99_17_05112009_screen_quality

LSAT MCAT GMAT GRE

November 9, 2009

Preparation Seminars • Complete 30-Hour Seminars • Convenient Weekend Schedule • Proven Test-Taking Strategies • Experienced Course Instructors • Comprehensive Study Materials • Simulated Practice Exams • Limited Class Size • Free Repeat Policy • Personal Tutoring Available

sneaky? sleuthy? special?

OXFORD SEMINARS 1-800-269-6719 416-924-3240 www.oxfordseminars.ca

m in d

contribute to photos@mcgilldaily.com

• Thousands of Satisfied Students

The Department of Jewish Studies in collaboration with The Faculty of Arts invites you to experience the rich musical heritage of Eastern European Jewry.

100 Years Gone By: A Concert of Jewish Music featuring Internationally renowned pianist

Jascha Nemtsov

Pollack Hall

body

Schulich School of Music (555 Sherbrooke St. West)

Education! Medicine! Nursing!

Get your ideas out there!

mindnbody@mcgilldaily.com

The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (biweekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal.

The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal.

The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at

McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal.

The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal.

The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill,

or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal.

The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal. The News section needs a News Analyst to write every two weeks (bi-weekly) about recent events at McGill, or larger events within Montreal.

For further information, please contact: Stefka Iorgova at (514) 398-6543 or www.mcgill.ca/jewishstudies/lectures/

FR E OP E A EN DM TO IS AL SIO L N

November 9, 2009 7:30 p.m.

We are looking for a new

Illustration Editor Assets include: creativity; technical skill; administrative and organizational skills; ability to work well under pressure; and familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite

email illustrations@mcgilldaily.com News Analyst Send ideas and writing samples to news@ mcgilldaily.com.

applications due November 16 candidate run-down November 23 election November 24

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

3

McGill removes research regulation Senators critical of McGill’s stance on military research and anonymous funding Stephanie Law The McGill Daily

T

he proposed addition of an anonymity clause and the removal of regulations on military-funded research in McGill’s new Regulations on Conduct of Research policy sparked debate at the Senate meeting on Wednesday.

In his introduction of the policy to Senate, Denis Thérien, McGill Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations) repudiated recent concerns over the removal of two regulations on military-funded research from the draft of the new policy.

“No university in Canada has an explicit regulation referring to military funding in their policy,” Thérien said.

“I would say that the position of the [Group of 13] universities applies quite a bit here. [Their position is that] it [is a] very dangerous and slippery slope to go down this road…. We propose not to go down that road either,” he said.

The section that was removed from the new policy draft requires that “[a]pplicants for contracts or grants whose source is a government military agency shall indicate on the check list/approval form of the Office of Technology Transfer or the Research Grants Office whether this research has direct harmful consequences.”

Rebecca Dooley, SSMU VP University Affairs (UA), said that the removal of the section on military research may be a step backward for McGill.

“Why were these clauses [not included] in the new policy? It was a reporting process in the old policy,” Dooley said.

In response, Thérien reiterated the need to align McGill with the other Canadian research universities.

“We are just aligning ourselves with whatever other universities are doing,” said Thérien.

Arts Senator Sarah Woolf felt that a reason beyond alignment is needed to justify the new policy draft.

“We can all agree that McGill should and does strive to be a leader among the G13. Removing this clause, I think, is a regressive step, and it doesn’t demonstrate leadership at all. What it does suggest is that we are trying to be as appealing to research funders as the other members of G13 are – at the expense of our ethics. So I would hope that there would be another line of reasoning besides to just keep up with the G13,” Woolf said.

Besides the removal of the section regulating military-funded research, senators expressed concern about the addition of a clause that would allow sponsors to remain anonymous when directly funding research projects, if their requests for anonymity are filed “legitimately and in good faith.”

“[This anonymity clause] is particularly problematic in the context of pharmaceutical research or research directed by and money coming from corporations towad particular purposes,” said Daniel Simeone, president of the PostGraduate Students’ Society.

“It is a fundamental part of the accountability of a researcher to report the source of funding for a project,” Simeone said.

This sentiment was echoed by at least one other senator during the session, but there appeared to be consensus at Senate that there were no good examples available for requiring this clause.

When asked whether other G13 universities have similar clauses allowing for anonymity of direct sponsors of research, Thérien responded that he was not sure and did not know what other universities have in place regarding anonymity.

Concerns over other sections in the proposed research policy besides those on military research and anonymity were also raised in the meeting, including questions on what the proper definition of “hazardous research” is, and why a proper definition was not provided in the policy.

Reactions to the Senate meeting Many senators felt that the discussion regarding the new research policy was very fruitful, and are hopeful that when making revisions to the policy, the Research Policy Committee will consider the senators’ comments and suggestions carefully. Simeone, however, expressed skepticism that the administration understands the importance of military research regulations the way many student senators do.

“I am confident the concerns considering anonymous funding of research will be taken into consideration. It’s not clear to me at present that the issue of military research is understood by the administration to be the pressing concern that [it] is believed to be by student groups.

They don’t think it’s important,” Simeone said.

Senator Richard Janda, a professor in the Faculty of Law, believes it is important to have a policy mechanism in place that would monitor the harmful applications and consequences of all research – not just research funded by military agencies.

“If we single out military, then we are implicitly saying that all other sources of funding are fine, that we don’t have to look at them. I think that the reality is that we do need triggers in place. We should ask hard questions when we see money is coming in from sources that are not the classical peer-reviewed sources of money,” Janda said.

Associate Provost (Policies & Procedures) William Foster said that the comments and discussion at Senate were appreciated, and

would be considered while writing the draft to be discussed when Senate reconvenes in December.

Drastic changes In February 2009, a draft of the new research policy was provided by Foster to Demilitarize McGill and the SSMU VP UA. The draft contained a new section on harmful research. This clause required researchers to obtain approval from the VP (Research and International Relations) to undertake research which has significant potential of direct harmful applications or adverse effects.

This section was removed from the new policy.

Student activists were dismayed when they found out that the section was removed and were concerned that their suggestions had been ignored.

“That disregard of student input and complete removal of the military research policies fits in with the pattern with the administration’s position on military research policy as we’ve seen in the past,” said Cleve Higgins, community member of Demilitarize McGill and Daily contributor.

Thérien, however, argued that the extra section regulating harmful research was unnecessary, and explained that Principal Heather Munroe-Blum and the vice-principals made the decision together in August.

“It was taken out at the [principal’s meeting with the vice-principals] in August.... I fully support the decision.... I think that it’s written in the preamble that research at McGill is based on the concept of integrity, on freedom of inquiry, of the wellbeing of the world. These are the principles that are underlying our research. Trying to be bureaucratic never works,” Thérien said.

General dismay The existing regulations on military-funded research, sections 10 and 11, were first created in 1988.

These amendments were passed following the release of a 250page report, titled “How to Make a Killing,” by seven McGill students working with political science professor Samuel Noumoff. The report detailed various research projects at McGill that were funded by American and Canadian military agencies.

Noumoff said that when the amendments were first proposed in Senate, there was little opposition.

“There was some disagreement, but there was really not an overwhelming opposition, either from the scientific community or the administration. Everybody realized it was a real problem, and if we’re going to deal with it in an ethical way, then we had to be transparent,” Noumoff said.

Noumoff was shocked by the removal of the two sections on military

History of McGill Involvement in Military Research

1957-1964 Ewen Cameron performs electroconvulsive therapy experiments at the Allen Memorial Institute at McGill University. The experiments sought to brainwash and reprogram the minds of his student subjects, leaving many permanently disabled, both physically and mentally.

His research was funded by the CIA as part of a Cold War mindcontrol research program called MK-ULTR A.

1962 Gerald Bull and members of the High Altitude Research Program (HARP), a program funded by the U.S. Air Force and the Canadian Department of Defence, develop their first test projectile at McGill University, the “Martlet 1.”

1967-1971 The U.S. Department of Defense gave $831,415 to McGill during the Vietnam War, of which more than $663,000 was used for military contracts.

1972 Seven McGill students working with political science professor Samuel Noumoff, released a 250-page report that exposed the source of the funding McGill received from the U.S. Department of Defense. The report was titled, “How to Make a Killing,” and can be found at the McGill library.

1977-83 Roman Knystautas and John H. Lee, McGill professors from the Department of Mechanical Engineering conduct research on fuel-air explosives (FAE) for the U.S. Air force.

1987 Former McGill students occupy the office of the Vice-Principal (Research) to protest the FAE research. Six days later, they are removed by the police.

1988 McGill amends the Regulations on Research Policy and adds section 10 and 11 to address research funded by military agencies.

2007 The McGill Daily covers student criticism of the Regulations on Research Policy. Students argue that evaluations and approvals resulting from the 1988 policy have not been reported to Senate as required by policy, nor made public in any other way.

Fall 2008 Students learn that the administration is reviewing the Regulations on Research Policy.

funding, and disappointed that there are no mechanisms for monitoring harmful research in the new policy.

“I think it’s outrageous. I see no logic and no reason for it. If someone is prepared to engage in research sponsored by the military...they should be prepared to defend it,” Noumoff said.

He continued: “As with any other

February 2009 At the SSMU General Assembly, a motion passes mandating SSMU to oppose any McGill involvement in the development of thermobaric weapons. Demilitarize McGill and SSMU VP University Affairs (UA) receive the Draft Regulations on the Conduct of Research that includes section 12, “Research with potentially harmful applications or effects.” Both Demilitarize McGill and SSMU VP UA submit proposals to improve section 12.

March 2009 The new Regulation on the Conduct of Research is scheduled to be approved in Senate but the motion is delayed until May 20 for unknown reasons. Students protest arguing that campus media and most students will be absent at that time.

April 2009 A SSMU representative succeeds in pushing the discussion of the new policy to Fall 2009 at a Senate Steering Committee.

May 2009 PGSS Council passes a motion to support the implementation of a policy for public transparency and ethical evaluation of all research at McGill funded by, or done in collaboration with, a military agency.

June 2009 Associate Provost William Foster responds to SSMU VP UA Rebecca Dooley’s request for an updated draft saying that no updates have been made as yet, but promises to keep her updated.

October 28, 2009 The new Regulation on the Conduct of Research is made public, scheduled for discussion in Senate on November 4, 2009. The new policy removes all sections requiring reporting on harmful research and research funded by government military agencies.

November 4, 2009 The new Regulation on the Conduct of Research is discussed in Senate; many suggestions were made to improve the regulation.

There was criticism over the removal of the sections on harmful research and military research, and the addition of a new section that allows sponsors of research to remain anonymous if they have “legitimate and good faith reasons.”

contract, like a corporate contract, it should be open, transparent, and defensible. The current policy does not show that people should be sensitive to the possibility of negative consequences; there must be a way to monitor that. Military work is more likely to cause these consequences, so it deserves very special consideration.”

4 News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Food bank donations down 21 per cent Michael Lee-Murphy The McGill Daily

F

ood donations to Montreal’s largest food bank, Moisson Montreal, have dropped by 21 per cent this year. The decline in donations comes at a time of increased need for the city’s hungry. With the onset of winter and the difficulty of the economic downturn, demand for such assistance has risen by an estimated 20 per cent.

