Vol100Iss29

Volume 100, Issue 29

January 31, 2011 mcgilldaily.com

McGill THE

DAILY

Just warming up for 100 years

Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

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News

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

3

Residences fight hike in food prices Students weren’t consulted before Food Services raised meal prices over break Stephen Brophy News Writer

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tudents living in McGill’s residences returned from winter break to find that mandatory meal prices had risen without prior notification. Now some, under the banner of Perturbed Residents Interested in Changing Expensive Dining (PRICED), have launched a petition drive to combat the price hikes. According to Valentine Sergeev, one of the petition’s organizers, around 500 hundred students had signed their names within the first 24 hours.

McGill Food and Dining Services (MFDS) currently offer one of the most expensive university meal plan options in the country, with the average plan costing $4,050.

Comparable plans at Ryerson University and the University of Ottawa, for example, cost $2,900 and $1,950 respectively.

MFDS, the organization responsible for the price increases, has also implemented a $1,200 compulsory “administration charge” on top of the existing cost of the meal plan. On January 14, MFDS posted a memorandum in their dining halls offering an explanation for the inflation, namely “The seasonal price increases of fresh fruits and vegetables. … More importantly, however, the significant increase in the market prices of basic food

NEWS BULLETIN Midnight Kitchen reopens Midnight Kitchen (MK) resumed operations last Friday after resolving misunderstandings with SSMU over the collective’s certification under the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec, which resulted in a twoday hiatus.

MK volunteer Kayle Towsley broadcasted news of the reopening over the group’s volunteer listserv on Thursday, saying that the certification issued last year was still valid, and that re-certification was no longer an immediate concern.

“There has been a lot of confusion with SSMU. We thought we had to certify new people with food safety training, but it turns out our certification from last year is still valid, but just had to be resubmitted,” she wrote in the email obtained by The Daily.

Volunteer coordinator Carol Fraser explained that two MK

Stephen Davis from The McGill Daily archives

The Bishop Mountain Hall cafeteria; a rez student petition gained 500 signatures in 24 hours. staples.” Examples given include the rising cost of broccoli from $11.00 per case to $23.95 per case and coffee rising between eight and twelve per cent.

The unexpected change led a to group of students in Upper Rez creating PRICED. Led by Sergeev of McConnell Hall, the group aims to achieve increased communication between MFDS and students, and

to have a permanent student on the MFDS board.

The petition seeks clarification of the $1,200 compulsory administration charge, the lack of prices on products, as well as failure to adhere to posted business hours.

The building resentment and frustration toward MFDS stems from what students have called

a lack of student participation in decision making with respect to the inflexible mandatory meal plans and a lack of communication. The PRICED petition argues that “given that residents are financially locked into their service plans, and are thus unable to express their concerns by simply taking their business elsewhere, it is incumbent upon MFDS to

members had received Institut de technologie agroalimentaire (ITA) certification last April and that it was valid “for life.” The certification numbers were mailed directly to the individuals and therefore not obtained by SSMU, which needed them for renewal.

“It’s been a learning curve for everybody…there wasn’t enough dialogue and the closure was a matter of miscommunication between us,” she added.

SSMU general manager Pauline Gervais, who oversees the Shatner building’s operations, and SSMU VP Clubs and Services Anushay Khan approached MK volunteers on Tuesday, telling them that the collective had to cease operations until they acquired a new permit.

Khan explained SSMU’s confusion: “We had thought the collective increased to more than 20 people, [meaning that] more than two people would need to be registered, but it turns out that only ten to twelve people are involved in cooking, so only two people are needed,” she said.

Khan and Gervais have since called the registry and submitted the existing certification numbers for renewal. This means MK can resume its operations without any

risk of being fined.

Serving food and alcohol is permitted in Shatner as outlined by SSMU’s Memorandum of Agreement with the University, but the ITA certificate is a requirement for any group that prepares food.

Fraser added that “this has not been an isolated instance between us and SSMU – the new legislation is effecting soup kitchens everywhere.”

The People’s Potato, which offers a similar service at Concordia, went through the same process.

Several MK members involved with Organic Campus, the locally grown food stand that was shut down under similar circumstances last Wednesday, guessed that it would also reopen after similar paperwork processing.

Quebecor Media Inc., and Richmont Mines Inc, will replace three former external members-at-large on the McGill Board of Governors.

They join nine other members-atlarge on the 25-person board. Their terms began January 1, 2011, and will expire December 31, 2015, after which they will be eligible for reelection for one more five-year term.

“They are replacing three people whose terms were completed at the end of last year,” said Chris Chipello, a McGill Media Relations spokesperson.

When asked how the new members were selected, Chipello answered that they were elected through “the standard process.”

“To a degree their backgrounds speak for themselves,” said Chipello.

The Nominating and Governance Committee was responsible for nominating Butts, Coughlin, and Minzberg, whom the BoG selected from a broader field of nominations.

In a press release, Stuart Cobbett, Chair of the McGill BoG, said, “Our three new members bring with them a range of expertise that will be of considerable value to the Board in overseeing the affairs of the University.”

Butts, President and CEO of the international environmental charity WWF-Canada, will sit on the board’s

—Rana Encol

BoG appoints three new members Gerald Butts, President and CEO of WWF-Canada; Peter Coughlin, co-founder of Montreal-based real estate and investment company Redbourne Properties Inc.; and Samuel Minzberg, a director of Reitmans (Canada) Limited,

exhibit greater respect and openness in their dealing with the students of residence.”

The current “Regular Meal Plan” option offered by MFDS costs residents $5,250. This includes the $1,200 “administrative charge,” with the remaining $4,050 (or 77 per cent of total) prescribed as “food dollars.” Current numbers provided by PRICED show that if a student were to purchase three hot meals a day with no beverages, the daily total would be $19.93. If the semester lasts 120 days, the semester total will come to $2,391.60, $366 more than the funds available on the plan.

Students have also argued that the price increases will result in a less nutritious diet, as affording an additional apple or box of milk per day may realistically be out of reach.

