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Shatner B-24
4 News
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
The knowledge economy Eric Andrew-Gee explores student opposition to the corporatization of campuses
“Y
es, we are for accessible education. But we have to ask: What kind of education?” Speaking in French, Martin Robert – a leading researcher for the student lobby group Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) – answered his own question in the negative many times over: “Education should not serve economic growth;” “education must not be transformed into profit;” “We cannot deny the fact that universities, more and more, are aimed toward solving the economy’s problems.” Increasingly, the Quebec student movement is lining up behind Robert’s assessment. They are opposed to their universities’ growing role in “the knowledge economy,” which thrives on marketing new ideas, partly through corporate investment in academic research. For example, a report McGill submitted to the National Assembly in September shows that in 2008, McGill received $30.3 million in research funding from industry, a spike of 73 per cent from 2003. The phenomenon is nation-wide: between 1997 and 2007, Canadian universities saw their research and development spending grow at the fastest rate among OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.
Robert and those that agree with him are fighting a lonely fight. In their opposition to this trend, students are clashing with the federal and Quebec governments, government-affiliated think tanks, and university administrations. Corporate funding of research is nothing new, nor is student skepticism about the practice. But this school year, the “knowledge economy” has become something of a buzzword in Quebec student politics. On October 16,
Robert gave a presentation to the monthly meeting of the Quebec Student Roundtable (QSR), laying out ASSÉ’s position on the danger facing universities. “The function of universities is being transformed to doing more research…to be used by the market,” said Robert, in the Break Out room of Shatner, where the meeting was held. Representatives from eleven student unions across Quebec were present. At a symposium on post-secondary education in Shatner on October 22, the idea came up repeatedly. “We are in danger of creating a Canadian version of an industrial-educational complex. … The absence of protest is a green light for exploitation,” commented PGSS VP External Ryan Hughes at the event. ASSÉ’s research committee is at work on a paper expanding their position on the “knowledge economy.” QSR is set to take a position on universities’ role in the knowledge economy at their next meeting, on November 13. The flurry of activity on a single, fairly abstract issue begs the question, “Why now?” Different student groups have different explanations. SSMU VP External Myriam Zaidi, who sits on QSR’s board, pointed to fears about outside influence on universities sparked by Bills 38 and 44 last year. The bills, which died after fierce opposition from students and administrators alike, were the Liberal government’s attempt to mandate a certain number of members for each of Quebec universities’ governance board. “Ideally, universities should be controlled fully in a collegial manner – so by its own members, whether its administration, staff, students,” she said. “When external groups start getting involved, students and other members of the university will be losing power. I think today, student groups realize more and more how much power they’re losing.” Robert drew a connection between the student movement’s preoccupation with tuition hikes and opposition to the knowledge economy. “Increased tuition follows the logic of the knowledge economy,” he said. Corporations involved in research, “impose their manner of organization and functioning on universities.” The result, Robert says, is that universities are run more and more like business, with services (like teaching) and goods (like diplomas) sold for market value. This is anathema to ASSÉ, who advocate for abolishing tuition.
Others have different reasons for opposing university complicity in the knowledge economy. Robert Sonin of Free Education Montreal sees the exact opposite of what universities should strive to be in the relentless commercial drive of businesses. “[Now] if you say, ‘It’s good to have an ambulance service,’ you have to justify it in dollars and cents. … It’s not just good to have a hospital; you have to make it profitable,” said Sonin. He said he was alarmed by the knowledge economy, “because it’s a code word for corporatization. It’s not bringing knowledge into the economy, it’s bringing businesses into universities.” Sonin said that universities used to “leave it to the researchers” to decide what they would research. Now, he argued, “they’re chained to a commercial imperative,” by corporate-funded research. “If you’re going to invest money in the schools – and they [businesses and the government] always frame it as an investment– they want a return.” “Researchers who are interested in something really ephemeral have to justify grant proposals by saying it’s going to make a better shampoo,” he said. “You have to monetize your research.” Sonin said he thought the place for companies to do profitable research is in private labs. He pointed out that Bell Canada’s telecommunications research, which has been “a huge benefit to society,” was not done in universities. He insisted, however, that marketable applied research does have a place, if a small one, in post-secondary institutions. “There is room for both” research and development and pure science, he said.
Illustrations by Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily
Marie Malavoy, Member of the National Assembly for the Taillon riding in Longueuil and Parti Québécois education critic, said corporate investment in university research should be undertaken with caution. On the phone from Quebec City, she said in French that academic freedom must be guarded against researchers, “finding results that show in one way or another something that will create value for companies.”
“We need to leave place for people who are just interested in advancing science,” she continued. Louis-Philipe Savoie, president
paid a $750-million settlement in criminal and civil cases charging that the company sold contaminated baby ointment and an ineffective anti-depressant.
“It’s not bringing knowledge into the economy, it’s bringing businesses into universities.” Robert Sonin Free Education Montreal
of the Fédération des étudiantes universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), the province’s biggest student lobby group, took a similar position to Malavoy’s in an interview last Thursday. He conceded that recent federal bursaries that focused heavily on business programs were “an example of the government trying to…restrain academic freedom.” But while Robert said ASSÉ is “fundamentally opposed to the knowledge economy,” Savoie said that it is a fact of life and “not a problem.” “The economy has changed, it will continue to change. That’s fine,” he continued. He went on to say that he would like to see increased corporate funding of research at universities. “If there is more financing that is available to do university-level research that is quality research, and that does not impede academic freedom, I don’t see why not.” He added that it’s bad if corporate funding “directs the research…or if it falsifies conclusions, but this is a rare phenomenon. … There are policies in universities to make sure there is quality research being done.” Numerous governmental bodies, think tanks, and university administrations agree that the private sector must be more involved in university research. Three weeks ago, the Canadian University Press (CUP) reported that the federal government was undertaking a review of private-sector research in Canada, including research at universities. The aim of the review is to encourage Canadian companies to spend more on research and development. CUP also reported that the day before the federal review was announced, a group called Coalition for Action on Innovation in Canada (CAIC) released a report with similar goals. CAIC is headed by former Liberal MP John Manley and Paul Lucas, president and CEO of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline Canada, whose British parent company recently
CAIC’s October 13 report calls for more government funding to help university researchers “commercialize” their research. The report’s advice could not be more diametrically opposed to Sonin and Martin’s position. “An important step [for the federal government] would be to raise the level of funding for research programs that entail partnerships between business and academia,” the report reads. “Other countries, notably the United States, provide more extensive support of indirect costs, including the funding of much more robust industry liaison and technology transfer offices.” The Science, Technology, and Innovation Council of Canada (STIC), an arm’s-length agency that reports to the Ministry of Industry, constitutes another voice calling for more commercial university research. McGill’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum is a member of STIC. In a May 2009 STIC press release, Munroe-Blum wrote, “Business, universities, colleges, non-profit institutions, communities and all levels of government… need to work together to nurture the capacity to create, apply new ideas and finance their translation into commercial successes in the global marketplace.” Many students have begun despairing of this view. Martin said he thought universities should “fund teaching as much as research…and pure research as much as applied research.” Sonin complained that the model of economic expedience “was being transferred to the humanities and social sciences, and they don’t produce that kind of knowledge.” “It’s reasonable [for taxpayers] to ask that there be some benefit [from universities], but it doesn’t have to be a direct economic benefit,” he went on. “People forget that school is good in itself.”
News
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
5
Ministry of Education announces key tuition meeting Rencontres des partenaires de l’éducation falls during exams; students think timing designed to keep them away Maya Shoukri The McGill Daily
I
n a press release last Thursday, the Ministry of Education announced that the Rencontres des partenaires de l’éducation – an annual meeting of student groups, administrators, and provincial politicians – will be held on December 6. Student lobby groups are complaining that the proposed date, which falls during exams at many schools, is inconvenient and will prevent them from attending, either as picketers or participants. The agenda for the Rencontres lays out, in French, three themes for the meeting: what “principles” to pursue in raising tuition; how to direct financial aid to maintain accessibility to education; and what to do with the “additional revenue” gained by raising tuition. All of the major provincial student lobby groups have been expecting the government to table plans for tuition increases at the meeting, and some students are boycotting the event. SSMU VP External Myriam Zaidi
suggested that the Ministry was aware that the date comes at a busy time for students, saying that the “minister of education definitely knew that students were planning on going and demonstrating during the meeting,” and that the timing of the Rencontres “makes it harder for students to go protest during the meeting.” Joël Pedneault, Vice-Secretary General of the Quebec Students Roundtable (QSR), echoed Zaidi’s sentiment and added that the lack of time students have been given to prepare for the Rencontres is an indication of the Ministry’s disregard for student opinion. “What we think is deplorable about the timing of the meeting is that it doesn’t give students a lot of time to prepare for it,” he said. “The Ministry hasn’t even announced what will be said at the meeting, and they’re only giving us a day to discuss the issues. To properly discuss these issues in a democratic forum we would need more than a day.” Louis-Philipe Savoie, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), said he was skeptical that the Rencontres
would serve as a venue for student consultation. He noted that the ministry is already committed to raising tuition, as first stated in the March 30 budget. But Savoie reaffirmed FEUQ’s intention to attend the meeting. “Since 2007, the Fédération has asked the Ministry of Education for a wide-ranging consultation on every issue that concerns university education. However, with today’s announcement, we must say that our demands have not been met,” he said. The Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) will proceed with plans to boycott the Rencontres and picket outside the meeting in hopes of preventing negotiations from taking place. ASSÉ’s Secretary of Coordination, Élise Carrier-Martin, said that the organization plans to call for a student strike on December 6, in hopes of avoiding scheduling conflicts between exams and the Rencontres. She told The Daily in French, “It’s clear that the Ministry chose that date, knowing that it was during exams in order to make it harder for students
“To properly discuss these issues in a democratic forum we would need more than a day.” Joël Pedneault Vice-Secretary General of the Quebec Students Roundtable and ASSÉ members to turn up and make sure the meeting isn’t held. We already decided that we would vote for a day of strike on December 6 so as to not prevent people with exams from attending the protest.” On October 17, ASSÉ reported on their website that a government official had leaked the Ministry’s plans for raising tuition, which were to be revealed publicly at the Rencontres. The alleged plans showed that the government is considering raising tuition to the Canadian average – $5,138 for undergraduates and $5,182 for graduates – over four years. The ministry has denied that
ASSÉ’s numbers are accurate. Despite the Rencontres’s controversial timing, Carrier-Martin believes that many students will turn up to demonstrate against tuition increases. “A lot of students are so furious about the Ministry’s attempts to increase tuition to the national average that they will be motivated to mobilize and demonstrate. We want to send a clear message to the Quebec government and to the general population that there was absolutely no consensus among students for tuition increases,” she said.
