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News

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

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Bookstore clients defrauded in debit scam SARAH BABBAGE The McGill Daily

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everal students who shopped at the McGill Bookstore early this semester were victims of a debit card fraud operation.

Students reported having amounts up to $1,000 extracted from their accounts after using their cards at the bookstore between January 2 and January 18, according to Douglas Sweet, the director of McGill’s Media Relations Office.

“The University understands there was a card-cloning operation of some kind at the bookstore,” Sweet said.

Card cloning is a common fraud practice that occurs when a debit card is processed through a machine that electronically accesses and stores the card’s information.

Someone later retrieves and abuses the information.

“I went to the bank to ask why my card wouldn’t work and they told me $1,000 had been taken out of my account,” said Andrew, U4 Arts.

Andrew requested that his last name not be included.

Ivy Johnson, U3 Arts, had a similar experience.

“The bank said my card had probably been double-swiped to store my information and someone had seen my PIN,” Johnson said.

Upon learning about the situation, SSMU VP External Max Silverman published a Facebook note requesting anyone who saw his or her bank accounts compromised recently to come forth, garnering 17 comments in two days.

“It was interesting in my mind

how many people responded so quickly to the note,” Silverman said.

“There definitely is a problem in the area.”

It is unclear how many students were victims of card-cloning activities. Banks are hesitant to discuss the matter due to issues of libel and confidentiality, but upon requesting a new card students have reported being asked if they went to McGill.

Chris Sze Cheuk Cheung, U3 Management and an employee at a Montreal bank, explained that banks were alerted of the activity.

“Thursday [February 14] we got a list of compromised debit cards, [mine included],” Cheung posted on Facebook, explaining that when cardholders came to get new cards, his coworker asked where they went to school.

“Everyone was from McGill!”

Cheung wrote.

Banks are required to reimburse victims for their losses.

Melanie Minos, Manager of Media Relations at the Canadian Banking Association, urged consumers to obscure the terminal when entering their PIN. “In these situations there is usually a pinhole camera somewhere nearby to capture the PIN. A skimmed debit card is useless without it,” Minos said.

She noted that not all the students necessarily had money taken from their account.

“Once the location of a fraud has been detected, the bank launches an immediate investigation and may put blocks on other cards that use that terminal as a protection measure,” Minos said.

McGill is unaware of any per-

Stacey Wilson for The McGill Daily

Experts say debit fraud is made possible by tiny pinhole cameras that record PINs. manent losses to cardholders, but urges anyone who used their debit card at the bookstore in early January to check their bank

account status with their financial institution to ensure there are no irregularities.

According to Sweet, the University

is still examining the situation, investigating the Bookstore and Moneris, the company that handles the bookstore’s bank transactions.

Senate hopefuls, referendum committee leaders go on defensive Undergrads to vote on online opt-out autonomy, club support, and Daily Publications Society LENDON EBBELS The McGill Daily

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enate candidates and referendum “Yes” committee members pled their cases at debates Thursday night, where students grilled their peers on why they should support autonomy of online opt-out services, a more club-friendly SSMU, and the Daily Publications Society.

Trevor Chow-Fraser spoke on behalf of the Yes Committee for the autonomous opt-out question, which asks if students support SSMU groups and independent student organizations to administer their own accessible online opt-out system.

“Minerva’s minimalist interface presents each fee as little more than an alpha-numeric code with an attached dollar amount, similar to the way students are often treated,” Chow-Fraser said.

Currently, the opt-out option is on Minerva, and critics say it does

not offer proper context about the groups affected.

According to Chow-Fraser, the system creates opportunities for decontextualized smear campaigns against the groups, as well as huge amounts of instability in funding.

“These small organizations run with the tightest budgets on campus. When they don’t know if they can pay their staff or rent, projects are going to live and die from semester to semester,” he said.

The debate for the Clubs and Services referendum, which calls for SSMU to declare its support for the student groups, provoked interest within the audience.

Joshua Stark of the question’s Yes Committee, noted this year’s budget cuts were a detriment to the viability of clubs and services. He pointed to SSMU’s decision to buy Haven Books as a threat to student groups. “[SSMU shouldn’t] buy businesses that are going to cost a huge amount of money without consulting stu-

been publishing for 97 years. dents,” Stark said.

“The papers are constantly An audience member pointed to SSMU’s VP Clubs & Services posi- morphing to reflect the students tion as a demonstration of the Society’s commitment.

When small organizations The question asking with tight budgets don’t know if students to reaffirm their five-dollar fee to the Daily they can pay their staff or rent, Publications Society (DPS) projects are going to live and initially met a quiet audience, but shortly attracted die from semester to semester. interest.

Trevor Chow-Fraser Several students asked Yes committee , online opt-outs referendum Yes Committee members Sarah Colgrove and Max Reed why the Daily Publications interests of the time,” Colgrove Society (DPS), which publishes said.

The DPS provides the only indeThe Daily and Le Delit, must go to referendum, and if the papers pendent press and the only francould seek alternative funding cophone paper on campus. Reed emphasized the openness of the sources.

Colgrove said that the admin- Daily; it prints every letter it receives istration is mandating the referen- and allows anyone who has written dum as a prerequisite to the DPS’s six articles voting power on the ediMemorandum of Agreement with torial board.

The senator debates were less McGill.

She emphasized the historical animated. Of the acclaimed Senate significance of the Daily, which has positions – those in the Faculties

“

of Management, Law, and Music – only Faizel Gulamhussein, the Law Senator, was present. He delivered a brief bilingual speech that stated the need for Law students to reclaim their library.

The four candidates running for three Arts Senator positions – Zach Honoroff, Will Johnston, Kevin Markl, and Ivan Neilson – were present.

All share inexperience in experience working with McGill administrators, but had concrete ideas to improve student life.

Neither candidate running for the Medicine Senator position attended.

Of the four candidates running for three slots as Science Senator – Safia Chatur, Andrew Ling, Ryan Luther, and Matthew McIntosh – only Ling was present. His speech, partly in French, focused on greater accessibility of student services to francophones and on the need for a more longterm career oriented Career and Placement Centre.

News

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

5

Al Sharpton weighs in on U.S. election JAMES ALBAUGH News Writer

H

undreds lined up outside of Concordia University’s Henry F. Hall Building Thursday night to see Rev. Al Sharpton speak on the U.S. presidential election cycle, as well as issues that touched closer to home – like police brutality, animal rights, and reasonable accommodation.

The audience greeted Sharpton, an American civil rights activist and former Democratic Party presidential candidate, with a standing ovation.

“I’m not always treated as kindly in introductions in the States,” he said.

Although Sharpton has not officially endorsed any candidate for president, he called the career of Barack Obama an “ascension” that was “nothing short of astounding.”

He also criticized the Clinton campaign, arguing that a memo it released before last Tuesday’s primaries – which claimed Obama aides met with members of Canada’s Conservative Party to discuss NAFTA – was “suspicious.”

The memo said that an adviser of Obama had met with Canadian officials to say that he would not renegotiate the free trade agreement, which contradicted statements the Illinois Senator had made during his campaign that were strongly antiNAFTA. After publicizing the memo, Clinton won Ohio, where a large, working-class population blames NAFTA for job losses.

The Conservatives have proposed to investigate the matter themselves, but Sharpton called for an independent investigation.

“Here’s a little advice from south of the border: usually, when people investigate themselves, they exonerate themselves,” he said.

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

Al Sharpton called for independent investigation into “suspicious” Clinton memo at Concordia Wednesday.

Sharpton said the Clinton campaign was attempting to change the rules of the primary system by trying to seat Michigan and Florida’s delegates prior to February 5. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) stripped both states of their delegates.

He also ridiculed the superdelegate system, which allows Democratic Party leaders to determine the outcome of the primaries even if more people vote for one candidate. He compared it to the 2000 Supreme Court decision that ended the Florida recount, effec-

tively ensuring George W. Bush’s presidency.

Finishing with U.S. politics, Sharpton changed focus to schools and reasonable accommodation.

He compared the creation of blackfocused schools in the U.S. to the institution of affirmative action, and

said that both remedy historical inequalities. The creation of black schools was approved in Toronto earlier this year.

But he saved some of his harshest words for the reasonable accommodation debate, ridiculing the arguments of those who advocate a shift towards a policy of assimilation.

“We have no problems in Canada.

We get along with everybody – but don’t wear that turban,” he parodied. “Don’t speak your language.

Don’t practice your religion.... If I have to deny myself, it is giving you a supremacist position.”

Despite his comments on these Canadian issues, the majority of audience questions addressed the upcoming U.S. presidential election, with a few divergent questions.

Asked whether America is prepared to accept a black president, Sharpton said, “I don’t think America was prepared for black people in the front of the bus.”

When a representative of the Concordia Animal Rights Association asked about Sharpton’s involvement with activists opposing KFC’s treatment of animals, Sharpton said that he became involved after learning about KFC’s practices, even though animal rights has not traditionally been one his issues.

“I’m trying to grow into that,” Sharpton said.

Another student asked why Malcolm X was not as celebrated as Martin Luther King Jr., his contemporary in the civil rights movement.

“Malcolm X should be,” Sharpton replied. “They speak to different parts of my soul.”

The Concordia Student Union hosted Sharpton Wednesday as part of their “Great Canadian Speaker Series,” even though Sharpton is not Canadian. Prior speakers have included environmentalist David Suzuki, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, and former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, and should include NDP leader Jack Layton by April.

Gay Village says cars are a no-go this summer JEFFERY BISHKU-AYKUL News Writer

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edestrians will have the streets of Montreal’s Gay Village to themselves this summer, according to a recent car-ban announcement from the Ville-Marie Borough.

The roads between Papineau and Berri will be blocked to traffic allow to for a vibrant cultural and commercial atmosphere from June 17 to September 3.

Ville-Marie mayor Benoie Labonté, who announced the ban with Village Merchants Association president Denis Brossard, estimates it will cost the borough $50,000.

According to Ville-Marie spokesperson Jacques-Alain Lavallée, the

ban is integrated with the borough’s efforts to reduce car traffic.

“The borough’s position has always been to reduce the number of cars in the downtown area,” Lavallée said. “That is part of our sustainable development plan of 2007. We do support public transportation.”

Last summer the street was closed for six consecutive weekends, following a request from the Village Merchants Association. Locals greatly supported the decision. The street often closes for festivals.

“This year [merchants] came by again, and we consulted with various groups and the police forces, and after several discussions our elected representatives have decided we will proceed,” Lavallée said.

With alternative routes mapped out and accessible public transporta-

tion, city officials do not anticipate visitors to the area will have difficulty getting around.

“We feel that there are less people working during the summertime, so congestion will not be as difficult as one would expect,” Lavallée said.

“Certainly it won’t be an easy situation, but we have estimates that the number of cars used on St. Catherine is much slimmer than one would think. There are not too many cars being used during the weekdays, especially during the summertime,” he added.

In the past, many merchants’ associations have staunchly opposed the Car-Free Day and the downtown bike path, and other efforts to reduce car presence and make routes more pedestrian-friendly.

But, with the success of last year’s venture, along with the long-stand-

ing success of Prince Arthur and de la Gauchetière, which are closed to cars, the Societé de Développement Commercial du Village conceded that closing the street may benefit commerce.

“I’d say the area is mostly pedestrian, because we already have three metro stations,” said Bernard Plante, executive director of the society.

“Many people use the metro, and of course, people come here for the nightlife. You can’t drink and drive so many people come by metro.”

