative means to take a long, compassionate look at the real. And what is real about abortion? It is part of women’s lived experience.

Women have chosen to manage their fertility in various ways, including through abortion, since human

(GAP) to university campuses. Even Catholic bishops and anti-abortion commentators like Barbara Kay of the National Post do not support this kind of anti-abortion activism.

The GAP is offensive to many; it is all about spectacle.

If you read Canadian newspapers, it would have been hard to miss stories about the trouble University of Calgary (U of C) prolife club members are in for violating the university’s request to turn the GAP display inward so students and staff could make a choice about whether or not to view the graphic images. The students go to trial on

trespassing charges this November.

It is and was a spectacle, all about media coverage and free speech.

What I suggest is that pro-life clubs – and those on campuses who oppose them – consider taking a different approach with their activism. Here’s another story from U of C that never made the papers.

A volunteer for our organization, Sexual Health Access Alberta (SHAA), planned a film series hosted by U of C Women’s Resource Centre. In April 2008, two films about abortion were offered. The screenings coincided with the controversial GAP display on campus, sparking interest in the film event.

Several pro-life club members came to see The Abortion Diaries. The post-screening facilitator skillfully guided the discussion around the pre-determined question: What are barriers to access to abortion services and sexual health education in Canada? An evening that could have ended in confrontation turned out to be one of respectful dialogue.

Pro-life attendees urged improved access to support for young parents, while pro-choice participants advocated for better access to sexual health education and services.

Both perspectives on abortion were presented and heard by all participants. Jose Ruba was there. There was no debate.

Maybe it’s time for campus prolife clubs to eschew public debate in favour of smaller, quieter discussions of mutually agreed upon questions about abortion. They might actually find some pro-choice champions willing to sit down and talk with them.

Laura Wershler is the executive director of Sexual Health Access Alberta in Calgary. Pursue polite dialogue with her at lauraw@sexualhealthaccess.org.

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Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

14

Dancing with tradition Brian Keast talks with some of the people behind McGill’s annual pow-wow

P

ow-wows are special events, and Ray Deer should know.

Deer knows the ins and outs of running a pow-wow. He’s the one who knows which songs the drum circle can play, which ones they can’t, and the songs they could probably learn on the spot if they followed the beat closely enough. He knows who he can call on to play a certain song or perform a particular dance.

And as head veteran dancer of the Deer Family Mohawk Singers and Dancers, he even knows a couple steps himself.

Deer is one of the many people involved in organizing the annual pow-wow held on McGill Campus.

It certainly isn’t every day that you can hear Inuit throat singing or the steady beat of a drum while rushing between classes. Put on by McGill’s First Peoples’ House, the pow-wow provides a unique opportunity for students to interact with First Nations culture, while serving the important cultural purposes of a pow-wow within the Native community itself.

Deer himself was once a McGill student, but left the university early to join the Canadian Forces Reserves.

He later joined the U.S. Army, which he was able to do because of the dual citizenship that is the birthright of all Mohawks.

While stationed overseas in Europe, other Native soldiers opened Deer’s eyes to one of the most beautiful aspects of his culture: dancing. While he had often participated informally in longhouse dances in Kahnawake, the dancing his fellow soldiers showed him was new and fascinating.

Since then, Deer has slowly cobbled together his regalia – the handmade, unique costumes worn by dancers. Regalia are works of art.

Featuring intricate and colourful design, no two are the same. They are a challenge to assemble and often worth upward of $20,000.

Finding the right person to bead a particular garment is a long and difficult process. This means, of course, that regalia can take years to be perfected. Even then, there’s always something else to add on or to change. Ray likes to look at the challenge in a positive light, citing its ability to bring one closer to one’s ancestors. He says that one can imagine how past generations, too, would put together their regalia over the long winters in eager anticipation of spring and the upcoming pow-wows.

The pow-wow at McGill starts out with a prayer for the Mohawk village of Hochelaga, which once stood on

the university’s land. Now, all that remains to mark its location is a small boulder with a plaque that sits among a few trees near where McLennan Library meets Sherbrooke.

The prayer for Hochelaga is an important way for the pow-wow’s attendees to honour cultural memory. Lance Delisle, the Master of Ceremonies for the pow-wow at McGill, says that First Peoples always remain mindful of the hundreds of years of oppression they have experienced. For him, these cultural events help to heal age-old wounds. Delisle also emphasizes how the pow-wow helps Native people, especially those living in urban centres, to connect with their roots and to keep in touch with their culture.

