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The Faculty of Arts presents A Maxwell-Cummings Lecture

Friending the Past: The Sense of History and Social Computing Alan Liu Professor of English University of California, Santa Barbara Alan Liu’s central interests include the cultural life of information including new media, literary theory and cultural studies. In a series of theoretical essays in the 1990s, he explored cultural criticism, the “new historicism,” and postmodernism in contemporary literary studies. In 1994, when he started his Voice of the Shuttle Web site for humanities research, he began to study information culture as a way to close the circuit between the literary or historical imagination and the technological imagination. His most recent books include: The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2004), and Local Transcendence: Essays on Postmodern Historicism and the Database (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008). His web projects include: The Voice of the Shuttle, Palinuru: The Academy and the Corporation, The Romantic Chronology (co-edited with Laura Mandell), and The Agrippa Files. He is principal investigator of the University of California’s Transliteracies Project, a multi-campus research group on online reading practices and technologies, and founder of the UCSB English Department’s curricular and research development project, Transcriptions: Literary History and the Culture of Information.

Thursday, April 8, 2010 6:00 p.m. Reception to follow

Stephen Leacock Building, Room 232 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal QC For more information, contact the Department of English Tel.: (514) 398-7135 Email: tom.mole@mcgill.ca

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MCGILL DAILY .COM

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

New Quebec budget denounced Panel criticizes provincial response to the fiscal crisis and university underfunding Rana Encol The McGill Daily

ulius Grey, Françoise David, and Gaétan Barette criticized Quebec’s most recent response to the fiscal crisis, and addressed university underfunding in a panel discussion on Wednesday afternoon at McGill. The panel was organized by SSMU and the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ). Many of speakers’ statements were motivated by the 2010-2011 Quebec budget, tabled Tuesday by finance minister Raymond Bachand. The budget calls for the government share of university funding to align with the average of the other Canadian provinces. In 2007-2008, Quebec’s share was 67.9 per cent. Led by Jean Charest, Quebec Liberals want to bring the province’s share down to below 60 per cent. The Liberal government is especially adamant that students, who currently shoulder 12.5 per cent of costs, increase their share to reach the average tuition fees of other provinces. David, co-spokesperson of the Québec solidaire party, criticized the budget. “Yesterday’s budget plan is not the Quebec we want. What’s happening here is a historical moment, but it’s history in a bad sense,” David said in French.

Increases in tuition fees of $50 per semester for all students are planned for the next two school years. This move is part of a 2007 decision to lift a 13-year tuition freeze instituted by the Parti Québécois. The freeze ends in 2012, and increases are capped at $100 per year. Without specifying the amount, Quebec has also already announced that a new higher tuition will apply after the fall of 2012. The “Meeting of Partners in Education” next fall should lead to clearer guidelines. SSMU’s web site claims that tuition hikes will not significantly alleviate underfunding. Currently, Quebec universities need at least an additional $400 million a year – but with the proposed hikes, students will only account for about $20 million more in investment. The new budget also includes a graduated health tax, other public service user fees, and a higher provincial sales tax. David spoke against the recent trend she saw in economic policy following the recession. “I am indignant and revolted because this financial crisis is not due to everyone, but only financial speculators. Why was Quebec protected more than other governments? Because of our modèle Québécois. We all pay together collectively, and this is social solidarity,” David said. Julius Grey, a prominent Canadian human rights lawyer and

Former SSMU president Julius Grey criticized projected tuition increases. former SSMU president, spoke on the dichotomy between the utilisateur-payeur model, in which only the user pays for services, and social solidarity, in which everyone pays for everybody. “The government’s stance is that the user of the service is the only one responsible for paying for it, but making a sick person pay for his cure fundamentally goes against the principle of equality and social justice,” Grey said.

On February 23, former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard and 15 other Quebec politicians, among them prominent former student leaders, signed a declaration, the “Pact for the Competitive Funding of Universities,” supporting an increase in post-secondary tuition. According to Bouchard, universities face $500 million in combined debt, and taxpayers foot 80 per cent of the bill. His plan also proposed a differentiated tuition model, vary-

Stephen Davis | The McGill Daily

ing fees according to program and job prospects. Grey and David both advocated and encouraged student presence at today’s protest against increased tuition, organized by several Montreal student unions and lobby groups. “Everyone should protest the management program [which costs] $25,000 a year. This kind of model directly feeds the creation of “a new class system,” Grey said.

El Salvador fights Canadian gold mining Speakers decry environmental toll and human rights abuses stemming from companies’ operations Kallee Lins The McGill Daily

nti-mining activists Bernardo Belloso and Juan Carlos Ruiz Guadalajara spoke at McGill Tuesday on the adverse impacts of Canadian mining in their respective countries of El Salvador and Mexico. Their speeches detailed the environmental, social, political, and cultural damages caused by the pending projects and current operations of Canadian mining companies in their countries. El Salvadorians are resisting efforts of Pacific Rim, a Canadian company vying for operating permits to create an open-pit gold mine in the northern region of the country. Bellosos stated that it is widely recognized throughout El Salvador that such a project is undesirable from an ecological perspective, though Pacific Rim insists on pressing ahead with its operations.

Through a translator, Belloso, who works for the Association for the Development of El Salvador explained, “Since there’s a big interest behind the amount of minerals that are found within the fields that Pacific Rim have been exploring, it has been basically the only company that has remained insisting to get the permit to keep exploring.” The company’s behaviour, Belloso said, overlooks the likely ramifications of the open-pit mine. He added that the company’s testing phase alone has already resulted in the contamination of water sources and death of livestock. Since the granting of 16 exploration permits to Canadian, American, and Australian companies, the political context of El Salvador has greatly shifted. Last year’s national election brought Mauricio Funes to power under a mandate of ending mineral extraction on El Salvadorian soil. “Before 2010, in El Salvador the

government was always responding to the neo-liberal policies in the interests of these big companies,” said Belloso. Belloso added that the companies take “a stand toward big multinational exploitation in El Salvador with no respect whatsoever for the needs of the country.” Due to the issuance of exploration permits under the previous government, Pacific Rim and another Canadian company, Commerce Group, are demanding a total of $200 million from the El Salvadorian government through the Central American Free Trade Agreement. “We are asking why is this happening,” Belloso said. “This is a Canadian company and El Salvador doesn’t have a free trade agreement with Canada.” Although El Salvador wants to become the first country to ban all forms of mineral extraction, it sits in a precarious situation while it deals with the charges the companies have brought to the World Bank. Banning mineral extraction now

may support the companies’ claims that El Salvador “illegally expropriated their investment.” According to a Pacific Rim press release from earlier this month, the company “believes that El Salvador’s objections are not only completely without merit, but are also frivolous, and that [the government of El Salvador] filed them purely as an attempt to stall the arbitration proceedings. [Pacific Rim] fully expects that the Tribunal will reject the objections and proceed with the arbitration claim.” The 29 sites originally considered for mining operations are located in the northern part of El Salvador, near the headwaters of all the major rivers that flow through the rest of the country. Belloso stated that these rivers face contamination by heavy metals and cyanide if the open-pit operations begin. This area is also home to the majority of all agricultural production in El Salvador, so a project such as this, said Belloso, threat-

ens to destroy the entire country’s means of production and ability to feed its population of seven million. Moreover, 250,000 families would be directly affected through forced displacement – a necessity given the mining sites proximity to the city of Cabañas. These environmental concerns are only a part of the issue, as human rights abuses mount. There have been six killings with suspected links to the company in the region where Pacific Rim plans to dig. Religious leaders and radio journalists have received death threats after publicly opposing mining operations in El Salvador. Belloso explained that there’s a need “to tell the Canadian people that Canadian companies are involved in very dirty ways of doing business.” He also sees strong parallels between Canada and El Salvador, given the many struggles against the extraction of minerals on indigenous land.

4 News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Black Montrealers face steep inequality McGill study finds enduring disparities between black and non-black persons in the city

ames Torczyner, a professor at McGill’s school of social work, released an alarming report this month on the persistence of inequality between black and nonblack communities in Montreal. The study found that the unemployment rate among universityeducated black Montrealers was higher than that of non-black high school dropouts. Moreover, the average income for black people was also one-third lower than others in the city, and only one in three black persons owned their own home. Torczyner sat down to talk to The Daily about the results of the study, the potential roots of the problem, and the importance of community-based action to reduce the disparities. The McGill Daily: Could you tell us more about the study? And what were the results? James Torczyner: The study was a follow-up study to one we did based on the 1996 census. That study showed a great deal of inequality experienced by members of the black community when compared to the non-black community. We decided to replicate that study and go a bit further…and to [see] how what we found out demographically is experienced by members of the black community specifically.

The results indicate that, while economic circumstances improved for everyone in the last 10 years, and they did so for blacks as well as non-blacks, the gap between blacks and non-blacks persists no matter how we looked at it: levels of educational attainment, higher unemployment rates, higher poverty rates, higher single-parent family rates, and less access to higher paid occupations. And then the more we looked within each category, so for example, if we control for education or age or gender or linguistic ability or the occupation that they’re in, the disparities persisted. MD: Are these findings what you expected when starting the study? What factors contribute to these disparities? JT: Well, we wanted to see whether or not there had been particular changes in impact. Ten years is not a very long time period in terms of demographic trends. It’s also accompanied by the fact that the black community continues to grow at remarkable pace; it grew by 38 per cent in 10 years and immigrants, newer arrivals, tend to have a more difficult time economically when they first get here. So, there are a lot of things that are in flux. What’s clear is that whatever the factors are that account for [the results], there is a very alarming, very widespread, very pervasive problem that needs

to be addressed. MD: There has been a lot of media coverage since the study’s release on March 18. In your experience could this attention change public policy to help reduce inequality? Is that the goal? JT: My hope [as to] what will come out of this, and the reason why I’ve tried not to be in the forefront of these interviews, is that hopefully this can be a catalyst for the various black communities in the city. Often unilingual blacks can’t speak with other unilingual blacks. That affects about half of the community and they live in different parts of the city because of linguistic ability. All of these communities are distinct [but] the data shows there are some common issues and that is around quality. I think what is needed more than anything else is that those communities get together and harp out an agenda [so that they are] able to speak with one voice and have much more clout than they currently do. Because I think politicians listen when communities are well organized. MD: So it comes down to community action? JT: I think that without community action, whatever response there is to the study will probably be short lived. When you have problems that are this persistent in society, it really requires members

of that community to advocate and to be important watchdogs to make sure the same rights of full citizenship are as accessible to blacks as they are to non-blacks. MD: What would you expect to happen if this study was replicated again, say, 10 years from now? Would you expect anything to have changed?

JT: I’m a community organizer and a demographer, not a prophet. You ask me what will happen in the future. What will happen in the future will depend on what people do today. —compiled by Rachel Reichel

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

News

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Ignatieff in Montreal for policy conference Liberal leader talks to The Daily about prorogation, carbon taxes, and the niqab ban

ichael Ignatieff descended on Montreal for a threeday conference aimed at reimagining the character of the Liberal Party last weekend. The conference, called Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge, was publicized as a non-partisan event, but from the beginning functioned as a forum for Liberals to establish a working platform for the next federal election. Former prime ministers, newspaper columnists, university professors, and bankers joined Ignatieff at the Hyatt Regency Hotel to discuss public policy ideas, both old and new. The entrance fee for the conference stood at $695 a head, although banks of computers were also set up to receive Skype comments and instant blogging from across the country. Ignatieff talked to The Daily hours before delivering his final speech on Sunday evening, discussing prorogation and environmental policy, Israeli Apartheid Week, the niqab ban, and his plans for a future Liberal government.

Hristo Vassilev | The McGill Daily archives

The McGill Daily: You’ve said that new Liberal governance will mean “getting a network of deciders together to face common problems.” That seems like the function of any government. In what way is your view of Liberal governance unique? Michael Ignatieff: I think it is different from command-and-control, and top-down, and exclusive and obsessional focus on jurisdiction and the constitution. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying: no federal government in its right mind wants to interfere in provincial jurisdictions, especially not Quebec. And it’s not fancy – but we can’t go to Copenhagen with provincial governments in open dispute. Getting networks of responsibility is no more complicated or fancy than calling the key stakeholders nine months out and saying, “We’ve got a conference here: why don’t we make sure Canada speaks not with one voice, but with a coherent voice.” I’m not so naive to believe – or I’m not so naive to forget – that provincial governments often take very different policies on key environmental and energy questions. But at least we can keep [ourselves] from exporting our quarrels, and get a few common positions that we can agree on. The point here is, then you can leverage each others' influence instead of diminishing each others' influence. MD: Given the chance to form a government, would you impose a carbon tax – a position for which most policymakers have advocated? MI: The straight answer is no. I’ve made another fiscal proposal, which is to push the pause button on corporate tax reductions, which we think will give us the fiscal room to incentivize green technology and clean technology and energy efficiency. We think that’s a better approach.