Plante also noted that with so few parking spaces on the street, the ability of people to park in the area and walk around will not suffer.

“I think there are approximately two hundred spaces on Ste. Catherine. The ban is going to change a lot of things for people,” Plante said.

However, the proposal is not universally welcomed. According to The Montreal Gazette, in February more than 50 Village residents demanded to talk to the borough about the proposal. They cited increased crime and loud streets.

Christian Cloutier, Commander of Montreal Police Station 22 in VilleMarie, which has remained neutral on the car-ban, cited 106 total noise complaints last year, with 28 of them occurring during the car ban.

“We don’t know what will be the big problem,” Cloutier said. “This year there may be more noise complaints, or may be less, but we would like to be sure, to meet owners of bars and restaurants and meet about concerns.

“I would like respect for all. We should be able to live together, bars and residents. We will be there to respect the law.”

News

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

NEWS BRIEFS SSMU Council endorses Yes vote on Daily survival SSMU councillors unanimously approved a motion endorsing the Daily Publications Society (DPS) in its upcoming referendum at a meeting Thursday that included a cameo from Principal Heather MunroeBlum.

VP External Affairs Max Silverman introduced the motion asking SSMU Council to endorse the DPS and vote “yes” in its upcoming existence referendum, saying that student unions and media should show mutual support for each other.

“If SSMU’s existence were forced to go to referenda by the administration, we would like to hope that the newspapers would support the existence of democratic institutions in the same way that our obligation is to support the media,” he said.

Before the motion, councillors questioned the principal on gender neutrality within the administration and accessible tuition, among many other issues. Thursday was her first visit to Council since 2005.

VP Clubs & Services Marcelle Kosman described her personal experiences of receiving treatment from certain professors and administrators that was “fundamentally different” from that of male equivalents, and asked for comment from Munroe-Blum.

The principal responded that that is not something that she has

personally observed.

“I am principal, so what I see is what I get,” Munroe-Blum said.

“I think we have a lot of room to engage more with what I see as a conscious raising of sensitivity.”

Arts representative and candidate for SSMU VP External Devin Alfaro questioned Munroe-Blum’s opinion of a reasonable level of tuition.

“What we’re proposing is that we go with the average in Canada on a multi year basis. [It would give] the University a huge leg up over where we are now,” she said Munroe-Blum had to depart before responding to all students’ questions, but expressed her desire to continue a dialogue with students on campus and to meet with Council in the fall and winter terms of the next academic year.

Later at the meeting, Clubs & Services Representative Dave Schecter asked VP Finance & Operations Imad Barake to release the names of the organizations bidding for room 103, the space currently occupied by CaféRama.

Barake initially refused to release the names of the organizations bidding to use the space, but after Shecter’s prodding, he revealed the names of – but no other information on – the seven bidders.

Three student groups have applied for the space: Midnight Kitchen, Sustainability Café, and Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship McGill.

– Will Vanderbilt

Accommodate This! antiracist workshops coming In response to the BouchardTaylor Commission’s Reasonable

Accommodation hearings, the Accommodate This! campaign is organizing a series of anti-racist workshops, discussions, and events at various locations around Montreal this week.

The workshops, running March 10, 15 and 16, are intended to provide a forum where individuals can learn and discuss the problems faced by Quebec’s minority communities, including immigration laws, exploitation at work, poverty, and racial profiling.

“The only reason this debate is being held at this time and in this form is because of racist and sexist fear, fear that becomes absorbed into a rhetoric of national identity,” said Emilie Connolly, a U3 Cultural Studies student and an Accommodate This! organizer.

Connolly also faulted the reasonable accommodation policy for ignoring Quebec’s history as a former colony, where the only truly indigenous members of society are among the most disadvantaged.

She argued that reasonable accommodation splits Quebec society in two, with Western culture on one side, and all other cultures on the other.

“For this reason, I feel the workshops ought to be attended by everyone – we have all been exposed to the sexism and racism entrenched in the discourse of reasonable accommodation, and thus we all need to confront it, especially on different grounds,” Connolly said.

In late January, the town of Herouxville created a code of conduct for immigrants to follow. Early the next month, Quebec Premier Jean Charest devised the BouchardTaylor Commission.

The commission’s mandate was to travel throughout the province,

administering a series of surveys.

The surveys were meant to determine if changes need to be made to Quebec’s policy of acknowledging the rights of minority groups, termed ‘reasonable accommodation.’

In anticipation of the May 31 release of the commission’s report, which will discuss the results of its surveys, Accommodate This! will release a counter-report, examining what the group believes are the most pertinent social issues in Quebec.

The counter-report will be released at 6 p.m. on March 20 at l’Alizé and will feature a performance by Kalmunity Vibe Collective. among other artists.

More information on the workshops or the counter-report is available at the No One Is Illegal Montreal blog, nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

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Universities struggle to combat racism

In a more spirited contest than in previous years, the Post Graduate Student Society (PGSS) elections will feature two contested races for the positions of President and VP External.

Two current PGSS VPs – John Ashley Burgoyne Roland Nassim – will face off for the society’s top job, while Adrian Kaats and Melanee Thomas vie for the post of VP External & Governmental Affairs. Alex DeGuise is the sole candidate for VP Academic, while Eric Pollanen runs unopposed for VP Finance. The position of VP Internal remains without a candidate. Debates will be held on March 12, and polls will be open from March 13 to 25.

In light of increasing concerns over racism on several university campuses, a student group at Brock University is hoping to raise awareness and promote equality.

Stumanity, a student group focused on humanitarian issues, hosted Rac-E-ducation on February 25 to discuss racial discrimination without passing judgment, blame or feelings of guilt.

“People want to look past racial issues. We can’t ignore the problem and expect it to go away,” said Ismael Traore, Stumanity president.

According to Traore, Brock University’s administration feels that issues of racism are the responsibility of students.

The event at Brock coincides with an incident at Ryerson University, in which approximately 30 students protested the vandalism of a bulletin board outside the East African Students of Toronto office, which had been lit on fire. Racist graffiti was also found across the door of the York University Black Students’ Alliance.

In South Africa, a student-made film showed black employees of the University of the Free State being tricked into eating food that had been desecrated with urine. The video was allegedly made in protest of the university’s recent attempts to introduce more racial integration.

“One of the biggest misconceptions [about racism] is that it doesn’t exist anymore,” said Jeremiah Kalyniak, a Carleton University student activist.

– Gregory Ko

– Timothy Williams (CUP)

– Emily Gennis

PGSS heads to the polls

CAMPUS EYE: NUIT BLANCHE

The Fine Arts Council’s Nuit Blanche brought performance art, craft, and creative energy to the Shatner building Thursday night.

Participants enjoyed klezmer tunes, student DJs, cookie decorating, finger painting, poetry readings, dance workshops, and $2 beers. The McGill Undergraduate Photography Society led studio and darkroom workshops, while The McGill Tribune and The Daily opened their doors to divulge the secrets of newspaper production.

Dominic Popowich / The McGill Daily

News

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

2008-2009

SSMU Elections

9

Each year, The Daily interviews the crop of SSMU candidates for your reading pleasure. We ask each candidate for each position the same questions, and offer you a condensed versions of our conversations. Then, you can check out The Daily’s endorsements on pages 12 and 13 to find out who we think should represent McGill’s 19,000 undergrads next year. And, most importantly, remember to vote at vote.electionsmcgill.ca!

Interviews compiled by Claire Caldwell, Kelly Ebbels, Max Halparin, Peter Hurley, Simon Lewsen, Jennifer Markowitz, Erika Meere, Olga Redko, Nicholas Smith, and Will Vanderbilt. Photos by Nadja Popovich.

President RJ Kelford & Kay Turner wide as we did before. In terms of services, we’ve done a lot of really cool green things, but we just need to keep expanding. SSMU isn’t doing nearly enough for students.

RJ Kelford U2 International Development Studies Smith Falls, ON

What should be the role of General Assemblies be at SSMU, and how would you improve participation in direct democracy?

Our first priority at this point should be, after having run two or three successful GAs, we should be working on following through with those resolutions. The fact is that we passed these resolutions at GAs and seen nothing come of them, which is an issue.

So like as far as promoting people to attend the GA, I think people will attend the GA as soon as we start making ground on the things that the GA has directed us to do.

What experience will you bring to the position?

I’ve been President of the Arts Undergraduate Society [AUS] for two years, and AUS is the second-largest society on campus next to SSMU, and is the largest one that’s volunteer-run. I’ve been overseeing those operations for the last two years, and it’s been a very transformative period for the AUS. We’ve gone from having very few people involved to having very, very many people involved.

How should SSMU fight for accessible education?

As it stands right now, it’s not sustainable to maintain SSMU lobbying on its own.... So we’ve got to look at developing alliances and partnerships within our developed framework, or even by looking for like-minded groups and starting our own association among universities, because also we’re in a unique situation with so many international students and so many out-of-province students.

What would be your top priority if elected?

There are a lot of priorities. I think what we have to look longest and hardest at is how SSMU actually reaches out to students. Right now, the burden of student life is falling on the faculties and the clubs.

SnowAP didn’t do so well, so in terms of events, we’re just not doing as much campus-

Why are you the best candidate?

Because we managed to bring AUS out of the caves. AUS isn’t perfect, don’t get me wrong, but AUS is so much better than it was two years ago.

When I go into a student society, I look at it and I ask myself what we can do in two different ways. I look at how can we make what exists better, and what new things can we do to make the whole better.

Kay Turner U2 International Development Studies & Political Science Toronto, ON What experience will you bring to the position?

I was on Inter-Residence Council first year, I was Arts rep to SSMU second year, I was Rez Life facilitator second year. I’m a three-term student councillor. I was AUS external last year. I did a lot of work on SSMU committees and AUS committees. I’ve been involved in SnowAP for the past four years. I’ve been VP Internal of SSMU over the last year.

What would be your top priority if elected?

My top priority, and the biggest reason I’m running, is that I have the leadership and the good judgement to understand the issues that are facing the attacks on student life. I want to make sure that we keep student life on campus, and I think that that has to do with food services. Fighting for the rights to your campus is one of the biggest goals I hope to achieve.

What should the role of the General Assemblies be, and how will you improve participation in direct democracy?

The biggest problem with the GA in terms of participation is that if there aren’t the motions, people aren’t going to want to come out. The way you get more motions is by broadening the group of people who feel like they can come and are interested. I really think it’s a really great forum for everybody.

I will improve participation by demystifying the GA process and making students feel more relevant. One of my biggest problems is, often times the people who have the skills – motionwriting skills, debating skills, parliamentary procedure skills – are the people who feel they can be a part of the GA. That’s something that we want to work on with the GA web site, to get more information out there.

How should SSMU fight for accessible education?

The whole strike movement thing didn’t really work out very well.

We need to work with the administration to lobby the government. The more money we can get from the government, the less pressure there will be to raise student fees. Further, we need to build bridges with other student associations – not necessarily national or provincial student associations. If we can just build smaller coalitions with other schools, I think that’s good.

Why are you the best candidate?

I’m the best candidate because I really understand SSMU, the way it interacts with students, and with the administration. Because change is really important, and there are a lot of things that are really wrong with SSMU, and I know what those problems are.

VP Finance & Ops acclaimed VP Univ. Affairs acclaimed ferent systems and everything that’s available here.

What would be your top priority if elected?

My top priority is to push for transparency from the administration, and also to push for transparency from my office – be that through a blog, or a huge student presence, or some sort of better community consultations. I want students to know exactly how they’re being represented to the administration, and I want the administration to know that the more clear they are with us, the more we can come to some sort of agreement.

