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Volume 101, Issue 40

April 2, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

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Welcome to the last issue of the daily

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his past year, McGill has been alive with activism in a way that seems utterly new – we started school to the sounds of MUNACA pickets, and students quickly picked up on this trend of struggle. However, the battles we’ve fought this year are anything but novel. There’s a history to these fights at McGill – one of wins, losses, and, most strikingly, continual resistance. In this issue, The Daily will try to shed some light on that legacy.

Inside, you’ll find explanations of some of the issues that have regularly been sites of tension at McGill, and profiles of some of the groups that are carrying on the fight to make a better, more just, and more equitable campus.

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News

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

6

Department Chair reacts to strike English students may face “repercussions” Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

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wo weeks ago, in protest of impending tuition hikes, the Department of English Student Association (DESA) became the largest student association in McGill history to declare an unlimited general strike.

The strike only lasted a week, but the subsequent fallout has left the association at odds with Department Chair Allan Hepburn, leaving some students concerned about the effect of the strike on their final grades this term.

Four days before their first strike General Assembly (GA), the DESA executive emailed departmental faculty informing them of the meeting and asking for their “opinions, thoughts, and concerns on the matter.”

President Zoe Erwin-Longstaff said the executive sent the email “not thinking this was going to cause or stir anything. We just truly wanted input.” She added that DESA had enjoyed “wonderful relations” with both Hepburn and the department before this email.

“I was absolutely shocked at how things played out,” said ErwinLongstaff. “I foresaw [Hepburn] not supporting the strike, but I did not foresee the way he has handled this at all.”

Erwin-Longstaff said that within two hours of receiving the DESA email, Hepburn had emailed every faculty member about the GA, leading with a description of the Arts Undergraduate Society’s failed strike vote from earlier that week.

“DESA has no right to strike and no authority to take votes that bind members to strike. Students who want to attend class have the right to do so,” wrote Hepburn in the email.

He added that “any professor who wishes to cancel a class must contact the Chair of the Department, justify the cancellation, and state how and when cancelled classes will be made up.”

DESA VP Academic and Daily staffer Ryan Healey said Hepburn’s email “set the tone from the start, which is really important for how departmental politics work.”

Four days later, the DESA GA voted for an unlimited general strike. At the end of the week, Hepburn emailed Erwin-Longstaff requesting the names of each member of the strike committee. ErwinLongstaff declined the request after consulting with the committee, citing the “fluctuating” nature of strike committee membership.

Hepburn responded within ten minutes, saying, “The department does not condone secret meetings and committees without a chair or

clear membership.”

In an email to The Daily, Hepburn wrote, “Committee memberships in the Department of English are a matter of public knowledge.”

Hepburn obtained the minutes from the two strike committee meetings, although neither ErwinLongstaff nor Healey know how.

According to Healey, Hepburn “penciled in the last names of students that he knew or thought he knew” and emailed the minutes to the departmental faculty. Hepburn mistakenly identified two students – U1 Women’s Studies student Molly Swain and Arts senator Matt Crawford – as being members of the strike committee.

“People have been kicked off of campus for flyering,” said Swain, who is an English Literature minor.

“Connecting my name with strike committees and hard pickets that I’m not a part of could have potentially led to disciplinary action against me.”

Healey spoke to the potential academic repercussions of Hepburn identifying students in the strike committee to professors in the department.

“If a professor doesn’t like the strike and sees their name on the strike committee minutes, it could influence how they grade their papers,” said Healey.

Healey added that there were “a lot of fears” on the part of members

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Picketers disrupt an English class. of the DESA executive in particular.

Erwin-Longstaff said she was personally worried.

DESA held a GA to renew the strike last week. The renewal vote failed, ending the DESA strike, but a motion condemning Hepburn’s actions passed with only a handful of dissenting votes. Hepburn declined to comment on the motion.

Hepburn confirmed that last Tuesday, faculty members in the English department met to discuss their experiences of the strike and how the department might respond to it. “The department seeks transparent, open communication with

DESA and its committees,” he wrote in his email.

Both Erwin-Longstaff and Healey said they had heard from professors that “there will be repercussions” for the DESA strike activity.

“What those repercussions are concretely, we don’t know,” said Erwin-Longstaff.

Both executives said the episode has revealed a lack of clarity over DESA’s role in the department.

“Clearly they don’t think that we have the autonomy or the authority that we insist that we have. That’s been made very clear to us,” said Erwin-Longstaff.

Tuition freeze set as end goal for student strike Student movement seeks to overcome past divisions Erin Hudson

The McGill Daily

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n Friday, the Coalition Large de l’Association pour la solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) publicly stated that it would not look to negotiate with the Quebec government regarding tuition hikes unless Minister of Education Line Beauchamp agreed to discuss tuition freezes.

“Our campaign this year is not to obtain immediately the abolition of tuition fees; our strike today… is really in opposition to the tuition increases so our concrete goal this year is to win the tuition freeze,” said CLASSE spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.

About 191,676 Quebec students in CEGEP and university are currently on strike, as part of the province’s six-week-old general unlimited strike. About 84,000 students are represented by 45 student associations that are members of CLASSE. The strike is against a tuition hike

of $1,625 over the next five years.

CLASSE’s position became public last Friday, the day after the demonstration, La Grande Mascarade, occurred. One of the protest’s themes was the reclamation of the student movement from other student federations.

Mathieu Melançon, a student from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) whose student association is a member of CLASSE, was present at Thursday’s demonstration. He described the student movement as divided. “The movement is divided but not only [a] useless fight, it’s because we have different ways of seeing what should be the [aim of the student movement],” he explained.

“If this struggle was only about $1,625 of a tuition hike it would be a true waste of energy, time and public space,” he added.

CLASSE is the temporary coalition of the Association pour la solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) founded with the goal of “opening the structures of ASSÉ to non-

member student associations so as to construct a large movement and so as to combat the tuition hike,” according to their website.

ASSÉ views education as a fundamental right. The association’s website states that “each member of society [has] the right to free public education, accessible, quality and secular, free from all forms of discrimination.”

The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) is one of two major student federations in the Quebec student movement.

According to its website, its mission is “to represent, by an intermediate of its associations’ members, university students so as to study, promote, protect, and develop their interests as well as their academic, social, cultural and economic rights.” McGill’s Post-Graduate Students’ Society is a member of FEUQ. FEUQ president Martine Desjardins spoke to CLASSE’s statement. “They [CLASSE] are sending the message that we are all united behind the same message right now,” she said.

She referred to all student associations agreeing on a tuition fee freeze as a “great thing.”

At Thursday’s demonstration, a new student federation, the Front or fédération des étudiant(e)s collégial ou universitaire révolté (FECUR), claimed that student federations FEUQ, and its collegial counterpart FECQ, did not represent them.

Later in the demonstration a banner bearing all three student associations’ names was pelted with food.

Nadeau-Dubois spoke about the demonstration organized by FECUR. “I think it’s legitimate for people to express publicly their fear of losing control of their movement ... As an organization we call for solidarity in the student movement with the other student organizations,” he said.

Desjardins spoke to concerns regarding FEUQ’s governance strategies and tactics.

“There’s a lot of people who are angry because in 2005 there was a roundtable, so they’re saying

it’s going to be history repeating itself in this conflict, but everyday I’m trying to say that we can agree on something, and we’re working together,” she said.

In 2005, FEUQ went to the negotiation table without ASSÉ’s temporary coalition – known at the time as the Coalition de l’Association pour une Colidarité Syndicale Étudiante (CASSÉÉ) – because the minister of education had denounced their occupation tactics.

Nadeau-Dubois said he felt many people feared a repeat of 2005, “but I think that for the moment we are on the road of solidarity within the student movement. We hope that it’s going to stay like this.”

“We want to benefit from the mobilization of this strength to talk about free schooling to put the debate on the public face that free school is a choice ... we think it would be possible for Quebec to do this choice, but our strike this year concretely is not to obtain free school,” he added.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

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Motion to censure SSMU VP External narrowly fails Councillors accuse Joël Pedneault of using SSMU money to publish propaganda Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

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motion to censure SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault failed last Thursday during SSMU Legislative Council.

The final vote count – conducted by secret ballot ­– was 11 in favour of censure, and 11 against, with one abstention.

Councillors Raphael Uribe Arango, Isabelle Bi, Haley Dinel, Meredith Driesberg, Joshua Fagen, Justin Fletcher, Hector Hernandez, Julia Kryluk, and Kady Paterson moved the motion. It cited claims of “SSMU money being used for printing and publishing propaganda used to influence the AUS GA results” and “students being granted after-hours access to the SSMU office” as some of the reasons to censure Pedneault.

The motion also referred to the five-day ban from campus imposed on Pedneault by Associate Dean of Arts André Costopoulos.

Pedneault spoke to campus media after the decision was made. He stated that he believed the motion was unwarranted.

“I still think the motion to censure was unwarranted; it was a sad day in the history of SSMU. People went way beyond the pale and moved for something that involved me personally in a very serious way,” said Pedneault.

“I don’t think people raised issues in the right way,” he continued.

Before the motion was moved, several members of the gallery addressed Pedneault during question period.

One of these students was Brendan Steven, a U2 Political Science student involved with the McGill Moderate Political Action Committee (ModPAC).

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Pedneault said he plans to continue supporting the strike.

Steven explained to The Daily that the intention of the motion was “to lay out step by step the abuses that have happened in the [External] portfolio this year.”

“The way he’s gone about his portfolio has been extremely divisive, and I think tonight is a clear indication of where that has gone,” said Steven.

A ModPAC press release stated that “a motion to censure SSMU VP External Joel Pednault [sic] for abuse of office tied 11 – 11. The

result of the vote sends a strong message that the VP External has politicized his office, subsidizing and benefiting Mob Squad activists on the student dime.”

Kady Paterson, Education representative to SSMU and former Daily Production and Design editor, said that the motion arose as result of constituents’ concerns.

“I think we tried to get our voices heard. I don’t think we really got to in a full extent,

[because] we had a difficult gallery,” said Paterson.

“I am pleased with the way the vote went, I guess it’s the best we could have hoped for. We have no hard feelings against [Pedneault] at all, it’s just the actions, not the person,” Paterson added.

SSMU President Maggie Knight spoke against the motion during Council, expressing her disagreement with the way issues were brought forth.

“I’m not sure it is appropriate to wait until this point of the year and then have a personal motion to censure. There should have been a motion saying we want you not to do this,” said Knight.

Pedneault stated he will not cease to support the strike against tuition hikes.

“I’ll continue supporting the strike in all the ways that I can with respect to SSMU mandates,” he said.

Students banned from campus for five days Lack of appeal process a “flaw in the code” Queen Arsem-O’Malley The McGill Daily

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our students were subject to a five-day ban from campus last week for incidents related to the ongoing student strike. The students were banned under article 21(a) of the Student Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Procedure by Associate Dean of Arts André Costopoulos.

The suspensions followed a week of tension on campus surrounding departmental strike votes and picketing, particularly around hard picket lines attempted by the Department of English Students Association (DESA) and graduate students from McGill’s School of Nursing.

Article 21(a) states that when a disciplinary officer has “reasonable grounds to believe that the student’s continued presence in said area is detrimental to good order, or constitutes a threat to the safety of others, immediately to leave and remain away from said area or a part thereof, as the case may be, for a period not exceeding five working days.”

Ethan Feldman, a U4 Arts student, was banned beginning March 21. The other students, including SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault, were banned for incidents that took place last Monday.

Two of the students, who wished to remain unnamed, were informed verbally by Costopoulos of their suspension, and escorted from campus by security agents. Pedneault and Feldman were notified via email.

Costopoulos said that article 21(a) is rarely invoked, and is separate from disciplinary action.

“It’s actually quite rare that I find a situation on campus that justifies excluding a student. It’s really a last resort,” Costopoulos said.

Pedneault said that the incident for which he was banned involved the presence of a Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM) class on McGill’s downtown campus.

Several UQAM students wished to conduct a discussion about the student strike during the class, and contacted Pedneault to serve as a liaison with McGill Security.

According to Pedneault, the class held a peaceful discussion, and ended when pro-strike students and class participants left at about 9:45 a.m. He added that there was

“no confrontational atmosphere,” and while there was one security guard present for part of the class, he “was surprised to get a letter from the University which essentially says that, in relation to events that took place in Adams 348… I was considered a threat to good order.”

In the current form of the Code, there is no appeals process for a 21(a). Costopoulos called this a “flaw in the Code.”

“I would like to see in 21(a) some CSD [Committee on Student Discipline] oversight to shield students against abuse,” he said.

“I can’t speak for any other [disciplinary officer], but, personally, if a student said, ‘Well, I want CSD to review your decision, I want to appeal it to CSD,’ I would look at the Code and I would say, ‘There’s

nothing in there that prevents it,’” Costopoulos explained.

Security personnel also enforce the ban. According to Feldman, Costopoulos told him that Security Service’s mandate includes physically removing suspended students from campus if necessary. A “valid academic reason” must be cleared with Costopoulos for exceptions.

Costopoulos also granted Pedneault limited access to the Shatner building in order to be able to work from his office during the suspension.

Last Tuesday, a letter was sent to Costopoulos and other administrative figures questioning their disciplinary practices by a lawyer representing several students facing disciplinary charges from the University, including some of the students banned from campus.

8 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum sits down with the student press Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

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he McGill Daily (MD): How do you think the many events of this year have affected McGill’s brand?

Heather Munroe-Blum (HMB): Brand is a very commercial term, and I know it’s the term that’s out there. I think of it as our reputation and our reach, so maybe that’s another way of saying brand. Our reputation and reach have never been stronger. We have way more opportunities that are offered to us than we can respond to in terms of partnerships, in terms of the wonderful people who want to come here, both students and professors.

MD: As for students who come on campus, to tour the campus, and see events going on, do you think that has an effect on them?

HMB: I’ve been talking to them, and their parents may be asking more questions than they are, but the students who come are pretty focused on the mission of the University and their own experience. Even last week, it was interesting that would-be students and parents were communicating with me, and I was saying look, you may want to stay away. The day of [March] 22, you know there was a big citywide demonstration planned, and people just said, ‘Well we’ll just readjust our plans, no question about it.’

MD: What is McGill doing to investigate McGillLeaks, and will the findings be made public?

HMB: We’re pursuing it fully,

as has been communicated we have very, very deep forensic auditing going on. We have the police involved. And it is unlikely that the results of much of this will be made public, because it’s a security issue.

It is interesting how we’ve received [comments] from other institutions commending the way that we’ve handled it... I think overall we feel we’re taking every measure we can to protect people’s privacy, and there will be consequences for those who have been involved in this.

Le Délit (LD): Why did McGill threaten the Daily Publications Society when it is legal under Quebec law to use information that is in public space, even if it is illegally obtained?

HMB: Because it’s a breach of the privacy laws to use that information.

LD: But not for journalists to use that information.

HMB: Well, that would be tested in the courts.

Olivier Marcil [Vice Principal (External Relations)]: We have asked, not only The Daily, but everybody that has published those documents that have been stolen from the University, to remove the link from their site.

Everyone has agreed. It’s not a threat to The Daily.

HMB: It’s our responsibility to protect the privacy of people who work with us, and who are part of the community. I would think you would respect that, and I think as part of good journalism you would respect the privacy of people too. It’s your judgement, and it’s

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Le Délit, The Daily, and the McGill Tribune sit down with Munroe-Blum. your choice. It was a very serious breach… Everybody [received a similar letter], anyone who published anything, and as I said, not just media outlets.

MD: It’s been quite hectic in James Admin this year. Is there administrative work that is being moved outside of the building?

HMB: There are about 300 people who work in the James Building, they’ve been working very hard to keep up with the workload. During the strike, some of it was moved out.

During the occupations, there was a total disruption to work, but nonetheless employees work very hard to

keep up with their own responsibilities. [...] It would be crazy to say its not different coming into a place that is now locked, or [requiring] card access. But I think the system that we’ve put in place, I hope we’re smarter today than we were September 1 with respect to how to protect the safety and security of people on our campus, and allow work to go on without having an undue presence of security. If you think of most public buildings, they have something like the reception desk that we’ve put into the James Building, so it’s actually been much smoother, and, I think, easier for

people to get in and out.

MD: Are they permanent measures?

HMB: I don’t know. I think the fall will be a good time to revisit what makes sense, but one of the things we’ve learned – and just looking at what other universities do, and what other public institutions do – is having a reception desk, and a sign in for visitors is a very normal procedure... Those kinds of standard procedures simply were never considered.

For the full version of this interview, go to mcgilldaily.com

Introductory course for African Studies reinstated University budget only supporting AFRI 200 for upcoming year Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

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he introductory course to the African Studies program, AFRI 200, has been officially reinstated for the fall 2012 semester.

The decision was made after a months-long campaign by the African Studies Student Association (ASSA), which included a petition signed by over 1000 students.

ASSA President Noteh Krauss spoke to The Daily about the interest students have shown in restoring the course.

“Students who are curious about learning about the continent have the opportunity to explore those interests,” said Krauss. “I really believe that the program was on its deathbed without AFRI 200.”

Since its General Assembly on November 9, the AUS has been mandated to lobby for the resto-

ration of the African Studies program’s introductory course.

Yusra Khan, AUS VP Academic, explained that the course was not offered this year because of bureaucratic oversight.

“It wasn’t so much that the course was taken away. There were some administrative and structural problems with the way interdisciplinary programs work that led to a delay in the request of a TA. So the professor did not want to teach a course without a TA,” said Khan.

Even though the ASSA enjoyed student support, Kraus expressed that the process for getting the course back was “slow and extremely bureaucratic.”

“It’s like wading through a swamp, and it’s misty and it’s damp and the water is mucky and you don’t know where you’re going.

That’s why we took another way, that is, to go to the individuals and keep going up the ladder, until we could get to someone who made the decisions,” said Kraus.

“We just kept going higher and higher until we reached the level of the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning).”

Khan also commented on the ASSA’s lobbying of Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson.

“On the one hand it is sort of inefficient, because the problem with AFRI 200 was of TA availability, which is something solely determined by the faculty. When it comes down to it, the offering of the course is not under [Mendelson’s] purview,” she said.

“But it is important that smaller programs really emphasize their causes to the faculty and to the University. Because when you do that you’re going to get in everyone’s radar,” she added.

Although both the ASSA and the AUS were involved in the lobbying process, Krauss expressed being “disappointed” with the support of AUS. “I found them to be less helpful than I would’ve expected, espe-

cially after they were mandated to advocate for us… I think that for an organization that represents all Arts students and then was mandated in a general assembly not even during council… I really don’t think they did everything they could.” “[Khan] specifically did bring it up at certain committees and on her academic council they discussed it, but nevertheless I found the support of the AUS not to be that strong,” he added.

According to Associate Dean of Arts (Academic Administration and Oversight) Gillian Lane-Mercier, the course was restored due to the “energy, dismay, and increased interest shown by students.”

“When the budget for both the supplementary teaching allocations was communicated to me, and the TA budget was communicated to me for 2012-2013, I was well aware of the issues and it made me very happy to be able attribute a budget that will enable the two core courses to be taught next year,” said

Lane-Mercier.

The course will be offered to 100 students, with spots reserved for students in the African Studies department. However, it was only reinstated for the upcoming 2012 – 2013 academic year.

“We also discussed with the Associate Dean about what happens the year after this. We don’t want to be continually fighting for it. And the thing is, she told me that basically the way things are we can only take it one year at a time,” said Kraus Lane-Mercier explained to The Daily that the course was only reinstated for a year because the budget allocation is done in a year-by-year basis.

“In any department there are ups and downs, there are cycles…

You can never predict. If there is support from the students, you know if enrolments are high and the energy is maintained, then certainly these are all signs that it’s very positive and it enables us to support the program in the following year,” she said.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Community plans to mobilize and lobby provincial government for funding Madeleine Cummings The McGill Daily

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he Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (NFCM) may be forced to close its doors in as little as three months if it cannot secure the necessary funding.

The NFCM is one of ten Native Friendship Centres in Quebec, and has existed for the past 37 years. There are 120 centres across Canada seeking to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal people living in urban areas.

The Montreal Centre offers its visitors health and social services, legal information, education and training, and employment opportunities.

Friendship Centres in Quebec receive funding through two organizations: the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC), and the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (RCA AQ). The NAFC, in partnership with the RCA AQ, administers funds through the Aboriginal Centre Program (AFCP) to all the Centres in the province.

The funds come from the Federal government’s Department of Canadian Heritage.

On October 12, 2011, the RCAAQ’s Board of Directors suspended the NFCM’s provincial membership. The Board informed

the NFCM of this, by letter, on November 15. As a result, the NFCM’s core funding was officially and indefinitely suspended.

The RCAAQ claims the membership was suspended due to NCFM’s decision not to recognize their Final Special Bilateral Agreement and because of “the limited services being provided” by the Centre. Though the RCAAQ has stated its intentions to continue working with the NFCM to ensure Aboriginal needs are being met in the city, NFCM staff claim that the provincial organization is in fact unwilling to negotiate.