MD: You’ve made it a top priority to extend political participation to young Canadians at this conference. What have you done in this regard that distinguishes you from the Harper government? MI: Well, no other political party has ever had such intense and widespread interest in political involvement as an issue in Canadian politics – I think that’s just a fact. We had participation from 25 countries outside of Canada and from 70 communities in Canada, from Whitehorse in the west of the country to Fredericton in the east of the country. So these are very active, lively discussions that went on for often days at a time, in often remote parts of the country. When you look at the Skype feed, it was clear that this was being driven by mostly young Canadians. And I think we’ve made more successful use of the new technologies than any other party. I’d like to claim credit for that, but it’s basically the young people within the party itself who are driving this, and they’re doing a wonderful job. They’re changing the way citizens can connect in Canadian politics, and it’s good. MD: If you were given the chance to form a government, would you introduce legislation making it more difficult to prorogue Parliament and what measures would be in the legislation to make it effective? MI: Yes, we would introduce legislation to limit the power to prorogue. And we’ve put forward some specific suggestions a couple of months ago to limit prorogation power. Because I think that this is about maintaining the right balance between prime ministerial power and parliamentary power. And we think that the prime minister’s almost unlimited prerogative should be limited, in the sense that you can’t prorogue twice in a year, the way we’ve seen; you can’t

Michael Ignatieff has reached out to students for input on the future of the Liberal Party. prorogue to avoid a vote of nonconfidence; you can’t interrupt the sitting of parliamentary committees. Those are three areas where we felt limitations could be reasonably imposed. MD: You’ve said that the Charest government's introduction of a law banning the niqab for women using public services constitutes a ‘good Canadian balance.’ It’s been suggested that this law would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is as Canadian as it gets. Do you think the law would violate the Charter? MI: If there is a Charter challenge, you know, the courts will have to rule. My sense is that these things involve a balance. Accomodement raisonable means reasonableness on both sides. That means the receiving society should reach out to people of different faiths and different customs. And on the other side, people of different faiths should recognize the equality of women, and the right of the state to say if you want access to certain services there are certain rules of the road you should follow. There’s a balance Quebec is trying to establish here that I think is appropriate. But I want to say what I’ve also said on this from the beginning, which is that Islam has many faces in Canada, and Islam has been part of this country for a very long time...at least a hundred years. And these are neighbours, our friends, and our fellow citizens. MD: You’ve criticized the Harper government and stood behind aboriginal groups that have had their funding axed recently, such as the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the First Nations University of Canada. Would you reinstate funding to these groups? What is your overall vision for your government’s relationship with First Nations?

MI: Well, we have to close the gap in funding for aboriginal education, and specifically we have to lift the cap on growth in funding for aboriginal post-secondary [education]. Those are specific commitments that we’ve made, that we make. And I believe the federal government should restore funding to First Nations University, and we feel the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a good works institution that should continue to receive support. You know, I’m optimistic about the future of aboriginal people in this country, but so much of my optimism turns on getting them some of the best darn education in the world. MD: In 2002 you wrote in the Guardian that Israeli settlement policy was creating Bantustans, and resembled South Africa during apartheid, as well as the Crusades and French colonization in Algeria. Lately you’ve condemned Israeli Apartheid Week in no uncertain terms. What made you change your mind? MI: With the greatest respect, a close reading of that Guardian piece would make it clear that I never compared, nor would I ever compare, Israel to South Africa. Israel has its problems, but it’s important as a matter of public record that I’ve never compared Israel to South Africa during apartheid. And I’ve always said that Israeli Apartheid Week is an inappropriate way, to say the least, to discuss the Middle East on campuses. What I said in the Guardian piece is that I believe Israel’s security depends, ultimately, on there being a viable Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza. The issue is viability. I’m a strong believer in a two-state solution, not only because I believe that Palestinians have rights that must be recognized, but I also believe

that a viable Palestinian state is the best ultimate and long-term [solution for] the security of the state of Israel. MD: Your party defeated its own motion regarding abortion in the Harper government’s maternal health initiative for the G8. Will you be able to create a united party line on the importance of abortion as a form of contraception, especially as it pertains to aid in the developing world? MI: I think the Liberal Party is united on the absolute importance of providing a full range of reproductive health services to women, which means contraception, family planning, birth spacing. And there are members of our caucus who do not want that comprehensive approach to reproductive health services to include termination of pregnancy. And I respect their view, but the position of the party, and it would be the position of the party in government, is that Canada should provide the same, full range of reproductive health services to women. And let me be very clear: the party believes, and I believe, that abortion should be rare as [a form of] contraception, [a result of] good family planning. It should be available to women when it is medically necessary. These are controversial subjects and arouse very strong feelings, and I respect the moral feelings that are at play on this issue. But I think I have made the party’s position – which has been the Canadian position for 25 years – clear. And it seems to me that the Harper government is walking away from a position that has been our country’s position for a very long time. —compiled by Eric AndrewGee

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The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Tories censor detainee documents Heavily edited reports dropped on Parliament to chagrin of opposition Eric Andrew-Gee The McGill Daily

he Harper government angered parliamentary critics and legal experts during the mounting Afghan detainee scandal last Wednesday, releasing 2,500 pages of heavily censored documents. According to the Globe and Mail, many of the documents were blacked out “beyond comprehension.” The files were brought to the Commons floor in two cardboard boxes after opposition parties invoked their parliamentary privilege to demand the government produce information of interest in light of revelations that Canadian officials may have been complicit in the torture of detainees turned over to the Afghan National Army (ANA) or the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS). House speaker Peter Miliken is now deciding whether to find the Conservatives in contempt of Parliament after claims made by the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Québécois that the government violated their parliamentary privilege. NDP leader Jack Layton called the extent of the documents’ censorship insulting. “It’s slapping

Parliament in the face,” he said to the House of Commons. Many of the files were completely blacked out. Some parts of the documents left untouched have also raised concerns. One survey of military personnel in Afghanistan reveals cases of Canadian soldiers allegedly beating Afghan captives. Another document shows evidence that Canadian military police have been intimidated into silence. Reports describe a female military police officer being confronted by “unknown persons” on her way out of the shower and told, “[Military police], mind your own business.” The location of the incident was censored. The principal claim being made by government critics, however, is that the documents might contain censored information about the transfer of detainees into the custody of the ANA. Conservatives maintain that it is necessary to redact sensitive military documents for reasons of national security. Justice minister Rob Nicholson said that parliamentary privileges “are not indefinite and not unlimited” during House debate yesterday. McGill political science professor Catherine Lu agrees that there

are security grounds for limiting access to the documents, pointing to the danger uncensored documents could cause for troops on the ground in Afghanistan. “There is some agreement among political parties that national security is a legitimate ground for denying public access to documents related to Canadian foreign policy,” Lu wrote in an email to The Daily. “No one wants information to be made public that could make Canadian forces in Afghanistan more vulnerable to harm,” Lu added. However, she emphasized that she was concerned the government’s decision to censor signals a shift toward greater centralization of power in the Canadian system. Michel Drapeau, a former colonel in the Canadian army and current law professor at the University of Ottawa, rejected the national security justification out of hand. He invoked the sovereignty of Parliament, saying that parliamentarians “have a right” to see uncensored documents pertaining to the treatment of Afghan detainees. Drapeau also denied that releasing sensitive documents to Parliament would pose national security risks. He pointed out that MPs “have

already made an oath of allegiance to Queen and country,” and that “there are methods we can use to make sure they have security clearance.” Some MPs already have security clearance as it is, he added. The detainee scandal dates back to 2005, when the Liberals were still in power. According to the CBC, former Canadian diplomat Eileen Olexiuk “raised the possibility detainees transferred from Canadian to Afghan custody were at risk of torture.” Olexiuk told the CBC she was ignored by the government. An anonymous government official told the CBC that at that time, the government feared “another Abu Ghraib.” Two years later, senior military officials warned that the detainees they were putting into Afghan custody were reporting torture, including electrocution, cutting, and being hung for days on end. Beginning in May 2007, the Harper government mandated Canadian visits to the Afghan detainment centres to ensure that prisoners were not being tortured. As late as November 2007 Colonel Christian Juneau, deputy commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, wrote defence minister Peter McKay and then-chief

of the defence staff Rick Hillier to express concerns about the lack of information being relayed to him by those monitoring detainees in Afghan custody, according to the Globe and Mail. On November 5, 2007, it came to light that a prisoner transferred to the Afghan authorities by Canadians had been severely abused while in Afghan custody. His body bore welts from being beaten with rubber hose and electrical cables. Juneau cancelled prisoner transfers soon after, and they did not resume until February 2008. Stephen M. Saideman, a political science professor at McGill who was on a tour of Afghanistan in December 2007, noted the difficult choices facing the Canadian military when dealing with prisoners. “The choices are few: either turn the captured folks over to the Americans since they have a prison [in Afghanistan]…or turn them over to the Afghans,” he said in an email. “The former is no longer legitimate due to Abu Ghraib, et cetera. The latter is what is supposed to happen, as Canada and NATO are there to support the existing government – the Afghan government.”

Aboriginal communities in Montreal hit hard by tuberculosis McGill researchers work with Native Friendship Centre to conduct study Kayan Hui The McGill Daily

ative communities in Montreal are disproportionately afflicted by a latent form of tuberculosis (TB), a McGill study has found. After taking skin tests from 141 subjects, researchers found that 17.7 per cent of the aboriginal participants were carrying a latent TB infection, whereas only 4.3 per cent of the general population is afflicted by the illness. “It’s probably been like this for quite a while, and it becomes a problem when it turns into active TB,” said Mary Ellen Macdonald, a professor of oral health and society in the McGill Faculty of Dentistry, and one of the

lead researchers. “There are communities of new migrants who are bringing their health problems when they come to Canada. If they are living in poverty, then those also living in poverty are more likely to catch the active disease,” Macdonald added. While the inactive form of TB can be carried without any indication of adverse health effects, a weak immune system may allow the bacteria to mutate into the active form, at which point symptoms may become more evident and the disease can be transmitted to others. The McGill study began following an alarming increase in active TB infections within aboriginal communities in 2002. The researchers worked to uncover the causes of the outbreaks in partnership

with the Native Friendship Centre – a non-profit organization run by members of the aboriginal community that focuses on urban aboriginals, some of whom are deemed “at-risk” of homelessness and social marginalization. Macdonald noted that part of the aboriginal subset studied by researchers included youth and individuals who have lost their jobs and homes through drug and alcohol addiction. Though researchers notified infected subjects if they were carrying TB, many could not access adequate treatment because they did not have a medicare card, required by most hospitals. However, Médicins du monde, CLSC Sanguinet and Hôpital St-Luc provided medical care to individuals without the cards, according to Brett Pineau, the executive director of the Native Friendship Centre. Health professionals have the prerogative to contain those infected with TB, as it is highly infectious. Some subjects were hesitant or sim-

ply refused care, however, as they were afraid of being contained and forced into treatment. Macdonald attributed the fear of treatment to the historical marginalization of the aboriginal community, and adding that ideas of containment run parallel to the community’s experiences in residential schools and sanatoriums. “They have been isolated – culturally, socially, linguistically so. It has not been pleasant and all those memories are conjured up whenever TB is brought up,” Macdonald said. Pineau, however, said the Native Friendship Centre is hopeful that the study will have some positive outcomes. He hoped that a healing centre could be established that properly addresses the cultural needs of the aboriginal community through cooperation with McGill and other groups. “The TB study was the first step in positioning ourselves into identifying priorities for our community, specifically in regards to health,”

Health&Education editor elections! Latest deadline for candidate statements - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - midnight. Contact healthandeducation@mcgilldaily.com for more details!

Pineau said. But a lack of resources, thus far has proven to be a major setback. “Expanded funding toward health priorities – whether that be increased research, construction of a new centre, or increased resources devoted to a purpose – would certainly go a long way,” Pineau said. Macdonald echoed similar thoughts. “Ultimately there should be a health clinic run for and by aboriginals – there are many interesting examples across the country but I don’t think it’s in the political will,” she said. Macdonald advised that health authorities listen to the clientele of the Native Friendship Centre and sh also said authorities should strategize in a culturally sensitive way. Seek innovative solutions rather than strictly adhere to the conventions of the public health system. “It’s coming up with creative strategies, knowing the clientele, and knowing how they can help themselves,” Macdonald said.

Health&Education

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Sexual identity and teen suicide A deeper look at a groundbreaking McGill study on the connections between the two

to be treated, by those around them. Montoro maintains that he and his fellow researchers are not interested in pinpointing an essential GLB sexuality that is somehow separate from identity. “People keep asking me: how do you know that you’ve got the real gays?” he says. “The answer is that we don’t really care. What we want to know is: how are these kids identifying themselves? And how do these identities affect their suicidality?” Montoro acknowledges that some students who identified as heterosexual but reported having same-sex fantasies may be experiencing a degree of identity confusion. According to Montoro, the fact that these participants did not face an increased suicide risk implies that this alleged confusion does not necessarily have negative effects. “The survey suggests that being closeted in a dangerous environment is not such a bad idea,” he says.

Simon Lewsen The McGill Daily

ay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers are at a higher suicide risk than their heterosexual peers. It’s not exactly breaking news. But according to a group of McGill researchers, there is a lack of scientific literature that properly interrogates the causes for suicidal thoughts and attempts among GLB teens. Yue Zhao, a McGill graduate student, is the first author of a recent study published last February in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which connects suicide risks among GLB-identified teenagers with negative social attitudes toward homosexuality. Zhao argues that previous studies on the topic do not address the complexity of sexual identity and consequently fail to properly investigate the relationship between social stigma and psychological trauma among GLB youth. The research was conducted through an anonymous survey distributed to teenagers in public and private Montreal high schools. Contrary to previous studies concerning queer sexuality and suicide, the researchers included more than one question aimed at establishing their subjects’ sexual orientation. Zhao explains that there are three components to sexuality: attraction/fantasy, behaviour, and identity. According to Zhao, the new study is unique because it separates identity from the other two components. Students were asked, in three separate questions, whether they had same-sex attraction or fantasies, whether they had experienced same-sex encounters, and whether they identified as heterosexual, GLB, or unsure. Unsurprisingly, students who identified as GLB or unsure were shown to have a higher likelihood for suicidal thoughts and attempts relative to other heterosexual teens. There was, however, a statistically significant group of students who reported having same-sex attractions or sexual encounters, but nevertheless identified as heterosexual. These students were shown to have no greater suicide risk than their other heterosexual-identified peers. This result was the most striking and significant aspect of the study, according to Richard Montoro, the

“A variety of thoughts and experiences”

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

co-director of the McGill University sexual identity centre and one of the study’s co-authors. The findings suggest that queer sexuality, in and of itself, is not a cause of psychological distress; it is only when students begin to identify as GLB, and to encounter the social ramifications associated with that identity, that they experience negative psychological effects. Montoro argues that many older studies, which fail to isolate the social component of sexuality, imply that “there is something intrinsically harmful in being GLB.” While he finds these types of assertions troubling, he claims that they may well be the product of flawed methodology rather than outright prejudice on the part of the researchers. The present study counters notions of GLB sexuality as intrinsically harmful by suggesting that

widespread homophobic attitudes are the real source of psychological distress among GLB-identified teens.