Last Friday, MFDS invited students and staff at McGill to participate in a survey to improve its services. In a recent meeting with PRICED, MFDS reportedly acknowledged the unfair price increase and intends on formally recognizing this in a letter to students, according to a member of PRICED who attended the meeting. They also intend on working jointly with PRICED to better disclose finances, which will be made available to students. They also noted that as a business, their goal is to break even.

Mathieu Laperle, the director of MFDS, did not respond to requests for comment.

Nominating and Governance Committee, whose mandate is to be “responsible for making recommendations to the Board with respect to nominations of members-at-large, appointments to Board committees, Board appointments to non-Board committees and the evaluation of the governance activities and functions of the Board.”

Minzberg will sit on the Human Resources Committee, whose mandate is to “monitor, evaluate, and make decisions on behalf of the Board with respect to policies and strategic matters related to the University’s human resources and personnel issues.”

The University is scheduled to go into collective agreement negotiations with five campus unions this calendar year, and has already begun negotiations with the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA).

Quebecor Media Inc., the media conglomerate for whom Minzberg is a director, has been trapped in bitter contract negotiations with angry Journal de Montréal workers since January 2009. Quebecor has been involved in 13 lockouts in little over ten years.

—Henry Gass

4 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Students occupy rectors’ offices ASSÉ-coordinated sit-ins protest tuition hikes at Laval, UdeM, UQAM, and UQAC Maya Shoukri

The McGill Daily

S

tudents at four francophone universities – Université du Québec à Montréal, the Université Laval, the Université de Montréal, and the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi – staged sit-ins at their rector’s offices on Wednesday, January 19 to express their anger over prospective provincial tuition increases.

The Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiant (ASSÉ) called for the occupations to protest what they regard as administrators’ compliance with the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) proposal to increase tuition in Quebec by $500 a year for three years, beginning in 2012.

Maxime Larue-Bourdages, the

Internal Coordinator of ASSÉ, elaborated on the motivations behind the sit-ins.

“We find it very hypocritical that [the Ministry of Education] now says that tuition has to increase for students when university administration’s prefer to put their money in construction, rather than students, who are the life of the university. Year after year members of the administration give themselves higher salaries and bonuses, and they take that money from students,” he said.

ASSÉ’s official press release echoed these sentiments in French: “On the one hand, the rectors of universities get paid exorbitant salaries, and divert public funds to megalomaniacal real estate projects, while simultaneously complaining of being underfunded to advocate for a dizzying increase in tuition. We

are not fooled by their hypocrisy!”

Students at Université du Québec à Montréal succeeded in blocking off all administrative buildings, preventing rector Claude Corbo from entering his office for the remainder of the afternoon, and prompting him to cancel all his planned activities for the week.

Jaouad Laaroussi, a UQAM student present at the sit-in, made his demands clear in the ASSÉ press release.

“How dare our president demand an increase in tuition when it is his direction that is plunging UQAM into financial distress?” he wrote.

At the Université de Montréal, students blocked off the administrative area, occupyed rector Guy Breton’s office, and hung banners denouncing Breton’s support of tuition increases. “If Mr. Breton left his office more often, he would see

the reality for students. We don’t earn $365,00 a year!” said Héloïse Lanouette, a student at UdeM, in the ASSÉ press release.

SSMU maintains communication with ASSÉ but does not have official membership within the student association, which is renowned for its more radical approach to mobilization against planned tuition hikes.

SSMU created its own Mobilization Committee last January, which is starting to gain momentum, according to VP External Myriam Zaidi, who explained the differences between the ASSÉ approach to protesting and the Mobilization Committee’s methods of raising awareness about tuition increases.

“When you’re mobilizing at McGill you have to start from scratch. Here people don’t follow Quebec politics. The ASSÉ are

more radical, but [the Mobilization Committee] is hoping to get students at McGill who want to mobilize together, and when that gets going we can talk about actions. It started with a delay, but I’m very optimistic about the future,” she said.

Larue-Bourdages also expressed his optimism about the future of the student movements against tuition increases.

“Historically speaking, student mobilization has almost always been successful for students. The only time they don’t get what they want is when they don’t mobilize, don’t strike, and don’t put more pressure on the administration. I hope that the student movement will take mobilization seriously, because if they do, I think we will win.”

Representatives from Corbo’s office failed to reply to the Daily’s calls.

Conservatives invest $10 million in summer jobs Student unemployment needs more drastic measures, say critics Mari Galloway

The McGill Daily

D

espite the recent announcement of a $10-million investment to the Canadian Summer Jobs (CSJ) program, many believe the Conservative government is still not doing enough to curb student unemployment.

The investment is expected to create as many as 3,500 additional student summer jobs this year by encouraging not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers, and small businesses (with fewer than fifty employees) to hire full-time students.

The program aims to help full-time students aged 15 to 30 to find summer employment, but there is no mention of compensation for part-time students or support for year-round student employment. The Conservative government already invested $10 million in the CSJ program in both 2009 and 2010 as part of their Economic Action Plan, yet, according to Statistics Canada, both of those years saw some of the highest youth unemployment rates on record.

“The economy remains the Government of Canada’s top priority. That’s why we are supporting the creation of more jobs for young Canadians, so they can find employment and gain the skills and experience they need to succeed,” wrote a spokesperson for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in an email to The Daily.

Although NDP youth and post-

secondary education critic Niki Ashton agreed that any focus on student unemployment is an important first step, she insisted that the current Conservative plan does little to address the sources of the problem. It is a plan that she said lacks ingenuity and vision.

“Stephen Harper and his government claim to be good economic managers while they are leaving our generation and young people out in the cold by failing to take head on the problem of youth employment more generally,” she said.

According to Ashton, student unemployment needs to be addressed as part of a larger plan for a more sustainable Canadian future. “A lack of employment out there for young people to access does not bode well for the next generation’s ability to move forward. We are calling for an economy that is sustainable, a green economy, an economy built on research and development within our own institutions and our post-secondary institutions.

In an interview with the Canadian University Press, Dave Molenhuis, national chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students, agreed that while the CSJ program is good news for full-time students, there is still a desperate need for programs that support those who are in school part-time.