As someone with over twenty years of experience in radio at Kahnawake’s K103 under his belt, Delisle possesses a thorough knowledge of his community and is said to be one of the most recognizable people on the reserve. Delisle says that pow-wows represent different things to different people: competitive events, community events, showcases, conventions, meeting places, networking opportunities, performances. As with any gathering, a pow-wow also functions as an important community-building tool, and a business opportunity for the entrepreneurs who line the lower field with their stands or, like Delisle himself, hand out business cards.

The Kahnawake pow-wow, Echoes of a Proud Nation, began after the Oka crisis in 1990 and has continued ever since. The event, like all pow-wows, is not only for First Nations members.

Instead, Native people refer to the events as “inter-tribal,” meaning anyone can join in the festivities, regardless of their ethnicity.

Deer encourages everyone at the McGill pow-wow to join in the intertribal dances. Having done the electric slide in the U.S. and the chicken dance in Germany over the course of his time in the army, Ray feels no one should be apprehensive about trying out a step or two.

In addition to inter-tribals, the McGill pow-wow features a variety of other dances, such as the Men’s Jingle Fancy, the Women’s Grass Dance, the Rabbit Dance (for couples), the Alligator Dance (for pairs), and the Kids’ Dance. Ray jokes that, unsurprisingly, kids are often afraid of catching cooties from the opposite sex and so are allowed to dance in male-male or female-female pairs. The dances are full of symbolism and, with the help of a keen eye, it’s easy to spot the variations

Photos by Brian Keast for The McGill Daily

and intricacies they contain.

In Deer’s experience, people who join in have a great time. He remembers participants, though, who just didn’t get it and jumped around shouting “woooo,” like in an old cowboys-and-Indians movie.

That “woooo” that Hollywood so often mistook for a battle cry was, in fact, the collective prayers of thousands of Native warriors to the Creator asking for protection and success in battle. Deer likens the din to what you might hear in a crowded university classroom after a professor begins their lecture; everyone’s speaking perfectly clearly, but together the noise sounds unintelligible and chaotic.

The cultural heritage behind the pow-wow, however, does not mean that First Nations culture is stagnant.

At the McGill pow-wow, evidence of cultural change could be found interwoven with centuries-old traditions.

The Sweetgrass Singers are a group that has sprung from a movement of women who have been claiming their rightful place alongside the men of their nations. Though traditionally singing was strictly for men, this

movement has helped to break down barriers in the community and is setting an example for younger generations.

In many ways, pow-wows function as a cross-section of contemporary Native culture. With McGill’s pow-wow over, opportunities to participate in Native culture around campus may seem sparse. In real-

ity, however, First Peoples’ House, which organizes the pow-wow, hosts a wide variety of events throughout the year. They also serve bannock and soup lunches every Wednesday and Thursday at noon. And like the pow-wow itself, all are welcome.

The First Peoples’ House is located at 3505 Peel.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

15

Taking poetry to the streets Nationwide event aims to raise poetry’s profile Preanka Hai Culture Writer

B

esides communicating the meaning of a particular group of words, poetry also captures their rhythm. For me at least, part of the allure of poetry is its musicality, which is why I have trouble understanding the animosity that the art form often encounters. After all, does any one genuinely dislike music? Of course, this question suggests a gross generalization. Case-in-point: my best friend, who appreciates music but hates poetry. At the very mention of a poetics paper I may have had to write, or at the threat that I would narrate Edgar Allan Poe out loud to her, I could reasonably expect Liz to roll her eyes and then to explain to me that a rose is simply a rose and nothing else. “I didn’t even know the “A” in The Scarlet Letter stood for adultery until my middle-school teacher told me so!” she says, proof that poetry, like prose, can at times be too metaphorical.

So while I am a poetry enthusiast, I cannot fault others for criticizing the form as esoteric and inaccessible. Whether it is the non-linear arrangement of words on a page or the (sometimes) blatant disregard for spelling and grammar, poetry can be disorienting and therefore, alienating. This year’s sixth Annual Random Acts of Poetry, taking place during the week of October 5-11, aims to stifle that problem. The event continues the important endeavour of increasing poetry’s accessibility to the masses.

Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Random Acts of Poetry project was instituted in 2003 by the Victoria Read Society, a nonprofit literacy organization. Since

its inception, Canadian poets have used Random Acts of Poetry to approach unassuming individuals and recite poetry to them at dépanneurs or on street corners, in classrooms or metro stations. As the Random Acts blog says it, poets will cruise the city “looking for people to ‘poem.’”

Intrigued by the project’s aims and its modification of a noun into a verb (how does one “poem” another?), I decided to meet with Michael Mirolla, a Montreal poet who is involved in Random Acts next week.

The project’s goal is to increase the availability and visibility of poetry, and Mirolla’s appearance and demeanour suggested exactly that.