Leader of opposition party forced to resign over Turcot project New plans for controversial interchange to be released tomorrow Laura Pellicer The McGill Daily
F
ollowing a meeting Thursday evening between Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay and Richard Bergeron, the leader of the Projet Montréal municipal party, Bergeron was forced to resign from his role on the Montreal Executive Committee. Tremblay asked members of his executive committee to unconditionally support the plan for the Turcot interchange developed by the Ministère des transports du Québec (MTQ), which Bergeron refused to do. Bergeron was head of urban development on the executive committee, and threatened to quit last week if the Mayor went ahead and approved a provincial plan that was not in line with the city’s proposal concerning the interchange. City hall’s project proposal was produced last April and approved by the heads of the three municipal parties. In the wake of his expulsion, Bergeron voiced his opposition to the Mayor’s demands. “I think it was unfair,” Bergeron stated in a press conference Friday. He had not had access to the report for the past three months, but the last version he saw did not meet the
demands his party outlined, including those for public transit. The plan was being reassessed during the past few months after being rejected by the province’s environmental commission, the Bureau d’audiences publique sure l’environnement (BAPE). Darren Becker, a spokesperson for Tremblay, explained the Mayor’s choice. “Mr. Bergeron has been making waves in the recent weeks about certain conditions for him to stay or leave regarding the project,” he said. “[The Mayor] wanted his executive committee to be united on the issue. Mr. Bergeron said that he couldn’t guarantee the Mayor that, so the Mayor said to leave.” In response to whether opposition and special interest groups have had adequate say in the development of the Turcot plan, Becker said, that “The city of Montreal submitted a counterproposal in April done by Vision [Montréal] and Projet [Montréal], and the Mayor’s office, the Mayor’s team. So I mean they already had influence.” A replacement for Bergeron’s position on the executive has not yet been announced. “The Mayor didn’t say that he’s not open to looking at other members of Projet [Montréal] to fill this position,” said Becker. The MTQ is set to unveil the new plans for the Turcot inter-
change on Tuesday. Although details of the plans have not been publicly released, Becker asserts that the new project “responds to important criteria that the city set out” concerning the issues of housing expropriations, and public transit, and embankments–building on lower instead of higher elevations. Sources have suggested, howev-
er, that the new project plans will not serve to reduce traffic and will involve housing expropriations, according to Radio-Canada. The details will be confirmed tomorrow with the release of the official MTQ plan. Louise Harel, leader of Vision Montréal – the Official Opposition of the City of Montreal – has pointed out that construct-
ing an embanked roadway will serve to isolate communities. One neighbourhood which will be particularly affected by the project is St. Henri, in Montreal’s Southwest borough. Benoît Dorais, the borough’s Mayor, has said that if the plans do not meet the needs of Southwest citizens, there will be significant protests.
6 News
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
Palestinian prisoners’ advocate speaks at McGill Ala Jaradat discusses the military order in the Occupied Territories and Israel
T
he McGill chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) hosted Ala Jaradat this past Wednesday in Chancellor Day Hall. Jaradat is involved with ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO. “The percentage of Palestinian adult males who have been to prison [is] between sixty per cent and eighty per cent,” said Jaradat during his talk. “My father was imprisoned, my uncle was imprisoned, I was imprisoned, and if I ever have children, they will be imprisoned until this occupation ends.” The Daily spoke with Jaradat after the talk.
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The McGill Daily: What is ADDAMEER? Ala Jaradat: I’m part of a human rights organization that works against political repression, for political prisoners, opposing the use of torture, arbitrary detention, or the fair trial using different mechanisms. One of them is providing free legal aid to political prisoners, free legal representation, intervening legally on their behalf against any of the violations, attempting to use the local legal systems, filing complaints and intervention on an international level, and trying to use UN protection mechanisms or universal jurisdiction. Additionally, what we do is advocacy work – in terms of monitoring and documentation and the use of that information to write legal analyses or reports on conditions of detention which are used internationally or trying individual cases and raising awareness on individual cases on local, domestic and international levels. Besides that, we provide training to Palestinian lawyers on international law and the possibility of being able to use international law in their work on the ground and we work with human rights youth activists trying to provide them with skills that they can use in terms of advocating for the rights of the people and protecting local communities rights, lobbying, advocacy, and media work. MD: How does Palestinian imprisonment compare to imprisonment elsewhere in the world? AJ: The Palestinian prison issue cannot be understood in terms and concepts that currently in the world are accepted as talking about prisoners and about prison systems. We are here talking about a colonial project. We are talking about a form of military occupation. Palestinians are being arrested and detained for political reasons and for allegedly taking part in activities related to the conflict, or trying to live
or defy the mechanisms and the measures and the policies of the military occupation that is about to appropriate their land, water and all of their natural resources: the defense of these measures is the reason behind the arrest and detention. So, the nature of the Palestinian prisoners’ population by far is not very similar to other prisoner populations. You can compare it only to smaller groups of prisoners in different parts of the world, political prisoners or in areas of conflict where there are people on different sides of conflict being imprisoned. You can compare it to other eras of colonialism and prisoners in those prisons in the past. Palestinians are not being imprisoned because they pose a threat to their own society or according to laws agreed upon by their own society. These are people being imprisoned because of violating laws that are determined by the occupier and the colonizer. MD: How does the military order function in the Occupied Territories? AJ: Basically, under international law, an occupying power has the right to establish a military court system and arrest and detain people under [this system of] military courts. But the way Israel has practiced the military court system was totally beyond their rights as an occupying power. Israel, with the military court system, gave itself the jurisdiction over many aspects of the Palestinians’ lives. The military order and military court system totally overrides any preexisting laws and Israel uses them selectively. The military courts chose and the military commander chose to give themselves jurisdiction over civilian lives, over any civil, economical, cultural, political aspect of the lives of Palestinians. And the military commander, who is assigned by the state of Israel, gave himself the sole powers to rule every aspect of the Palestinians’ lives. MD: What is considered illegal according to the military order? On what grounds can somebody get arrested? AJ: There are over 1,650 military orders by now, and these military orders govern almost every aspect of the lives of the Palestinians: from what they can read, to what they cannot read; what kind of activities they can do, to what they cannot do. Military orders limit freedom of expression, freedom of association, academic freedom and so on, just to name a few. Any kind of social organization is illegal. Any kind of community organization or mobilization is illegal. Any kind of political activity is illegal. Basically, these military orders
almost illegalize your day-to-day life as a Palestinian. You can find yourself easily and simply at any moment, in violation of one or another of the military orders, just by trying to live and provide for life. MD: What happens once somebody is detained initially? Do they have access to lawyers? AJ: The military orders include provisions on how the whole process is regulated. Under this process, they can prohibit from the moment of arrest and detaining a person meeting legal counsel or a lawyer, for a period of about ninety days, continuously or uncontinuously. And uncontinuously means that it can be extended to even more than ninety days by giving orders to private meeting with a lawyer for three days at a time or five days at a time, making it stretch to 180 days without meeting a lawyer. MD: What are the conditions like in the prisons? AJ: The least we can say about the detention conditions is that they are totally inhumane detention conditions, under which Palestinians are subject to harsh treatments, continuous neglect of providing health care, overcrowded conditions, extremely difficult hygiene situations, lack of health conditions, in terms of ventilation, light and denial of communication with the outside world. No phone calls are allowed, family visits are very controlled and limited, with continuous denial of giving permits to families to visit – basically totally inhumane conditions of detention. MD: What is “Administrative Detention”? AJ: Administrative detention is an administrative as opposed to legal procedure, where a military commander can issue an order to detain a person for a period that varies from one month to six months under the pretext that this person forms a threat to the security of the region and the population, based on a secret file and secret information that neither the detainee nor any counsel or lawyer can have access to. At the end or before the end of the detention order, it can be renewed and there are no limitations on how many times this detention order can be renewed. Palestinians can spend five years to eight years in prison under administrative detention. Their detention order is renewed every couple of months, without ever knowing when they are going to be released, or if they are going to be released, without ever knowing why they are being detained and for what reasons. —Compiled by Emma Quail
Letters
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
7
Re: “CanLit: a great read” | Editorial | November 4
This country has a legacy of exceptional, interesting, gutsy women writers, and they deserve to be read as much as the boys do. Amelia Schonbek BA English Literature 2009, former coordinating Culture editor
Capitalism comprehension problems
Israeli soldiers people; NY has better pizza, bagels
Re: “Giving consumerism a fright” | Commentary | November 1
Re: “SPHR protests Israeli soldiers on campus” | News | November 4
It’s standard practice at The Daily to try to link everything to politics, but to be taken seriously, someone needs to pull out their first-year economics notes. Consider Julia Bloom’s review of the costume shop, Eva B. She identifies lots of great features which I completely agree with: more and better costume choices, a more interesting shopping experience, and, because of its business model (renting instead of buying), lower prices and less waste. It was a great review. But then someone must have decided it wasn’t political enough, and threw in the subtitle: “Eva B’s costume rental challenges Halloween’s capitalist spirit.” Quick, does anyone know what capitalism is? Extrapolating from every Daily article ever printed, capitalism is everything that sucks, like poisonous spiders and birdshit. Used in a sentence: “Fuck, I totally bombed that midterm. It was so capitalist and oppressive!” Anticapitalism, conversely, could be presumed to refer to rainbows, sunshine, and unicorns. Actually, capitalism is an economic system that organizes about two-thirds of Canada’s economy. It has many flaws, of course – often discussed on these pages. Eva B, however, is an example of capitalism working quite well. Bloom showed that Eva B offers a better product at a lower price than its competition. In this way, the innovative owner attracts customers and makes – gasp – a profit! – while consumers simultaneously benefit. He’s not following instructions from a government or charity – he’s making a living as a businessperson in a free market. So yes, Eva B is great. No, it does not challenge capitalism – it IS capitalism. In order to improve our economic systems and create fairer, more sustainable societies, we need to understand what we’re talking about. Right now, it seems like The Daily hasn’t got a clue. Nick Annejohn U2 Engineering
Some clarifications for the Campus Eye on the Israeli soldiers on campus. As the Jewish Studies Student Association president, I wanted to make a quick comment on the nature of and motives behind our event last Wednesday, in which three Israeli soldiers came for a pizza lunch. The event was planned and financed by the Birthright Alumni program and I promoted it on campus on their request. The idea behind it was to have some pizza with nice people who lead drastically different lives. The three soldiers who came were not politicians, policy-makers, journalists, or intellectuals, nor did they have any agenda beyond interacting honestly with students. Obviously, my point is to humanize them and to assert that the visit was not intended to have any political implications. Perhaps I am naïve. I would note that some of the SPHR folks did eat the free pizza, which is at least a little hypocritical. I also want to formally invite everyone to our Woody Allen movie night coming up later in this month. Free pizza will be there too, not Pizza Giovan, but free nonetheless. Lastly, Montreal pizza sucks compared to New York pizza... same goes for the bagels. Oy vey,
Where the women at? Re: “CanLit: a great read” | Editorial | November 4 Dear Daily, While I love that you included a list of favourite Canadian books below last week’s editorial on the necessity of reading Canadian literature, I’m really unimpressed that of the 21 titles, only five were written by women. What about Gwendolyn MacEwen, Sina Queyras, M. NourbeSe Philip, Dorothy Livesay, or Daphne Marlatt? I mean, P.K. Page, for the love of God! This country has a legacy of exceptional, interesting, gutsy women writers, and they deserve to be read as much as the boys do. Amelia Schonbek BA English Literature 2009 Former coordinating Culture editor
Kattan seeks Cornett justice Re: “Will we ever see Norman Cornett at McGill again?” | Commentary | September 27 I have read your article on Norman Cornett. I wish to express my approval. I have known Cornett for a few years and I admire his free mind and his great concern for diversity and dialogue. I was fortunate to participate in one of his dialogues.