Public vs. private The researchers acknowledge that their survey did not differentiate between students who identify privately as GLB and those who publicly assert their GLB identity. The study points out, however, that GLB teens who keep their sexuality to themselves are still likely to experience the harmful effects of queer-negative social attitudes. For instance, GLB students can be negatively affected by encounters with homophobia that are not explicitly directed at them. They can also experience disparaging feelings toward themselves because of their sexuality, a phenomenon that psychologists refer to as “internalized homophobia.”

The real gays? Students who identified as heterosexual, but reported having same-sex fantasies or sexual encounters, were accepted as straight by the research team. This methodological decision accords with the researchers’ conviction that sexual identity does not perfectly coincide with fantasy or experience. “There’s a lot of difference between the ways people think about themselves and what their sexual practices are,” says the study’s corresponding author Brett Thombs, a McGill assistant Professor with the department of psychiatry. “A lot of adults, for instance, don’t identify as gay, but may have a separate sexual life.” According to Montoro, identity is a crucial concern precisely because it determines the way people are treated, or the way that they expect

Of the students who self-identified as GLB, approximately onefifth denied having same-sex fantasies or attractions. Both Thombs and Montoro believe that there is no single explanation for this statistic. Montoro suggests that participants who were asexual, or who had not yet developed strong sexual feelings, may have counted themselves among the GLB set. He also asserts that people sometimes identify as GLB despite having largely heterosexual desires and experiences. “We see in adults that people identify with groups with whom they feel comfortable,” says Montoro. “The queer community is more accepting. If you’re a teen who doesn’t fit in, the queer community might be a better place to go.” At the very least, this result seems to indicate that it is better not to ascribe too close of a relationship between fantasies and attraction on the one hand, and sexual identity on the other. Montoro adds that rigid social classifications fail to account for the process of experimentation that many teenagers undergo. “Adolescence is a time of identity formation; it’s tied to a variety of thoughts and experiences. I don’t think that it’s necessary for teenagers to jump into every box that society offers them.”

Health&Education

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Exotic funding The politics of shedding clothes to pay for school Carina Antczak The McGill Daily

he image of students performing at strip clubs garnered media attention in 2007, when the Gazette, the daily student newspaper of the University of Western Ontario, reported that a strip club near the University of Guelph called The Manor offered $5000 toward tuition at a wet T-shirt contest. The strip club claimed no nudity was necessary in order to participate, although the Gazette claimed these contests, decided by applause, often rewarded contestants for going the extra mile – in the nude. Is there anything to the idea that McGill students strip or engage in sex work to pay their bills? Or could it be simply a rumour born of the numerous visits college students pay to downtown strip clubs? More importantly, if a student had chosen exotic dance as a means to pay their tuition, what would have led them to such a decision?

To find out the answer, I decided to get the story from the source: I went to a strip club. Les Amazons, a gentleman’s club known for its cheap alcohol and even cheaper food, has always been popular among college students, and Friday night was no exception. I pretended that my friend, who preferred to remain anonymous, was into college girls and wanted to purchase a dance from one. The bouncer promptly directed me to a young blonde French Canadian dancer named Jessica. Jessica explained that she began work at Les Amazons four years ago at the age of 19 when she heard stories of girls earning $800 a night, and her job at the pub PJ’s next door no longer seemed adequate. She said she had a base salary of minimum wage, with an additional $10 for every dance. She was not currently attending college, although she had graduated from a veterinary technician program; she preferred not to mention the school. Jessica had worked as a veterinary assistant but the salary

could not compare with that of Les Amazons. According to Jessica, five other girls were attending college or had already graduated from programs as diverse as management and law, with one of the dancers working as a border patrol agent during the day and another as a real estate agent. Interestingly, Jessica was aware of McGill’s rowdy reputation, saying she had heard the parties “were really sick,” and inquired whether such rumours were true. She also criticized girls who got nude at parties, saying they were essentially behaving like exotic dancers without being hired to do so. “You’re either a dancer or you’re not; there’s no in-between,” she said. Aware that exotic dancing is not a profession with great prospects, Jessica intended to attend veterinary school in the fall. She also explained that most girls had entered the business after finishing CEGEP and, knowing it was temporary, had the intention of amassing savings in order to attend college in the future. Jessica also added that her parents were aware of her job

and although they did not approve, the knowledge that she did not consume alcohol or drugs and had enough to purchase a house and a car reassured them. Is it possible the same incentives that lead a student into stripping can also lead them into sex work? Émilie Laliberté, general coordinator of STELLA, an organization which describes itself as “by and for sex workers,” claims that the incidence of students performing sex work to cover their tuition is high. STELLA was founded in 1995, with the intention of promoting the decriminalization of sex work, fighting discrimination, and providing safety and support for sex workers. Ms. Laliberté also clarified that these students choose sex work as a last option, believing that they cannot continue through any other means. Ms. Laliberté also maintained that just as many students choose exotic dancing as a means of paying their tuition as those who choose sex work or escort services. Julia Krane, an associate professor at the McGill school of social

A bittersweet goodbye Easy truffles to end off the school year

Budget bon-vivant Justin Scherer

1. Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles Alas! My final column for The Daily. As a parting gift, I wanted to give you this truffle recipe to bring you out of the depths of exam depression in the weeks to come. Thanks so much for reading. It’s been tasty.

Ingredients: 1 cup heavy cream, 1 lb (approximately 450 gm) finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 8 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder. Method: Place the chocolate in a ceramic bowl and heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until gently simmering. Remove the cream from heat, add the vanilla, and combine completely.

Simmer the cream for two more minutes. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and let sit for five minutes. Using a whisk, beat together the chocolate and cream until extremely smooth. Pour the mixture into an 8-inch baking pan and cool over night (or for at least five hours). In the morning, put the cocoa in a bowl and use a teaspoon to scoop out small balls of truffle from the baking dish. Each ball should be about 2 cm in diameter. Roll the balls in the cocoa and serve. These keep for about a week in a sealed container so long as they’re kept in a cool place. If you want to put several layers of truffles in one container, make sure to use wax paper between layers.

work, said that she had “taught and interacted with a number of students who have engaged in various forms of sex work while studying,” although she declined to explain further. It seems that the sex industry is an option that students or recent graduates often seriously consider, though the circumstances under which individual students approach sex work differ. There is evidence that exotic dancing and sex work are industries that students enter to supplement their incomes, and there’s a lot more to be considered. There are also other sectors with more flexible hours not investigated in this article, such as the phone sex industry, that may be more convenient for a student schedule. By talking about these issues and trying to understand student motivations for entering the sex industry, hopefully some of the taboos around these jobs can be removed. Then students will be able to come forward with their stories to give a more accurate portrayal of the realities that these workers face.

Health&Education

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Hey, feminist movement! FWD/Forward blogger on ableism, online advocacy, and the shortcomings of mainstream feminism

nna, a student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, is a contributor at FWD/ Forward, a group blog created by writers who identify themselves as feminists with disabilities. She often contributes “Recommended Reading” posts, collecting links to various news items, narratives, and relevant discussions from Canada and internationally, as well as personal perspectives examining disability and feminism. She writes under a pseudonym due to concerns about employment discrimination based on disabilities. The McGill Daily: FWD/ Forward seems at least partly a response to a dissatisfaction with current resources. What do you feel FWD uniquely provides in terms of reshaping feminist- or disabilityonly activism? Anna: I think there’s a misconception on the Internet that there are very few feminists with disabilities that are writing online, and one of the things we wanted to do is make it clear that this is not so. This is why we try to have an updated blogroll – to make it clear we’re certainly not the only women with disabilities writing – and do recommended reading posts on weekdays. MD: Does anything in particular make your web site accessible? A: We worked to find a screenreader-accessible WordPress layout, and have various ways people can access the site through RSS or email so they don’t have to depend on it. We transcribe all videos that go up on the site, often with full descriptive transcripts. We describe all images on the site. We provide links to “jump” from content to content. We use descriptive links as our linktext [so a link would be “read more about underwater basket weaving at McGill” instead of “click here.”] The most important is that, when someone brings to our attention that something isn’t working for them from an accessibility standpoint, we work with them to try and fix the problem. MD: Do you decide together how to balance your content – like the balance of collecting news links with original commentary with personal narratives? Is there any editorial process involved? A: No. Well, kind of. We discuss content a lot, and how much is too much, and we often bounce posts off each other before they go up. I’ve got something I’m still working on right now that’s about parenting and disability that I’ve run past a few people because I am not a parent. But overall we stay out of each other’s stuff unless asked. MD: I know at FWD’s beginning, it ran a series of “Ableist Word Profiles.” How do you feel that language can intersect with advocacy? A: For me, personally, talking about ableist language is a way of reminding people that we’re here. “Please don’t use ‘lame’ to mean bad. My husband is lame.

Matthew Milne | The McGill Daily

Online communities oppose misconceptions around disability and speak out against under-representation and abuse. That particular thing is irritating, asinine, or useless.” People like to counter this with “No one uses lame to mean disabled people!” Which I guess means all the times people have referred to my husband as “that retarded lame-o in the wheelchair” are meant ironically or something. I don’t always agree with the words that have been talked about as ableist – I don’t mind “crazy” the way many of my friends and co-bloggers do, for example, and I know lots of people with disabilities (PWD) who don’t care about “lame” but do care about r#tarded. [That # is there on purpose, not a typo.] PWD do not all agree on the same things or have the same goals or outcomes or concerns. But I do like to remind people that we’re here, and we are reading your stuff, and you can probably improve as a writer if you try and keep that in mind. MD: Has your experience at FWD in particular informed your engagement in disability advocacy in Canada? Can you reconcile the international nature of FWD with Canadian politics in particular? A: I see myself as a community member now instead of a lone voice in the wilderness occasionally ranting at friends. The past year or so has been about making connections and community with other people with disabilities, and discussing our experiences, our work, and what happens to us…. Also, through FWD I’ve found

a lot of Canadians that I can chat with about issues that are going on in our areas. Disability activism in Nova Scotia isn’t the same as disability activism in Ontario, where you have the awesome-sounding new act coming in, or in Alberta where I’ve found funding issues are entirely different. MD: What would you say are the biggest challenges remaining for feminists with disabilities in Canada? A: Oh gosh. We could be here all day. So, just a short list. According to a Diabetes Attitudes Wishes and Needs (DAWN) study that’s something like 20 years old, over 80 per cent of people with disabilities in any form of care program are abused, often sexually, while in care. Sixty per cent of their abusers are their caregivers. One of the reasons given for forced sterilization of women with disabilities is to prevent them from getting pregnant – and they are getting pregnant because they are being raped in care centres. Hey, feminist movement – this would be an issue. Underfunded women’s shelters often can’t afford to make renovations to be accessible. And yet, women with disabilities are abused at higher rates than their non-disabled counterparts. I think it’s awesome that there is increased funding for school programs and support for families who have children with disabilities. Can we also start increasing

“Being disabled shouldn’t mean living in poverty. And yet, it often does” Anna FWD/Forward contributor support programs for adults with disabilities? Because I would really like more people to acknowledge there are autistic adults, adults with Down’s Syndrome, adults with cancer, et cetera. You know what would be awesome? If the political parties in Canada would stop acting like PWD do not exist, do not access their web sites or spaces, and do not vote. Seriously. I swear, I send more emails out to the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, and the Greens about their web sites and press releases and activities than I do anything else. And they never get answered or even acknowledged. So, the Liberals are doing this big Canada150 event that was not captioned, because I guess deaf people do not exist. That whole “YouTalk” event for the prime minister? The questions could not be accessed by blind Canadians, and it was not captioned either. Just for two examples. It would thrill me if all feminist writers everywhere would assume that “women” includes “women with disabilities,” and

stop acting like they’re doing us a favour by letting us talk about our “pet issues.” Disability crosses race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, political view, et cetera. If you’re currently non-disabled and reading this, an accident or illness could have you wondering why your city has no bloody curb-cuts and discussing the out-of-pocket costs of medications for “catastrophic illnesses.” Your child, your lover, your parent, your best friend, your teacher, your favourite actor, all could end up in the same boat. MD: Is there anything else you’d like to add? A: Being disabled shouldn’t mean living in poverty. And yet, it often does. Why are our poorest neighbourhoods also the ones that are horrible for accessibility? It’s almost like everyone wants PWD to never leave their homes. Go to disabledfeminists.com for more information, or to mcgilldaily.com for a collection of blog links. —compiled by Hannah Freeman

12Health&Education

All illustrations by Sally Lin | The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

The best sex tip you’ll ever get Love triangles, sexual education, and memories of sex talks past