According to staff member Gordon Bird, the Bilateral Agreement was supposed to be a set of financial stipulations between the Centre and the RCAAQ but, instead, outlines the extent to which the RCAAQ can control the Centre’s operation. Bird said that the issue is not that money isn’t available, but that the two groups disagree over the terms by which it is given.

While the Centre considers itself autonomous and intimately familiar with the needs of the community members it serves, the RCAAQ insists it will not provide funding to non-recognized Centres.

“The agreement was intended to bring the Centre back to a safe financial state,” explained Joey Saganash, who works at the NCFM

and coordinates its Street Patrol team. “But the Bilateral Agreement ended in July 2010. And by July 2010, the Centre’s financial, social and cultural mandates were being fulfilled. Everything was going right,” he said.

If the two groups can’t come to an agreement, then the NFCM will have no choice but to close its doors in as little as three months.

The closure would affect many Aboriginal Montrealers who rely on the Centre for services like counseling and internet access.

“There’s no other place in Montreal that offers similar services,” said Saganash. “It serviced my mother when I was a child.”

The Centre also regularly hosts community dinners and cultural events such as drum circles.

“We’re here to give support,” said Bird, who is helping to organize petitions for the reinstatement of funding. He called the Centre a “place of knowledge” where First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures are all welcome and embraced.

“Everyone loves coming here,” said Katie Ross, who has been visiting the Centre since she was 12 years old.

“We have big monthly suppers at the end of the month… people come to play games or have coffee. If it closes, where is everyone going to go? People have help getting jobs upstairs, and if this

place closes, everyone’s going to be kind of lost. I’m really shocked and so is everyone here. I really hope it stays open.”

Ross worried that she might never get the chance to work at the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre (ITYC), a project based in the NFCM’s basement that organizes a variety of activities for Aboriginal youth.

The ITYC announced on Monday that it would be closing on April 1 due to the NCFM’s funding suspension.

However, the RCAAQ has recently announced that it intends to keep the ITYC open.

RCAAQ President Edith Cloutier wrote on the organization’s website, “We are now finalizing scenarios in order to identify an institutional Aboriginal partner that will agree to sponsor the Montreal youth project.

The RCAAQ will involve the InterTribal Youth Centre of Montreal in this decision.”

Yet the threat of closure for the NFCM remains real. On Thursday, the Friendship Centre will host a general assembly from 6 to 9 p.m.

There, staff and community members plan to brainstorm ways to keep the Centre alive. In the meantime, the NFCM is circulating petitions and orchestrating a campaign for people to send letters to both the NAFC and the RCAAQ. “We need to mobilize and take it to the next step,” Bird said.

Calling All Eagle-Eyed Students The Daily is hosting a series of documents about McGill’s investments, obtained by a McGill student through the Access to Information (ATI) Act. The documents will be featured in the news section of our website, mcgilldaily.com/news.

See an interesting company name?

A lede that you want us to follow up on? Look through the documents and let us know.

WHAT’S THE HAPS

Native Friendship Centre faces closure

9

QPIRG’s Annual General Meeting Monday, April 2 at 5 p.m.

Lev Bukhman and Breakout Rooms, Shatner Building The meeting will cover the QPIRG Board and Conflict Resolution and Complaints Committee elections, and present QPIRG’s activities of the past year. Items to be presented include audited financial statements; annual reports from the outgoing Board, Rad Frosh Coordinators, School Schmool’s editorial board, Summer Stipend recipients and QPIRG staff; and a review by all of QPIRG’s working groups on what they’ve accomplished this year. Open to everyone!

Childcare and whisper translation, as well as snacks and light refreshments, will be provided.

Queer Night at Ceilidh Thursday, April 5 at 8 p.m.

Ceilidh, MacDonald Campus In response to the gay bashing that occurred on the MacDonald Campus earlier this year, Queer McGill and Ceilidh are partnering to bring you Queer Night at Ceilidh, the bar on Mac Campus.

Queers and allies of all stripes are welcome, drink specials will be provided, and – best of all – there’s no class the next morning! A free bus will leave the Roddick Gates at 6:45 p.m., and return transportation will also be provided. Come join to stand up against homophobia while having a great time!

First Nations’ Housing Policy Discussion Wednesday April 4 at 2 p.m.

Thomson House McGill’s Aboriginal Sustainability Project’s last event of the year stems from last December’s Attawapiskat Benefit Concert, where a commitment was made to continue the dialogue in First Nations’ Housing policy across Canada.

The event will be joined by the Assembly of First Nations’ Senior Policy Advisor on Housing and Infrastructure, Dewey Smith. He will discuss the current housing policy, and answer questions to investigate why some communities do very well, and others do not, such as in the case of Attawapiskat.

This event is being held in collaboration with the Aboriginal Sustainability Project and the PostGraduate Students’ Society.

On April 10 email

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production & Design web Copy illustrations culture Tune in for a special year in review episode 5 p.m. on CKUT 90.3 FM or listen on our website mcgilldaily.com

2011-2012

THE YEAR IN NEWS

‘ Throughout this year, The Daily’s news team found it increasingly difficult to uphold our standards of accountability, due mainly to the University’s profound disrespect for student journalism.

Despite constant attempts to fairly represent the administration and contact administrators, the University has consistently criticized The Daily for not giving enough space to administrative positions.

Consider the source: interview requests to McGill

’

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

“We’re not going to discuss that.

We’re just not going to discuss that. You can’t reasonably expect that we are going to discuss that. We’re in a situation that’s still developing.”

Director of Media Relations Doug Sweet on McGill’s response to the #6party occupation

are consistently directed to the designated administrative spokesperson of the week, not necessarily the administrator most qualified. We have yet to interview McGill Security Services, as agents will direct us to Associate Director Pierre Barbarie.

Barbarie has not responded to an email, phone call, or inperson inquiry made by The Daily this year. To accuse The Daily of biased reporting while refusing to respond to interview requests, or provid-

“We find the actions and intimidation tactics of McGill University and its legal representatives to be suppressive of our and any organization’s rights to freedom of speech.”

Daily Publications Society’s press release on McGillLeaks

ing an administrative comment as an afterthought, is hypocritical and damaging.

Furthermore, the lack of distinction between student journalists and students demonstrators on the part of the administration is frightening.

Two of our News editors were charged with disciplinary action after reporting on February’s occupation of the James Administration lobby. The editors present were lumped in with student demonstrators, despite

“If I were to reapply this year, I would feel very differently about what it means to be a floor fellow.”

Anonymous floor fellow

“I just wish [the incidents] didn’t occur, but I can’t stop them from occurring.”

David Lewis on incidents of gaybashing at Macdonald campus

differing roles. Journalistic practice allows for a variety of methods, but, ultimately, the story is always on the ground, which means that is where journalists – amateur or professional – need to be.

For the University to question methods of reporting, and cause student journalists to think twice the next time they decide whether or not to report on a story, presents a threat to the freedom of campus media.

Not only do these actions

“On the way back from jail, I found myself walking back across campus and there were students leaving the library ... kids talking about where they were gonna get drunk. It was really strange.

It was really, really strange.”

Ariel Prado on his arrest on November 10

go against the fundamental rights guaranteed to media in Canadian society, they fly in the face of the supposed principles of McGill; namely, fostering an exchange of information, upholding transparency, and offering support to students who work for the betterment of the campus community.

Our coverage creates a public record that assists students in formulating an informed understanding of McGill. Media pressures people and institutions to

act, or at least appear, accountable – this is the service The Daily provides on campus.

McGill should understand that, like us or not, Daily reporters will always be on campus, watching and writing. McGill and The Daily will always be diametrically opposed in purpose; we don’t ask for approval. But we do expect that the publication, and its reporters, be treated with respect and decency.

—2011-12 Daily News editors

‘

“Frankly, I find [the questions] to be put in a convoluted, confusing way”

“I’m done, I have so much less bargaining power”

Mendelson on CKUT and QPIRG fall 2011 referenda questions

Sept. 1 MUNACA declares a strike

Frosh/early Sept.

EUS President Josh Redel on the forced name change of 132 McGill clubs

“This is absolutely ridiculous and I certainly hope that this is not how the administration functions, but it would explain a great deal” MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker on the stall in the review of MUNACA’s new collective agreement

Nov. 3

“I am in CEGEP and I want to go to university next year. I have no idea how I will pay my tuition... If there’s no way to go, well, poverty will not be a choice” Ariane Turmel-Chénaud, a student at the CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal

Dec. 5

SSMU signs MoA; 132 clubs forced to change names

MUNACA ratifies new collective agreement

Nov. 8

Dec. 15

AUS loses $12,000 from the office

AUS holds first GA; votes for one-day strike on November 10

Sept. 12

Nov. 10

McTavish flood

Jan. 15

Students occupy the Principal’s office Riot police break up protest on campus CKUT/QPIRG existence referenda pass

J-Board case launched against results of QPIRG’s 2011 referendum question

Sept. 29

Nov. 11

Jan. 19

first MUNACA injunction AGSEM course lecturers accredited

HMB launches Jutras Investigation Students launch Independent Student Inquiry (ISI)

McGill administration invalidates CKUT and QPIRG’s 2011 existence referenda

Oct. 6

Nov. 14

Feb. 2

Second MUNACA injunction; restricts picketing outside senior administrators’ homes

We Are All McGill rally

Oct. 15

Nov. 24

Occupy Montreal starts

Oct. 17 SUS executive spend $4,320 on iPhones for themselves

Oct. 20 Third MUNACA injunction; restricts picketing outside MUHC

Jutras Report released

Queer student assaulted on Mac campus, exposing larger problem of “gaybashing” on the campus

Feb. 3

TAs ratify new contract

Roshi Chadha, member-at-large on McGill’s Board of Governors (BoG), took a leave of absence as media scrutiny mounts over her and McGill’s role in the Quebec asbestos industry

Nov. 25

Feb. 7

Occupy Montreal evicted

Twenty students occupy Deputy Provost’s office on the sixth floor of James building for five days, about sixty students and staff occupy lobby for 24 hours

Dec. 1

Feb. 9

ISI releases preliminary report

The existence part of CKUT’s fall 2011 referendum question recognized by the administration

“The Daily is not a vehicle for due process” Principal Heather Munroe-Blum after the Jutras report’s release

“Any university that doesn’t know the place it must make for political activism has already lost its way”

Jim Nicell after first occupation of the Board of Governors meeting in November

“My position now goes from worrying about what a radio station should be doing…it’s just once again going to be about trying to keep the station alive and breathing” Tim Beeler, CKUT Board member on losing its referendum to become non-opt-outable

Vicotr Tangermann| The McGill Daily

Feb. 10

Mar. 3

Mod Squad (ModPAC) forms

McGillLeaks launches

Feb. 12

Mar. 8

The McGill administration issued a provisional protocol strictly outlining students’ rights to demonstrate on campus.

MCSS votes to strike for the first time in its history on March 22

Feb. 14

Mar. 9

The SSMU Judicial Board (J-Board) invalidates QPIRG’s fall 2011 referendum question on the grounds that the question “deals with two issues, instead of one as required by the [SSMU] Constitution.”

250 MUNACA members demonstrate on campus regarding stalled review of collective agreement

Feb. 16

Mar. 12

McGill announces a preliminary review of the research of John Corbett McDonald, an emeritus professor in the department regarding past and present connections with the Quebec asbestos industry

DPS states it will not write about the contents of McGillLeaks

Feb. 17

Mar. 13

The review of MUNACA’s collective agreement stalls

AUS General Assembly vote to strike fails: 55 per cent vote against the strike SWSA McGill student association to join the unlimited student strike ever

End of February

Mar. 14

Deputy Provost calls Queer McGill and SSMU for a confidential meeting regarding a demonstration of vaginal fisting

Mar. 1 ISI presents final report

CKUT’s winter referendum question for its fees to become non-optoutable is voted down with 42 per cent of the vote

Mar. 15 AMUSE members vote to ratify its first collective agreement with agreement

Mar. 2

Mar. 22

SUS holds first GA

12,912 McGill students on strike for provincial day of action against tuition hikes

’

THE YEAR IN NEWS

Professor Darin Barney in Senate

“Students are feeling disenfranchised – this is very clear”

OUR GOVERNING BODIES

photos by Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

SSMU

S

McGill name

SMU President Maggie Knight and VP University Affairs Emily Clare were saddled with perhaps the toughest issue of the year, inheriting three years of SSMU negotiations with the administration over the use of the McGill name. Nevertheless, we view the SSMU executives’ surrender of 132 student clubs’ right to use the McGill name as

W

one of their most notable failures.

Although inheriting the years-long issue was far from ideal, the executive had a five month window to promote the issue and mobilize students, and when negotiations reached the eleventh hour they once again underestimated the leverage they possessed in negotiations with a frustratingly intransigent administration.

verall, this year’s executive team was as accessible and available as a campus journalist could ask for.

What we can’t speak to is their availability to the general student body. But one thing the elections season in particular brought to our attention was how the current executive seems to have neglected the common SSMU practice of grooming one or several pos-

sible successors. In past years, SSMU exec candidates have usually included students who have worked extensively with the portfolio or spent months shadowing a current executive. Exec turnover is a perennial challenge for SSMU within McGill governance, and we’re disappointed the current executive seems to have made limiting this unique handicap less of a priority.

Student-run cafe

e are (almost) as happy as VP Finance and Operations Shyam Patel at seeing this postArch Café closure afterthought become a reality. Patel did particularly well in maximizing student interest in the issue, especially given the fact that his port-

folio rarely has such a direct and emotional impact on student life. Since financial viability was cited by the administration to be the problem that sunk the Arch Café, we hope next year’s VP FOPS will implement a reliable business model and see Patel’s vision through.

Events

V

O

Accessibility

P Internal Todd Plummer saw a successful run of the Shatner-centric SSMU events like 4Floors, Gerts Week 101, and Faculty Olympics, as well as the charming addition of stress-relief puppies, however he failed to diversify the portfolio. A creative attempt to connect with Mac Campus, the “Mac Campus Hoedown” in October, ended in criticism of the poster’s appropriateness (it featured a pair of jean shorts-clad, presumably female legs upside down and associated with the word “hoedown”), and a dis-

appointing lack of coordination with buses. Similarly, a Coyote Ugly event at Gerts was subject to equity complaints and altered at the last minute.

A series of summits on student life issues were created as an admirable attempt on SSMU’s part to engage student voices, even if turnout was low. However, both of SSMU’s GAs lost quorum before the end of their agendas, which continues to raise questions about the promotion and communication efforts of this event – and SSMU in general.

Student activism

T

his year has been unprecedented in terms of student activism, both on and off campus (but especially on). Mob Squad, a group fostered by former VP External Myriam Zaidi, began its year by holding protests for MUNACA and steadily promoted tuition rallies and protests throughout the second semester. VP External Joël Pedneault coordinated with the group capably, resulting in some of the largest McGill contingents ever to attend protests beyond the Roddick Gates.

Pedneault’s connections with other Quebec students were obvious, and helpful to many of his portfolio’s objectives, working to improve McGill’s reputation within the provincial student movement. Pedneault’s job is to work towards SSMU’s mandates – including fighting for accessible tuition – and the inherent political nature of his position created some controversy among students.

The mobilization of students prompted both admiration and

criticism, resulting in the creation of the Moderate Political Action Committee and its antistrike mobilization.

Through it all – did we mention two occupations of the James Administration building and riot police on campus? – SSMU Council and its executive has maintained a fine line of neutrality, releasing statements that are careful to neither condemn nor congratulate student action, and often getting caught up in a rhetoric of what constitutes constituent representationality.

The divisive environment was not ameliorated by attempts to unite the student body during postoccupation forums designed to facilitate discussion, and SSMU’s failure to call out the administration’s selective enforcement of disciplinary action against more vocal students showed that not taking an explicitly political position on an issue is a political position in itself.

Roland Nassim

P

PRESIDENT

GSS President Roland Nassim has been a strong leader for the PGSS this year, guiding a productive executive that worked well together. Although he may have rarely gone above and beyond his job description, he has done his duties well, and remained a fairly neutral presence on the PGSS. He has often taken careful steps to keep good relations with the McGill administration – for example, when he adamantly distanced the PGSS from the James Administration occupations, something that has seemed to distance

Mariève Isabel

VP EXTERNAL

M

ariève Isabel has done some incredible work for the PGSS this year. On top of her regular duties (attending meetings, working with governmental representation, communicating with the media, sitting on various committees) she has taken on several other projects.

She made it one of her top priorities to commit to the fight against tuition increases, authoring a motion that passed at the PGSS Annual General Meeting earlier this month committing the Society to a three day strike last week – the longest strike in PGSS history. She has also been actively involved in

Adrian Kaats

A

new research projects on corporate partnerships and ancillary fees, both of which are ongoing and will continue beyond the end of her term. She was also involved in the restructuring of PGSS staff, organizing Financial Awareness Week, and increasing sustainable initiatives within PGSS – including helping with the recent hiring of a Sustainability Coordinator. Isabel has dedicated long hours and hard work to the various projects she has committed to. She has made it a point this year to remain in frequent contact with student media, and has been one of the more accessible student executives.

VP FINANCE

drian Kaats has been meticulous in fulfilling the mandate of his portfolio along with several other intiatives; he worked with Simeone on an upcoming IT project that will feature electronic document management. He has worked extensively on establishing new funds and creating a Society budget that is very accessible to any member. He undertook his own initiatives to correct the nature of finances, eliminating a formerly discretionary fund. Throughout

PGSS

the PGSS from the student movement on campus. However, he has also been vocal in holding the administration accountable this year, including questioning them in Senate when they forewent issuing a public statement regarding McGillLeaks, advocating student involvement for McGill’s expansion into Griffintown, and arguing for livestreamed Senate meetings.

Generally, Nassim has been generous with his time in regards to student media, and has been available and informative throughout the year.

his efforts at Council it is apparent that Kaats has taken concrete efforts to improve the transparency of the Society, and taking initiative to be proactive.

However Kaats is apt to losing his cool in debates at Council, and, though he has taken responsible recourse for his actions (notably apologizing before Council at the beginning of a meeting for an exchange he participated in previously), these outbursts are detrimental to the work of the executive and the PGSS as a whole.

—All text compiled by Daily News editors.

Daniel Simeone

VP INTERNAL

S

imeone is not a novice to PGSS – he acted as President for the Society two years prior to his 2011-12 term as VP Internal. Part of his job involves event planning, which involves a few mainstays such as the Society’s Halloween party. However, Simeone’s most successful event, according to him, was the screening of PhD Comics, a film released only to the graduate student associations. A large portion of Simeone’s year was spent implementing the Post-Graduate Life Fund, a $10 per student fund, that is paid by McGill to departmental associations within PGSS. In order for the fund to be implemented, Simeone worked in tandem with VP Finance Kaats to assist in building structures with McGill’s graduate departmental associations to ensure the respon-

sible dispensation of the fund.

According to Simeone, this meant revitalizing some department associations that had been inactive for a long time. Undertaking the policy, human relations, and communications pertaining to implementing the fund, Simeone was not often a vocal presence on Council (though present physically), however he has been accessible to the media in special circumstances, such as following November 10. He also has an upcoming IT project that he has worked on with Kaats. Simeone has taken many steps in providing resources to students – at a grassroots level of departmental associations – and has put in place structures that, if they stand the test of time, will be an invaluable contribution to the Society’s institutional memory.

Lily Han VP UNIVERSITY AND ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

H

an describes the amount of time that she has put into her position at PGSS as “ridiculous.” As VP UA, one of Han’s major tasks was representing the Society on the University’s governing bodies – notably coordinating PGSS senator caucus. As caucus coordinator, Han has several times been given a mandate from the Society to bring a “critical discussion” to Senate – notably after the January PGSS meeting regarding the Jutras report. Han has proven her leadership abilities with the PGSS caucus, and her own oratory skills, in her addresses to Senate.

She has managed to take potentially nebulous, yet charged, topics to the body and speak to the issues

raised by her constituents. Notably her involvement with McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT) demonstrates a broad understanding of University processes and a shrewd recognition of important, yet-little-spoken-about issues facing academic staff – particularly relevant to grad students who may be looking to become professors. Han has been realistic in her initiatives for the year, and upfront about when she has fallen short of her goals. She also demonstrated a significant knack for keeping up with the demands of students, notably moving to focus on SupervisorStudent Relations, in the generally time lag that comes part-in-parcel with McGill governance.

‘

“That’s a big-ass protest coming our way and we’re kind of in the middle of it” Engineering student, on a tuition demo on campus

“Make no mistake, if they “Why is it that none of can silence MUNACA in us can go into our own the way that they are doing administration building?” here, they will silence the rest Professor Will Roberts on November 11 of us when our time comes” Professor Derek Nystrom in response to McGill’s first injunction against MUNACA

On Campus:

THE YEAR IN DEMONSTRATIONS AND PROTESTS

Photos by Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

January 31

Sept. 1

MUNACA goes on strike

Sept. 8

Oct. 17

Sept. 26

Protestors barred from Senate

Mendelson states to The Daily that teaching off-campus will be tolerated. He retracts the statement later that month as Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi announces teachers could face financial consequences for teaching off campus

Nov. 14

Sept. 29

Oct. 6

First tuition march on campus

Provost Anthony Masi faces off with students outside James Administration.