Pasquale Cardone, director of operations at Moisson Montreal, explained that the economic crisis has forced the food bank’s corporate patrons – which typically account for the vast majority of its resources – to slash their donation budgets in recent months.

“The portion of imported [food] merchandise that would go to us is not there anymore,” Cardonne said.

Moisson assists 112,000 Montrealers by working with large food producers, such as Kraft, and collecting products that the companies are unable to sell or are near expiration. Donations are distributed by 210 community organizations across Montreal, many

of which have felt the pinch of Moisson’s diminished resources.

Fiona Keat, executive director of the NDG Food Depot, said that it has become increasingly difficult for the Depot to cover its operating expenses as financial support from Moisson has also declined.

“Corporate donations are lower, but I’m seeing the generosity of individuals on the street,” Keat said, adding that the recession has noticeably altered the Depot’s client base.

“We are seeing a trend of people who have lost their jobs and are coming into the food bank and they’re feeling incredibly ashamed, saying, ‘I used to give money to a food bank, and now I’m here,’” she said.

The food bank at Mission MileEnd has been experiencing similar difficulties. Connie Olson, the director of the Moisson food bank, also pointed to increased community involvement.

“There have been a lot more people in the area coming in and giving bags of groceries. The CTV story helped us out a lot,” Olson explained, referring to CTV’s October 21 story on the mission.

Cardone, meanwhile, has orga-

nized a “media blitz” to raise awareness of the food shortage, and said that Moisson is soliciting corporate donations more aggressively than it had in the past.

“We have challenged companies to donate one hour of productivity. So for a company that shifts $250,000 a day of merchandise, which is the average for a mid-size company, that means two or three thousand dollars.”

Moisson has also asked companies to donate working time.

“Last Friday, 30 UPS employees came here, and they worked a whole day for us helping us sort the food. So it’s good for their image and its helpful for us... because at the end of the day, we cannot demand, we can only ask,” said Cardone.

Keat is also adopting changes on the local level – changes, she said, that are meant to address not only the food shortage, but hunger itself. “Food banking is not going to address any of the systemic causes of hunger and poverty,” she explained. “We have things like cooking workshops and a bulk fruits and vegetables buying group to provide people with access to healthy food. It’s a teaching-people-to-fish kind of thing.”

Sara Sheu for The McGill Daily

Community organizations struggle as demand for aid increases

Donations are down, but need for assistance is up 20 per cent.

Elections McGill Presents:

FYCC and Referendum Debate Thursday November 5th, 2009 at 5:00PM in Shatner Building Room 302 Come ask the Tough Questions!

Find out More About the Referenda that Affect you!

Advanced Polling Begins November 6th!

Regular Polling Continues: November 10th-12th Vote online at www.electionsmcgill.ca or at the following polling locations:

Questions? elections@ssmu.mcgill.ca

Leacock Lobby November 10th-12th, 10am-4pm

Shatner Lobby November 10th-12th, 10am-4pm

Bronfman Lobby November 10th-12th, 10am-4pm

McConnell Engineering November 10th-12th, 10am-4pm

Advanced Polling Online at www.electionsmcgill.ca from November 6th-10th

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

5

Tremblay narrowly elected to third term Low voter turnout linked to recent scandals and internal party problems

Courtney Graham and John Lapsley The McGill Daily

G

érald Tremblay was reelected for a third term as mayor of Montreal on Sunday, with his party, Union Montreal, winning 38 per cent of the popular vote. Candidates from the other two main parties, Louise Harel of Vision Montréal and Richard Bergeron of Projet Montréal, received 33 and 26 per cent of the votes, respectively.

Tremblay’s victory was noticeably less sweeping than his 54 per cent victory in 2005, and his party lost significant ground in the City councillor and borough elections.

Projet Montreal swept the Plateau elections, taking borough mayor, three positions on City Council, and three borough councillor positions.

In the weeks preceding the elections, Union Montréal’s image was tarnished as several allegations involving corruption, collusion, and ties to organized crime were levelled at the mayor’s office.

But while these events may have narrowed Tremblay’s margin of victory, they were not enough to propel either Harel or Bergeron into the mayor’s office. Some critics have pointed to problems within Vision Montréal and Projet Montréal that may have shaken voter confidence.

La Presse columnist Michèle Ouimet, for instance, suggested in an article Sunday that many Montreal anglophones were averse to Harel because of her background with the sovereigntist Parti Québécois and her limited English skills. “For most anglophones, she has three mortal sins on her conscience…the ‘forced’ mergers [of predominately francophone Montreal with nearby anglophone municipalities by the PQ in 2001], her monolingualism, and her sovereigntist convictions,” Ouimet wrote in French.

Montreal news blogger Kate McDonnell, however, suggested that Harel’s monolingualism was a “red herring” and that Vision’s failures truly stemmed from its lack of cohesion as a party. McDonnell also attributed the party’s disappointing performance to former Vision leader Benoit Labonté’s sensational downfall following accusations of collusion. “[Labonté and Harel] was a marriage of convenience that was never going to work out,” McDonnell said. “That party didn’t smell good politically.”

In a CBC interview, Réal Ménard, a former Bloc Québécois MP and an ally of Harel, blamed Project Montréal for “splitting the opposition.”

But despite falling 12 per cent short of victory, Bergeron saw

an increase in voter confidence from nine per cent in 2005 to 26 per cent in 2009. McDonnell did not agree that this increase was a reactionary electoral distaste for Union and Vision’s corruption.

“They probably got a few votes by process of elimination…but I think in the places that voted for Project Montréal, it was a demonstration that people like what the party stands for,” McDonnell said.

“Hopefully they can get some things done this time around to show that they can be taken seriously.”

Gazette columnist Henry Aubin agreed that Projet Montréal’s platform was effective but that future mayoral success may depend on a new leader who inspires more confidence than Bergeron. “His program has a halo around it – it’s great. But the messenger isn’t the most effective,” he said in an interview.

An acceptably pathetic voter turnout Total voter turnout as of Wednesday evening was 39 per cent.

Marcel Blanchet, Quebec’s directeur général des elections, said in a Radio-Canada interview Monday that given the atmosphere of corruption surrounding the municipal election, voter turnout was “acceptable.”

McDonnell had another word for it: pathetic. “Frankly, I was surprised more people weren’t angry enough to vote,” she said, though she acknowledged that voters had a less-than-ideal set of candidates, and that municipal politics generally fall below the public radar. “People will say that municipal government makes no difference. So long as they clear the snow and collect the garbage, who gives a shit who they are or what they do?” she said.

McDonnell, however, emphasized that municipal politics dictate “the day-to-day fabric” of citizens’ lives, and that for her part she has not missed an election since the sage advice of a high school friend. “I wasn’t going to vote,” McDonnell said, “and my friend said, ‘If you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about anything the government does for four years.’”

Fixing the corruption Tremblay’s success in the election, however, is not a major vote of unconditional public confidence.

Some say his narrow victory highlights the need to make good, at least in the short term, on his promises to clean up the municipal government.

“There’s a real crisis in confidence in City Hall. Tremblay has lost the respect and the trust of many if not most Montrealers,” Aubin explained. That respect will be hard to win back, Aubin added,

Sasha Plotnikova/ The McGill Daily

if Tremblay, “a creature of machine politics,” is not willing to break his old habits and agree to major reforms. Ideally, said Aubin, the mayor would agree to a public inquiry but this is unlikely to happen. “It could be devastating for the respect that he’s looking for because...it would find the sleaze within those contract awards,” Aubin said.

Without such an inquiry, Aubin believed that regaining voter confidence will require another high-profile, symbolic gesture on Tremblay’s part, such as creating a “coalition” executive cabinet composed of leaders from all major parties.

Bergeron pledged to create such a coalition if Projet Montréal had won, and on election night he expressed a desire to work with Tremblay.

The mayor, however, rejected the idea of building such a coalition on Wednesday.

Projet Montréal city councillor Émilie Thuillier has little confidence that such a coalition could be effectively led by Tremblay anyway. “It is the person with the power that decides,” she said.

Both Aubin and McDonnell felt the City should make changes to its elections and municipal politics, given its legacy of corporate influence and corruption. Aubin thought the place to start would be stricter regulations of campaign finance.

“You can reform the elections act so that business people will no longer be the sugar daddies of parties,” said Aubin. He also suggested altering the layout of the municipal council by either dividing the city of Montreal into smaller electoral ridings or by reducing the council size from 64 members (the largest in North America) to any where

between six and 18.

Though McDonnell also hoped to see changes, she felt it would only be possible to “clean up” municipal politics to a certain extent. “You can root out the obvious corruption, but you can’t expect a politician…who we elect for being sociable [and] a good networker…to suddenly become this monk in a glass box,” she said, noting the classic axiom that “the people who will get into power are the people who shouldn’t.”

Four more years of Tremblay If Tremblay’s recent discussions with the media are any indication, his administration’s reforms will be mainly minor

NEWS BRIEF Masked men steal Burnside laptops Late Monday afternoon, two men in medical masks robbed two students and a professor of their laptops from the basement of Burnside Hall.

Students who noticed the robbery called Montreal police and McGill security shortly after 5:00 p.m. By 5:13 p.m. several squad cars had arrived.

After arriving on the scene, police from station 20 explained that officers entered the building “at arms” because reports had suggested that the two men were armed.

No one has been apprehended for the theft, although the incident was caught on security footage. A

changes that will not deviate significantly from business asusual.

Aubin cited continued city-wide expansion of the Bixi project as an example of a mostly cosmetic venture. Missing, according to Aubin, is a “strategy that really tries to tackle greenhouse gases seriously” as well as other strong measures for sustainability.

McDonnell added that while Vision and Union “stuck bits of feel-good environmentalism all over their platforms”, only Projet Montréal offered a cohesive, coherent platform for sustainability.

Thuillier, however, stated that Projet Montréal is willing to work with Tremblay “on a project-by-project basis.”

security notice posted on McGill’s web site announced that a joint investigation by security personnel and the Montreal police is underway.

Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Morton Mendelson commented on the incident, “I understand the two fellows came in quickly, a few students noticed they were suspicious, and [they] called security and 911.”

As a precaution, McGill security evacuated the building.

Mendelson commented, however, that as security moved through the building issuing the order to evacuate, some students did not take the issue seriously and were uncooperative.

“When security is asking people to evacuate a building, it is serious, and people should respond. It was unfortunate people were questioning whether they really have to go,” Mendelson said.

—Erin Hale

6 News

E R U T L CU K C O SH Drawing lines 9 0 0 2 Colonialism and the creation of borders

T

he keynote panel at Culture Shock 2009 was presented yesterday by Radha D’Souza, who discussed the rise of border conflicts in the wake of British colonialism. Hosted by SSMU and QPIRG, Culture Shock’s week-long events deconstruct the myths surrounding Canada’s immigrant communities. D’Souza, an Indian lawyer, social activist, and a current reader for law at Westminster University in London, shed light on the impact of the border conflicts that followed Indian and Pakistani independence in 1947. The Daily sat down with her to discuss the emergence of border conflicts in the post-colonial era.