New equity policy mad important, should be passed by Council The new SSMU Policy on Equity is an important document outlining the University’s obligation to create a safe and inclusive environment for all students and its timely passage is critical. Since SSMU declared itself as an anti-oppressive organization in 1989, equity has increasingly become a priority in the consideration of all University policies and in dealing with issues of discrimination affecting the student population. Attention to equity, including addressing specifically issues of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, gender identification, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, and social class, remains essential. This new equity policy reflects the commitment of SSMU to uphold fundamental standards and should be passed at the next Council meeting on November 11. Sincerely, Emily Gilfillan U3 Political Science and IDS SSMU Representative, Senate Subcommittee on Women Abby Lippman Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health Chair, Senate Subcommittee on Women
Love from L.A. for Cornett
Naïm Kattan Writer
Peter Fusco U3 Political Science and Jewish Studies JSSA President
Re: “Will we ever see Norman Cornett at McGill again?” | Commentary | September 27
Cornett will boost McGill’s rep
Cornett’s exegesis was delicious
Re: “Will we ever see Norman Cornett at McGill again?” | Commentary | September 27
I read a recent commentary by Slawomir Poplawsky in The McGill Daily. I was recently made aware of the plight of Norman Cornett after viewing Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary on his firing from McGill University. What was most disturbing about this situation is the lack of explanation or grounds for dismissal from the University. While I understand there may be reluctance on the part of McGill to speak to a documentary filmmaker who supports Cornett, it appears that the University’s administration never provided an explanation to anyone, including Cornett. The film presented what might
Although I am not familiar with the circumstances of Norman Cornett’s departure from McGill, I would like to say that I was greatly impressed by his skill and insight when he conducted a dialogic session at Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts when one of my films was shown there a few years ago. The multifaceted discussion was better than any I can remember following a film screening. Mary Lance New Deal Films Corrales, New Mexico
In response to your article concerning the reinstatement of Norman Cornett, I wish to reiterate the opinion of the writer, Slawomir Poplawski, that McGill should reinstate Cornett in its staff members. I think that McGill students will be the winners when they are enriched by the nonconformist methods of Cornett. McGill should be proud of a professor who does not put his students to sleep with conventional teaching methods. I am sure he will restore McGill’s reputation in matters of intellectual innovation, among the top universities of the world. Thank you. Nadia Alexan
What’s up with the corporate ads, Daily? Dear McGill Daily, I get it. You are the “anti-corporation” voice of McGill (see any number of articles about the Architecture Café and McGill Food Services, or Anna Norris’ article covering a Concordia protest of “Pepsico privatization” [“Students rally against Pepsico privatization,” News, October 28]). What I am disappointed to see are advertisements for KIA, a major automobile manufacturer, gracing the back cover of your October 28 and November 4 issues. Obviously, student fees do not fund the entire newspaper’s costs, but why assist the type of business your writers so often rail against (corporations) in their most slimy form of public influence (advertising)? As Malcolm X declared in his “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech (1964): “Anytime you have to rely on your enemy for a job, you’re in bad shape.” It seems that The McGill Daily is in “bad shape,” as its values are continuously compromised. With hope for the future, Jonathan Cohen U1 History (Honours)
be considered his somewhat unconventional teaching methods as the possible source of contention. However, what really needs to be examined is their results. The passionate interviews with his former students made a clear case that that his approach not only works academically, but makes a positive and lasting impression on their lives long after the classes were over. At the very least Cornett needs a complete explanation from McGill for the firing including why it was done so hastily and, seemingly, without warning. Far more desirable and warranted would be for McGill to reinstate Cornett and set an example of what insightful, daring, and passionate educators bring to a university and its students. Linda Carrie Dieterich Los Angeles
The Daily wants letters. Letters letters letters. Letter-monster. Send us your epistles: letters@mcgilldaily.com. Three hundred words or less, from your McGill email account, and no hate: no homophobia, no racism, no hate period.
Commentary
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
8
Long overdue election is a sham Burma’s “discipline-flourishing democracy” and its illusions of grandeur Red star over Asia Ted Sprague ted.sprague@mcgilldaily.com
“You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me.” —J. Peterman
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ast Sunday, the Burmese headed to polling stations. It has been twenty years since the last election in Burma, the results of which were annulled by the ruling military junta because Ang Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly. However, there is nothing to expect from this bayonet-led election, an exercise the junta has dubbed a “disciplineflourishing democracy.” Ahead of the election, ten political parties had been dissolved by the government. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed “concern” over this act, and he will continue to express his concern, while the junta will continue to ignore him. Anyone in their right mind knows that this election was a sham from the very beginning. A quarter of the parliament has been reserved for military personnel appointed by the Commander-inChief, Than Shwe. The army will legally be able to dissolve the new “civilian” government – as if they
needed a legality to do something they are already expert at. By the White House’s standards, Burma should have been occupied long ago for the sake of democracy. But to them, the junta poses no harm, though they act like mad dogs. Despite economic sanctions, there’s still a lot of good business to be done in Burma. Western oil companies like Total SA and Chevron continue to operate there. Every good capitalist knows that profits don’t take democracy into account. The military junta is now building what they call the Fourth Empire. History is rewritten. New museums are erected to educate the people about the central role of the junta throughout Burma’s history, so that it can place itself as the worthy heir of the Burma’s three past emperors. Like every ruler, the junta is hungry for grandeur. They have constructed a new capital, known as Naypyidaw, or “Abode of Kings,” out of a wasteland. With massive sterile structures, Naypyidaw has a large pagoda at the centre of it, named the “Peace Pagoda” – as if to mock the people suffering under this dictatorship. But this abode will fall like a house of cards. It is not a question of when, or even how, but where it will go from here. With such an acute oppression of the minori-
Olivia Messer |The McGill Daily
ties, the national question in this land will tear Burma apart if not dealt with carefully. Let’s not hope for UN intervention here. The people of Burma need no saviour from without, especially one that comes from such an impotent institution. They also don’t need John Rambo to come rescue them with his .50-calibre machine gun, disem-
boweling the Burmese army. The last time Rambo helped liberate a country, it turned into a backward state led by a group of misogynistic men who misuse the Koran to justify their rule. Yes, I’m talking about Rambo III, where hand-inhand with Mujahideen forces, the precursor of Taliban, Rambo helps topple a progressive government in Afghanistan which had given
women equal rights. The November 7 election won’t offer a glimmer of change despite some pundits’ hope. It’s merely another brick in the foundation of Myanmar’s Fourth Empire, another step in the junta’s illusory quest to immortalize themselves. Maybe the Red Shirt pro-democracy movement in Thailand has reminded them of their own mortality. !
tionally illiterate majority of the population wanted to pretend that it wasn’t, it might turn to “information” sources that allow it to propagate its delusion of literacy. Enter social media: small, easily-digested, low-complexity text. Popular consumption of social media necessarily comes from the quasi-literate majority, those for whom they were designed. Combine this with the narcissism (and often megalomania) of most social media “authors,” and you have a recipe for disaster. Consider that more than a quarter of our population is in reading level two, and according to the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network, “often do not recognize their limitations” – they can’t identify or dismiss tripe, nor demand better. Using these superficial marketing media techniques as the primary vehicle for important news, or substantive discourse, is spec-
tacle of the first degree. We need a truly informed population that consults meaningfully, and participates in an informed manner, not a population that fools itself into thinking it’s informed. This requires true literacy and numeracy, neither of which are promoted by social media. Many pointed to Obama’s success as proof of the power of social media for awakening the bright forces of an informed electorate. The recently-concluded U.S. mid-term elections demonstrated what actually occurred in 2008. Identical social media strategies employed by Obama have been put to work against his regime. The content of the messaging was different, but the support elicited was essentially the same: the quasi-literate. Real movements require real intellectual foundations, which in turn, requires substantive communication. !
Marketing democracy Social media encourage perilous illiteracy and innumeracy The character of community Adrian Kaats adrian.kaats@mcgilldaily.com
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an Canadians read? Not really: according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), as of 2003, 48 per cent of Canadians are functionally illiterate, and another 35 per cent met only “the minimum skill level for successful participation in society.” Can Canadians count? Again, not really: according to HRSDC, as of 2003, 56 per cent of Canadians lacked the math skills to “function…well in Canadian society,” and another thirty per cent met only the minimum level of numeracy associated with successful participation in society. If the differences in the literacy statistics between 1994 and 2003
indicate a trend, we’re doing nothing to fix the situation. In fact, the situation has become worse. There was a decline in the number of people who have “strong literacy skills” and “strategies for dealing with complex materials.” It seems reason and another roughly thirty per cent can just barely read or count their way out of a paper bag. That leaves maybe about twenty percent of our population with sufficient literacy and numeracy to understand what the hell is going on in our country. Compare this with voter turnout in federal elections. According to Elections Canada, in the past four polls (about ten years), voter turnout has hovered around sixty per cent. This should sound blaring alarm bells. At best, about forty per cent of voters have little to no ability to understand the election platforms and financial plans they voted for. What really
worries me is the following: if so many voters can’t do their own homework, what makes them decide how to vote? A book I recently read springs to mind: Chris Hedges’s Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. It’s nicely summed up by Barnum and Bailey’s Circus’s exhortation to pay to “come see the Egress!” I’d like to focus on the rise and role of social media – blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, et cetera – in our political discourse. Lauded by their proponents for the ability to broadcast “information” to huge audiences, social media are undoubtedly an important vehicle for “the triumph of spectacle.” The masses are easily fed ridiculously decontextualized and often bizarre interpretations of current events, rhetoric, and personal ideology. Risking poor analysis, I’ll venture that if the func-
Commentary
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
9
A disgraceful protest Anti-IDF rally missed the mark Russell Sitrit-Leibovich Hyde Park
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n Wednesday, November 3, the Jewish Studies Student Association and the Birthright Alumni program hosted a free pizza lunch with three Israeli soldiers in the Jewish Studies building, on a tour to visit the Jewish community of Montreal, as part of a meeting with McGill students. What was meant as a friendly casual event to promote Birthright, a program that provides Jewish students with a free trip to Israel, degenerated into a shameful display of hypocrisy, bigotry, and sheer hatred. Anti-Israel activists disrupted the event as protesters gathered outside to scream slogans like, “Free, free Palestine!” and “IDF, you can’t hide, we can see your genocide.” Really? Genocide? I’ve yet to hear of a genocidal army warning civilians in advance of its military operations, through local radio broadcasts and over 165,000 phone calls, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Israel dropped over 2,500,000 leaflets over Gaza, warning civilians to stay away from military targets. During the conflict, 1,511 trucks carrying 37,162 tonnes of supplies entered Gaza from Israel. As Richard Kemp, former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, testified before the Goldstone Commission: “During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.” This should make it abundantly clear that Wednesday’s protesters were more motivated by hatred for Israel
than by a commitment to facts. The IDF operates under very strict moral conditions. When you are fighting an enemy who hides in civilian populations, who launches rockets from schools and hospitals, and stores weapons in mosques, civilian casualties are inevitable. Yet I’ve never heard a word of protest from these same activists when over 10,000 rockets fell on Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and other Israeli cities. If they want to protest genocidal aspirations, they should start with Hamas, whose charter makes its goal abundantly clear: “The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah’s promise, no matter how long that should take… ‘The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him…’” That is why Israeli soldiers fight: to protect the Jewish people and the State of Israel from those who would wish to do us away. There can be no peace or compromise with an enemy who has no respect for the value of life, who straps bombs to their own children in the hope that they will murder Jews, and who is wholly committed to your destruction. The Jewish people lived for a long time without an army to defend us, and we don’t have to be ashamed of our moral right to protect ourselves. The shame belongs to Wednesday’s protesters, not to the IDF. Russell Sitrit-Leibovich is a U1 Political Science student and a senior Hasbara fellow. Write him at russell.sitrit.leibovich@gmail.com.