What would be your top priority if elected?

My top priority is increasing transparency, general accessibility of financial statements and documents.

Peter Newhook U3 Finance & Information Systems Toronto, ON What experience do you bring to the position?

At the debates I mentioned my time on the [Inter-Rez Council]. Being with the McGill cycling team gives me a bit more broader range. I think being a floor fellow has really forced me to know how McGill works, the dif-

How do you plan on balancing SSMU operations, such as the Haven bookstore, with the needs of clubs and services?

I would like to see the requirement fees to use Gert’s removed. Haven books – I don’t have any concrete plans for integrating that with clubs and services, but I think it’s really important that it doesn’t take away from clubs and services.

How do you feel about student-run cafeterias in the Shatner building?

This is the students’ building – it’s important to show that in practice and in principle that this is something that can be owned by students. If we say that this is the students’ building but that we’re partitioning it off to corporations, that sends a mixed message.

Nadya Wilkinson U3 Contemporary German Studies Vancouver, BC What experience will you bring to the position?

For two years I have been the chairperson of the Sustainable McGill Project. I’ve been in meetings, I’ve facilitated meetings with administrators, with faculty, the staff who empty bins, et cetera, and with students.

How do you plan to engage students in General Assemblies?

I’m going to really push to make it obvious that we are working to implement and follow GA mandates. Also, I’d really get the administration to understand that this is a democratic choice from the students, and they need to respect GA mandates.

What is the name of McGill’s Associate Secretary-General? [Jennifer Towell] Jennifer Towell.

10

News

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

VP Internal Kevin Chambers, José

Diaz, Brad Milech & Julia Webster

to get people more interested, since the problem is that a lot of people aren’t. And then you have small groups of people who are basically taking over the General Assembly, even if the majority of students are against what they’re proposing.

Do you agree with having General Assemblies, and what do you think SSMU can do to better engage students in direct democracy?

It’s really important for us to have GAs. I’m advocating for [more] GAs and town halls. As for increasing student participation, it would be very important to have a cohesive effort with all of the faculties, and perhaps other groups to get them involved so they can pass that interest on.

Which General Assembly motions are most important to you?

It’d be the ones that affect the majority of students. So things like the tuition one, not like protesting American Eagle.

Kevin Chambers U5 Electrical Engineering Montreal, QC If elected, what would be your top priority?

To bring more people out to events. SSMU Frosh, make sure that’s run really well. New things like Faculty Olympics. And trying to make SnowAP make money.

What experience do you bring to this position?

I’m old. I’ll be U6 next year. I’ve been to six Froshes, I’ve run Engineering Frosh. I’ve been a Frosh leader every year. I’ve run OAP. I’ve run OAP Lite. I’ve run pub nights, which are the big Engineering parties.

Do you agree with having General Assemblies, and what do you think SSMU can do to better engage students in direct democracy?

One of the things that friends of mine tried this year was the Shatner motions, which tried

How can the VP internal work to reduce SSMU’s environmental waste?

I’m not really sure what the VP internal would do.... Have recycling bins for all the plastic cups that we throw away for the big parties.

SnowAP, Frosh, printing things on recycled paper, promoting awareness on campus.

What political function, if any, does the VP internal play?

I don’t think it should be a political position.

Given that McGill has been cracking down on alcohol at student events, what will you plan do to ensure that events with alcohol at McGill can happen?

Well, part of it is talking with McGill first and letting them know. At one of the meetings one of the Senators asked, “Is your goal to make McGill a dry campus?” and they said “No.” They’re happy with the the level of hoops they’re making us jump through, so we just have to continue jumping through those hoops. That means [being] prepared in advance.

José Diaz U2 Economics Panama City, Panama If elected, what would be your top priority?

My top priority would be ensuring that disenfranchised students are not excluded from the events that SSMU organizes.

What experience do you bring to this position?

I have over eight years of organizing events at different levels. I started university in Panama, and transferred to McGill. There I was a I was a member of council, Arts and Culture Senator, and later Interim President. Also I was in charge of the events on campus. After coming to Montreal, I’ve been involved with Queer Radical Week, and with Festival Imagination.

I’m the current Social Coordinator of Queer McGill. I’m also the VP External for the McGill Institutional Students’ Network, and I work for the Canadian Universities Queer Services Conference.

like pertain[ing] to the school, with professors skipping out on their office hours; that’s something that needs to be changed, as opposed to some of the other things on their agenda.

Some of the things on the agenda before were just ridiculous to talk about.

If elected, what would be your top priority?

I want to encourage students who are not taking part in activities at McGill to start taking part by diversifying the amount of activities that are available.

What experience do you bring to the position?

I have no SSMU experience, but I bring seven years of organizing parties and events for bars and clubs, so I’m very familiar organizing events of large magnitudes.

Do you agree with having general assemblies at SSMU, and what do you think SSMU can do to better engage students in direct democracy?

Well for one I understand the General Assembly was placed at a very inconvenient time during midterms, so they should definitely invest in finding a better time to have students assemble. Also they should start asking questions that are a little bit more relevant,

What political function, if any, does the VP Internal play?

I know our job is to talk amongst SSMU and facilitate the conversations between all the VPs and the President. If I get elected I really want to run a charity poker tournament. I definitely want to give back to Montreal and Montreal charities through being the VP Internal.

Given that McGill has been cracking down on alcohol at student events, what do you plan to do to ensure that events with alcohol at McGill can happen?

I know we have the WalkSafe program, so if I make anything on campus and people start drinking too much, I’ll always have security.

I work in clubs and bars; I do like drinking.

I like people to drink and have a good time.

They don’t have to necessarily drink to have a good time, but I will have necessary security measures in place if anything should or could happen. I just want to add one more thing: I want to encourage students who are not taking part in events to become involved. I know that I can’t cater to everyone’s taste, but my goal is to throw at least one party or event that they will enjoy.

What political function, if any, does the VP Internal play?

It’s very important that the VP Internal helps mobilize students for issues such as GAs. One of the functions of VP Internal is communications, so it’s something that the VP Internal can take advantage of.

Given that McGill has been cracking down on alcohol at student events, what will you plan to do to ensure events with alcohol at McGill can happen?

I wouldn’t let them crack down on alcohol.

Professor Mendelson mentioned that they don’t want to get rid of it. If we’re already having support in some parts of the McGill institution, it’s something we can work on. We must ensure that event organizers that are serving alcohol are abiding by the protocols.

can do to help engage students in direct democracy?

I think that General Assemblies are a great idea. It’s really important to have a student voice because not everyone is involved directly in politics. GAs give a group of students a chance to voice their opinions to the larger student body, at least those who attend. As far as getting more students involved, I think that we really need to get the faculties behind it...so that it is not just minorities of students showing up and voting for what they want.

How can the VP Internal work to reduce SSMU’s environmental waste?

The SSMU VP Internal is going to run all the events around the school, so I guess using a lot more biodegradable cups and having recycling bins, and having the proper places to throw them out.

Brad Milech U2 Education & Secondary Mathematics Montreal, QC

How can the VP Internal work to reduce SSMU’s environmental waste?

When you’re having events, you can make those events more sustainable. Switching to big mugs used in some of the froshes last year, and the ones sold at SnowAP, instead of plastic cups. For the marketing of events, posters can be reused.

Julia Webster U2 Cognitive Science & History Toronto, ON If elected, what would be your top priority?

My top priority would definitely be school spirit. A lot of things fall under “school spirit,” like creating better relationships within the faculties and internals and other clubs, faculties and associations. School spirit means supporting athletics as well.

What experience do you bring to the position?

I’ve helped run the bus trip to Queen’s, and I’ve helped to run Four Floors back when it still existed. In 2007 I was a manager of SnowAP, and in 2008 I directed SnowAP. I’ve been a Frosh leader with SSMU and other faculty Froshes. I’m McGill server trained. I’ve been President of Arts and Science Council this year.

I’ve held a position as the VP Internal and the VP Academic Arts on the Arts and Science Council.

Do you agree with having General Assemblies? What do you think SSMU

How can the VP Internal work to reduce SSMU’s environmental waste?

This year SnowAP made a lot of changes. We applied to the Green Fund, we got mugs, and we gave reduced cover prices. I spent a lot of time with my arms up to my elbows in beer water, washing out cups to make sure that they’re recyclable. The VP internal needs to work very closely with the environmental commissioner.

What political function, if any, does the VP Internal play?

This year, there hasn’t been that many issues that the VP Internal would deal with directly. But last year, Gill Prendergast had that open forum with Héma-Quebec and students.

What’s important is fostering those communications on the current issues that are going on, and making sure that the student body is aware and has an opportunity to have a voice.

Given that McGill has been cracking down on alcohol at student events, what will you do to ensure that events with alcohol at McGill can happen?

I would push to require every student who serves alcohol be server-trained. I’d work with the first-year office more to make the first-year server training more dynamic and more accessible.

News

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

11

VP Clubs & Services Samantha Cook & Johnson Fung program about gender, sexual assault issues, and queer issues. Also, I’m a member of the McGill Equity Subcommittee on Queer People, which means I have had experience working with McGill administrators and faculty.

It’s notoriously difficult for VP C&S to keep organized. What’s your best and worst organizational habit?

My email is perfect. Bringing C&S online eliminates all the paper problems. My biggest organizational problem since I was young was keeping paper in track. That’s how I got interested in online stuff in the first place, it keeps me organized.

It’s notoriously difficult for VP C&S to keep organized. What’s your best and your worst organizational habit?

My best is definitely my to-do lists. I live by my to-do lists, they’re very thorough. As long as it’s written down it’s gonna get done. My bad habit is forgetting to write things down.

But generally I’m a very organized person.

Samantha Cook U3 English Literature Shrewsbury, Massachussets If elected, what would be your top priority?

Most of all it’s advocating for student rights.

In particular, working for the right for students to use the McGill name; and opt-outs, making sure that students will maintain their funding. I want to prioritize student space too. Obviously the Shatner building has limited space, but trying to use that as best as possible, and make sure that students have access to it.

What experience do you bring to the position?

I have experience as the co-administrator of a the largest student service on campus: Queer McGill. Other than that, I’ve been involved with Rez-Project, which is a program between Queer McGill and [The Sexual Assault Centre].

A lot of people in rez have gone through our

Do you support cutting the Clubs and Services budget in favour of funding SSMU operations?

No. There are a lot of important SSMU operations that do require a lot of funding; I think it should be fairly balanced with the Clubs and Services budget. But it should never be as low as it was this past year.

How will you fight for student groups’ rights to use the McGill name?

I’m ready to fight the McGill administration on that point. I think there are a couple of people on the administration who will actually listen to student voices. We need to really advocate the fact that representatives go through every club that is to be accredited

by SSMU. We are accountable for our students but we do believe that those clubs and services that are given their names deserve that name. Without students there would be no McGill, so I believe students deserve the right to use the McGill name.

Johnson Fung U1 Molecular Biology & Philosophy Markham, ON If elected, what would be your top priority?

To make SSMU more visible and more relevant to students at McGill. The first thing I want to do is to bring clubs online. My vision for it: Facebook, or ssmuclubs.com. It’s not just so students can discuss them, and to improve visibility, it’s also to bring down all the administrative tasks.

What experience do you bring to this job?

[Arts and Science Integrated Council] VP Communication and Events... and VP Publicity for Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society. I’ve started multitudes of nonprofit projects. I’m running my own business right now. I have experience in advocating issues. I have experience running clubs. I have experience with technology.