McGill Daily: What role has colonialism played in the contemporary border conflicts that afflict ex-colonial states?

Radha D’Souza: The past 500 years of modernity have shown that capitalism intrinsically is linked to forms of colonialism. As capitalism has changed, so have forms of colonialism – from a mercantile form of capitalism which created colonies in South America to large-scale imperialism perpetrated by industrializing nations. By forcibly bringing different communities together, colonialism created the pretext for contemporary conflicts. Look at the Malaysian example: different ethnicities were brought into Malaysia

to work in different economic sectors – the Tamils to work on rubber plantations, the Malays to till the soil, et cetera. As soon as one of these sectors experienced a downturn, the issue became one of ethnicities. So, you see how colonialism, albeit in a different form than the British imperialism, still has a continued influence.

MD: Do national or international governments have an obligation to resolve these conflicts?

RDS: The idea of legal obligations suggests an assumed notion of legal objectives, a certain normative order that obliges people to act.

Instead, we need to step back from these kinds of assumptions. We tend to look at conflicts at an empirical level; we perceive them as conflicts between Hindus and Muslims killing each other. With any social phenomenon, it is never that one-dimensional. We should start looking at what lies behind the forces that make people suddenly take up violence, particularly people who, centuries before, managed to live peacefully next to one another.

MD: Do you think that the way border conflicts are portrayed in the media can be seen as a form of ongoing colonialism? What do you think of Angela Davis’ notion of a “racialization of the media”?

RDS: Eisenhower spoke of a “military industrial complex” when

in fact it is a “military industrial media complex”. We should not forget that the media is intrinsically bound to and evolved with the development of technology for warfare. Huge amounts of money have been put into psychological research by the government; the results are equally used by the military and the media. Furthermore, it is important not to forget that it is the victors who write history. The notion that the UN still is a truly “international” body – although the Security Council to this day is dominated by the victors of the Second World War – demonstrates the power of this discourse. Who is the “international community”? The UN was created without the consent of the colonies. Can it be seen as truly representative?

We have to understand that the coverage of conflicts that we see is very much projected in a specific way by this “international community” and the same goes for the democracy discourse. There are a lot of myths about democracy which show a prevalent distaste for analytical thinking. We do not ask why certain conflicts are happening. Never before has so much money been around as today. A large part of this is bound to be channelled into sustaining conflict due to the power of the media as well as states. Although we talk

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Dominic Popowich/ The McGill Daily

about the importance of putting democratic systems in place in Afghanistan, we neglect the people on the ground. Instead, we focus on individuals such as [Hamid] Karzai and [Abdullah] Abdullah.

This demonstrates the power of discourse, as we have stopped questioning such representations and do not recognize the disconnect between not acknowledging the people and wanting to see “democracy”.

MD: To what extent does colonialism still live on in countries such as India and Pakistan? Do you find that elements of it have been appropriated by the respective governments and continue to be perpetrated with a new face?

RDS: What we forget, however,

is that although the modalities of colonialism may change, the substance has remained the same.

Colonialism is a living thing; the governments [of India, Pakistan] may have changed. However, the bureaucracy and the rulers essentially have remained the same. The notion of “legacies” is a powerful one, especially because we like to think that former colonies now are independent. This, however, is not necessarily the case. With the transformation of the character of capitalism to finance monopolies, the character of colonialism and therefore all the nuts and bolts which hold it together have changed as well.

—compiled by Sweta Kanna

ect should have ended years ago.

“There was a final decision,” said Studnicki-Gizbert in reference to the 2005 decision, which, he said, stated that “under no conditions can a permit be admitted for this project. There are too many violations.”

The history of this mine at San Luis Potosi dates back to its discovery by Spain in the 16th century. After passing from Spanish to Mexican control in the early 1800s, the mines at Potosi changed hands between multiple companies, both foreign and domestic, before coming under the full control of New Gold in 1997.

The first appearance of a formal resistance movement came in 1996 with the formation of a group now known as the Frente Amplio Opositor, or the Broad Coalition against the Minera San Xavier.

However, the former mayor of Cerro de San Pedro was assassinated two days after proposing opposition to the project in 1998.

New Gold declined to comment on the Tribunal ruling of September 24, citing that the information of the event came from a non-governmental organization, and the company is unaware of any recent legal decisions involving their operations at Cerro de San Pedro.

Comments of Vice President Investor Relations Melanie Hennessey echoed the sentiments of the company’s press release, addressing what she saw as recent misinformation about the company.

“All permits, licenses, concessions, or authorizations that are required to operate its Cerro San Pedro Mine are valid and in force,” said Hennessey.

Mexico rules Canadian mine illegal Contentious pit mine company’s permits found fraudulent Kallee Lins News Writer

S

eptember 24 marked an historic victory against environmentally and socially damaging mining practices by Canadian companies. The Mexican Federal Tribunal of Fiscal and Administrative Justice ruled that the Canadianowned mine occupying the valley of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, has been operating on an illegal permit. The open-pit gold and silver mine, near the community of Cerro de San Pedro, is operated by New Gold, a British Columbia-based company that has faced opposition to its operations in the area ever since beginning its project there in 1998.

Enrique Rivera – a lawyer, activist, and political refugee who sought asylum in Montreal after he faced violent attacks for his involvement in the legal conflict – spoke about the mine Tuesday in a discussion on Canadian mining practices in a panel

discussion as part of McGill’s 2009 Culture Shock event. According to Rivera, at the time of New Gold’s arrival at the site, a decree had been passed by the state government declaring the area around Cerro de San Pedro and the mountain where the mine is located as an environmentally protected area. The government, he said, hoped to protect the numerous forms of wildlife that can only be found in the region.

“Part of the decree stipulates that no form of industrial development can take place in that zone,” said Rivera through a translator.

There is also concern that New Gold’s leach pad – the construct where gold is separated from other materials using chemicals such as cyanide – is inhibiting the replenishment of the aquifer within the valley, which is home to 1.3-million people. Rivera said that the membrane stopping the seepage of chemical and gold into the earth is also stopping fresh water from reaching the aquifer.

Rick Killam, Director Environment and Social Impact of New Gold, asserted that the company carefully regulates the quality of water in the area. “There was extensive investigation done on the aquifer since 1990…. There’s no change in the quality of water in any of those wells,” claimed Killam.

The decision made at the end of September not only declared the operation of the mine to be in violation of Mexican law, but also made clear the illegality of the current permit under which New Gold is operating.

In 2005, the Mexican courts declared the land-use permit originally issued to the company in 1999 to be illegal. But following management changes within the company, the mine continued operation under a new permit, which has now been deemed illegal.

Professor Daviken StudnickiGizbert, who has been working on this issue since 2001, said that the struggle against this mine proj-

A petition encouraging the Mexican government to follow through on the ruling is currently circulating.

To sign it, send an email saying “ok” or “sign me up” to jcruizguadalajara@gmail.com.

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Art Essay

7

Lightning Bolt Lukas Thienhaus

8 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Activism’s negative side We shouldn’t subordinate our mental health to political engagement

Radically reread Lisa Miatello

I

’ll admit it: I enjoy railing against white, peace-loving, dreadlocked, vegetable-eating, hippie types. Their erasure of difference, minimization of inequality, and repression of dissent make me want to hurl. Invoking love as the antidote for hate sans political analysis makes for a toxic mixture. Sadly, their interminable barrage of pot, hugs, and tea do not make me feel less oppressed.

If only! But there must be something salvageable from the political vacancy that is the cultural left.

I mean, we can, like, learn from each other and stuff, right? Alas, radical activist communities aren’t perfect either.

While the bohemians walk around with rose-tinted glasses, activists find themselves sinking into the ground with the weight of all the fucked up shit in the world on their shoulders. At least this is how we imagine our truest and most legit heroes. This aggressively sought-out status is otherwise known as activist cred. Garnered from hyper-productivity, quantifiable outputs, trailblazing, DIY organizing, direct action, unceasing resistance, and staunch radical politics, it’s a straight up heavy burden to bear. As fun as it may be to be rad(ical) famous, this ideal is destructive, unattainable, and

unsustainable to boot.

The imposition of this yardstick makes for an entire culture infected by shame, guilt, and silence.

You’re either not doing enough, not doing it properly, or not doing the right thing, period. And if you’re one of the special few that actually has the time, energy, and mental capacity to even begin emulating this prototype, no one wants to hear about your woes. Remember: there are folks out there who have it way worse than you do – so quit griping. No one likes a whiny, over-emotional politico who can’t handle their workload. People are legitimately oppressed, God damnit!

Our political communities fester when attitudes like these go unchecked. The increasing concentration of anger, defensiveness, and condemnation that follows is like acid in an already putrid wound.

I mean, I get the drive to ward off and weed out those perceived as uncommitted or inadequate. I really do: they can pose a threat to already deeply threatened realities and objectives. But when that leads to frowning on dependence, scoffing at calls for support, and scorning emotionality, then I am most certainly not down. Let’s not collapse the trials and tribz that come from the unhappy marriage of hard

Evan Newton / The McGill Daily

Radical political communities can stifle people’s legitimate concerns. work and unattainable ideals with a drive to excise quasi-radical infiltrators.

Alright, lemme quit beating around the bush. When our own radical communities demand the subordination of our feelings, mental health, and sense of self to the work that we do, something’s amiss.

Becoming enslaved to the very things we produce? Sounds oddly reminiscent of the type of alienation foundational to that tyrannical asshole, capitalism. When the only significant difference amongst people starts to become their levels

of productivity and political profitability, we need some serious reevaluation. Our inability to embody the activist ideal is not reflective of personal shortcomings, but is the product of various systems (capitalism, racism, sexism, ableism, et cetera) that tell us what is and what is not valuable, who is and who is not worthwhile.

If our bodies and minds are etched with and steeped in those normative social relations that we love to lambast as oppressive, then we’ve got some serious cleansing to do. Lemon juice and

maple syrup, anyone? As long as it includes a dash of compassion.

In a society that will arbitrarily chew us up and spit us out, doing the work to love ourselves, each other, and all of our efforts is a sincerely political act. By some sort of freak coincidence, we’ve ended up in the same place as our tree-hugging lifestyle-conscious, TLC-revering friends.

Lisa Miatello is one of The Daily’s biweekly columnists. Vent your pent-up emotions to her at radicallyreread@mcgilldaily.com.

HYDE PARK

CFS should consult its members on important moves Daniel Simeone

H

idden in a series of recommendations in the Education Action Plan recently released by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is a plan that would drastically reduce the amount of funding available to graduate students by removing the tax-exempt status on fellowships and scholarships.

The effect of this plan would be to undermine the long-term feasibility of the Canadian education system – reducing the accessibility of graduate education, increasing the cost of the training of the next generation of university professors, and pitting students against one another in a fight over limited education funding.

Presently, graduate student recipients of fellowships enjoy taxexempt status on fellowship income.

This means that the entire value of federal, provincial, and university

fellowships goes to the graduate student. Federal and provincial fellowships vary in value from $18,000 for master’s fellowships to $20,000 or $35,000 for PhD fellowships.

