vol100iss15

2 News Great Food, Live Music, Art Shows Weekend Brunch - WiFi - Special Event Booking Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner - 7days - 8am Open 1832 rue St.Catherine O. 2

," ,* !& #% (& 2 /// ," ,* #1

Teach English Abroad TESOL/TESL Teacher Training Certification Courses Intensive 60-Hour Program Classroom Management Techniques Detailed Lesson Planning ESL Skills Development Comprehensive Teaching Materials Interactive Teaching Practicum Internationally Recognized Certificate Teacher Placement Service Money-Back Guarantee Included Thousands of Satisfied Students

OXFORD SEMINARS 1-800-269-6719/416-924-3240

www.oxfordseminars.ca

LIT SUP The Daily’s Literary Supplement Send poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction to litsup@mcgilldaily.com by 6pm tonight.

Call for Candidates The Daily Publications Society, publisher of The McGill Daily and Le DĂŠlit, is seeking candidates for

two student positions on its Board of Directors The position must be filled by McGill students belonging to any faculty other than the Faculty of Arts, duly registered during the upcoming Winter term, and able to sit until April 30, 2011. Board members gather at least once a month to discuss the management of the newspapers, and make important administrative decisions.

Candidates should send a 500-word letter of intention to chair@dailypublications.org by November 8th.

Contact us for more information.

Exclusive, web-only content

mcgilldaily.com

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Omar Khadr pleading guilty GuantĂĄnamo detainee faces stiff challenge to repatriation Humera Jabir News Writer

A

fter eight years of legal wrangling and delays, Omar Khadr’s military sentencing hearing is finally underway at Guantånamo Bay. On Monday, Khadr pleaded guilty on five charges – including murder, espionage, and supporting terrorism. A military panel of seven officers will conclude proceedings that have come under fire as both illegal and flawed.

Khadr, the first child soldier to be tried for war crimes since the Nuremburg trials after World War II, and the first terrorism suspect to be charged under an Obama-led military commission, has vehemently denied all accusations in the past. His reversal has been attributed to news of a plea bargain that would see him serve an eight-year sentence, and allow him to seek repatriation to Canada after one year.

Wayne Marston, NDP Human Rights critic and MP for the Ontario riding of Hamilton East–Stoney Creek, was hesitant to call the plea bargain an improvement in Khadr’s case. “It depends what you call progress. ‌ He had two choices: eight years or life in prison. There was no third option. What would you have done?â€? said Marston, adding that in the U.S. plea bargains are used as a matter of expediency to keep the number of cases to a minimum.

According to Marston, Khadr’s admission of guilt could not be used to overlook the illegality of Khadr’s detention at GuantĂĄnamo Bay and of the military proceedings. “When you take a plea bargain you have to acknowledge the facts of the plea bargain. You have a young man saying he is guilty, who may or may not be. But put all this discussion aside, and you come down to one thing. He was a child combatant protected under the Conventions on the Rights of [the] Child, and the Harper government failed drastically

on this fact,� said Marston.

According to Marston, Canada’s behaviour toward Khadr has not only cost him eight years of his life, it has also impacted the perception of Canada within the international community. “We just lost a seat at the United Nations. Do you mean to tell me that when the [UN] Secretary General asked Canada to repatriate Omar Khadr, and Canada refused, that that doesn’t have an impact on our seat at the UN?� asked Marston. “The United Nations will look at how you support UN Resolutions and Conventions. We clearly weren’t abiding by them. ... He is [a] Canadian citizen, and the government had an obligation to provide him with consular support, to protect his rights,� he added.

The U.S. State Department indicated this week that it would support a future request by Khadr to be returned to Canadian custody.

The Canadian government has not acknowledged the existence of an agreement, or that negotiations are underway. A statement issued by Canadian Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon addressed the matter as one “between Mr. Khadr and the U.S. government.�

It has been widely reported, however, that Cannon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are involved in negotiating an agreement that would see Khadr returned to Canada.

Sukenya Pillay of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association speculated on the existence of an agreement, insisting that the Canadian government ensure that any future transfer of Khadr be conducted smoothly. “We expect that the Canadian government should do nothing to obstruct a smooth transfer. We have been saying all along that the Canadian government should repatriate him and they should not do anything to thwart that,� said Pillay. “Moreover, they should do everything possible to rehabilitate him, and they should provide him with adequate remedy as the Supreme

Court of Canada has said, for the breach of his Charter Rights,� she added.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled last year that the Canadian government was complicit in violating Khadr’s human rights under the Charter, and basic standards on the treatment of detained youth.

Khadr was subject to abusive interrogation practices while detained at Guantanamo.

According to McGill Law Professor François Crepeau, if repatriated to Canada, Khadr and his lawyers could apply on these grounds to have the U.S. military court sentence reduced or overturned completely. “It is difficult to make predictions, but since the U.S. Supreme Court and Canadian Supreme Court have said the military commissions are not appropriate for Omar Khadr‌[he] and his lawyers may apply to have the whole proceeding quashed, arguing that he was tortured, detained as a child soldier, and should not have been treated as an adult,â€? said Crepeau.

Canadian public opinion may be the greatest obstacle to federal action on Khadr’s file. Recent media coverage has indicated a clear opposition to Khadr’s right to repatriation.

Crepeau attributed the division to a number of factors: the Conservative belief that individuals are responsible for their actions abroad, the total confidence of some Canadians in the American judicial system, and the belief that Khadr and his family are not deserving of Canadian citizenship. “It’s not really racism I think, but if the person were blonde, blue-eyed, and called Tremblay, the situation would be different,� commented Crepeau. “The fact that he is Omar Khadr means that he should not be called Canadian, and not only should we not be calling him Canadian, but that we could strip him of his citizenship. The fact that he was born here does not matter,� he added.

Supreme Court defend journalists sources Critics say ruling doesn’t go far enough Erin Hudson The McGill Daily

L

ast Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling clarifying the legal procedure surrounding a journalist’s right to protect confidential sources. The case involves Daniel Leblanc, the Globe and Mail journalist who broke the “sponsorship scandalâ€? in 2004, and Le Groupe Polygone Éditeurs Inc., an advertising agency implicated in the scandal, which was demanding that Leblanc reveal his sources.

Leblanc wrote several articles and a book on the scandal, which relied heavily on information provided by an anonymous source, known only as “Ma Chouette.� As one of the companies implicated in the scandal that saw one-hundred million dollars awarded by the federal government to Liberal-affiliated sponsors, Polygone was hit with a $35-million federal lawsuit in 2005.

Polygone, which received forty million dollars in government funds during the period of the scandal, asked Leblanc to testify to the Quebec Superior Court in order to expose the identity of Ma Chouette

in hopes that the source would have information that could help Polygone with their lawsuit. “We were appealing the Superior Court decision in which the judge asked me to answer questions on my source,â€? Leblanc told The Daily. “We were objecting to the kind of fishing expedition in which they were‌asking questions to 22 people to see if they were one of my sources,â€? he said. “That’s how [my case] ended up in [Supreme] court.â€?

See SOURCES on page 5

News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

3

AUS VP Events elected amidst controversy Candidate disqualified for campaign infractions, charges election officer of bias Steve Eldon Kerr News Writer

L

ast night, Patricia Tao was elected the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) VP Events.

Tao ran acclaimed, and achieved 90.1 per cent of votes in favour of her acclamation. Tao said she was “incredibly grateful” to be elected.

The election struggled to meet quorum, scraping by with 24 more votes cast than the requisite 574, or eight per cent of Arts students.

“It’s been quite the year for the AUS. It can only go up from here,” Tao added. Her acclamation was marked by controversy, however, as her only opponent, Joseph Stonehouse, was disqualified from the election for multiple breaches of AUS election by-laws.

AUS’s Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Sophie Goss announced Stonehouse’s disqualification just prior to the campaign debate, at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Goss announced that Stonehouse had “received his third campaign infraction” for failing to turn up to the debate on time, and was disqualified. Goss added that Stonehouse was “fine with this.”

This disqualification also meant those who had already voted would have their votes reissued, and the question would be re-cast as a simple approval or disapproval of Tao’s acclamation.

In an email to The Daily, Stonehouse said that he “believed that Sophie Goss put the democratic process behind following [the] by-laws,” and that he had “no idea why [Goss] could not wait ten minutes” for him to show up to the debate.

“If she had looked beyond the context of the debate, and broad-

ened her perspective, she might have seen reasons that would have allowed her to forgive my lateness,” Stonehouse continued.

“Frosh was almost ruined because a 19-year-old second-year student ran for VP Events unopposed,” he said, referring to the financial disorganization overseen

by Tao’s predecessor, Nampande Londe.

A seperate email from Stonehouse to Goss and AUS President Dave Marshall, obtained

by The Daily, revealed that he was not convinced that Goss was an “unbiased” adjudicator.

The email claims that Goss and the rest of the AUS council attended a thanksgiving dinner Tao hosted during the nomination period. He wrote that the attendance of the AUS executives did not “bother” him, as Tao was the interim VP Events at the time. “However,” Stonehouse continued, because the dinner was hosted by “a potential candidate for an election, [Goss] should have remained absent.”

Stonehouse also claimed in the email that he had “zero control over [his] tardiness” because he “needed to sign a commercial contract,” and that “a reasonable and unbiased CRO would have considered this, rather than giving a zero-sum ultimatum.”

Goss pointed out that this was Stonehouse’s third election infraction, and that AUS electoral by-laws stipulate that upon a third infraction, candidates should be disqualified by Elections AUS, unless disqualification is deemed too severe a penalty.

“It was crystal clear to me that because he wasn’t showing up for an important debate which he had known about since the release of the nomination kit [October 4], he had

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Newly elected AUS VP Events Patricia Tao to incur an infraction,” Goss stated.

She acknowledged that Stonehouse did let AUS know at around 4:45 p.m. on the day of the debate that he may be late, and that the next they heard from him was a phone call at 6:25 p.m. letting them know he would be ten minutes late.

Stonehouse also sent an email to Goss at 6:12 p.m., but Goss did not check her inbox until after the phone call.

Stonehouse’s first infraction was for failing to notify Goss that he would not be attending a mandatory meeting on October 15. His second was for failing to supply Goss with a correctly formatted campaign images, despite Goss extending the deadline for him.

Stonehouse also made it known that he is unhappy with the first infraction, and thinks AUS should have reprimanded Goss for taking 36 hours to respond to an email prior to the mandatory meeting he was absent from. Goss claims to have not received the email.

The controversy has overshadowed Tao’s win, and will once again put AUS under the spotlight, as it comes less than two months after the organization recorded a $30,000 deficit from its Frosh. The controversy surrounding that financial loss caused several AUS councillors to consider impeaching the previous VP Events, Nampande Londe, before she resigned citing personal reasons.

In response to the new financial scrutiny AUS will be under, Tao

promised to act responsibly with regard to finances, to “not spend where we don’t need to.” She said that “a new tradition” is needed within the AUS, so that lessons learnt could be passed on from council to council each year, something she hopes will prevent future financial disasters.

Stonehouse wished to make it clear that he considers Tao to be “more than qualified” for the job, but that “AUS should have hired a neutral party” because having Goss “working with [Tao] every day” opens up the possibility of electoral bias.

“More importantly,” he continued, “[Goss] should have weighed up ten minutes versus a one-person election. I think the latter is more important to students.”