“Looking at who is a part-time student, especially [in] today’s economy, [it] includes mature students, students with dependents, students with disabilities, as well as those requiring re-

30,000,000

Amount of government aid received by students ($), 2007-08 Source: University Committee on Scholarships and Student Aid annual report 2007-2008

25,000,000

20,000,000

15,000,000

10,000,000

5,000,000

Alberta

British Columbia

Ontario

Quebec

United States

Student’s place of residence training,” said Molenhuis.

“These are students who can only complete their studies on a part-time basis because of financial circumstances, because they have to work during the school year in order to be able to afford the costs of living and afford the increasing cost of post-secondary education,” he added.

Myriam Zaidi, SSMU VP External, also acknowledged that while the investment is a good first step, it is nowhere near a

solution to students’ financial issues.

“I think that $10 million invested in student employment is great, but I also think that the federal investment in education is extremely low,” she said, emphasizing the need to place a greater focus on the increasing cost of tuition.

“If post-secondary education was not as expensive, students would be less pressured to find student jobs during the summer.

Because even if students do find jobs over the summer, they will still have trouble paying for tuition during the year,” she said.

Provincial government aid allocated for students in Quebec greatly surpasses funds allocated by any other province in Canada – more than triple the second highest recipient, Ontario – according to a University Committee on Scholarships and Student Aid report submitted to McGill Senate for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

5

Canada’s day of rage Egyptians in Montreal and Ottawa rally for democracy

Montreal: Hundreds of Egyptians rally outside the Egyptian consulate (above); McGill employee Ehab Lotayef, on right, helped organize the rally (middle-right).

Michael Lee-Murphy The McGill Daily

A

mid chants and songs in Arabic, English, and French, several hundred from Montreal’s Egyptian community converged Friday in front of Montreal’s Egyptian consulate. If the rally had a single overarching emotion, it was one of joy, as Egyptians gathered to celebrate the four consecutive days of mass protests that threaten to end the thirty year reign of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

The rally was held in front of the Egyptian consulate a week after a similar rally was held by Montreal’s Tunisian community in Dorchester Square, in response to the popular uprising and overthrow of Tunisia’s five-term president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Ihab Khandil, a McGill student and Cairo native, attended the rally.

“We’re all here to support them.

We’re all here to help this revolution, and it’s going to happen,” he said. He added that he has been in contact with family in Cairo, despite the Egyptian government’s shutdown of much of the country’s communication infrastructure in response to the protests. “We want real democracy for once in our lives,” added Khandil.

The rally was organized by Taghyeer-Canada – Arabic for “change” – along with similar events outside Egyptian embassies and consulates in Ottawa and Toronto. Ehab Lotayef, an employee in McGill’s Information Technology department, was one of the rally’s principle organizers.

“Our demands are an echo of their demands,” said Lotayef, referring to the demands of thousands on the streets of Egypt’s cities for the ouster of Mubarak.

Lotayef said that he and others had scheduled a meeting with officials from the consulate, but were

turned away by the building’s security. They had planned to deliver an open letter asking for, among other things, the criminalization of “abuse and torture committed by the police,” the release of all those detained in the Egyptian protests, and an address of the “problems of poverty by raising the minimum salary.”

Shokry Gohar, a McGill Arabic professor and an Egyptian himself, spoke to the nature of the protests in his native country as reason for his attendance. “The movement came from the street, it didn’t come from any party. … Christians and Muslims are together against this tyrant.”

When asked if he expected Mubarak’s government to fall in the coming weeks, he said he “can’t wait.” Gohar said that he hadn’t been able to reach his family in Egypt. “This tyrant already cuts the network, cuts the telephone lines, so that he can torture and kill our people.”

Montreal photos Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Ottawa: Taghyeer-Canada coordinated rallies in three Canadian cities last weekend, including this one outside the Egyptian embassy in Ottawa (below).

Ottawa photos Sean Campbell | The Fulcrum (CUP)

6 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Homeless face an extreme winter Shelters overflow as temperatures drop below -25 degrees Celsius Paul Sara and Robert Smith News Writers

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ontreal shelters were packed early last week, as temperatures plummeted to minus 40 degrees Celsius accounting for wind chill. In compliance with the Winter Protocol, a collaborative action involving almost every shelter in Montreal, no one was refused entry, regardless of shelters’ capacity.

Implemented four years ago, the objective of the Winter Protocol is to save lives in extreme conditions. Part of the protocol includes patrol cars searching out those in need of shelter and bringing them in. Montreal is host to over 30,000 homeless. As a result of the protocol, over the past three winters no homeless people in Montreal have died as a result of an inability to find shelter.

Canada’s largest private shelter, the Old Brewery Mission near the Old Port is crucial to maintaining this practice. The mission offers overnight shelter starting at 9 p.m. every night, and provides breakfast each morning. The weekend of January 22 it was so cold that the centre was forced to keep its doors open continuously over two days, something it has not needed to do in the last six years.

Danny Gaudat is 63 years old and has been coming to the Old Brewery Mission for two years.

“I come back here because the people are friendly and they’re helpful,” he said. “They’ll get you a decent meal, they’ll make sure that you’re comfortable and they’ll get you a place – even if you’re on the floor.”

Xavier, a homeless man who has been coming to the Old Brewery Mission for the past four years, described the people in the organization and the administration as “really, really gentle.”

“We don’t judge here,” he said.

“They know what your situation is. They know you’re not in the best of shape, and they do what they can to help you. You can’t complain about that,” Gaudat added.

The Old Brewery Mission has been open for twenty years. It takes in over 300 people each night and provides around 400 people access to a nightly hot meal and a clothing depot.

“Sometimes it’s really full and you have to sleep on the floor,” Gaudat said. “Somebody will eventually bring you a blanket – if you’re lucky a pillow. But even if not, it’s better than outside.”

Gaudat added that the strict noviolence policy creates a safe atmosphere for those staying the night.

As well as shelter, some missions offer programs to address a wider range of concerns including substance abuse, societal reintegration, and mental and behavioral issues.