Sex talks Maddie Guerlain and Amanda Unruh

esterday I learned a new word: triad. It all began when talking to a friend about sex educator and blogger Andrea Zanin and her most recent post about triads. So, what is a triad? Think of an equilateral triangle, with each point a different person and everyone in a relationship with each other. Zanin calls it a “four-in-one relationship” where all three people are involved (three different couple relationships), plus the relationship between all three people together. It took me a few minutes to get this (try to make a mental diagram), and my initial response was: Damn. That must be complicated. But then again, what relationship isn’t? Sexual or not, relationships require work. To name a few: friends, lovers, friends you want to become lovers, parents, siblings, et cetera. As a person in a triad, Zanin goes on to list some helpful tips, prefacing the post by saying most of her advice is probably useful for other non-monogamous relationships as well (and here I would add most relationships in general, to an extent). Eventually she reaches one of my

all-time favourite sexy topics: communication. If you haven’t noticed a theme in this column over the year, then here it is explicitly stated again: communication. Even the name of the column says it: sex talks. Zanin brings up three great points about communication for triads specifically, but I would say it’s applicable to most relationships. “Communicate about sex. Hell, communicate about everything. And on top of that, communicate about how you communicate.” This is a good way to think about communication at different levels, such as communicating with a partner(s) about sex, but also communication more broadly in terms of sexual health and education. Her final point is also incredibly important: people communicate differently and so it can be helpful to know what those differences are in order to communicate well. One example: don’t have a serious conversation while cooking dinner with someone who gets grumpy when hungry. For almost every topic mentioned in this column, communication comes

up as being very important. Want to try using a new toy? Being in a polyamorous relationship? Finding out where your G-spot is? Talk about it. I polled a few friends of mine today at lunch on what their number-one sex tip is. The winning answer? Communicate with other people. Talking about sex is great for a number of reasons. First, talking about sex makes having safer sex a lot easier. Speaking out loud about condoms, lube, dental dams, or STIs reduces the stigma that often surrounds them and makes it easier to figure out what works best for you. If you can say something out loud just hanging out, it will probably be easier to talk about it later when getting it on. Sounds awkward? It definitely doesn’t have to be. Try whispering in someone’s ear: can I take off your shirt? Very hot and asking for consent at the same time! Talking about sex can be very sexy, lots of fun, and easily done by just asking what feels good or saying what you like. However, as a very wise friend once told me, sometimes communication isn’t sexy. Sometimes “no” needs to be said out loud, straight-up, without any frills or innuendo. When asking for consent, no matter how sexy you

make it, hearing “no” always needs to be listened to and respected. So why can communicating about sex be so damn difficult? It may be easy to talk about talking about sex, but once under the covers it can get a lot harder – especially suggesting something new or saying no. One thing that makes it difficult is the way we are taught about sex in high school. For example, in 2005, Quebec cut its sex ed class out of the curriculum – a great way to shut down conversation and leave teenagers in the dark about sexual health. While the government argued sex would become integrated into many different classes in an attempt at a more holistic approach, teacher’s time, budget constraints, and a lack of training has meant this is simply not the case. Instead, sex education can be spotty, biased, false, or nonexistent, and amazing community organizations like Head and Hands in NDG have had to fill in the gaps. In other places, where sex ed still exists, high school can leave us with the impression that 1) sex is only between a man and a woman with a penis and a vagina, respectively; 2) sex will either lead to an STI or pregnancy and is therefore dangerous; and 3) there is nothing

pleasurable about sex, so don’t get any ideas. It’s not until after a number of awkward encounters that we begin to realize none of these are true. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sex ed teacher mention that sex can also feel good – something like this: “So, class, now that we have learned how to have safer sex, I just wanted to mention that there are a lot of nerve endings in your nipples and touching them can feel really good. Next time you are masturbating or with a partner, check that out. But first ask them if it’s okay, and then, if you try it, check in to see if it does feel good, because not everyone likes this.” I was lucky enough to have a wonderful/horrifying sex talk with my dad when I was 14 that quickly cleared up any of these high school myths. His opening statement on our three-hour car ride together: “You know, Maddie, sex is a really great thing.” He later went on to explain how important respect is, and in retrospect this conversation was very insightful (at the time I was trying to throw myself out the window into oncoming traffic). It probably has something to do with why I am writing this today. Communicating is hard, but it doesn’t have to be awkward or unsexy. Rethinking our ideas about communication between partners, and sex ed in general, helps bring pleasure back into the picture. This way, talking about sex can be easier and sex can be what it should be: really fucking awesome.

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Art Essay

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

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Features

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Challenging MIT’s Darth Vader

Why we should stop worshipping all false idols Saeed Fotohinia Features Writer

fter my wife had given birth to our child, we spent a few days at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital. I got a chance to run across the street to rent some DVDs at Blockbuster, including Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause. My two-day-old little girl saw an auditorium full of McMaster University students ogling and fainting (like the iconic girls at Michael Jackson concerts from the ’80s) at every syllable uttered by Chomsky. I don’t know when it was exactly that the allure of Noam Chomsky dissipated from my mind, or even if it had ever conglomerated there in the first place. Perhaps, it was when I met his dog. I was sitting with his two secretaries on the fourth floor of the hypermodern Stata Building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was approached by a grey curly-haired dog that looked at me somewhat condescendingly. Or maybe, come to think of it, it was a short while later, when I was sitting across from the man himself, trying to tackle the idea of Ali G using the 9/11 model. (Look at seven minutes and 20 seconds of my palpable disappointment, caught on camera at youtube.com/ watch?v=D3f50SrnlpA.) For me, the process of disillusionment that I underwent during my now-ended acquaintace with Chomsky was similar to the one I underwent when I read too much about Winston Churchill. Here were two icons around whom there seemed

Jerry Gu | The McGill Daily

to be consensus about being larger-than-life. But learning more and more about their lives made me realize how human they both are. Churchill was concerned with his fees as a published writer – for evidence, check out his correspondences with his literary agent, Emery Reves. Chomsky is concerned with effacing himself as a mammal and assuming the ethereal form of thought-experiment incarnate.

ometimes, intellectuals speak so softly that you forget they are still talking long after you’ve consciously stopped paying attention. Their voices become so quiet that you think you are hearing your own conscience. But behind the zephyr sits an ogre. There is an upside and a downside to this revelation. The upside is that the entire group can be laughed off – like watching Plan 9 From Outer Space and chuckling at all the directorial gaffes after being terrified for your entire childhood by B-rated horror flicks. We can classify white-haired sages as easily as we can bell-bottomed war protesters. We can move on once we’ve finally stopped believing in Santa Claus, and stopped believing in Che Guevara posters. The downside involves more phlegm. The infrastructure that gets raised around modern-day Ciceros (the Obamas, the Blairs, the Lettermans) involves the employment of countless people, the purchase of countless barrels of ink, and the circulation of countless modules of legal, tender trust. You lose trust in Chomsky, MIT loses prestige, Metropolitan Books loses money, and two people lose their secretarial jobs. Then who would be left to feed the dog? You?

hen I corresponded with Chomsky I always felt like I had to check my linguistic coat at the door. It’s impossible to get a word in edgewise on the lofty ongoing ideological chess game between Karl Marx and Jesus Christ. You can’t even speak English properly enough to understand what you are thinking and feeling, let alone to preach. Every single word I used was battled over and seemed micro-seconds away from imploding.

am a young man of 27. When I first started emailing Chomsky I was 22. I quickly realized that to him, the 22 years I had spent learning the English language meant absolutely nothing. It was impossible to communicate with this man even though we bounced zillions of words between each other. I always got the impression that he had found some Rosetta Stone and considered my language as yet-to-be-deciphered hieroglyphics incomprehensible even to myself; as though my brain had not yet ripened to be able to utilize such words like the, is, of, two, or fig.

hey say the devil will cite scripture to his purpose, but what if we said the devil is scripture? When a treatise is elevated beyond debate, shit hits the fan. Who will pick up all the shit? The same people left feeding biscuits to Chomsky’s dog, wearing Che T-shirts, and swaying side-to-side reciting, “God is Great, God is Great, God is Great.” These are the neutered billions leashed by the elite few, without a voice, but a cry.

Chomsky once wrote to me, “Some truths are irrefutable.” This, to me, confuses facts with truths. A grievous fault, for if you take some truths, any truths, as being irrefutable, then those truths become canonized. What results is the Yodafication – if you will – of academia, where facts are derived from truths and not the other way around. (This may, come to think of it, account for why Yoda speaks backward.) As long as the “force” is with you, then the force of your arguments need not be contested – the rest can be taken care of via a handy Jedi mind trick. (A good way to spend an afternoon is by reading Mahatma Gandhi’s 57-page My God and seeing all the parallels to Star Wars. I’ll buy anyone a Coke if they can prove that George Lucas read it at some point – yet another reason why movies should have bibliographies.) Those of us who went to high school in B.C. know Milton’s Paradise Lost is required reading; in it we find Satan irreverent even in hell: All is not lost – the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. Every contest over truth is a contest between good and evil, right and wrong, and therefore every truth is contestable. Any Cicero, Churchill, or Chomsky who tells us otherwise is in it for the money or the power.

16Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

HYDE PARK

Looking for shelter Muslim students at McGill still don’t have a prayer space Salman Hafeez

rayer forms one of the five pillars of Islam: Muslims are required to pray five times a day. Prayer is a means of communication with Allah, and also one of the important means that Muslim students rely on to cope with the demands of an exhausting university life. As a Muslim student at McGill, I have always longed for a proper prayer space on campus. When I arrived in Canada three years ago from 10 time zones away, I was shocked and disappointed to learn that the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) had recently been evicted from its former space. Among the reasons the administration gave for the eviction was the idea that McGill is a secular institution and therefore not obligated to provide prayer space for any particular group on campus. Presently, a portion of the MSA office within the Shatner Building serves as a “temporary prayer corner.” However, the maximum capacity of the room is around 20 people, and I often have to wait outside as long as 15 minutes to find a spot. Many times, additional

prayer services need to be held in order to accommodate all students who want to attend. Moreover, the present prayer space within Shatner is not accessible for prayers when the building is closed. In such circumstances, like other Muslim students, I anxiously search for a spot around campus where I can offer my prayers and connect with my Creator. These spots include places underneath stairways; various locations within the libraries, such as desolate corners and areas between secluded bookshelves; the grounds of Lower Field, weather permitting; and the basements of the McConnell Engineering and Lorne Trottier buildings. However, at these various makeshift praying areas, I cannot offer prayers with any devotion. It is hard to concentrate when there are people walking on the stairs above me, or when someone wants to get a book off the shelf that I happen to be praying next to. Many times, these places are not very clean – and “cleanliness of the place” is one of the prerequisites for prayer in Islam. Prayer involves kneeling and prostration on the floor. Therefore, I always hurry, lest someone should

trip over me. Therefore, I am unable to garner any of the spiritual or mental satisfaction that Muslims seek from their daily prayers. For me, praying in such conditions transforms the act of prayer into a mere series of mechanical operations, devoid of any real connection with Allah. Many times, I have delayed or even missed prayers as a result of not being able to find a suitable location. At the end of the day, I lose out on an important tool that would otherwise provide me the strength and courage to deal with various problems (financial, academic, personal, et cetera). Muslim students across the campus share the same experience. My friend Obei El-Kurdy, U2 Mechanical Engineering, pointed out to me, “Praying is really a simple and enriching experience for a Muslim…. However, we need a proper space, as the current one in the Shatner Building is by far inadequate to the Muslim students’ needs.” Omar Balaa, U3 Civil Engineering, another friend, also stresses the importance of having a proper praying space. “Apart from fulfilling my obligations toward my Creator, it would help me focus

Sally Lin | The McGill Daily

on my studies, enhance my undergraduate experience, and allow me to contribute to the community in a much better way. I would basically be freed from this constant, nagging worry of having to figure out the next praying spot.” In the end, I pray and hope that the administration wakes up and addresses Muslim students’ needs.

Campuses across North America have provided accommodation for Muslim students, so I fail to understand why McGill, world-renowned for its rich cultural and ethnic diversity, has to be an exception. Salman Hafeez is a U2 Mechanical Engineering student. Write him at salman.hafeez@mail.mcgill.ca.

Burqas, hijabs, niqabs, oh my! Law 94 is veiled identity politics

Aristotle’s lackey Sana Saeed

suppose it’s time to address the rather large and noisy elephant floating between the margins of Aristotle’s lackey. Law 94. Just last week, the National Assembly passed a law banning the niqab from such critical public spaces as universities, government offices, daycares, and hospitals receiving government funding. The support for the ban has been strong throughout Canada, with an 80 per cent approval rating according to a survey conducted by Angus Reid. Criticisms have been sparse, coming primarily from an unsure Muslim community, various lawyers, scattered academics, and select university papers. But the general discussion on this matter has just been a mess, with a near complete avoidance of the question of the role of identity in English-speaking Canada. Because this legislation is provin-

cial, however, I will limit my discussion to the situation in Quebec. As mentioned briefly in an article last month by Sheetal Pathak (“Muslim women don’t need saving from themselves,” Commentary, March 18), the Canadian Muslim community is itself divided on this issue. Unlike the hijab, there’s no real consensus on the status of the niqab. A small minority see it as an obligation – or at the very least, the superior form of the modesty principle prescribed by Islam. While this debate is legitimate, it’s irrelevant to the issue at hand – the discussion on the matter within the Muslim community needs to move beyond the question of necessity. If there are women who believe it is their religious obligation to wear the niqab while living in North America, then that choice must be respected. The current brouhaha, framed by a reductionist debate on “choice,”

grossly undermines women’s agency and completely overlooks the greater context of Law 94 and the persistence of a discourse ultimately not about gender equality, secularism, integration, or identification. It is about identity. And just as identity politics create a limiting framework for political discourse, identity politics can and often do create limiting platforms for legislation and issues regarding minority populations. In Politics of the Veil, Joan Wallach Scott provides a rather thorough survey of the 2004 French ban of “ostentatious” religious symbols – including the hijab – in public spaces. She emphasizes the relationship between France as a former colonial power and its current minority populations, and the consequences of this relationship for the 2004 ban. Scott argues that while France maintained colonial presence in Algeria, the veil came to signify both cultural and violent resistance against imperialism. France’s laïcité (roughly equivalent to secularism) and resistance to accepting the country’s changing reality allow for the unacknowledged persistence of the belief that the veil remains a symbol of cultural and violent resistance to assimilation. Quebec is not France. But like French identity, Quebec identity is

built upon a shared linguistic and ethnic heritage as embodied by the historical interactions between church and state. This includes the near-total rejection of Catholicism during the Quiet Revolution. And like France, Quebec has seen a surge in its immigrant population, which challenges a system long sustained by the province’s homogeneity. It is without a doubt understandable that the majority of Quebeckers – outside Montreal especially – would fear the erosion of an identity with a tumultuous past. While this fear is comprehensible, it is not justified, and it certainly should not be the source for any law. With only a few dozen women in the province actually wearing the niqab, how much of a problem does the covering actually cause? France’s proposed ban on the burqa, recently judged unconstitutional by an advisory board, affected only 367 women out of five million Muslims. How necessary is a law for an exception – especially at the expense of appearing hostile to a significant and growing minority? What’s more, where exactly is the line drawn? There remains a strong movement in Quebec, which has at least some minimal support, to ban the adornment of any religious symbols – from kippas to hijabs –

in public spaces. When does “reasonable” accommodation become “unreasonable”? Can there be an unreasonable demand if it’s made in the name of identity and ideology? All that being said, there is an often understated obligation upon the Muslim community itself, as with any other ethno-religious group, to sincerely engage with such issues and ask itself what is a “reasonable accommodation” to ask of the state. But this question and its implications are to be addressed and dealt with by the Muslim community itself, as with any other minority group. For many, a law that discriminates against an exception may not be really consequential to the “big picture” in a negative or a positive way. It is, however, crucial that we consider the sort of framework this persistent debate and this particular legislation create for future discussions on matters concerning minorities. But until we get to future debates, I’ll keep rocking the flashy and colourful scarves that my students seem to love. Sana Saeed will write once more in this space before disappearing. Get in touch: aristotles.lackey@ mcgilldaily.com.