Do you support cutting the Clubs and Services budget in favour of funding SSMU operations?

SSMU needs to take clubs and services as their first priority. The argument was that clubs and services is only 5,000 students, whereas the McGill’s [undergraduate] community is 20,000. It’s 5,000 for a reason. Students don’t know about clubs and services. SSMU is more involved in political aspects, and sometimes that drowns out the more fundamental aspects – for example, keeping a club alive. When you cut C&S from $50,000 to $26,000 you’re cutting away one of the fundamental parts of your students’ society to fund Haven Books, a failing business. That’s unacceptable.

How will you fight for groups’ rights to use the McGill name?

I empathize with McGill’s concern about their name, and having investors not like it.

At the same time, they’re a university as much as a business, and there’s a compromise to be made. It involves a lot of talking to the administration. But the worst thing you can do is tell them: ‘This is what I want, this is what you want. You’re doing it wrong.’ I’ll fight for the McGill name, but the attitude won’t be all-out war against McGill.

VP External Affairs Devin Alfaro & Trevor Hanna implement in Canada and then expand that to North America.

or federal lobby group. Is this a good thing or a bad thing, and how can SSMU best continue to fight for accessible education?

With the exception of ASSÉ, we’ve been a member of every group out there and we’ve found that none of them represent the issues that are most pressing for SSMU’s membership, so I don’t think there is an option that would fit us well. At the moment, the best thing to do is to remain independent. We need to build coalitions without actually becoming a member of an organization.

Devin Alfaro U3 Sociology & Urban Systems Irvine, California What experience do you bring?

I’m currently a SSMU Councillor, I’m one of the Arts Reps, and I’m chair of the External committee so I’ve dealt extensively with the issues in the external portfolio. I have been a SSMU rep at [Canadian Federation of Students] general meetings and a SSMU observer at [Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante] congresses, so I know the issue and I know where the players are.

I think I have both the experience and the skills to be a good advocate for students.

What would your top priority be?

My biggest priority would be lobbying for more funding for education. For the last 10 years we’ve had governments more interested in cutting taxes than investing in public goods. This has had a negative affect on the quality of education.

We have to reach out; we need to build coalitions on an issue-by-issue basis to try and get things done, particularly fighting for better funding from both the provincial and federal level.

SSMU currently belongs to no provincial

Do you personally support free tuition, a return to the freeze, increasing tuition, or some other plan?

In the ideal world I don’t think there should be user fees for postsecondary education. That said, I think it’s difficult to navigate in the current political context. I’m comfortable working for a less ambitious goal, and I think fighting the defreeze is important. I don’t think we should limit ourselves to free tuition being the only goal, but rather make it the ideal goal.

Which GA questions are most important to you, and what would you do to implement them?

Lower tuition with the eventual goal of not having tuition – that’s a very important mandate for SSMU to work on. We’ve done a lot of work on that issue and I think it needs to continue.

What role should SSMU play in improving neighbhourhood relations, especially in the Milton-Parc community?

This is a really difficult issue to deal with, it’s very much at the individual level. SSMU needs to help provide ways for its members to get more involved in the Montreal community. The most important things I’ve learned here I haven’t learned in a lecture hall, and I’d like more students to have that outlook and take advantage of all the opportunities that are there for them.

Trevor Hanna U3 Physics Montreal, QC What experience do you bring?

I have a decade of experience working as a students’ representative. In high school I spent two years as a students’ rep to the Board of Governors, and I was also president of the students’ union. In CEGEP I spent one year as a rep with Marianapolis Student Congress. I was also VP of Federal and International Affairs at Féderation étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ).

What would your top priority be?

Financial aid. Instead of being on the defensive about student aid we can get on the offensive, look for improvements in terms of the required contribution from parents. My pet project of sorts is to create a student mobility program similar to one in Europe called ERASMUS, which lets students spend a semester or two abroad studying at any university in the EU and have those credits count toward their degree. It promotes travel, learning new languages and new cultures. It would be really interesting to see what program we could

SSMU currently belongs to no provincial or federal lobby group. Is this a good thing or a bad thing, and how can SSMU best continue to fight for accessible education?

I think there are benefits and drawbacks to being members of student lobby group.

During my time in office I plan to keep going as an independent student union, but that does not keep us from working with other student unions. Thanks to my time working at the FEUQ, I have a number of contacts in student unions across Quebec and Canada; we’re going to work together to get results.

Do you personally support free tuition, a return to the freeze, increasing tuition, or some other plan?

I personally support free tuition.

Which GA questions are most important to you, and what would you do to implement them?

There was one motion that was passed with regard to financial assistance and increasing benefits for student-parents. That’s something that would fit nicely in with my first priority, and you know we’ve got an increase in tuition fees that’s happening, and we need to make sure our financial aid system is up to par.

What role should SSMU play in improving neighbhourhood relations, especially in the Milton-Parc community?

This is certainly just a question of getting information to students living in the MiltonParc community, raising awareness that they don’t have a monopoly on the neighbourhood, and that they should be respectful of the residents living there longer than they have.

12

Endorsements

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

2008

The Daily’s

Endorsements PRESIDENT

T

he campaigns are coming to a close, online polls are opening, and it’s time for McGill’s downtown undergraduate students to start filling in the blanks of next year’s SSMU executive. In years past, The Daily has lamented the dearth of quality in SSMU candidates. This year, however, there is a bumper crop of campus politicos who, we think, deserve your vote. (In most races, anyway). It’s been a long and arduous process for both candidates and students, but here are The Daily’s endorsements. Read them over, debate them, love them or hate them – we just hope this helps you make up your mind.

CLUBS& SERVICES Samantha Cook

Kay Turner This year’s candidates for SSMU President are not terribly impressive. While both Turner and RJ Kelford have years of valuable experience heading up large portfolios, neither seems to have a strong grasp of the McGill administration nor external affairs. But Turner’s extensive experience in SSMU and level-headed vision for the union make her the clear choice over Kelford.

Kelford is running on a campaign of big ideas, many of them convincing at first blush.

But our confidence in him fades once he tries to argue for putting all of SSMU under the surgeon’s scalpel, be it he General Assemblies, our external representation, the Shatner Building, SSMU committees, and clubs funding. Kelford’s penchant for overhauling operations in his image – as he did as Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) President – has earned him admirers, but also many enemies.

At a massive student union, in a portfolio as a teambuilder more than a visionary, Kelford will likely steamroll his projects and visions through SSMU at the expenses of stepping on the toes of other executives and Council.

Further, it’s simply impossible for Kelford to accomplish all he’s proposed in one year while keeping the SSMU executive running well as a team.

Turner still has steep hurdles to overcome.

There is much she has faltered on this year: Greening SSMU Frosh was an utter failure, this year’s Faculty Olympics were postponed, and she has often had trouble articulating herself at Council meetings and during interviews. Further, we’re concerned her knowledge of administrative issues is superficial, as is her grasp of SSMU’s work with the rest of the student movement.

But her experience in SSMU outweighs her opponent’s to-do list. Turner been effective this year as a planner and mediator, and she’s had a taste of what is and isn’t possible to accomplish. She also has a stronger grasp of the social and political questions facing SSMU right now, such as its ethical investment policy, tuition, and defending student life on campus.

Her ideas are simple enough to be effective, and overall, she woud be a competent, progressive, and level-headed leader for SSMU.

Although there are four people vying for the Internal position, this comes down to two candidates – Julia Webster and José Diaz.

While each brings different and equally valuable traits to the position, our endorsement here ultimately goes to Diaz. He brings new ideas to the table, and is the first candidate for this position in as long as we can remember that takes the broader organizational and political aspects of the position seriously.

Kevin Chambers is amusing, but doesn’t have the professionalism for the job. And Brad Milech’s ideas to move all SSMU events off campus is the last thing undergraduates need. Webster is a strong candidate; she has experience planning large events and dealing with the McGill machine as this year’s SnowAP director and as President of Arts and Science Council. Webster would effectively coordinate Frosh and SnowAP, Internal’s two largest events priorities. However, her interpersonal skills are weak, as is her French

José Diaz

– both important for her position. Further, beyond token mentions of ethical sponsorship and sustainability, she doesn’t seem to be interested in the broader political aspects of her portfolio.

Diaz has great ideas about making SSMU events more inclusive and diverse. He wants to host more Town Halls and bring more speakers to McGill – not a bad move, especially considering the interesting public figures Concordia has brought in this year. We are concerned about his lack of experience in organizing huge McGill events like Frosh, and his lack of SSMU involvement, but we’d like to give him a chance to prove himself.

Webster would be a competent continuation of the current VP Internal’s success. But Diaz would bring a fresh perspective to a portfolio with great potential to make SSMU relevant for all students.

INTERNAL

The Daily is endorsing Samantha Cook for VP Clubs & Services. Cook has more relevant experience and a better grasp of what the Clubs & Services portfolio entails. As a Queer McGill co-administrator, Cook has experience working in one of SSMU’s largest services, an important asset for the portfolio that her rival lacks. She is also better-versed in important issues for SSMU groups, like the administration’s crusade to strip clubs of the McGill name. We trust Cook will be able to handle complaints from clubs and services who want more money or more space, a task which occupies most of the VP C&S’s waking hours.

Despite our endorsement, we do have some reservations. Most importantly, The Daily was disappointed that Cook downplayed opponent Johnson Fung’s claim that SSMU ought to digitize the C&S portfolio, and by her dismissal of his concerns about SSMU’s woefully outdated web site. Fung has some good ideas; he just isn’t suited for the position.

While we were impressed with Fung’s technological know-how, we question his faith that technology alone will solve perennial spacing and funding problems for clubs and services. Fung outlined a plan to increase clubs and services’ efficiency with technocratic solutions like digitizing SSMU and physically counting the amount of people who use SSMU offices. SSMU could certainly be more efficient, but there will always be less money and space than clubs demand, and a VP unprepared to deal with scarce resources is unprepared for the position. As well, Fung has experience in publicity and finances – which would make him a solid candidate for Internal or Finance & Operations, but not C&S. We strongly endorse Cook for this position.

That said, we applaud Fung’s desire to revamp SSMU’s online infrastructure. If he isn’t elected, perhaps SSMU should consider hiring him as webmaster.

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

Our strong endorsement here goes to Devin Alfaro, whose amicability and clear priorities give him an edge over opponent Trevor Hanna.

Both candidates are experienced; Alfaro is an Arts representative to SSMU Council and chair of the student union’s External Affairs Committee, and has been involved in campus group like NDPMcGill and Queer McGill. Hanna is a former executive in provincial student association la Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) and a perennial SSMU exec candidate. But involvement in an organization like FEUQ – a problematic lobby group that SSMU left in 2006 – doesn’t exactly count in Hanna’s favour.

Hanna says he will respect students’ desire to steer clear of FEUQ, and we’re sure he would. But it’s clear that Hanna would take the bureaucratic approach favoured by his former association, while Alfaro would continue the current VP External’s focus on student mobili-

The University Affairs position is acclaimed for next year, but we’re fairly happy that Nadya Wilkinson has the job. For the first time in recent history, someone from outside the sleazy depths of student politics will take on this decidedly dense portfolio.

That’s not to say Wilkinson doesn’t have experience working with the administration. She’s been able to build a good rapport with the admin through her work with the Sustainable McGill Project – which recently received a commitment from administrator Dennis Fortune for a Sustainability Centre – and the Senate subcommittee on the environment. Not surprisingly, her experience with SSMU comes from her time on its environment committee, which was responsible for drafting SSMU’s sustainability policy and creat-

Endorsements 13

zation and independent coalition-building.