Xavier described a program at the Old Brewery called the Fifth

Floor. The program lasts for about a month and helps participants with a variety of tasks, including finding a job and money to pay rent so that they can figure out their next steps. According to Xavier, who has personally been involved in the program three times, the program’s short-term nature is due to the high demand for the services provided.

“There’s not much for older guys,” Gaudat said referring to other outreach programs. “They mostly consider us a write off; that’s the bottom line.

“There could be a little more funding for places like this,” he continued referring to the Old Brewery and shelters like it.

Shelters receive relatively low amounts of government support relying on private and corporate donations for over 65 percent of their budget. Most shelters only receive between $1.24 and $2.36 per person per day from the municipality for the emergency services provided. The actual cost is between $55 and $57 dollars per person per day.

Robert Levigne, chief of emergency programs and general operations at the Old Brewery spoke of the initaitve’s successes but also warned that if the shelter closed there would be “more deaths.”

“No one can tell me that’s not true,” he added.

Robert Smith | The McGill Daily

—With files from Erin Hudson

A man sits outside the Old Brewery Mission.

Quebec slow to move on CEGEP overcrowding English CEGEPs poised to bear the brunt of high student influx Rachel Reichel

The McGill Daily

T

he Quebec government continues to be slow in dealing with the overenrolment and overcrowding of CEGEPs in Montreal and surrounding areas.

The government plans to wait until after the March 1 application deadline to decide how it will address the problem. For now the government has lifted fines for over-enrolment in colleges by up to ten per cent, so that Montreal CEGEPs can cope with the higher demand.

As of last June, the provincial government promised one million dollars to help CEGEPs accommodate students and deal with the lack of space. CEGEPs have been waiting to find out whether the provincial government will continue to facilitate the admittance of more students next August.

Colleges off the island of Montreal, such as Collège Montmorency in Laval, are not included in the agreement to temporarily suspend overenrolment fines. Many feel that the Quebec government is only focusing on Montreal at their expense, said Johanne Morisette, a spokesperson for Collège Montmorency, in an inter view with the Gazette.

“We won’t go out tomorrow with our placard. But we think that probably the ministry didn’t necessarily look at the whole picture when it looked at Montreal Island – it didn’t see that there is Greater Montreal, which has a common reality,” Morissette said.

A report Commissioned by Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and the Institut de recherche sur le français en Amérique (IRFA) released last Thursday shows that the effects of overcrowding may be compounded for English CEGEPs. The report shows that this is partly due to a greater number of franco-

phone applicants.

According to the report, since the end of 1990 less than half of new registered students in English Montreal CEGEPs speak English as their first language. The reasons for this, the report outlines, are numerous, but an increase in the importance of being fully fluent in the English language as well as an increase in the importance of being fluent in English appear to be driving forces.

“A strong majority of Frenchspeaking people intend to work or continue English academic work after CEGEP. A relatively important proportion of students in English CEGEPs also intend to leave Quebec after their collegial studies. The desire to open a greater number of doors seems to be an important variable in the equation of the choice of an English CEGEP,” stated the report.

Despite the emphasis placed on a greater number of francophones choosing English CEGEPs

in order to achieve “full fluency,” the report notes that the trend does not extend to native English speakers enrolling in French CEGEPs. “[With] anglophones, the importance of the linguistic factor is explained mainly by a greater ease with English, or by difficulties with French. Anglophones having attended the French secondary school [still] have more ease [communicating] in English than in French. This result raises important questions,” read the report.

Despite over thirty years of legislation to ensure French language prominence in the province, the report reveals that English continues to be pervasive.

“In the light of the results presented in this report…it appears clear that the linguistic impact of the English CEGEPs is negatively reflected on the objective to make French the common language of Quebeckers,” said the report.

This continues to stoke controversy over language laws in Quebec. This includes implementing strict rules regarding who can attend publicly funded English schools.

Previously, a loophole in provincial Bill 101 allowed students otherwise ineligible to attend English public school if they attended a non-subsidized private English school for one year. The loophole was closed by the passage of Bill 104 in 2002.

Since then, Bill 104 has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada. A proposed law, Bill 103, would allow immigrants to send their children to a public English school after three years of attendance at a non-subsidized English school. Bill 103 is currently moving through the Quebec National Assembly.

Neither Minister of Education Line Beauchamp nor the English Montreal School Board could be reached for comment.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

7

Destroy what destroys you Blockading flows of unequal power All we want, baby, is everything Sam Neylon and Al Blair

sam.neylon@mcgilldaily.com

A

round the world flow commodities, information, and people: oil, food, ideas, data, tourists, workers.

A flow is established through a series of relationships. These relationships, through inequality, become conduits for power and privilege.

Power becomes more than a moment of decision: it occurs in the ordinary-everyday. In other words, power sets parameters around what our relationships can (and should) be.

These flows sustain our bodies and inform our identities – for some, they offer protection, security, and comfort. But since privilege is built on oppression, these flows are necessarily unequal.

We can resist this oppression by blocking these flows.

People here and across the world have made a decision – that the only way to stop what oppresses them is to block something they have relied on, profited and gained from. It means seeing at last, that in the end, this gain destroys them too.

Blockades, strikes, hunger strikes, occupations, work slowdowns, sit-ins, boycotts, street protests.

In October, the French blocked highways, ports, and oil refineries – protesting the imposition of austerity measures. The piqueteros of Argentina saw their flows of finance and commodities as creating crisis after crisis – so they blocked them. The Mohawk community of Tyendinaga says: “when justice fails, block the rails.” The protesters in Tunisia, and now, Egypt, are disrupting flows of order – they are disrupting the economy and what nourishes them – but they know that these flows are also keeping what’s starving and beating them into place.

What separates an activist blockade from a military one is that the latter is an attack on another, while the former is really a blockage of the systems that flow through the self.

When students at the University of Puerto Rico occupied their campus for two months last year to protest fee increases, the police surrounding them cut them off from food – so they started growing their own.

And that’s the point: When the flow is blocked, when we don’t allow it to determine our rela-

tionships, new ways of being and relating start to open up. It frees up a space and time to do things differently.

In our communities, when participants recognize their privilege and stop themselves from taking up too much space in conversation, or when consensus blocks majority rule, flows of power are also blocked.