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Fight for violence Challenging the orthodoxy of pacifism

Radically reread Lisa Miatello

ince the March 15 demo against police brutality, a lot of unsettling talk and writing has gone down about the actions of protesters. The malicious reactions of the general public and the invalidating portrayals of protesters by the mainstream media were to be expected. Yet while describing this crowd as a bunch of anarchists, vandals, leftwing thugs, criminals, hooligans, and angsty teens was meant to belittle and dismiss them, I considered this to be a fairly accurate assessment of who they were. Black-clad, punked-out, and masked, this motley crew was an encouraging one. While perhaps more allied with these dissidents, an array of liberals, leftists, and radicals have expressed muted refinements of those same disapproving reactions. Time and again, they denounce the violence of protesters while “cleverly” pointing out the irony of protesting violently against police brutality. Begging for peaceful (read: non-violent) protest, they’re quick to dissociate themselves from the taint of militancy. If you believe oppression exists, then you better be prepared to rethink your understandings of violence. Poverty, (neo)colonialism, racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia are no walk in the park. They’re coercive, dehumanizing, and brutal forms of domination. Ripping their way through our lives, they’re systematic, institutionalized, internalized, embodied, and they shape how we relate to one another. “Keep the peace!” they cry out. Peace is a farce. Condemning the violent actions of these protesters reduces violence to a smashed window, a graffitied wall, a kick in the back, or a beer bottle to the helmet. Over-emphasizing the (supposed) depravity of these actions at once flies in the face of the realities and anger of these marginalized protesters, and distracts us from more socially sanctioned and normalized forms of violence. How many times have you heard the “bad apple” argument used to defend police brutality? This argument positions most cops as good

and the state as benevolent. What’s omitted here is that the state has a monopoly on legitimate violence. A “good” cop and a “bad” cop are trained to smack you down with the same force. And they do so with impunity. The Société de police de la ville de Montréal has killed 43 people since 1987, and not a single cop has been convicted of either voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. A call for non-violence at demos implicitly supports the concentration of force in the hands of the state. The government carves out a special place in the political and geographic landscape for opposition to its dictates. Peaceful protests, demos, and marches galore, these are state-authorized displays of dissent. While significant in their own right, the fanatical rejection of violent actions from within their ranks panders to the wider public and appeases those in power. Radical and uncompromising actions that directly challenge the purported integrity of the state are necessary. By widening the spectrum of what resistance can be and look like, we make room for an expansion of political and creative possibilities. Freeing us from the limits of what’s considered socially acceptable struggle, violent tactics can work to energize dissent. There’s something incredibly moving and inspiring about watching someone shoot a firecracker at the po’. Over beers the other night a friend asked me if I agreed with these sorts of tactics. Ultimately, I think this is a misguided question. People who fight oppression have a diversity of experiences, means, and goals. As a result, how people resist will always look different. I’m extremely wary of playing the good protester versus bad protester game. Playing into the logic of divide and conquer dilutes our movements and sucks out their strength. We need solidarity now more than ever. Lisa Miatello’s got one column left in her. Drop her a line at radically. reread@mcgilldaily.com.

The Daily is looking for a readers’ advocate. What? » The readers’ advocate will write a biweekly column that weighs student concerns against their own assessment of the paper’s performance. Who? » Any member of the Daily Publications Society who will not concurrently be a member of The Daily’s editorial board can apply. How do I become the readers’ advocate? » The readers’ advocate will be chosen before May by the board of directors and the editorial board. Send an email to coordinating@mcgilldaily.com for more information.

Matthew Milne | The McGill Daily

The time for the autocar has come and gone. HYDE PARK

Non-motorists, unite! You have nothing to lose but your automobiles Kasra Safavi

aterloo, Ontario, is the name given to the oven in which I lived for 18 years. I’ve been in constant exposure to large one-passenger craft roaming the streets. These mobile radiators of heat, smoke, and noise consumed my existence for every second of my outdoor life. People would refer to them as many things: minivans, SUVs, lawn mowers, pickup trucks. What made things worse were the ridiculously long voyages I’d have to take through the infrastructural machinery just to get to school or to go to a friend’s house. On average, getting to my friend’s house would take about 50 minutes. My close friends were never really that close. I remember thinking about the entire expansion of motor vehicle infrastructure as a big joke we’d created. To allow for cars, we’d expanded our cities to the point where it only made sense for everyone to have a car. The same dilemma is faced by highway expansion and the consequent further expansion of highways. Living in downtown Montreal for the past year has changed many things for me. Despite my regular exposure to cars here, traffic is generally calmer, I feel safer, and I can use an efficient mass transit system to get to where I need to

go. However, as my brother pointed out recently, I have not escaped the problem of which I’m so critical: I am still a contributor to the automobile’s hegemony, only now I don’t witness its destructive nature firsthand. There is only one cure for the destruction caused by the automobile: destruction of the automobile itself. Anybody who criticizes me for idealism must understand two things. First, the idea of abolishing cars is based on a real grievance I have. I am part of a society that doesn’t respect me and other non-motorists. Second, I fully understand my dependence on the automobile despite my choice not to drive a car. My existence in an urban environment that supports a mass transit system is only possible through the work of many other people who do drive cars. In order to make our cities more accessible to non-motorists, society needs to change. Our urban infrastructure needs to reflect this change. Having separate infrastructures is inefficient and could create a class division between motorists and non-motorists. The only approach is to abolish mass usage of the automobile and transform our cities to match this outcome, putting an end to the source of my frustration. Thinking about how much society relies on the automobile, I immediately realized that powerful

institutions would be affected by such a transformation. The largest corporations in the world are either automotive manufacturers or the oil and gas companies that produce their fuel. Their expansion has been matched with the state’s expansion of automobile infrastructure. This includes a system of streets and highways that will take an enormous effort to dismantle. The automobile industry actively maintains the division of labour that exists in all societies. It will be a difficult fight against both the instruments of capitalism and the cultural acceptance of cars. Hence, the destruction of the automobile must go hand in hand with the destruction of the division of labour. But the emancipation of labour would imply the end of the capitalist class. This being the case, the liberation of labour is equivalent to the achievement of a classless society – I believe that the processes that will lead us to a classless society will also inevitably lead us to the abolition of the automobile. (The freedom to engage in collective action is a highlight of liberal democracy. However, violent acts and vandalism directed toward the automobile are entirely counterproductive and I do not condone them.) Kasra Safavi is a U0 Arts & Science student. Ghost ride the whip with him at kasraman@gmail.com.

letters@mcgilldaily.com Last issue – last chance to be heard!

18Commentary

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

HYDE PARK

Nightmare in Nigeria The roots of the recent riots in Jos David Davidson

uring the morning hours of March 7, rioting spread through Jos, Nigeria. According to local reports, HausaFulani herdsmen entered the city while firing rifles into the air. Some residents stepped from their homes to see what was happening. The herdsmen drove the residents into rioters waiting with machetes and clubs. Stories about what exactly happened vary, but hundreds died – infants, children, and the elderly. The official death toll currently hovers around 500. The victims are primarily Christian – though in violence earlier this year, it was Muslims who were predominantly targeted in this city divided between Nigeria’s two main religions. Linda Ikeji, a Nigerian blogger, posted photos of the bodies of a dozen children, lying in the dirt and poorly covered. She wrote, “This is our shame and failure as a country.” One reader responded, “The most insane part of the whole thing is that this wasn’t done by outsiders. Fellow Nigerians [were] doing this to each other’s children…. They may have grievances, but how does the death of a child bring you any closer to getting what you want?” The uprising has totally eclipsed day-to-day life in the city. “Speaking from the experience of living in Jos during two major uprisings,” writes blogger Brenda Hartman-Souder, a Mennonite missionary working near the city, “I deflate with fatigue, fear, and the question that buzzes like a hungry mosquito: what the heck are we doing here?” She describes the “scorched buildings and cars” as a “war zone.” “Where is the old woman sitting by the wall stacking oranges?” she asks. “Where are the old men lounging on worn benches chatting and chewing kola nut? “Everyone is gone, shops and homes smashed or burnt, the vegetable market at the foot of the hill is silent and empty.” Some have speculated that the riots are a response to violent clashes in January, during which the victims were mostly Muslims. Jos and the surrounding region have endured cycles of violence since the early ’90s. In the days following the recent unrest, the Nigerian army and police were called in – but most fear that the underlying problems behind the slaughter remain unaddressed. The situation in Nigeria is complex: cultural differences, religious strife, corruption in government, rampant poverty, and unemployment all interact with government policies bordering on segregation to create an explosive mix. These factors combine with a rapidly growing population of 140 million squeezed into a pressure-

Ben Peck | The McGill Daily

Riots in Jos, Nigeria, have totally disrupted local life. cooker half the size of Quebec. The discovery of oil in the Niger Delta in the early ’70s and the ensuing influx of billions of oil dollars is partly to blame for the situation. A decline in other industries, most significantly in agriculture, accompanied a rise in oil revenues. Nigeria – once a net exporter of agricultural products – now depends on other nations for a significant portion of its food supply. The economies of many political districts in the country depend on the federal government’s transfers of oil revenues. The problems in Jos could be related to this economic mismanagement – so much energy goes into oil that everything else is neglected. Severe regional unemployment, dependence on government handouts, and poverty result. Nigeria today is an amalgamation of at least 250 different cultural groups shoehorned in 1912 into the confines of a single nation by Britain. To accommodate these

diverse groups, Nigeria classifies citizens as either “indigene” or “settler.” In brief, this policy marks people as indigene to a region if they can trace their ancestral roots to that location. All others are settlers, or non-indigenes. Many local governments accord certain rights and privileges to indigenes, but proving one’s ancestry is often difficult, or impossible. And if you’re not an indigene, there is no mechanism in place to become one – effectively making a whole segment of society secondclass citizens. This policy amounts to segregation. In Jos, the policy’s effects are poignant: the predominantly Muslim Hausa and Jarawa tribes cannot claim to be indigenes of Jos, despite the fact that they cannot trace their ancestral roots to any other part of Nigeria. According to a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the division between indigenes and set-

tlers is used pervasively at the local level to limit access to civil service jobs, scholarships, state universities, political office, and basic services and infrastructure. HRW reports that “poverty and unemployment have both become more widespread and more severe in Nigeria, [and] competition for scarce opportunities to secure government jobs, higher education, and political patronage has intensified dramatically. Many Nigerians believe that this desperate competition between citizens for some basic level of economic security lies near the heart of most of the country’s intercommunal conflicts.” Some have blamed religion for the conflicts – but perhaps the underlying cause is more fundamental: people want security and the ability to meet their basic needs. When the state makes this impossible, they search for a scapegoat. “The problem with this country is that if you don’t have one of your

own people in a position of authority, you get nothing,” a member of Jos’s Igbo community – a non-indigene group – told HRW. When you can’t have faith in the authorities unless they’re of your own ethnic group, you take matters into your own hands. “It’s about trust in your leaders, knowing that the [people] in charge are going to do what is right, what is fair, regardless of their ethnic and religious ties,” said Emeka Nwakanma, a Nigerian expatriate and graduate of McGill’s library and information sciences program. The violence in Jos will not end until the segregation of indigene and settler ends – and that will require changes not only in government, but also in the hearts and minds of average Nigerians. David Davidson is a post-doctoral student in experimental medicine. Write him at david.davidson@ mcgill.ca.