SSMU supports AGSEM union drive after council fight VP Clubs and Services pans motion to compromise with admin on club names Queen Arsem-O'Malley and Andra Cernavskis The McGill Daily

L

ast night, after heated debate, SSMU Council passed a motion that resolves that “[SSMU] stand in solidarity with AGSEM as they work to unionize course lecturers at McGill.” Management Representative Eli Freedman and Arts Representative Spencer Burger opposed the motion.

Freedman argued that “[SSMU] is overly political” and should not pass such a political motion, while Burger took issue with the potential implications of the motion. “We are here to support students. I wish AGSEM the best, but this will ultimately counter our interests as students,” claimed Burger.

AGSEM, which stands for the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill, has recently been the centre of controversy after Provost

Anthony Masi ordered a series of its posters taken down across campus.

The posters were part of AGSEM’s campaign to unionize McGill course lecturers Countering Burger’s fears that the motion was too concerned with political ideology rather than student interest, Clubs and Services representative Maggie Knight argued that “in principle, this is about solidarity.

In practice, this is very much in the students’ interest.”

Lilian Radovac, a chief unionization drive coordinator, attended council to speak on behalf of AGSEM. She told councillors, “the response on the ground has been extremely positive. The overwhelming majority of people approached on campus have been for the U-Drive.”

Next on the agenda was the Resolution Regarding Compromise Regarding Liability, which resolved “That [SSMU] exemplifies the art of compromise by adding the word

‘Students’ in the titles of the clubs and services.”

The motion was debated but was later committed to go under the review of an interest group committee. Regarding the name changes, VP Clubs and Services Anushay Khan wrote in an email to The Daily, “Both the administration and students are interested in building a sense of community. Why alienate ourselves further from the community for which we are in fact a majority?”

“Soon the administration will want us to remove all and any affiliation with the University,” she added.

“If we budge now, the administration will only corner us further.”

During debate, concerns were brought up regarding the feasibility of the motion. Knight asked if it was certain that the Administration would accept the compromise given the magnitude of the task of changing club and group names. Khaled Ramadan, the author of the motion,

replied that he wasn’t certain what the administration would do and that it is just a proposition.

Council also passed a resolution regarding the maintenance of SSMU’s liquor license. Despite the passing of the same motion at last week’s General Assembly, Quebec

Internal, and VP Finance – as well as Senator Amara Possian and Knight.

Four guest speakers presented to Council, including Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi, who discussed improvements in the advising system, and the success of the Arts Internship Office. Manfredi

“If we budge now, the administration will only corner us further.”

Anushay Khan VP Clubs and Services law requires that the current Board of Directors – SSMU’s Legislative Council – pass the legislation. The seven-member Board will be made up of the four executive members who fit the requirements to serve – the President, VP External, VP

acknowledged budgetary difficulties and questions of allocation within the faculty, but pointed to numerous recent renovations, including the $5-million project to restore the windows and stone facade of the Arts Building.

4 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Big changes for Quebec science funding Province consolidates research money, faces criticism Alexia Jablonski The McGill Daily

T

he provincial government’s new strategy for research and innovation is facing intense criticism from certain members of the scientific research community, who fear that cost-cutting measures targeting research funding may debilitate scientific development in Quebec.

In its last budget in March, the government announced plans to merge its three existing research financing organizations – specializing in the fields of nature and technology, society and culture, and health – into a single new one called the Quebec Research Fund.

Despite the criticism, the new plan has been acclaimed by parts of the entrepreneurial and scientific sectors.

A “chief scientist” will be appointed to oversee the new organization’s administration and serve as a spokesperson for scientific research in Quebec. The government intends to implement this restructuring by April 2011.

The final outcome of the entire plan has yet to be determined as it first has to be passed by the National Assembly.

Mawana Pongo, the Director of Policies and Analysis for the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade, explained that the government’s goal to reduce administrative costs was key to this restructuring.

“The decision [to combine existing funding agencies] into one organization was made in the context of the government’s

efforts to achieve a budgetary equilibrium, so greater efficiency in terms of governmental administration,” Pongo told The Daily in French.

This decision is just one feature of Quebec’s strategy for research and innovation (SQRI) for 2010 to 2013, announced by the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade in June. The Ministry based its decisions on the recommendations of a special consulting group.

The group – consisting of about twenty specialists from various sectors, including universities and businesses – worked for almost a year to come up with strategies to update Quebec’s current research program.

The SQRI’s other major initiatives include supporting the marketing of innovations, providing more university scholarships, and launching five major developmental projects – including an electric bus – to stimulate research. The government intends to spend $1.039 billion for these projects.

The business community has welcomed the overall strategy’s emphasis on channelling innovation toward increasing industrial productivity.

“I think that for once, the government has understood that innovation is supposed to make us more productive than our competitors, and has created the necessary harmonization between innovation, marketing and the needs of our businesses,” Daniel Audet, the first Vice-President at the Conseil du patronat du Quebec, told The Daily in French. “Too often, innovation was perceived as research-

ers doing work in their labs. It can be that. But it must be followed by commercialization, and answer our actual needs. Innovation in a sealed environment is not very useful.”

Some scientists have also spoken in favour of particular features of the SQRI. For example, Executive Director of Genome Quebec Jean-Marc Proulx told La Presse that he was “very happy” with the strategy because it identified genomics as a strategic sector for development.

However, student groups and left-wing policy experts have criticized increasing government investment in market-ready university research. Eric Martin, a researcher at the Institut de recherche et d’information socioéconomiques (IRIS), said the process contributed to a “knowledge economy,” which is turning universities into “patent-producing” factories. “The knowledge economy is the worst thing that has happened to knowledge,” Martin said in a talk at McGill Friday. “People think, ‘Great, there will be knowledge everywhere.’ No, there is economy everywhere.”

PGSS VP External Ryan Hughes, speaking at the same event Friday, echoed Martin. “We are in danger of creating a Canadian version of an industrial-educational complex,” he said.

However, the merging of Quebec’s existing research financing agencies has provoked heated contention. Members of the scientific community have voiced concerns over the haste with which the government made this decision, and feel that they were insufficient-

Mayor blocks nuclear waste transport Safety commission says risks are low; city disagrees Zach Lewsen The McGill Daily

L

ast week, the City of Montreal announced that it will not allow a shipment of 16 decomissioned Bruce Power nuclear generators to be transported through Montreal on the St. Lawrence.

The shipment is one of the biggest of its kind to be transported in Canada. The 16 generators were to be shipped from the Bruce Power plant in Tiverton, Ontario through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence to a nuclear recycling plant in Sweden. Each of the generators are approximately the size of a school bus.

After receiving the transportation request from Bruce Power, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) investigated the safety of the generators and

found that thus far, the proposed transportation method is safe and there would be a minimal amount of contamination if there is spillage from the shipment. The CNSC will make a final decision on the request after it can hear from citizens. In an interview with The Daily, Paul Drolet, Public Affairs and Media Relations Representative for the CNSC, said that the commission should reach a final decision by mid- to late December.

Despite the research carried out by the CNSC, the city of Montreal still has doubts about the safety of the shipments. According to Valérie Desgagné, spokesperson for the city, Montreal’s main concern is the risk of contamination as the “shipment’s radioactive waves would be fifty times higher than the international limit.”

If the CNSC accepts Bruce Power’s request and allows the

generators to be shipped through Montreal, then the city could simply prevent the ships from docking in Montreal’s harbour.

Montreal’s decision comes shortly after municipal governments across Ontario voiced their opposition to the shipment. In September, Sarnia, Ontario mayor Mike Bradley stated his concern that a possible spill from the shipments would affect residents’ drinking water.

In addition to the municipalities, the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility has argued that allowing these generators through will set a precedent for turning Canada’s lakes and seaways into highways for nuclear product transportation.

If the CNSC decides to grant Bruce Power’s request, the power of municipalities to block the shipment’s transportation will be called into question.

“The knowledge economy is the worst thing that has happened to knowledge.”

Eric Martin Institut de recherche et d’information socio-économiques ly consulted.

Martin Doyon, the Coordinator of University and College Research at the Ministry of Economic Development, admitted that administrative restructuring had not been specifically brought up during the consultation period.

“The consultations for the SQRI were launched in June 2009,” Doyon told The Daily in French.

“But the announcement of the regrouping of the three funds itself occurred on March 30 with the budget. It was something that had been discussed before, but it was not brought specifically as a point of debate during the consultations for the SQRI.” Another concern is that the creation of the Quebec Research Fund might harm each existing fund’s level of financing and specificity.

“The three councils have distinct mandates and serve Quebeckers and their research communities well and they operate efficiently, so it’s difficult to see any savings,” professor and chair of McGill’s department of Biochemistry David Y. Thomas wrote in an email to The Daily However, Doyon stressed that this restructuring will only occur on the administrative level, as there will exist three separate research boards within the Quebec Research

Fund to represent different areas of research.

“There are three sectoral boards planned for the Quebec Research Fund,” said Doyon.

“Three budget envelopes will be granted for the three research areas... Currently, the three financing organizations receive grants from the government. In the SQRI, these funds will once again be given in a distinct manner, according to the field of research.”

“It will be the same mechanism as now... If you take natural science and technology as an example, there will be a board made up of people who best know this field.

Same thing for health, same thing for society and culture. Knowledge of the field will be there. ... The real difference is that there will be a central administrative council and a chief scientist who will have a more central vision.”

Nevertheless, scientists remain concerned about the future of research financing at McGill and in Quebec.

“We are all concerned as [the restructuring] doesn’t make any sense,” said Thomas. “Certainly the FRSQ [the provincial agency responsible for financing in health research] is a unique organization in Canada and much admired by researchers in other provinces.”

Determination and motivation since 1911.

news@mcgilldaily.com

News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

5

Concordia students rally against Pepsico privatization Admin alleged to have lied to student groups about exclusivity contracts Andra Cernavskis The McGill Daily

S

everal dozen students gathered in Norman Bethune Square yesterday, chanting, “Student voice for student choice!” and, “Bullshit!” in protest of the Concordia administration’s impending signing of a renewed exclusive beverage contract with Pepsico.

“This [current] contract is ending,” explained rally organizer Cameron Stiff, “and there’s another contract on the desk of the VP Services to be signed. And we’re saying, ‘Don’t do this.’”

Roughly forty students staged a sit-in outside the office of food service contractor Hospitality Concordia as the protest wore on, after attempting to occupy the negotiation meetings and being locked out by Concordia security guards.

The student anger stems in part from the lack of consultation between the administration and students on the deal, which will affect all beverages sold in vending machines and cafeterias on campus. Marc Gauthier, Executive Director of Finance and Business Operations at Concordia, met with students from campus environmental groups over the summer to discuss the beverage contract.

According to Concordia student Alex Matak – who was not at the meeting but part of TAPThirst, members of which were in atten-

dance – Gauthier misled students.

“He said there would be no negotiations until student representatives had met with Pepsi,” she said, calling his claim “an outright lie.” TAPThirst is a campus group that advocates against privatization. There have been no meetings between student representatives and Pepsico to date.

According to students, the deal also ignores the recommendations of Concordia’s own environmental advisory committee. “How can you plan to be a leader in sustainability if you put money above all other objectives?” said Laura Beach, a rally organizer who spoke at the protest.

“And second, what is the use of an environmental advisory committee if you don’t listen to their advice?”

The committee had four primary recommendations: first, that any contract make Concordia bottled water-free; second, that the contract be open to competitive bidders; third, that negotiations be transparent and democratic and include student input; and fourth, that the contract not be exclusive.