After leaving FEUQ and being unfairly kicked out of the Canadian Federation of Students this year, SSMU is charting an independent course, and Alfaro is the best man to have at the helm. His involvement on the External Affairs Committee means that he’s up-to-date with the student union’s current status, and his easy charm should mean he makes fast friends with his counterparts on the provincial scene.

Alfaro’s platform could certainly use some work. His performance at the exec debate was disappointing, and he should clarify how he will improve SSMU’s municipal and community relations after years of neglect. But while the candidates’ platforms overlap, one of Hanna’s key positions is simply alarming; he says he would put the issue of accessible tuition aside in favour of focusing on student aid.

No one denies that scholarships and bur-

ing the Green Fund.

Wilkinson has also been a regular voice at Town Hall meetings, where takes a soft approach to questioning – but we hope her sunny disposition doesn’t mean she lacks the backbone for the job. Her green background is encouraging, but Wilkinson has a lot of homework to do on issues like liability, defending student space, and student-run food services before she’s ready to assume the role of VP UA. SSMU members need a strong voice on these issues, and Wilkinson has made it clear that she’s eager for the steep learning curve ahead.

saries are important, but we’ve heard this line before. It’s employed by right-wing student politicians and groups like the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, who favour ineffective scholarship programs over broadbased tuition decreases. Ignoring the importance of low tuition means higher fees, more debt, and less accessible education.

Next year, SSMU will enter a delicate time.

The Students’ Society will need to forge its own ties at the federal and provincial levels.

The Quebec student movement is divided; Quebec students face their first tuition hikes in years, FEUQ is struggling for relevance, and rival student group l’Association pour une solidarité synicale étudiante is losing ground after this year’s failed student strike.

We’re confident that Alfaro will lead undergraduates through a successful year on the external front.

Peter Newhook

Acclaimed

Devin Alfaro

Acclaimed

UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS

Nadya Wilkinson

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

VP Finance & Operations is uncontested this year, but we’re a little wary of acclaimed candidate Peter Newhook. We’re not sure that Newhook has the skills to handle SSMU’s messy finances, and beyond being a Management student, he has no real experience. His transition into student politics is likely to be tumultuous.

The Daily is concerned that Newhook sees Fops as “one of the lesser-political, experience-based positions.” Tuesday’s debates revealed that he is unfamiliar with many of the policies and committees attached to his position – for example, he appeared confused about the difference between SSMU’s environment fund and the Financial Ethics Review Committee.

While Newhook obviously recognizes that dealing with money has political implications, we’re not convinced that he has

FINANCE& OPERATIONS

his priorities straight. He mentioned that in Shatner he may favour food services from businesses rather than student initiatives, based on the assumption that businesses are more organized. At a time when students are clamouring for their own spaces and food services, this is an unwise move.

Newhook must view his position as not only a budget manager, but also as a student representative and an advocate of their welfare.

All this said, we haven’t written off Newhook entirely. He was clearly a better candidate than former opponent Rushil Mistry, who dropped out of the race last week. And Newhook’s proposal to eliminate fees for student groups who book events in Gert’s is more than welcome. But Newhook faces a steep learning curve. We hope he’s up for it.

Referenda

diverse and vibrant culture for students.

Furthermore, Le Délit is the only French newspaper at McGill. See today’s Features and Commentary sections for more reasons why to vote Yes.

descriptions of the organizations. We strongly encourage students to vote Yes in this symbolic referendum supporting the groups in administering their own online opt-.-out systems.

question comes off as a tactical maneuver in response to the steep budget cuts that clubs and services faced this year, we’re unsure what difference this question would make.

Reconfirming the Daily Publications Society fee: YES Were this question to fail, The Daily and Le Délit will no longer be able to publish. As independent student publications, both newspapers provide honest coverage of campus activity and are integral to a

Supporting Online Opt- Out Autonomy: YES Last year, McGill put all opt-outable fees on Minerva, assuming control over funding for autonomous student groups and SSMU fees. Not only could groups like CKUT and QPIRG not contest the process, but Minerva only included links to sparse and outdated

Clubs and Services: YES/NO Everyone agrees that it’s crucial to support clubs and services, but the Daily’s editorial board could not reach a consensus on this question. While some thought it was important to vote Yes, others considered the question’s phrasing misleading and problematic. Unfortunately, as the

Changing Chief Returning Officer to Chief Electoral Officer: YES There’s no reason to deny Corey Shefman an accurate job title

Nadya Wilkinson

Nomination of Auditors: YES There’s also no reason to deny SSMU an auditing firm.

14

Save The Daily

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

15

vote

Yes to

save The Daily

This week, McGill undergraduates will vote on whether to keep The McGill Daily and Le Délit around. To be clear, this is not a referendum on a fee increase for the newspapers, but simply an affirmation of student support.

For now, it is less important that the McGill administration has unfairly forced this upon the newspapers. It is more important to understand just what is at stake here: the existence of an institution with a nearly 100-year history of fearless student journalism.

You have until Friday to go to vote.electionsmcgill.ca and vote Yes. The future of your student press is on the line.

Vote Yes for:

An independent press

Campus democracy

The Daily and Le Délit are this campus’s only fully autonomous, student-run newspapers. We are directly beholden to you, and are the best source of information for all things McGill and Montreal.

The Daily holds the administration and student unions to account, keeping you informed on their doings and misdeeds. Whatever your political views are, a strong, independent press is crucial to campus democracy. “I have agreed and disagreed with The Daily over the years, just as people agreed and disagreed with the paper when I was editor,” famed CBC producer and Daily alumnus Mark Starowicz recently said. “That’s not the problem, that’s the point.”

A forum for students You make this newspaper possible.

You are our editors, writers, photographers, artists, design gurus, and readers.

We publish every letter we receive from students, giving you a soapbox to stand on and speak your mind.

Student life From reviews of student plays to profiles of McGill bands to free listings of campus events, The Daily’s guide to student culture is unparalleled.

McGill’s School of Journalism

1911

1972

The first issue of The McGill Daily, pictured, is published on Monday, October 11. A mouthpiece for McGill, it focuses on sports and campus news, and is preceded by a slew of short-lived campus publications.

The Daily publishes its first gay and lesbian special issue, one of many controversial special issues over the years.

1960s-70s With campus opposition to the Vietnam War in full swing, The Daily reports on the University’s ties to the Pentagon and military research. At this time, the newspaper is published by the undergraduate student union.

1977

The first issue of The McGill Daily edition française, pictured, is published on Tuesday, October 18. Beginning as a weekly Frenchlanguage supplement to The Daily, it eventually morphs into Le Délit, our sister publication and McGill’s only francophone student newspaper.

McGill might not have a j-school, but The Daily is the next best thing. From workshops on Photoshop and InDesign to writing guides to our open-to-all production nights, The Daily is a training ground for the next generation of journalists.

An essential part of McGill history

Why is this referendum even happening?

The McGill Daily has been around since 1911, making it one of the oldest student newspapers in Canada. It began as a true daily – a one-page sports-andnews rag published by the administration – and over the years became the fiercely independent paper you know today. Covering everything from the Great Depression to Vietnam War protests to today’s university underfunding crisis, The Daily is truly McGill’s newspaper of record.

Every five years, the Daily Publications Society (DPS) – the autonomous student-run organization that publishes The Daily and Le Délit – must renegotiate its contract with the McGill administration.

Called a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), this contract allows the DPS to collect student fees, distribute the newspapers on campus, and use the McGill name.

This year, for the first time ever, the administration has made the finalization of the MoA contingent upon McGill undergraduates reaffirming their support for the newspapers via referendum.

Without student fees or an agreement with McGill, the viability of the DPS will be fatally compromised.

Our famous alumni Le seul journal francophone à McGill

Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, Irwin Cotler, Mark Starowicz, Jan Wong, Susan Swan, Charles Krauthammer, and countless other journalists, writers, and political figures started out at The Daily.

Who knows what other famed figures The Daily will produce in the years to come?

Seule publication étudiante francophone à McGill, Le Délit est un forum pour tous les étudiants, autant francophones que francophiles. En soulignant les liens entre le campus de l’université et Montréal, Le Délit est résolument en phase avec l’actualité de la métropole québécoise et les événements culturels qui s’y produisent. Les étudiants peuvent aussi profiter du contenu de haute qualité qu’offre le journal pour perfectionner leur apprentissage de la langue de Molière. McGill a besoin de cette présence en français pour lui rappeler le contexte culturel unique dans lequel le campus et ses étudiants évoluent.

Award-winning journalism The Daily regularly takes home top awards from the Canadian University Press, an organization with over 70 members newspapers from across the country. This year alone, The Daily and Le Délit won four awards, three of which were for first place in their categories.

Last year, The Daily received the SSMU Award for Best Campus Publication.

1981 The Daily goes fully independent with the creation of the Daily Publications Society, the autonomous financial body that publishes the newspaper to this day. The Daily’s first independent issue is pictured.

1985 McGill divests from South Africa after 1,200 students protest on campus against the Univesity’s financial ties to the apartheid regime. In the 1980s, The Daily was on the front lines of the antiapartheid movement at McGill.

2005 1995 The pages of the McGill Daily français are filled with debate on that year’s Quebec sovereignty referendum.

As over 200,000 students across Quebec strike against deep cuts to financial aid, The Daily reports from a packed-to-the-brim, 800-person SSMU General Assembly that votes overwhelmingly to join the strike.

16

Features

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

T

Sasha Platnikova / The McGill Daily

Queer McGill’s 2008 Pride Week Monday, March 10 “Queer Margins” Film Screening and Discussion (TBD) Tuesday, March 11 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Pansexual Speed-dating @ Le Drugstore (1366 Ste. Catherine E.) Wednesday, March 12 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Charlotte Cooper: Workshop @ SSMU Clubs Lounge (Shatner, fourth floor) Thursday, March 13 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Amateur Drag Night @ Cleo’s (1230 St. Laurent) Tuesday, March 18 QUEEREOKE (TBD) Wednesday, March 19 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Bowling @ Sharx (1606 Ste. Catherine O.) Thursday, March 20 11:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Eighties Homo Hop

his week, Queer McGill will kick off its Pride Week festivities with a smattering of events, including speed-dating, drag performances, and an eighties-themed dance party. McGill’s queer community is diverse, and Pride Week caters to that fact. Whether you’ve been bisexual for years, or you’re just becoming “queerious” – interested in members of the gender you call your own – you might enjoy “coming out” to some of our events.

Maybe you’d like to hang out in a space where you won’t be judged for who you lock eyes with? Maybe you want to smash heteropatriarchy? Either way, we hope you’re interested in celebrating queer sexualities.

Sometimes people ask us: What does “pride” mean, anyway? And why do queers seem so intent on flaunting it? Fair enough.

Perhaps the following will give you a better idea of why Pride is still important. See you this week!

vices to the queer community. Montreal even has its own gay village. Pride now fights a different battle; our era’s Stonewall riots do not occur in violent confrontations with the police, but in everyday actions that aim to celebrate queer folk.

Pride is an achievement of queer and straight people that promotes unity, solidarity, and appreciation. We all must continue to celebrate pride through discussions and events to create an environment in which queer people are respected and understood as equals. Suggestions like, “People can be gay at home, but shouldn’t block traffic with their rainbow parade,” promote a shameful concept of queer identity as something to be hidden or begrudgingly accepted. To counter this attitude, we must understand queerness not as a disadvantage to be tolerated, but as a way to identify with a tight-knit community, as an amazing way to live one’s life, as something to be proud of.