Vice Principal (Administration & Finance) Michael Di Grappa tells students they’re not allowed to protest on campus

Oct. 14

MUNACA member Joan O’Malley arrested

SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault and Arts student Micha Stettin are brought up on disciplinary charges stemming from a pro-MUNACA campus demonstration.

Pedneault was not present at the demonstration.

Oct. 20

Nov. 10

March and occupation of Principal’s office

300 MUNACA workers set up picket line around the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Glen Campus construction site, resulting in a cancelled workday

Nearly 1,000 students fill James Square for “We Are All McGill” rally

November 11

Sit-in outside James in response to events of November 10

Nov. 25

November 30

Thirty students occupy Board of Governors meeting

Eight MUNACA members interrupt Principal Heather Munroe-Blum’s speech at the Quebec Board of Trade

Dec. 7

Board of Governors meeting cancelled after about thirty students dressed as pirates disrupt the meeting by singing.

Die-in staged during a seminar on cement production

by McGill’s Cosmo lab and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM)

“I got really angry, and posted one of those angry Facebook events which I was expecting ten people to join and embarrassingly have to delete six hours later...and I had 500 people on it in thirty minutes”

“I think it’s time that the government itself asks the police to just respect us, respect our protests, because the tension is going to go higher and higher”

’

“We have our heads held high, a song on our lips and joy in our heart” Greg Adams on the eviction of Occupy Montreal

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, CLASSE spokesperson

Alex McKenzie on creating the Facebook event ‘We Are All McGill.’

Henry Gass | The McGill Daily

Feb 13

Students march across campus in protest of provisional protocol

Feb. 7

Demonstration in support of recognizing CKUT and QPIRG 2011 referenda results Starting Feb 7: Five-day occupation of the sixth floor of James Administration; known as #6party (24 hour occupation of the lobby)

Feb 14

Feb 18

Raging Grannies protest McGill’s ties to the asbestos industry at Roddick Gates

300 students march onto McGill campus to mark the first wave of the Quebec student movement’s general unlimited strike

Feb 24

Last of

week February:

Disciplinary action for students involved with the January 31 BoG occupation begin

CLASSE-organized day of action in downtown Montreal with 47 student associations, representing about 68,400 students, on strike for the day

February 29

March 6

CEGEP student injured (loses eye) in protest outside Strathcona music on Sherbrooke

Floor fellows Danji Buck-Moore and Drew Childerhose dismissed for #6party involvement

March 7

March 13

McGill launches Demo blog, Sherbrooke and McTavish intersection blocked

CSU Votes to strike, first anglophone university in Quebec to join the unlimited general strike

March 15

March 21

About fifty students occupy lobby of Concordia’s administration building

The annual antipolice brutality march: 2,000 demonstrators, 226 arrests

March 22

200,000 students demonstrate against tuition hikes, making it the largest student demonstration in North America.

About 12,912 McGill students are on strike for the day

18 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

New opposition leader sits down with The Daily T

he McGill Daily (MD): One of the important issues in Quebec, and on campus right now, is the student movement concerning tuition hikes. What are your thoughts on this?

Thomas Mulcair (TM): I respect the fact that, first and foremost, education is a provincial jurisdiction, and an important thing in our constitution and our country.

On the other hand, I come from a family of ten children, and I know I would never have been able to get two law degrees from a university like McGill if I didn’t come from a province that has always put a lot of money into post-secondary education – that’s why Quebec tuition fees remain below the national average. At the same time, we have to realize the federal government can and should be playing a more active role, given the importance of post-secondary education, and especially of research. So I think that the federal government can play a role more actively in making sure the money is there.

MD: The issue of student engagement in politics is really important right now. What are your thoughts on this movement?

TM: I am always very impressed by the involvement of youth in terms of civil society, in terms of their own role in activism, in terms of having their own voices heard in the street, as it is now. At the same time, if you look at the statistics of last May’s election, it is disquieting to see that 18 to 25 year olds across

Canada stayed home; about twothirds of them did not bother to vote. So, while I will always encourage people to stay involved in civil society and community groups and environmental groups, and to work in their local community or even worldwide in other movements. We have to realize that the decisions being taken in Victoria and Regina and Quebec City and in Fredericton are affecting your lives, decisions being taken in Ottawa.

Your generation is having the largest ecological, environmental, economic, and social debt in Canada’s history being dropped into your backpacks, and you’re being told

by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives that you can’t do anything about it.

We in the NDP are convinced you can... I think that is an important message to maintain, that you also have to be involved in the political process in one way or another.

MD: There have been claims leveled against you that you want to move the party towards the centre or modify the NDP constitution.

TM: No, I never said either of those things. Some of my adversaries have said that I wanted to move the party towards the centre. What I have said is I want to move the centre toward the party, and that is precisely what I was explained before. Reaching out beyond our traditional base, talking with people who have stopped voting or don’t vote, or people who haven’t voted for us in the past. That would include cultural communities, that

would include First Nations, and, yes, of course I want more people involved in voting for us. So we have to change our way of expressing ourselves… People in the NDP wanted us to adapt, wanted us to listen to local voices, local concerns, local priorities.

MD: Charmaine Borg and Lauren Liu, part of the “McGill Five,” both worked on your campaign in May, but didn’t support you in the leadership race. Why do you think that is?

TM: You know, with seven members of the NDP caucus running, people would go in different directions. I also realize that several of them also did vote for me. Overall I had by far the largest number of members of our caucus supporting me, and I had by far the majority of Quebec members of the NDP caucus supporting me, and I am thrilled with that support. I mean, the fact that some members of the caucus would go with other candidates is frankly a healthy sign, that there are a variety of points of view, and I think that’s just a part of a good leadership race.

MD: Now that the race is over and you have won the leadership, what are some things that you are looking forward to dealing with next?

TM: The biggest thing for me is working with our caucus on sustainable development – a completely new approach to our economy – and making sure that our generation assumes the costs of what is being done now.

We think that the best way for us to be moving forward is to be with sus-

Courtesy of Thomas Mulcair tainable development, making sure that every government decision takes into account the environmental, the economic, and the social.

MD: Where do you see the NDP

in five years time?

TM: In power.

—Compiled by Jordan Venton-Rublee

We’ve got unfinished business...

Online soon: PROBABLY MORE MARCHES...

Keep checking mcgilldaily.com for more!

ASBESTOS REVIEW SENATE MEETING

Stay informed by following @mcgilldailynews

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Thanks to the whole news team!

We

you all!!

AND CONGRATS TO JUAN, LOLA, ANNIE, AND LAURENT,

NEXT YEAR’S NEWS CREW

Our Campus

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

19

CKUT RADIO

T

une into CKUT at 10 p.m. on a Monday and you’ll hear Drastic Plastic, a punk show that will shake your windowpanes. At 11 a.m. on Thursday, there’s Under the Olive Tree, a Canada-wide Palestinian community radio show. And if you turn your dial just right at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, you’ll hear the McGill Daily’s own radio show, Unfit to Print. Broadcasting on the FM dial since 1987, CKUT 90.3 reflects as many communities and styles as they can squeeze into their packed 24-hour a day schedule.

Though the narrow hallways of CKUT remain jammed with programmers and volunteers, this year has been a tough one for the community station. Since 2007, students have been able to opt out of their four-dollar CKUT fee online, resulting in an ever-shrinking budget and increasing difficulties balancing the books and planning for the future.

This past November, a referendum was held in which CKUT asked students if they were in favor of reversing the online opt-out system. The reformed system would reflect the method prior to 2007, which required students to turn up in person at the CKUT offices to opt-out of fees. Although 72.3 per cent of voters were in favor of opt-out system reform, the referendum results were invalidated by the administration, citing a lack of clarity in the question.

CKUT was thrust back into the spotlight again this February, during the #6party occupation of the James Administration building. The occupiers demanded that the administration recognize the results of the November referendum.

This past March, the question of ending the online opt-out system was put forward to students yet again, and this time was voted down. Students are still able to log into their Minerva accounts and withhold their four-dollar fee. Confusion among CKUT’s supporters reigned, largely because those voting “no” to in-person opt-outs remain faceless, with no visible committees campaigning against the station.

The listeners, contributors, and staff of CKUT have reason to be anxious. A rapidly declining budget will continue to hurt the quality of the station’s programming and jeopardize its existence. We’re sure to see CKUT in the headlines again soon. Until then, tune in, and check out what you’ve been missing.

—Kate McGillivray

Victor Tange rmann | On Octob e r 2 5 , CK The McGill UT live b Daily a s ho w d roadcaste iscussing d tuition h MUNAC ikes and A strike the

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

THE MCGILL NAME The McGill name, surrendered

T

his year, SSMU Council voted to settle an imbroglio with the McGill administration that began when many of them were in high school. Council voted to sign SSMU’s new Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with McGill, which included the administration’s stipulation that 132 clubs change their names in order to distance themselves from the McGill logo.

The administration cited liability concerns as its primary motivation for requesting the name changes, as well as possible confusion among potential donors.

“The University has to protect the brand and the logo very vigorously so that it has true meaning, in the same way that Nike would do everything possible to protect its swoosh,” said Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson in September 2010, when it was revealed that TVM (formerly TVMcGill) and the McGill Student Emergency Response Team (M-SERT, formerly the McGill First Aid Service) might

have to change their names.

The issue dates back to the fall of 2006 when, entering its first ever MoA negotiation with McGill, CKUT (formerly CKUT Radio McGill) was asked to drop “McGill” from its name. CKUT had been carrying the McGill name for almost ten years and resisted the change, but relented almost a year later after McGill withheld the radio station’s student fees until the request was honored.

While TVM and M-SERT became the embattled poster children for the issue last year, this year saw an escalation in the number of groups involved, including the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (formerly the McGill Legal Information Clinic), and the McGill Student Outdoors Club (formerly McGill Outdoors Club), founded in 1936.

An October 2010 SSMU General Assembly motion temporarily changed SSMU’s official name to the “Students’ Society of The Educational Institute Roughly Bounded by Peel, Penfield, University, Sherbrooke, and Mac Campus”

(SSTEIRBBPPUSAMC) in opposition to the administration’s position.

“This is a joke, but it is a joke with a very serious punch line,” said former Management Senator Eli Freedman, author of the motion, at the GA. “Using the new title will force an uncomfortable conversation with the administration.”

Faculty associations were also subject to name changes, including the Engineering and Management Undergraduate Societies. The Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) wasn’t made aware they weren’t allowed to use the McGill watermark in their logo until McGill Secretary-General Stephen Strople ordered the tearing down of posters bearing the logo in the McConnell Engineering building last September. While SSMU closed the book on the use of the McGill name by their clubs last semester, EUS is still in discussions with McGill.

—Henry Gass

Jacquline Brandon | The McGill Daily

20 Art Essay

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

IAN MURPHY

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

21

Balaclava Discourse unmasked How critiques of our structure are subject to change Balaclava Discourse Davide Mastracci

balaclavadiscourse@mcgilldaily.com

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newspaper column is more like a film than a photograph. A collection of shots that told a story of transformation, Balaclava Discourse has shared my radicalization with the McGill community. Throughout the course of my column I’ve embraced Marxism, critiqued fellow students and administration for the first time, and actually got involved with politics on campus. The inevitable university phases of most students are kept to themselves and friends.

Mine are open to the microscope of anyone curious enough to look.

With the creation of Balaclava Discourse, I sought to produce a column that would “challenge the structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination within society.” In comparison to the themes of the other two columnists (atheism and black feminism), mine was surprisingly far broader. This sentiment is apparent if you examine the beginning of my column, which included articles on Troy Davis, religion, and capitalism in Cuba. While all of

these articles dealt with authority, hierarchy, or domination in some way, they had little connection to each other.

The lack of connection between articles in my column changed with my awareness of the accessible education movement. In early January, I had little knowledge of how student strikes worked, or of the history behind them in Quebec. As I write this, I’ve come to support the accessible education movement entirely.

While I can’t say I’ve been completely swept up in the tide, I can say that I’ve been able to write about things I’m actually involved in for the first time. With the theme of my column corresponding so heavily to the goals of the accessible education movement, I dedicated the last half of my column to it exclusively. This was not planned, but it didn’t need to be: my column is motivated by the spontaneity of day-to-day life.

One of the most interesting things about being a columnist, though, is seeing how the public reacts to your writing. My opinions this year have gone against the grain of certain “moderate” elements of the McGill community. I am completely content with this, and, in fact, am somewhat pleased. If the majority of McGill students agreed with my views after the

way I described them in “Are McGill Students Really Progressive?”, I’d be quite worried. I realize most people won’t agree with my views, and so – beyond merely trying to convince people – my articles are designed to get people to think. And more importantly, to get people to talk.

Karl Marx has stated that “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.” As a columnist with an alternative voice, writing for a paper with an alternative purpose, it only makes sense, unfortunately, that ideas like mine, or fellow columnist Christiana Collision’s, aren’t widely disseminated in the mainstream media. Students complain that The Daily is too left wing. Yet they fail to remember that upon leaving the university bubble, the very important issues university writers cover will be largely absent from other media sources. This is why I found it extremely important for Balaclava Discourse to not only challenge the structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in society, but also the structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination that determine what is “legitimate and acceptable discourse” in society. The voice of the masked is finally heard.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily Balaclava Discourse is a column written by Davide Mastracci on the structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in society. You can email him at balaclavadiscourse@mcgilldaily.com. You can further access Davide Mastracci’s writing at http://about.me/DavideMastracci.

Why there’s an exceptional referendum An open letter from the QPIRG McGill Board of Directors

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ou may have heard about QPIRG through any one of our twenty working groups, such as Campus Crops, Kanata (McGill’s Indigenous Studies journal), and Greening McGill. Or you may have attended one of our annual event series, such as Rad Frosh, Culture Shock and Social Justice Days.

As you have probably heard by now, QPIRG McGill is posing a question in an upcoming special referendum period, to take place from April 2 to 16. We wanted to write this letter to explain why we are doing this.

Since 2007, when the McGill administration imposed an online opt-out system, QPIRG McGill has been facing increasing financial instability and organizational stress. By 2010, the Board of Directors felt that QPIRG’s situation was so dire that it was no longer possible for us to fulfill our mandate. And so, in November, QPIRG ran a referendum question asking students whether they would continue to support QPIRG through a $3.75 fee that would not have been

opt-outable online, but refundable in person. We, along with CKUT, were met with resounding support; 65.6 per cent of students voted in favour.

Since then, things have not been so rosy. Shortly after the referendum, the McGill administration told us they would not recognize the results. This meant that not only were they refusing to change the online opt-out system, but that they would also not begin negotiations on our Memorandum of Agreement, which we renew every five years, thus jeopardizing all of our funding and our lease. Around the same time, Zach Newburgh and Brendan Steven, both students who have long made it their personal project to target our organization, filed a complaint with the Judicial Board of SSMU. They claimed that our question was unconstitutional, stating that it in fact contained two questions: one about our continued existence, the other about online optouts. Nevertheless, the Judicial Board found that QPIRG’s existence and the online-opt out system were intimately

tied, and thus for the organization constituted one question. They also ruled, however, that this link was not something the average student voter could understand. Our referendum – though not CKUT’s, with a nearly identical question – was invalidated.

In the months since, the University has shifted its argument against the referendum multiple times: first saying that the question was unclear, then simply refusing to alter the optout system under any circumstances regardless of the referendum’s clear success, and finally pointing to the Judicial Board results as a confirmation for their first refusal to recognize the question on the grounds of clarity. They have consistently refused to negotiate in good faith. In doing so, they have continued to demonstrate their blatant disregard and hostility towards the student groups and activities that make McGill a vibrant place.

Now, they are telling us that our only option is to go to referendum before the semester is over.

QPIRG McGill is at a crossroads:

either we run an existence referendum – worded exactly as McGill has sent it to us – or we are kicked out of our space (which we have been working in for twenty years) in June and lose our single largest source of funding: the contributions of McGill undergraduate students. We believe in the legitimacy of the November referendum – we think you’re all pretty smart, and you understood the question perfectly well. We’re angry at the administration’s refusal to recognize the results of student democratic processes, and we’re angry at the way they’ve been treating both QPIRG and CKUT. We’re tired of asking students to campaign and to vote. But the decision came down to this: either we almost completely cease to exist in two months time, or we bite the bullet and run a referendum in order to keep our space and our main source of funding, and figure the rest out later.

To be clear, the question on the ballot this April is a simple existence question, one that keeps QPIRG

opt-outable on Minerva. The facts about the opt-out system remain the same: QPIRG cannot continue to fulfill its mandate under the current online opt-out system. Online opt-outs create a set of circumstances that are unsustainable for this organization and the people who are integral to making it work.

Going forward, one thing is clear: we will have to quite significantly scale back on the work that we do in order to have a healthier dynamic for our Board and staff. We are saddened and angry that we will not be able to carry out all of the projects, fund all the groups, and put on all of the events that students have asked us to do. We will work hard to figure out a strategy for the near and distant future for QPIRG that will work for all of us, internal and external members alike. In the meantime, we’ll see you at the polls.

Signed by the QPIRG McGill Board of Directors.

22 Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

The coolest thing I never did Rad Frosh and QPIRG-McGill Hyde Park

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transferred to McGill after second year, and was not upset about having missed out on Frosh. The university experience was not new to me; I had had my first year experiences at UBC and already knew people in Montreal.

When I received the Frosh week package, however, the Rad Frosh program stuck out at me. Despite my curiosity, I didn’t sign up for it.

I really wish I had, as it has taken me nearly all of the past two years to meet the people and make the contacts that I have today. All of my favorite organizations – Midnight Kitchen, QPIRG, and CKUT – would have been introduced to me in my first week instead of over the subsequent two years. I am especially impressed with the range of events such as Rad Frosh, not to mention Social Justice Days, Culture Shock, and Study in Action, that are hosted by QPIRG. QPIRG also plays a crucial role in funding and supporting community-based research. This provides a constructive alternative to the industry funded research that is the norm in some faculties at McGill. Notably their CURE database, their journal, Convergence, as well as their library, provide

alternative resources apart from mainstream academia.

In retrospect, I am very glad Rad Frosh exists. I think a significant aspect of the Frosh experience does not represent a positive conception of gender relations or sociability. Some students’ first experiences at McGill are not conducive to critically analyzing forms of oppression that exist within their daily lives.

Also, QPIRG has an important role in tying disenfranchised communities to the students and faculty at McGill – communities that wouldn’t otherwise have a space or voice on a university campus.

Recently, I have gotten more involved in community organizations in Montreal. I have started volunteering regularly with a community based restorative justice program as well as attending a community kitchen in Verdun.

We live in a time where community organizations are not protected by either the federal or provincial government. Stephen Harper and Jean Charest’s administrations are cutting support to these groups.

The Native Friendship Center is the latest in the long line of organizations that has seen their financial resources continuing to decrease.

Community groups effectively provide much needed services to marginalized individuals, but they will have to scale back the quality and

quantity of the programs they are able to run.

Thankfully, the organizations we can call our own, like QPIRG, are not all directly under the purview of the Right Honourable Steve, Jean, or any of their axemen. This protection should be celebrated, and we should rally behind these organizations such that we have the knowledge and skills to take up the slack from the civic failure of our short sighted and seemingly misanthropic prime minister.

QPIRG - McGill facilitates incredible work in the Montreal community. The list of working groups covers many of the most important issues our society will have to deal with collectively over the course of the next several decades. It is paramount that we continue to address issues that have been championed by previous generations. The status of women, First Nations people, immigrants, and the environment will not simply be protected by past victories. It requires dynamic and engaged individuals who care about the situation and the people around them to continue their advocacy.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Mark Turcato

Mark Turcato is a U3 Art History Student. He can be reached at mark.turcato@mail. mcgill.ca

Respect student dissent An open letter from faculty members

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n response to the March 26 MRO sent by Jim Nicell, “Message re blocking of classes – Accès aux salles de cours bloqué,” we would like to challenge the McGill University administration’s characterization of events on campus and the responses to them, in particular the summary banning of students from the McGill campus.

There were several incidents on the McGill campus on March 26 in which a number of students who were peacefully expressing their views were singled out and barred from campus for five days under article 21a of the Code of Student Conduct. The MRO states that: “Everyone in our community has the right to express peacefully their views about issues.”

We believe that this selection and

punishment of certain students for exclusion from our campus and community is especially draconian and a completely inappropriate response to their actions.

This further harassment of students by the administration is in addition to other allegations of Code violations that have been made against a now growing number of students.

These actions by the administration are totally unacceptable.

If it is indeed true that, as stated in the MRO, “we owe it to our students to allow them to continue their studies unimpeded and to protect their semester.” At this time in the semester, students need to complete papers and other course assignments and prepare for final exams; the charges they are facing, and the stress these cre-

ate, make meeting their academic commitments quite impossible.

In the MRO, Nicell asks “that members of our community treat each other with respect and conduct themselves in a manner that allows the open sharing of views.”

As professors, we demand that the senior administration of the university ceases interfering with McGill’s commitment, which is also our commitment, to the education of our students. Those who are protesting fee increases and other policies that contribute to making education inaccessible are actually among our finest: their critical analyses and mutual support are what many of us hope our students will get from their time at McGill. They warrant respect for what they are learning and how they are putting their educa-

tion into practice, not retributions for their peaceful assembly and the expression of their views.