Stiff explained that exclusive contracts with large companies are harmful not only to the student body, but also to local food services. “We want to give organic companies and local companies the option of selling their products here on campus,” she said. “And the way the contract is right now, they can’t do that.”

Campus group TAPThirst were vocal at the rally.

Courtesy of Christopher Curtis | The Link

A handful of members from the fledgling Mobilization McGill, which has been active around the closing of the Architecture Café, attended the rally. Much like some of the student activism taking place at McGill, Concordia students are looking to confront the issue of food on campus on more than one level.

“This contract, this thing that they’re doing on Friday, is the tip of an iceberg,” said Matak. “It’s not like

this is the only exclusivity contract that Concordia has. It’s probably not the only one they’re ever going to have. This year we’ve signed at least two exclusive contracts with ad companies at Concordia. We have an exclusive contract with Chartwell’s over all of our food.

Tuition is being increased and more and more we’re seeing corporations granted exclusive rights over our space, our lives and our money.”

Dana Holtby, a student activist at McGill and a member of TAPThirst, who attended the protest, said Concordia’s food services policy has a lot in common with McGill’s.

“We see the same kind of processes...especially with a lack of student consultation,” she said.

Holtby also accused administrations at both schools of behaving as if “the school’s bottom line comes before student needs.”

“The Supreme Court went as far as it could given the state of the affairs in reporting today where anybody can enter and exit the business,” Myles stated, pointing to the blurry definition of what a journalist or reporter is.

“Everybody who claims so, can

pretend to be a reporter. There’s no clear-cut border between who is a reporter and who’s not,” Myles explained.

From Leblanc’s perspective, the Friday ruling will at least clarify the rules for journalists dealing with sources.

“It makes it clearer for journalists when sources ask for it to be protected that you can say exactly what the rules are and what the limits are,” Leblanc explained. “You can never offer blanket-protection, but you can at least say, ‘Here is the process.’”

Sources Continued from p.2 Before being given standing in the Supreme Court, the case passed through the Quebec Superior Court, where Justice Louis-Phillipe Grandpré ruled that Leblanc would have to answer questions regarding his source. Had it stood, the ruling would have been a “catastrophe for investigative journalism,” said Brian Myles, president of the Fédération professionelle des journaliste du Québec (FPJQ).

Leblanc claimed journalists have a “class privilege” that allows him to protect Ma Chouette.

“The courts have recognized this kind of privilege can exist,” confirmed Dean Jobb, professor of legal journalism at King’s College in Halifax. However, “It still hasn’t said definitively when [the privilege] does exist,” Jobb added.

Jobb went on to express his disappointment in the Friday ruling, saying the Supreme Court did not really answer the fundamental question of whether or not Leblanc’s source could be protected.

Myles explained the limits of the Supreme Court’s ruling: “It’s on court-by-court basis that the court will decide if a source is granted protection or not.” “[W]e don’t see it as a major victory. It’s a confirmation of the status quo for reporters. The threshold is high for reporters to be forced to reveal their sources, but it’s still a possibility.”

FPJQ was listed as an intervener in Leblanc’s Supreme Court case.

Interveners become involved in court cases at the discretion of the judge, because he or she thinks a third party can add something to the case. Other interveners in Leblanc’s case included Astral Media, La Presse, Médias Transcontinental Inc., Groupe TVA, and CBC. Myles explained FPJQ’s motivation to become involved in the case.

“It was the clearest case where you could argue that protection of sources was essential to the conduct of the investigative story of Daniel Leblanc,” he said.

“If you cannot protect your sources in something like the sponsorship scandal, you cannot protect them anywhere else,” Myles continued.

Leblanc’s case will now be heard in the Quebec Superior Court again, where the criteria established by the Supreme Court on Friday will be in place throughout the proceedings.

“After all of this, really the case goes to square one but with some very good rules and some very good, very strong tests that one hopes will protect Leblanc as he goes forward,” Jobb noted.

Despite his charge that the Supreme Court ruling did not go to the heart of the issue in the case between Leblanc and Polygone, Myles acknowledged that the ruling was related to the bigger issues surrounding the case.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

6

Proposition 19: Just say now to marijuana Davide Mastracci Hyde Park

O

n November 2, Californians will vote on the legality of marijuana. A majority of “yes” votes to Proposition 19 will legalize the use of marijuana by those over the age of 21 at home and in licensed businesses, the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, and the taxation of the sale of marijuana by local governments within the state who deem the sale to be acceptable. At the same time, the status of laws regarding the use of marijuana in situations such as the operation of a motor vehicle would not change.

The debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana within California has burned and spread more rapidly than a forest fire, as judgement day rapidly approaches. At the centre of the debate are two organizations going by the creative titles of “Yes to Proposition 19” and “No to Proposition 19.” Upon investigation of both groups’ websites, I was immediately repulsed by the image arising from that of the “No to Proposition 19” faction. Set on a black backdrop is the image of a car crash involving a school bus, along with a caption describing a set of consequences of the legalization of marijuana which will ensure California’s impending doom.

Alex McKenzie | The McGill Daily

This type of fear-mongering tactic is typical within arguments against marijuana. “If you legalize marijuana, a sea of deranged drug addicts will invade your city, run you over with their cars, and convert your children to the drug while you are crippled in the hospital.” Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for gov-

ernor of California, was even quoted as stating, “We’ve got to compete with China. And if everybody’s stoned, how the hell are we going to make it?” This type of lunacy is a clear example of the demented view these individuals have of government’s role in society. These individuals are fighting for a California that is essentially

a large family, where the government is an overbearing and intrusive father; and the citizens merely helpless children who rely on their father’s knowledge to make the “right” decisions.

Although precedent has demonstrated that it is likely marijuana use – in general or while driving – would not increase

security. This pattern gives rise to a question: if you are a “casual employee,” are you entitled to the same rights as a permanent employees?

I would like to invite all students who work on campus to see themselves as employees who deserve equal rights, such as fair salaries and wage increases, job security and benefits. As it stands, the University is obligated to comply with the Quebec Labour Standards Act, and other federal and provincial laws, such as the Pay Equity Act and the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

Although in some cases these requirements have been exceeded, there are also some instances where the University has failed, and for most employees, the standards have barely been met. The best way to make sure these standards are complied with is through

collective bargaining.

It is difficult to see the benefit of fighting as large an institution as McGill for your rights in a part-time or short-term job. Students are busy with courses, applications to graduate schools, summer internships, and, of course, their part-time jobs. However, it is imperative that student employees demand their rights. Within four years of working on campus, there is much to be gained.

Union involvement can not only help students earn fairer wages for their time, but can also facilitate the solution of problems many students face – like scheduling and job security issues. It is exactly for the reason that students are so busy with everything that is part of student life that they should not have to worry about their part time or summer job.

“Casual” student employees

with the legalization of the drug, this is largely irrelevant. The use of sense-impairing substances before or while driving is not something the government can control, regardless of the substances’ legality. Responsible substance use relies on the individual’s will. By claiming that marijuana should not be legalized because of the possibility of an increase in marijuana-related motor vehicle accidents, the “no” campaign essentially admits that they don’t have faith in the populace’s competence. Furthermore, by this logic, proponents of No to Prop 19 would also support a ban on alcohol. History – and the failure of the “War on Drugs” – have shown us just how well taking away the right to substances works.

The people deserve the right to use marijuana legally. The countless economic, social, and security benefits of giving the populace this right only makes the argument stronger.

Fortunately, they have the ability to make this right legitimate.

Proposition 19 is a monumental tribute to what democracy should be: the people in control of their own laws. Not a small group of out-of-date lawmakers, but the people themselves. Whether the “yes” campaign is victorious or not, democracy will be.

Davide Mastracci is a U0 Arts student. You can reach him at davide. mastracci@mail.mcgill.ca.

Student worker?

An appeal to campus labourers Jaime MacLean Hyde Park

T

o the many students whom we at the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE) have spoken with on campus over the past year, the idea of a “student worker” is a foreign concept. Students come to McGill to study, to earn a degree that will lead to a career, and any part-time job that they happen to have during the course of their education is auxiliary.

Students who work part-time on campus see their jobs as either supplementary to their education (such as helping in a lab) or a meaningless job to earn extra cash (such as working a couple hours per week in the bookstore); they do not see themselves on par with other (full-time, perma-

nent, non-student) employees.

Furthermore, McGill’s practice of calling the positions mostly filled by students “casual” does not encourage so-called “casual employees” to see themselves at the same level of importance as permanent employees.

The term “casual” hardly describes the importance of the work done on campus by casuals. In fact, 55 per cent of the University’s non-academic positions are taken by casuals – positions that offer support to hundreds of departments, in hundreds of buildings, across two campuses. Many of these workers are non-students in part-time, full-time, and temporary positions.

Student workers often perform tasks similar to full-time permanent employees, though they are usually paid less and do not receive basic benefits or job

who were unsatisfied with the University’s treatment founded AMUSE in 2009 (we were accredited this past January). We are eager to help all casual employees (both students and non-students) with all issues that they face in the workplace. We are looking for input from employees as we begin writing our first collective agreement, and negotiating with McGill for the rights of present and future student employees.

Get involved – know your rights.

Jamie MacLean is a U2 English literature and political science student and the vice-president of AMUSE. Write her at vp.amuse@ gmail.com.

For advice, advocacy and support or any questions about Quebec labour laws, contact A MUSE at communication. amuse@gmail.com.

Art Essay

U2-Winter Semester

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Rebecca Chapman

8

Letters

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

9

Re: “And the peace prize goes to...a warmonger” | Commentary | October 25

Like everyone else, Liu also happens to be human. He could have been wiser than to support what is now seen as an unjust war or to overstate the case for colonialism.

Andy Yu U3 Philosophy, Mathematics, and Economics

I sing the song of myself Re: “Others are not tools of the self” | Commentary | October 21 I read Agbayani’s article in reference to Charles Taylor’s The Malaise of Modernity with considerable interest because I took it to support my own thinking: that the greatest moral good is to value others.

I’m a philosopher; I think about this a lot. Interestingly, the New York Times published an excerpt of SuperFreakonomics entitled, “Unbelievable stories about apathy and altruism” on October 20. The article concludes that people are primarily altruistic when they are given some sort of incentive to benefit themselves. If you apply this to modern relationships: people want someone to love them and they’ll do whatever they can to get it. Boil this down, and the world seems like a grim place where everyone uses everyone else to validate themselves; any altruism today is nothing less than self-serving and self-validating, much as Agbayani suggests. In fact, I consider myself a particularly narcissistic and egotistical person (“Of course I’m an egoist. Where do you get if you aren’t?” said Winston Churchill). However, the reason that I am self-obsessed with validating myself is that if I love myself, then I do not require other people to validate me. In that respect, the reason I am altruistic is not because it makes me feel better about myself – I feel damn fine about myself on a regular basis – note the narcissism – but because I feel that it is morally right to do so. Apply this to relationships: I don’t seek any validation from my partner and simply try and make said partner’s world a better place! I give love without expecting anything in return and I am able to do this because I love myself. People today need to spend more time feeling good about themselves, and if that necessitates some silly pilgrimage of self-discovery, then so be it!

Spencer Malthouse U3 Philosophy

Glib remarks change many opinions on structures of oppression Re: “All GA motions passed” | News | October 25 “A lot of white males in lab coats?” Are you serious, Amara Possian? If I had nothing better to do, I might be offended. Instead, I’m amused. The very motivation behind the gender parity resolution at the GA was to dismiss the asinine idea that gender has any discernable relevance to speaking privileges, and here, the gender and race of a few individuals are cited (incorrectly) to undermine the credibility of the resolution. Furthermore, it should go without saying that the Plumber’s Philharmonic Orchestra is comprised of people from a multitude of nationalities, ethnicities, genders, religions, and sexual orientations, each one as irrelevant as the next.