Today’s Stonewall The LGBTQ – that’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer – liberation movement began with a now-legendary standoff known as the Stonewall Riots. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York police raided the Stonewall Inn, a tawdry Greenwich Village bar that catered to gay and trans people of color. Although police raids of gay bars were ludicrously commonplace at this time, this particular one sparked unified, violent resistance from patrons and other people in the area. The result was a riotous protest involving hundreds people, who shouted slogans like “Gay power!” and “We want freedom!”

This picture-perfect uprising gave an identity and voice to the queer community, unified together against homophobia. Soon after came fabulous pride parades, political queer groups, and a whole movement dedicated to advancing the notion that queers are equal and amazing people.

Stonewall provided a powerful impetus for the unity and demands of the queer community, but it seems like a different era’s fight.

Today, Quebec and Canada forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. McGill and other institutions provide countless ser-

–Sarah Olle

The closet is so gay “In the closet” is a pretty fucking appropriate idiom. It’s dark and lonely in there. Pride Week aims to show closeted queers that there is a community out there – no pun intended – that will accept and celebrate who you are.

These events also praise those individuals who have had the courage – and it takes a hell of a lot of courage – to assert their sexual identities, and to show the world that queers are wonderful people.

What’s more, coming out publicly can be a powerful political statement; it’s clear that as more people come out of the closet, queer rights movements gain strength. Some see coming out as a moral imperative, a duty you owe to the whole queer community.

The argument goes like this: There are gays who aren’t gay – “closet cases” who everyone knows are queer, but who refuse to come out.

Closeted celebrities are a case in point. These are talented and respected people who would make amazing queer role models if they would come out. If only a certain silver-fox news reporter would admit, “I’m gay!” the heterosexist mainstream would be thrown for a loop.

Everyone’s favourite single-mom bad-guy-killer

Features 17

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

Loud and Proud Queer McGill weighs in on the contemporary importance of Pride Week

could be such a strong voice for the gay-rights movement. But instead, they’re choosing to do a disservice to the community by so conspicuously not publicly coming out.

So, why shouldn’t Perez Hilton just do the outing for them? Because it might affect their careers? Because it might hurt their feelings?

And don’t they owe it to the community?

This is where it gets a little grey. Sure, celebrity blogs and Hollywood may be far removed from real life, but this just-come-out-already sentiment is not completely foreign to the rest of the queer community. After all, no one likes a closet case.

But what’s often neglected is that, in some situations, coming out is just a bad idea. Let’s face it: in many cases queers are not treated as full people under the law, whether in the workplace or in eighth-grade classrooms. The goal of Pride is to eliminate the hostility in these environments, but Pride must reflect reality. It shouldn’t encourage exposing oneself to danger.

The choice to come out is intensely personal and contextual. Individuals don’t owe it to anyone to come out until they are ready, especially not if it may endanger them. Queers, out or in, are not de facto members of the queer community by virtue of their sexual identity.

The benefits to the queer community of coming out are an exciting bonus, but should never be the driving motivation.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping your foot in the door, just in case you get locked out. It’s your closet, after all. Own it.

–Brock Dumville

Homophobia at McGill? Really?

You might expect a left-leaning queer like myself, given this fine opportunity, to launch into a rant on my experiences of homophobia at McGill. If it were that simple, I would indulge.

Instead, I admit: I can’t think of one instance at McGill when I have experienced explicit homophobia. I have not been discriminated against for my attraction to women and trans people in any way that I can remember. Why is this? Have I gotten so used to homophobia that I’ve lost the ability to recognize it for what it is?

Homophobia is not just about sexual practices and desires; it is about gender. I am a female whose gender presentation is sufficiently

“femme” so as to not attract glares or fists-inthe-face when I use the women’s washroom.

People don’t get my pronouns wrong. When I say I don’t experience homophobia at McGill, I am not claiming that McGill is homophobia-free.

Homophobia is expressed differently now. It does its business subtly, permeates our every interaction, and targets “different” queers: queers who are visibly trans, who don’t fit into rigid conceptions of “man” and “woman.”

“Being gay is okay,” it is sometimes said, “as long as it’s not advertised.” But who advertises? It’s hard not to notice the impatient smirks of library personnel who shoot an embittered up-and-down at my trans friend, and then – only because I am with them – at me. At these times, I become most aware of my “deviant” sexual predilections, and start to feel uncomfortable.

Since I tend to be interpreted as an awkward hippie girl – the “girl” part is key – I manage to skip out on a lot of homophobia. Whereas my trans friends tend to be pegged as queer, I can pass for straight. Transphobia, a fear of people and practices that go against “natural” gender, is the molten core of homophobia.

Pride needs to push past the mere acceptance of men who love men and women who love women. It needs to self-reflect and grapple; with taboo desires (BDSM and anal play come to mind); with bodies that don’t fit, nor want to fit neatly into the “he” or “she” of language. Pride is more than an acceptance of people who are attracted to members of the “same sex.” It is founded on respect for trans politics and people – and on the knowledge that we have a long way to go.

– Taylor Lewis

The Meaning of Pride “Whenever I see a fag, I just want to punch him in the face.”

He meant it. The way he spoke, he could have been talking about bench-press technique, our upcoming tournaments, or the weather. He said it without shame.

We’d been teammates for years, athletes on the Canadian National Wrestling Team – the Olympic sport, not the Hulk Hogan sportentertainment. He was a buff, tough, straight

jock. I was a buff, tough, gay jock.

I’m sure he had no idea that he was staring a fag in the face; that for the past half-hour he’d been training with the object of his disgust; that for years he’d been travelling the world, sharing hotel rooms, with the very person he so violently detested. The camaraderie of his smile underscored the brutishness of his threat. I was afraid.

How should I have responded? I know how I did respond: I laughed, awkwardly. I mumbled something about how violent he was, which he probably took as a compliment.

And I hoped, desperately, that he would never, ever, find out that I was gay.

Take a sport that legalizes violence and glorifies pain, add a dose of ignorance and a dollop of reactionary homophobia – “I may wear spandex, but I’m not gay! I swear! Grrrr!

Chicks!” – and you have a recipe for a particularly unfriendly environment for queers. So I lied. I lied to save myself from the potentially violent reactions of my undeniably violent teammates. I lied to escape the homophobia of my coach. I lied because it was easy.

But it was only easy in the short term.

Lies are suffocating, and after years of hiding I finally ran out of breath. So this summer, I began the process of coming out to my teammates. The response? Shock, but also understanding and respect.

When queers keep quiet about who they are, they also hide the homophobia that lies at the root of their silence. No matter how scary it may be, being honest and open about who I am is my moral obligation. I owe it to myself. I owe it to those who’ve come before, to the Martina Navratilovas and Mark Tewksburys, champions who had the courage to live honestly and openly.

I owe it to the queer kids who are killed in their classrooms and streets. Compared to them, I have it easy.

Only if every queer person comes out and stands tall can Pride make sense. First we must be proud, and soon others will be proud of us.

And sometimes, Pride means risking a punch in the face.

“Whenever I see a fag, I just want to punch him in the face,” he said. I dare him to say it again.

– Tyler Marghetis

Commentary

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

19

Why I dropped out of the SSMU election One-third of the candidates in this year’s SSMU executive elections have quit the race. One former candidate explains her problems with the process LYNNE CHAMPOUX-WILLIAMS

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ruth is, I’m quite disgusted with the outcome of last Monday’s mandatory candidates’ meeting, led by Elections McGill. There are too many regulations impeding candidates from getting known, especially candidates with few resources. Here are the obstacles I have encountered while I was preparing to become candidate for VP University Affairs.

The Elections McGill web site is not optimized for Internet Explorer, and until last Wednesday did not explain so on the front page. This, despite the fact that an estimated 75 per cent of internet users use Internet Explorer.

This blocked me from accessing the SSMU constitutional by-laws, which contain the electoral by-laws. My second option would have been to look on the SSMU web site, but the version of the electoral by-laws I found there was outdated. As a result, I ordered 900 posters from Copy Services in Redpath Library, instead of 400 photocopies. The resulting waste hurts my environmentalist heart. Moreover, the by-laws of SSMU are not available in French. Having no clue that “public service announcement” meant “advertisement,” I had prepared some ads and already contacted The Daily by the time the mandatory Elections McGill meeting happened. Lastly as a strange cherry on this sordid sundae, the measurements in the SSMU by-

laws are given in the imperial system.

Canada started its metrication in the 1970s. As a student schooled in the metric system, it’s difficult for me to visualize how big a 432 square inch poster is. Of course, I could convert it easily on the internet, but why not just use the metric system?

The only personal reason for my withdrawal that I’ll mention publicly is my status as a third-year Quebec student. If I had been elected to SSMU, I had no choice but to delay my graduation, which requires the Associate Dean of Arts authorization, to her discretion based on the value of my justifications. Registration in postsecondary education for Quebecers is on March 1. Unable to delay graduation, I would have had to apply late to the Faculty of Education, a long shot because I am completing an undergraduate degree which will not be on the Dean’s Honour List.

Regulations on campaigning, despite having improved, are still far too numerous. I’m not a libertarian, but I might become one after having to jump through the following hoops: a ban on participation (including advertising) in the McGill media, a ban on sending emails to any of the mail.mcgill.ca people in my gmail account contacts, and the labyrinth of various postering regulations for each building. Never mind not being able to campaign in the libraries (a ban which, to be fair, comes from the Libraries Director), or having to contact a Hall Council executive in order to campaign in residences.

I’m guessing all these rules were introduced following excesses from previous campaigners. However, by preventing people from efficiently using all resources available to them, candidates’ ability to raise awareness is severely restricted. Some of those issues will be resolved by the publication of this Hyde Park. I have already complained to the relevant stakeholders, namely Elections McGill and SSMU. I have also facilitated campaigning for SSMU candidates and referenda with fewer resources by sharing information such as Minerva lists of the largest classes in every undergraduate faculty and school, a list of Hall Councillors, and the beginning of a compilation of postering regulations. For me, the red tape surrounding the SSMU electoral process was too much. I withdrew my candidacy for Vice President University Affairs of the Students’ Society of McGill University, partly out of protest, partly for personal reasons. Once campaigning is over, let’s hope SSMU will use the downtime to begin to reform electoral laws and become more inclusive. Otherwise, we risk alienating candidates who are francophone, have less resources, or outsiders unfamiliar with SSMU’s byzantine election rules.

If we want to increase participation and fight voter apathy, simplifying the campaign process would be a good place to start.

Lynne Champoux-Williams is AUS/SSMU Student Senator and President of the McGill Green Party.

The poetry of Islam SANA SAEED

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eligious texts are fascinating.

Yet I am constantly perplexed as to how the beautifully crafted words and lessons found on scrolls and leaves – from the Bhagavad Gita to the Talmud to the Qu’ran – are often overlooked by the self-righteous. I cringe whenever I hear someone assert that religion is a tool used to blind the masses, convincing them they are heading down a path towards peace and calm when in actuality they are being led towards a pool of so-called sadistic acts and beliefs perpetuating intolerance.

However, before I cringe myself into convulsion, I am tempted to agree with the extremely basic and general idea behind an otherwise erroneous statement. Belief – in God, Marx, or any other doctrine – is always going to be used for both the good and the bad, which in turn becomes the ugly. Oscar Wilde said it best when he said that nothing “is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.” Everything can be made to look ugly, and when

it comes to belief, people do a pretty decent job of creating these “conditions.” We’re good at many things, and making nouns look ugly is one of them. With words, actions or stares, we are able to diminish the intrinsic worth of something beautiful.