According to CFS, the money raised by what is literally a tax on graduate students (roughly $38 million) would be used to help fund a $1.5-billion student grants program.

What CFS fails to mention, however, is that this $38 million represents less than 2.5 per cent of the funds required. Any such program, even if funded to the $1.5-billion level recommended by CFS, would most probably exclude graduate students receiving major scholarships from grant funding, as fellowships between $18,000 to $35,000 are more than likely to place the award holder beyond the range of eligibility for grant funding. Award holders would not see the loss from the tax made up elsewhere.

The loss of tax-exempt status could cost graduate students up to $3,000 in additional federal taxes

(up to $35,000 for Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral (CGS-D) holders), and for non-Quebec students up to $6,000. Similarly, graduate students holding Post Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral (PGS-D) and CGS/PGS-M (for master’s studies), which amounts to between $18,000 and $20,000, could stand to lose $1,200 in federal taxes, and non-Quebec students up to $2,400 in total, while holders of Quebec doctoral fellowships (approximately $20,000) could lose $1,200.

The recommendation to eliminate the tax-exempt status of scholarship and fellowship income would have adverse effects on thousands of graduate students at McGill alone, and hundreds of thousands across the country. All fellowship holders, federal, provincial, or local, as well as recipients of non-salaried research assistant stipends, would be required to pay taxes on their funding.

The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Policy on Guaranteed Funding for Graduate

Student Researchers maintains that all funding received from scholarships or for research should have tax-exempt status. CFS’s lobbying position is doubly troubling as the provincial government has already exhibited a willingness to remove tax-exempt status from students in its recent decision to tax the fellowships and stipends of post-doctoral researchers. The government may do the same to graduate students.

It is odd that a group like CFS, which purports to represent the interests of all students, would propose a policy the effect of which would be to pit student against student, with graduates and undergraduates scrabbling to lay claim to each other’s funding.

PGSS has been a member of CFS since the early nineties, and pays more than $68,000 in annual fees.

As a member of CFS, PGSS should have been given input in the drafting of any policy plan, especially of a plan that so disproportionately impacts the interests of its mem-

bers. Instead, CFS’ plan was not subject to consideration at the last semi-annual general meeting of the federation in May, and since then, Quebec has been denied its seat on the National Executive – the National Executive refuses to recognize the June election of the Quebec component of CFS. PGSS was first made aware that the CFS National Executive was lobbying for changes that would cost graduate students thousands in a press release published October 19.

A national student lobbying organization should be democratic, open, and responsive to the will of its members. That a lobbying plan so detrimental to so many graduate students can be released without proper consultation and oversight indicates that CFS lacks these three traits.

Daniel Simeone is the president of the Post-Graduate Students’ Society.

Undermine him at prez.pgss@mail. mcgill.ca.

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

9

HYDE PARK

Net neutrality now!

The CRTC should end traffic shaping, throttling Laurin Liu

L

Olivia Messer / The McGill Daily

Even people you ferociously disagree with deserve respect.

HYDE PARK

Listen, don’t drown out Rana Encol

I

couldn’t help but establish an imaginary dialogue between both the immediate and ongoing reactions to the “Echoes of the Holocaust” event and George W. Bush’s recent visit to Montreal.

Both instances speak to the nature of protest and its relationship to our inalienable rights to expression. It’s strange that Bush protesters were (forced to be) more courteous by remaining outside of the hotel, whereas “Echoes” protesters unapologetically usurped the spotlight. Imagine that an anti-Bush activist (my sympathies aside, Bush’s name can only be a stand-in for the ongoing legacy of neo-liberal intervention; the relative justness of the current wars is equally debatable) could obtain a ticket to the Bush talk: would it be worth the cost (and the possible complicity in providing Bush with arguably more than just his daily bread) to thrust the public protest onto the private scene, cutting the man off at the podium?

Everyone recognizes that a criminal has rights; if he couldn’t speak, we wouldn’t have the justice system as we know it. If some alleged criminals are speaking at fancy hotels and not on the docket – well, this means that we should call and clamour as activists did on Thursday and petition our institutions and leaders in the meantime.

On the other hand, getting in the man’s personal space – metaphorical cock-blocking, as it were, in what was mostly a neo-liberal VIP love-fest – would have done little more than provoke personal anger, fuel fires, and give a legitimating excuse for revenge.

And we already know that the Bush administration was keen on exploiting excuses for revenge with far wider

consequences than “a swift kick in the butt” for one offender. I greatly admired Adrienne Klasa’s thoughts and conclusions (“The devil & the activists,” Commentary, October 26) on her decision to attend and actually listen to the talk and the implication that personal engagement – although sometimes difficult and morally compromising – is as necessary to effective critical discourse as public organization and protest.

I remember having my name picked out of a hat along with the names of four other high school classmates to attend a lawyer-sponsored, $100-a-plate schmoozer for Michael Ignatieff at a local MP’s private home when Iggy was campaigning for Liberal Party leadership back in 2006. The host assumed that my peers and I were not paid-for-guests but keen young student volunteers and assigned us to coat check duties.

The $100-plates were actually trays of assorted cheese cubes. The exposure to all of the cheese (both big and small), the champagne-happy politicians, and the bubbly campaign rhetoric was a formative engagement with the show business of politics and triggered a lifelong obsession with trying to understand my relationship to it all. I am not particularly partial to Ignatieff’s politics and care even less for his intellectual work – I see him as part of the academic vanguard rushing to aid “War on Terror” big guns with the force of their pens.

But I was so close to this guy at one point that I couldn’t help but observe the untrimmed bristles sprouting from his ears as he leaned close to my posse for a photo. Suddenly, the public persona became one private, discrete individual with his own quirks and personality, rather than a brick in the ivory tower or parliamentary walls.

With this recognition comes the

acknowledgement that every fellow human deserves equal consideration and respect regardless of context. And to get the inevitable question out of the way: would Stalin or Pinochet deserve my respect if they came to talk at my school or in my city? Yes, they would. (What is a reverence for history but a perverted exaltation of millennia of bloodshed?

For those same millennia were also the bearers of infinite beauty, compassion, and human achievement.) I would give them my ears and then I would give them my words, and if something meant more to me than could be described by words, I might also admittedly give them words torn asunder by emotion and faulty logic. I would only get in their way if their words were decrees: if they were pretending at some position of power beyond the civil forum of ideas, then, my words might also become strategic decrees to counter theirs.

The “Echoes” protest did not inspire personal or institutional revenge, nor did it feature a speaker that many people would rather see in court. But it got in another man’s space, and if anything, it stifled the possibility for constructive civil dialogue and promoted a lot of backlash about form and tactics and style, and less about the real issues. Tactics are important, too. There will always be instances where a full choir of praise or dissent is necessary: sometimes the tumult of drums and dancing and voices can shake the machinery of talking heads from their sleepy rhetoric. If the talking head is right in front of you, though, and is nothing more than a man, then for goodness’ sake, let him finish.

ast week, the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Council (CRTC) made a decision that amounts to one small step for net neutrality and one large step for Internet users. But that’s only if you managed to catch a headline that, for the most part, passed unnoticed.

First, let’s get some terms straight: net neutrality is the concept that Internet service providers (ISPs) shouldn’t favour certain users or applications over others. There are two ways in which this preferential treatment can manifest: traffic shaping, when an ISP funnels bandwidth to different types of applications (for example, making email faster and peer-to-peer software slower) and throttling, when an ISP intentionally lowers the speed of an Internet connection.

The CRTC decided on October 26 to allow ISPs to continue traffic shaping, but only if they inform users when they do so. The decision also bars ISPs from traffic shaping that would interfere with time-sensitive items, such as Skype or streaming media.

Traffic shaping and throttling is happening – right here, in Canada. Bell, Rogers, and a few other telecom providers have justified slowing Internet connections down at peak times of the day, claiming that a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peerto-peer applications. In 2005, a scandal broke out when Telus, then caught up in a conflict with the Telecommunications Workers Union, blocked its Internet subscribers from accessing a prounion web site. In April 2008, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) and its members discovered that Bell Canada had begun slowing down the traffic destined for the customers of CAIP’s members.

The enforcement of this system depends on complaints that the

CRTC receives. In other words, the onus would be on individuals and companies to lodge a complaint with the CRTC. Although this is not a proactive approach, Marc Raboy, the Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill, says that it is not possible for the CRTC to monitor all the traffic shaping and throttling that occurs.

However, Raboy notes that the complaints process involves time and resources not often available to the ordinary person.

It is important that government introduce legislation to categorically forbid these discriminatory practices and maintain neutrality on the Internet, so that users, not ISPs, decide how to use it. In a world without net neutrality, user access to Internet content would be up for grabs to the highest bidder.

In other words, telecom companies would be able to interfere with the transmission of content, such as TV shows delivered over the Internet, that compete with services the ISPs offer, like cable television. In a situation bereft of strict rules governing net neutrality, telecom companies would be able to extort money from online content and application providers, and favour the web sites and services that they own or with whom they strike special deals.

This would essentially stifle innovation, making smaller competitors – like Google was once upon a time – unable to compete and incapable of succeeding despite their merit.

For these reasons, the CRTC should use the power given to it through the Telecommunications Act to regulate retail Internet services, using net neutrality as a guiding principle. The point would not be for the government to regulate the Internet, but to take the ability away from ISPs to interfere or discriminate arbitrarily and with impunity when it comes to Internet access.

Laurin Liu is a U1 History and Philosophy student. Shape her traffic at laurin.liu@hotmail.com.

R.I.P. CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS November 28, 1908 – October 30, 2009 Send us your reminiscences of this structuralist giant and other letters of general interest and in response to our content. letters@mcgilldaily.com

Rana Encol is a U2 English Literature student. Respect her humanity at rana.encol@mail.mcgill.ca.

Mind&Body

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

10

Silenced by law Canadian legislation endangers sex workers Sex talks

O

nce or twice a week, Kay De Monet will post an ad on Craigslist. Under the “erotic services” section, other ads boast “GOOD HOT SERVICE,” “JUICY ASIAN GIRLS,” massages, “100% real girls,” “36 DD breasts,” lots of “SEXXY” (insert girl’s name here).

Her ad states “Worth it, w4m.”

This understated ad describes her as “sweet and experienced” with a description of her looks and an accompanying mostly clothed picture. She states that she is looking for visitors to enjoy her company. Unlike other ads, hers makes no mention of the services she might provide for the fee included.

On my first visit to this section of Craigslist, I was struck by the fact that this existed at all. Within the same online classifieds site you can find an apartment, sell anything you own, look for a job, and find someone to provide you with “erotic services.” American cities on this site file these ads under “adult services.”

Considering the stigma around sex work in Canada, I’d never have

expected to see it advertised on a public classifieds web site. So how are these sections able to exist at all?

The laws surrounding sex work in Canada are that buying or selling sex is legal. Yet it is illegal to run a brothel or “bawdy house,” communicate for the purposes of selling or buying sex, or to live on the money one makes from buying or selling sex.