Of course, these traits are pertinent to one’s identity, yet they are completely irrelevant to the validity of their opinions. A white, straight, Jewish, American man wearing a lab coat’s opinions carry the exact same weight as a brown, bisexual, Hindu, Danish woman wearing a beret’s opinions – no more, no less.

Is this so difficult to comprehend?

So you’re upset that 0.04 per cent of the student body can make decisions regarding the rest of the university? Well, it works both ways.

Here’s a news flash – nobody goes to the GA without an agenda. This is demonstrated well by the Gert’s bartenders’ leaving the moment the volume resolution had been voted upon. The same can be said for the Artsies who try condemning Israel, banning fish, or whatever their most recent cause for hysteria may be. If you have a problem with special interest groups taking over the GA, then maybe it’s time to abolish it. Unless you directly incite enough interest groups to achieve quorum, it will never be an effective measure of democracy.

So where were the interest groups eager to defend gender parity? Well...I guess too many people realized just how silly it actually was to care. Good riddance.

William Farrell U3 Civil Engineering Plumber’s Philharmonic Orchestra Co-Chief EUS VP Internal 2009-2010 Author of Motion Re: Gender Parity and Motion Re: AUS Bake Sale

And the way-out-of-line prize goes to...Ted Sprague

Shocking news: Cornett was fired from McGill

McGill misunderstands its “clients”

Re: “And the peace prize goes to...a warmonger” | Commentary | October 25

Re: “Will we ever see Norman Cornett at McGill again?” | Commentary | September 27

Re: “Will we ever see Norman Cornett at McGill again?” | Commentary | September 27

I sat in on a few of Norman Cornett’s dialogic sessions a few years ago. I left deeply impressed and wishing I had had the privilege of having classes such as these when I was a student at McGill in the 60s. Cornett was providing a safe space for these students to dig deeply into themselves for their authentic responses and ideas. They were being encouraged to think for themselves rather than mold their thoughts according to what was expected of them. This was an invitation to authentic and creative thinking.

I was shocked to learn, subsequently, that this enormously creative and gifted educator was fired from McGill, and furthermore, with no explanation, and at such short notice. I simply cannot understand how the administrators at a major university such as McGill were able to behave in such a cowardly and unethical manner.

What a loss for McGill students.

In the meantime, I have been following Cornett’s private seminars ever since I first discovered them almost a year ago, and they have enriched my life immeasurably. I have also witnessed colleagues in these classes develop their creativity to a remarkable degree.

If what Cornett offered to McGill students is not education in its essence, then what is? Perhaps McGill University administrators would rather turn out graduates who do not think for themselves.

I was privileged to take Norman Cornett’s class on Soul and Soul Music during my summer session at McGill University, in 2005. It was an unforgettable and enlightening experience. In addition, I completed my studies at Concordia University last year, where I obtained my diploma with a double major in Psychology and Sociology.

However, I still participate in “dialogic” sessions with Dr. Cornett.

The news about the unexplained dismissal of Cornett shocked me. Also, “the silence” at McGill raises many questions. For example, what is the true vision and mission of McGill as an academic institution? Does McGill really represent democracy and freedom? And if it is a question of McGill’s reputation, what is that reputation all about? Does McGill build its reputation on the ruined lives of such people as Cornett? Is Cornett a threat to McGill’s reputation? If this is so, why and how?

Nevertheless, this action of McGill’s was abusive, manipulative, unprofessional, and unjust. Maybe McGill should concentrate more on the wellbeing of its students, understand its “clients’” needs, clients who “nurture” McGill’s business matters and community needs.

If we are so conscious, indeed, about saving the environment for our future generations, who is going to save our humanity and our souls? Who is going to live in the future “green environment?”

I strongly believe that McGill should be proud of having people like Cornett who provide selfless service, commitment, and engagement, and who make an impact on people’s lives. Cornett should be back teaching at McGill, because he voluntarily devotes his life to improve the lives of others. The dismissal of Cornett means that thousands of people will lose an opportunity for personal growth, creativity, and help to fulfill their potential and to find out what profound happiness is.

Ted Sprague should be ashamed of and apologize for his offensive article. His perverse account of the facts distorts Liu Xiaobo’s record of commitment to human and civil rights activism, one that Sprague can only pretend to have.

Liu has been a staunch advocate of democracy for over two decades. He participated in the Tiananmen Square protests and helped develop Charter 08 in a peaceful attempt to promote such basic liberties as free speech and free elections. The Chinese government’s response has been to censor his works, put him under house arrest, and sentence him to prison or re-education camp no less than four times. The Nobel Prize Committee’s recognition of Liu’s immense courage follows expressed support for Liu from established writers, non-governmental organizations, and national governments.

Like everyone else, Liu also happens to be human. He could have been wiser than to support what is now seen as an unjust war or to overstate the case for colonialism. Yet, as far as I can tell, Liu is as honest and wellintentioned as one can get.

What disgusts me is Sprague’s suggestion that Liu is untrustworthy, “timorous, inconsistent, and halfhearted.” Sprague comes off as self-righteous (see “The long fight against ignorance” (Commentary, November 19, 2009) for more evidence of this arrogant attitude). He would do well to acknowledge the fact that not everyone who disagrees with him is an idiot. The facts are subtler than he likes to think. Many Hongkongers, including myself, would agree that colonial rule has been a boon for the city. The view that democracy and capitalism go hand-in-hand is similarly widespread in East Asia, for theoretical and practical reasons alike. Despite his claims to fight ignorance, Sprague seems remarkably misinformed.

Andy Yu U3 Philosophy, Mathematics, and Economics

Mira Khazzam B.A.1969

Nina Alexander

We want to publish your letters. Send them to letters@mcgilldaily.com from your McGill email address, and keep them to 300 words or less. The Daily does not print letters that are sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, antiSemitic, et cetera.

10 Features Adam Winer The McGill Daily

Overprivileged student goes to Africa, feels good about self Are short-term volunteer programs worthwhile?

T

he dilapidated old bus, burdened with North American students and their idealistic intentions, clanks its way down the rough roads of rural eastern Uganda.

Dazed after five hours of physically jarring travel, and amazed by the sights and smells, I stare out the window spellbound. Children frantically chase after the bus, leaving their chores behind and kicking up a storm of chalky yellow dust. We are probably the first white people they’ve ever seen.

Soon we take a sharp right turn off the road, pulling slowly through a set of metal gates into the NGO headquarters in Ramogi village that will be our home for the next seven weeks. My expectations of Uganda, my preconceived notions about a starved and desolate Africa, flash through my mind as we are greeted with a scene of undiluted joy. Hundreds crowd the compound, revelling in an atmosphere of euphoria pierced by the ululating of elderly women.

They’ve been waiting for us. The humid air is saturated with laughter and singing. We are swarmed by so many colours, so many faces and pulsating bodies that my head begins to spin. Where are the suffering multitudes, the desperate children waiting for our help? No matter how our friends and family may perceive it, it is not as if we are parachuting down from our world of plenty to lift people out of the darkness and uncertainty, providing them with stability and a chance to survive. Far from it.

This past summer, I spent seven weeks in the village of Ramogi, hosted by the Uganda Orphans Rural Development Programme (UORDP). I was part of a small group of university-aged North Americans on a program, Volunteer Summer, run by American Jewish World Service (AJWS), a non-profit

organization that works to support grassroots development efforts across the world, and to educate the American Jewish community about international and domestic social justice issues. Most of my time in Ramogi was spent working on construction projects with a local crew and otherwise engaging with the community. Over the course of our stay, we helped to prepare a block of early childhood development classrooms for roofing, built an openair market stall with a women’s microfinance group, and assisted in the roofing of a church.

Ramogi is a small village located deep in Uganda’s eastern Tororo district, about half an hour’s drive over bad roads from the local centre, and national backwater, also named Tororo. The district is known for its crippling HIV infection rates, and also for its bustling trade in cement and marijuana, the latter of which is smuggled into neighbouring Kenya.

Tororo district is home to about 500,000 people, many from the Adhola tribe, who come from the Luo ethnic group, and migrated south from Sudan centuries ago.

In sharp contrast to the foundation myths of other peoples, typically shrouded in sanctity and innocence, Adhola elders will tell you with great enthusiasm how they brutally displaced the tribes of eastern Uganda and settled on the most fertile land.

Though elders remain steeped in tribal lore, and though a sense of peoplehood and mutual responsibility is ever-present, the modern world has crept into this corner of East Africa, slowly dissipating tradition and grafting Adhola identity onto the canvas of Christianity. The Adhola ethnicity is made up of approximately 52 separate clans, such as the Ramogi and the unfortunately-named K.K. Clan.

While Uganda is certainly more politically stable

now than in past years, this stability is not necessarily beneficial. Current President Yoweri Museveni’s tenure extends back 24 years, with no end in close sight. Constant during his presidency has been a stunning lack of investment or devotion of resources in much of the country outside his native area of Mbarara. According to local official Opio Gregory of Tororo district, “The manner in which resources have been used has never benefitted the common man.” This leaves a tremendous void for civil society to fill.

The village sprawls into the hills, largely invisible from the wide dirt path serving as the main arterial road for foot traffic and the occasional motorcycle or car. The hills are low and pale green, dotted with clusters of mud huts with thatched banana leaf roofs interspersed with the occasional brick building. The path is constantly bustling, as village residents (mostly subsistence farmers) walk back and forth. Adults would politely smile at us, while children followed us in large groups, pointing at us and yelling “muzungu” (white person).

We were a perplexing presence, especially to the village’s children. I will forever remember my second day in Ramogi, when a very young girl walked up to me, held my hand, counted the number of fingers, and was visibly shocked to see that I, just like her, have five.

In the heart of the village, near the compound where I was housed, are the school, church, and local bars. At Ramogi Primary School, children in royal blue uniforms crowd outside the classrooms.

Although Ugandans now benefit from free universal primary education, this is unfortunately not helpful to most. Student-teacher ratios at Ramogi are commonly as high as 75 to one, with few students able to afford textbooks, paper, or pencils. Additionally, many students are malnourished to the extent that they are unable to actively participate in school.

Given that many come out of school barely literate, and still unable to afford secondary or university education, many parents choose to keep their children at home to help with chores. This is a common and enormously frustrating trend in Ramogi. Although government funding for a certain baseline of educational and medical resources does exist, civil society must face the interconnected set of issues affecting residents head-on, including tremendous socioeconomic gaps between residents, lack of food security, malaria, HIV/AIDS, education, gender and property rights, and rampant alcoholism.

M

y experience this summer, in a manner of speaking, was priceless. I forged incredible relationships with Ugandans, learned an immeasurable amount about community-driven development, and pushed my cultural frontiers in ways I never thought possible. But, in the literal sense, my experience did have a very real price tag. It cost several thousand dollars on my end, in addition to the subsidy provided by AJWS. As well, substantial time and resources were dedicated to my group’s visit by Ramogi community leaders and the UORDP. The money that we spent on travel and accommodations theoretically could have gone straight to the community. Granted, my experience was tremendous, but did its impact justify its cost?