We believe that these heavyhanded actions constitute an abuse of the Student Code of Conduct, misusing it to persecute students at will. We wish to file a complaint against the administration for its escalation of responses to peaceful dissent on campus. Moreover, we want to vigorously protest the suggestion that “security services” be called when students are demonstrating, protesting, handing out flyers, or speaking to other students and professors about issues that concern them. These forces only make all of us feel insecure.

We all must work to make our campus a safe environment.

The students banned from cam-

pus have not been treated with either respect or tolerance. To live up to Nicell’s statement in yesterday’s MRO: “A safe campus requires that we all treat each other with respect and tolerance,” the administration must play its part. We are appalled at the poor example that McGill’s senior administration is setting for our campus community.

Signed by the following faculty members: Abby Lippman, Adrienne Hurley, Alison Laywine, Andrée Levesque, Anthony Paré, Ian Gold, Jessica Ruglis, Judy Rebick, Kristen Norget, Malek Abisaab, Mela Sarkar, Michelle Hartman, Sam Noumoff, Steven Jordan, Tom Lamarre, William Clare Roberts

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

23

This (black) woman’s work Tyrone Speaks Christiana Collison

tyronespeaks@mcgilldaily.com

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ast night while scouring the comments on my latest col umn, I found this: “The best recipe to inspire racism is to read the rantings of a militant, belligerent, obnoxious black female author who gleefully lashes out at every possible moment because of her pathological insecurity that perhaps someone, somewhere is discriminating against her” in response to “Is your hair real?”

(Commentary, March 18, Page 7).

Boom and blast! This was probably the most badass comment I’ve ever received. Why? I was totally called a militant, that’s why. I can’t even tell you how flattered I was, because, before this, I had never thought myself to be a militant. But unknown to me at the time, I was in fact exactly that: a black woman feminist, and in essence, a militant.

The life, work, and consciousness of a black woman feminist will always be one of a militant. For the black woman has, under the most strenuous adversities, survived and continues to survive. This is undeniable. Professor Michael Eric Dyson, on a segment of the show Tyra, shares this sentiment when discussing the black woman. On this segment entitled, “Changing Stereotypes of Black Men”, a guest describes black women in similar terms: militant, belligerent, and obnoxious. Dyson then states,

“...if you find a sista with that kind of strength that got to race through slavery, that got to race through Jim Crow, that stood us [black men] up when we couldn’t stand up, you expect that sista to be strong…Don’t be mad when she shows strength now.”

And to this I say, against the never-ending patriarchy and its inseparable oppressive counterpart, white supremacy, the black woman feminist – the militant – still strives to race through. She does not stop; she cannot stop.

But I admit. Sometimes I do wish that it could stop. I wish as though I could stop this life, work, and consciousness. Sometimes I vehemently wish to reject it, reject it all – everything. For sometimes it is tiresome and frustrating and saddening and painful and suffocating. It is so fucking suffocating! This life, work, and consciousness become you.

You embody this. You embody this existence every moment, of every second, of every day. The world becomes a more distrusting and disheartening place filled with what seems like impenetrable structures of racism, sexism, and hatred. And I admit. I know I distrust this world, and, too, its people. I realized and accepted this after my first attempt at sharing this mystique with others during my first year. But it’s safe to say that the black woman feminist, for them – for the world – wasn’t a good look then, and still isn’t a good look now.

And so this struggle, mystique, and existence can, too, become one of loneliness sometimes. The battle

to eradicate the oppressions of this world becomes a battle fought alone.

Then the frustration continues and increases and intensifies, and hurts.

It hurts a lot.

This woman’s work. This (black) woman’s work is something we as the defined, titled, and selfbestowed black women feminists/ militants must never stop. This world needs us. This world that ceases to rid itself of its racisms and sexisms needs us, and needs our work. We must fight by any means necessary to make this world a postracist, post-patriarchal, and postoppressive world. We must stand by our struggle, for, as (the beautiful, so beautiful) Desmond Tutu states, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Indeed, I am black; I am a woman; I am a feminist. And, as a black woman feminist, this too makes me a militant. I am a militant. I am a militant who will not stop and cannot stop this woman’s work – this (black) woman’s work.

And so I wish to share this piece of advice with all my black women feminists – my militants – who feel sad and angry and frustrated and disgusted and tired and suffocated with this life and this work and this consciousness, in this world of constant oppression. I promise, it works.

Find a comforting spot, turn on your computer, and go straight to Youtube and search for Maxwell’s track “This Woman’s Work”. For, he is speaking to you, to us. And as the melodic sounds fill the room say these lines

Jacqueline Brandon with Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

By any means necessary

with him: I know you’ve got a little life in you left, I know you’ve got a lot of strength left.” These lines speak truth. For when all is said and done, we – the black women feminists, militants - may have just a little life in us left. But we will forever have a lot

of strength left.

Tyrone Speaks is a twice monthly column written by Christiana Collison on the subject of black feminism. You can email her at tyronespeaks@mcgilldaily.com.

Illuminating power Why The Daily must support the student movement Joan Moses Comment

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cGill en grève générale illimitée – these words have been floating around on campus this past month. Sometimes, they’ve been a hopeful chant coming from a crowd. At other times, they’ve been a concrete reality – a proclamation of what departments such as Art History, Women’s Studies, and Philosophy, and faculties such as Social Work, have achieved.

The fact of a strike at McGill – only a miniscule part of a province-wide action against the upcoming tuition hikes – is in many ways a hopeful sign: McGill students are engaging in the Quebec student movement in a new way – no student at McGill

had ever been on unlimited general strike before this year.

However, the administration’s reaction to the strike is a sign of an entirely less-hopeful nature.

The strike has brought out some of the administration’s worst tendencies over the past few weeks.

Whether intimidating students and professors on picket lines, sending out MROs that demonize student demonstrators, or even going so far as to ban four students from campus, this administration has abused its power in an unjustifiable way in order to shut down the strike.

This repressive posture is not, unfortunately, a new one for this administration. Since the beginning of this year they have been actively trying to stifle dissent on campus. They tried to silence MUNACA while the union was on

strike by getting an injunction that prevented workers from picketing near campus. They’ve targeted students for political reasons, taking (in some cases unfounded) disciplinary actions against outspoken activists. They’ve also released a protocol that borders on fascist: the administration can now shut down any demonstration that “impedes the conduct of University activities” (when the very purpose of a demonstration is to disrupt), and call the police (euphemistically described as “civil authorities”) on demonstrators whenever they wish.

Through actions such as these, the administration has continually shown that they have and are willing to use their power to coerce the students and workers that make up McGill University.

But, as actions such as the strike

and the occupations that have taken place this year have shown, students are fighting back.

The Daily must recognize this power struggle and the uneven ground on which it is taking place: our Statement of Principles (SOP) states that “we recognize that at present power is unevenly distributed.” At McGill, right now, this uneven distribution is extreme.

While administrators have the ability to punish and harass students, students simply have the power of their voices, actions, and solidarity.

As such, The Daily must stand with student movement struggles. Our SOP mandates us to give voice to those who are marginalized in some way, while still fighting for change and trying to critique the power structures around us. Right now, that is – among others – the students tak-

ing concrete actions against the McGill administration.

There has been much of that action at McGill this year – I can only hope this will continue next year. Presuming it does, it will be the job of this newspaper to look critically at how the administration deals with activists on campus, and the job of this editorial board to stand in solidarity with those who are fighting against an oppressive McGill administration.

Joan Moses is a U3 Political Science and English Literature student and was one of The Daily’s Design and Production editors in 2010-2011, and the Coordinating editor in 2011-2012. The opinions expressed here are her own. She can be reached at joan.e.moses@ gmail.com

24 Features

I HEART ASBESTOS WHY DOES THE TOWN OF ASBESTOS, QUEBEC WANT TO REOPEN A MINE THAT’S BEEN GIVING ITS RESIDENTS CANCER FOR A HUNDRED YEARS?

BY LAURENT BASTIEN CORBEIL

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

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n 1949, the town of Asbestos, Quebec was rocked by one of the fiercest labour disputes in the province’s history. Nearly 2000 workers at the Jeffrey Mine – which produced chrysotile, the most common form of asbestos – went on strike to demand higher wages and better working conditions from the Johns Manville Corporation. At the time, “asbestos dust was as omnipresent in the air as the air itself ” as the journalists John Grey and Stephanie Nolen put it in the Globe and Mail.

From the beginning of the strike, the notoriously corrupt government of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis, the hierarchy of the Catholic church, and the asbestos industry colluded to break the picketing trade union. Violence was widespread – miners blew up a company-owned railroad track with dynamite, and dozens of strikers were severely beaten by police. After four months of bitter conflict, the union caved.

Although the workers lost their fight, they became folk heroes in the process. The newspaper Le Devoir wrote dispatches testifying to the heroism of the union. Journalist Burton LeDoux went so far as to compare the Asbestos mining towns to concentration camps. And Pierre-Elliott Trudeau co-wrote a whole book on the strike. He saw in the strike the birth of modern Quebecois nationalism.

The strike was a “turning point in the entire religious, political, social, and economic history of the Province of Quebec,” he wrote.

Some scholars now think Trudeau was exaggerating. But there’s no question that residents of Asbestos were politically active and aware of the health risks their bosses were subjecting them to. One of the strikers’ main demands was protection from asbestos dust, after all.

Since then, things have changed. Two weeks ago, I drove two hours northeast to Asbestos in a rental car with a group of Daily editors to find out what residents think of the strike today. After a long a day of interviews, I learned something surprising: most residents of Asbestos don’t see their city as a cradle of social change. Eerily, the health risks of asbestos dust – one of the main concerns of the strikers – are often actively downplayed by townspeople. Today, the strike of 1949 is an obscure and distant memory.

The reasons for this amnesia are at once perverse and entirely rational, and speak volumes about the future of the asbestos industry. That future hangs in the balance right now: the Quebec government is offering a company called Balcorp Ltd. a $58 million loan guarantee to help reopen the Jeffrey Mine, if the company can raise $25 million of its own from private investors. The town of Asbestos is rooting for them.

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here were clues before I even arrived in town. At the intersection of Boulevard Coakley and the narrow, winding road that leads to the town, the tourist office had

25

I ASKED A RETIRED MINER WHAT HE THOUGHT ABOUT THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DEATH FIGURES. “THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND; THEY’VE NEVER BEEN HERE,” HE TOLD ME. “AND I DON’T HAVE ANY HEALTH PROBLEMS.” displayed a thirty-foot tall orange truck, with hubcaps you can comfortably crouch in and a transmission that could serve as a jungle gym. Until it was decommissioned, the truck was used to transport asbestos.

Further up the road, we were greeted by a jaunty sign that read, in French, “Welcome to Asbestos: A Mine of Attractions.” (The joke works better in French.) It’s hard to think of a less enticing name for a town than Asbestos.

But here it was, trying to put a good face on it, disarming visitors with a pun.

One of my first stops, naturally, was the Jeffrey Mine. For a long time, it was the world’s largest asbestos mine. It’s almost two kilometers wide, and 350 metres deep.

It could fit the Eiffel Tower, with room to spare. It’s so big that it looks more like an asteroid crater than an actual mine.

Every resident is somehow connected to that hole – it’s been a source of jobs and wealth for the past hundred years. Asbestos was originally used as a flame retardant – the German Kaiser Wilhelm II built an entire cottage out of asbestos to protect himself

from firebomb raids in the run up to the First World War. When North Americans began moving to the suburbs after the Second World War, there was a boom in the demand for the fibre. Everything from oven mitts to shingles to domestic taps used the stuff. In 1973, asbestos production in Canada peaked at 1.7 million tonnes.

But asbestos is highly carcinogenic.

Research into the health risk of asbestos was first conducted in the 1920s, and it soon became known that the mineral was responsible for shortened life spans. In 1977, a study of a textile factory in Montreal that used chrysotile asbestos in its products revealed that the rate of lung cancer among the workers was 9 times higher than in the general population of the region.

While the health effects of asbestos on previous generations of miners are heavily documented, it’s hard to say if today’s generation of miners is at risk. Mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis, the three diseases caused by asbestos exposure, can take up to forty years

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

PHOTOS BY REBECCA KATZMAN AND PETER SHYBA

26 Features CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 to manifest themselves.

And while safety standards have been vastly improved for miners in Quebec, workers in places like India that import the fibre from Quebec often handle it with nothing more than a bandana over their face for protection.

Asbestos kills you by embedding tiny white fibres in your lungs. These fibres can scar your lung tissue, a condition called asbestosis, and give you pulmonary cancer or mesothelioma, cancer of the lining of the lungs. A pamphlet published

by Le Devoir in 1949 describes breathing in asbestos as like having a spider inside your chest, spinning a web around your lungs until you die. Asbestos is responsible for the death of more than 100,000 people each year, according to a 2004 World Health Organization (WHO) study.

Still, before its closure, the Jeffrey Mine and another nearby mine together employed 900 people. In economically anemic Asbestos, that’s a lot. Consequently, locals are wary of industry critics. I ran into a man named Paul-Marie Perot next to the mine shaft. He said he had been a miner for 35 years before he retired. As we looked out on the gloomy hole in the ground that had been his meal ticket for the better part of his life, I asked him what he thought about the WHO death figures. “They don’t under-

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

J

essica Van Horssen probably knows more about the history of Asbestos than anyone else in Quebec. She’s a post-doctoral fellow at McGill, and wrote her thesis on the history of the town. “The people of Asbestos.” she told me in an interview, “were not told about the health risks. The company had doctors who didn’t speak French and didn’t tell the workers why they were getting sick until the 1970s. That’s about a hundred years of history of not knowing what’s happening to your body.”

After the company started to warn workers about the health risks in the 1970s, they refused to wear masks. “They didn’t see Asbestos as being so deadly,” she explained. “They thought they were getting sick because they smoked or because when you’re seventy years old, you get sick.”

And indeed, in my interviews with locals, “smoking” came up on a number of occasions as an explanation for the respiratory illnesses of their relatives At the St. Isaac-Jogues Church, Claude Jutra, a former miner, told me how his cousin worked in the mine and now he suffers from a respiratory illness. The cause? “Smoking,” he said. A similar story, one woman named Pauline said her husband, a miner, died of lung cancer a while ago. But, she said, it was because he “smoked a lot.”

“THEY BUY A LOT OF OUR ASBESTOS IN ASIA,” SAID JEAN POITRAS, A LOCAL. “THEY WOULDN’T BE BUYING IT IF THEY DIDN’T THINK IT WAS SAFE. AND IT CAN’T BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE OTHER PRODUCTS WE USE IN OUR HOME.” stand; they’ve never been here,” he told me.

“And I don’t have any health problems.”

Others I spoke to were equally breezy about the health effects of asbestos. After a religious service at the St. Isaac-Jogues Church, a volunteer named Jean Poitras explained his position. “They buy a lot of our asbestos in Asia,” he said. “They wouldn’t be buying it if they didn’t think it was safe. And it can’t be more dangerous than the other products we use in our home.”

Five minutes walking down 1ère Avenue, the town’s main – and only – commercial street, gives you a sense of why Asbestos wants its mine up and running again. The town looks ragged. Dozens of stores are boarded up. A youth employment service called Carrefour has advertisements everywhere, and a prominent storefront right on 1ère. The street is dotted with restaurants that all seemingly serve cheap, greasy Quebec soul food.

Next to where I had lunch – Resto MaxIme, whose sign was missing the letter “e” in “Resto” – I spoke to Doris Côté, another local. Her father was a miner for 44 years and, according to her, never became sick from working. She called asbestosis and mesothelioma “bullshit.”

I tried talking to a diverse group of people in Asbestos, but the responses I got were mostly uniform and not always polite. The town has been widely criticized, and mocked, in the press – most recently by the Daily Show – so locals are wary of outsiders, especially ones with notepads. At one point, I was told the French-Canadian equivalent of “fuck off” (décalisse) for asking too many indiscreet questions.

It’s easy to mock their constant denial of asbestos’ health risks. On the surface, their stubbornness seems akin to that of creationists and climate-change deniers.

But the reality is much more complex.

To see if any current miners were worried about getting sick from asbestos, I stopped in at Club Aramis, a miner’s bar. As soon as I entered, the miners stared me down for what seemed like an eternity. With my relatively skinny jeans and my notepad, I obviously looked like an outsider. I decided not to stay for a beer. When I did manage to talk to Yvon Moffett, a miner, as he smoked a cigarette outside, he answered my questions tersely and unenthusiastically. I honestly felt that any mention of “lung cancer” or “mesothelioma” would have earned me a black eye, so I didn’t press him on the issue.

The residents I spoke to were resolute in their support for the mine. They agreed that the city wouldn’t survive without it, but they were convinced that it would re-open soon. In the presbytery of the St. Isaac-Jogues Church, I asked Poitras if he had any intention of leaving town if the mine were to close indefinitely. “No,” he said. “We were born here, and we’re going to die here.”

Before we drove home, my editors and I decided to look for the local cemetery. We found it a few miles from the town center.

The road leading up to it was flanked by muddy fields and badly maintained bungalows. As we drove, we were followed by the sound of barking dogs.

A gate told us the cemetery was called Notre-Dame de Toutes-Joies. A dense fog hovered overhead as I walked through the rows of elaborately engraved headstones.

The average life expectancy of the people buried there seemed alarmingly low – rarely was there an age above seventy.

Just 100 meters or so across a weedy field loomed an abandoned factory, its chutes and silos rusty with neglect. It was the asbestos processing plant.

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The AGM of the Daily Publications Society (DPS), publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, will take place on

Wednesday, April 4th in Leacock 26 at 6pm

Members of the DPS are cordially invited.

The presence of candidates to the Board of Directors is mandatory.

For more information, please contact chair@dailypublications.org

28 Our campus

MUNACA MUNACA strikes back

W

hen a union representing 1,700 non-academic workers at McGill voted to strike, the University experienced its largest organized labour action in recent memory. The strike lasted for just over three months, and in that time, the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) was served three injunctions by the University, halted work at one major construction site, and saw one of its members arrested.

After arduous negotiations, a collective agreement was ratified by MUNACA members on December 5, 2011, but stumbling blocks continue to plague labour relations between the union and McGill. In late February, the review of wording and interpretation of one article stalled agreement again. Three weeks later, when the University had not supplied the union with information regarding the article’s interpretation, MUNACA members gathered once again to demonstrate on campus.

This is not the first time relations between the union and McGill have broken down.

In November 2010, MUNACA member Ron Zahorak, a technician who sustained a permanent injury while working at McGill, was fired due to his subsequent limited lifting abilities.

Zahorak claimed that he could still do 80 per cent of his job – and that the remaining 20 per cent “I could probably do – just not repetitively, all day, every day. But [McGill] said it had to be 100 per cent, every day.” McGill failed to reassign the former Security and Telecommunication technician, and after seven months of reduced duty, consisting of small “chores” such as answering phones, the sin-

Scenes from th

Photos by Victor Tangermann | Th e McGill Daily

gle father was put on suicide watch at Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire, Quebec.

McGill fired him.

A month later, MUNACA presented a 300-signature petition to the University, demanding that Zahorak be placed in a job – he never was.

Associate Vice-Principal of Human Resources Lynne Gervais told The Daily that “jobs that are given here are based on qualifications. If he didn’t get accepted, that’s because he didn’t have the qualifications.”

e MUNACA st

—Erin Hudson

rike

CORPORATE RESEARCH PGSS looks into McGill’s relations with the private sector Concerns raised over corporate funded research

J

ust over 14 per cent of research funding at McGill is supplied by corporations. Where exactly this all comes from and where exactly it all goes is unclear. Frustrated by the lack of information – and nervous about what it might mean for students, and the future of the University – PGSS VP External Mariève Isabel set out this year to answer these questions.

This past June, PGSS voted to hire a researcher to look into McGill’s dealings with corporations. A researcher was hired in August, but did not finish the project, so a second researcher was hired in January. “It’s been delayed, but I am still hoping it’s going to be finished before I leave [office],” said Isabel, whose term ends in May. PGSS also collaborated this year with the third annual Science and Policy Exchange at McGill, a conference that aims to be a “forum for stakeholders to discuss the future of the knowledge economy in Quebec.” This year’s conference included a panel titled

“Who should fund research?”

Isabel explained that PGSS’ current policies on research reflect her view that corporate partnered research is not inherently harmful, given that especially in medicine and engineering there is a demand for it. The policy states that graduate students should “understand the ethical and moral guidelines that apply to their research, and to make every effort to conduct it in a moral, ethical and legal way.”

For many PGSS students, this was a compromise from taking an unequivocal stance against corporate partnered research.

Isabel hopes that the research into McGill’s corporate partnership will offer insight to refresh PGSS’s policy, if needed, and perhaps make the hazy language more specific. McGill’s ethics policy is getting less specific: in 2009, sections that required transparent reporting on all military research were removed – to “take the onus off of us to

review our own research proposals,” Heather Munroe-Blum explained to the Daily in 2009. The new Chief Scientist of Quebec elected this past July, directed his first public communication to the Chamber of Commerce – leading many, including Isabel, to raise the concern that his first commitment is with science that can make money.