How then does a person get to the buying or selling of sex without communicating about it? There are a lot of rules surrounding how you can connect with potential buyers through an ad. In De Monet’s ads, you pay for her time, not anything specific. No mention of money in exchange for sexually-related services is allowed, nor any mention of what types of sexual services are offered, like anal sex, blow jobs, et cetera. No acronyms referencing sexual activity that might occur are permitted, like bbbj (bare back blowjob), and no naked pictures showing sexual action. This is how escort agencies advertise their ser-

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

Amanda Unruh and Maddie Guerlain

vices, by existing in this grey area of law.

This grey area is currently under scrutiny, as three sex workers are battling the Canadian Supreme Court for the decriminalization of the laws surrounding buying and selling, stating that they are impossible to follow while still maintaining one’s own safety.

Sex workers can’t ask appropriate questions of their clients, because they can’t legally talk about it, or legally use any of the money they make to live off of. The same reasons that the laws are in place – to maintain safety and get workers

off the streets – can end up pushing them right back. By removing these sections of the legal code, workers would have the opportunity to define themselves as self-employed, and protected by the laws that govern all other workers.

Current laws don’t serve to protect workers, but instead maintain the anonymity of buyers and continue to stigmatize this type of work.

Meanwhile, buying and selling initiated on Craigslist will continue, regardless of these laws.

Until decriminalization occurs, workers like De Monet will have to keep being careful of what they say

to potential clients, where they do it, or how they spend the money they make.

Maddie and Amanda work at McGill’s Shag Shop. They’ll be bringing their analysis and expertise to all things sex and sexuality in this space every Wednesday.

They’re currently accepting reader questions, to be answered in future columns. Email them at sextalks@ mcgilldaily.com.

For more information on sex workers and their rights visit chezstella. org.

This week, enjoy a vegasm 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, corn starch.

The budget bon-vivant Justin Scherer

V

egan food has this reputation for being bland, unfulfilling, and without texture. These recipes are none of those things. The spicy chutney combined with the crunchy latkes is flavourful, healthy, and it sticks to the ribs really well. The spinach salad is delicious and ridiculously healthy. As a bonus, it works well as an entrée or a side dish. These two delicious vegan recipes will satisfy partisans of every food faction. Enjoy!

1. Red Lentil Latkes with Cilantro Chutney: INGREDIENTS Latkes – 1 cup rinsed basmati rice, 1/2 cup red lentils, 1/2 tsp tumeric (substitute mustard powder if you want), sesame or peanut oil, 1 tsp cumin, 2 cups diced onions,

Chutney – 1 cup cilantro, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 jalepeno without stem, 1 small, peeled garlic clove, 1-inch knob of peeled ginger, salt to taste.

METHOD Latkes – Place the rice, lentils, tumeric/mustard powder, and salt into a pot with 4 cups of water. Cover and bring to a boil, uncover, and simmer without stirring until all the water is absorbed (15 minutes or so). Meanwhile, heat a glug of oil in a small frying pan, add the cumin and sauté until fragrant, add the onions, and cook them over medium heat until they are well-browned.

Remove from heat, add the red pepper flakes, and then add to the lentils. Combine very well and cool the whole mixture in the fridge for about 20 minutes. After it has cooled, take it out of the fridge, heat about a centimetre of oil in your pan (not too hot! Keep it around medium.), spread a layer of corn starch on a large plate or cutting board, form the mixture into patties, and evenly coat both sides. Place the patties into the oil and flip when they are browned on one side. Serve them warm with the chutney on the side.

Chutney – While that is cooling, make the chutney.

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blend-

er. If you don’t have one of these, you can chop up all the ingredients as fine as you can make them and then combine them all. Blend it all together until it is the consistency of runny oatmeal.

2. Wilted Spinach Salad with Almonds and Honey Garlic Vinaigrette: INGREDIENTS One bag (about 10 oz) of spinach, 2 cups of thinly sliced mushrooms, 3 diced garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of almonds, 1 green onion (thinly sliced), 2 tbsp cider vinegar, 2 tsp honey, olive oil.

METHOD Combine the spinach, mushrooms, and almonds in a large pot. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over top, and put on very low heat while you’re preparing the dressing, stirring occasionally. Sauté the green onion and garlic in oil with lots of salt and pepper until browned. Add the vinegar and stir until the sharp vinegar smell has lessened somewhat, remove from heat, and add the honey.

Make sure that there is enough oil and vinegar to coat the spinach sufficiently. By this time, the spinach and mushrooms should have lost most of their mass and wilted. Spoon the spinach mixture onto a plate and pour the dressing over top. Serve immediately.

12Features

Exploitation and activism Cleve Higgins digs into the history behind mining opposition

I

n the past two weeks, one of Mexico’s highest courts confirmed that the environmental permit for the Cerro de San Pedro mine was issued illegally – what those who are opposed to the mine have been saying for decades. The government, therefore, is obligated to cancel the permit and shut down the mine by November 13. If this ruling is enforced and the mine’s operations are stopped, this would be a significant victory for many involved in the worldwide struggle against the exploitation caused by Canadian mining companies, inseparable from issues of autonomy, indigenous land rights, and international trade agreements.

O

n January 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was formally implemented

by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. On the same day, the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (Ejercitio Zapatista de Liberacion Nationale or EZLN) launched an armed indigenous uprising against the Mexican government in the southern state of Chiapas.

The Zapatistas are part of a long history of rural Mexican revolutionary struggle stretching back to Emiliano Zapata.

During the 1910 Mexican revolution, Zapata and his rural army fought for the collective landholding rights of peasants and small farmers (campesinos), which were eventually guaranteed by the new Mexican constitution.

The EZLN timed their 1994 uprising with the implementation of NAFTA because, as part of the trade agreement, the Mexican government amended the constitution to weaken the collective landholding rights of campesinos – including many indigenous people. This change was part of a large set of neo-liberal legal and economic changes implemented along with NAFTA that made it easier for corporations from Canada and the U.S. to exploit workers and the

land in Mexico.

These changes opened up major profit-making opportunities for the Canadian mining industry. It was now free to exploit Mexican mineral deposits. In the mid-nineties, Canadian mining companies began exploring for gold and silver at Cerro de San Pedro in the state of San Luis Potosi.

Soon after mining companies began pursuing an openpit gold and silver mine at Cerro de San Pedro, civil society groups began organizing opposition to the project because of its destructive environmental effects in a historically significant region. This opposition movement eventually culminated in the formation of the Broad Opposition Front (Frente Amplio Opositor or FAO), which, in 2007, had its first delegation to Canada and formed the solidarity group FAO-Montreal as a QPIRG-McGill working group.

Following 12 days of combat that accompanied the 1994 uprising, the Zapatistas initiated a peace negotiation process with the government, eventually reaching an agreement for the constitution to recognize the autonomy of indigenous peoples within Mexico. However, in 2001, the government betrayed the agreement by implementing an “indigenous law” that failed to address the issues raised by the Zapatistas. In response, the Zapatistas decided to ignore the Mexican government and began to focus on building autonomy without any legal recognition.

F

or the Zapatistas, autonomy has meant the creation of their own institutions and services, such as health care, education, media, water, and justice – to address the needs of their communities in Chiapas without government intervention.

The resources to sustain these autonomous institutions often come from solidarity groups based in areas with

wealthier economies, such as Mexico City, Europe, the U.S., and Canada. The QPIRG-McGill working group Students Taking Action with Chiapas (STAC-Montreal) is one of these solidarity groups, and how I first became involved in Canadian-Mexican solidarity.

STAC-Montreal helps economically support Zapatista autonomy through a project in collaboration with the First of January Boot Cooperative in the Zapatista regional centre of Oventic. The farmer-volunteers of the cooperative make leather boots by hand for their own communities and to sell to Zapatista supporters. STAC-Montreal student-volunteers are able to transport the boots and sell them in Canada, and then send all profits back to the Zapatistas. The Zapatista Solidarity Boot Project has officially launched and the boots are currently for sale.

R

ecently, the Zapatistas declared that they are an anticapitalist movement: the Primero de Enero cooperative, working in collaboration with STAC-Montreal, runs under a similar ideology. Both the cooperative and STAC-Montreal operate by volunteer basis rather than by wage-labour. The workers of the cooperative own the means of production for the boots, and surplus from the sales goes entirely to poor rural communities in the Global South. This is a small example of the kinds of economic institutions and relations that can be created in opposition to the capitalist system.

While building alternatives to capitalism is important, it is always a very limited endeavour. Global capitalism continues to operate smoothly, and corporations are able to continue exploiting people and the land around the world. The global mining industry, largely based in Canada, is a clear example of this exploitation.

Mining exploration companies are searching the entire

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Whitney Mallett / The McGill Daily

planet for minerals. Once they find a potentially profitable deposit, millions of dollars flow from investors in the U.S. and Canada, giving the company overwhelming resources to co-opt, corrupt, divide, and repress all those who might stand in the way of their project. Nearly all of the mine’s profits flow back to the investors until the companies abandon the mine, leaving the local communities to deal with the environmental and social effects.

T

he struggle of the FAO against the mine at Cerro de San Pedro is the most prominent case of resistance to Canadian mining in Mexico, though there are similar struggles happening all over the world. Nearly every country in Latin America has a national network in opposition to destructive mining. There are approximately 500 Canadian projects underway, with more in Mexico than any other country.

With so many communities involved in similar struggles, the FAO has recently formed a Mexican network of communities affected by mining (REMA). Together, these communities and opposition groups can forge a united front against the money and power of Canadian mining companies.

Here in Montreal, we have also broadened the struggle while working with other Canadian solidarity groups opposing mines in different countries around the world. Through these connections, we have come to see that the problem is in fact like a huge monster: each mining project is like a separate arm, but all of them connect back to the brain here in Canada.

This is not just a problem for people elsewhere in the world. The problem is rooted in Canadian companies – mining negatively affects Canadian communities too. For this reason, we have tried to create links between the strug-

gles against mining here in Canada and similar struggles in other parts of the world, and to inform Canadians of mining’s impact in their own backyard.

A

ll over the world, it is most often indigenous communities that are being affected by and opposing mining projects. Indigenous peoples usually have a relationship to a certain territory, and it is often on this basis that they mobilize to defend the land against the destruction and environmental harm that come with most mining projects.

This was the case two years ago in Ontario when leaders from the communities of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation were arrested and imprisoned for blocking mining exploration on their territories. Determined opposition of this kind can also be seen in the southern states of Mexico such as Chiapas and Oaxaca, which both have large indigenous populations and strong traditions of popular struggle.

T

his August, I visited Chiapas to pick up an order of Zapatista boots from the Primero de Enero cooperative, and also to attend a statewide gathering of the REMA. Participants were diverse, including groups opposing Canadian mining in Guatemala and FAO delegates coming from San Luis Potosi. Many delegates emphasized the global nature of the mining issue – how there are projects all over the world, and how the effects of these projects reach beyond the areas surrounding the mines. They shared stories and strategies to better prepare those who were anticipating the arrival of mining companies in their communities.

I spoke briefly about international solidarity, how there are many people in Canada who oppose what the mining

companies are doing, and that we can try to work in collaboration with local opposition groups to discourage investors from putting their money toward certain projects to ensure that they won’t be funded.