Jo Ann Van Engen, co-director of the semester in Honduras program at Calvin College, Michigan, addresses many of these issues in her 2000 article, “Short Term Missions: Are They Worth the Cost?”

Van Engen identifies several tensions that cast doubt upon the value of short-term volunteer programs, although ultimately emphasizing the importance

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com of such programs. She first cites the high cost of short-term programs, often as high as onethousdand dollars for a two-week trip. Van Engen’s estimate is relatively conservative – Cross Cultural Solutions’ volunteer abroad program, for example, costs upwards of three thousand dollars for a twoweek trip, excluding airfare.

After spending significant money to volunteer abroad, writes Van Engen, “Short-term mission groups almost always do work that could be done (and usually done better) by people of the country they visit.” This raises the question of whether these trips actually benefit the host community.

It is true that my work in Uganda certainly didn’t have to be done by me; my group did basic manual labour, mostly moving bricks and mixing mortar, alongside Ugandans doing the skilled work required. While this work could have easily been done by local workers, many of our contacts in Ramogi emphasized the point that our presence empowered the community and brought a spirit of volunteerism to the UORDP’s work.

O

fwono Hellen Ochieng, the UORDP area program manager for Tororo, highlighted the benefits of the program from the Ugandan end, noting that, “There is value added.

In short I would say there is a contribution made by the volunteer program. It’s not just my opinion; generally that’s the reaction from whoever I interact with.” The volunteer program, said Ochieng, “contributes to the realization of some of the plans that were already raised by the community, and adds to the resources that we were not able to get from other sources. The program actually comes in to cover such funding gaps that we may not be able to raise directly from agencies. It can be quite difficult to convince a donor to support construction, but with the volunteer program we have managed to do

just that.” She also cited the value of the experience from the standpoint of the volunteers, observing that, “Coming and living amongst the community affects their own attitudes and perceptions. ... These kinds of settings provide an opportunity to acquire real knowledge through practice. While doing the work you may realize that making a contribution can change your life. There is a sense of fulfilment when you work directly with communities. It is about seeing people’s lives changed through the knowledge you have acquired.”

Dmitri Nicholson, director of Guyana Youth Challenge, hosts volunteers from across the developed world, for periods ranging from five weeks to two years. He laid out, from his perspective, the advantages of bringing in volunteers. “Because of the kind of relationship that you have with the other organizations that you work with,” he said, “it is an opportunity to foster partnerships, and it is supporting youth development on a global level.”

Making reference to the concept of global citizenship, Nicholson continued, “If volunteers come and see what kind of activities are being done in Guyana, they may be able to advocate for these issues in their home countries, and to expand the network that the organization has globally.” Further, “They fill a human resource gap that the organization may not be able to afford.”

Nicholson drew a distinction between sustainable programs and “voluntourism,” a term he coined.

“Voluntourism is where your volunteerism in a place is not tied to a larger goal of any sort,” he said.

Although this type of volunteering still helps, and provides a formative experience in global citizenship for the volunteer, it is not nearly as impactful as it could be. He advised that potential volunteers

be discriminating in selecting a host organization.

“Make sure that the organization actually has a plan, so you know that you are fitting into a plan that is for the community. You want to be connected for something that, in five years, you can read a report and say, ‘I was attached to that.’ You don’t want your contribution to be dissolved after you leave.” He added, “People should look at the structures of the organization they hope to visit. Does the host organization have decision-making capabilities? Often, organizations receiving volunteers may not have much say in the goals that volunteers are hoping to reach. That is part of being an informed volunteer.”

If the organization in question doesn’t have a solid structure and specific goals, says Nicholson, “it’s just a vacation.”

V

an Engen’s husband and co-director of Calvin College’s Honduras program is a man named Kurt Van Beek. In 2007 Van Beek produced a study called “Lessons From a Sapling,” in which he measured the impact of volunteer trips to Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. He found that most Hondurans would prefer to be employed in building homes than to host groups doing so. “Nearly all Hondurans surveyed gave reasons why it was good for [short term] groups to come to Honduras, but in the end they believed that rather than using up resources on plane tickets, food, and lodging, North Americans could better spend their money on building more homes.”

Ver Beek’s analysis begs the additional question of whether North Americans participate in these programs primarily for their own sake, or specifically to aid communities in need. Van Engen underscores the need for a paradigm shift in international education, stating in her article, “I suggest we stop thinking about short-term missions as a service to perform and start thinking of them as a responsibil-

ity to learn.”

Interviewed in Honduras via email, Van Engen discussed the criteria for a more ideal short-term volunteer experience. “The ideal relationship between volunteer and host community,” she said, “should be one based on mutual respect and definitely a recognition on the part of the volunteers that they don’t have the answers. They can’t just come in and help, firstly because they don’t understand the culture or community they’ve just come into, and it’s always more complicated than it looks. Secondly, because real, sustainable change takes time and commitment and can’t happen in a one week stay.”

V

an Engen and Van Beek are currently developing a model for successful short-term programs whereby groups are intended to engage more meaningfully with these questions.

Actual volunteer work performed takes a backseat to the learning experience in this model. Van Engen stated that “the goal is both real learning – which would include how the politics, economics, and culture of a country impacts the community you are visiting – and the development of a long-term relationship in which everyone contributes and learns from each other.”

In “Short Term Missions: Are They Worth the Cost?” Van Engen is forthcoming in pointing out serious flaws in short-term programs, including high cost, cultural insensitivity and the dynamic of the relationship between volunteers and host communities. However, she is quite firm in pointing out the value of such programs. “We’re all interconnected,” she concludes. “The poor suffer in many ways because of the way wealthy countries interact with developing countries – economically and politi-

cally. Since we all live as citizens of this global world, I think we have a responsibility to understand it as much as we can and to work out for ourselves what we can do to make it a better place. And I think short-term trips can do that well when they are done thoughtfully and with a commitment to follow-up with participants on how they want to live after they return.”

Rachel Weinstein, AJWS Program Officer for Group Service Programs, discussed the importance of short-term programs from the perspective of AJWS, which sends out several hundred volunteers annually. One goal regarding participant experience is, to Weinstein, “producing participants who ask these questions [that we’ve been discussing].

Having people who are out there in the world thinking about their relationship to their surroundings has a lot of value.”

Another goal is, “for our participants to be exposed to, and begin to understand, the realities of life in the global south, and for people there to begin to understand that there are people outside of their communities who care about what their experience is, and support them in their effort to create solutions.”

T

he impact of these programs is, in some ways, quantifiable. Weinstein stated that AJWS polled program participants this year on the impact their experience abroad had had on them.

Ninety-four per cent said that the program had a strong or life-changing effect on their attitude toward impoverished communities, while ninety per cent responded that it had changed affected their commitment to social justice issues.

“How can the value of these programs be maximized?” asked Weinstein. “Through participants who come back home and do something with what they learned and saw, through participants who use their

resources to make change in the world, who mobilize their community to put pressure on decision makers on human rights issues, or spark their college campus to develop socially-conscious spending habits. We have many examples of participants who return to change their individual behaviour as well as their communities’ behaviour.”

I am undoubtedly among the 94 per cent of volunteers whose attitudes will never be the same.

The way I think on a daily basis has been altered.

Sometimes, when I let my mind drift, I find myself tracing the road back to Ramogi. I pull out of my driveway in the cool early morning haze and take the 401 west to Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Connect in New York and Amsterdam and eventually step out, bleary-eyed, onto Entebbe’s hard black tarmac.

Drive past Kampala and through Jinja, exit the highway near Tororo and traverse those potholed-filled roads back into that familiar space where, if only in my imagination, those warm sounds of laughter and song still linger. A part of me is still in Ramogi, still clinging to the urgency and the frustration and the somehow-undiluted hope, even as I spend my days in the more comfortable and detached surroundings of downtown Montreal.

The connection that I made with the UORDP and Ramogi, forged through sweaty work on blistering mornings and tremendous moments of emotional hardship, cannot be severed. So, in the end, I’m still an overprivileged McGill student, and yes, I do feel good about having learned a great deal about development issues in Ramogi. These experiences are best approached, however, as a learning expectation, and not as an easy, one-off chance to save the world – or to have fun in the sun and feel good about it.

11

Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

13

Art of the matter John Lapsley on Quebec creative arts therapies, and the bill that threatens them

First Last / The McGill Daily

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

T

he classic image of therapy as a conversation between the doctor and the patient on the couch may soon include a set of pencil crayons and a mandolin, with the advent of the creative arts therapies.

The creative arts therapies – art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy, and dance movement therapy – are a set of unique therapeutic practices that incorporate creative processes to potentially provide a clearer image than simple dialogue of a patient’s inner psychological and emotional state. These practices are not simply adjuncts, but require training and specialization.

Jen Marchand is a research assistant currently completing her master’s degree in Concordia’s art therapy program, one of the very few creative arts therapy programs in the country.

She pointed out that the classic verbal therapeutic model may hit a wall with patients experienced in maintaining verbal defense mechanisms.

“They know how to ‘talk the talk,’” Marchand said. “Art therapy... opens up a completely different side of who they are.”

Josée Leclerc, practicing art therapist and director of Concordia’s graduate art therapy program, explained that art therapy has three components: the art therapist, the patient, and the image, with “many levels of communication” between all three elements.

Art therapy begins with the process of creation, which can be as simple as a client using artistic materials to “draw” how they feel today.

During the subsequent reception process, both therapist and patient examine the patient’s image.

Leclerc stressed that this is not a clear-cut interpretative process and there is no “dictionary of symbols” in her desk drawer. Rather, in each client’s reflection process, unique insights emerge for both patient and therapist. “Unconscious material...that [the client] is not too aware of may manifest in the image,” Leclerc said. As the two reflect on the image, more often than not, “the image reflects back.”

Sandi Curtis, director of Concordia’s music therapy program, described a similar emphasis on creation in the music therapy process.

While many associate music therapy with guided listening or “those ‘buy this CD and you’ll stop smoking’ [products],” Curtis said that actual music-making does the lion’s share of the work. This can be a challenge for the therapist, who must also be a skilled enough musician to make musical creation accessible to clients who may have no musical training. developmental or brain-related disabilities, or a combination thereof.

“While a music teacher could say, stay with me for twenty years and I’ll take you somewhere,” Curtis said, “a music therapist, that day, in that moment, that half hour, is going to connect with someone.”

Arts therapies can provide a tangible timeline of client progress by leaving a (sometimes literal) paper trail of a client’s creative output.

The process can also circumvent language barriers, a powerful benefit in multilingual communities like Quebec.

Having a patient channel their emotions through images or song can obviously be very effective for patients with impaired verbal skills, such as those on the wide spectrum of autism. However, both Leclerc and Curtis stressed that art therapy is for people of all ages and in all walks of life.

“It’s not necessarily only the treatment of choice when verbal expression is lacking,” Leclerc said.

“It can really be for any population... we have art therapists working in geriatry, in children’s hospitals, schools, community centres, rehab centres, and women’s shelters.”

“With any patient, it is a great tool to try to understand the specificity of the individual...and how I can best help them,” she continued.

Curtis agreed, citing businesses who have begun hiring music therapists for their wellness centres to help employees deal with time and stress management and quality of life issues.

The Daily Lit Supplement

“I’ve never met a person who hasn’t been affected, or made some connection, by music,” Curtis said.

Recent legislation, however, casts an uncertain light on the future of arts therapists. One of the functions of Bill 21, passed unanimously by Quebec’s National Assembly in June 2009 but still in the pre-implementation stage, is to reserve the practice of psychotherapy to qualified members of professional orders, which at present do not include arts therapy.