Sports

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

pany, events that are simply too big, too absurd, and too expensive for the news media to overlook. Other sports invented and operated by Red Bull include, among many others, the air race, which involves one-person aircraft being flown through slalom courses; the “favela flyers,” a mountain bike race through some of Rio de Janeiro’s poorest neighbourhoods; and “stratos,” an attempt to drop skydiver Felix Baumgartner from a space pod in the stratosphere, while wearing a spacesuit and parachute both emblazoned – naturally – with the Red Bull logo. If the stunt succeeds, Baumgartner will be the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall in what is slated to be the highest skydive of all time. The company’s fixation on bionic athleticism, coupled with the quasi-spiritual attitude of some of its online videos – a number of which feature aerial shots of the Christ the Redeemer statue – all communicate the message that Red Bull is on a mission to advance the human race to a state that is harder, better, faster, and stronger than it was before. A small but manageable controversy erupted last year when it was discovered that Red Bull Cola contains trace amounts of cocaine; the drink was subsequently banned in Taiwan and six German states.

Energy think What happens when Red Bull takes over an entire city

Crashed athletes

Michael Lee-Murphy | The McGill Daily

Niko Block The McGill Daily

he global market in energy drinks has increased over five-fold in the last decade. Between invented sports, student brand managers, and precedentsetting media stunts, Red Bull, a company that leads the energy drink industry in terms of market share, has drawn new boundaries in its experimentation with new media and human branding. By tailoring its market schemes to various specific national tastes in different countries around the world, the image of athleticism coupled with a devil-may-care attitude has found a global audience. What this means in the case of Canada and Europe is a sport called Crashed Ice. The sport’s first-ever world championship was held in Quebec City on March 20. The idea behind the game is that four athletes at a time – each clad in skates, helmets, and promotional jerseys – race through the course’s jumps, turns, and ramps as quickly as possible. According to an athlete with a broken wrist I met after the event, Crashed Ice had resulted in eight

separated shoulders and two broken legs that day. It’s a sport that, in the words of one of its press releases, “certainly isn’t for ice princesses!” The four-day occupation of the province’s capital that accompanied the world championship saw 120,000 spectators heaped into the old city’s streets, the installation of nine jumbo LED screens and 2,000 spotlights, two million watts of energy expended, several thousand cans of Red Bull consumed, and a massive private security contingent on site. The event’s centrepiece was a half-kilometre-long downhill ice track that started at the Chateau Frontenac and wound down toward the port. The crowds of people who flocked to the event should not have come as much of a surprise. Few other marketing ploys in history have been quite so appealing to Quebeckers as one that turns hockey into an extreme sport, gets hosted in the downtown core of their capital, and abandons any enforcement of open-container laws whatsoever. Quebeckers, in fact, were so enthusiastic about the event that a few months prior, when it looked like Red Bull might actually make good on its pledge that the event

would never visit the same city twice, Quebec’s mayor endorsed an idea that had been floated by a local DJ and held an official buy-aRed Bull day, which cleared three weeks’ worth of product, and obviously achieved its intended effect at Red Bull HQ.

Bull nation The first spot I visited was the media centre at the Chateau Frontenac. The woman at the desk there didn’t seem to mind that I hadn’t been placed on her list of accredited media, and handed me a generic lanyard with nothing but the words “media/medias” on it. Throughout the rest of the night, I found that I could bypass virtually any security guard, line up, or entrance fee just by flashing this thing. There was a lot of Blur’s “Song 2” (“Woo Hoo”), Limp Bizkit, spotlights, crane cams, and here and there a sign reminding me that “your face and/or voice might end up in the media (especially if you’re good looking)... [and be] used for commercial purposes.” Red Bull’s logo was projected onto the sides of buildings, silkscreened onto most of the drinking tents, and shaved into the heads of athletes and bartenders. Hot Hot Heat played a few sets

live onstage during intermissions, though they struggled to captivate the audience the way the sport itself did. I wound up at the event after being approached by Dave Gourlay, the student brand manager (SBM) for Red Bull at McGill. His job description – and that of his female counterparts, the wing team members (WTMs) – is a relatively loose one: “to bring the Red Bull brand to life in the world of all things college. It can be as simple as providing Red Bull for a party or…it can go a whole lot further,” according to the web site of “Red Bull University.” The WTMs, he said, in particular are expected to show up at parties with free Red Bull and their good looks. “It’s just a bunch of fun people doing cool things,” said Gourlay. “If people have good ideas for crazy events – since that’s what Red Bull’s image is, they just go ahead and they do a good job.”

Extreme stunts, extreme altitudes, extreme poverty Decadent though it was, the Crashed Ice World Championship is just one of dozens of events staged worldwide each year by the Thai- and Austrian-owned com-

Once the race had ended and the finalists doused each other in champagne, I returned to the Chateau Frontenac for a press conference with the four top-ranking male and female athletes. “Can I have a Red Bull?” asked one of the men to an attendant WTM. The fragrance of sweat and energy drink permeated the room. Most of the athletes didn’t know exactly what to say in response to the host’s repeated question, “So what do you have to tell us about this whole experience?” When she came to Martin Niefnecker, a 19-year-old Bavarian water engineer who had come in second that day, but first in a previous round held in Munich, the host asked him how it felt to be the firstever Red Bull Crashed Ice world champion and wished him good luck with his “future career as a Red Bull crasher.” “For me this is an event just like an ice hockey game,” said Niefnecker when I approached him afterward. “I have to do my best and I want to win; it doesn’t matter if it’s marketing or not.” The streets had emptied rapidly outside of the Chateau Frontenac, as the fans poured out of the old city toward the bars and clubs along Grande Allée. The security guards for the most part were absent too, leaving a few cops lackadaisically sweeping up the broken glass with their feet.

20Sports

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Among the gamers Team WinOut and Canada’s biggest Counter Strike tournament Michael Lee-Murphy The McGill Daily

or three days in March, Montreal hosted one of the largest competitive computer game (e-sports) tournaments in Canada. Seven hundred and fifty of North America’s best gamers packed themselves and their computers into the cafeteria of L’École de technologie supérieure (ETS) and fragged (“killed” in the vulgate) their way toward $15,000 in prizes. I decided to attend the tournament on a whim after my roommate Max (alias Sepatown) told me that Projeckt (real name Chris) – a gamer Max had known for the past five years through the online gaming community – would be in attendance and the two would meet in person for the first time. Max and Projeckt play Counter Strike (CS), one of North America’s most competitive computer games, and one of the more popular games featured at the competition. Although absent from the top echelons of CS for the past few years, Max had stayed in touch with the culture at large and acted as my guide to the world of CS and e-sports. He enlightened me to some of the fundamental assumptions surrounding regulated gaming, known as LAN (short for local-area network) by its participants. In a LAN tournament, participants are gathered in a single room, removing the ambiguity and anonymity of the Internet and its myriad possibilities for cheating and subversion of the sport. This, he explained, is the “purest form of the sport,” where competitors are “un-masked” from their Internet persona. Max and Projeckt met on the second evening of the tournament. It was strangely emotional, seeing the two of them meet. These two guys had known each other for a long time, and they hugged upon seeing each other. I spent the second evening of the tournament shadowing Projeckt and his team, WinOut. The members of Team WinOut, (Projeckt, Jasper, Fidele, Elmo, and Kevin) hail primarily from the outer boroughs of New York City and all have thick regional accents. Team WinOut, I was informed, are capable of competing at the highest level of North American CS, and were favourites for the top spot in Montreal. They were reluctant to sit down and do formal interviews or to be recorded, and were dismissive of my interest in writing a story about them. I could understand WinOut's reluctance to talk to me; the gaming community is so often cruelly mocked or gawked at as nerds and n00bz.

Michael Lee-Murphy | The McGill Daily

Not just n00bz and nerds. This competition, as most LANs, was held in a dark room moodlit only by the electronic glow of computer screens. All the tired stereotypes of gaming were present, including stacks of empty energy drinks, pizza boxes, and gamers sleeping in front of their computers, but the atmosphere of the place was spectacular. In the massive ETS cafeteria cheers of victory and cries of despair would erupt from various corners of the room where crowds of gamers had gathered to watch important matches. In regulated competition, CS is played in 16-round matches which pit five-man (LAN is almost exclusively male) teams of “terrorists” (attacking) against one team of “counter-terrorists” (defending). Counter-terrorists defend a base from the onslaught of terrorists, whose goal it is to penetrate the base, then set and finally detonate a bomb. Each match starts out with a “knife-fight,” in which players have no guns and must kill each other using only knives. The knife-fight functions like a coin-toss in a football game and allows the winning team to elect whether they will compete as as terrorists or counterterrorists. The team with the most wins after 16 rounds is the victor of the match at large. At this level of play, the gaming is extremely fastpaced. The endless cans of energy

drinks serve their purpose well, as rounds are won or lost in as little as 25 seconds. The 20 teams in the CS version 1.6 tournament were split up into four groups, with the last-place team from each group being eliminated from the competition, leaving a 16-team bracket for the championship. I stayed with Team WinOut for two of their group matches against team BH and, later, Quebec-based Tempest.

WinOut vs. BH After winning the knife-fight, Team WinOut opted for the role of the counter-terrorists. I stood behind WinOut, watching the action on their five computer screens like a hockey coach watches from behind their warriors on the bench. At first, the action was far too frantic and fast-paced for my n00b brain to follow, but I could tell based on the aggressive trash talk coming from our bench that WinOut was dominating. 5-0, 8-0. At 11-0, a disheartened Team BH became suicidal, and killed themselves to end the punishment as fast as possible. This enraged the members of Team WinOut, who questioned the tournament's structure and the needlessness of the knockout round. Max informed me that hundreds of people may have just watched WinOut's thrashing of BH through

a program that allows gamers from around the world to tune in to highprofile games. The program, called HLTV, has allowed for the creation of the spectator element of this e-sport. In the hours until WinOut's next match, I wandered around the game floor watching other matches, trying to identify the better teams. I had heard Projeckt tell Max that an (in)famous CS gamer from western Canada (alias partyandbullshit) was in attendance. Partyandbullshit is famous in the CS world for being so good that many originally accused him of cheating. Max explained to me that, by appearing at the tournament, partyandbullshit has validated himself, competing in a tightly monitored setting where there would be no chance of cheating.

WinOut vs. Tempest Just before the match was set to begin, WinOut suffered a potentially devastating technical malfunction, as Jasper's built-for-gaming monitor broke. Technical support staff were called over to assess the problem and after much gnashing of teeth, Jasper was forced to play on his laptop monitor. The laptop screen’s deficient frame-rate severely hampered Jasper’s, and thus, his teams’s ability to compete. Despite this injurious disadvantage, WinOut won again with devastating force,

although this time with some exciting competition. WinOut defeated Tempest in the knife-fight and chose the role of counter-terrorists. Our boys quickly identified the course’s choke-points and secured them. The remaining team members staked out positions high in the rafters for better vantage points. My eyes and brain were moving fast enough now to keep track of the action, and it was fucking exciting. At one point Fidele enlisted Max and I to block WinOut's computer screens from the possibly prying eyes of Tempest, located a few rows behind us. “You're part of the team now!” Fidele hollered. Tempest employed a strategy heavily reliant on tactical smoke grenades, but WinOut's position in the rafters of the base kept their visibility high. After the match, which WinOut again won 16-0, a member of Tempest came over to inquire about their team strategy in the last round. WinOut were not in the mood for sharing, and this Tempest member returned to his team, thoroughly rebuked. Team WinOut would go on to win the competition the next day and $2,000 in prize money. As most of the team went out for a smoke break after the Tempest match, I asked Fidele who they were playing next. “I never know, man. This is LAN,” he replied.

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Sports

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Joe Penney for The McGill Daily

Haitian Montrealer Ali Nestor Charles knocks down Martin Desjardins in the 10th round.

Fight for Haiti Community champ makes good at Complexe Claude-Robillard

Puttin’ on the foil Ben Foldy

few weeks back, I admitted to not really being a boxing fan, but more a fan of boxers. I dug my own grave with that article because my vindictive editor then asked me to cover Friday night’s Fight for Haiti at the Complexe Claude-Robillard in Parc Ex. I thought I’d try my hand at a classic-style fight write-up, and lucky for me, the piece practically wrote itself. With opening fights featuring everything from women’s featherweight boxing to MMA, there was something to satisfy every fan. And with the proceeds going to Haitian relief efforts, most in attendance could have been pleased with them-

selves after simply buying a ticket. Nonetheless, the fighters gave the crowd its money’s worth. The headline fight, a Canadian Professional Boxing Council supermiddleweight title bout between Martin Desjardins and local hero Ali Nestor Charles, came curiously in the middle of the bill, befuddling those who thought the best would be kept for last. Charles, the 41-year-old Montreal North gym owner of Haitian descent, was serenaded by the adoring crowd’s chants of “Ali bumaye!” – or “Ali kill him!” – a tip of the hat to the Ali-Foreman ’74 epic in Zaire so fantastically documented in When