Further than potentially squashing creativity – and practical innovation that might not be profitable – corporate science can have very visible negative impacts on society.

Isabel brings up the asbestos debacle, which McGill – after coming under heavy media fire for allowing a corporate sponsored study in the 1960s and 1970s that downplayed the substance’s negative health impacts – is looking into.

“If the allegations are true, it’s an example of what we do not want,” said Isabel.

—Shannon Palus

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

29

MADELEINE PARENT Lying through your teeth How the McGill administration has used the life and legacy of Madeleine Parent

T

oo often, women are written out of history. What’s worse, however, is when they are exploited, and written back in when it’s convenient. Such is the case of Madeleine Parent: feminist, labour union activist, and general McGill rabble-rouser. Parent, whose long life was spent fighting for those marginalized by society, passed away on March 12, 2012. She was 93 years old.

Parent was born in 1918 near Parc Lafontaine to an upper-crust Francophone family.

However, she recognized the hypocrisy of her class, and was appalled by the treatment of servant girls at the Villa Maria convent where she was once a border. At an early age, Parent managed to perceive the social injustice around her, and it was those perceptions that lead to a long career in advocacy and labor organization.

During her time at McGill – a rare choice of university for a French Canadian woman – Parent was an ardent feminist, often advocating for financially disadvantaged students.

As a student at McGill, she fought for greater access to higher education, and increased loans and bursaries. “In university,” she once said, “I was the most comfortable among the underprivileged and the socially conscious.” During those formative years, she became aware that men were “a predominant force and of predominant significance” on campus and that women “took second place.” According to Parent, the most effective way of fighting these inequalities was for women to earn a better living through higher education.

After graduation, Parent shifted her focus to labour activism and rights during a pertinent time in Montreal’s industrial history. In 1946, around 6,000 textile workers from Montreal Cottons Ltd. walked out of their jobs. Unbearable working conditions and an intransigent management had pushed the workers to go on strike, and Parent was among the crowd. A few years earlier, she had organized the workers into their first union, the United Textile Workers. However, the company refused to recognize the union, and the strike was declared illegal as a result.

The company owners were determined to break the strike, but when police moved in, the workers fought back. They showered the factory and the police with slabs of stones from the pavement. “Every strike teaches the workers how to fight,” Parent once said. “Nothing is ever wasted.”

This wasn’t the last strike Parent would organize. A few weeks later, she was in Valleyfield, demanding higher wages with the workers there. The year after that, she was with the textile workers of Lachute, where clashes with scabs and the police occurred on an almost daily basis. Parent was arrested three times in a single week.

Maurice Duplessis, the Premier of Quebec at the time, labeled her a communist and ordered an arrest warrant against her for “sedition.” She was sentenced to two years in prison in 1948, but the charges were later dismissed. In spite of this, the threat of prison never deterred her from pursuing her struggle in Ontario, where she organized several local unions.

In addition to the scare tactics of Duplessis’s governement, Parent faced derogatory gendered language for her feminist advocacy, as well as false accusations during the Cold War. However, in the face of such hatred, Parent ventured forward, working, as always, for workers and the poor.

Parent’s life paints a striking portrait of Quebec’s political history, a history that often repeats itself. Her story seems particularly relevant to the 2011-2012 school year here at McGill. The bitter dispute between McGill administration and the University’s non-academic workers’ union, MUNACA, and the current student movement opposing Premier Jean Charest’s proposed tuition hikes, are certainly causes Parent would have stood behind. These are also social injustices that the McGill administration has refused to recognize or resolve.

The McGill administration’s negotiations with MUNACA and support for the proposed tuition hikes make their comments on Parent’s passing all the more troubling.

“We would like to honor the remarkable determination demonstrated by Madeleine Parent. From early adulthood, she fought tirelessly against the inequalities she saw around her,” said Principal Heather Munroe Blum on the McGill website.

Munroe-Blum continued, “From her advocacy on behalf of financially disadvantaged students to her relentless defense of the rights of Quebec workers, she served as a role model for social engagement and as a source of inspiration for all of us.”

The irony of Munroe-Blum’s statements is stinging.

She praises Parent’s “relentless defense of the rights of Quebec workers,” and “advocacy on behalf of financially disadvantaged students.” If only Munroe-Blum practiced what she preached, particularly in regard to the MUNACA strike and student activism on campus. In the past month, two floor fellows were dismissed for engagement with campus

activism, four students have been suspended from campus for five days, and over thirty students are facing disciplinary charges for involvement with #6party, including members of student media who were covering the occupation.

History teaches us that the struggle for social justice will often be opposed by those in power. If the McGill administration wishes to honour Parent’s legacy, then it needs to stop criticizing every form of student activism on campus. Madeleine Parent deserves more than feigned admiration from Munroe-Blum. She deserves a place in McGill’s historical consciousness – along with other former students who dared to stand up for their convictions.

—Christina Colizza and Laurent Bastien Corbeil

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

30

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone Why depression is more common among women Mind Over Matter Roxana Parsa

mindovermatter@mcgilldaily.com

I

t should come as no surprise that depression is the most common mental illness and leading cause of disability in the world. But it does not effect everyone equally. Consistent findings show that depression is a highly gendered problem; the prevalence of depression is 1.5 to 3 times greater in women than in men. Explanations as to why this discrepancy exists are often problematic, but new attitudes toward mental health show promise.

The most common explanation is predicated upon the biomedical model that currently dominates our understanding of psychiatric – and physiological – illness. These theories explain that the different hormones and neurochemicals distributed between the sexes make women more vulnerable to depression.

It is hard to deny the fact that depression itself has a chemical and biological basis. A better understanding of the way deficiencies or excesses of certain neurochemicals can affect behaviour has led to a widespread understanding of mental illness as something that people cannot control on their own.

Nevertheless, it is important to remember that bodies are constantly affected by the social environment with which they interact. Repeated findings have shown that sociodemographic attributes – such as race, class, and gender – all play a strong role in shaping both our physical and mental health. A 2003 Statistics Canada study stated that living in poverty affects a person’s health more than smoking or lack of exercise. Being a person of colour, a woman, non-binary, an immigrant… Basically, anything other than a white heterosexual man of good socioeconomic standing, can negatively affect mental health.

It is thus important to examine exactly why being a woman increases the likelihood of becoming depressed. There needs to be a shift in the way women’s depression is viewed. Rather than relying on a supposed inherent predisposal to mental illness, depression in women needs to be understood as an interaction between the biological roots and the social structures in which women experience their lives.

Jane Ussher, a psychology professor at the University of Western Sydney, argues that there is greater emphasis on women living up to an idea of femininity, which emphasizes the role of a woman in taking care of others. In an attempt to fulfill

these expectations, she believes that women may ignore their individual needs, leading to depression. Others have argued that the feeling of a lack of control is greater in the lives of women, as they are less likely to have high-position jobs, salaries, or other benefits that are often received through the privileges of being a man.

Jill Chonody, professor of social work at the University of South Australia, argues that the differences of power in society greatly affect women’s experiences. These differences can be internalized, creating feelings of self-esteem or autonomy.

Feelings of helplessness, lack of control, and low self-esteem are often seen as predictors of depression. If these feelings are being created simply by occupying the role of womanhood, it would make sense that depression rates are higher.

In looking at a mental illness such as depression, it is necessary to discuss the structural and social conditions in which they exist in order to be able to gain a fuller understanding. This necessity applies to both women and men; examining ideas of masculinity and femininity can help us be aware of different manifestations of depression. While the biomedical model remains highly significant, it is important not to forget how we can also be affected by society’s structures.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Bon apetit and bon voyage This chocolate banana loaf leaves a sweet aftertaste Marlee’s vegan kitchen

and bon appetite, friends.

Marlee Rubel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

A

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 big or 3 small bananas) 3/4 cups sugar 1 egg’s worth of egg replacement (I suggest Ener-G!) 1/4 cup vegetable oil or olive oil 1/2 bag chocolate chips

cG ill D Th eM

Directions: 1. Grease and flour loaf pan.

2. Stir flour, salt, baking soda, and chocolate chips in large bowl 3. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and oil, stir together in separate bowl 4. Pour banana mixture into dry ingredients and fold until completely moist 5. Bake for 50 to 55 mins, or until toothpick comes out clean!

Ho ud aC he rgu i|

little while back, I was elated to sample a chocolate chip banana bread recipe from my dear friend’s grandmother. I was excited to try it out for myself, and a little while back finally decided to throw the simple ingredients together.

I anxiously waited the 50 to 55 minutes to see if I could produce a similar sort of magic – and was happy with the results.

I’ve been saving this recipe for this last (tear) column of the year as a sort of parting gift to The Daily and its readers … because, well, it’s just that good. I reckon it would make a delicious summer treat to welcome the sun, and an even better apartment-warming gift. Spring’s-a-coming, and this yummy banana bread will get your baking back in gear. Bon voyage

ail y

marleesvegankitchen@mcgilldaily.com

Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

31

The changing spectrum of Autism The DSM-5 and its plan to redefine mental illness Amina Batyreva

The McGill Daily

I

n May 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) will release the fifth iteration of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5), redefining the way psychiatrists diagnose their patients. The proposed changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism and its related disorders have drawn ire.

Autism is a neurological condition characterized by developmental disabilities in social interaction and communication, along with repetitive and obsessive behaviours. People with the disorder range from high-functioning individuals to those who are more severely affected; it is often diagnosed with conditions including intellectual impairment, learning disabilities, and ADHD. Autistic individuals often need treatment to increase quality of life and mitigate problematic behaviours: this includes costly one-on-one sessions in behavioural therapy, physiotherapy, counseling, special nutrition, and medication. More importantly, however, is that in many cases a formal diagnosis of autism is necessary for an individual to get access to affordable care.

In the DSM-5, Asperger’s and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) will be subsumed under the general category of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Patient’s illnesses will be classified according to severity, rather than as individual and definite, disorders. While the criteria will be more specific and less prone to false positive diagnoses, some in the mental health community see the new criteria as alarmingly narrow. These critics worry that future generations of autistic patients – especially those who are higher-functioning individuals – might be overlooked in the new method of diagnosis.

It’s possible that the tighter criteria are a response to the reality that autism rates have skyrocketed in past years. In 2000, the prevalence rate was one in 150 North American children, while today it is estimated that one in 110 children are affected, according to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). In Canada, an estimated 190,000 Canadians have been diagnosed with autism.

In a 2011 article published in Psychology Today, Allen Frances – the chairman of DSM-IV Task Force – cited the introduction of looser clinical diagnostic criteria

as a possible factor in this increase in autism diagnoses. Specifically, the publication of the fourth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) in 1994 brought with it a new and expanded definition for autism spectrum disorder (ASD); until then, autism had been one of the most narrowly defined disorders in the DSM, reserved only for those who manifested the severest symptoms. The DSM-IV included the new diagnosis of Asperger’s Disorder, which was “surprisingly popular,” according to Frances. To explain this increased popularity, Frances describes the widespread media attention given to Asperger’s, and the decreased social stigma attached to the disorder. Also important were the “expanded school and therapeutic services whose reimbursement often required an autism diagnosis.”

The more stringent criteria in the DSM-5 are seen by some as an attempt to limit what is seen as a tendency towards over-diagnosing autism, and consequently stem a growing drain on resources and funding. David J. Kupfer, the chairman of the DSM-5 Task Force revising the diagnostic criteria, described it as a “cost issue” in an article in the New York Times. Catherine Lord, another member of the Task Force and director of the Institute for Brain Development at New York Presbyterian Hospital, was quoted in a Scientific American article on the issue as saying that “if the DSM-IV criteria are taken too literally, anybody in the world could qualify for Asperger’s or PDD-NOS” and that the new DSM-5 criteria are meant to improve specificity and reduce the amount of kids who are misdiagnosed.

After the draft that proposed the diagnostic criteria for ASD was released, however, two studies were conducted which warn that the new criteria will exclude many currently diagnosed autistic individuals, especially on the higher functioning end. The Clinic of Child Psychiatry at the University of Oulu in Finland released a study last June titled “Autism spectrum disorders according to DSM-IV-TR and comparison with DSM-5 draft criteria.” The study’s conclusions were that, “DSM-5 draft criteria were shown to be less sensitive in regard to identification of subjects with ASDs, particularly those with Asperger’s syndrome and some high-functioning subjects with autism.” Dr. Fred Volkmar of Yale’s Child Study Centre, along with colleagues Brian Reichow

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

and James McPartland, released a study using data from a 1993 survey of 372 high-functioning children and adults to see how they would fare under the DSM-5 criteria. Only 45 per cent would qualify as having ASD; 75 per cent of people with Asperger’s and 85 per cent of those with PDD-NOS would not be diagnosed under the new classifications.

A field study of the new DSM-5 criteria titled “Validation of proposed DSM-5 criteria for autism spectrum disorder” released by the Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health and the Center for Autism concluded that while increased specificity would

reduce the number of false positive diagnoses, “phase II testing of DSM-5 should consider a relaxed algorithm, without which as many as 12 per cent of ASDaffected individuals, particularly females, will be missed.” The worries of possible autistic individuals being denied the diagnosis and subsequent support and resources they need is worrying, especially considering that certain groups are already underdiagnosed – such as racial minorities, women, and people of lower socioeconomic status.

Bryan King of the Neurodevelopmental Disorders workgroup at the APA asserted that

there are some upsides to the consolidation of the categories that fall under the ASD, since certain treatments, only approved by the FDA for one autism-related disorder, aren’t approved or indicated for another. The definition of autism in the DSM-5 has great potential for improving the specificity of diagnosis and helping individuals get the specially tailored treatment options they need for their particular symptoms.

The criteria for the DSM-5 are due to be consolidated by December, giving hope that the APA will find a way to provide diagnostic tools which will benefit all those who suffer from mental illnesses.

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

32

Rugby behind veils Salam Rugby sheds light on female athletes in Iran

Amina Batyrvena | The McGill Daily

Yassi Zar*

The McGill Daily

W

hen people think of Middle East, sports are not one of the first things that cross their minds, and, most definitely, not women’s sports. With all the negative politics surrounding people’s conception of the region, it is hard to keep in mind that people living in countries like Iran enjoy sports as much as anyone else. For women in the region, their involvement in sports, as athletes and spectators, is even more complicated.

The strict dress code – which includes covering their hair and body fully, and has received a lot of media attention in recent years – is the least of their problems.

The newly acclaimed documentary Salam Rugby – directed by Iranian born Faramarz Beheshti – tries to capture the essence of introducing rugby to women in the male-oriented Iranian society. The film takes the viewer on the journey inside the lives and hardships of Iranian female athletes who play the sport. It gives a glimpse of the injustice facing women in Iran through the limitations of their athletic lives and the consequences for those who fight against these restrictions.

The refreshing theme throughout the whole film is the athletes’ enthusiasm for rugby despite all the restrictions. The film pays tribute to the universality of sports. Scenes like women chitchatting on bus rides to practice or tackling each

other on the field show that no matter your nationality or religious views, everyone plays by the same rules in sports.

In an interview with The Daily, Beheshti explained that since he is not a rugby player himself, he tried to feature the locker room talk more than the game itself. The film focuses on four female rugby teams in different cities, emphasizing the conditions under which they play and their lack of access to properly trained coaches and practice areas.

One of the story lines follows the journey of Shiraz (a city in Iran)’s team over the 100 kilometer trip they take to access an outdoor field twice a year. Most teams have to settle for indoor gymnasiums due to government’s sensitivity to the public appearance of female athletes, even

when they wear uniforms that fully cover their bodies. Another narrative covers one male coach’s trouble with the authorities for training the female team and his struggle to get official support for the players.

“I was not trying to make a political statement…[but] to show the lives of people involved in the game” said Beheshti. Yet, in a country like Iran, where the border between Islam and politics is faint, it is not surprising that any issue surrounding women would be politicized.

The film suggests that the current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has led a regime that has been extraordinarily unfavorable for women’s sports. But this might not be entirely accurate. It is important to bear in mind that the limitations began in 1979 with the

beginning of the Iranian Islamic revolution and the enforcement of Shari’a law. Beheshti also ignores the struggles faced by women who play other sports in the country – focusing solely on rugby and leaving one with questions about the struggles faced by other female athletes.

As for his future projects, Beheshti mentioned that he is working on a new documentary called Tajik Rugby Quest, which captures the process of introducing women’s rugby into Tajikistan, a country with a less conservative government than Iran, but one that is still repressive. One of his objectives is to show the effect a women’s team could have on the nation’s general rugby ambitions. *Pseudonym

“THANKS GUYS, YOU GOT A LOT OF... A LOT OF... WELL, WHATEVER IT IS, YOU GOT A LOT OF IT.” –MICHAEL JORDAN, SPACE JAM

Thanks to all our contributors this year, and bring whatever it is back next year!

Love, McGill Daily Sports

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

33

Playing out The absence of professional queer athletes and the fight for acceptance

A Fan’s Notes Evan Dent

afansnotes@mcgilldaily.com

T

he locker room has never been seen as a very accepting place. In fact, the whole jock, machismo culture that exists around sports as a whole is often seen as an insular community that resists societal change.

Sure, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s colour barrier in 1947, becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball (MLB) well before the burgeoning days of the Civil Rights Movement.

Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall were among the first black professional football players in 1920, which is a pretty amazing feat if you think about it. Still, Robinson and the others were subject to racial threats and abuse throughout their careers ,from players and fans alike, and many teams stayed all white for many years after.

Racial minorities were slowly phased into every sport and every team when owners realized they couldn’t pass up the profits their talent provided. As Robinson’s manager, Leo Durocher, once said, “I do not care if the guy is yellow or black… I’m the manager of this team, and I say he plays.

What’s more, I say he can make us all rich.”

And so, with some resistance, the racial barrier was eventually broken down on all teams, and racial minorities gained acceptance in every sport (although, there are still many issues involving race in most sports today).

There is one barrier, though, that has yet to be crossed, and that is the fact that there are no openly queer athletes in any of the major North American professional leagues. What’s more, there never has been. There have been players who have come out after they’ve retired, such as the NBA’s John Amaechi; the NFL’s Esera Tuaolo, Roy Simmons and Dave Kopay; and the MLB’s Glenn Burke and Billy Bean. But there has never been an active player who is openly queer to the public and teammates alike.

Perhaps the most indicative narrative of the struggle for gay athletes is Glenn Burke’s story.

Burke was a highly touted outfielder who joined the MLB in 1976. He was openly queer to his teammates, and the management of his team knew that he was queer. Almost immediately upon his arrival, he was met with opposition for this aspect of his identity. His manager tried to get him to

Amina Batyrvena | The McGill Daily

marry a woman before his rookie year, offering a contract bonus.

Burke refused and continued to be out to his teammates and management. Within two years, he was traded to another team, and he was out of the league a year later.

He claimed, “prejudice drove [him] out of baseball.”

What comes next then? Has the sports community evolved enough for an active player to come out as queer? There are many roadblocks in place. There would be the constant slurs coming from the opposing fans, or even the hometown fans, if the athlete’s performance suffered. It would become a huge media story and garner a level of attention with which many would find it difficult to cope.

And maybe most troubling would be the reaction of fellow players or coaches.

After Amaechi came out, another former NBA player, Tim Hardaway, said that he “wouldn’t want him on my team… If [Amaechi] was on my team I

would really distance myself from him because I don’t think that’s right, and I don’t think he should be in the locker room when we’re in the locker room.” Hardaway later apologized for the sentiment, but his visceral reaction is one that many athletes have and one that many queer athletes probably fear. Your teammates are supposed to be the ones who look after you, protect you, support you – no matter what. If a player was to come out, they have to wonder: will their teammates still be there?

It is certainly a good sign for queer athletes that the NHL has partnered with the You Can Play organization to promote LGBT rights. The organization was started in part by Patrick Burke, whose father is the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Burke’s brother, Brendan, was a hockey player at Miami University in Ohio. In 2009, he came out to his teammates, and this announcement was leaked

to the media. The hockey world at large supported Burke and his sexuality, and he became an queer advocate, looking to make the sports culture less homophobic and more accepting. Sadly, he died in a car crash in 2010. Patrick Burke came up with the program to honor Brendan’s legacy.

The basic idea of the You Can Play program is right in its name.

Their motto is, “If you can play, you can play.” Any athlete playing the game should be respected regardless of their sexual orientation. The program calls for queer athletes and straight allies to create a culture of acceptance within sports, using the game as a binding force rather than a restrictive one. They want to use the universality of sports to create bonds between people that go beyond sexual preference. Players are to be judged on their athletic “skills, work ethic, and competitive spirit” above all else, according to the You Can Play website. While there is still a long way to go, this devel-

opment of this organization is clearly a positive step.

Players on all thirty teams of the NHL have joined the project, filming public service announcements for the group in which they pledge their support for queerathletes. The NHL is the first sport to join the effort, with the hope that the other major sports will join the program soon.

So, when can we expect our first openly queer athlete? It’s impossible to put a timeline on something so monumental, but we can hope that programs like You Can Play and the continued advocacy by queer rights groups will hasten the process.