In many ways this is a beneficial move. Marchand lauded Bill 21 for preventing unqualified “nail polish psychotherapists” from adopting the title. Leclerc agreed that stricter regulations of the credentials and experience required of titular psychotherapists will ultimately protect potential clients.

Whether or not the bill extends the mantle of “psychotherapist” to arts therapists, however, remains to be seen. Although creative art therapists must currently meet the standards of Quebec’s Association des artthérapeutes du Québec (AATQ), the group is not considered professional in terms of governmental regulation.

Benefits of membership in a professional order (such as the Order of Psychologists) include high standards of practice and, thanks to membership fees, a stronger support network in place to legally and professionally protect both therapists and patients.

Leclerc also added that many insurance plans (with good cause) are more likely to reimburse patient visits to recognized professionals.

Leclerc and Curtis are optimistic regarding a best-case outcome in which their programs’ graduates are recognized as order-qualified psychotherapists, based on the rigorous standards of Concordia’s Creative Arts Therapies department. Marchand will graduate with at least 800 hours of practical experience under her belt and students in the music therapy pro-

gram must complete 1,200 hours of clinical practice under supervision.

Between practical hours and the sixty-credit master’s degree course load, graduates emerge from their studies extremely well-equipped for practice, without having had to hunt for experience.

Even as the fate of arts psychotherapy hangs in the balance, Leclerc said the field is growing “incredibly” in Quebec, with a strong influx of applicants despite the programs’ stringent prerequisites. With the recent reorganization of Quebec’s mental health care system and the increased proportion of late-age afflictions such as strokes and Alzheimer’s disease (an unfortunate side effect of Canada’s greying population) the need for arts therapists has never been greater.

Leclerc admitted that while graduates may need to “be creative” in finding jobs, there is no dearth of opportunities for an arts therapist.

Illustrations by Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

Growth of the practice aside, Curtis also emphasized that the diversity of potential uses for arts therapy make the professions virtually impervious to hiring slumps.

During a lull in the educational sector, for instance, arts therapies can easily migrate to the healthcare or employee-wellness sectors.

Curtis worried that low awareness of the opportunities available to arts therapists may lead artistically talented students to decide early on between their art and their careers.

In arts therapy, students could be delighted – as Leclerc and Curtis were – to discover that they can synthesize their artistic talents with a practical and versatile career path.

“I think that for a lot of the population the psychiatric model has its limits,” Leclerc said. “The idea of engaging the so-called healthy, creative side of the mind...I think that the population in general really sees the advantages of that.”

Prose, poetry, and creative nonfiction to litsup@mcgilldaily.com by 6pm tonight.

14Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Hospital of the homogenized World War I doctor Lorenz Böhler’s body-as-machine perspective Flora Ourom Dunster The McGill Daily

W

hen it comes to curing the body, we rarely question the required practices. Focusing on Austrian surgeon Lorenz Böhler, who ran a field hospital during World War I, Thomas Schlich addressed this issue in a lecture at McGill’s department of Art History and Communications last Thursday as part of a speaker series that invites professors and academics to present research before faculty, students, and community members.

Schlich, a McGill professor and Canada Research Chair in the history of medicine, discussed the visual and medical standardization that Böhler strived for in his practice and in the photographs produced to record his experimentation. Aiming to prove that standardized treatment would reduce surgical error, Böhler saw the de-individualization of patients as necessary for efficiency, an attitude stemming from the greater context of industrialization at the time both in society and in the war.

Schlich characterized Böhler’s aim as the rationalization of fracture treatment and care. The system Böhler devised was in many ways

centred on the idea of the machine: a coupling of machine and body in the treatment itself, a machine-like system of care, “little healing factories” that aimed to treat as many patients as possible with the same fracture, using the same methods and gaining the same results. In a paper on this topic, Schlich describes Böhler as trying “to create islands of order and rationality within what he saw as the general turmoil of war.” He proposed the idea of industrial care to the Austrian military, but the consulted surgeons dismissed it, choosing to follow a more individualized approach.

In light of the presentation’s host department, Schlich focused on Böhler’s photographs, meant to act as visual data in proving the effectiveness of his ideas. They show men, for the most part completely naked, posed from different angles in front of black or generic backgrounds.

Some of these photographs are group portraits, showing upwards of a dozen men all facing the same way and moving the same limb in a synchronized act of choreography. The photographs are often unsettling and bizarre, and occasionally border on the theatrical. As Schlich pointed out, Böhler’s images are the origin of the term “ballet of the crutches,”

which he followed by juxtaposing a photograph of several men with a single leg raised to one of the Tiller Girls, a Rockettes predecessor.

While Böhler claimed objectivity, using as few words as possible to supplement his visuals, he strove to create “conditions to make his images effective.” Some are double-exposed to show the range of a joint’s movement, others have X-ray outlines drawn on top of the limb in question, while in others men are juxtaposed with full-size anatomical drawings.

Though the images have an air of official documentation, Böhler blocked out unimportant details and took aesthetic liberties in order to prove that his system was efficient and effective.

Ultimately, these manipulations are reflective not only of art practices at the time, but of the bodily interventions required by medicine. In an email correspondence with The Daily, Schlich explained the artistic phenomenon of the “intact and virile” male form, seen in World War I memorials, as indicative of a historical preference toward the idealized body. Böhler’s patients deviate from this model, and are inherently modern in their unabashed nakedness and unselfconscious imperfection, presented in such a homogenous manner that they almost seem mass

Courtesy of Thomas Schlich and University of Vienna Institute for the History of Medicine

Böhler standardized treatment for all his patients produced. Böhler’s photographs now stand in the canon of medical photography, and though not produced to be read artistically, they foreshadow a more modern conception of the imperfect body, in sickness and in health.

Schlich’s research comes at an important time for the field of art history. Mary Hunter, a professor in the department of Art History and Communications whose research explores art and medical iconography, notes that students are increasingly “becoming interested in the

intersections between art and medicine, particularly medical uses of photography.” Though the two might seem mutually exclusive, Schlich’s lecture was an important reminder of how beneficial this sort of interdisciplinary research can be for the fields implicated. Rather than categorizing Böhler’s photographs as either art or medicine, it is the intersection between the two that creates space for discourse, shedding light on medical history and how the documentation of historical trends has affected current norms.

16 Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Musings on myth New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik discusses the timeless pleasures of children’s lit Ian Beattie The McGill Daily

A

dam Gopnik is one of the few people nowadays who pulls off the role of the non-academic intellectual. If one had to say what Gopnik’s job was, it would be staff writer at the New Yorker, but Gopnik tends to spread himself everywhere that wittiness and intelligence are needed, from the American culture entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica, to the BBC documentary Lighting Up New

York, to the talk show Charlie Rose.

Gopnik is also one of the consummate craftsmen of writing today, celebrated less for coming up with big ideas than for his simple artisan-like mastery of prose.

So when Gopnik comes out with a children’s novel like his recent The Steps Across the Water, readers are afforded the double pleasure of looking forward both to reading the book, and to what it will give Gopnik occasion to say about children’s literature in general. Last Friday, they found out, when Gopnik delivered a public

Classifieds To ($ & , via email: ads@dailypublications (*# F )$('" 6 58 7 8 F B E 6 58 5

in person: 3480 McTavish St., Suite B-26, Montreal QC H3A 1X9 Cost: McGill Students & Staff: $6,70/day; $6.20/day for 3 or more days.

General public: $8.10/day; $6.95/day for 3 or more days.

"' / "1$/ *(+(1 '$/$ 4(** !$ "' /&$ .$/ "-,1/ "1 %-/ ,6 "' / "1$/0 -3$/ 1'$ *(+(1 /("$0 (,"*2#$ 1 5$0

#0 -01 -2,# #0 /$ %/$$ 1'$/ " 1$&-/($0 (,"*2#$

-3$/0 1-/ &$ +.*-6+$,1 -/# /-"$00(,& 6.(,& $/3("$0 7 $/$# -/ *$ - (3$ 4 6 ,1$# 1- 26 (#$0 (")$10 -01 -2,# $/0-, * $00-,0 -2/0$0 -1("$0 -*2,1$$/0 20("( ,0 $1"

Housing

Downtown, next to McGill University.

Available apartments all included, 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms. Close to groceries, drugstores and subway stations.

Indoor swimming pool available.

For more information please call:

514-499-3455 www.cogir.net ć—ĽćœŹčŞžă‚’ĺ‹‰ĺźˇă —ă Śă „ă‚‹ă€ č‹ąčŞžăƒťăƒ•ăƒŠăƒłă‚ščŞž ă Žăƒ?ă‚¤ăƒŞăƒłă‚ŹăƒŤă Şă‚ŤăƒŠăƒ‡ă‚Łă‚˘ăƒłďź’äşşă Œć—Ľ ćœŹäşşç•™ĺ­Śç”&#x;ă Žďź“äşşç›Žă Žă‚ˇă‚§ă‚˘ăƒĄă‚¤ăƒˆă‚’ćŽ˘ ă —ă Śă „ă žă ™ă€‚ă‚˘ăƒ‘ăƒźăƒˆă Żă Šć´’č?˝ă Şăƒ—ăƒŠăƒˆ ăƒźĺœ°ĺŒşă Žăƒ­ăƒźăƒŞă‚¨é§…ă ‹ă‚‰1ĺˆ†ă §äžżĺˆŠă€‚ă Š éƒ¨ĺą‹ă Ż11ćœˆďź‘ć—Ľă ‹ă‚‰ĺ…Ľĺą…ĺ?Żčƒ˝ă€‚ĺŽśčłƒă Ż ďź„495ďź?ćœˆ ďźˆćš–ćˆżăƒťé›ťć°—ăƒťă‚¤ăƒłă‚żăƒźăƒ?ăƒƒăƒˆăƒť 雝芹䝣螟㠿 kodamastore@gmail.com

1100 Dr. Penfield 3 ½, 4 ½ renovated apartments, all included Indoor pool & 24h doorman Interior & exterior parking available.

Close to everywhere!

Call (514) 286-9191 www.cogir.net

Fr "',*#&! classifi * Email us with your name, McGill ID number and classified text at addesign@dailypublications.org mcgilldaily.com/classifi eds

Lessons/Courses CANADA COLLEGE www.collegecanada.com Any Language Course: 7.00$/hour TESOL Certification Recognized by TESL Canada.

TOEFL iBT, GMAT, MCAT, TEFaQ, TEF preparation.

Student’s visa, Visa renewal.

514-868-6262 info@collegecanada.com 1118 Sainte-Catherine West, #404, Montreal, QC

Employment Have you had a

“LAZY 2

since childhood? McGill Vision Research is looking for study participants. Please call Dr. Simon Clavagnier at 514-934-1934 ext.

35307 or email mcgillvisionresearch@gmail. com for further information.

MASTER SCHOOL OF BARTENDING Bartending and table service courses Student rebate Job reference service 1 514-849-2828 www.Bartend.ca (onlin registration possible)

More at www.mcgilldaily.com/classifi eds

lecture at McGill on the subject entitled: “The Library of the Early Mind: The Meanings of Children’s Literature.� The following day, Gopnik went over his lecture in a phone interview with The Daily.