A great conversationalist, he harboured neither artistic hang-ups nor pretensions. An Italian by birth who describes himself as a “MontrealToronto corridor writer” and who counts McGill as his alma mater, Mirolla elucidated various aspects of the Random Acts project.

When I asked him what he thought of the event’s use of guerrilla-art tactics, Mirolla positively grimaced. As he explained it, the event’s goal is directed more toward encouraging people to consider poetry, rather than dressing in camouflage and accosting them in the middle of St. Laurent. Mirolla’s own plan for next week suggests significantly more planning for his Random Acts segment than the blog would have one believe. He outlined his tentative locations to poem people next week: the McGill Institute for Retirement Studies; The Bricklayer School, a masonry institution; and then, a monthly sports meeting. Moreover, Mirolla confirmed that the poetry would be suited to the milieu of each location. He will not, for instance, narrate “The Wasteland” at the sports meeting. When I broached the topic

Rebecca Hartz / The McGill Daily

The sixth Annual Random Acts of Poetry Week brings poetry to the people of William Carlos Williams, Mirolla mentioned that he would consider reading “The Red Wheelbarrow” at the Bricklayer School. “Some of the greatest poems are also simple,” he commented.

Because Mirolla is a fiction writer as well as a poet, I asked him what differentiated the narration of poetry from that of fiction. “Fiction does not lend itself to orality in the same way poetry does…. [Fiction] is not as essential. Poetry crystallizes the idea. It is the word trying to become the thing,” he responded.

makes it relatable to most people, or at least harkens back to a universally human heartbeat. So if a poet randomly approaches you this week, do not be too taken aback: poetry may not save your world, but it could certainly improve it.

Maybe it’s poetry’s very immediacy that is at once alarming and beguiling; unlike fiction, it does not build up to an idea but rather imagines that idea in a way that can be too direct to ingest immediately. When Mirolla further discussed the musicality of poetry as “get[ting] in with the heartbeats,” he confirmed my initial thoughts – that it posesses a rhythmic quality that is human and relatable. Poetry need not be convoluted. As Mirolla suggested, good poetry ultimately possesses a “mythic” quality that hopefully

Michael Mirolla will participate in the Random Acts of Poetry Week in Montreal from October 5-11, along with poet Eliz Robert. Mirolla’s latest collection of poetry, Light and Time, was recently published by Skywing Press.

sages that are really uplifting.” The group’s ultimate objective is inherent in its name – besides a play on the word “community,” Kalmunity is a reminder that “you can’t have unity without calm.”

Possessing sheer talent and a social agenda, though, are not the only prerequisites for gaining entry into Kalmunity’s ranks. “Some people have an excellent message, but they just don’t get the vibe,” Katalyst explains. That vibe, it seems, contains an element of old-fashioned teamwork; within the collective, all artists are on a level playing field. “It involves a certain degree of letting go of your ego, and if you can’t do that then you can’t perform with us,” she says.

Katalyst has grand aspirations for the imminent change of venue.

“We love [the Sablo Kafé],” she insists, “But we’ve pretty much hit the ceiling. This year we wanted to expand, so people can dance and move around.” The collective hopes not only to make room for its current devoted regulars, but to attract even more: “We want to allow more people to see what we’re doing…to get the audience who doesn’t know about Kalmunity yet.” The inaugural celebration at Le Consulat features a guest appearance by D’bi Young Anitafrika, an author, playwright, actress, poet. “She’s strong, gifted, and in your face,” says Katalyst.

“One of the best poets in Canada, North America, and well – the world.” And if that isn’t enough to draw you, Katalyst assured that “it’s going to be pretty crazy.”

Kalmunity’s new digs Improv hip-hop collective finds new home and wider audience

Allison Friedman The McGill Daily

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irst your veggies, then your bread, and now your music everything is going organic these days. But if Kalmunity Vibe Collective is any indication, there shouldn’t be any problem with that.

The group, a diverse array of local musicians, vocalists, and spokenword poets, describes their collaborative performance style as “live, organic improvisation.”

Kalmunity isn’t new on the block; the group has been performing at the Sablo Kafé on Beaubien for the past six and a half years. They’ve developed such an impressive following that the group has outgrown

its haunt. On October 6, Kalmunity is moving to the larger, more centrally located Le Consulat – and not without a bang. “It’s gonna be a huge party,” says Lady Katalyst, a hip-hop artist, poet and member of the collective.

Katalyst, whose real name is Katherine Blenkinsop, explains that one of the collective’s main objectives is “to bring improv music to Montreal, bring improv music to peoples’ minds.” She describes an artistic process that truly does sound organic: the performers hash out their plans in the wings during a show, “layering more and more ideas on top of each other.” The result is an international fusion of hip-hop, funk, jazz, soul, and spoken-word poetry. Since Kalmunity’s

roster of performers is constantly in flux, rehearsals are a non-event.