The debate continues...
ONLINE! mcgilldaily.com/sections/commentary
Errata In the November 4 issue, in the article “SSMU investments bounce back” (News), The Daily reported that SSMU received $1.8 million after being bought out of their share in Haven Books. In fact, SSMU received $1.875 million after selling their shares in the McGill Bookstore, spent $75,000 to start Haven Books, and invested the other $1.8 million into their investment portfolio. Also, SSMU by-laws regulate the portfolio, not FERC, as we reported. FERC only investigates companies that potentially violates the by-laws. In the same issue, the illustration for “Brain chips, battle suits and cochlear implants” (Features) should have been credited to Olivia Messer. Still in the November 4 edition, due to a typographical error, Christian Bök and Carol Shields’s names were misspelled (“CanLit: a great read,” Editorial). The Daily regrets the error.
Lukas Thienhaus | The McGill Daily
“Immediately I felt involved – placed against my will in this awkward and frustrating scenario.”
Shame and confrontation Matthew Kassel Hyde Park
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’m Jewish. That might be why I minor in Jewish Studies – it helps me make sense of myself. I’m never going to be not Jewish. That’s not to say I won’t change, or that my Jewishness defines me absolutely. But it does inform myself, how I view others, and in turn, how others view me. This semester I’m taking a class on modern liberal Jewish thought – reading the works of Mordechai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Arthur Green. It’s a small class I look forward to, one I often participate in and think about outside of school. On Wednesday, November 3 at 12:30 p.m., the Jewish Studies Student Association and the Birthright Alumni program hosted a free pizza lunch with three Israeli soldiers in the Jewish Studies building. I know this because my Jewish Studies class was at the same time, in the same building, in an adjoining room. The soldiers, as far as I know, were there to meet students in Montreal and share their experiences in the Israel Defense Forces. Their invitation was not an endorsement, their presence not a conspiracy. Quite a few students showed, and it took longer than usual to settle into the class discussion as people filed through the hall outside. Then, a knock at the door. There are protesters outside, we were told.
Of course. Why did I not consider that this would happen? I turned around to look out the window as a group of students was forming in front of the steps of the Jewish Studies building. Immediately I felt involved – placed against my will in this awkward and frustrating scenario. I scanned the faces in the crowd to see if I recognized anyone. I knew some of them: three from my Arabic class, one a TA from a political science class I took. For
testing me, though I knew they weren’t. I’m torn – because I’m Jewish and because I don’t want that to matter. But it does. I don’t like to talk about Israel or Palestine because I can only deal with so much cliché, so much posturing. This is so hard for me to write because I don’t want to become what I hate. That’s the main reason I try not to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: because it makes me angry, everything about it: the injustice, the sides, the intran-
For some reason, out of some irrational sense of shame or fear, I hoped they wouldn’t see me some reason, out of some irrational sense of shame or fear, I hoped they wouldn’t see me. My professor, who is chair of Jewish Studies, seemed quite distressed, but we managed to work our way into the discussion. Then the chants began – protestations against, as I heard it, Israeli apartheid. And this just as Rachel Adler’s Jewish feminism was starting to make sense. My professor went outside to try to quell the chanting while my classmates and I just sat inside, confused and clumsy and maybe angry, making jokes to hide our indignity. We were involved, although I doubt they knew it outside. I began to think they were pro-
sigence, the blood. And I don’t want to be an angry person. But at the same time, I do. Because I’m Jewish and my class was interrupted for the wrong reason and because I missed free pizza and because I’m tired. Because I felt ashamed when that was probably the opposite of how I should have felt. By the end of class, the protest had lost momentum. I packed up my bag, put on my coat and walked outside. No one said anything to me. I said nothing back. Matthew Kassel is a U3 Political Science student. Write him at matthew.kassel@mail.mcgill.ca.
10 Features
INDENTURED
LABOUR IN MONTREAL’S
BACKYARD Seble Gameda looks at Canada’s institutional
exploitation of migrant workers
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aint-Rémi is a small town located forty kilometres south of Montreal. As I approach the town by bus, I pass by large farmlands of cornfields and vegetable plots, with trailers and 18-wheelers alongside. This agricultural landscape comes to an odd halt in the centre of Saint-Rémi, where I am convinced that I have entered Latin America. The sounds of mariachi bands fill my ears, Guatemalans and Mexicans pass by me on their bicycles, the smells of tostadas and empanadas waft in the air, and Spanish rolls off everyone’s tongues. Saint-Rémi is a major site for commercial farming, employing between two and three thousand migrant workers in the nearby vegetable and berry farms. As I wander down the street, countless workers exit an imposing Catholic church. Leaving the church parking lot are numerous school buses, used to transport the migrant workers. Following these school busses, I arrive at a large park with a small play structure and tennis courts. It is Sunday, the workers’ only day off, and a few hundred migrants are watching a weekly soccer game. I find the migrant support centre when I return to the centre of town, above a local bar where a sign taped to the inside of a secondstorey window reads “Alliance des Travailleurs Agricoles.” Upstairs is a series of offices and a makeshift living space with couches, tables, and coffee machines, where many workers are chatting as they wait to see the support centre employees. There, sitting on the couch, is Abundio Lopez. Lopez, originally from Mexico, is working his tenth season in Canada and his first in Quebec. Throughout his decade in tempo-
Nacho and Mingo came from Mexico to Canada on work visas and now work o
rary agricultural work, he has experienced the rule of law of his employer, minimum wage salaries, inadequate healthcare, and fear of deportation due to a complete lack of job security. “If I fail in anything, I’m practically out of the program,” says Lopez in Spanish. “So I arrive tense, and with many problems.”
“The boss decides the working conditions,” said Lopez. “If the boss says ‘Work 12 hours,’ I have to work.” Workers at Canadian commercial farms are paid minimum wage ($9.50 per hour in Quebec), with no compensation for overtime, sometimes working upward of sixty or seventy hours per week.
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he plight of migrant workers in SaintRémi is not isolated, but rather mirrored all across Canada. Throughout the country these workers face countless instances of being denied their basic rights: poor health standards, workplace fatalities and deportation. Over 97 per cent of migrant workers in Canada are male. These labourers must have both spouses and children to ensure that they have enough incentive to return to their home countries and not remain in Canada. Proper healthcare is often denied to these workers, and dangerous working and living conditions are commonplace, subjecting the workers to frequent injury and even death. The agricultural industry has one of the highest rates of workplace fatalities; 33 migrant workers have been killed on the job since 1999 in Ontario alone. Two Jamaican workers on an Ontarian farm were killed less than two months ago, overcome by toxic gas fumes while producing apple cider. Since migrant workers’ immigration status is tied to their employment, employers are often the sole authority in workers’ lives. They dictate living standards, working conditions, and healthcare access. With all these basic needs in the hands of their bosses, workers have expressed an extreme sense of fear and concern with standing up for their rights.
here have been some unionization attempts to improve their current situation. But this remains largely unsuccessful throughout many provinces. Ontario and Alberta represent the two provinces in which the right to unionize is specifically denied. In Leamington, Ontario, a major site for tomato production, wildcat strikes broke out in both 2001 and 2003 to protest abusive conduct and the denial of proper living and working conditions. The main leaders of these strikes were subsequently deported. In order to support these migrant workers in their situations of marginalization and precarious status, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has created ten Agricultural Workers Alliance (AWA) support centres across Canada, including the one I visited in Saint-Rémi. These centres provide assistance of all forms, from applying for parental tax benefits, to monitoring records from the commission de santé et securité au travail, to addressing wage issues. “It’s everything that we as Canadians do ourselves, but since everything is in French or English, it is doubly hard for the workers,” said Saint-Rémi support centre coordinator Marie-Jeanne Van Doorne in French. Lopez and workers from Mexico and the Caribbean are employed through the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), a bilateral agreement between
Canada and the workers’ countries of origin. This program employs migrant workers for a single season on industrial farms in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Workers from Guatemala are employed through a separate program, the Low-Skill Pilot Project (LSPP). This recently created private program has opened 42 new industries to migrant workers, including janitorial work and meatpacking. Guatemalans employed through the LSPP come to Saint-Rémi for two-years terms to work on commercial farms. Andrea Galvez, Quebec Coordinator for the AWA support centres, commented on the international and personal level of manipulation that occurs on these farms, focusing on the LSPP. “What [the agricultural companies] are saying, not only to the workers but also to the consulate and even to the government is, ‘Don’t ask for too much because there are plenty of other countries who are willing to send their people.’ They’re also pitting the workers against each other to raise productivity. … It’s not only exploitation – it’s really dangerous.” These tactics put the labourers in stressful and gruelling positions, reminding them of their expendability. (Workers need to be specifically requested by their employer to return for a subsequent season.) Workers with minimal education are often chosen for these programs, making them more easily manipulated. Employers often withhold their visas and passports upon arrival as a way of creating a relationship of dependency. Conditions within the LSPP tend to be worse than that of the SAWP, and there is now a trend of decreasing Mexican labour and exponentially increasing Guatemalan labour. In Saint-Rémi this year, roughly forty per
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
11
Photos by Seble Gameda | The McGill Daily
on the farms outside Saint-Rémi
cent of the agricultural workers are Mexican, while sixty per cent are Guatemalan. This is a shift from 2009 when the representation was fifty-fifty. The LSPP contains “no involvement whatsoever of the Canadian government,” said Galvez. “The working and salary conditions are negotiated directly by the employers and by a third party. In Guatemala it’s the International Organisation of Migration, which is rotten and corrupt and is really just selling labour.” Labourers are also technically provided healthcare, but Lopez shed light on the superficiality of this claim: “I had an accident, a stomach disease. But I won’t tell my boss. I have to endure the pain to work.” Employers commonly neglect to provide medical services to the workers, instead threatening them with deportation. With this thought always lingering over workers’ heads, real needs such as healthcare are often foregone to ensure a livelihood for themselves and their families. They become scared to access the services that are rightfully provided to them.