Gopnik, borrowing from C.S. Lewis, believed that “what makes children’s literature so interesting is that it’s about the marvelous that we recognize as myth – the marvelous that we can see as myth.� Gopnik is uninterested in kid’s lit’s didactic purpose as part of society’s parenting of its children, and he’s downright antagonistic about attempts to treat children’s literature as coded allegory for the miscellanies of cultural repression. Gopnik even took Lewis’s own Narnia series to task for indulging in Christian allegory that “is so obvious as to be uninteresting.�

This leaves children’s books with an ambiguous relationship to reality. Yet for Gopnik, children’s stories have to contain an imaginative reality of their own, or they end up stifled by “a point-by-point application of a series of symbols to something that’s real in the world.�

By generating myth, children’s literature affords the reader an imaginative space separate from our own reality. “Writers [encourage] children to value their imaginative side,� Gopnik said. “I don’t see it as sort of analgesic, you know, ‘they shouldn’t have the rational side,’ that’s a wonderful side. [But] freedom to imagine, and imagine other worlds is one of the great powers we have, and it’s worth cultivating.�

Gopnik’s own recently-released children’s book demonstrates these – and other – rules the writer has for the genre. Perhaps the most surprising is his assertion that the child hero has to feel “contempt� for the adults of the book. Children are powerless, he reasons, and thus contempt becomes one of their only weapons of confronting the absurd systems adults have forced on the world. Gopnik’s belief that disaster and catastrophe are necessary to children’s books may make you wonder about his sensitivity toward younger readers’ minds, but he seems to disdain those who think chilren need coddling. As he told me, “I think the smartest thing ever said about children’s literature was Mitch Hedberg’s line that all literature is children’s literature if the kid can read.�

The Steps Across the Water tells the story of a young girl from New York, Rose, who discovers a mystical portal to a super New York – U Nork.

U Nork is in danger, and, surprise surprise, Rose is the only one who can save it, if she can just figure out how.

The book shows Gopnik trying out the form for only the second time, and it has its awkwardness. Rose’s story ends with a satisfying and even touching resolution, but a lot of the secondary characters’ stories, particularly the U Norkians’, feel half-told.

The worst thing for me was the realization that corporatized, brand-named technology has made its way into children’s books. Gopnik points out, probably rightly, that kids wouldn’t

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

buy the contemporary setting of the book if it didn’t include the iPods and Macbooks that fill their world. But when, at the novel’s climax, the malicious ice queen is preparing to cast a spell and we get the lines “Ultima

most genuine elements of the book are those that Gopnik says arose from his own fascinations – winter scenes, a city’s mysteries, and the magical allure of snow globes.

Gopnik is no academic, and his

�Freedom to imagine, and imagine other worlds is one of the great powers we have, and it’s worth cultivating.�

Adam Gopnik, Writer took out her BlackBerry and pointed it at Louis. Two tiny pellets of ice shot out of its end,� I reserve the right to cringe. Say what you will, magic and microchips just don’t go together.

The best thing about Gopnik’s book is that it isn’t, as I cynically halfexpected, a grand and belaboured effort to demonstrate everything that children’s literature should be, but a fast-paced, energetic and lowkey read for tweens. Though it lacks some of the bite and humour that makes his writing for adults such joy to read, it shows that Gopnik is an earnest writer, not a self-absorbed thinker. He writes about what he cares about; whether it’s fiction or prose, he told me, “I see all of the activity of writing as taking hold of something that really matters to you, something that haunts your imagination, whether it’s somebody else’s book or your daughter’s imaginary city, and exploring it.� The

steadfast belief in myth and his unyielding hatred for allegory may not form some perfect thesis that will transform the way we view writing for children. His own book breaks many of his rules, particularly, as Gopnik himself noted, the idea that child heroes should succeed based on their own merit, not some magical inheritance (Rose, in the end, is Ultima’s daughter, which is complicated for a while but mostly gets sorted out). Despite this, Gopnik still gives us a refreshing way to look at children’s literature – one that doesn’t define it by its intended readership, but by its form, which he calls “comic mythology.� This is a big part of what makes his views on children’s literature so attractive. Forget “adult-edition� Harry Potter dust jackets – in Gopnik’s view, children’s literature is available to anyone with a taste for the imagination.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

17

Giving consumerism a fright Eva B’s costume rental challenges Halloween’s capitalist spirit Julia Bloom The McGill Daily

E

ven though Halloween remains a few days away, the holiday spirit is already in full swing at Montreal’s stalwart friperie Eva B. Jack-o’-lanterns and cobwebs adorn the front of the popular used-clothing shop, and the employees have already donned their costumes. “Welcome!” exclaims a cheery bell-bottomed hippie at the shop’s entrance, “Have fun exploring the store!”

Exploring is right. That’s the only way to shop at Eva B. Upon entering, it becomes obvious that the shop and its staff belong to a different world. The main floor is hardly recognizable as a store, but rather resembles the backstage of an old, cluttered theatre. Tangled hoards of multicoloured scarves spill out from aging wooden chests that line the labyrinthine corridors of clothing racks, all of which are stuffed full with vintage jackets, knit sweaters, faded bell bottoms, and cocktail dresses.

Piles of combat boots, ballet flats and leather belts lie strewn on the floor, while paisley ties and lace bras hang from the ceiling. Even the staff seems to fit in with the store’s festive atmosphere, excitedly offering fashion advice and complementary espresso with a “Happy Halloween!”

But while Eva B is best known

for its second-hand clothes, its most unique feature by far is its vast collection of costumes available for rent. Upstairs, the costumes are organized according to gender and theme. From long medieval robes to authentic doctor’s scrubs to furry moccasins in a range of styles and colors, there is little that Eva B doesn’t have. Simply ask one of the flappers behind the counter for any item, and no matter how specific or obscure, she’ll return with an armful of options to choose from. I proposed a challenge to the assistant: “I was wondering if you had any of those leather medieval wristband things.” The clerk replied, unfazed, pointing with a latex-gloved finger, “Oh yeah, those are over there.”

“You get to know all the costumes, working here,” she continued, adjusting her miner’s headlamp. In fact, many of the costumes and props have lived in the store for over a decade, surviving countless loans and usages over the years.

Eva B provides an economical alternative to the consumer-driven attitude that surrounds Halloween.

With the care that has gone into the creation of each of the costumes – most were originally designed, sewn, and then used by professionals – they have a far greater value than the disposable synthetic fabrics of shrink-wrapped dollar-store costumes, while simultaneously

costing less to rent. This encourages their preservation and re-use – instead of languishing in old chests, they continue to bring pleasure to Halloween-goers.

Gabriel, the jolly owner who bares an uncanny resemblance to Santa Claus and smells faintly of cigars, has dedicated himself to expanding his costume collection.

“Most of them are bought used from theaters, but a lot of them we also made ourselves,” he said. The diverse origins of individual pieces add to the quality of discovery and creativity that Eva B creates for its customers. Julie, a kind woman sporting a massive feathered headdress at the rentals register, explained that the store promotes this philosophy for the benefit of its customers. “When you shop here, you’re not just picking up an entire costume in a plastic package,” she said, while checking out a shopper with a feathered pen, “you really have to look hard and create an entirely original costume for yourself.”

In the end, Eva B is hardly just a thrift store or a costume rental shop. It is a place of exploration and imagination that fits right in with the essence of Halloween. “It’s the only place of its kind in Montreal,” stated Gabriel firmly, as he set down a silver tray of espressos and cookies in front of two customers.

“Just try and take it all in. Are you feeling it yet?”

Ariel Appel | The McGill Daily

Eva B’s range gives an alternative to disposable costumes.

Building the structures of art Exhibition at the School of Architecture charts the ties between architecture and installation Christina Colizza Culture Writer

C

overing five distinct themes – tectonics, the body, nature, memory, and public space – architects Sarah Bonnemaison and Ronit Eisenbach have brought together prominent installations for an exhibition at McGill’s School of Architecture. The culmination of seven to eight years of work, “Installations by Architects: Experiments in Building and Design,” explores the relationship between the two fields, and is the counterpart to the pair’s book of the same title.

The introductory panel opens with a quote: “In some way, an installation is a distillation of the experiences of architecture.” Installation architecture is architecture in its purest form, freed from the “limitations imposed by the professional discipline.” Installations are by nature non-functional and generally temporary.

For Bonnemaison, installations favour criticism and reflection rather than utility. Through their site specificity and three-dimensionality – features that share in the aspirations of architecture – young architects can quickly and cheaply

express ideas and breach the walls of the institution. It is through these discourses and pieces that the pair created five “neither exhaustive or exclusionary” common motifs, Bonnemaison noted.

Designated as chapters, the five themes begin with “Tectonics”. As the show’s explanation noted, “all installations necessarily involve tectonics, but these projects push boundaries of materials and assemblies.” In Mark West’s work, for example, “fabric formed concrete” is used to create living things, or plant-like pieces. Intrigued by the tectonics section, U1 Architecture students Dave Cameron and Jack Bian drew parallels between the installation art and their own work.

After the first year curriculum’s focus on Engineering, U1 offers architecture students time to explore materials. For Bian, tectonics and installation art are about “not what [functional architecture] isn’t but what it can be.” With their “birdcage” project – in which they have to frame a space for an animal of their choosing – Arch students mimic installation architects instead of professional architects. Certainly a very artistic and creative curriculum, yet as Cameron confessed, “It’s a lot harder than it looks.”

However, much of installa-

tion architecture explores more than just the material. In the “Body” section, Yolande Daniel’s “FEMMEpissoire” explores the sexual politics of the public toilet.

“Is standing a personal freedom for men?” questions the informational blurb. The piece dares you to answer. Installed in a bathroom at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York, a stainless-steel straddle urinal for women – complete with a water spray, hair dryer, and rubberized pants – shows that women can stand, too.

The “Nature” section explained architects’ attempts to shape a more positive attitude towards nature. In the case of Philip Beesley, his meshand net-like structures bring to life boring grade nine science class cell slides. In all cases, the installation art connects the viewer to the work through the viewer’s physical involvement.

In the “Public Space” section, artists tended to question the boundaries between the public and private spheres as well as an individual’s influence on the site. In Brussels, for example, with an outdoor control panel, passersby could illuminate rooms in a city high rise – creating art about and within the urban experience.

Moving away from the urban

settings which many of the architects chose as their site, a potato field in Finland was home to one of the most moving pieces as well as the cover of the book. Using abandoned farm buildings to evoke a “disappearing way of life,” architects purchased dilapidated barns and relocated them next to a highway. Raised on top of very decrepit thin wooden “legs” the barns reminded daily commuters of Finland’ s past.

Montreal too found its place within the “Memory” section.

Atelier in Situ’s “Projections” project of “Grain elevator #5” illuminated the terminus de la Commune on June 19, 1997. A staple of Montreal’s history, images of curtains, spiral staircases, caryatids, and waterfalls appeared on an old grain elevator in the Old Port.

Installation exhibitions make us question our preconceptions of buildings: art or architecture?

Functionality or expression? In “Installations,” the lines do seem to blur – and beautifully so.

“Installations by Architects: Experiments in Building and Design” is showing in Room 114 of the Macdonald-Harrington building until November 12. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, entry free.

This paper ain’t big enough for all of us.

New! Online-only content!

Only at mcgilldaily.com

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

18

Lies, half-truths, and nice weather yesterday, no?

No more arm-chair activists!!

I

’m tired of people writing to The Daily, critiquing the methods of the student movement and telling all of us how wrong we are, enumerating our mistakes, and telling us they’d care more if they paid their own tuition or if we pursued “higher goals” in the “correct way” – without ever actually stating what the goals or ways would be.