If the hierarchical processes of decision making are subservient to the needs of the flow, consensus is what allows us to see that the process of working against power inequalities is more important than coming to quick decisions.

On a smaller scale, once again we can turn to the notion of consent. Consent as blockade confronts the notion of entitlement over our partners’ bodies. It’s about seeing inequitable distributions of power within a relationship as unacceptable. Entitlement to be pleasured or satisfied regardless of our partners’ desires, to determine how our partners spend their time, who they can speak to or be intimate with, or how much information and personal disclosure we require from them are all explicit articulations of power and control.

Asking for consent resists these flows and insures that whatever

Al Blair for The McGill Daily

act is performed or engaged in is wanted by everyone involved.

Consent is about respect – valuing our partner more than fears of awkwardness or rejection. It’s about seeing inequitable distribution of power within a relationship as unacceptable. Acts that do not involve consent hurt people, put their lives and well-being in danger, and are

therefore inherently violent.

These blockages help us establish new boundaries. They help us conceive of sex as a process rather than a goal. They open up spaces for safe conversations and antioppressive thought. They enable us to reclaim spaces to live, and from which to resist systems of domination and privilege. !

The best things in life aren’t things Wealth, poverty, and simple math The character of community Adrian Kaats

adrian.kaats@mcgilldaily.com

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hat is excess wealth or consumption? Consider this: regardless of where you are in the world, walk into an electronics shop, and you’ll find the cost of an iPhone is the same. True, that cannot be said of all consumables, often the more important ones. However, the iPhone example highlights a few important ideas about wealth, poverty, the global economy, and our environment.

According to the National Council of Welfare, “benefits” for a single Quebecker classified as “employable” were $7,312 per year in 2009. Statistics Canada pegs Quebec’s 2009 minimum wage at $9 per hour, and its average wage at $20.80. A family friend and former partner at a big law firm used to bill out at $625 per hour. For argument’s sake,

let’s pretend that’s a gross hourly wage. Using a basic tax calculator, and assuming a fifty-week work year at 35 hours per week, we can estimate the after-tax hourly wages for all these Quebeckers: welfare, $4.18; minimum wage, $8.16; average wage, $16.59; big shot lawyer, $332.85.

Now let’s take a quick look at the globe. The World Bank’s 2008 data indicates 14 per cent of the world “lives” on less than $1 per day (ultra poor), and 80 per cent on less than $10 per day (very poor). Assuming those are net income figures, hourly wages based on our standard work day are $0.21 and $2.09 for the ultra poor and very poor, respectively (weirdness is due to rounding to whole pennies).

Given that the price of an iPhone is just about globally constant, at our standardized net hourly wages and work week, how much time would it take each of our earners to work their way into an iPhone if it costs say, $650? It would take the lawyer almost two full hours of work, the average

employed Quebecker a bit more than one work week, the minimum wager almost 2.3 weeks, the welfare recipient about 4.5 weeks, the very poor nearly 9 work weeks, and the ultra poor 1.8 work years.

Remember, though, that we’re talking 100 per cent of what these people earn in the listed time.

That is, the ultra poor would have to survive almost two years with absolutely nothing but the promise of an iPhone.

One of the key pieces of rhetoric surrounding the idea of “globalization” and “globalized capitalism” is that we can raise the world’s standard of living to our standard. Does this make sense?

Let’s assume that it’s reasonable for the average Quebecker to sacrifice an entire week of salary for an iPhone – she can live fine on the remaining 49 weeks of salary.

If a very poor person was to sacrifice the same one week per year in to acquire an iPhone, it would take almost nine years of saving to make the mark.

If a globalized “free market”

were to remedy this disparity (which you will notice, it has not managed to do) we would expect both wages and the price of the iPhone to change. With a few conservative assumptions, the World Bank’s claim that about five per cent of the world earns the same or more than the average Quebecker, and a bit of arithmetic, all would be fair if both the world’s very poor and the average Quebecker earned about $3.30 per hour, and the iPhone cost about $115.

Now here’s the rub: let’s assume that the roughly 60 million iPhone sales since 2007 came from that five per cent of the world’s rich. Let’s assume further that the same proportion of iPhones get sold to our 5.15 billion nouveau riche as were sold to the original rich. That’s over one billion more iPhones, and we haven’t finished bringing the other 15 per cent of the population up to speed.

Uh oh… what happens when they want no-foam lattes, furniture from Ikea, and a Prius too? Looks

like planet Earth is going to run out of stuff mighty fast.

This brings me to an actual point: the developed world has deemed acceptable and normalized what, from a global vantage point, is conspicuous over-consumption by “average” people. It is undeniable that we have maintained our level of consumption by brutally exploiting and oppressing the developing world – if we didn’t, the planet would be out of stuff, plain and simple.

Our culture systematically conflates both “quality of life” and “standard of living” with capacity to consume. Worse, we are justifying our global piracy by deluding ourselves that we can bring our “standard of living” to the rest of the world. If we succeed in globalizing our culture and logic of consumption, we will necessarily destroy our planet.

Something’s gotta give. Perhaps we can start by concentrating on the idea that “the best things in life aren’t things.” Ironically, I saw that quote on a bumper sticker. !

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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New class for the physics department?

Partial differential equations could become a requirement at McGill Jenna Blumenthal Sci+Tech Writer

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Chatroulette:

Ludivine Baugier for The McGill Daily

dick-tating content McGill researchers develop “dick detection” software Erin O'Callaghan

The McGill Daily

E

ven when you are not looking for it, inappropriate online nakedness can smack you in the face. Especially if you frequent any of the internet’s many anonymous video chat sites, such as Chatroulette or Random Dorms, that have become popular in the past year. The anonymity of Chatroulette encourages lowered inhibitions – you will probably never see the person you end up chatting with again – but this also results in certain users, predominantly men, abusing the site and inappropriately displaying themselves to the world.

Despite the convenient option on Chatroulette to “next” someone, repeatedly seeing various strangers’ genitals is not the cup of tea of many users, nor is it the purpose of the website, which is open to all ages.