There’s a whole generation of players rising through the high school and college ranks in a culture that is growing more and more accepting of the rights of queer people. Sooner or later, something has to give. It certainly will be a huge victory for queer athletes if they can break down the resistant and super masculine culture of the locker room.

34 Our campus

SACOMSS SACOMSS: “We’re here to listen”

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he Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) is a volunteer-run organization that supports survivors of sexual assault and their allies within the McGill community. The organization describes itself as a “pro-survivor, pro-feminist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, anti-classist, queer-positive, trans-positive and anti-oppressive organization.”

Founded in 1991, SACOMSS aims to empower survivors of sexual assault and to raise awareness of sexual assault in the McGill and Montreal community. To achieve this goal, SACOMSS offers services from crisis intervention and support groups to advocacy and outreach programs.

As part of its crisis intervention program, SACOMSS runs a confidential, non-judgmental sexual assault helpline, in addition to a walk-in service.

According to their website, “We’re here to listen.”

SACOMSS also provides support groups for the healing and empowerment of survivors, facilitated by trained volunteers. Support services are available not only for survivors, but also for their partners, family, and friends.

In addition to these services, SACOMSS’ A-Branch performs a number of important advocacy activities on campus, from advocating on behalf of community members to helping students, staff,

and faculty navigate McGill’s Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Prohibited

by Law. In an effort to debunk common myths and foster dialogue on sexual assault issues, SACOMSS coordinates workshops, projects and events across campus. Among these is Rez Project, in which SACOMSS has partnered with Queer McGill, the Union for Gender Empowerment, and the McGill Residences to facilitate discussions with first-year students in residence on sexual assault sensitivity, gender awareness, and queer/trans-positivity.

This year, SACOMSS took on a unique advocacy role in the case of the assault of a queer student at Macdonald campus in February. The group provided important phone and in-person support services for concerned students, and lobbied strongly to get Rez Project into Mac residences.

For students who are interested in getting involved, SACOMSS holds interviews and trainings every fall and occasional winters. For more details, visit www.sacomss.org. Contact information is available online.

—Annie Shiel

Ami na B at yre v

a|T he M

cGill

Daily

AMUSE

McGill’s first student-based labour union is born AMUSE ratifies its first collective agreement with McGill Labour Standards Act for employees who felt that their employers had mistreated them.

Second, according to Maclean, the union has tried to ”raise awareness and consciousness [among its student members] on of the role labour unions have on campus.” As a mostly student-based labour union, AMUSE seeks to educate students about the presence of labour unions and struggles at McGill.

As Maclean said, “there is still a role that labour unions can play for every employee, no matter where you are.”

—Joan Moses

Jacqueline Brandon | The McGill Daily

T

his year, the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE) ratified their first collective agreement with McGill University. The union represents approximately 1,500 nonacademic, casual or temporary workers, many of whom are students at McGill.

This agreement marks the latest step in a process of unionization that began in the fall of 2008. According to AMUSE President Jamie Maclean, it was at this time that casual workers on campus started to notice that they were being treated unfairly by their employers.

“One of the problems that we can see with casual workers at McGill is that often they’re taken for granted,” she explained.

“There’s an attitude of ‘you’re a student here, you’re not really strictly an employee, and you’re lucky to have a campus job.’”

That fall, workers began the original drive to unionize casual workers at McGill. While they originally intended to unionize only students, the drive to form a union soon grew to encompass non-student workers as well.

In the fall of 2009, the drive was followed by a referendum held by the Quebec Labour Board on whether or not to unionize. In a show of overwhelming support for unionization, 85 per cent of casual workers voted to form a union. AMUSE received its accreditation in 2010, and held its first General Meeting and elected its first executive that spring.

Since then, AMUSE has played a dual role on campus. First, they’ve represented the casual workers at McGill – both students and non-students – by negotiating the collective agreement with the University and filing grievances under the Quebec

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

QUEER MCGILL Queer McGill celebrates forty years

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s SSMU’s oldest student-run service, Queer McGill (QM) is celebrating forty years of providing social, political, and service resources that have benefitted the visibility and lives of queer individuals in McGill and in Montreal. The non-hierarchical Executive Committee, made of 12 individuals with diversified project portfolios, works together to bring together marginalized groups on campus and further the presence of queer peoples on campus.

Among the group’s regular events are Guerilla Gay Bar – the semi-annual amateur Drag & Burlesque show held during Pride Week – and the Queer Retreat held in Shawbridge, Quebec. This year, QM has introduced a number of new events.

In January, they held a discussion with Thought Catalog editor Ryan O’Connell in collaboration with Leacock’s Online Magazine, followed by a fisting workshop featuring a live fisting demonstration by Andrea Zanin in February.

QM also has a history of political activism. In recent years, the group has protested Canadian Blood Services for openly discriminatory donor policies, raised awareness regarding the youth suicide wave of 2010 (most notably the Tyler Clementi case at Rutgers University), and advocated transgender issues within the Canadian healthcare system.

In addition to social and political events, QM used to run two services, QueerLine and Allies, that extended their presence beyond the reach of the University. QueerLine was a queer hotline that provided support to all ages and demographics, from CEGEP students to senior citizens. Allies worked in high schools to address basic discrimination, body politics and transphobia. Both have since been discontinued due to lack of organization, but QM hopes to jumpstart these services in Fall 2012.

—Vidal Wu

Jacqueline Brandon | The McGill Daily

GRASPÉ & MOB SQUAD of Day three

the #6part

y occupati

on

McGill Daily rmann | The Victor Tange

Tracing McGill’s history of radicalism

O

n January 14, 2008, the Grass Roots Association for Student Power (GRASPé) wrote on their blog: “last week, GRASPé kicked off the new semester with an occupation of the James Administration building.”

Some would say that the student demonstrations on campus this year were symptomatic of a new, more radical, McGill. Not so. McGill has a radical history. Since 1968, there have been student groups that have opposed decisions made by the McGill administration, attempted to maintain student services on campus, and fought for accessible or free education. In the early 2000s, it was GRASPé; now it is, among others, a group of students that organize under the name Mob Squad.

The students comprising Mob Squad have, this year, demonstrated in solidarity with MUNACA, rallied in support of QPIRG and CKUT, and participated in #6party actions

and negotiations. Plus, they’ve been fighting tuition increases for years now: in December 2010, a McGill contingent went to Quebec City to participate in an antituition hike protest and, among other actions, in March of 2011, they organized the event “FlashMOB – Dancing Against Tuition Increases.” This year, they have demonstrated both on and off campus in opposition to tuition hikes, including as part of the 200,000 person strong march on March 22.

Mob Squad’s actions are reminiscent of the work of GRASPé. At its peak, GRASPé worked to demilitarize McGill by protesting military recruitment on campus, keep the Arch Café running under student control, and protest tuition hikes, believing that the government should bear the cost of education. Like current student organizers, they occupied the James building, organized boycotts of McGill food services, and called for students to strike.

In many ways, the events on McGill’s campus this year have been a reminder of GRASPé’s actions. In the same GRASPé blog post that proclaimed the occupation of the James building was the following statement, more prophetic than the writers could have anticipated: “the McGill students’ occupation of the James Administration building is the beginning of a province-wide semester of resistance as students everywhere stand up against the tuition hikes and in defense of an affordable, accessible education for all.” Four years later, the students in Mob Squad continue the resistance.

—Anqi Zhang

35

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

36

Jane Zhang

Science+Technology Writer

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owadays, if you have something to say – perhaps a dissenting opinion – you can put it on the internet. In the past few weeks, blogs have disseminated details of departmental strikes, Facebook groups have hosted arguments about red squares versus white squares, and protest memes have grown exponentially.

But as accessible as the internet is, it’s not the only way to get word out: instead of using readily available social media platforms, Midnight Kitchen decided to publish a zine on tuition hike protests. It is a consciously low tech publication – essentially a bunch of images and text put together by hand with scissors and glue, and then photocopied.

What are zines anyway?

Zines are small circulation publications of original or appropriated texts and images; more broadly, they’re any self-published work of minority interest. The word “zine” originated as a shortened version of “magazine” and was used widely in

the 1970s – but zines were created long before mass media. They’ve been around since the printing press was invented, when dissidents and marginalized individuals and groups would publish their opinions in pamphlet form. Zines allow people to freely express their ideas without the constraints of conventional media – much the way that blogs do now.

McGill Women’s Studies student, Daily staff member, and zine enthusiast Hannah Besseau explains that “zines range from instruction manuals to perzines (personal zines) to fan zines, et cetera. They are DIY by nature, and distributed in a sort of gift economy.”

There is little formal market for zines. They are typically exclusive to zine-making circles, are often traded amongst fellow enthusiasts, and usually not for profit. “By nature of being DIY and personal, zines represent a sub-culture [and alternative to] the capitalist economy,” said Hannah.

So, why zines?

Besseau believes zines carry immense value in “challenging mainstream discourses often found in sources like Cosmo or even the Economist. There are power structures embedded in [mass] media.

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

Zines: lo-tech publications in a hi-tech era

Zines counteract that.” Zines give light to alternative streams of thought.

However, that’s not to say zines can’t be popular. Widely-read feminist publications, such as Bitch Magazine and GRRL, began as zines. As they gained readership and popularity, they eventually became established as regular publications.

However, gaining this popularity meant sacrificing certain freedoms of expression, as turning a profit

of zines, and their necessary personal methods of distribution, brings people closer in a way that the internet, although effective at disseminating information, does not necessarily do.

calls for targeting wide readerships.

Zines are often compared to blogs in their free-form nature, but differ in their physical and impermanent form. (Ironically, zines are less permanent than blogs, which are easily archived.) Besseau explains that “the benefit of [zines] being physical is that they allow a stronger real-life culture” – and arguably strengthen personal, tangible attachments amongst friends and social groups. The physical nature

Check out local zine collections at McGill’s Union for Gender Empowerment, the QPIRG library, Concordia’s Greenhouse, or Cagibi café (Montreal’s unofficial zine library).

way do not actually track the content of the data. In order to enforce the bill, the telecom companies (who own the vast majority of the routers, cables and towers that bring the internet to you) would have to engage in enormous hardware and software retrofits. This would effectively bring the free flow of data – and the speed of your internet activity – to a crawl.

The response from the internet was swift and hilarious, with the twitter hashtag #TellVicEverything, where individuals told the minister’s twitter account the banal details of their lives in typically funny fashion.

The online hacktivist community known as Anonymous also took note.

Anonymous has made many powerful enemies in the past with their bottom-up disruption to the physical infrastructure made possible by the very same internet technologies.

Anonymous specializes in shutting down the online presence of their ideological opponents using a piece of software known as the “Low Orbit Ion Cannon”. This

software takes control of sympathetic individual’s’ computers in a so-called ‘bot-net’ to send many thousands of requests per second towards the relevant servers. The sheer volume of these incoming data packet requests causes the servers to overload and shut down.

Victims of this type of attack by Anonymous have included the FBI, MPAA, Visa and Mastercard, with the latter even resulting in arrests after an international investigation into the Anonymous hacker group.

As our lives and the global economies become inevitably more intertwined due to the seemingly limitless power of the internet, we should also reflect that the traditional power struggles that have defined human history will inevitably follow us into our new global playground. The nature of the internet is robust – but not invulnerable. Those willing to bend it to their own ends will do so. Whether or not they do it for power or “for the lulz” depends on the nature of our society, which is now inextricably a global one.

Could the internet be shut off?

Prose Encounters of the Nerd Kind Andrew Komar

proseencountersofthenerdkind@mcgilldaily.com

T

his past February, occupiers in the James administration used Twitter to brand themselves as #6party, and to communicate with their supporters. They advertised a livestream feed, from which they broadcast the first hours of their time in Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson’s office.

They dispatched press releases on a blog. On the first day of the occupation, after denying them food from supporters, and before shutting off the water in the washrooms, the administration took away their wireless connection.

It is almost a banal point to say that the internet is an essential tool to social organization today – from organizing protests, to house parties, to vote mobs – it’s become irreplaceable. But the radical new powers that have been granted

to the average netizen have proven a speed bump to institutions that are based on a more traditional model.: In the context of authoritarian forces seeking to continue their control, or grandiose activists, such as Anonymous wishing to overturn the status quo, the internet – or control thereof – can serve as an irresistible tool to meet their goals.

The role of social media is often cited as a key factor in the success of a variety of large-scale revolutions.

But for all its power and utility, the internet is still vulnerable due to the nature of its infrastructure.

Last year, in response to the millions of people mobilized in Tahrir square, the Egyptian government decided to shut off the internet.

Ordinarily, the internet functions by allowing individuals to send and receive data from storage locations known as servers from anywhere in the world. The pathway of individual data bits (controlled by a router) can vary from bit to bit, but each one will pass through routers along the way.

What the Egyptian government prob-

ably did was shut off critical routers that tell the rest of the internet where the Egyptian IPs could be found, effectively sending every Egyptian netizen into an internet free limbo. In Egypt, only four key routers needed to be shut down to stop the internet – the infrastructure was particularly vulnerable to this power abuse. Canada has hundreds or thousands of these critical routers, in contrast. In the case of McGill campus internet, which is provided through routers and ethernet cables, the infrastructure is controlled entirely by the McGill administration.

Controlling the internet runs deeper than just shutting off routers: Bill C-30, introduced by Vic Toews of “Vikileaks” fame, would give the Canadian government new powers to track individuals’ internet activities in real time. According to Minister Toews, if you disagree, you obviously support child predators. Unfortunately for the proponents of the bill, the current architecture of the internet does not allow for this type of tracking, since the routers that pass data along the

There’s more SCIENCE+TECHNOLOGY on the internet! mcgilldaily.com/categories/scitech

Science+Technology

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37

Sci+Tech Essay

Our year in tech Anqi Zhang

The McGill Daily

T

his time last year, the world was focused on the Mid-East – in particular, the movement termed the “Arab Spring.”

It was not just the movement that garnered global attention, but also the method. The thing that distinguished the Arab Spring from previous civilian movements in the Mid-East was that the citizens – the oppressed, the affected, the people who had the most to say as well as the most to gain – were the ones who started the movement, and partially on the internet to boot. It has been speculated that the spread and success of the Arab Spring movement was largely dependent on the boundless reaches of Facebook, Twitter, online blogs, and videos; that the attempts to restrict access to internet led to only more civil unrest; that social media is the new Gutenberg press.

In all of these arguments, there exists the innate assumption that social media exists for the dissemination of existing ideas, rather than the creation of new ones. And while, as evident in the Middle East, technology can bring people together under a common cause, it can also accentuate and exacerbate people’s differences.

Which brings me to a topic much closer to us. This year, we have been immersed in a litany of social movements, student movements, demonstrations, and protests – all on our campus and in our city.

These movements have come in a barrage, beginning with the MUNACA strike that started off the school year, carrying through to the student strikes opposing tuition hikes that occupies headlines today. They have been persistent and omnipresent. The sounds, the sights, the conflicts, and the opinions have been swirling all year, surrounding us regardless of what corner of campus we stand on; they stare back at us from our Facebook news feeds; they’re tweeted to us during SSMU meetings; they’re livestreamed to us during the AUS GA. As a result, we have never been more than a few steps away from campus politics – available on our Facebooks, our inboxes, our smartphones and twitters. Going home does not take us away from politics, rhetoric, or opinions. In fact, it brings us closer to the issues that our cam-

pus has become steeped in.

We have heard about – and likely felt – the divisiveness among the student population at McGill in response to these issues. We have heard the phrase “We are all McGill,” over and over, first from Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, and then from students seeking to establish student unity; whether or not these words have convinced anybody is dubious.

But this statement is not untrue.

We are all McGill, despite a new level of polarization on campus thanks to clashing political agendas. The 2011 2012 school year was not the year in which we all suddenly realized we disagree with one another; rather, it was the year in which we saw the development of factions within our university. And it was even more than that – more than the creation of student groups that believe in different things; this was the year that those student groups were publicly pitted against each other through the wonders of technology.

And how plentiful the technology available to us was. Facebook groups were formed daily, it seemed. Open letters were written instead of term papers. MROs were sent before, during and after any group of thirty or more people holding signs walked near campus. Tweets featured hashtags inevitably including the word strike. Blogs aimed to expose MUNACA, SSMU, and Mob Squad.

All possible forms of social media were used, but they all seemed to converge on Facebook.

Facebook comments became the prominent way to espouse opinions, and statuses became the medium through which we gave our support, mocked our opponents, linked our preferred publications, and advertised our demonstrations. Groups and events with names of ever-increasing word counts began accumulating members and Mobile Uploads became inundated with photos of police cars and masses of students.

But these Facebook goings-on are not always civil – comments in groups such as ModPAC are policed for offensive content, a fact that seems out of place in a group that attempts to foster discussion. But the harsh comments and sharp-toned debates have not been limited to groups; they have shown up beneath events, statuses, and photos.

It has long been said that the internet makes people brave because it renders them anonymous. But it is

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

A critical look at the role of social media in the polarization of campus politics

more than mere anonymity that has permitted this year’s online discourse, if you could call it anything as polite as that. After all, there is nothing anonymous about signing your name, year, and faculty to an open letter to the administration. There is nothing anonymous about posting a comment or a status or a photo when your name is proudly displayed beside it.

The reason, I would posit, that people are braver on the internet, or at least more vocal, is not because it makes them anonymous, but because it makes them less human. When you need to have an uncomfortable conversation with someone, it is easier for you to write them a message, and not have to blush and stumble over your words as you address your missteps in person, and it is easier for the recipient to not have to watch your struggle. On the internet, we are all confident in our own opinions and statements, and we read the opinions and statements of others as words on a page, imagining them delivered

coolly as though they were self-evident fact. Opinions lose their human edge without the jumbling of words, the ums and ahs. Opinions become something like a manifesto when they are worded so eloquently, so strongly, so readily. Opinions become something to oppose.

The event battle between “The James 6th floor occupiers do not represent me” and “The James 6th floor occupiers do not represent me do not represent me” is the perfect example. In person, this is merely a disagreement, a divergence of opinion. In the Facebook world, it becomes a struggle to dominate the entire discourse.

Much of this year’s unrest has dealt with where the power lies in this institution – the power to raise tuition, the power to direct political discourse, the power to influence others’ opinions. Some would say that bringing these discussions into an online forum gives the power to the students. I would

suggest that while the internet is an invaluable tool of dissemination of information, as effective in that sense at McGill as it was in Egypt and Tunisia, it can also take the power away from us, the students, by changing the discourse we want to have and mean to have into a bitter battle for likes and shares.

Bill Wasik states in Wired Magazine’s #Riot feature piece that “our tech can work a strange, dark magic.” But whereas the darkness Wasik is concerned with pertains to the group robbery – termed “flash robs” by some – and the burn-and-loot crowds that cities in both the US and the UK have had to deal with in the past year, I suggest that the darkness lies in the ability of our technology to morph what we have to say, to distort our intentions, and to rob our ideals of their humanity. This is the phenomenon that we must shine a light on; this is the phenomenon that divides our campus.

38 Our Campus

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

THE MCGILL DAILY Over 100 years and still kicking

M

aking its campus debut on October 2, 1911, The McGill Daily was originally a four-page sports rag published four days a week and sold for five cents by McGill University. It has since grown to become one of the largest and most well respected student papers in Canada, known for taking strong stances on issues affecting the McGill student body and Montreal at large. Publishing twice a week, and with a circulation of over 11,000, The Daily has emerged as a reliable source of information as well as a venue for student opinion and debate.

Last October, the publication celebrated its centennial year.

Alumni travelled from all over the world to attend a weekend of celebration and to attest to the impact The Daily has had Our first is sue – all th on their lives. Editors from the e way back in 1911 1940s recalled reporting on the war in Europe; those from the 1960s spoke of the radical political change taking place on campus and worldwide; alumni from the 1980s remembered their own struggles against rising tuition fees.

Now, at the end of year 101, it may seem that The Daily is a firmly established institution at McGill. However, in 2007, the administration introduced existence referenda, which means that every five years the student body votes on whether or not to continue funding certain groups and organizations. QPIRG and CKUT ran their referenda earlier this year.

The Daily is not exempted from this process: having won our first-ever existence referendum in 2007, we will face our second in the 2012-13 academic year.

Not everyone agrees with what appears in The Daily – but this is exactly why it must be preserved. Students must continue to challenge mainstream opinions – as well as their own – and continue their education in critical thinking outside of the classroom.

The Daily is a deeply embedded part of McGill’s history, involved in the movements, the challenges, and the controversy that sweep our campus. We hope it will be just as much a part of its future.

STUDENT FOOD Out of the ashes of the Arch Café: student-run food at McGill

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hroughout the year, sustainability and student-run food initiatives seem to have blended and fed off one another, quite literally. The closing of the Arch Café may have occurred well before some students this year were even enrolled at McGill, but for many its closure is fresh in mind. Students are looking forward, however, and student-run food services are again coming to the forefront of student issues. As food services have become increasingly corporatized, students have noticed and are looking for alternatives.

Earlier this year SSMU executives – led by VP Finance and Operations Shyam Patel – expressed their commitment to the creation of a student run cafe in the Shatner Building.