F

ollowing the recent ruling in Mexican high court, the coming days and weeks will determine whether or not the Cerro de San Pedro mine continues to operate. FAOMontreal will be working with the rest of the FAO to do everything we can to ensure that this specific instance of exploitation stops. Though this is only one mine, the struggle against it is so well known in Mexico, and a victory by the FAO would undoubtedly have ripple effects, impacting other mining struggles across the country.

Business and political elites in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. have invested considerable effort into setting up exploitative economic and political relations within and between these countries through institutions such as NAFTA and the Canadian mining industry. Groups in Mexico such as the Zapatistas and the FAO are actively struggling against these institutions, and ultimately against the power of the elites whose interests the institutions represent. In Canada, and right here in Montreal, it is possible for us to support and participate in struggles for social and environmental justice, and to help build a world in which destruction and exploitation earn fewer profits, and autonomy, dignity, and selfdetermination exist for all.

To find out how you can get involved with FAO-Montreal, email them at cerrodesanpedro@gmail.com or visit faomontreal.wordpress.com. To buy boots and help sustain autonomous Zapatista communities, email stacmontreal@ gmail.com

13

Classifieds To place an ad, via email: ads@dailypublications.org phone : 514-398-6790 fax : 514-398-8318

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFRDICINGACTAERESERS FOR REWA

Cost : McGill Students & Staf : $6,70/day; $6.20/day for 3 or more days. General public : $8.10/day; $6.95/day for 3 or more days. 150 character limit. There will be a $6.00 charge per contract for any characters over the limit.

Prices include taxes. MINIMUM ORDER $40.50/ 5 ads.

Categories : Housing, Movers/Storage, Employment, Word Processing/ Typing, Services Ofered, For Sale, To Give Away, Wanted to Buy, Rides/Tickets, Lost & Found, Personal, Lessons/Courses, Notices, Volunteers, Musicians, etc. Lost & Found ads are free.

Housing

:i\Xk\ X eXk`fen`[\ Zfdd\iZ`Xc ]fi ?\iYfe Xe[ pfl Zflc[ N@E 9@> N\ nXek pfl kf

FINANCIAL PLANNING GLOBAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MARKETING MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

4 1/2 - MTL North, renovated, large rooms, very quiet and clean, close to buses, metro and all services, 15 mins. away from downtown (Pie-IX metro station), available Oct 1st. $545. Call (450) 661-6110 Looking for a friendly roommate to share a large 4 1/2 with one girl and two cats. Huge room, great neighborhood (NDG right near Hampstead), close to Snowdon metro, buses and all services. Available now.

Email GenevieveCarine@gmail.com

^\k Zi\Xk`m\# ^\k Zfdg\k`k`m\# Xe[ ^\k _pg\[

Employment

Aljk j_ffk# lgcfX[ Xe[ j_Xi\ pfli m`[\f n`k_ ]i`\e[j kf ^\k k_\ dfjk m`\nj%

MASTER SCHOOL OF BARTENDING Bartending and table service courses Student rebate Job reference service • 514-849-2828 www.Bartend.ca (on line registration possible)

Jf ^f X_\X[# ^\k pfli ?\iYfe

“LAZY EYE”

Have you had a since childhood? McGillVision Research is looking for study participants. Please call Dr. Simon Clavagnier at 514934-1934 ext. 35307 or email mcgillvisionresearch@ gmail.com for further information.

:_\Zb lj flk fe

?\iYfe # eXkliXccp¿k_\ 9<JK Z_f`Z\ ]fi pfli jfi\ k_ifXk Xe[ Zfl^_ ! Ef GliZ_Xj\ E\Z\jjXip% =fi ]lcc ilc\j# m`j`k nnn%>\kPfli?\iYfe%ZX% <ekip G\i`f[ Zcfj\j Efm\dY\i )'# )''0% ( Gi`q\ XmX`cXYc\ kf Y\ nfe% F[[j f] Y\`e^ \c`^`Yc\ ]fi k_\ Gi`q\ n`cc [\g\e[ fe _Xm`e^ k_\ _`^_\jk KfkXc JZfi\% Dljk Y\ X i\j`[\ek f] :XeX[X Xe[ Y\ (- p\Xij f] X^\ fi fc[\i% :fii\Zk Xejn\i kf dXk_\dXk`ZXc jb`cc k\jk`e^ hl\jk`fe i\hl`i\[% C`d`k f] ( i\^`jkiXk`fe g\i g\ijfe Xe[ g\i \dX`c X[[i\jj%

business.humber.ca

Submit your...

Short stories, poems, sonnets,

GET YOUR CLASSIFIEDS ON THE WEB! www.mcgilldaily.com/classifieds

Can you get to first without an injury?

lyrics, dialogues,

diaries, monologues, limericks, odes, siloloquys... (& anything else)

to the

Daily’s Literary Supplement.

Work due 13 November at Midnight, on stands 23 November litsup@mcgilldaily.com

The Daily needs a Sports Editor, and you could be our home run!

email questions to sports@mcgilldaily.com

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Sara Traore

Photo Essay

15

Culture

16

Where the artists are Aaron Vansintjan unearths Montreal’s elusive art collectives

F

inding an artist community is not a matter of stomping on the ground or waiting for the rain to start pouring and the artists to wriggle their way up to the open air.

To get hold of those mysterious, elusive creatures, you’ve gotta dig deep underground; you’ve gotta get some dirt under your fingernails. Most importantly, you’ve gotta ask yourself if a fertile topsoil really does mean easier living for those slippery worms. In a city like Montreal, where rent is cheap and the galleries are plenty, you might think that being an artist is easy and even profitable. But it isn’t; in fact, it’s hard to be noticed and even harder to sustain yourself with your art.

To battle this, community groups have taken it upon themselves to organize collective spaces that others can share. “The whole idea,” says Stephen Kawai, a member of the Long Haul, an art collective in Park Ex, “is having a space where anybody can come and set up a space to create.” Some groups saw the necessity to support those that need it most. “We focus on promoting representation that wouldn’t be there otherwise, creating a space that people wouldn’t have otherwise,” says Tasha Zamudio, co-founder of Ste. Emilie Skillshare. To many artists, working together means support and motivation. “Artists need space, and they need time, and they need to be around other artists, because being around other artists is legitimizing,” says Svea Vikander, founder of Studio Beluga, an art space in St. Henri.

It’s clear that, to find individual artists in Montreal, you have to find the community: artists exist alongside each other and create networks. They seek each other out and form groups, and very often, they form collectives.

And Montreal, brimming with artists, is bubbling with artist collectives.

When I set out to find, investigate, and categorize the “art collective scene” in Montreal, I started by rolling up my sleeves. “Aha!” I said to myself, “I’ll just talk to a few artists, interrogate some founders, package Montreal art collectives in a clean bundle, and hang them out in The McGill Daily to dry.” It all seemed so easy: “Take a look at this phenomenon,” I would tell the readers, “and digest.” What I found, however, turned my original intent upside down. So much for clean laundry, and so much for easy investigative journalism.

Loosely defined, an art collective is a group of people that work together, in any place, in any way, for the sake of creating art.

I dove into the issue with the intent of tackling the growing art collective trend. Instead, art collectives tackled me. Collectives, claims Eliane Ellbogen, the artistic director of Eastern Bloc, another space in Parc Ex, have been around for quite a while. “I don’t think this is a trend. Artists have always come together and discussed what they are doing. It’s just maybe the settings have changed, but the loft space as a centre and focus for art has been around since the sixties.... Montreal is a very transient city. Every so often there’s a wave of interest in the gentrification of different areas.”

Though the choice to join a collective is seemingly a common one, throughout my expedition into the Montreal artist community I found that most members of artist-run centres deny the “art collective” classification. For instance, Ste. Emilie Skillshare, says Zamudio, defines itself as a “radical community art space.”

“Throughout the history of Ste. Emilie, there have been different members who don’t call themselves artists, though they do make art,” she explains. “That’s part of our mandate

too – we’re not just for artists. In fact, I think we all agree that we come to Ste. Emilie first as activists who want to promote art in our activism or in the social justice movement.”

Similarly, Red Bird Studios, in the Mile End, calls itself an “artist-run centre,” not an art collective. The only real collectives in Montreal, says Naomi Cook, co-founder of Red Bird, are co-ops like Right to Move, Concordia’s bike co-op, or certain printing shops and studios.

“In a collective, all decisions are shared by everybody,” she says. That’s rare for artist centres; they need organization, centralized decision-making, and a small group of people to operate them. Eastern Bloc has “more of a complicated administrative and financial infrastucture,” says Ellbogen. Eastern Bloc has two full-time staff members: Ellbogen and Sandor Poloski. Red Bird studios is run by brother-and-sister team Naomi and Konan Cook, and The Long Haul is run by two fulltime artists, John Tinholt and Vanessa Yanow.

It seems that art spaces need a small but dedicated group of people to deal with administrative matters – otherwise they tend to fall apart.

Most artists denied the idea that an art collective exists in order for artists to inspire and influence each other. “It’s not as if you get a big studio,” said Alex Penfeld, an artist from Australia currently at Red Bird, “bang some artists together, and see what happens.”

“There’s a very strong outsider point-ofview,” he continued, pointing to the disparity between public perception and the realities of collectives. At Red Bird Studios, says Penfeld, “you’re surrounded by other people that are interested, there’s an openness to each other.” Chloe Lum, co-founder of 100sided Die, agrees. 100-sided Die is a “loose collective of artists” that provides small stu-

dio spaces to a score of artists, mostly specializing in print media. “Being in a space is more social, just more fun.... You alert each other to different opportunities. It’s more about making our stuff happen, making it on our own funding,” said Lum, who is also a member of poster-making duo Seripop and noise band AIDS Wolf. “Artists don’t join a collective to be influenced,” said Stephen Kawai of the Long Haul. “All artists are constantly being influenced by what they see around them, what they feel, their lives, the lives of the people around them. I guess the advantage of being part of a collective rather than just renting your own space is that you’re always running into people, and you’re talking about what they’re doing and even though it doesn’t impact what they’re doing directly, it just sort of creates a creative atmosphere that helps a lot.”

Comments like these show how artists revel in their own mystery and emphasize the privacy of making art. For this reason, many people think that art collectives are a recent trend – true artists are isolated hermits and joining a collective is just the cool thing to do.

Quite the contrary. We need to stop looking at artists solely as individuals and look at the networks that they exist in. Many artists probably would not have continued to make art without being part of a collective. As Aaron McConomy, a member of the YPF, an art collective that has been slowly breaking up over the years, told me, “I wasn’t making art at all when we started. The attitude [within YPF] was always just ‘Fuck it. Make something.

Nobody cares if it’s the best thing ever. Just fucking make it.’ I have serious doubts if I would be making any art if we hadn’t started the YPF.” Creativity doesn’t appear magically out of nowhere; it comes from the relation-

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

17

Across: En Masse, a drawing collective, is using the new Red Bird gallery space for one of their pieces.

Below: Jesse Purcell, member of 100-sided Die, shows his poster design for this week’s Culture Shock. Purcell is also a member of Justseeds.org, an international artist cooperative that focuses on socially engaged posterart. “It’s a cheap and accessible medium,” says Purcell. Concerning bringing art to social justice, Purcell remarked that “people are broadening their aesthetic senses – they’re ready to have something more lively.”