This is where new work by Computer Science researchers at McGill and the University of Colorado at Boulder comes into play.

These researchers have come up with software that is able to detect inappropriate skin exposure on video camera images.

“The software uses an array of image detection algorithms to detect various characteristics, such as the presence of face, skin, eyes, etc,” explained Richard Han, professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado, in an email to The Daily. “We then fuse these individual algorithms to make a stronger collective inference about whether the person in the picture is misbehaving.”

The researchers hope that this new combination of image detection algorithms, known as the DempsterShafer theory, will go a long way in being able to detect and prevent inappropriate exposure via video.

“In the past ten years commercial software [has been] developed that detects nudity online,” said Xue Liu, a professor from McGill’s Computer Science department.

“However, because of this new videochatting environment and the use of web cams, past research does not work very well [because] it [was designed] to detect nudity in high resolution still pictures.”

As a result, sites such as Chatroulette have had to deal with the major issue of users inappropriately exposing themselves to the camera. The website has employees who watch for users who are continuously “nexted,” and then investigate them to see if they are exposing themselves, but this is a cumbersome and expensive process.

The newly developed software is a much cheaper and faster alternative, and according to the researchers, the software has been successful.

“We have seen a substantial rise in the proportion of female users on Chatroulette now that we’ve helped clean up the system,” Han stated. “We hope to extend this software to help clean up other online video chat systems.”

The new software goes a long way in making Chatroulette a safe space for everyone, particularly minors.

“At any given time, there may be up to 10,000 minors on Chatroulette, especially on the weekends,” Han explained. “Our research helps to protect those minors from being exposed to flashers.”

Of course the software is not perfect; sometimes it detects someone who is not a “flasher,” Liu says, and sometimes it misses someone who is. Chatroulette accommodates for this shortcoming by continuing to employ people who physically check out the site’s users for any suspect behaviour. Known as “the crowd,” these employees are essential for guaranteeing the accuracy of the software.

“By outsourcing to the crowd – the people who [Chatroulette employs to] watch images – we are able to increase the accuracy of the software,” Liu explained.

He also noted that the research team is considering introducing a new algorithm that would detect specific behavioural traits into the software as a way to improve accuracy.

With the success the software has had for Chatroulette, Han is hopeful that it will change the atmosphere of such video chat sites in the long term.

“Our hope is that our software will make it possible for online video chat systems to achieve their full potential. Many users who were previously dissuaded from using such systems will be able to come back to a safer cleaner environment,” stated Han. While the question remains as to whether anonymous video chatting with strangers is appealing, especially with the visitors – regardless of indecent exposure – that Chatroulette attracts, at least users will be less likely to stumble across a stranger’s dick as they click from one conversation to another.

ot since they put a flat screen in the foyer has Rutherford Physics seen such excitement.

The building is buzzing with rumours that the inclusion of a course on partial differential equations (PDEs)– a mathematical tool indispensable for physicists – will be the next big change to the majors curriculum.

“PDEs is one of those things that if you want to do physics, it pretty much puts up a wall if you don’t have it,” says McGill Society of Physics Students VP Academic Nina Kudryashova. “It’s so omnipresent.”

Although it’s been brought up, it is unlikely that PDEs will become a requirement anytime soon. “To even give it rumour status is going a little far” Physics Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Chairman Professor Kenneth Ragan says, “and for current [physics] students lacking PDEs, it’s not fatal.”

Physics professors often include higher-level math, like PDEs, in

their curriculum on a need-toknow basis: if a particular tool from a math course which is not required for physics majors is needed, the professor will explain it in class.

Potential curriculum changes confront several aching levels of administration. It must first be approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee within the Physics department, and then by the entire department itself. Finally, it is brought to the Academic Policy Committee of the Science Faculty and the Subcommittee on Courses and Teaching Programs.

In a year where a lack of dialogue between students and the administration has been a ubiquitous campus issue, the process of curriculum approval manages to go against the grain. Students participate in committee activities at each level, and certainly within the Physics department, professors are listening. “Students at the UCC are in some sense the most critical” says Ragan, “they are who we get most of our feedback from and we take that feedback very seriously.”

Stacey Wilson | The McGill Daily

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Aquil Virani | The McGill Daily

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Fraud down under, but fine for Canucks Power Balance wristbands are still sold in Canada, despite a lack of supporting science Prose Encounters of the Nerd Kind Andrew Komar

andrewkomar@mcgilldaily.com

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hese fashionable accessories can be found on the wrists of a huge cross-section of society, and are endorsed by celebrities like David Beckham, Shaquille O’Neal, and Robert De Niro. Numerous testimonials on slick websites offer glowing reviews of how Power Balance wristbands improve strength, balance, and flexibility simply by slipping one on. If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.

In December 2010, Australian consumer protection advocates managed to put the manufacturer of the Power Balance wristbands under the harsh light of real scrutiny. As a result of this legal inquiry, Power Balance was forced to retract advertisements, issue a formal apology, and offer refunds for the $60 wristbands. Of particular note in their apology was the description of the scientific basis of their claims: “We stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance, and flexibility. We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct.”

Despite this damning admission, the same misleading claims have continued in other markets unabated, including in Canada. On the main website of Power Balance International, any links to the Australian affiliate have been conspicuously scrubbed even though the Australian page with the apology is still active. In comparing the Canadian and Australian pages, the FAQ section that contains the misleading “scientific” explanation is absent from the Aussie page, while still prominent on the Canadian website. There is still no indication on the Canadian page that the product has no credible scientific basis. A representative for Power Balance was contacted for an explanation of these discrepancies, but never responded.

For the record, Power Balance and similar energy bracelets do not work as they’re described. The explanation offered alleges that the bracelets function because of holograms “treated with energy waves . . . [that are] believed to resonate and work with your body’s natural ener-

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

gy flow to help enable you to perform at the best of your abilities.” In a double blind test, scientists could not tell the difference between the “embedded frequency holograms” and Pez candy. Furthermore, the material used for the “embedded hologram” is mylar, a material used in other industries as an insulator that acts to stop many different

types of “energy fields.” While this idea of a human energy field may be popular and widespread, it is not a scientifically meaningful concept that can be demonstrated to exist.