“It is something students care about, and even the University criticizes us for not having a student-run cafe,” Patel told The Daily in September.

The Daily spoke to Patel again in March, when he said that the incoming VP Finance and Operations would now be responsible for the ongoing project.

“I’ll be moving forward and it’s sort of letting my baby go. But, I think it is going to be in good hands and a lot of students are interested and really care. So I don’t think they’ll let the project go,” he said.

Since the very beginning, environmental concerns have represented an important component of the proposed cafe. To this end, SSMU launched the Sustainability Case Competition as a way to foster the creation of new ideas.

The main objective of the competition was to find sustainable solutions to problems related to the student run cafe.

The design of the winning team, Fireside Café, will be taken into consideration while the SSMU Student Run Café Working Group develops a business plan.

AUS Snax has also promoted sustainable and student-run alternatives food services on campus. The snack and beverage counter has been taking steps to improve sustainability with a priceincentive campaign to encourage reusable mugs. Jennifer Cox, a manager, spoke to The Daily earlier this year about the initiative.

“I think we’re going to continually raise our coffee prices little by little as an incentive. The cost of that cup is something we would like to take out of our expenses all together,” said Cox.

—Jessica Lukawiecki and Erin Hudson

—Christina Colizza and Juan Camilo Velásquez

The Arch C

afé was clo

sed in Sep

te

Daily | The McGill Rober t Smith mber 2010

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Photo Essay

SEA THE CHANGE by victor tangermann

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Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

40

Squarely in the red The history of that felt on your lapel Olivia Messer

The McGill Daily

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f you type “red square” into Wikipedia’s search bar, the disambiguation page will lead you to results like “an English band from the 1970s,” “a Soviet-themed restaurant/bar in Las Vegas,” and “a painting by Kazimir Malevich.”

For Quebec, the little red felt square fastened to so many winter coats, is a symbol of the student movement and the fight against poverty in Quebec. As many explain it now, the safety-pin clad symbol is inspired by the French phrase “carrément dans le rouge” (meaning “squarely in the red”) – it’s a wordplay on students trapped in debt caused by tuition hikes and cuts in bursaries.

The website for the Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté (Collective for a Poverty Free Quebec) states, in French, that October 5, 2004 was the first time a red square was used for this purpose. At a presentation to the Committee on Social Affairs in the National Assembly of Quebec, the Collective opposed Bill 57, regarding social welfare and assistance. It was here that they first used the rhetoric that would become the wordplay we know now.

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

• • •

According to Joël Pedneault, current SSMU VP External, the square was popularized in 2005 when the Quebec student movement used it to protest financial reform. “The 2005 student strike was successful in many ways,” and, as a result, “many started wearing the red square even if they didn’t identify with the left wing of the student movement.” Pedneault points out that – because of this success – “you have people who are more moderate still wearing the red square.”

Myriam Zaidi, former SSMU VP External, was in CEGEP during the 2005 strike. “In 2005, we didn’t go on strike against tuition hikes, we went on strike against a change in the loans and bursaries systems in Quebec.”

Members of the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) and of other independent student unions decided to form the Coalition de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante élargie (CASSÉÉ). This was the organization that would coordinate the upcoming strike campaign.

“In 2005, the red square was a sign of CASSÉÉ, at that time it meant a grassroots strike movement. What you need to understand about [this time] is that…going on strike was portrayed as the [most] radical move.”

“The red square was associated with those wanting to do a radical action. I know that people from FEUQ specifically did not wear the

red square for a few years. Until very recently, they wouldn’t wear the red square because they were in opposition to CASSÉÉ.”

• • •

“It’s interesting how the red square became more widespread.”

Zaidi is adamant that this change is significant. “In 2005, ASSÉ was much more radical, so a lot of the people...They were against neoliberalism and capitalism, et cetera.”

Zaidi and Pedneault both contrasted this radical symbolism with the way the red square is worn now.

Pednault explains that many don the red felt, especially at McGill, because they “just see it as a symbol of the student movement. Not just of a particular part of it, not just as a symbol of free education.”

However, he admits that there are too many students to generalize about all of their reasons for wear-

ing the symbol. “I haven’t spoken to every student on campus wearing the red square,” he admits, laughing. “There are a lot of them.”

Zaidi echoes this point, explaining that “today, you have many more people wearing the red square than [in 2005]. The red square is losing more and more of its significance.

A lot of people see it as a symbol of being just against tuition hikes, but back then I would never have thought it would become the symbol of student protest.”

“I think most students don’t know the history,” Zaidi continues, “I’ve been thinking a lot about the red square this year. We chose a sign, a symbol for [the many] students in the chain. The chain of student debt. It’s a very strong and powerful statement.”

But because of this, she has some qualms about the way the symbol is appropriated by the variety of

students wearing it. According to Zaidi, the symbol traditionally has much stronger ties to the concept of debt than to hope, a fact that was reflected in 2005, when most of the students wearing it were deeply in debt. But things have changed: “I have a lot of student debt, and [it’s hard to see] people wearing the red square [now] who have a really privileged background.”

And this is inevitable with the popularity of the symbol because, as Zaidi explains, “not everyone in the student movement is in the red.”

Because the symbol has been transformed and popularized in the past seven years, many don’t know that it’s so explicitly tied to student debt.

“Maybe if people knew more about it, it might change the amount of people wearing it.” But even Zaidi isn’t sure if she feels that this would be better or worse for the student movement. “I think [the symbol] could have been

something else that really meant that we’re against tuition hikes and that we’re in the student movement.”

And even with the red square’s popularity, there are still so many students ignorant of its meaning or history. There’s no Wikipedia page about the red squares all over campus and throughout Quebec. At McGill, it’s not uncommon to hear inquiries like: Is that a cancer awareness badge? Cool – are you wearing a pro-choice symbol? Whoa, cheap substitute for a poppy? No, nope, none of the above.

With all of the nuance of the meaning, history, and symbolism of the red square, it’s strange to imagine that so many would be uninformed about its origin. Even Pedneault concedes that there are still some who don’t understand the symbol at all. “Someone asked me once whether it was anything to do with communism. I said ‘No.’”

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

41

Growing plants, growing up Christy Frost discusses how one garden fights ageism

Jocelyn Peng | The McGill Daily

T

here may be a growing interest in urban gardening and consuming locally grown foods, but few people under 45 have experienced the process of urban gardening with their hands in the dirt. This spring, Action Communiterre is planning a new inter-generational garden in NotreDame-de-Grâce (NDG) to fight against age-separation and help a younger generation learn to grow their own food.

Action Communiterre is a collective garden initiative that operates primarily in NDG, and serves the surrounding community. They operate ten organic gardens which donate a portion of their produce to the community.

In the past, the group has run inter-generational cooking classes, but this the first of their garden projects to focus specifically on fighting ageism and on bridging the gap between the younger and the older members of the community.

“Through our inter-generational cooking program that runs throughout the winter months, we are already in touch with the part of the population that suffers from age-segregation and food-insecurity. We experienced a strong need for these kind of programs,” said Hanna Gradulewski, social coordinator of Action Communiterre, in an email interview with The Daily.

“The goal is to encourage elderly people to share their gardening knowledge and allow young people to learn from them. At the same time, the younger people will offer their physical strength for the gar-

dening work that the elderly people might not be able to do anymore,” Gradulewski added.

Unlike a community garden, where every member has their own

plot of land and grows food independently, in a collective garden all the members share the same space and share in the harvest. This structure is more inviting to beginning

gardeners who may not feel savvy enough to plan and plant their own personal garden.

Located just outside the beautiful St. Thomas church, there is

nothing uninviting about the garden. Furthermore, someone will be present at each gardening session to give out advice, and help the gardeners work together. “It is the gardening that brings everyone together,” said Gradulewski.

A group of grassroots activists started Action Communiterre in 1997, to try and address the issues of poverty, food security, and the environment in their neighbourhood borough of NDG, through growing organic food and sharing the food with each other and the wider community.

The St. Thomas garden plans to follow in this tradition by donating a portion of the food they produce to the NDG Food bank. “We hope to contribute to food sovereignty by transmitting knowledge about how to grow your own food and empower people in terms of food,” Gradulewski elaborated.

Urban gardens are an important part of re-claiming space in the city and empowering people to work together. With the St. Thomas garden, Action Communiterre hopes to fuse food autonomy with the building of inter-generational community. “The most valuable experience is surely meeting other people that might be from a completely different background.”

Gardening will begin April 28th and continue on into October, for more information on how to get involved, contact Hanna Gradulewski at animation@actioncommuniterre.qc.ca

The Boy

#healeytime

A small windowless house in the woods.

An old man, his glasses propped on the crown of his head painting wooded landscapes entirely from memory.

I like Social Media but I’m like two degrees away from the stepdaughter of Larry Summers so jaunt a Friend and Page :) There I’d say another one bites the dust, but then you’d have ew? soap in buds wait there was this like Eliot line that was kind of inaccessible? HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME o right my sins are point blank to a Ferris Beel but bro look a Basque on the ground be gentleman at sea and yeah come at me

One day I found him there gripping in one hand a bar of soap that looked like dust and a small shoan pipe in the other.

And so I stood staring at a hazy painting of a small boy, standing in a stream, trying to hold on to a wet fish

—Ryan Healey as the man sat against the far wall desperately trying to fill the room with smoke. ­—Tim Beeler

Inkwell

Inkwell

42 Culture

Summer in the city PREVIEWING MONTREAL’S WARM WEATHER FESTIVALS Festival Transameriques

M

ontreal’s Festival Transameriques, the self-proclaimed “only theatre and dance festival” in the city, appears once again this June at Place des Arts, as well as at other venues scattered throughout the city. Every year, the festival offers free outdoor performances by leading artists, both international and Canadian. One of the festival’s main objectives, according to its website, is to “bring art into the daily lives of ordinary citizens and assert the importance of artistic interventions in the public space.”

Not only does the festival offer theatre in the traditional sense, but it features performance art and choreography as well. Transameriques began in 1985, and until 2006 was called the Festival de théâtre des Amériques. It similarly celebrated contemporary theatre, and was held every two years in Montreal. After two successful decades, the festival gave way to its current form: Transameriques, which incorporated a more diverse range of genres in an attempt to “break down boundaries in a cornucopia of theatre, dance, performance pieces, and often unclassifiable art forms.”

For students staying in Montreal, the festival should be an easy, breezy way to spend an afternoon. However, if you wish to attend a show or two, be prepared to empty your wallet: Tickets for the top artists, even for people under 30, range from 35 to 55 dollars, dependent upon the specific artists.

And it seems like a price one shouldn’t bother paying. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Outdoors at Place des Arts is where you need to be.

—Christina Colizza

Elektra

Mutek

I

magine yourself as a viewer at an orchestral performance. Now, imagine that the orchestra you are watching is composed entirely of electronically processed 1940s era sewing machines. This is the kind of provocative, and often mind-bending, experience you can expect from Elektra, a festival dedicated to multi-disciplinary digital art.

Featuring both local and international artists, Elektra’s mission is to foster the most cutting-edge creatives, in the most cutting-edge fields, ranging from audio-video installation to robotics. The emphasis here is on technology, in all of its artistic potential.

Another example of a piece from last year’s festival was an audiovisual installation

by Jean-Pierre Aubé based on a radio message sent by a space probe destined for one of Saturn’s rings. Such pieces may seem unapproachable at first glance. But, given the extreme ubiquity of technology in our day-to-day lives, this may be the most relatable art festival around.

—Fabien Maltais-Bayda

B

s Montreal’s premier festival of African music, Nuits D’Afrique is an unmissable part of the city’s summer live-music landscape. Centered at the seminal Club Balattou on St. Laurent and Marianne, Nuits D’Afrique takes place over the two sweltering weeks of mid-July. The festival always includes some of the most celebrated names in African music, drawing from a wide range of ages and cultures. Last year’s lineup included Manu Dibango, whose Cameroonian anthem “Soul Makossa” kicked off the development of disco in 1972. But the hottest act of the festival was undoubtedly Bombino, a celebrated young Sahelian guitarist with a soulful groove. Emblematic of the festival’s syncretic live acts, Bombino combines traditional Tuareg folk songs with an upbeat take on American blues.

—Kaj Huddart

orn in Montreal in 2000, Mutek is precisely what I imagine a millennial music festival to be. It was originally founded by Alain Mongeau as a companion to Montreal’s International Festival of New Cinema and New Media (currently called the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma).

Now, with its thirteenth installation imminent, Mutek has become an exciting and innovative festival in its own right.

It has featured artists from every part of the techno spectrum, and has included a wide range of collaborations with organizations like the Musée d’arts contemporain, and Picnik Electronik.

This year, organizers are emphasizing the collaborative nature of the festival’s programming, citing a hefty contingent of cooperative efforts. Among these will be the sonic rechristening of the St. James United Church, featuring local sound artist Tim Hecker and “drone doom” guitarist Stephen O’Malley. The most notable of Mutek’s 2012 lineup is Nicholas Jaar, who founded the music label Clown & Sunset in 2009, works with fellow musicians Soul Keita and Nikita Quasim to create minimal electronic soundscapes he refers to as “blue-wave.” It’s this convergence of local and international creativity that makes Mutek an exciting event in the evolution of electronic music.

—Fabien Maltais-Bayda

Festival International Nuits D’Afrique will take place from July 10 to 22. Visit www.festivalnuitsdafrique.com/en/festival/home for more information.

Mutek takes place from May 30 to June 3. Visit www.mutek.org for more

Elektra will take place from May 2 to 6. Visit www.elektrafestival.ca from more information.

Festival International Nuits D’Afrique

A

OSHEAGA

O

sheaga is growing up, and growing up fast. In the summer music scene, it has been the baby – the festival that was high on ambition and quality, low on notoriety. From its start in 2006, the annual three-day music festival held on Île Ste-Hélène has attracted some fairly big names like Metric, Sonic Youth, and Tokyo Police Club. Since then, every year has brought in more names, and bigger names. 2009 saw Coldplay, and this summer’s edition will feature performances by Snoop Dogg, Sigur Rós, City and Colour, MGMT... The list is star-studded, to say the least – but we expect that the highlights of this year will come from both the popular as well as the unknown.

First, the popular. The Shins are coming to Osheaga, riding the wave generated by the release of Port of Morrow, their fourth album. The Black Keys have had a similarly great year, with El Camino ranked

by Rolling Stone and Time to be one of the best albums of 2011, and their first-ever headlining tour – during which tickets were sold out within minutes of going on sale for Madison Square Garden. It bears noting that Snoop has a new album coming soon, too.

The stunner, the wow factor, the shock to the system – for me, is Sigur Rós.

Ethereal, Icelandic, unintelligible – this is not what I have come to expect from a Montreal music festival, but it is a welcome addition.

However, the international presence is not unique to Sigur Rós this year.

Another highlight is Karim Ouellet, born in Senegal and living in Quebec City. He combines pop with reggae, rap, folk, and electronic influences to create a sound that is entirely unique. He stands out as one of few Francophone acts at this year’s festival, and certainly is one to look out for.

Though it is the big names that stop us in our tracks – as was likely the intention – it may well be the lesser known acts that help to keep this festival distinct. The big names will allow Osheaga to level up on the music festival scale – that much is certain. But at what cost? Osheaga may be making a name for itself in the music festival scene, but one might wonder what good an internationally acclaimed music festival in Montreal is if it holds no semblance to Montreal or its music.

—Anqi Zhang

T

he British Invasion is coming on strong at Osheaga this year, with Florence and the Machine, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Franz Ferdinand. Florence’s rise to popularity in Canada is not a new event, and booking her is another move on Osheaga’s part towards big crowd-pleasers rather than emerging indie risks. But cynicism aside, comparisons to Kate Bush are merited, and Florence’s technique of spooky soft beginnings and a choral-backed bass drop is always rousing.

Bombay Bicycle Club’s enthusiastic use of cymbals and Jack Steadman’s wavering vocals, combined with their aspirations to epic anthem status, mark them as thoroughly representative of the UK’s current indie scene. I admit, I have not listened to their latest album Flaws, released last August, because they wore thin on me rather quickly. But again, Bombay Bicycle Club is a solid summer choice and a veteran of the festival circuit.

Franz Ferdinand has been off my radar since “Take Me Out,” and seems a sort of random choice. But if anything is clear in Osheaga’s lineup this year, it’s that bigger is better. There doesn’t seem to be any underlying theme to the festival, francophone content is diminishing (although the few that will be performing are very solid: Les Breastfeeders and Justice? Yes

please!), and even the broader Canadian content is limited to blockbusters like Dan Mangan, Feist, and Metric.

But what we should remember is that Montreal is a big city, its festivals are huge and draw international crowds. If Osheaga is aspiring to Coachella or Glasto heights, who are we to complain when it means we get to see Snoop Dogg next to Sigur Rós? Of course, ticket prices are indicative of Osheaga’s more mainstream shift, considering a basic weekend pass costs $217.50. Luckily for us locals, Montreal’s year-round music scene remains accessible and rich.

This rather compromises any recommendation I make to you to actually go to Osheaga, as my real highlights lie lower down the bill with the lesser-known gems. Zola Jesus, a self-taught opera singer who grew up in the Russian wilderness surrounded by dead animals that her hunter father had killed, is bound to thrill with her heady mix of synthesized strings and echoing back vocals.

However, she also played at Il Motore last year, for a mere 10 to 15 dollars. Maybe once she’s played Osheaga that won’t happen again, but it goes to show that immersing oneself in the local performance scene pays off.

—Naomi Endicott

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Fantasia Film Festival

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal

F

antasia is Montreal’s genre film festival.

Founded in 1996, it has grown to be one of North America’s largest. Fantasia presents gore and terror-filled cuts from across the world, with a slight emphasis on Japan and Korea. Previously, Fantasia has presented the North American premieres of Ringu (the inspiration for The Ring) and Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Last year’s iteration screened over one 100 feature films and dozens of shorts.

—Kaj Huddart

A

s the end of June approaches, and you stroll down the sun-soaked streets during a Montreal summer, your ears may perk up to the raucous sounds of trumpets, saxophones, and other soulful instruments. You take a side street, following the noise, and stumble upon a massive crowd of spectators as they gleefully watch an outdoor stage filled with jazz musicians of the highest caliber. You’re looking at Montreal’s Jazz Festival.

Every year, our city eagerly awaits this worldrenowned festival and summertime staple.

Musicians and concertgoers alike take to the streets and enjoy invigorating performances spanning a multiplicity of jazz styles – from the familiar wares to Latin Jazz, funk, R&B, soul, tango, to countless other genres on the spectrum. The festival’s epicenter is situated in the Place Des Arts complex, but concerts take place in a range of venues from the hopping Club Soda to the traditional church Le Gésu. There are also many free outdoor concerts, with stages set up on the street so that listeners can come and go at their leisure.

The Montreal Jazz Fest has a history of being able to attract the giants of the jazz world, including such greats as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as their modern counterparts – the likes of Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brad Meldhau, and Joshua Redman. This summer, Jazz Fest 2012 promises to bring a mix of older masters and the up-and-coming to the stage, with a line-up including blues legend B.B. King and Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding (who beat a pouting Justin Bieber for Best New Artist last year at the Grammys).

One notable feature of the Montreal Jazz Fest is the diversity of its program. Although it is officially known as a “jazz” festival, it embraces a wide selection of artists whose music cannot really be called “jazz” at all. In the past, these have included musicians such as Alexi Murdoch, TV on the Radio, and Montreal demigod Leonard Cohen. By allowing such an array of artists to perform, Jazz Fest ensures that it will be able to draw a substantial audience – especially given the more peripheral role jazz tends to play in today’s musical climate.

—Huei Lin

For information about the Fantasia Film Festival visit www.fantasiafest.com.

Montreal Fringe Festival

T

The Montreal Fringe Festival will take place from May 30 to June 19. Visit www. montrealfringe.ca/en for more information.

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal takes place from June 28 to July 7. Visit www. montrealjazzfest.com for more information.

Suoni per il Popolo

S ly e McGill Dai rmann | Th Victor Tange

he Montreal Fringe Festival, founded in 1991

by Kieran and Nick Morra – both McGill students at the time – began on St. Laurent and has since grown to take an important place at the center of the vibrant cultural community of the Plateau-Mile End borough.

The festival is part of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, an umbrella organization under which more than thirty different festivals have sprung up since the first festival in Edmonton, Alberta in 1983. The Fringe is a not-for-profit organization, and 100 per cent of the ticket price goes to the artists putting on the performance. It brings together the most varied, eclectic, and vivified artistic elements Montreal has to offer. Fringe performances are selected by lottery and subject to zero censorship in an effort to allow complete freedom of expression to artists. This process makes attending a Fringe show a hit or miss experience, which adds to the exploratory zest that makes Montreal festivals what they are.

Word of mouth is the primary means of publicity used by shows at the festival, encouraging festival-goers to go with their gut in choosing which performances to attend. Shows range from perplexing oddities to undiscovered gems, and the unexpectedness of the experience is what gives the Fringe all its charm. I have always found that the best way to attend the Fringe is with an open mind and all prior knowledge of specific performances limited to what I could glean from the (often cryptic) titles. This probing approach is made affordable by the festival’s low ticket prices, with student tickets costing only ten dollars.