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ccompanying these abusive working conditions are inadequate (and at times unsafe) living conditions. Housing arrangements are often set up in temporary trailers located alongside the commercial farms. “One of the worst ones that I went to see, the floor of the shower area was basically rotten and falling through, there was mould in the shower and there was mould in the washing machine,” said Anna Malla, former employee at the Saint-Rémi Workers Centre, and QPIRG McGill’s Internal Coordinator. “A lot of people were getting sick and having stomach infections. The water was a brown yellow colour and…the
Abundio Lopez is on his tenth year of working in Canada without citizenship.
pump system…was coming from a stagnant water source.” Although such oppressive conditions seem to be relics of the past in this country, they still flourish on these commercial farms where migrant workers are viewed as dispensable commodities. “If the boss says, ‘Live in a house with ten other people,’ we need to accept,” stated Lopez, illustrating his complete lack of freedom and subjection to his employer. Workers are also paying employment insurance, Pension Plan and income tax, and receiving none of the benefits, as they are unable to become permanent residents. Racist claims that migrant workers are stealing Canadian jobs permeate society, while these dire situations of inequality remains well masked. Lopez succinctly noted his relationship to Canada: “When people ask me where I’m from, I say Canada when I’m in Canada. Because I too belong to Canada.”
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n order to challenge these various forms of neglect and oppression, the UFCW has been actively organizing towards the unionization of migrant workers in Quebec. This would provide workers with the ability to freely advocate for improved medical services, as well as living and working conditions, without the risk of deportation or punishment. The UFCW achieved a significant victory in April 2009 with a change in Quebec Labour Code 21.5, allowing migrant workers to unionize. The government of Quebec appealed the ruling immediately, however, and unionization currently remain impossible. “The change in Article 21.5 surely scared the employers,” said Van Doorne. However, the law was quickly appealed to the Supreme Court by the provincial government. An
exception to this labour code is greenhouse workers, who are employed throughout the year and therefore allowed to unionize “I don’t think they’re ready, the farmers, but I think the workers are ready, and it’s in their interest. Unionization is the only hope for them…to be treated like workers, like us, like everyone,” said Van Doorne. The ways in which people can migrate through borders is increasingly being surveyed and manipulated. In Canada, the emergence of the LSPP has drastically increased migration while decreasing the number of landed immigrants permitted in the country. Nearly 82,00 people came to Canada last year under the LSPP, SAWP, and a handful of other programs that exclude the workers from obtaining landed immigrant status.
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here are between 250,000 and 400,000 non-status people living in Canada, representing the most exploitable and vulnerable portions of the population. This large portion of foreign labour causes monetary flow from the global North to the global South in the form of remittances, which were estimated at $3 trillion in 2009. The Canadian migrant labour system is constantly evolving and new industries are continually being introduced. “There are some who come for sugar, for maple syrup, and others for mining,” said Van Doorne. “So it’s evolving and changing very quickly.” Labour markets are also broadening, Galvez mentioned, indicating Honduras and El Salvador as likely partners for the LSPP. Similarly manipulative systems include the Live-In Caregiver program, placement agencies, and day labourers. Galvez highlighted the various social
groups that were traditionally discriminated against and used through economies of coercion: “Before there were migrants there were prisoners…before that there were war prisoners, using Germans and Japanese as slaves for the farmers; before that there were orphans from Britain.” In the spirit of solidarity, groups such as No One Is Illegal, Solidarity Across Borders, and the Immigrant Workers Centre have been instrumental in advocating for migrant justice. They work toward putting an end to deportations, decolonizing borders, granting status for all, and advocate freedom of movement and respect for all migrant workers. “The system is set up to have people come and be used as labourers but not have any rights. So what [we] organize around is the right for people to stay and to have access to the same rights that any permanent resident or citizen would have here; to not live in fear of being deported and to have access to all that they need and not feel afraid that they’ll be reprimanded,” said Malla. The plight of migrant workers in SaintRémi reveals injustice that is in some ways well hidden. The intricate manipulation of this industry remains skilfully veiled from the public eye through the social isolation of its workers and the denial of their rights. The immigration system is rapidly changing, allowing labourers to come when it’s convenient and deporting them when it isn’t so convenient. Monetary profits are being prioritized before human well-being, and the work of grassroots activists are now playing a critical role in changing this reality and providing hope for marginalized labourers to be able to organize themselves and demand the rights that any citizen deserves.
Science+Technology
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
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Red tape in outer space The foundations, and future, of international space law Erin O'Callaghan The McGill Daily
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ver wondered what the legal ramifications for attempting to colonize the moon would be? There is more to it than throwing a couple billion dollars into the project, picking out the lucky astronauts, and counting down to lift off. In fact, there are a lot of laws and regulations in space. The term “outer space law” brings to mind the X-Files and UFOs, or maybe legal treaties between satellite carriers and distributors. However, the practice of space law is an established legal field. The United Nations has an Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and McGill has had an Institute for Air and Space Law for over fifty years. McGill is also home to the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association, and the Canadian Space Agency, making McGill one of the leading institutions for the study of space law.
The Institute for Air and Space Law at McGill was started in 1951 and originally focused just on air law – but the launch of Sputnik in the late 1950s revolutionized the institute. Since then, the program has grown immensely: the institute has over 900 graduates. The space law program at McGill is a graduate program, dominated
by three courses taught by professor Ram Jakhu. “[We] offer the most comprehensive program in the world,” said Paul Dempsey, the institute’s director, who added that the program’s graduates who now live in 120 different countries.
Although the field of space law came into existence relatively late in the game – the UN established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in the 1950s – it is continually developing. The University of Sunderland, in the U.K., introduced a space law module into their standard undergraduate law degree earlier this year to keep up with the changing legal field. “An increasing number of national and international law firms were introducing Space Law as an area of practice,” explained professor Christopher Newman, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Sunderland and one of the professors teaching the new Space Law module, in an email to The Daily. “The Space Law module only has a small number of students, around twenty,” explained Newman, “[but] anecdotal feedback from the students is extremely positive.” The module covers everything from an introduction to the history of space
travel and why regulation in outer space is necessary, to environmental issues and extraterrestrial property rights. “I think the thing that has excited [the students] the most in this area is that, because there isn’t a great deal of judicial or legislative activity (certainly in the U.K.), they can project their own legal solutions and indeed impose their own structure,” Newman wrote. The first outer space treaty – the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies – was negotiated in 1967. Four more treaties followed in the late 1960s and through to the early 1980s, which provide the backbone for international space law. The legal principles in these five treaties support the non-appropriation of outer space by any one country, the freedom of exploration, the safety of spacecraft and astronauts, the prevention of damage to the environment, and the settlement of disputes. As stated on the UNOOSA website, “Each of the treaties lays great stress on the notion that the domain of outer space…should be devoted to enhancing the well-being of all countries and humankind.”
So what is in the cards for the future of space law? “[The field of Space Law] is set to enjoy very significant growth,”
Stacey Wilson | The McGill Daily
Dempsey said. “Richard Branson intends to provide regular commercial suborbital flights [and] Boeing also wants to have a re-usable vehicle [for commercial space travel].” “If the first generation of space travellers were (by and large) military test pilots and the second generation were scientists then the third generation of space travellers – starting with Dennis Tito – are going to be tourists, travelling to space as a leisure activity,” wrote Newman. As commercial enterprises become more developed in the field of space travel, ideas of hotels in space and quick day trips around the Earth, previously associated more with cartoons like The Jetsons than with reality, are no longer only in the
realm of the imagination. “There are proposals to put some sort of hotel in space so tourists would have some place to spend a few days,” added Dempsey. He also suggested that commercial space travel could be used for pointto-point transportation on earth. “One could travel from New York to Tokyo in only a few hours.” The introduction of tourists to space travel will significantly complicate the legal matters of space. “Regulation of [tourist travel] is going to be far more complicated, but far more necessary than previous legal frameworks,” Newman explained. “I think the next twenty years will see space law coming into the legal mainstream.”
Make up ingredient, pollution preventer? Dry water may have applications in the storage and transport of natural gases Sheehan Moore The McGill Daily
D
ry water may sound like a contradiction in terms, but this substance with the look and feel of icing sugar has the potential to change the energy market. It’s made by coating water molecules with a thin layer of modified silica, the main component of beach sand. The result is a dry powder that is 95 per cent water. Because the silica prevents the water droplets from recombining into a liquid, dry water is able to absorb gases, which combine with the water to make gas hydrates. Gases could then be safely stored
before being shipped away in powder form – an economical alternative to the use of pipelines, liquefaction, or compression. First invented by German scientists in the 1960s for use in cosmetics, dry water soon fell by the wayside until its rediscovery by Hull University scientists in 2006. A materials chemistry research group at the University of Liverpool, headed up by Andrew Cooper, then began to study dry water, and realized its potential extends far beyond face cream. Ben Carter, the lead researcher in Cooper’s group, discussed the team’s work with The Daily by email. He’s most interested in dry water’s primary application, storing natural gas.
“A great many natural gas reserves (up to forty per cent by some estimates) are classified as ‘stranded,’ which is to say that they are too remote to be accessed economically using standard gas transport technologies,” he wrote. “Dry water gas hydrate could act as an alternative to these.” While there are other ways to form natural gas hydrates, these depend on stirring or spraying to accelerate the process. Dry water needs no outside agent – it requires less energy and is more cost-effective than other options. The same process that allows dry water to store methane can also be used to capture carbon dioxide, an angle which Carter said “has been seized upon more than we would like
by the press.” At this stage of research, CO2 storage has only occurred under laboratory conditions. Real-world scenarios such as the absorption of postcombustion emissions, which could have drastic environmental implications, would probably just cause the powder to evaporate. Dry water may not be the global warming fix-all the media are saying it is, but Carter still sees it as an environmental boon, calling it a “pollution preventer” in its application as a natural gas transporter. While natural gas does produce less CO2 than petroleum-based fuels, methane – the primary component of natural gas – accounts for more than 14 per cent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2004 report from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. In Quebec, the provincial government has faced public backlash over plans to extract natural gas through “fracking,” a process which Natural Resources Canada has warned could increase CO2 emissions and diminish fresh water reserves. Carter remains optimistic about dry water’s potential uses, however, especially in the development of cleaner energy sources. “Green fuel gases such as hydrogen in particular will require effective storage before they can be fully developed,” he wrote. “Alternative energy sources and their technologies are still long-term goals, and I think that in the meantime we need to address our effect on the planet in some fashion.”