We Were Kings. The chants were well-intentioned but likely unnecessary; Charles never appeared anything less than sure that he would win the fight organized for victims of an earthquake that had taken the lives of his friends and family. The southpaw swaggered around the ring while allowing Desjardins to control the first two rounds, shaking off a few well-placed rights by the younger Quebecker. Buoyed by emotional energy early on, Charles defiantly looked away from the referee who lectured him after some questionable behaviour in the clinch. Even getting knocked down at the first round bell didn’t seem to faze the driven Charles, who was given a three-count despite his vocal protests. The crowd ate it up and the small pocket of chanting Desjardins supporters would consistently be drowned out by “Ali Bumaye!” as Charles began to fight smarter and swing the momentum his way. Charles opened a cut over Desjardins’s left eye midway through the third, which became a blood-red welt to which Charles would return again and again with his surgical lefts. Desjardins fought

admirably in front of the hostile crowd, never backing down while becoming more and more desperate to land his booming rights as the rounds ticked off and the scores shifted more and more in Charles’s favor. Seeing more red from a new cut over his right eye made Desjardins bullish after the fifth, leading him to charge hard behind his right hand at the increasingly patient and elusive Charles. Rounds eight and nine featured more close combat than the first seven, with the fighters trading turns on the ropes for body blows and clinches before foxtrotting around the ring from corner to corner. Charles would take an occasional uppercut at the end of a combination, but nearly each time he’d just shake his head before giving back better than he’d gotten. A spent and bloodied Desjardins came out swinging in the tenth. The boxer tried in vain to pull off a knockout before an almost certainly detrimental decision, but Charles, who had been steadily improving throughout the fight, was simply too fast to catch. In the closing seconds, Charles bodied the

tired Desjardins off his feet. The bell rang with Desjardins sprawled across the ropes, while Charles bounded around the ring with his fist in the air as the crowd roared in appreciation for the new champion by unanimous decision. Thankfully, the night’s organizers had not completely forgotten the “save the best for last” mantra, as the night’s closing four rounder between up-and-comer Abdou Sow and Jean Charlemagne rewarded those who stuck around. Sow, a protege of Charles who combines speed and power in his long left, added another efficient victory to his unblemished record (3-0) by way of technical knock out at 2:40 of the third round. With money raised for a good cause, an emotional victory for a community’s golden boy, and a tantalizing glimpse at a rising talent, it seems hard to believe that anyone could have left the Complexe Claude-Robillard disappointed. Ben Foldy is The Daily’s Sports columnist. He’s hanging up the gloves. Email him at puttinonthefoil@ mcgilldaily.com

22Sports

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

A history of violence Fighting in hockey is decadent and depraved Eric Wen The McGill Daily

s a pre-pubescent boy, I thought fighting was cool. I watched violent action movies, and the thing I liked best about hockey was the fighting – especially when NHL ’98 entered a Mortal Kombat-style mini-game every time players engaged in a scuffle. But as I have aged and matured, my opinions have changed: I cringe at every episode of Dexter, and I now view fighting in hockey as unnecessary barbarism rather than entertaining fodder. I don’t pretend to be a hockey expert – my remote interest in the sport was lost with the 2004 lockout – but I do have a problem with how the NHL carries out its business. No other professional sport allows fighting. Though fighting garners a penalty in hockey, one could see this as a slap on the wrist compared to the punishments doled out by other leagues. In the NFL, an errant punch is grounds for throwing a player out of the game, and in the MLB the suspicion that a pitcher might be throwing at a batter may send the pitcher to the clubhouse. The ejection for fighting in most other sports is often accompanied by a suspension. Meanwhile, NHL players only get five minutes in the penalty box. In February, an article written by The Daily’s Sports editor Michael Lee-Murphy cited a recent retaliatory fight between David Booth and Mike Richards, who came to blows in a March game over an October incident in which Richards hit Booth and gave him a serious concussion. “Any skeptics looking for the justification of fighting in the NHL need only look to the Booth-Richards fight for a demonstration of hockey’s complex psychodrama of which fighting plays an indispensable role,” Lee-Murphy wrote. Despite his efforts, I am not convinced.

Bridget Sprouls | The McGill Daily

The NHL enables a culture of violence. A friend who is a far more enthusiastic hockey fan than I am once disparaged a team for “not having anyone willing to fight.” The fact that general managers often sign enforcers – colloquially known as “goons” – mainly for the purpose of fighting, rather than their athletic ability, makes me less willing to engage with the sport. My friend also said that fighting is informally institutionalized in part because referees do not do enough to protect players. Despite this rationale, players should not have to police their own game in order to protect themselves

Summer

if the NHL is finally getting serious about its players’ health, the practice of fighting in the NHL is unlikely to go, as it is a popular aspect of the game and a means for players to police their own game and to defend their honour. Nothing makes a statement better than the crisp remarks of a clenched fist. But ultimately, fighting contributes little to the game besides a way for players to vent their pent-up aggression and for fans to watch people duke it out without going to a boxing match. While fighting has become

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and their teammates. If this is the case, there is a fundamental flaw in the way the league works. Fighting is embedded in the culture of North American hockey, and the league’s lack of action only enables this violence. In the NFL, penalties and fines for dirty hits are issued during and after the game, respectively, in an effort to curb the risk of injury. Booth’s desire to retaliate against Richards is an unfortunate product of this violent culture. Recently, the NHL implemented a new rule prohibiting blindside hits in order to protect players. But even

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entrenched in North America, the European leagues and amateur North American ones are still functional and viable without it. That is not to say fighting is a phenomenon strictly present in the NHL. In most professional sports, fights break out when tension and testosterone run high. However, hockey is the only sport that encourages this kind of behaviour, and in doing so, puts the safety of its players on the line and allows a culture of violence to persist that turns away prospective fans.

Drop the gloves Write for Sports sports@mcgill daily.com

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

CREATIVE WRITING PRIZES AND AWARDS The MONA ADILMAN PRIZE IN POETRY, estimated value $700--or estimated value $350 for two students, is open to undergraduate or graduate students registered in the Faculty of Arts for the best poem or group of poems relating to ecological or environmental concerns. The CLARK LEWIS MEMORIAL PRIZE, estimated value $450, is open to major or honours students in the Department of English. The prize is awarded annually or from time to time for original plays staged in the course of the academic year. The CHESTER MACNAGHTEN PRIZES IN CREATIVE WRITING (two prizes, one of estimated value $700 and another of estimated value $400) are open to undergraduate students of the University for the best piece of creative writing in English, i.e. a story, a play, a poem, an essay, etc. Printed compositions are ineligible if they have been published before April 15, 2010.

Last issue on stands April 12

The PETERSON MEMORIAL PRIZE, estimated value $2,000, is open to undergraduate or graduate students registered in a degree program in the Department of English with distinction in English Literature (CGPA 3.30 or above) who has also shown creative literary ability. The LIONEL SHAPIRO AWARDS FOR CREATIVE WRITING, three prizes of estimated value $1,500 each, to be distributed if possible among the genres of poetry, fiction, screen writing and playwrighting. Each prize is to be awarded on the recommendation of the Department of English to students in the final year of the B.A. course who have demonstrated outstanding talent. (A note from your academic adviser verifying you will have completed your program requirements and the minimum credits required by the Faculty of Arts MUST accompany your submission. These competitions are restricted to students who have not previously won the First Prize. Forms to be completed are available in the Department of English General Office, Arts 155. Submissions must be IN TRIPLICATE. DEADLINE: Thursday, April 15, 2010.

Find extended coverage online â&#x20AC;&#x201C; mcgilldaily.com

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Heart of the river One scientist’s love affair with the Saint Lawrence’s estuaire moyen Sophia LePage Culture Writer

n an area of the Saint Lawrence River situated between Île D’Orleans and Île aux Coudres lies a stretch of water where the ocean and the river merge. Extreme tides, brackish water, and rich sediment deposits mean that this part of the river is very ecologically diverse; it provides the last natural habitat for rare species like the black sturgeon. Scientists have labelled this place estuaire moyen, but because of its unique characteristics, physicist and artist Rona Rangsch would like to change the area’s name to estuaire central. It doesn’t seem like a huge shift, to replace “middle” with “central,” but as Rangsch argued in her multimedia presentation last weekend at articule, this subtle change could actually affect how people treat this unique environment. Rangsch began her presentation by speaking about the estuary’s tides. At its highest point, she explained, the tide rises five metres above the low tide mark. To illustrate the difference this makes on the shore, Rangsch measured the height of the house she was staying at in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, a town along the estuary, using a tall white pole with a bright pink stopper at the end. During the talk, she played a spedup video that showed her placing the stick on the shore at low tide,

Photo courtesy of articule

Test tubes holding water samples were described using both scientific and artistic means. and how it disappeared completely when the tide rose six hours later. In addition to depicting the beauty of the area through photos and videos, Rangsch brought in statistics and test results to highlight the area’s unique environment. During her stay along the estuary, Rangsch took water

samples from various parts of the river, measuring different sediment levels. The inclusion of visuals of the testing certificates Rangsch received – verifying that the water quality tests performed were accurate – allowed her scientific background to seep into the presentation, as did a photograph

of test tubes lined up side-by-side, revealing the different sediment-rich colours of the water at the different test sites. In this way, Rangsch showed the authority of her scientific procedure, while at the same time enabling the audience to engage with the project

via its artistic qualities. The photos and videos not only gave Rangsch freedom to make the presentation more playful and colourful, but they also allowed the viewer to see the estuaire moyen in a holistic way, while keeping the scientific facts precise and validated. Using both these disciplines, Rangsch enforced the importance of this area of water as a central and unique ecological environment. Rangsch’s presentation also illustrated that this part of the river is not only important for scientific purposes or its scenic setting. She made a point of showing the estuary’s influence on the people who live along its banks as well, as when she played an audio clip in which a man describes the effects that extreme tides have on those living along the estuary. She connects these three communities – of scientists, artists, and local residents – through various mediums as a way of giving her audience a realistic view of the estuary, even in a small gallery space miles and miles away from its waters. Through showing the diversity of this aquatic landscape to audiences around the country, Rangsch hopes to get people to begin to call it estuaire centrale, and in so doing to award the unique environment the recognition it deserves. The subtle change to a grander name will hopefully prompt other communities to explore this area of the river, rather than overlook the hidden habitat.

The Republic will not be televised Inter-university conference takes philosophy out of the classroom and into the public sphere Gavin Thomson The McGill Daily

lthough only in its second year, Philopolis – a bilingual philosophy conference with open attendance – is certainly making its mark. The conference, held at McGill and UQAM last month, featured a wide range of topics covered by speakers with an even wider range of experience; over the course of the weekend, it became clear that the discussions taking place were almost as important as the lectures themselves. The aim of Philopolis is twofold, explained Susan-Judith Hoffmann, a professor of philosophy at McGill who gave a presentation entitled “The Philosophy of the Natural Sciences.” First, it aims to “make

philosophy part of a larger academic conversation, and to demonstrate that philosophy is an important voice in its own right.” Secondly, organizers set out “to make philosophy accessible to the general public and to give it a role in shaping public life.” The jargon typical of average lectures was avoided by gearing the presentations toward inexperienced but interested listeners. The 100 speakers, giving 80 presentations, did not oversimplify, though. Professors and students alike offered their input on topics as diverse as “The emotional education of reality TV,” “The paradox of free will,” and “Turning the wheel of Dharma: a really short introduction to Buddhism.” “For philosophers,” said the president of the Philosophy Students Association, David

Brooke Struck, “Philopolis presents a great opportunity to see how much our discipline has in common and to share with others, and how beneficial this can be to philosophical development. For non-philosophers, it presents an opportunity to step back from the book or the microscope and recognize the application of one’s interests to a broader intellectual landscape.” The importance of stepping back was Philopolis’s underlying theme. Focussing too specifically on issues such as the mind/ body gap risks ignoring crucial fragments of debate, and stepping back to find coherence in the whole helps recover them. Philosophy is commonly misunderstood as being an isolated and irrelevant subject, lagging behind science and far too broad to solve

anything. Philopolis demonstrated that high-calibre philosophy can successfully be presented to the public as relevant and practical, and furthermore, in step with science. “Philosophy attempts to express and understand not only what it means to be human, but also what it means to do the things humans do,” said U1 student Emma Ryman, who gave a presentation on “Plato’s Underworld.” “For any human activity, there is a philosophy behind it,” she explained. Many of the presentations included art, music, film, or computers. “Lecture and Demo: Chaotic Music and Fractal Art: A Glimpse into the Neurophysicality of Aesthetics,” for example, featured all of the above. There were also live demonstrations. “The Improvisation of Philosophy” included an improvised perfor-

mance, and McGill’s TNC Theatre presented absurdist philosophy through a production of The Bald Soprano. While this was only Philopolis’s second year, the quality of its organization was on par with longer-running series at McGill. On a practical level, Struck evidently did a superb job of arranging the event; so did the numerous volunteers, mostly McGill students. The schedule was easy to follow and the presentations were punctual. There was even free fruit. Naturally, though, there is room for improvement – attendance was limited, and mostly comprised of philosophy students. Next year, Philopolis will hopefully receive more presentations by non-philosophers, and a less homogenous audience. Judging by its success this year, this is bound to happen.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

New voices in indigenous dance Performance series explores First Nations identities around the globe. Seble Gameda The McGill Daily