The popular Q-Ray bracelets are another example of a product that claims to work by “balanc[ing] your own negative and postive [sic] energy forces, optimizing your

Bio-Energy.” The unique feature of the Q-Ray are magnets, which have long been a staple of quack medicine. Our blood does contain iron in hemoglobin, but the particular state of that iron is not magnetic.

Even static magnetic fields thousands of times larger than those found in the Q-Ray – such as the ones in MRI machines – are not

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powerful enough to cause measurable effects on blood or tissue.

Actually, the effects of small magnetic fields on living tissue, after decades of extensive clinical testing, have not been found to be statistically significant enough to reliably be called good or bad, so any reported benefits from wearing the bracelets are likely to be psychological.

At best, the whole “magic bracelet” idea is no better than a placebo.

A BBC investigation into the Power Balance wristbands found no difference between the real thing and a generic plastic lookalike. Those generic plastic wristbands are available from the manufacturer for as low as $3. Power Balance sells these exact items for at least $40 dollars, which is about a 1,300 per cent markup over the knockoff. For a product that is admitted to have “no scientific evidence to support their claims,” that is quite a profit margin. In fact, Power Balance has made so much money from this scam that they could afford to buy out the Sacramento Kings’ Arco Arena, which is now the Power Balance Pavilion. At least someone isn’t suffering from the recession.

This shamelessness isn’t new – James Randi, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation, has spend much of his considerable career dealing with pseudoscientific claims. In an interview at a McGill’s symposium “Confronting Pseudoscience: A Call to Action,” he remarked: “When we say ‘pseudoscience,’ what we’re really talking about is bad logic and faulty reasoning. These things are damaging to society precisely because societies take actions, and when you take actions based upon dumb ideas, you are likely to take dumb actions.”

“What needs changing is the way the media deals with the conflicting claims of science and pseudoscience. You can’t be ‘fair and balanced.’ You can only be fair or balanced. To be fair is to tell the truth; to be balanced is to tell a truth, tell a lie, and then let the public determine which is which – and this, of course, isn’t fair to anyone.”

From a consumer protection standpoint, the truth is that these products are a scam. They are nothing more than modern snake oil that may make you feel better, but only because of the placebo effect.

You should know that you could probably keep that $40 and get the exact same thing for $3. That is, if you still want one.

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

10

Commentators caught offside Recent soccer controversy highlights continued sexism in sports culture Katie Esmonde Sports Writer

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hen Sian Massey took the sidelines as a lineswoman in an English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and the Wolverhampton Wanderers on January 22, it should have served as an example of how far women have come in the previously male-dominated world of sports.

Instead, due to the ignorant and sexist remarks of English network Sky Sports’ commentators Andy Gray and Richard Keys, it only emphasized that despite women’s advances, sports are still very much a boys club.

When Massey ruled Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles’s assist to striker Fernando Torres’s goal onside, Gray and Keys – incorrectly assuming that their microphones were turned off – blasted Massey for the perceived incorrect call. Keys suggested that, “Somebody better get down there and explain offside to her.” Gray responded, “Can you believe that? A female linesman… women don’t know the offside rule…

Why is there a female linesman?

Somebody’s fucked up big.” Video replay showed that both Meireles and Torres had been very much onside, and that Massey – not Gray and Keys – made the correct call.

Fortunately, the response to their remarks was swift and condemnatory. Sky Sports executive director Piara Powar said of their actions: “It is unacceptable that two of British football’s biggest names are heard espousing views, whether intended for broadcast or not, that undermine and disparage the efforts of women in the game.”

Both were immediately suspended from their commentating duties.

Gray’s contract has since been terminated, after a videotape of him sexually harassing fellow Sky Sports personality Charlotte Jackson surfaced last Tuesday, following the incident. Keys has also resigned. Sadly, Massey must now suffer in addition to the insults that have been directed at her. She has been asked to take a break from officiating because – according to Mike Riley, the general manager of

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Roxana Parsa for The McGill Daily

Professional Game Match Officials – “[in] any football match the focus should not be on the officials but on the players and the game itself.”

What a shame that she has to accept the consequences of others’ inappropriate and offensive behaviour.

As a female fan of the English Premier League, I am pleased that both Keys and Gray have been relieved of their duties. A message must be sent that this kind of overt sexism is not to be tolerated. But am I surprised that these two men felt it was acceptable to discuss amongst

themselves (and, unbeknownst to them, millions of Sky Sports viewers) women’s alleged ineptitude when it comes to the basic rules of the game? Unfortunately, no.

To write this off as an isolated incident would do little to address the profound sexual inequalities that persist in sports. Admittedly, there are few today who would be so foolish and ignorant as to suggest that women don’t know the offside rule. Gray and Keys do not represent every soccer fan, pundit or commentator. The almost universal

reprobation of their comments by newspaper and television media emphasize that, at least in public, this view is unacceptable.

However, this does not change the fact that professional sports and sports broadcasting are both very much male domains where women are rarely – if at all – present. A recent “Gender in Televised Sports” study by Michael Messner and Cheryl Cooky showed that women’s sports receive 1.6 per cent of coverage on American news and highlights shows – the lowest figure

ever recorded in the twenty years that this study has been conducted (the highest was 8.7 per cent in 1999, which is still incredibly poor).

Additionally, study after study has shown that in the rare examples of women’s sports coverage, women are often sexualized, less respected than their male counterparts, and discussed in terms of their roles as mothers rather than their athletic achievements. Women are seldom included in sports broadcasts in any meaningful way – unless their purpose is to be sexy for what broadcasters might believe to be an all-male audience. Commercials shown during NFL and NHL broadcasts at best don’t show any women at all, and at worst are offensive and demeaning toward women.

On a personal level, I am often told that I “know a lot for a girl.” This is almost a compliment, considering that I am often accused of being a sports fan because I “think that the players are hot,” or that women can’t be good sports fans at all. This is particularly interesting considering that women make up 47.2 per cent of major league soccer fans, 46.5 per cent of MLB fans, 43.2 per cent of NFL fans, 40.8 per cent of fans at NHL games, and 37 per cent of NBA fans.