The Fringe started out as a theatre movement, but now also includes comedy, dance, music, circus, cabaret, and visual arts. Last year, the festival presented over 700 performances by over 500 artists. Most of the Fringe shows are presented to small audiences of often less than twenty spectators – small crowds that enhance the spectator’s feeling of intimacy with the artists and the performance. Yet, the small audiences do not mean the festival is unpopular.

Far from it – word of mouth and buzz on blogs helped last year’s festival reach 50,000 attendees.

The Fringe’s enthusiasm for accessibility gives the festival an unpredictable quality, delivering the good along with the not so good, but always providing a dose of the refreshingly quirky.

—Nathalie O’Neill

43

uoni per il Popolo – “Sounds for the People” – turns seminal music venues Casa del Popolo, La Sala Rossa, and Il Motore, into the sites of their very own music festival. As usual, their lineup spans innumerable genres, but tends toward the eccentric. Their Free Jazz program is extensive, but the festival also covers folk, metal, and electronic styles. Highlights will include dreamy songstress Rebecca Foon, as well as a tribute to Canadian torture victim Abousfian Abdelrazik, courtesy of local psychedelic heavyweight Sam Shalabi and others. Perhaps the single most worthy entry in the 2012 lineup will be Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, whose beat-heavy folk-techno has provoked ecstatic reactions from crowds around the world.

—Kaj Huddart Suoni per il Popolo wii take place from June 6 to 23. Visit www.casadelpopolo.com/suoniperilpopolo for more information.

Com p e n d i u m!

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and Last Crossword of the year!

44

“Do you think I can fucking fly?” asks HMB Euan EK

The McGill Daily

I

n response to recent criticism of the administration, Principal Heather Mama Boom – ever the demagogue – stood on top of the Leacock building and yelled “Do you think I can fucking fly?” to the assembled students and pigeons.

Kneeling amongst the birds, with her red eyes bulging out of their sockets, HMB began to gabble an incomprehensible mixture of unprintable slurs, economic policy, and biblical wisdom.

The Daily could not understand most of it but distinctly heard the phrases “fiscal tortureporn”, “Jonah’s shitting ark”, and “Celine, why did you leave?” in between gasps of clear and visible pain.

The principal’s latest display mixes her usual rampant and physical audacity with evidently painful vulnerability, which many are suggesting is an answer to critics who say that HMB “doesn’t care about students”.

When asked, SSMU Glorious Leader Knaggie Might noted, “she doesn’t care about students”.

HMB appears to be feeling the strain of her loveless relationship with the students. “I’m trying to

balance a budget that looks like it was written by an incompetent ex-sociology professor [bulldog Manthony Aasi] with a shitstained red crayon, get money from a Provincial Government so corrupt it makes Bernie Madoff’s bank account look like an exemplar piece of transparent accounting, and you want me to listen to the demands of a bunch of fuckdumb students who can’t even jerk off without assistance?”

“I will ask you one more time, do you think I can fucking fly?”

Of course this is not HMB’s first attempt at populist politics, but her recent attempt to “actually have sex during FROSH” left many students shaking in the corners of their rooms with piles of broken asbestos around them.

HMB’s speech appeared to be off the cuff, although the clever and well timed repetition of the magisterial phrase “Do you think I can fucking flap my arms and fly?” suggests some cogent speech writers are working tirelessly behind the scenes.

Whatever their effort, HMB’s display was a masterclass. She closed her speech by bellowing “may the pigeons come, may the pigeons come” at the top of her voice, before flinging her water glass at her obediently standing lapdog Mortono Fendelson.

Catpaw Candice Clarkson | The McGill Daily

Principal unleashes well-considered PR offensive on students

When Fendelson tried to remove some of the glass from his cheeks HMB reminded him about “the shape of Mozambique”, which

stopped Fendleson in his tracks and turned him a peculiar shade of grey.

HMB was last seen on top of

Mont Royal, naked, making a snow angel, while two women wearing lederhosen breathed deeply into her eyeballs.

Last Crossword of the Yeeeeaaarrr!!

The Crossword Fairies The McGill Daily

Across

1. Become unhinged 5. English buddies 10. Liturgical vestments 14. Henry VIII’s last wife 15. Egg producer 16. Ancient mariner 17. Pencil case 18. Claw 19. Planets, including Pluto 20. Home economics 23. Guys’ partners 24. Kind of jar 25. Food algorithm 28. Ellipse 30. Sunburn soother 31. Bit of parsley 33. Product of 15 across 36. NSERC funds them 40. Connections 41. Pencil cases 42. Curse 43. Horse-fly 44. Nouveau riche 46. Jiltee of myth 49. Birdlike 51. Intermittently 57. What one does for Godot

58. Slack-jawed 59. Bit 60. Cutting part 61. Danger 62. Manure 63. Animal shelters 64. Down at the heels 65. History chapters

Down

1. Didn’t dillydally 2. Military alliance acronym 3. Jack-in-the-pulpit, e.g.

4. Prayer bench 5. Spot 6. Benefit 7. Baby powders 8. Oscar Wilde poem “The Garden of ___” 9. (In) phase 10. Temper, as metal 11. Meat cuts 12. Quebec lottery game 13. Luster 21. Absorb, with “up” 22. Candidate’s concern 25. Doctor Who villainess, with “the” 26. Distinctive flair 27. Camp beds 28. Elves, tortured and mutilated by the dark powers 29. 7 31. Wallop

32. Letter that appears twice in the Schrödinger equation 33. Killer whales?

34. Nov. honorees 35. Far from ruddy 37. Pass on 38. Broke bread 39. Midday 43. Bien sûr 44. Delicately 45. Boy 46. Moulted 47. Circumvent 48. Condescend 49. Cognizant 50. Flaky 52. Snoozes 53. Arch type 54. Lecture length 55. Vulcan’s Chimney 56. Badgers

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

45

Shawn Pal

The McGill Daily

“I

just don’t think that they’re that bad,” Julie says, leaning across the table, her voice a loud whisper. It’s the beginning of February, and we’re talking about the McGrill* administration, and drinking water out of re-usable bottles. “I mean, I kind of liked the last MRO email. De Grapple is kind of a good writer.”

“There were no spelling mistakes,” she adds, tilting her head meaningfully.

McGill psychologist Dr. Marston recently found that in hostage situations McGrill students are 3.14 times as likely to exhibit signs of Stockholm syndrome – in which captives feel affection toward their captors – as compared to humans at other institutions.

Marston has done her research by observing students go about life at school: While a handful of professors and students have spoken out against McGrill’s draconian regulations of campus space, tuition hikes, free speech, and lock systems which secure students both inside and outside buildings at the admin’s will, Marston chose McGrill for the very reason that it was an institution that essentially kidnaps its students: “It’s a great experiment in that its very similar to a hostage situation. When else do you get thousands of people, who, by all standardized measures, are intelligent, submitting them-

selves to this kind of regulation, to the point where they don’t even really see it as regulation? To the point where they will actually defend the administration?”

Later we head to Trotty Eh* for a post-study snack. “Styrofoam with cheese is on the menu again!” she exclaims. As she pays for her meal, I ask her if she misses Arch Café – she had, after all, come to a protest with me. She makes a face and shakes her head. “I only thought I liked Arch Café.” She explains that she attended a lecture given by the admin – one of a series entitled “Consultation” – and decided otherwise.

“This styrofoam only costs five dollars, Pal,” she says, lifting the food to her mouth. The foam makes a squeaky crunchy sound as she bites into it. A couple of white flakes, glistening with cheese-grease, spray onto the floor.

The affection that students like Julie feel for the administration is not totally spontaneous – Marston thinks it might be, in fact, carefully cultivated. Take, for example, the Consultation lecture that Julie attended. At Consultation lectures, students listen to a McGill Public Relations expert speak for 45 minutes. During this time, they are allowed write down their feelings in a dream journal and then join hands in a circle with principal HMB and watch the pages burn in a bonfire.

“When someone has you write situations that are recorded on a paper that no one else sees, and

The Artful Snobb:

Jacques Nicholson| The McGill Daily

McGill students prone to stockholm syndrome

then burned before no one else can see them – ” Marston explains as she points to figures on a chart: a piece of paper, a “+” sign, and a fire. She continues: “That means....”

She points to an equal sign, and then a question mark. “Preliminary data says that it means that they don’t care. But we’ve tested two subjects so far, and we need to test another 20 before the data will tell

Your guide to the art world

Anne Ominous | The McGill Daily

“Hiphop Never Hurt Anyone” Yuthe N’Rivult c. 2012 Spraypaint on concrete 24” x 24”

The most recent installation of noted mixed-media artist Yuthe N’Rivult, “Hiphop Never Hurt Anyone” brilliantly builds on past successes to champion the cause of the disaffected teenager. Most noted for his “Skateboarding is not a crime” graphic work and masterful “Converse thrown over a telephone line” installations, N’Rivult seeks to, in his own words, “show the world that it’s, like, really hard to be kid in suburbia.”

N’Rivult’s work, once again, is distinctive in its execution. The sloppy, hurried stenciling vividly evokes a lack of patience and a feeling of alienation, perfectly capturing the plight of the bored youth N’Rivult sees as the “ultimate outcasts, man.”

When asked about recent criticism that accuses N’Rivult’s work of being derivative of a movement started by John Hughes films and recently popularized by Simple Plan’s entire discography, the artist responds defensively: “You know what, no one understands me! You’re ruining my life!”

–Grisabella von Snobb III

us empirically that’s the case.”

“There must be a good reason,” says Julie when I follow up with here later via g-chat: julie.petulli: there MUST be... opportunity costs, production theory basis, stagflation.

Pal314: HMB burned your suggestions for the new student caf because of stagflation? julie.petulli: division of labour, production possibility frontier, capital.

Pal314: are you just spewing the contents of your micro-econ textbook??

Julie makes straight A minuses, and her clothes are always stylish but not in a way where it looks like she’s overthinking it.

How could she not get it?

In fact, the high high school GPAs, and good style, of students here is, Marston suspects, the very reason why they are tripping over their shoelaces for the admin.

“You get really high SAT scores, and grades, and you’re always the teacher’s pet, and it’s like, why should you question authority?

Authority seems to love you, in those respects. For you, the system is working. And so when the system kidnaps you, you’re still really hesitant to question it.” *Names have been changed so we will not get fucking sued for making shit up.

Well, March Madness contestants, it has been a tough battle. There were many surprising and nervewracking match ups. However, one contestant stood out as exemplary: Samosas. These brave samosas stood up against more expensive meal options like Smart Burger and Vielfalt waffles, withstood the Milton Avenue Revolutionary Press calling them “Fascist piglets”, sustained Heather Munroe Blum slandering them over uninformative MRO’s, and, this week, dealt with McGill Memes making ridiculous comments about them. Congratulations, Samosas and thanks to everyone who participated.

A message to students for next year This campus belongs to the students. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

46 Contributors

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Thank you to all of our contributors!

We could not have done it without you Susan Aberman, Malek Abisaab, Anudari Achitsaikhan, Tom Acker, Emma Ailinn Hautecoeur, Ruth Ainsworth, Max Amendy, Jade Arnaout, Esma Balkir, Morgon Banks, Laurent Bastien Corbeil, Deveney Bazinet, Jethro Beattie-Booth, Tim Beeler, Robert Bell, David Benrimoh, Louise Berrebi, Sam Bick, Tanya Bindra, Niko Block, Jon Booth, Alexandra Borkowski, Julia Boshyk, Jacqueline Brandon, Grace Brooks, Kira Bruce, Abbie Buckman, Jamie Burnett, Lindsay Cameron, Juan Camilo Velásquez, Amelia Cardiff, Isabel Carey, Richard Carozza, Camille Chabrol, Alex Chalk, Mays Chami, Edna Chan, Hera Chan, Laura Chapnick, Oles Chepesiuk, Ines de la Cuetera, Houda Chergui, Morgane Ciot, Christiana Collison, Madeleine Cummings, Michale D’alimonte, Chantelle D’Souza, Alexander Dawson, Louis Denizet, Naomi Desai, Matthew Dowling, Lola Duffort, Elena Dugan, Flora Dunster, Julia Edelman, Steve Eldon Kerr, Naomi Endicott, Asma Falfoul, Ethan Feldman, Marcello Ferrara, Jayda Fogel, Anna Foran, Brendan Gaffney, Jane Gatensby, Ian Gerald King, Marzieh Ghiasi, Alexis Gianellia, Daniel Gocke, Ian Gold, Joey Goodman, Eva Goodman, Sandra Gouel, Thomas Granrud, J. Grifin Durling, Jerry Gu, Freda Guttman, Elise Hannaford, Emily Harris, Michelle Hartman, Ryan Healey, Joseph Henry, Matt Herzfeld, Matt Herzfeld, Lilly Hoffman Simon, Taylor Holroyd, Abby Howard, Brett Howie, Kaj Huddart, Adrienne Hurley, Jade Hurter, Claire Hurtig, Alexia Jablonski, Erica Jewell, Molly Joeck, Steven Jordan, Clara del Junco, Juliana Just Costa, Nick Kandel, Maija Kappler, Max Karpinski, Elaina Kauffman, Sarah Kerr, Devin Kesner, Haaris Khan, Vera Khramova, Melanie Kim, Rachael Kim, Maggie Knight, Keat Yang Koay, Noteh Krauss, Amanda Kron, Paulina Kyriakopoulos, Diego Zuluaga Laguna, Gaby Lai, Tom Lamarre, Christopher Lane, Samuel Latham, Tyler Lawson, Allison Laywine, Felix Le Dem, Esther Lee, Sohyun Lee, Shinae Lee, Michael Lee-Murphy, Ayla Lefkowitz, Timothy Lem-Smith, Victoria Lessard, Sara Levasseur, Andree Levesque, Brendan Lewis, Laura Linden, Kallee Lins, Kallee Lins, Abby Lippman, Kurtis Lockhart, Jenny Lu, Simone Lucas, William Manning, Pedro Marzano, Pedro Marzano, Gillian Massel, Davide Mastracci, Valerie Mathis, Kate McGillivray, Jais Mehaji, Arjun Mehta, Emily Meikle, Olivia Messer, Tamkinat Mirza, Harmon Moon, Sheehan Moore, Addison Mott, Emma Mungall, Ian Murphy, Farid Muttalib, Samuel Neuberg, Amar Nijhawan, Midori Nishioka, Kristin Norget, Sam Noumoff, Nathalie O’Neill, David Ou, Nicole Pacampara, Vanessa Pagé, Anthony Pare, Roxana Parsa, Roxana Parsa, Laura Payne Smith, Sean Phipps, Bora Plumtre, Ben Poirier, Meagan Potier, Cole Powers, Annie Preston, Nicolas Quiazua, Oren Ratowsky, Maggie Rebalski, Judy Rebick, Rachel Reichel, Robin Reid Fraser, Madeleine Richards, William Roberts, Zoe Robertson, Nicolas Roy, Marlee Rubel, Joseph Rucci, Jessica Ruglis, Kasra Sammak, Seble Samuel, Mela Sarkar, Nastasha Sartore, Matthieu Sauterre, Lela Savic, Nikolay Shargorodsky, Angus Sharpe, Mercedes Sharpe Zayas, Alice Shen, Annie Shiel, Brittany Sigler, Anna Silman, Russell Sitrit Leibovitch, Nadav Slovin, Robert Smith, Carter Smith, Dan Smith, Lucille Smith, Colleen Stanton, Ariella Starkman, Lisa Stephenson, Micha Stettin, Andreanne Stewart, Nicole Stradiotto, Bipasha Sultana, Molly Swain, Amy Tang, Shaurya Taran, Mathura Thevarajah, Alan Thicke, Lukas Thienhaus, Chloe Thimonier, Ryan Thom, Meredith Toivanen, Sergey Tsynkevych, Aaron Vansintjian, Claire-Marine Varin, Jordan Venton-Rublee, Aquil Virani, Matthew Watson, John Watson, Lena Weber, Christopher Webster, Tyler Wentz, Stephanie Williams, Veronica Winslow, Daniel Wolfe, Henry Wright, Christopher Wrobel, Vidal Wu, Ethan Yang, Rashad Yusifov, Anqi Zhang, Chen Zhiying, Doris Zhu, Andrea Zhu.

The 2011-2012 Daily editorial board (from left to right): (back row): Henry Gass, James Farr, Fabien Maltais-Bayda, Christina Colizza, Peter Shyba, Victor Tangermann (middle row): Queen Arsem-O’Malley, Jessica Lukawiecki, Erin Hudson, Alyssa Favreau, Shannon Palus, Olivia Messer (front row): Eric Andrew-Gee, Rebecca Katzman, Zach Lewsen, Amina Batyreva, Joan Moses.

Missing: Andra Cernavskis, Jane Gatensby, Melanie Kim, Jenny Lu, Nicole Stradiotto.

47

The McGill Daily | Monday, April 2, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 101 number 40

editorial

EDITORIAL

Vote ‘yes’ to QPIRG

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com

The Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at McGill will ask students to support its continued existence in an upcoming special referendum period that will run from April 10 to 16. This vote comes after the McGill administration refused to acknowledge the results of last November’s referendum, in which 65.6 per cent of students voted in favour of supporting QPIRG with a non opt-outable online $3.75 fee. QPIRG requested a change to the opt-out method due to increased financial pressures after the McGill administration unilaterally imposed the online opt-out system on the organization in 2007. The administration’s actions contradicted the wishes of both QPIRG and students, who condemned the administration’s decision in a 2007 General Assembly. Despite this convoluted history, the simple fact remains that QPIRG plays an essential role on our campus and in our community.

QPIRG connects McGill to the surrounding community in a way that few groups on campus are able to, and supports people that are marginalized in our society. Through working groups, QPIRG raises awareness about social justice issues that too often are overlooked. Groups such as Climate Justice Montreal, the Filipino Solidarity Collective, the Temporary Worker’s Centre, and KANATA – which creates dialogue on issues facing Canada’s First Nations communities, and advocates for a Native Studies minor at McGill – provide essential resources that exist nowhere else at McGill.

QPIRG also organizes events like Rad Frosh, an alternative orientation week with an emphasis on social justice, and Culture Shock, an event dedicated to raising awareness about immigrant, refugee, and minority issues. Alongside SSMU, QPIRG co-organizes Social Justice Days, an annual series of workshops on health, education, and human rights issues. QPIRG consistently innovates: getting recycling and daycare on campus are but two of its many accomplishments.

Moreover, in a large university such as McGill, undergraduates are often an afterthought. QPIRG research programs such as the Community University Research Exchange (CURE) and Study in Action connect student research with community groups in a productive way, providing students with opportunities that no other organization at McGill does.

The results of this original research are far-reaching and tangible. In areas ranging from food security to gender and sexuality, QPIRG’s proactive research has made our community more conscientious and equitable.

Through their alternative library, research journal Convergence, and online databases, QPIRG ensures that its resources and community research are readily available to all members of our campus and community.

QPIRG is an incredibly valuable organisation: it encourages us to question our decisions, invest in our community, and seek out ethical alternatives. Vote ‘yes’ to the existence of a more socially and environmentally conscious campus – vote ‘yes’ to QPIRG.

coordinating editor

Joan Moses

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Henry Gass news editors

Queen Arsem-O’Malley Erin Hudson Jessica Lukawiecki features editor

Eric Andrew-Gee commentary&compendium! editor

Zachary Lewsen culture editors

Christina Colizza Fabien Maltais-Bayda

science+technology editor

Shannon Palus

health&education editor

Peter Shyba sports editor

Andra Cernavskis photo editor

Victor Tangermann illustrations editor

Amina Batyreva production&design editors

Alyssa Favreau Rebecca Katzman copy editor

James Farr web editor

Jane Gatensby le délit

Anabel Cossette Civitella rec@delitfrancais.com cover design

Victor Tangermann Contributors Laurent Bastien, Jacqueline Brandon, Julia Boshyk, Edna Chan, Hera Chan, Houda Chergui, Christiana Collison, Madeleine Cummings, Evan Dent, Lola Duffort, Kaj Huddart, Naomi Endicott, Christy Frost, Steve Eldon Kerr, Andrew Komar, Victoria Lessard, Huei Lin,Davide Mastracci, Kate McGillivray, Olivia Messer, Ian Murphy, Nathalie O’Neill, Roxana Parsa, Marlee Rubel, Annie Shiel, Mark Turcato, Juan Camilllo Velasquez, Jordan Venton-Rublee, Vidal Wu, Yassi Zar, Anqi Zhang

The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the Daily Publications Society, an autonomous, not-for-profit organization whose membership includes all McGill undergraduates and most graduate students.

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318

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Anabel Cossette Civitella, Marie Catherine Ducharme, Alyssa Favreau, Joseph Henry, Olivia Messer, Sheehan Moore, Joan Moses, Farid Muttalib, Mai Anh Tran-Ho, Aaron Vansintjan (chair [at] dailypublications.org)

The Daily is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian University Press.

All contents © 2012 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

Errata In “Trying to speak more of the truth, more of the time” (Commentary, March 26, page nine) it states that the Economist was founded in 1943.

Rather, it was founded in 1843. The Daily regrets the error.