Zara Meerza | The McGill Daily

The sky’s the limit A story of dedication and promotion Susannah Feinstein Culture Writer

he story of the founding and ensuing success of Blue Skies Turn Black (BSTB), a Montreal-based concert promotion agency, is inspirational. Originally just two guys posting band-advertising flyers for friends, BSTB has become one of the city’s most prominent promotion companies and is a testament to the benefits of working obsessively. Disappointed by the absence of their favourite, more low-profile bands in Montreal, Concordia students Meyer Billurcu and Brian Neuman founded BSTB in 1999. “We were music guys,” explains Billurcu. “We liked sort of ‘alt-punk’ and ‘post-hardcore punk.’ Bands too hard to be ‘indie,’ but not enough to be punk. The tours of most bands we were interested in either didn’t stop in Montreal or seemed to skip it while they were in the area.” Billurcu and Neuman decided to channel their frustration into a risky, yet ultimately successful project – their own concert promotion company (and a now-defunct record label). The process began at CJLO, Concordia’s radio station, where the two used connections to contact several labels and bands. Although few actually responded to their inquiries, they did receive permission from the independent record label Dischord to screen Instrument, a documentary about popular punk band Fugazi. The pair impressed Dischord, drawing an audience of over 250 people to the screening. With this, Billurcu and Neuman were on their way to

forming their own company. Since its establishment, BSTB has shifted its methods of promotion, largely due to the creation of popular networking web sites. Discussing his “old-school” approaches, Billurcu explains that “We started by postering, flyering, and sending emails. We had a web site that originally had a message board and show listings, but now it just has the listings.” Today, BSTB primarily promotes online, through Facebook and other web pages; however, not all promotion is done in cyberspace. “We still place ads in papers like the Mirror,” Billurcu notes. Just as BSTB’s promotion strategies have changed, so too have the venues at which concerts are held. “Initially there weren’t many venues. We held shows at Barfly, because they had no rental fee, but eventually we began to hold shows at other venues. Today, we have shows at about 10 venues – The National, Tulipe, Metroplis, The Green Room, Metropolis, Eastern Bloc, Friendship Cove, Casa del Popolo, and a few others,” explained Billurcu. Among other things, Montreal is known for its lively music scene, and BSTB has had to compete for performers with many concert promotion agencies. One would expect this competition to create an air of rivalry, but Billurcu describes BSTB’s relationship with other agencies as “good,” due to mutual respect they have for one another. “Sometimes you will have a show that goes well, but when the band returns to Montreal, they will go with another agency, and you’re left thinking ‘Why would they do that?’” Billurcu said. “But I always

remember something a friend told me, which is, basically, that there is always going to be a new band, and in six months, this band will be popular, just as popular as whoever chose someone else.” At the end of our interview, Billurcu provided some advice for those who might be interested in concert promotion. “[Neuman and I] both had 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs, worked a show after that, got home at 3 a.m., and then woke up for our [morning] jobs again,” he said. “You have to really want to do it, not for the money, but because you really want to. There are also many risks involved. The Arcade Fire concert, our co-production with Pop Montreal, brought in 12,000 people. Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, and Wolf Parade were big too. About 2,000 attended each concert. But when we promoted a concert for a widely hyped rapper, Moka Only, about 23 people showed up. A lot of hot shots come along, lose money, and say they will never promote again. There are a lot of risks involved.” Simultaneously dealing with the possibility of money loss, constant competition from other agencies, and workdays that sometimes exceeded 18 hours, BSTB’s effort has been admirable, if not astounding. With an employee count of just eight, they have accomplished extraordinary things. Their achievements exemplify the message of the poster on your grade seven English teacher’s wall – the one with the picture of Spandexclad Lance Armstrong, leaping from a bike, arms triumphantly raised in the air, exclaiming, “Hard work can achieve anything! GO FOR THE GOLD!!!”

ince the first arrival of European colonizers, indigenous art and dance in the Americas have faced constant and often brutal repression. In contemporary society, asserting indigenous artistic heritage can function as both cultural therapy and resistance to the ongoing marginalization of aboriginal people. Last week, four indigenous choreographers of diverse origins, spanning from Bolivia to Mexico to Canada, performed “Vents nouveaux,” a series of contemporary dance pieces that engaged in the project of honouring the creators’ collective aboriginal identities. The performance, hosted by Montréal, arts interculturels (MAI) was put on by Manitowapan Productions, a non-profit group that seeks to give opportunity to emerging aboriginal choreographers and promote contemporary aboriginal dance. As founder and director, Gaétan Gingras, wrote in his artistic statement, “Dedicated to exploring my heritage through personal journeys into native stories, beliefs, and rituals, I strive to create modern expressions of my ancestors’ culture.” Choreographer Lara Kramer, of maternal Ojibwa and Cree ancestry, testified to the disintegration of Aboriginal identity in Canada over the past decades. “I didn’t grow up with a strong sense of indigenous identity,” she said. “There was a big stigma attached to my indigenous identity and I think that completely derived from my mother having grown up in the institution of the residential schools, where it was imposed on her that there was this undertone of being ashamed of being aboriginal.” For “Vents nouveaux,” Kramer put together a piece entitled Fragments to explore the impact of the residential school system on her people, and provide a form of cultural and personal healing through dance. Kramer, along with three other dancers, used brisk, powerful movements to expose the horrors of her mother’s experience. As educational props such as desks and chalkboards filled the

room, an audio recording of the ages and deaths of the children in residential schools transported the audience into a different time, making the recounted atrocities vividly alive and real. “The message I’m trying to send is really passing on knowledge through art and...for me, it’s also a way to give honour to my mother’s experience and the stories that I’ve heard throughout my life,” said Kramer. Another work, Sky Woman and the Three Sisters Tionhéhkhwen, returned to traditional aboriginal folklore for its source material. The creator of the piece, Barbara Diabo of the Mohawk nation, was influenced and propelled by the Mohawk creation story in which Sky Woman (the first person on Earth), fell from the sky and, from the soil of her buried daughter, grew three sisters – corn, beans and squash – who together became the supporters of the land. With soil, plants, and earthy tones, Diabo and three other dancers depicted the story of birth and life from her indigenous heritage. The night was not restricted, however, to Canadian aboriginal stories. Le Bleu de Ciel, a multimedia work, was created by Karina Iraola, a choreographer of Bolivian and Spanish descent. Àngeles… in situ, by Mexican choreographer Talía Leos, combined two musicians, three dancers and a young boy to portray the clashing and intersecting of universes as Mexican identity encountered life in Quebec. As musicians banged drums and chanted to the fluid and powerful movements of the interpreters, semi-nude slides of the dancers swimming underwater flashed across the backdrop. While these four young women hail from different places and deal with various origins, their raw emotions and stories all share the common goal of fusing their indigenous heritage with contemporary dance. These performances encapsulated the goals of Manitowapan Productions. Gingras wrote, “By focusing on finding bridges between spiritual and physical I hope to spark healing processes for some or simply make magic of dance a true experience for others.”

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26Culture

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Little shop of wonders Mile End gallery space defies easy categorization Ian Sandler Culture Writer

ew dare venture outside its confining grasp. With sustenance and classes so close, the tempting allure of campus subdues the lazy student. But something beckons from the stretches of Mile End, a cause for exploration and intrigue. Unknown to the McGill academician, there is indeed an escape from the monotony of living in the bubble. Monastiraki, a Mile End gallery, is a place that tries to seduce the artistic inhibitions of all those willing to explore it. Founded in 1998, the boutique has evolved from a curiosity shop packed with items to a local gallery with no need for a stricter definition. The Monastiraki of today, much like the neighbourhood it inhabits, does not resemble its early self. The hip scene that now pervades the Plateau and Mile End was all but absent 10 years ago. Billy Mavreas, the owner of Monastiraki, joked, “It was only the few, the proud, and the weird who came in here.” With little light and no walking space, the shop was as uninviting as the scene surrounding it. As Mile End experienced revitalizing gentrification, Monastiraki moved closer to what it is today. Cleared of its antique clutter, a gallery emerged, showcasing the work of dozens of local artists. Building upon its foundation as a shop, Monastiraki expanded its inventory to include creations by Mile End’s designers, most of which are for sale. To put a label on Monastiraki would be to limit its creative potential. As Mavreas put it, “I always say I wasn’t

CULTURE BRIEFS So very Brazilian A lot of the time, Grupo Corpo looks just like what you’d expect a Brazilian dance company to look like – swinging hips, saturated colours, energy, some irreverence. The company was, after all, founded to express Brazil’s character; its work has been described as the closest existing intersection of contemporary dance and Brazilian national identity by La Tribune de Genève. Choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras makes dances that bounce from one step to the next. The movement is less expansive than it is tightly wound, which lends his choreography a jittery feeling that still somehow manages to feel smooth. Parabelo, one of two works being presented by Grupo Corpo next weekend at Place des Arts, adheres to this characterization – Pederneiras has called it his “most Brazilian” work. In front of a patchwork backdrop of colourful photographs, red-

Monastiraki prides itself on providing more idiosyncratic, personal experience than most galleries. put on this earth to sell lamps and chairs. I love art, I love people, and I love finding things.” Surely not just a trendy boutique, Monastiraki invites those curious enough to enter and discover the history within. There are no part-time employees, no staff there just to occupy the register. Unlike other Montreal venues, Mavreas noted that “when you come in here you’re faced with what you see. And depending on your level of engagement, it’s about getting that personal touch.” As important as

the art inside are the happenings, the banter, and the laughs that ensue. This personal touch sets Monastiraki apart. Mavreas and his partner Emilie O’Brien form relationships with all who enter, and even with the art they display. Mavreas remarked, “I know everything that’s in here. Where to find it. I could tell you the story behind it.” Although it is for sale, the art holds no real market value. To the owners of Monastiraki, it is comprised of personal meaning, and the store’s

atmosphere reflects that. In spite of the area’s redefinition as an artistic hub, Mavreas claims that Monastiraki’s essence remains undiluted. As more venues and trendy boutiques emerged, Monastiraki became something of a rarity. Mavreas commented, “I want it to be an experience. I don’t want this to be replicable. You’re not gonna turn the corner and find another shop like this.” Minutes from campus, but cities away in the mind of a typical student,

clad women and bare-chested men jump and shake in rhythmic movements reminiscent of Brazilian folk dance. But Breu, the other dance on the bill, is to a certain extent a departure from this formula. Much of the vocabulary is the same – bouncy and rhythmic – but here the dancers are clad in black and white, and the focus is far more philosophical than some of Pederneiras’s other works. Side by side, the two pieces work well. They not only highlight the impressive range of Grupo Corpo’s dancers, but also temper the sunniness a bit, and problematize misleading depictions of Brazilian culture that are so pervasive in North American society.

films as part of their 18th annual German Highlights series. Founded in 1962, the institute aims to nurture understanding of German culture by organizing events across eastern Canada, with a focus on dance, theatre, film, and media arts. The GoetheInstitut also provides Germanlanguage instruction to almost 900 students. This year’s Highlights series will feature six full-length films: Maren Ade’s Everyone Else, Uli Edel’s The Baader Meinhof Complex, Oskar Roehler’s Lulu & Jimi, Academy Award winner Caroline Link’s A Year Ago in Winter, Michael Glawogger’s Kill Daddy Goodnight, and Hannes Stöhr’s Berlin Calling. Two short film screenings are also part of the series. “Coup de cœur V” (May 20-21) includes nine films under 10 minutes, and Germany 09 (May 27-28), features 13 films with the theme “State of the Nation.” —Sheehan Moore

Not your average shoegaze-influenced postrock instrumental group

— Amelia Schonbek Grupo Corpo will be appearing at the Theatre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts (175 Ste. Catherine O.) from April 7 to April 11.

Goethe at the movies From April 8 to June 4, the GoetheInstitut Montreal (418 Sherbrooke E.) will screen contemporary German

Films are in German with English or French subtitles. For more information, and for a schedule of screenings, go to http://bit.ly/germanhighlights.

While post-rock as a genre may carry connotations of somnambulist stretches of guitar drones, native Montreal band Torngat should prove just the opposite at their upcoming show, part of the Musée d’art contemporain’s (MAC) “Les Vendredis Nocturnes” series. In many ways, Torngat mirrors other post-rock instrumentals such as Dirty Three and Saxon Shore. But while those groups’ songs can quickly dissolve into background music, this trio’s material retains a sense of immediacy, and even, at times, a menacing feeling. “La petite Nicole,” from Torngat’s new album of the same name, features an appropriately childlike Wurlitzer motif, amid washes of percussion, creating an almost noxious effect. “Sept” provides more of a rhythmic base, leading to a stately French horn chorus by Pietro Amato, formerly of Arcade Fire and now a member of Bell Orchestre. Other songs borrow more from outside the post-rock spectrum, such as the

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Monastiraki represents a step into culture most are unwilling to take. With an explosion of creativity happening blocks from our doorsteps, Monastiraki tempts us to flee from confinement. Whereas those educated in the arts may find stimulation in the experience of the gallery, “the same thing goes for Joe citizen,” Mavreas remarked. “He might like it, and why not?” Monastiraki is located at 5478 St . Laurent.

near-shoegaze cacophony present in “L’école pénitencier” and the striking Weimer cabaret phrasings in “you could be.” The group’s show at MAC should demonstrate their wisely held middle ground between Arcade Fire’s histrionics, bizarre alpine melodies, and the crux of all post-rock material, waves and waves of guitar. Amato and his bandmates, Mathieu Charbonneau and Julien Poissant, switch instruments in their live shows, exemplifying the band’s versatility. MAC’s “Les Vendredi Nocturnes” series has featured notable acts like tUnE-yArDs and Think About Life, and Besnard Lakes and Plants and Animals are scheduled to perform. But if any group seems suitable to “offer another way to experience the art,” as the museum suggests, it might be Torngat, whose moody and at times whimsical compositions should give the museum’s collection something to contend with. —Joseph Henry Torngat plays at MAC (185 St. Catherine O.) on April 2.

Compendium!

The McGill Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Lies, half-truths, and COBRA COOOOOOOOCK!!

Who wore it better? By Rainbow Phoenix

Community mural retouched

Off-campus Eye

Photo by Kathleen Spencer With a spring in their step, budding artists expand grassroots art project. Milton-Parc residents rejoice.

Well, didn’t you just spring out of Jupiter’s head! Why the fuck are you taking this class if you already know everything? I mean, you must know everything; otherwise you wouldn’t feel the need to make statements, er..., I mean, ask questions wherein you use words that nobody else knows. It’s clearly

not for the sake of inquiry since when the professor responds to you you’ve already turned around and started blathering away to your friends. Clearly, you were just born with this amazing wealth of knowledge because in your mother’s womb instead of developing and multiplying like the rest of us average folk, you were already becoming a Renaissance man. An oh-so-cultured man who plays eight different instruments, speaks five languages, doesn’t believe in scaling because you don’t need it, and therefore the rest of us who didn’t try

The Future.

hard enough shouldn’t get it because that would be unfair, has no need to take notes, and instead can leisurely spend class time doing random shit, and being an ASSet to all of us. I don’t know what kind of psychological issues rooted deep in your childhood compel you to be such a show-off but please, please, PLEASE, leave them outside the lecture hall. Got a complaint? Write fuckthis@ mcgilldaily.com.

Concept: Sam Neylon | Illustration: Sally Lin

“Remember Feist?”