“We’re growing tracks right on the spot,” Katalyst says, with a hint of pride. “We really don’t know what we’re going to do.”

But Kalmunity’s project is social as well as musical. Katalyst declares that above all, “we want to communicate.” The collective functions as a forum for “people in communities who don’t normally have a place to bring forth their issues,” to initiate dialogue, and express hope for change. Though many of Kalmunity’s artists hail from the Caribbean, the collective allies itself with any group that feels marginalized within Montreal society. “We want to bring a voice to the voiceless,” says Katalyst, stressing that out of this comes “mes-

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

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Portraits of abandonment Concordia photography student’s exhibition memorializes the phantoms of the recession Erin O'Callaghan The McGill Daily

T

he economic recession that hit last year has affected everything from investments to politics to art. Tim Power, a Montreal-born photography graduate student finishing his final year at Concordia, has always been immensely influenced by history, politics and economics – originally pursuing a degree in history at Concordia, he switched to photography during his third year. Power’s first solo show, titled Structures of Power, reflects those interests and attempts to address themes of deindustrialization and abandonment.

His expo opened at the Galerie Armatta on Friday, September 25, and will be shown there until October 30. This expo is Power’s thesis, and is an on-going project; the seven photographs on display at the gallery only represent what’s been completed so far.

Robert Armatta, the gallery’s owner, is very excited about Power’s expo: “I saw him in a group of 14 [artists], and I selected his work to be shown as the gallery’s fourth show,” explained Armatta.

“[Power’s] work is very interesting; it’s nice to have a cohesive theme in a collection.”

The gallery is a new addition to the Montreal art scene, having hosted its first show in April 2009.

Armatta wants to make this gallery a space for young artists, his goal being to help showcase the work of college students. It is quite a small space, but very organic; through the light wood floors, the lone brick wall, and the soft spotlights that illuminate each photograph, a calm atmosphere is created for viewers to appreciate the artwork.

The seven photographs line the far wall of the gallery, and each one highlights a magnificent piece of infrastructure left abandoned to decay. The photographs themselves are aesthetically pleasing; completely devoid of any living being, besides some dying grass or a drooping palm tree, these photos focus completely on the structure.

My favourite one was of a single crane, on a naval shipyard on Mare Island, California. The crane stands alone in a sea of concrete, reminiscent of a dinosaur on the brink of extinction, with nothing left in the area but itself.

Power said that his goal with this

expo was to “make people think about some of the challenging social and economic consequences that come with [the economic shift], like negative trade balances and the rise of a culture that values image over utility and superficial comfort.”

The photographs invite viewers to imagine these structures in their heyday, when these shipyards and warehouses were alive with activity. Power’s photographs are notso-subtle reminders of the drastic effects that the recession has had on our society, raising questions about these “structures of power”, such as why they were built and then abandoned.

Although I’m not sure I see the themes of reversing trade balances and rampant consumerism in these photographs, I definitely grasped the theme of deindustrialization and decay. Focusing on the fleeting nature of success and economic strength, Power’s work reveals how such large structures can fall into disuse and ruin at a wrong turn in the economy.

Structures of Power is reminiscient of a photo essay published in the New York Times last July titled “Ruins of the Second Gilded Age.” Although there was controversy sur-

rounding the validity of the photos, which turned out to be edited, the themes they represented still hold true. Edgar Martins travelled across the United States photographing housing complexes and hotels abandoned after developers went bankrupt. This essay addressed many of the same themes Power incorporates into his exhibition.

The economy can be a powerful influence on our lives, and it can provide artistic inspiration. Armatta said he has been seeing a lot of new

work recently with similar themes, and he wouldn’t be surprised to see more in the future. As for Power, however, he has succeeded in putting together a beautiful and haunting first exhibition, asking vital questions about our society and the economy that we often ignore in our day to day lives.

Structures of Power runs through October 30 at Galerie Armatta (5283A Parc).

Courtesy of Galerie Armatta

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The McGill Daily, Monday, October 5, 2009

Lies, half-truths, and St. Viateur Hegels

18

Bagel’s geist lives on...

Camilla Grudova for The McGill Daily

...but the owl of Minerva has taken flight!

Mallory Bey for The McGill Daily

Bothered?

Bereaved?

In need of a bum steer? missadvised@gmail.com

It is not for Kings to drink wine Across

Lemuel, King of Massa

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66. When doubled, a dance 68. German river 69. Craze 70. Modern epidemic 71. New Yorker cartoonist Edward 72. Dogs that look like they ran into a wall?

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