Top left: Ste. Emilie Skillshare is queer-positive, anti-racist, and commited to promoting artistic expression and self-representation.

Top right: Studio Beluga, founded this January, is a brand-new art space dedicated to supporting emerging artists. Its large loft area looks out on a St. Henri warehouse.

Bottom right: Chloe Lum, member of 100-sided Die, Seripop, and AIDS Wolf, shows off screen-printed posters at their poster sale. Their next poster sale is on November 28.

ships an individual forms and the way they see themself within the context of the culture they live in. Artists don’t come to Montreal because it’s trendy and ensures success. They come to Montreal because the city supports artists and the artistic life, and that’s a good thing. There is a vibrant community of artists, and there are spaces, like Eastern Bloc, Red Bird, and Studio Beluga, that function under the mandate of supporting emerging artists.

It’s clear that art collectives, given the way they operate and the nature of their mandates, get a lot of shit from the authorities.

In Ellbogen’s words, the city “basically makes it very, very, very hard to start up anything that’s remotely underground or that remotely falls outside the standard protocol,” she said after receiving a call – mid-interview – from the authorities. “They see a bunch of bohemian artists partying away all night and they don’t think to look deeper than that: maybe we’re throwing a party so that we can have innovative exhibits.... It’s a superficial look from the authorities’ perspective in terms of what artists do and what art spaces should be like. If it’s not a museum, then, obviously, it must be illegal.”

Right now, it’s the process of turning commercial spaces into residential space that’s the problem, driving up the rent and making it impossible for artists to rent the space they need. Several artist-run centres, like Red Bird and The Long Haul, actually rely on their sympathetic landlords to support them – it’s often much more profitable to sell the building or even to use it as storage space.

The dilemma is that artists need lots of space for their equipment, and renting a loft in a residential building for themselves is far too expensive – it always has been.

But the art collective solution is a logi-

cal one, even though it’s becoming less and less possible. Ellbogen observed that, even though a space like Eastern Bloc would not exist in any other city, Montreal is becoming more and more like New York and Toronto.

“We’re on the bitter tail-end of the cheap-loftspace era,” she commented. “This idea that Montreal is a haven for artists is really not the case anymore. In some cases it is, but every year it’s less and less.... You really need money to have space.”

Some haven’t given up hope – Kawai remarked that, right now, the condo market “got saturated pretty quickly.” He expressed confidence, however, that artists can still find places and communities to help them in their work. Lum explained to me that “printmaking requires a lot of space,” and the solution was to find a commercial building that offers low rent, freight elevators, and loading docks, and then share the expenses with fellow artists. “The cost of living has a big effect on artists,” observed a fellow member of “the Die,” Jesse Purcell. But Lum then remarked that gentrification definitely brings more business – it would be much harder “if there weren’t young, hip, wealthy people to buy our stuff.” She added, “Government cuts haven’t really affected us. We’re resilient if nothing else.”

But what about those artists, young and old, that aren’t part of a community and don’t have the money to afford their own studio?

The thing that Montreal still lacks is a space, like a bike collective, for artists to share and use materials in a productive environment.

The Long Haul is clearly working on this – artists share whatever tools they can. For example, John Tinholt is planning to construct a new carpentry workshop for several woodworkers, Red Bird actually offers a bike

All photos by Aaron Vansintjan / The McGill Daily

collective, and Eastern Bloc is planning on creating a space to edit digital media. Many of the mainstream galleries in Montreal are francophone, so artist spaces often exist to provide a corresponding space for those who don’t fit in. Art centres, however, don’t define themselves as anglophone and have made significant attempts to integrate the communities. All in all, Ste. Emilie is most promising as a modern solution, but their mandate focuses on activism more than the ideal of sharing tools or a space.

The success of the Montreal art scene lies in its inclusivity. Newer places like Studio Beluga have a mandate that deals specifically with those artists that are under-exposed.

The reason – and it’s a valid one – that Vikander founded the space in the first place is that conventional art spaces like museums and galleries are too bureaucratic and com-

mercial. In a bad economy, artists will look for alternatives, or create them themselves.

What Montreal needs now are spaces that offer exposure, spaces that offer tools to create, and dedicated individuals to run them.

Because there is a demand, it’s possible – and maybe even financially feasible – that such spaces will appear. On the other hand, it’s probable that the perfect art collective can never exist. Art is, after all, an intrinsically social process, and every collective has to deal with the inherent problems of coordinating a large group of creative individuals. After knocking on dozens of collectives’ doors for the past few weeks, I’m pretty psyched for the years to come – what new innovative idea will take root in a loft somewhere in Hochelaga? How will artists integrate themselves with the city, and where will they go next?

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Sally Lin / The McGill Daily

97 days on the Appalachian Trail Jack Maguire Culture Writer

T

he word “hiking” ordinarily brings to mind the image of casual strolls in the park or refreshing afternoon excursions. But for my brother and me, it became a lifestyle: last summer, we spent 97 days hiking across two thousand miles. We woke up to that task every morning, in spite of torrential rains and 50 kilometre day-plans.

For many, that might not sound like much fun; you may legitimately wonder why we did it. The answer, however, isn’t particularly revealing. The idea came to me on my first visit to the Appalachian Trail, on a chilly fall afternoon in the hills just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The image of the labyrinthine path, coursing through the seemingly barren Pennsylvanian forest, elicited in me a passionate inquiry into its story.

Though I’d barely walked more than a few miles that day, that small taste of the trail – which follows the Appalachian mountain chain through the temperate forests of the eastern U.S. – spurred my imagination. My head began conjuring images of the trail rolling over a vast sea of deep, grassy knolls in the west of North Carolina, covered in brilliant red and white wildflower patches. I saw myself walking under the behemoth rock outcroppings of New Hampshire’s White Mountain Range. I imagined the lonely adventurers I might eventually meet, and the cozy little mountain towns of America’s original west: Appalachia.

So it was the mystique of the trail that lured me in. The opportunity to spend a summer living simply, free of technology and undistracted from nature’s splendour, invoked in me a special yearning. I also hoped that the experience could strengthen the bond I shared with my brother. To eat from the same pot, walk over the same stones, and huddle under the same log roofs – in temperatures ranging from tropical to just above freezing – I couldn’t imagine this experience doing anything but bringing us closer. But I never could have imagined the intensity of the isolation the Appalachian Trail brings.

On April 29, 2009, I left my 19th Century Philosophy paper in the Leacock Philosophy Office, ready to confront the coming challenge and fulfill an incomparable dream: to walk from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine.

But my brother and I soon found we weren’t alone.

Every summer, a few hundred crazy souls unite themselves with the bio-rhythms of this peaceful land to seek fellowship with the wilderness. But romantics need not apply; beyond all else, life on the trail amounts to a continuous test of endurance – a fact for which an entire year of training had barely prepared us. And so, under a picturesque Georgian sky painted in blots of white, we set out, clueless about what would become of our feeble frames.

The trail would dump rain on us for days at a time.

And on the trail, when you get wet, you stay wet. The path often became a stream and, on the worst occasions, we found ourselves walking knee-deep in mud, mile after gloomy mile through Vermont. The gigantic roots that covered the trail in Maine, meanwhile, made walking feel more like skipping. But probably the most persistent challenge for us was the fact that walking isn’t all a hiker is faced with – we had to climb mountains. Every day, a hiker changes about 4,900 feet (1,500 m) in elevation.

The whole sanitation thing out there isn’t exactly ideal either: going a week without showering or doing laundry got us scoffs at local grocery stores. It was tough working so hard everyday only to be humiliated upon re-entry into society.

Living off little more than a 15-pound sack and stream water was surprisingly liberating, though. Less stuff meant less hassle, and the freedom to peruse the depths of my inmost self without distraction was edifying. Solitude allowed my mind to wander through my past, my passions, my fears, and – eventually – nothingness. It is a glorious victory to be able to surrender one’s thoughts to completing a simple task for its own sake, and nothing else. The point at which my mind had nothing left to think about was the first

19

time it was truly free.

I insist that the rewards of hiking lay in persisting through to the end of the act, rather than in some combination of fruitful anecdotes. My brother and I derived pleasure from simple things, like sharing a story with fellow hikers, or diving into a Chinese buffet with people we’d never met before. Strangers would offer much-needed food, or rides to places that catered specifically to housing long-distance hikers, free of charge.

Every person we met – from a federal prosecutor or the dean of finance at the University of South Carolina, to the man who asked us mud-covered hikers for money at a picnic table – was of deep value to the journey. We all enjoyed each other’s company so greatly because we all held a common love for the place through which we journeyed.

The reward I gained from this endeavour is absolutely indescribable. The feeling reaching the end point of our voyage – after pouring three months of our life into reaching it – was intoxicating, euphoric perfection. For the first time in my life, I had no desire to be in any other place but hugging that sign on Mount Katahdin that marks the end of the trail. I still have trouble comparing this moment to any other in my life.

To the readers I’ve compelled to consider taming the Appalachian Trail, you may find no other requisite for the hike than unbridled enthusiasm. If you can picture yourself eating heaps of junk food outside a small grocery store in some remote mountain community, or imagine zipping out of your sleeping bag every morning to the sight of a yet unseen forest, then you will be as prepared as I was. I nevertheless strongly recommend doing some preparatory hikes up MontRoyal to test your motivation. Many a hiker has loved the idea on paper, but quickly dropped off within the first week. In fact, nearly 30 per cent of people drop off before they reach the 30-mile mark. So, if the trail beckons, don’t turn it away. Modern life can wait, as it did for me.

20Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Digging deeper Andrew Princz seeks complex understanding of travelling the globe John Watson Culture Writer

T

here’s nothing like the thrill of travelling. Whether you’re keen on discovering new scenery, languages, and cultures, or are simply allured by the escape a good vacation offers from a stressful life, few could argue against the joys of travel. Not everyone, however, has this privilege. Travel is expensive, time-consuming, daunting, and (in some cases) potentially dangerous – in other words, it’s not easy to cram a trip to Peru between two midterms.

But hey! What if someone else could do the travelling for you?

Someone who knows what he’s doing, who takes the risk and uncovers the secrets? Someone who brings all his findings, images, and stories back with him, shakes them up into a nice two-hour presentation, and you don’t even need to get on a plane or break the bank.

Wouldn’t that be cool?

history, and culture. As a cultural navigator (a self-coined profession), Princz is interested in understanding the local culture of the places he visits, and in uncovering the development of these cultures, which are often affected by colonialism, war, or natural disaster. With the Travels Ontheglobe series, Princz hopes to erase certain stigmas that these countries (Peru, Kazakhstan, and Angola) have received through western media, and hopefully promote tourism to these culturally rich and beautiful countries.