In the Qur’an there is a chapter called “The Poets,” or “Ash Shu’arâ.”

At face value, the chapter concerns the struggle Moses faces against the Pharaoh. While there’s an obvious theological lesson in the chapter, I personally see a second meaning which seems especially relevant today. I am no Sheikha (yet!), but I believe that if you see something beautiful – share it.

When I read the English interpretation of “The Poets,” I was initially confused about why it was so named, since it only seemed to discuss the Prophets and their struggles to convince their people to turn away from self-indulgent and ruinous ways. Then, I hit the 224th verse, where poets are actually mentioned. Suddenly, it all came together.

The chapter discusses the fatal effect of false poets; those who are able to make ugly things sound beautiful and thus desirable – poets who manipulate words and beliefs and those who take the wrong and twist it into the right. It’s easy to descend into the abyss of poetic verses which appeal to our lusts but

destroy our physical and epistemological selves. But there are always other poets, who are able to show us truth with their words. These are the poets who take beautiful lessons and make them into beautiful verses. Of course, I’m not only talking about religious poets; every belief and cause is supported by some kind of writer. Equally, every belief and cause is forwarded by those who manipulate and those who inspire.

Islamic Awareness Week, which begins today, is meant to allow some of Islam’s aspiring poets to represent it. This is why this year the Muslim Students’ Association has taken a different approach to spreading the word, with their two-day photo exhibition showcasing Muslims in various lights through the lens of both local and international, amateur and professional photographers. This is why this year, once again, the week will include a night of poetry, free verse, spoken word and song.

We’re just a bunch of poets looking to spread the real beauty, one we believe that other poets have diminished.

Sana Saeed is external relations coordinator of the Muslim Students’ Association.

David Pullmer / The McGill Daily

The Daily needs you this week PJ VOGT

COMMENT

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ell, it’s begun. Saturday morning at 9 a.m., ovs. ssmu.mcgill.ca went live.

This week, undergrads will log on and vote whether or not to continue funding The McGill Daily and Le Délit. And after a frenzied week of campaigning, there’s nothing for me to do but wait and hope that it turns out okay.

Odds are good that in the past week someone has accosted you with a white t-shirt, a red button, and a stack of orange fliers, ready to explain why The Daily deserves your continued support. Our fervent campaigning reflects two realities.

The first is that the cost of losing is too great to make any assumptions about anyone’s support: over half of our funding comes from student fees, and our continued legal relationship with McGill hinges on your vote.

A “No” vote would almost certainly mean the end of these two papers.

But beyond that, this referendum’s success depends on more than just winning. The administration’s new policy of requiring student-funded groups to go for an all-or-nothing existence referendum every five years could become a dangerous interference. If one year’s Board of Directors runs a poor campaign, 100 years of history could come to a very sudden end. The Daily will always be accountable to students, with or without administrative interference. A strong, unequivocal “Yes” sends a message to the administration, and that message is that undergraduates support the autonomy of student voices.

If you’ve taken the time to read this far, you might already support The Daily’s continued publication – perhaps because you find the crossword a worthwhile diversion between classes, or maybe because you’ve liked some editorials this year. But if you don’t yet know how you’re going to vote, consider this: these papers are the only independent, student-run newspapers on campus, and Le Délit is McGill’s sole francophone paper. Because they are

accountable to no-one but students, they have the freedom to dig into controversial issues without worrying about the interests of advertisers or administrators – interests which can conflict with those of students, and which are much more powerful in the world off-campus.

And whether or not you agree with the stances we’ve taken on these controversial topics, it would be hard to point to a more vibrant on-campus public forum for McGill students.

Our non-hierarchical structure helps ensure that The Daily is always open to new writers and staffers, and our policy of publishing every letter we receive means that student debates about international affairs and campus uprisings get hashed out on our pages. As the editor responsible for the Letters section, I know how often students disagree with what’s written in The Daily’s pages, and I’m proud of our tradition of honouring dissent by publishing it, week after week. It’s been my privilege to shape intense debates that have refined the arguments of those involved and birthed new and exciting ideas.

I’ve given a lot to this campaign because my time at The Daily has been formative, but also because I believe that what we’ve produced has been relevant to you. Whether you grab every issue or have never read a single one before now, you are benefiting from the hard work of dozens of under or unpaid staff who are willing to ask tough questions to people in power, questions about where your money is going and what is happening to the campus around you. When I wandered into the Daily office with a vague desire to write, I wandered into something much bigger than I am: a voice that has represented and challenged students at McGill for almost 100 years. That’s what’s on the line this week. That’s why I felt confident coming up to you last week with an orange pamphlet and a lot to say, and why I will be hopefully but nervously drumming my fingers until votes are counted on Friday. Please vote Yes. PJ Vogt is The Daily’s underpaid Commentary and Compendium editor.

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Commentary

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

Daily readers weigh in on the referendum and discuss this “blogging” fad

Letters Vote Yes for acrostics!

Re: “Vote Yes for The Daily” | Commentary | March 6, 2008 Daring Awesome Intelligent Legacy Yes!!! Vote YES!!!!

quality. At a school where there is no journalism department – the joke is that the editors run the McGill Daily School of Journalism – the independent paper has one of the largest circulations of Canadian student publications and is routinely recognized for its excellence. I’m sure there are those who dislike The Daily and its politics, but I challenge those people to provide an acceptable reason for its obliteration. Good luck, bastards.

turn into these visceral animals.

But even more dangerous than a student politician is a student politician masquerading as not being one.

Having said that, I want to emphasize this is not an endorsement of either candidate, merely a deflation of rhetoric.

Joseph Watts U3 English Literature & Art History Daily columnist Former Daily editor

A Nuit Blanche whodunit

Dina Cipin U2 Psychology

Max Silverman is Monica Lewinsky, Drew Nelles is Ken Star

Vote Yes for optimism!

Re: “SSMU exec wannabes vie for powers” | News | March 6, 2008

Re: “Vote Yes for The Daily” | Commentary | March 6, 2008 “Why is the McGill Daily?” does the pessimist persist.

“At least,” says the optimist, “it does exist.”

Lester Corbeau U1 Ornithology

Vote Yes for rice!

You guys are absolutely fantastic. Don’t let the man get you down. You are easily the hardest working men and women in show business. I read you every day, even though you only publish two issues a week. Which kind of sucks, because I end up reading a lot of articles, twice, thrice, or sometimes rice.

Whatever, you rock.

Marie-Marguerite Sabongui U3 International Development Studies & English

Shave The Daily Re: “Vote Yes for The Daily” | Commentary | March 6, 2008 Every single issue printed this month has been filled with the rhetoric of salvation. The word “save” is most often reserved for church bulletins and supermarket circulars, but now what’s in peril is this newspaper, not dollars or souls. When I first started to work for The Daily I didn’t think I would ever see the day that it needed to be saved.

Over 97 years, The Daily has had its fair share of hurdles, but you’re still holding it in your hands. In 1981, when the student body voted to make The Daily autonomous, founding the Daily Publications Society (you’re a member!), the editors and readers adapted to the new independence. The suits in James Admin, and SSMU too, at times, have tried to strip the Daily of its fees and its office, but none of it stuck.

In my opinion, The Daily remains steadfast because of its

Has anyone else noticed that the SSMU Presidential campaign is a white female (whose boyfriend is a previous president) running on a campaign of experience against a white (no comparison is perfect) male running on a campaign of change? But I digress, RJ’s charisma has not inspired a “mania” and Jake is certainly no Bill Clinton (sorry, I just don’t see him using a cigar in that way) even if he did have a scandal of his own calling for his impeachment.

I do find it interesting that a campaign is running on the slogan, “not another student politician” defined as “a student who isn’t afraid to take a risk.” Student politics and politicians suck, no argument there.

But by claiming one is not a student politician, there is an implication that the other side is.

Last year, that claim would have certainly been true of Jake. But is it true of Kay? This allegation has yet to be proven. It reeks of politics. Is association by relationship an association of guilt? Surely, Kay is a strong enough woman to differentiate herself from Jake.

Furthermore, I fail to see how two years of AUS student politics is that much different than student politics in SSMU for two years. And even more pertinent, is whether someone who initially ran for AUS President with the help of Jake and his “political machine” (as ridiculous as that sounds) and then chose not to run the next year when Jake was running for president, can be considered a non-politician.

A student politician is one who is interested in themselves, back room deals and bureaucracy, not one who is afraid of risks. Defining it as the latter is not getting out of the realm of politics but staying firmly within it just in a different flavour, populism.

I would love to see student politics and politicians removed from our campus. It’s almost pathetic for people to care enough that they

Dave Schecter BaSc U2 History & Biomedical Sciences Student Politician

Re: “An editor’s look at the plagiarism allegations” | Commentary | Feb. 21, 2008 Firstly, Nuit Blanche in Shatner was definitely one of the most successful events I have ever seen pulled off in my three years at McGill, and for that I believe that The Daily must give credit where credit is due.

The AUS Fine Arts Council did a phenomenal job. Unfortunately, The Daily misinterpreted their efforts to make a political statement. Neglecting to mention the co-commissioner Laura D’Angelo at all in the article, mentioning ever so slightly the initiatives of the Fine Arts Council as a whole disrespects the efforts of those who worked weeks and months to make this amazing event happen.

So if you won’t acknowledge them, I will say it for you: Congratulations to Stephanie Latendresse and Laura D’Angelo, Co-Commissioners of the Fine Arts Council, and the members of the FAC: Marc Goldfinger, Marina LaVerghetta, Francois MacDonald, Sarah Kestenberg, Joanna Gins, Talia Bronstein, Elizabeth Mirhady and RJ Kelford.

It really was an amazing event celebrating the fine arts at McGill.

The performances were spectacular, the arts and crafts were awesome and the event on whole showcased the wonderfully talented and creative students that we have here at McGill.

My hat is definitely off to the Fine Arts Council.

Emily Elizabeth Goodman U3 Art History

A message for you, Mr. Mahler Re: “Anti-Daily blogger publishes letter in Daily, misses irony” | Letters | March 6, 2008 Well Mahler, I’m all for quality student press and the maintenance of high standards with regards to plagiarism, however there seems to be one gigantic hole in the logic behind what you say and the way you’ve been acting with regard to The Daily. This hole, frankly, is that you persistently (and having visited your eerily passionate blog, I can say anally) criticize The Daily from the

outside.

The statement of purpose on your “Daily Watch” blog says “I’ve decided to document the errors, infelicities, EMO-writing, empty-headed pretentiousness and obscurantism I encounter in the issues [of The Daily] I read this year.” Great. I get it, the media needs their own watchdog, someone to ensure truthful, intelligent reporting. I think strong media watchdogs could go a long way – they might ensure the likes of Bill O’Reilly and FOX News were held accountable for what they say. But in your case, why criticize from the outside when you can contribute positively from the inside? I invite you, Mahler, to try writing for The Daily. I think that from within your passion and attention to detail would be of greater value.

Besides disagreeing with you over the quality of writing and production of The Daily, one further issue I take is that as a student, you choose to spend your free time deliberately and falsely interpreting what’s written, nitpicking or searching for errors to fulfill some backwards agenda of proving The Daily to be run by incompetent evil-spreading punks, all the while thinking this will somehow result in positive self-promotion.