Sports
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
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Lacrosse nation A history of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Sports Writer
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acrosse is not what tends to come to mind when Canada and sports are mentioned in the same breath, though it is the country’s national sport – in summer, at least. The sport has been around for centuries, predating even the European settlement of North America; it is believed the Native Americans invented the game of Lacrosse as early as the 12th century. Lacrosse is not only a sport, but originally was played as a spiritual endeavour, meant to give thanks and praises to the gods, a tradition which the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team follows to this day. The original version of the game was played with possibly hundreds of players at a time on a field that could range up to a mile in length and would continue for days. Given the number of players, and the physicality lacrosse demands, it is with good reason that the Eastern Cherokee name for the sport roughly translates to “little war.” The game, however, has little to do with inspiring aggression. “We play this game to give enjoyment to the Creator,” clarified Ansley Jemison, general manager of the Iroquois Nationals. Before the game, the team gathers around their spiritual advisor who leads a traditional tobacco-burning rite, among other rituals that prepare the players to take the field. The only time lacrosse has been a medal-earning sport at the Olympics was in 1904 and 1908 when Canada won the gold medal for men’s lacrosse both times. Lacrosse has been played for demonstration in a small number of subsequent summer games, and the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) continues to push the game’s presence in order to reinstate it at the Olympics. In order to do so, the sport will need a following on at
least four continents with 75 competing countries. With only 23 countries currently in the FIL, it will be some time before we see the sport in the Olympics again. Until that time, the Lacrosse World Championship (LWC) will have to do. It is the biggest of the international lacrosse championships. The LWC is played every four years, just like the World Cup, and involved a record 29 competing countries in 2010. From its inception as a fournation tournament until the present, the same teams have dominated: only the Iroquois, Canadian, American and Australian teams have ever placed in the top four. The Iroquois Nationals team is the only Native American team authorized to play a sport internationally. The FIL accepted the Iroquois Confederacy as a full member nation in 1987, and they participated in their first competition in 1990. Since then, the Nationals then proven their mettle. “The game is absolutely still a big part of our culture,” said Jemison, when asked about the team’s importance today. “We are very proud to represent our nation.” As part of the agreement with the FIL, Native Americans from other tribes are also eligible to tryout and play for the Nationals. The Nationals have been endorsed by Nike since 2008, and receive other funding from various sources including prominent Native American businesses. They are now a long way away from the donated equipment and airline tickets that saw them through the 1990 LWC. Under-funded at the outset, the Iroquois Nationals made a name for themselves and attracted investments and interest from around North America. Nowadays, their players are offered scholarships and recruited by the best university teams. This summer, the LWC made news for reasons other than lacrosse. Upon travelling to Manchester for their first
game against Germany, the Iroquois team was denied entry into England. The British government demanded that they carry either Canadian or American documents in order to cross the border, as their Iroquois Confederacy passports were not recognized. In the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervened on behalf of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team, obtaining a one-time waiver that allowed them to travel despite their passports not containing biometric chips and current security features. More outrage was levied against the British than the American authorities, though neither was willing to give the Iroquois Confederacy passport the same privileges as the Canadian and American ones. When asked about the decisions, team members were incensed by the idea of obtaining passports of nations to which they did not belong. Jemison quoted a member of the Nationals who said, “It’s one thing to lose a game to a team that’s better than you; it’s another to lose to a man behind a desk.” It was in 1923 that the Iroquois Confederacy began issuing passports, and for many years carriers of this document were able to travel without much problem. With tightened security measures after 9/11, the E.U. member states no longer recognize Iroquois Confederacy passports as legal documents. While holders of this passport are free to enter Canada, neither the U.S. nor Canada endorse it as an official and valid travel document. The Bloc Québecois sided with the federal government on the issue, arguing that if the Iroquois passport was valid, then Quebec would also issue its own travel documents. As for the
tournament, the Iroquois Nationals were never given the chance to compete and so did not place in the championship. Every match scheduled against the team was counted as a 1-0 forfeit victory
for the other nation, which Jemison felt “was a big disappointment to all of us because we were highly ranked. We had all the tools to do well but suddenly it felt like we had one hand tied behind our backs.” Despite recent difficulties with customs, the Nationals continue to cement a presence in international lacrosse. Just this month they travelled to Hawaii to compete at a tournament, which marked the first meeting of the indigenous Hawaiian players with the Iroquois. The team has previously travelled to other tournaments around the world to represent the Iroquois Confederacy, finding little to no trouble with regards to restricted movement. The 2014 LWC will be hosted in Denver and the Nationals should have no trouble getting there to represent the Iroquois.
Eli Sheiner for The McGill Daily
Lena Camara
The NHL’s failure in the South The foul line
Nader Fotouhi naderfotouhi@mcgilldaily.com
I
t started with the formation of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers. Then, the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas. Between 1993 and 2000, the NHL added or altered ten of the league’s thirty franchises. Teams moved and formed to satisfy a basic criterion of a sports league’s survival: in the event that teams habitually earn net losses, they should either move to a more sustainable market or be contracted. In today’s NHL, it is no secret that most of the teams that are in
trouble reside in the southern part of the U.S. Not only does a return northward for these displaced teams make sense culturally, it’s also the only fiscally responsible option the NHL has left. The league’s insistence on buoying its financially-strapped southern state stagnations has and will continue to cost it publicity, revenue, and most importantly fans. Much has been made recently of the Phoenix Coyotes’ financial situation. Since moving from Winnipeg in 1996, the team has yet to turn in a profitable season. Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie had his attempt to purchase the team and move them to Hamilton, Ontario thwarted by a U.S. judge in 2009. Recently, the NHL secured a deal with principal investor Matthew
Hulsizer to keep the NHL’s dream of hockey in the desert on life support. “It has always been the league’s objective to secure ownership that will ensure the Coyotes’ long-term future in Glendale, [Arizona],” said Bill Daly, NHL Deputy Commissioner. However, the team’s 57.4 per cent home attendance figure asks the question: Why? The recently-for-sale Atlanta Thrashers are following in the footsteps of the Coyotes. While NHL revenues have been on the rise, it is in spite of the burden placed on the league by teams south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Six of the bottom nine teams in attendance in the ’09-’10 season were southern teams. The league’s migration to the South has all taken place under Commissioner Gary Bettman’s
watch after he left his post as Senior Vice-President of the NBA to run the NHL in early 1993. Bettman, at the behest of league owners, was expected to expand hockey’s reach, quell labour disputes, and ensure financial stability league-wide. Two team bankruptcies and two work stoppages later, it suffices to say that the NHL’s dream of success across the entirety of North America is simply a bridge too far. While franchises such as Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes are prime candidates for relocation, the NHL’s actions with Phoenix and Atlanta make the likelihood of a move slim. The league’s efforts to cement floundering teams in non-traditional hockey markets have been questioned by Canadian
and American fans alike and many wonder if hockey as a whole will suffer for it. Bettman’s unbridled enthusiasm in retaining southern expansion has seen the league turn its back not only on stable ownership, but more importantly on hockey starved fans. The financial muscle from even a couple of teams relocating north would greatly increase league-wide financial security. There is no denying the abundance of fans in the North that are being neglected given the respective lack of NHL franchises. The NHL now has an obligation to itself and its fans to return hockey to markets that can not only support it, but allow it to thrive. That can only happen if the league office’s blinders are removed.