Travels Ontheglobe’s first of three presentations, “Peru: The Machu Picchu Story,” offered a delightful look at a mysterious and well-known cultural landmark, while at the same time raising the ethical issues of Machu Picchu’s colonialist history. With an introduction by Princz himself, the presentation began with a short documentary detailing the rediscovery of the site in 1911

by American anthropologist Hiram Bingham, and the confiscation of thousands of artifacts, which now sit

“We need to wake up to these countries, and uncover corruption and poverty” Andrew Princz Filmmaker Travelling the world and sharing his experiences is the job of cultural navigator Andrew Princz, and his series of presentations, Travels Ontheglobe, offer an interesting perspective on a country’s geography,

at Yale University. The documentary raises the question of whether a place like Machu Picchu is part of a collective world history, while simultaneously being attentive to the opinions and feelings of Peruvians who feel that

Courtesy of Anna J. Kutor

Travels Ontheglobe’s next presentation will examine Kazakhstan’s growing global importance.

Machu Picchu is an important part of Peruvian culture. The presentation was wonderfully synthesized with a short film, Danzak, by Peruvian filmmaker Gabriela Yepes. Yepes’s 20-minute film managed to steal the show, giving a truly local perspective, which emphasizes the spirituality that Machu Picchu encompasses in the lives of many Peruvians.

The next presentation in the series, “Kazakhstan: The real Kazakhstan,” looks even more promising. While Machu Picchu’s legacy is relatively well-known, Princz’s examination of Kazakhstan may illuminate a part of the globe unfamiliar to most people in the

unabashedly honest and insightful representations of little-known cultures. Take an evening to sit back and learn about a country from someone who is truly respectful of these inhabitants’ integrity, rather than allowing mainstream media to have the last word. As Princz himself put it, “It’s not my show, but our show.”

West (with the dubious exception of Borat, of course). When I questioned Princz about the promotion for this show, which bills Kazakhstan as “much-misunderstood,” he pointed to the country’s isolation from world politics since the Soviet era, which has been harmful to its imminent emergence as a world power. Nestled between Russia and China, Kazakhstan is gaining worldwide attention as one of the world’s largest oil supplies.

“We need to wake up to these countries, and uncover corruption and poverty,” said Princz.

Andrew Princz’s Ontheglobe series should be praised for its

“Kazakhstan: The real Kazakhstan” will be presented on November 18, and “Angola: Dancing in Luanda” on December 9. Both events will take place at Cinema du Parc (3575 du Parc).

the same time ...her mother has just died and she gets this document which makes her realize there’s been a secret in her family that affects her and...she needs to figure [that] out.”

The transition from writing short stories to penning a novel didn’t pose much of a challenge for Moser.

“Everything I learned writing short stories, I used to write the novel.

I don’t know if it’s that different, because you have your bag of tools and you use the ones you need.

Short stories are also all different from each other.... [The novel] is the next step.”

As far as the tensions between nature and nurture are concerned, Moser is well aware of her appropriation of the Montreal identity, and how that has informed her creative pro-

cess. “I applied to McGill because I knew that I wanted to come to Montreal.... I just felt like this was my comfortable place.” Likewise, “the action of the book very consciously is set on specific streets and specific places and...the main character experiences her life in the context of the city and...the languages...here and the mix of people.... It’s very, very much a Montreal novel.”

In any event, the notion that a piece of writing must be ascribed an identity may be to create a feeling of association or point of reference for its readers. “One of the great things about Canada though,” explains Moser, “[is that] that’s part of Canadian identity...that we’re many things and there’s room for all that.... You have a lot of leeway there.”

McGill grad publishes first novel Elise Moser says Montreal shaped her notion of cultural identity Zoë Robertson Culture Writer

T

he question of nature versus nurture is applicable to a diverse set of disciplines, including literature. Often, the critical debate surrounding a literary work moves beyond author and content toward questions of cultural identity. When classifying your writing in the context of cultural identity, what is more relevant – the community that you were raised in, or the one that inspired your novel?

Former McGill student Elise Moser was born in Brooklyn and raised in rural New Jersey, but moved to Montreal at the age of 17. “I identify as a Canadian writer because I have been here

for almost 30 years. I never published anything when I lived [in the U.S.] and I definitely read a lot of Canadian writing and I’m sure that that has helped form my ideas about writing. My writing is set here. It’s about the life that we have here.... It’s hugely important for a place to have writing that reflects the reality of life there.”

Her newly-published first novel, Because I Have Loved and Hidden It, is set in Montreal and deals with “love and the way that our capacity to love...gets warped by our past experiences of not being loved or well-loved, and the way that those deformations can communicate themselves generation after generation.”

Moser graduated from McGill with an Honours BA in English Literature, and has worked as a

buyer at Paragraphe Bookstore.

She currently works as a publisher sales representative. In addition to winning the CBC/Quebec Writers’ Federation Short Story Competition twice, she’s recently been appointed president of the QWF. “It turned out to be just a great resource for me,” Moser explains, crediting her placement to her previous involvement in the QWF. “I took some fiction workshops and poetry workshops and workshops in the business of publishing...and those were incredibly helpful, not just for the content of the workshops but because it just inserted me into the community of writers.”

Moser says her novel is “about a woman...in a love affair with a married man...and she’s working through some issues with that. At

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

21

Native voices from coast to coast Event casts light on contemporary oppression of First Nations people Seble Gameda Culture Writer

groups. “Health inequality – it doesn’t just happen by accident. It’s always the sign of another form of inequality.

It’s not bad luck and it’s not genetics.

It’s a result of financial inequality. It’s a result of unequal power relations. It’s a result of unequal places in society,” commented Kersplebedeb. He pointed out that the main factors are class and nation. Looking specifically at First Nations, he remarked that health inequalities were the direct consequences of genocide and colonialism.

Billie Pierre, a Nlaka’Pamux/ Saulteaux activist living in Vancouver, promoted the 2010 anti-Olympics campaign. The film Quiet Struggle: Sutikalh the Winter Spirit, was subsequently screened. This film focused on Sutikalh, located on St’at’imcin territory in southern British Columbia, whose inhabitants have successfully prevented the construction of a $500-million ski resort on their territory. “My personal concern is that the water system in B.C. comes from the mountains...and once all these ski resorts are in the alpine mountains then whoever has those ski resorts...has control over the water,” said Pierre. Compounding these issues have been ongoing highway expansion, as well as the promotion of mega-tourism. “The Olympics are assimilating and modifying Native culture, and they’re doing it to pro-

Sasha Plotnikova /The McGill Daily

T

he 6th Annual Anti-Colonial Thanksgiving, put on by Le Frigo Vert at the Native Friendship Centre last Thursday, October 29, opened with an abrupt “Sneak-up song”– traditional warrior music. The space was overflowing with people. Concordia’s People’s Potato and McGill’s Midnight Kitchen provided delicious food for everyone.

The evening started off with a film screening of Club Native, by Tracey Deer. The film dealt with identity struggles brought on by racist government policy. Of these policies, Deer targeted the Indian Act, which was enacted in 1876 for the purpose of assimilating and colonizing aboriginal peoples – an agenda it has upheld to this day.

This act was also used by South Africa as a model for apartheid and – more specifically – the blood quantum policies that dictate whom is granted native status by blood percentage. Loss of status results in many restrictions, including loss of property ownership, band council voting rights, and school attendance in the Native community.

Deer decided to make this film “to really open up a dialogue and get people thinking about this on a human level rather than on a political level. It affects everyday people, and it’s hurting them.”

Club Native also addresses gender inequalities, in that Native men who marry non-Native women are allowed to maintain their Native status, but women who marry nonNative men cannot. The entire bureaucracy of attaining membership goes against all Native norms and customs. “If the whole point of membership was to build or to preserve the cultural identity of the Kanienkehaka people, I have to say that it has failed,” remarked one of the women in the film.

Conflicts between love and tradition were also brought to the fore.

One individual remembered being told as a kid, if “you marry out, get out,” a statement that illustrates the tension between the need to keep your community alive and the desire to follow your heart. “If you forego happiness just to be on the list, then where’s your joy in life,” asked Deer.

After the film, Karl Kersplebedeb spoke about health inequality, and the discrepancy between communities.

He touched on the fact that health care access often varies between identity

There’s more to Thanksgiving than meets the eye. mote tourism,” said Pierre.

Though the night featured films and talks about tribes twenty minutes from Montreal and from across the continent, it was evident that they all stood in solidarity against a common system of oppression.

The night showed that the myths associated with Thanksgiving are misleading, and the racism and persecution that originated with the actual first contact between Europeans and Native people continues to this day.

WIN ONE OF THE 75 DOUBLE PASSES TO SEE THE MOVIE! Presented by

THE NEW COMEDY FROM THE CREATOR OF FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, NOTTING HILL AND LOVE ACTUALLY

IN THEATRES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 www.PirateRadioMovie.com

www.Vivafilm.com

CONCEPTION GRAPHIQUE: ©2009 FOCUS FEATUTRES LLC. TOUS DROITS RÉSERVÉS.

Come by the McGill Daily Office (Shatner B-26) and get a free double pass to Pirate Radio.

First come, first served. Student ID required.

Compendium!

22

The McGill Daily, Thursday, November 5, 2009

Lies, half-truths, and fucking that

Don’t remember your Halloween?

Maybe these photographs will jog your memory FUCK THIS #1: Hold the fucking door Perhaps I am just an 83-year-old man trapped in a 23-year-old woman’s body, one that enjoys sweaters, scotch, and ol’ fashioned manners. Or perhaps you are just an ass. I don’t expect doors to be opened especially for me and for gentlemen/women to be holding them from behind with flowers in their mouths. But, you really don’t have to close them on me either.

Just an extra second of an arm extension – and perhaps just the slightest bit of eye contact, but only perhaps – and you’ll actually be polite.

I was joking with a professor last week that Rilke would have never entered the German department. He said 688 Sherbrooke would have been too ugly for him. I said he would have taken one look at the escalators and walked out. On second thought, he might not have even got that far because probably someone would have shut a door on him.

FUCK THIS #2: Way to go, Maine Some comments from a Boston Globe article by people who voted to repeal same-sex marriage in Maine this Tuesday (“Maine voters overturn state’s new same-sex marriage law,” November 4): “‘This is an amazing moment. It’s beyond words,’ said Mary Conroy, spokeswoman for Yes on 1/Stand for Marriage Maine, the organization leading the fight against same-sex marriage in Maine. ‘I feel energized, overcome, overjoyed for the family and the people of Maine.’” “‘No one’s antigay,’ she said. ‘It’s just whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.... Not so fast.’” “‘It’s not my style,’ said York, who voted to overturn the law. ‘I just don’t feel it should be taught.’”

Are you fucking kidding me?

These three harbingers of an H1N1-induced apocalypse sported costumes that were both relevant to current events and spill-proof.

Fuck This! is a therapeutic anonymous rant column, not necessarily about same-sex marriage. Send your 200-word-or-less harangues every week to compendium@mcgilldaily.com. Anonymity guaranteed, but nothing hateful – just frustrated!

Urban form preview This is the kind of coverage you can expect from our special issue on stands next Monday

A reprisal of Uma Thurman’s role in Pulp Fiction reminds us that fake blood can be used to convey many messages: in this case, a stern warning against cocaine abuse.

Rosie the Riveter came to life for one magical evening to offer women an escape from their mundane existences to the glamour of factory labour.

Ben Kirwin for The McGill Daily

Dan Rubenstein for The McGill Daily