Nevermind even bothering to show up to meetings, rallies, or forums where these issues are tackled head-on. No. Instead, these people sit in front of their computers, masturbating – intellectually, physically, whatever – and cumming all over the rest of us with their shitty, entitled arguments. Go take a shower, get out of the Cyberthèque, come to a meeting, and tell us what you really think – to our faces. Otherwise, shut the fuck up and get out of my Daily.

+,#&∋(8

,,−.&/0)&0&#∀1&)23(∗∃&#04∀

+,#&∋()∗∗

!5)&06∋7∗)/∀∃&8∀#∃∀%&(0%∗29

Have school spirit, God damn it!

L

ast week, as I was eating my lunch, I noticed a guy with a typical blue, white-lettered “Yale” shirt. This goes along with people wearing swag from Harvard, UCLA, U of Cambridge, Berkeley, et cetera. WHY THE HELL??

The only reason you would wear such shirts is to raise, for even a fraction of a second, the doubt in others’ minds that you are, in some way, related to those “famous” universities, even though it is totally impossible because you clearly are a first year undergrad ATTENDING McGILL! STOP BEING POSEURS and if you want to represent, wear McGill swag.

Fuck This! is an occasional therapeutic rant column. Send us your rants!!! BUT REALLY SEND US YOUR RAVES: fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com. No hate pls. P.S.: What if your sibling or something went to one of those schools...?

∃%&∋()∗

!∀#∃∀%&∋((%∀))∗∋#&∀#∃)+ ∆3)2& Ε∗∃∃∗#8Φ& −∀#& ∃∀;∗∃∀∃& 2/02& 8∀#∃∀%& ∋((%∀)Γ )∗∋#&∃∋∀)#Β2&∀Η∗)2&Ι02&!5)ϑ

+,#&∋()∗

.>5−&0#∃&?∋#;∋%∃∗0&)23∃∀#2)&/∗2&2/∀&)2%∀∀2)&2∋& (%∋2∀)2&2/∀&#∀≅0%∗∋3)&∃∋∗#8)&∋≅&0∃4∗#∗)2%02∋%)

∃%&∋((8∗

Α%∀#;/& 8∋<∀%#4∀#2& ∃∋∀)#Β2& 7∗)2∀#& 2∋& (∀∋(7∀Χ& 4∋<∀)&;7∋)∀%&2∋&)/∗229&%∀≅∋%4)

+,#&∋()∗∗

:∀0%)& ∃∗);∋<∀%∀∃& 2∋& 6∀& ∀02∗#8& ;∋%()∀)& 02& =3))∗0#& ;∀4∀2∀%∗∀)

!∀!#

.,&;%∀02∀)&≅%∀0Ε9&6∗∋4∀2%∗;&∃02060)∀&∗#&5≅8/0#∗)20#Χ& 2/3)&6%∗#8∗#8&;96∀%(3#Ε&∃9)2∋(∗0&∋#∀&)2∀(&;7∋)∀%

−./

Κ∀0& Λ0%29& (%∋2∋Γ≅0);∗)2& <∗∋7∀#2& 20;2∗;)& 3#<∀∗7∀∃& ∋#& ;04∀%0&≅∋%&2/∀&≅∗%)2&2∗4∀

+,#&∋()∗∗

,01&∗2&;∋4∗#8

A pleasant walk

!∀!# +,#&∋()∗

uesday night was a gift. A perfect evening for Halloween: purple horizon, orange and yellow street-lamp light glowing from underneath cobweb-like white mist. And the temperature – just enough sting in the cold and the wind. It reminded me of Christmas, too: the confluence of Parc, Mont-Royal, and Côte-Ste-Catherine looked like a Christmas tree, the purple sky, the red and white of the cars scaling the mountain like bulbs, the green and yellow and red of the traffic lights, all swathed in a cottony fog like fake snow. Even the fat preteen who called me a “tapette” could only muster benevolent indifference, the night was so beautiful.

Κ/∀&%∀#2&∗)&2∋∋&∃04#&/∗8/

Tell the world, or McGill at least, what’s turning you on. Send your raves to: fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com.

The bad old days are back. Tell us what’s affecting your quality of life: compendium@mcgilldaily.com.

T

010−% %−∋0(2!!34∋(010−%

+,#&∋(678 ∃%&∋(5)∗

Sugar dick daze Pogo New

Mark Heinrichs for The McGill Daily

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, October 28, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

15

Fashionably early Young Quebec designer Denis Gagnon joins haute hotshots at the Musée des Beaux-Arts Kayan Hui The McGill Daily

N

ever before has a Quebec couturier been the subject of an exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts (MBA). That is, until now, as couturier Denis Gagnon, who just celebrated the tenth anniversary of his fashion house, currently has a showcase of his work on display at the museum.

In collaboration with Stéphane Aquin, curator of the exhibition and the museum’s curator of contemporary art, Gagnon approached award-winning architect Gilles Saucier to design the setting for his installation.

Immediately following the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective, “Denis Gagnon Shows All” also precedes the coming exhibition for fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. While putting the designer in between two major haute-couture fashion houses may come as a surprise, for Aquin, the choice of Gagnon was all too simple. “I’m not in fashion, but I know art. When I see [Gagnon’s work], I’m admiring something that is absolutely brilliant and original,” he said.

The exhibition is conceived to show the inspiration and the raw material behind Gagnon’s designs, not to mention the final products.

Upon entering the exhibition, your gaze is immediately drawn toward a massive, inverted black pyramid that juts out of the ceiling, overwhelming the entire room. A film projects onto the pyramid, taking

you to Gagnon’s runway this year and behind the scenes. Oversized photographs of his material stretch across the walls; on one of the walls is a blueprint of his humble workspace, a basement atelier.

The atmosphere is cool, minimalistic, even slightly uninviting.

Suspended in mid-air, twenty pieces drape the mannequins on three sides of the room, meeting the observer just at eye level. It’s haunting, but a riveting sight nonetheless. Each piece is selected from this year’s collection and arranged by one of the four themes dominant in Gagnon’s work – chains, zippers, fringe, and stripes. While using industrial materials, such as zippers or leather, is not entirely unconventional in the fashion world anymore, Gagnon uses them in a dramatic interpretation, transforming the harsh elements into soft and fluid works. Zippers and chains become material instead of simply embellishment, crafting flowing dresses from metal.

To be sure, Gagnon’s mastery over this medium is one that has been adored by the fashion elite. The challenge now is whether the art world can be convinced that Gagnon’s work, and fashion in general, deserves a place in a museum. Aquin hinted at a bias in the art world against putting fashion into museums. “It’s the idea that museums want to whore themselves to new culture and new audiences,” he said. Aquin conceded that in reality, museums do have to find ways to attract audiences. “If you have to attract, you may as well attract with objects you can frame within an understanding of history, of what art

Sébastien Roy | Courtesy of Musée des Beaux-Arts

Gagnon questions the limits of both traditional materials and fashion as art. is about, and what beauty is about,” he said.

Still, Aquin remains convinced that the museum hasn’t sold its soul to the fashion industry. He’s a strong believer that Gagnon is meant to be an artist, and this translates into an exhibition that feels neither contrived nor like it’s paying favour to the fashion hungry. For Aquin, it harks back to the traditionalist sense of art, where craftsmanship is enjoyed by art enthusiasts. But he believes that to understand Gagnon’s work as

truly art, we ought to separate the artistic element of couture from the fashion industry. “We should set these worlds apart – [Gagnon’s work] is couture, this is done by an artist who has a sense of material, shape, art, of beauty. Fashion is something else. It’s corporate money. Fashion can prey on couture as it can prey on all sorts of other things.”

The MBA has applied its signature approach to showing Gagnon’s work, challenging the limitations of artistic exhibition. Gagnon’s work is

not presented simply as art pieces hung on a wall, but as objects that bridge the gap between consumption and display. Nonetheless, whether Gagnon’s pieces hang inside the enclave of the MBA or on the racks at Holt Renfrew, the designer is blurring the distinction between what we consider fashion and art.

“Denis Gagnon Shows All” runs at the Contemporary Art Square at the Musée des Beaux-Arts until February 13, 2011. Free admission.

The past is personal Exhibit revisits the forgotten controversy of one woman’s identity Abby Plener The McGill Daily

I

n 1738, a Jewish woman named Esther Brandeau was arrested in New France for posing as a Christian man under the name Jacques La Fargue. Because citizenship in the colony was restricted to Catholics, Bardeau was subsequently deported back to France after she refused to convert to Catholicism.

When poet and performance artist Heather Hermant first discovered Brandeau’s little-known story, she “was just blown away.”

“It was instantly a queer story,” she explained. “[I started] wondering what it would have been like if I’d known this story my whole life.”

Hermant recognizes the potential pitfalls of “using twentieth century language for something that happened over 200 years ago,” but insists that identifying Brandeau as

a “defiant female” and as “queer” was an important way to contextualize her own identity. “Everyone is looking for a precedent for themselves,” she explained.

This personal connection to the story set off Hermant’s obsessive research into Brandeau’s life. Now, five years later, the fruits of this labour will be witnessed on stage in “Ribcage this wide passage” – a performance piece that Hermant wrote and stars in herself.

“Ribcage” combines poetry, theatre, movement, and live-video installation to tell Brandeau’s story, all set to a live score by violinist Jason Freeman-Fox. Primarily selfidentified as a spoken-word artist, Hermant explained that when she first began “Ribcage,” she assumed it would be mostly composed of poetry. But as she delved deeper into the project, she felt that the historical questions raised by Brandeau’s story demanded a more dynamic

approach. Consequently Hermant saw a use for more diverse mediums.

These various medial elements represent different angles from which to understand the story. Recognizing the limitations of each subjective viewpoint, Hermant felt that bringing them together brings the viewer closer to Brandeau’s story: “What we can bring from our own experience, that [gets] us as close as we can get.” Hermant’s acknowledgement of how limited one’s access to history can be is especially poignant given how Brandeau’s story has been adopted by various communities despite what little information is available. Various Canadian-Jewish historians have identified Brandeau as the first Jew to arrive in Canada, and celebrate her commitment to her faith. Her story has also been framed by queer and feminist writers as an attempt at passing. They guess that Brandeau posed as a man because she enjoyed cross-dressing,

or because she wished to enjoy the freedoms that were then exclusive to men.

These interpretations have been incorporated into some of the few retellings of Brandeau’s story that exist. In the graphic novel, No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Who Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom, and Adventure, Brandeau is ashamed to return to her Jewish family in France because she unintentionally disobeyed Jewish dietary laws after being shipwrecked in Amsterdam. The novel imagines Brandeau staring longingly at men working, an act from which women are excluded, and wondering, “Are these breeches my chance to freedom?” Likewise, Sheila E. McKay’s young adult novel Esther presents Brandeau as a heroine for young Jewish women as she desperately tries to overcome the oppression of both her religious and gender identities. Because so little is known

about Brandeau, any one of the labels that have been given to her by modern writers and academics is highly contestable. But for Hermant, “all these potentials for claims and counter-claims [are] what’s so interesting” about her story.

The artist recalls discovering a host of discrepancies between the Canadian history she learned at her francophone elementary school and the education she later received at an anglophone high school. She believes that this experience “must have been an early seed for the approaches [I] take” and for her “skepticism around the dominant story.” Hermant contends that, “[I] t’s important that we know who the storyteller is and I think that’s pretty evident in the piece.”

You can hear Hermant’s side of the story at Gallery Le Mai, 3680 Jeanne-Mance, from October 28 to October 30.