Sports
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
Martlets sing to empty seats Why McGill’s most successful team is going ignored
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Sports Writer
I
n McConnell Arena, home of the McGill Martlets hockey team, some of the best hockey players in the country are cruising to an easy 6-0 victory over Carleton University. At 36 shots on net to Carleton’s mere ten, the Martlets are easily dominating the opposition. With goals by Ann-Sophie Bettez, Alyssa Cecere, Leslie Oles, Katia Clement-Heydra, and two from Jordanna Peroff, members of the McGill Fight Band begin to shout, “Start the bus!” Indeed, parking the bus in front of the net probably would have done little to stop the seemingly unbeatable McGill women’s hockey team. Some things that you probably didn’t know about our Martlets: This win brought them to an 84-game winning streak against Quebec University Hockey League opponents and they are going for their sixth-straight league title. They have won the nationals in two out of the last three years. In addition, their head coach, Peter Smith, was the assistant coach for the Canadian women’s national team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Charline Labonté, starting goaltender for the Martlets, competed in both the 2006 and 2010 Olympics. The McGill women’s hockey team is arguably the best team at McGill. So why is no one there to support them? The Martlets’ winning formula includes North America-wide recruitment, an incredible coaching staff, and an unbeatable reputation. And for female hockey players, university hockey is where they will probably get the most ice time in their entire playing careers. “[In men’s hockey] the cream of the crop play in the NHL, whereas in women’s hockey most of the women players want to go to university in either Canada or the U.S.,” said Smith. “For most of these women who are playing for the Martlets, this is the pinnacle of their career. … For many of them, it’s the top environment that they’re going to be involved in. They’re very appreciative for the opportunity they have to come to university.” And as Smith explained to me, “Success begets success.” The fact that McGill has won championship after championship will certainly do a great deal to stimulate interest in coming to play here. But despite all of this, the atmosphere at the game is pretty subdued. No one is shouting insults at the referee or cheering on the Zamboni as he does his rounds in between periods. No one is spilling beer as they gesticulate wildly to celebrate yet another goal. In fact, beer isn’t even on sale; there are no concessions. The closest that anyone ever came to banging on the glass was when a member of
Cost
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When Friday, November 12 Friday, November 26 Friday, December 3 From 10am - 4pm NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED! Ali MacKellar | The McGill Daily
the McGill Fight Band fell from the chair he was standing on. When asked about the task of getting more fans to come to games, Smith admitted, “It’s a battle, certainly.” Any analysis as to why no one was at this game has to include the fact that McGill students are famously apathetic and no one really comes out to watch any game played by any team. Whenever students discuss McGill athletics, they’re more likely to speak with embarrassment than admiration. Even though the McGill men’s rugby team has won the Quebec championships for the past four years, they recently held an event promoting their game against Concordia in order to increase attendance. The event, called, “Fill the First Row” had the modest goal of doing exactly that. Based on the usual attendance of the men’s rugby games, filling the first row was probably pretty ambitious. To get more insight into the atmosphere at McGill hockey games, I talked to the person who probably goes to more hockey games than anyone else: Daily staffer Aquil Virani, the Brigade Leader of the McGill Fight Band. “The atmospheres of McGill Hockey games, for both the Redmen and the Martlets, usually fall within two categories: the ordinary and the extraordinary,” said Virani. “Your average, dull occasion sees very few fans in a very tame setting. ... However, when a game coincides with a special event, whether it is ‘Fill the Arena’ or a huge event that features hockey on its agenda, the atmosphere is what you might expect when you throw hundreds of university students in an enclosed space with plenty of alcohol. Packed rows of rowdy fans repeat their ‘McGill once, McGill twice’ chants endlessly and taunt the opposing players with enthusiasm and cheekiness.” Sadly, however, it seems the success of the Martlets hockey team still doesn’t make them worth “Filling the Arena” for. “In my experience,” acknowledged Virani, “these special occasions usually feature the Redmen.” While you can make the apathy argument to explain the lack of interest in the McGill women’s hockey
team, you certainly cannot ignore the cultural context in which this hockey team exists. When the Canadian women’s team won their third straight gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, 5.8 million Canadians tuned in. When Sidney Crosby devastated the Americans with that golden goal, 16.6 million viewers (fifty per cent of the Canadian population) watched the entire game, while eighty per cent of Canadians watched at least part of the game. Explaining this disparity is easy: women’s hockey does not enjoy nearly the same level of respect as men’s hockey. Cathy Chartrand, defender and captain of the Martlets hockey team, explained, “People don’t buy into it. They think, ‘Oh it’s women. It must be slower, the game is not physical, they can’t body check or anything like that.’” And when asked about the levels of funding for boys and girls hockey: “It’s not even close.” But the inequality doesn’t stop there. As Chartrand explained, male hockey players have many more opportunities to practice four or five times a week from a young age, whereas for women, university hockey is their only chance for that kind of ice time. And unfortunately for these women, university is only four or five years. “If you look at boys’ hockey, the NHL is at the top, and for us it’s the Olympics, but in between there’s not much,” lamented Charline Labonté. “So we have a lot of very talented girls, but once they’re done university, there’s nothing else. Most of them are done at 22, 23, and it’s too bad, there’s no following after that. Or even before, sometimes. It’s just a lack of leagues, and involvement from everyone.” The prevailing opinion is that women’s hockey, without the hitting, the fights, and the strong male bodies, is inferior. But according to Andrea Weckman, a goaltender for the Martlets, because there’s less “body-bashing,” the women’s game allows for “more technique, good plays, [and] finesse.” Chartrand agrees: “Yes, the game is different; that’s what makes it interesting. It’s fast. It’s nice plays. We don’t have the boys’ mentality where they just get in the zone and shoot. … With girls it’s always nice plays, it’s a very strategic game, and a lot of technique is involved compared to boys.” When
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asked what they would say to anyone who claims that women aren’t as good at hockey as men, Labonté responded: “Come watch. You’ll be pretty surprised.” Female hockey players face an uphill battle that begins the first time that they lace up their skates
– from a lack of funding, to a lack of supports to a lack of leagues to participate in. Perhaps, as McGill students, we owe it to these dedicated and talented athletes to go to their games: to watch, and to be surprised. With all the success they have had, they deserve an audience.
Culture
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
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Storytelling in stereo The ongoing history of radio drama in Canada Madeleine Cummings The McGill Daily
represented Canadian landscape, history, and culture. Although we don’t expect that historical portrayals from the 1930s be as inclusive as those found in history textbooks today, the Romance of Canada series was a wide-ranging collection that presented history in creative ways. “Montcalm,” for example, told the story of the French general, and his defeat at the Plains of Abraham in 1759. The story would have been familiar to its 1930s audience, but refreshing in that it did not focus on the British victory. The radio play ends with all actors shouting, “Long live the King! – Long live Montcalm!” Canada’s golden age of radio drama was from the mid 1940s until the mid-1950s, when Andrew Allan was supervisor of drama at the CBC. Allan – a proud Canadian – made sure that the CBC presented “plays by Canadians, performed by Canadians, for a Canadian audience.” His dedication and hard work ensured a high quality of output from the CBC and led to a huge increase in listeners across the country. According to Concordia professor Howard Fink, Allan’s success fit into an early-40s CBC plan to deemphasize regional production “in the interest of a national cultural network.” During Word War II, programming like Nazi Eyes on Canada was used to pro-
mote and justify Canada’s war efforts. Nazi Eyes on Canada was about a typical family living in an imagined Nazi-controlled Canada. Throughout the dystopic five-episode series, the family crumbled as rights and freedoms were gradually replaced with fear and fascism. In the 1940s, Archie MacCorkindale of Vancouver wrote and produced a radio play for CBC called You Might Think It Over, which retold the story of Confederation in order to address a need for Canadian unity. To this day, the station’s radio drama still wrestles with some of the most difficult Canadian issues. The CBC program Afghanada, (which airs Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. on CBC Radio 1) is a radio drama that follows a group of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. The award-winning show is now in its fourth season. Greg Nelson, co-creator and former head writer, explains that the nature of radio creates an intimacy not necessarily found in TV and films. “Afghanada is heavily ‘point of view’ storytelling,” he told The Daily. “The fact that we are experiencing everything the way the character ‘hears’ it, and that we are hearing what they are thinking about it all makes us feel very closely connected to the character. We empathize. We care.” Afghanada’s diverse audience disproves the notion of radio drama
Tom Acker with Olivia Messer and Naomi Endicott | The McGill Daily
O
n May 7, 1931, W.V. George’s voice filled the passenger cabins of railway trains across Canada. “No place in Canada, possibly no place in all America, finds past and present meeting as they do at Quebec,” he began. Such were the opening words of “Montcalm,” an episode from the hit 1931 radio drama series, Romance of Canada. Though the popularity of radio dramas in Canada has declined dramatically since George was on the air, contemporary Canadian radio programs still tread on the same terrain, exploring issues unique to the understanding of what it is to be Canadian. The Canadian National Railways (CNR) established North America’s first national radio network on June 1, 1923. The CNR installed radio transmitters and receivers in passenger-cars, produced the programs that would be broadcast from coast to coast, and soon operated many radio stations across the country. By 1928, the CNR owned stations in almost every major Canadian city. Romance of Canada was a collection of 24 plays written by Merrill Dennison and based on Canadian historical events. The plays, performed live on air by professional actors, were a huge success. Just as the CNR took travellers from one end of the country to the other, Romance of Canada took listeners on a similar journey through Canada’s past. Though customers, especially those traveling from coast to coast, appreciated the entertaining programs, the CNR’s national radio network was created primarily as a means of both promoting the corporation on-board and attracting new passengers. The CNR network controlled Canadian radio for nearly ten years before turning into the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), eventually becoming the CBC in 1936. Since its beginnings, radio drama in Canada has been tied to the formation of Canada’s unity and national identity. Radio Train, one of the first serial radio programs for children, was produced by the CNR’s Vancouver station. The program told the fictional stories of a group of travellers on a cross-country train ride, with each episode providing educational tidbits of history, and geography that was relevant to the CNR train route. By connecting transportation with radio, the CNR was able to define itself as a company that
as an outdated art form. “Everyone from older listener,s to young guys driving heavy equipment, to mothers driving their kids to school who can’t get out of the car until the episode is over, to military guys – we heard one story of how an entire floor of the Department of National Defense goes quiet when Afghanada is on – they’re all listening,” Nelson said. Shows like Afghanada are created with the intention of not only entertaining but familiarizing Canadians with national and international issues. Unfortunately for playwrights, the national market for radio dramas today is pretty much limited to the CBC. According to Nelson, there used to be more opportunities. Though he admits that radio drama is somewhat of an “endangered species,” Nelson believes that “Afghanada’s success has proven that drama works on radio and that there is a place for it on CBC.” Radio-play production is present right here in the McGill community. CKUT and The Yellow Door have combined forces to
create The Hidden Gems Project, which is now in its second year. The project matches young writers with elders willing to share stories. The writers then participate in writing workshops and eventually turn the stories they gathered into radio plays. Radio drama is still a powerful art form in Canada, though its future will depend on the willingness of young listeners and writers to keep it alive. Unlike writing for television, radio writing requires the writer to think visually in order to create vivid scenes for the audience. “If it’s done well, it can be truly exhilarating for the listener,” Nelson said. Shows like CBC’s Afghanada and Wiretap, and CKUT’s The Hidden Gems all show hope for the survival of the genre. Radio dramas are also easier to access today, thanks to the existence of podcasts, which allow fans to archive their favourite episodes and listen to them on their own schedule. Radio drama is far from dead – the only thing needed is for more young listeners, like ourselves, to tune in.
Culture
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
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Once the artists are united The Daily talks with Sheila Heti about collaboration and identity
The Daily Publications Society, publisher of The McGill Daily and Le Délit, 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.