For me, reading The Daily isn’t about reading as professional a publication as possible, it’s about connecting with my school community, understanding what my peers are passionate about, what events are going on in and around campus, what can be done to fix the world, etc. I think you’ve missed the value of The Daily entirely, and for that I feel sorry for you.

Perrin Valli U2 Physics and Political Science

Our first message from the blogosphere!

As an avid blog reader, I’m ecstatic to see that the Daily’s web site has entered into the 21st century with its addition of blogs. I was extremely dismayed to find, however, that its RSS feed (that allows readers of multiple blogs to track and read their blogs from a central web site like GoogleReader) only contains short excerpts of the entries, and requires the reader to click-through to the website to read it.

I call on The Daily to change this and allow the entire entry to be read via aggregator! In the world of blogs, only corporate-run blogs seeking to maximize advertising revenue do RSS excerpts, while the true grassroots blogs eschew that form of revenue maximization and instead allow for information to flow freely. I hope this was not a conscious choice, as it flies in the face of all that I thought The Daily stood for. Until you allow the full entries to be

included in the RSS feed, I will be boycotting your blogs. I recommend acceding to my demands, because I was probably going to be the only one reading the blogs in the first place. [Ed note: The Daily has ended its brief, torrid flirtation with corporate evil.

Our RSS feed now provides full blog posts.]

Yahel Carmon U2 Political Science & Economics

Daily not worth the paper its printed on?

Here is a question for The Daily.

Why do you print 22,000 papers a week? Anyone who looks at a newsstand on Sunday or Wednesday knows that there is nowhere near that much demand for the papers, with huge piles constantly sitting unread. I’ve been told that the reason is that it allows The Daily to tell advertisers that it has a circulation of 22,000, and thus charge more than they otherwise could.

So, it seems that The Daily is lying and hurting the environment in order to make more money. Is that not quite hypocritical, coming from a paper that frequently advocates for environmentalism?

Or, maybe I’m completely misunderstanding the situation, but either way, an explanation would be appreciated.

Jeffrey Fisher U2 Latin American & Caribbean Studies

Hey Claire!

Yeah, what?

Claire Caldwell U1 English and French Literature Daily Culture editor Send epistles to letters@mcgillda ily.com from your McGill email account. Please include your name, year, and program.

Please keep all letters to 300 words or less. We will not print letters that are homophobic, misog ynistic, racist, antidilluvian, offensive, ableist, ageist, or otherwise hateful. Letters may be edited for brevity and style.

ERRATUM In the article “Nuit Blanche hits Shatner tonight”, (News, March 6) The Daily implied that the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) led the organization of Nuit Blanche.

In fact, the AUS Fine Arts Council led the planning of the event.

The Daily regrets the error.

mcgilldaily.com has a new look After months of trials and tribulations, the Daily’s web site is finally getting with the times. This doozie of a facelift include two brand-new blogs, one by Jay Ploss on cycling, and the editors’ blog, where you can read the rantings of Daily editors. Plus, you can now sidestep our cheeky Letters editor with our new comment feature, where you can directly post your thoughts about our articles.

mcgilldaily.com

www.mcgilldaily.com

Culture

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

25

La condition humaine: moving beyond the science of AIDS in The Witnesses CAROLINE ZIMMERMAN The McGill Daily

A

IDS is “a very human virus, a very human epidemic,” said one doctor in a 2006 PBS documentary on the disease, “It touches right to the heart of our existence.”

It’s no surprise, then, that André Téchiné, who has attempted to capture the contradictions of the human condition throughout four decades of filmmaking, chose AIDS as the narrative epicentre of his new period film The Witnesses.

It’s 1984, and the hydra is just beginning to raise its head. Sarah, a children’s book author from a wealthy family, and Mehdi, a police officer, are in an open marriage and have just had their first child. Sarah believes she’s “not made for motherhood,” and has been suffering from writer’s block since her son’s birth.

Adrien, a middle-aged gay doctor, meets the young, delicate Manu at

a Paris pick-up spot; they begin a platonic relationship, though Adrien longs for more. The four friends vacation at Sarah’s beach house in Southern France, and Mehdi and Manu soon can’t keep their hands off each other. But the love quadrangle’s “happy days” – the title of the first part of the film – are shattered when Manu exhibits the first symptoms of AIDS. As he struggles with the onslaught of the disease, his three friends witness his slow decline, trapped between survivor’s guilt and joy for having escaped the virus.

Téchiné – the intellectual progeny of France’s New Wave masters, with whom he rubbed elbows when he worked for the Cahiers du Cinema as a film critic in the sixties – may be categorically averse to autobiographical readings of his oeuvre. But there’s no denying that he is the ultimate witness in the film: he watched dozens of friends die of AIDS in the eighties, back when it

was still dubbed “the gay virus.”

That’s the thing with AIDS: it was never just a medical question. HIV may be invisible to the naked eye, but it has always been a signifier for the taboos it brings to light, from homosexuality to drug use, promiscuity to death. As such, a clinical understanding of AIDS will always fall short; the artist is as necessary as the scientist to fully grasp the nature of the disease.

Téchiné knows this. The Witnesses occasionally depicts Adrien at medical conferences pointing to slides of the virus, but it mostly leaves the science of AIDS out of the picture.

Instead, it explores the disease in terms of its symbolic and mythical significance – as the Freudian return of the repressed, as sexual “perversion,” as the fear of death, as the end of innocence.

In The Witnesses, AIDS becomes a plot device to retell the story of the Fall. The panoramic opening scenes of Adrien and Manu traipsing around

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Paris on the Bateaux Mouches, of the four protagonists picnicking beneath the warm Mediterranean sun, are decisively prelapsarian. It’s summer; everything glitters; it’s beautiful to be young and guiltlessly act on one’s sexual desires. But the sun sets on the Golden Age when red blotches appear on Manu’s once-flawless torso. One of the most jarring scenes in the film occurs when Mehdi surprises Manu at home, sitting naked on the toilet. He grabs a towel and rushes to try to push Mehdi – who Manu has refused to see since his diagnosis – out. Mehdi, shocked at the changed appearance of his lover, watches Manu throw himself face down, naked on the bed. “Do you still want me now?” Manu shouts over and over.

Les Rita Mitsouko’s eighties hit “Marcia Baila” provided the refrain in Téchiné’s Eden. But the pop rock fades and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro takes over as Manu declines.

When he dies, the camera hones in on Manu’s sister, an opera singer, mournfully delivering her vibrato on stage in a flowing white nightgown.

It’s not the only eerie scene in the film. Despite the staunch realism of the plot, Téchiné said he was aiming for a science-fiction aesthetic to draw a parallel between AIDS and an alien invader. But Téchiné’s reading of his own work is mis-

placed. In The Witnesses, the climate is unmistakably gothic, and AIDS has all the markings of a Victorian monster – one that represents a society’s hidden fears. When Manu is covered in sores and warts, he tellingly states that he “will only go out at night, just like a vampire.” Yet The Witnesses suggests that society is the greater beast, making monsters out of its exiles in order to demonize the repressed realities they bring to the surface.

But it seems that the ultimate monster, to Téchiné, is the artist.

Manu’s death is cathartic for Sarah, who supplies voice-over narration throughout the film: his and Mehdi’s story provides the material for her next novel. It’s a thinly-veiled reflection on Téchiné’s own artistic process, which required a sacrificial lamb to enable his own creative act. And yet, Téchiné justifies himself through Sarah’s words. When Mehdi asks her if she is writing the story of his affair to exact revenge, she replies, “No, I’m doing this to witness.” It’s a morally ambiguous riposte, yet The Witnesses does make one thing clear: the story of AIDS is far from getting old.

The Witnesses is currently playing at Ex-Centris (3536 St. Laurent).

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Art Essay

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

Three

by Teisha Ruggiero

26

Compendium!

The McGill Daily • Monday, March 10, 2008

Lies, Half-truths, & Going home alone

Whiz Kids

27

Penny Hardaway

BABY MAHONI 1

S 14 O 17 L 20 A 23 R

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I N S I D 57 E 62 63 M A J 66 A N O 69 G I B

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Across 1. Hindu garment 5. Pedro’s currency 9. Set of steps for crossing a fence 14. Lyric poems 15. Island of Hawaii 16. __ eclipse (as seen on February 20th) 17. Crazy, to Juan 18. Sean Connery, for one 19. Hate 20. Naturopathic medicine practiced when you gotta go?

23. Make it so you can keep your books longer 24. Greyhound, for one 25. MLK, for one 28. Moments between stimulus and reaction 33. He floated like a butterfly, and stung like a bee 36. Small follower 37. Compound formed from an organic acid and an alcohol 38. Dummy 41. Foxes 43. Peer Gynt playwright 44. Crowd 45. Tie-__ 46. “Busted!” when you gotta go?

51. Irate 52. Charged particle 53. Terminated 57. Study of knowledge when you gotta go?

62. Minor’s opposite 64. Asian tuber 65. Pond scum 66. New World lizard 67. Protection (alt. spelling) 68. For boys and girls both 69. Jeers 70. Lease 71. Blows it Down 1. Type of panel 2. 1998 Smashing Pumpkins album 3. The smallest genetic unit capable of recombination 4. A compound with a different atom arrangement but the same molectular weight 5. 1995 Bjork album 6. Apiece 7. Loafers’ container

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8. Win a race 9. Hit with an open hand 10. TV, slangily 11. Was willed 12. Taoism figuer __ Tzu 13. Mess up 21. Shock and __ 22. Donkey 26. Kind of board 27. Poetry 29. Hot spring 30. i__ 31. Flotsam, for one 32. Recipe amt.

33. Marsh plant 34. Zodiac sign 35. Type of crime 39. Rooster’s counterpart 40. Halifax to St. John’s dir.

41. Second person 42. __ and flow

O L I O

C E N T R A C R O T H A I T O D D A L I I L O N A S S I E A S E K I E V E R N E

O U S T

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L E T I T A G K N O I T D I T R P O T R U O O P I N E L E S

A PULLMER – VOGT COLLABORATION

My fiernd Jhon ocne emiaeld me a chian emial wehre all the wodrs had the rghit ltertes and the frist and lsat were rgiht, but the oens in the mdidle wree all mexid up. Taht was in gadre seevn. Caihn emials were a big dael bcak then, epseiclaly wiht grils who wulod ask ecah ohter teihr brihtadys and shit.

Aynawy, John is dsylxeic, so I aksed if he had truolbe raendig toshe eimals. He siad, “No, that has nothing to do with being dyslexic, you fucking idiot.”

–Max Halparin

Condiments

Country Sayings solution H I G H

Conversation Starters.

100 WORD STORIES!

44. Succession of pictures or shots set to music 47. “__ the season” 48. List 49. See 34-down 50. Intertwine 54. Sorrow 55. Vandalizer, maybe 56. Pairs 58. Tent support 59. Wraths 60. Julia’s 2000 title role 61. Majority 62. The Economist or Rolling Stone (abbr) 63. Folky DiFranco

C R A P

Hafeez had made a rookie mistake by failing to check the expiration date on his box of

E I G S H O T O T D I O O M N E S S T I C

P O S T C H A T E I G U A N A

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Mariel Capanna / The McGill Daily

max’s corner A space wherein The Daily news editor will periodically crack jokes True facts that no one can dispute 1. Life was better in 1997-98 2. Blue and red make purple, but only if you’re good 3. Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity are equally excellent John Cusack films 4. If the DVD for An Incovenient Truth had a “Making Of” featurette, it would just be Al Gore, alone with Powerpoint.

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