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tells the story and downfall of a rich couple through their things. During the talk, Heti stressed the value of working artistically with friends. Though a city like Toronto can seem limited compared to an art Mecca like New York, she said, if you just have two or three friends you can make things with you can feel like you have infinite possibilities. The Daily had the chance to continue the conversation with her by phone this week. The McGill Daily: Both Ticknor and How a Person Should Be are really about friendships, but they seem more or less interested not in representing two friends, but instead showing how one person builds his or her identity around the other. But Sheila [in How A Person Should Be] seems to learn a more productive way to do this than the protagonist in your last book. In this light, do you like the idea that the novel is about the ethics of how to use people around you to construct your identity, because we all do it? Sheila Heti: I’m so glad you pointed that out because no one’s actually made comparisons between the two books. To me, it’s also a male friendship versus a female friendship, and a male art friendship – which in that case, is based on competition – and a female art friendship that is not competitive, it’s something else. I wanted this book in some ways to solve the problems that the last book proposed…the real human problem that Ticknor has. I never
CULTURE BRIEF
means there’s a lot of crossovers between…all manner of art and literature publishers; foreign publishers and creators. The English and French communities here in Montreal, too. It’s a real smorgasbord,” he said. In a world where retail opportunities for alternative press are few and far between, Expozine plays a big role in giving local creators a cheap and accessible venue through which to promote and distribute their art. The most ambitious and innovative of these works are rewarded each spring with the Expozine Alternative Press Award, which names six of the best works exhibited at each convention – three for each national language. In fact, the bicultural aspect of Expozine is one of its biggest draws, according to the event’s publicist Louis Rastelli. Remarking on Montreal’s uniqueness as a bilingual North American city, Rastelli believes the local cultural mélange lends local artists a unique and original perspective, mixing North American and European styles and influences. It’s why, according to him, Expozine is now “going worldwide.” The fair’s global reputation is underscored by this year’s guests of honour, who hail from France’s Fanzinothèque, the world’s largest international zine library. Its representatives will be bringing with
Exposing the zine scene Expozine – one of Montreal’s bastions of alternative small press – is still gaining momentum in its ninth year. Montreal’s only annual “small press, comic, and zine fair” will run this year on November 13 to 14. Born from the initiative of a group of small publishers and zine makers who yearned for an alternative press event close to home, Expozine has gone from being financed out of its founders’ pockets to its current status as the largest small press fair in North America, with some of its 300 exhibitors hailing from places as far-flung as Europe. Most of the works sold at Expozine aren’t things you’d find on a Chapters shelf – many are too different, too graphic, or too niche to be picked up by the corporate publishing machine. Max Douglas of salgoodsam.com, a regular at the convention, remarked that Expozine is unique among events of its kind in bringing together a hodge-podge of artistic forms, from more traditional books and graphic novels to zines, crafts, jewellery, prints, music, and film. “The mixed nature of Expozine also
really thought about that before, they both are about…how they shape their identity in relation to another person. Part of the question can be, how much does it matter what person you are in relation to? Sometimes it feels like it can matter overwhelmingly, because one does shift so much in relation to other people. MD: You mentioned you were reading the Bible while writing and there’s a real sense of a return to Jewish roots. What have you gotten out of this reflection? It almost felt like it was just as productive in a narrative, storytelling sense as it was in a religious or spiritual sense. SH: I think the Exodus narrative is a really useful one. It’s a great story. If you’ve grown up in a Jewish household there are certain stories you can’t get away from because you’ve just heard them so many times and you’ve enacted them ritualistically year after a year. I think it’s a deep part of my consciousness. MD: Was there any significance to the name of the lover being Israel? SH: I don’t want to say what it means exactly, but it’s pretty obvious that Israel is this Promised Land, this homeland, this place the Jews want to return to, but it’s also this place of incredible violence, and pain, and strife in reality. That’s why I chose the name Israel for the lover, because [their relationship] is this thing that she’s fantasized about, her erotic fantasy, but it’s so destructive. —Compiled by Whitney Mallet them European zines impossible to find elsewhere on the North American continent, along with the implicit acknowledgement of Montreal’s premier status as the Canadian hub of the indie publication scene. —Amina Batyreva Expozine is taking place on November 13-14 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035 St. Dominique. Admission is free. See expozine.ca for more information.
Naomi Endicott | The MCGill Daily
Call for Candidates
uring the last week of October, the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore hosted authors and old friends Sheila Heti and Leanne Shapton to discuss their new books: Heti’s novel How A Person Should Be, and Shapton’s art book The Native Trees of Canada. Both women had a lot to say about female friendship and artistic collaboration. Heti’s new book is based on the real-life relationship between her and her best friend, the painter Margaux. The project grew out of the boredom she felt sitting at home writing alone, leading her to tape-record her conversations with friends. How A Person Should Be is Heti’s third book, following a collection of short stories, The Middle Stories, and the novel, Ticknor, set in mid-19thcentury Chicago and reimagining the American academic George Ticknor. Although Shapton’s newest book was a more solitary project – a book of watercolour paintings of Canadian leaves inspired by a photographic botany guide that she stumbled across in a used bookstore – Shapton worked with Heti on her last book, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. Heti modeled as Lenore Doolan in the book’s photos. The two discussed the experience working together on the mock auction catalogue, which
18Culture
The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
Who’s a winner? O ver seventy years after its inception, the Governor General’s Literary Award is still generating controversy Jane Gatensby Culture Writer
I
n a few weeks, the Canada Council for the Literary Arts will reveal the winners of the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGs) – its selection of the finest in Canadian literature from a shortlist of finalists that was released in October. To compile the shortlist, the council enlists the help of peer assessment committees – comprised of other authors, publishers, and the like – to sort through the submissions and select five nominees in each category that they feel represent the best in Canadian writing this year. Choosing the best out of almost 1,000 literary works (double that to include French-language submissions) is no easy task, and the short-lists are heavily debated by critics, showing the importance that the Canadian literary community places upon the awards. To many, literature has an important role to play in constructing a national identity. In Canada, where national identity is still ambiguously defined, the subjects entertained within our high literature are thought to be representative of our interests as a whole. This year’s GG short-lists are filled with stories that reflect distinctly Canadian experiences. Diane Warren’s Cool Water is a psychological drama set in small-town Saskatchewan; David Yee’s Lady in the Red Dress explores the anti-Chinese prejudice in our nation’s legislative past; Alan Casey’s non-fiction book Lakeland contains “Journeys Into the Soul of Canada”; and John English’s Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliot Trudeau is – well, you get the idea. But how much does a GG nomination really matter? In the end, very few people will actually read these books. According to a survey conducted in 1998, only 61 per cent of Canadian adults had read any book at all in the previous twelve months. Among those who do read, Canadian literature is not the top priority. Only one GG nominee can be found on this week’s Globe and Mail bestseller list: Emma Donoghue’s Room is the sixth top-selling hardcover novel. The much more widely-read categories of paperback fiction and nonfiction are dominated by books like The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and Eat Pray Love. These massproduced “popular fictions” do well because they are written and presented in ways that appeal to the general reader – using simple prose, for instance – and are supported by massive marketing campaigns. In the world of high literature, however, profit is seen as secondary to literary accomplishment: few serious novels, books of poetry or plays ever actually make much money. Canadian literature and popular literature are, with a few exceptions such
as Life of Pi, mutually exclusive categories. According to a study published in the National Post last January, only half of us can even name a Canadian writer. Literary awards such as the Governor General’s are meant to rectify this both by promoting Canadian authors and by deciding which novels will be the classics of tomorrow. The hope is that with the aid of publicly-funded organizations, Canadian books can achieve a certain amount of popularity without having to completely succumb to the whims and
that the GGs act as a “patron to the arts” is by offering financial awards to winners. Although in its early years the GGs only offered medals to its prizewinners, recognition of the financial hardship that Canadian writers faced led to winners receiving monetary awards by 1951. Today, this award amounts to a whopping $25,000 in each of the seven categories, with additional prizes for the runnersup and funds for publishers to promote the winners making the
running into a conflict of interest in Canada’s relatively small writing, publishing, and editing world can often create a great deal of controversy. In 2008, Jacob Reiner won the award for poetry amid accusations that one of his judges, Di Brandt, had too many ties to the young poet. Reiner had solicited Brandt’s help with a translation for the collection and had thanked her in the book’s acknowledgements. Reiner held onto the award in spite of this criticism, but only
Edna Chan for The McGill Daily
Each year, the GGs jury selects the best in Canadian literature, but many debate their choices. demands of a readership market. If this all seems a bit fabricated, it is. The GGs are part of a very conscious effort to help shape the nation’s identity by creating a recognizable literary ideal. “In nation-building narratives, ‘great literature’ is supposed to be a sign of a nation’s maturity,” said Karis Shearer, a former postdoctoral fellow at McGill and current Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “So certainly it’s in Canada’s interest, as a state, to foster ‘excellence’ in literature, acting like a patron to the arts.” One of the more obvious ways
total value of the awards close to $450,000. This money, however, is perhaps less valuable than the lucrative possibilities this prestigious award creates for its selected authors. “After we won, we had more offers from publishers, more recognition, more demand,” explained Lori Saint-Martin, who with her husband Paul Gagné has won the prize twice for English-to-French translation. “It was a real springboard for our careers.” Because the council insists on using peer juries, the chance of
after his acknowledgements had become, according to his editor, “the most scrutinized acknowledgments page in the history of Canadian letters.” The incident brought the issue of what defines a conflict of interest to the forefront of the awards. “As is the case with any prize, the winning book tends to reflect the aesthetic and political values of the specific jury,” said Shearer. “That’s just logical. And it’s one of the reasons, I think, in the interest of being as fair as possible, the Canada Council has developed
a mandate over the years that emphasizes its commitment to balanced juries – balanced in terms of age, cultural background, aesthetics, and so on. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been surprises over the years.” The relationship between these awards and the state is another issue that gives rise to controversy. The Canada Council for the Arts operates, according to its website, “at arm’s length” from the Canadian government, who provides the prize money but stays away from the decisionmaking process. For some, however, this is still too close for comfort. In 1968, two of the prizewinners, Leonard Cohen and Hubert Aquin, declined the award outright. Aquin, who was involved in the Quebec separatist movement, did not want to accept an award from a government he deemed illegitimate. Cohen, never one to pass up an opportunity for controversy, professed that, “Much in me strives for this honour but the poems themselves forbid it absolutely.” After the incident, the council began asking writers in advance whether they were willing to accept the awards. The controversy did not stop there, however: the next year, during the heyday of Canadian nationalism, a group of poets contested the results, citing the American influence on the jury, and raised $1,000 for their preferred runnerup, Milton Acorn. They called this the “People’s Poetry Award,” and presented it in a makeshift ceremony at a Toronto tavern. Contention carried over into the next year as well, when a handful of Members of Parliament were outraged that bpNichol’s The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid, which they considered to be obscene, had won a statesponsored award. For most writers however, the GGs are still viewed as a great honour and a career-boosting opportunity. As Saint-Martin puts it, “There is nothing controversial about the award for us.” That the GGs are contested is – as Northrop Frye noted – to be expected: “…A committee with so august a name attached to it represents an Establishment, to be attacked for that reason alone.” Yet the role that the GGs have played in creating a strong sense of Canadian culture and supporting our literary arts is invaluable. With this year’s selection coming from a number of independent publishers and breakthrough authors, the results will be some of the most exciting yet. Winners will be announced at La Grande Bibliothèque, 475 de Maisonneuve E., on November 16 at 10 a.m.
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The McGill Daily | Monday, November 8, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com
Lies, half-truths, and duelling
God, I love Le Devoir
O
N MY WAY TO SCHOOL THIS MORNING, I PICKED UP A COPY OF L E DEVOIR. $1.25. That’s less than my bus ride for the tactile pleasure of holding a newspaper, for the intellectual pleasure of learning what’s going on around me. For the feeling of being a part of a community: municipal, regional, national, international. Not only that, but while I stood on the 80 reading about the Conservatives’ hypocrisy over child soldiers, the people around me found pleasure in the paper, too: people read the paper over my shoulder, read the front page while I read the back. (Reminds me of the 1800s when newspapers once bought would be read a hundred times over by family, servants, servants’ families, people in the street...) Anyway. That’s a lot of pleasure for $1.25. And what a handsome paper.
Fuck yeah! is an anonymous occasional rave column. Send your lovings to fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com. Send your fucks these there, too.
That being said...
I
’M
ACTUALLY REALLY SICK OF DEBATES OVER SEPARATISM, AND
LE DEVOIR WAS FULL OF today. Soverignty governance blah blah blah. I understand that as the best left paper in Quebec (Canada?) it’s got a responsibility to print a lot of different views, but I am so, so tired of hearing about the national question. Worse – it seems like the national question is going to retake its central place in Quebec politics again... Booooooooooooooooo. THEM
Here’s to morning light Across The Crossword Fairies
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