And, despite the fact that women are playing (and excelling at) sports in unprecedented numbers, there continues to be a pervasive belief that no matter what, women will always be inferior athletes when compared to men. When it is believed that women can’t play sports well enough to take notice, or that women can’t watch sports with the same “skill” as men, how far of a stretch is it to say that women have no place as officials – or worse – that women have no place in the game at all?

Punishing Gray and Keys can only do so much to challenge the sexist attitudes that continue to validate the exclusion of women in sports. When women are fully respected as athletes, commentators, and fans, perhaps remarks such as these will truly be an aberration. Eradicating sexist attitudes in sports requires much more than firing the “bad apples” – the entire culture must be challenged.

Applications due Friday February 4 at 11:59 p.m.

Submit a one page letter of intent, one sample column, and two general writing samples Send questions and applications to sports@mcgilldaily.com

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

11

A divisive demand Why unpaid internships are a remote possibility for many students Carolina Millan Ronchetti Culture Writer

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leepless nights working for a stellar GPA may not be enough for a breakthrough into your industry of choice – or even your first full time job. With the ever-increasing pressure to have experience before applying for jobs, students are turning to unpaid internships to get their feet wet. But as unpaid internships become more popular, it’s worth asking the question: are students getting the lower end of the stick?

It seems today that it is virtually impossible to find employment without having previous experience. Mark Lyden, a professional recruiter for Fortune 500 companies and author of College students: Do this! Get hired! explained that past experience in an internship or co-op is critical to getting a fulltime job, and that students that don’t have such experience before graduation may be putting themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage.

“Companies don’t want to have to teach students when they hire them full-time,” he said. “They don’t want to have to teach them the culture of the company, what it is to answer to someone who’s perhaps old enough to be your parent, adapting to a group with a wide range of experiences and a wide range of ages. Companies want the skill of adapting to the workplace.”

Because of this necessity, students are increasingly searching for opportunities to gain hands-on experience, transferable skills, and real workplace experience. Though Lyden notes that he hasn’t seen a rise in unpaid internships, he has noticed an increased buzz about them. “More people are talking about them, which may indicate that there is a market for it,” he said. “What’s really driving the market for it is the down economy and that college students increasingly feel internship experience is important.”

The perceived pressure to have hands-on experience listed on a resume means more students than ever before are willing to work for free. However, unpaid internships may be an unrealistic option for students in need of cash to afford their already expensive university education. Lyden noted that some students truly cannot afford such a thing. “In this economy, a lot more students are staying closer to home and so they may have the opportunity to do an unpaid internship and still be okay,” she said. “But those students who need to support themselves are not going to

be able to take an unpaid internship unless they have money saved up.”

Gregg Blachford, Director of the McGill Career Planning Service (CaPS) says the phenomenon of unpaid internships isn’t new.

“There’s always been a sector of unpaid internships, especially for Arts,” he explained. “Engineering and Management students do get paid, but that’s an industry standard.”

Blachford noted that this is because Engineering and Management students often work for large companies that have established internship programs and organize their payment, while Arts students – especially those interested in the culture sector – often work in organizations too small to provide payment.

As a response to the number of organizations without extra funds to pay Arts interns, McGill’s Arts Internship Office (AIO) has developed the Arts Internship Awards.

Last summer, 74 students received a total of over $125,000 thanks to the support of McGill alumni.

One of these students was Caroline Marciniak, a U3 Art History student with a minor in Spanish, who travelled to Spain last summer for an unpaid internship with the Dalí Foundation. “I got the Max Stern Internship in Art History award for $2,500, which was a good sum of money,” she said. “It definitely helped but it wasn’t nearly enough to cover my expenses – I spent nearly $7,000 for the three months I was in Spain.”

Marciniak is not alone in the large sums of money she spent for hands-on experience. As students travel to work in renowned institutions that will give them future prestige, they still have to consider personal finances. As well as working for no income, they are also subjected to huge expenditures.

However, Marciniak feels the large expense was necessary, and sees her summer internship as a longterm investment in her future.

“If I hadn’t gotten the award I would have gone anyway, I just would have taken a larger loan” she said. “And even with the award, I lost a lot of money and I’m still in debt for it. But if I look at it in terms of my future it’ll be easier to get a job, so it evens things out. I know that if the Dalí Foundation recommends me to the Picasso Museum, I’ll probably get in.”

Unpaid internships not only harm students with less privileged backgrounds but can even be detrimental to the companies themselves, as it prevents them from having access to a segment of driven students that pay for their own expenses. “Some of the people who are self-sufficient, paying their

Vincent Tao for The McGill Daily

way to school and having to earn money to live are often among the most self-motivated,” Lyden explained. “An unpaid internship is not going to be an option for them, and yet, in my opinion, this is the demographic employers are often looking for.”

Many, like Mike Boone, City Columnist and Habs Inside-Out hockey blogger for the Montreal Gazette, are adamant about the need to pay students for their

labour. He pointed out that the Gazette, as a unionized newspaper, pays all its interns. However, Marciniak feels that it is logical that many organizations would prefer to have unpaid internships.

“Interns don’t have any real skills to offer, so why would they get paid for it?” she said. “You go in knowing almost nothing about the world you’re going to work in. I understand why I didn’t get paid.”

Ultimately, unpaid internships have value for students as much as for companies. They have become an almost necessary prerequisite for entrance into the job market, despite being an unrealistic option for many students who cannot afford to spend months – at home or abroad – with no income. But whether or not they pay off really depends on whether the experience gives the student real skills, and becomes more than a bullet point to add to their resume.

12Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

In search of heritage

Black History Month reclaims black Canadian experience Tiana Reid

Culture Writer

C

anadian blackness doesn’t have a face: it doesn’t have a publicly acknowledged history, colour, body, culture, politics, sound, or texture. To be black in Canada is almost always challenged by what it means to be black in the United States. Surely, Canadians know more about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the poster children for not only the Civil Rights Movement, but in many ways, contemporary black consciousness in its entirety – than the Canadian black experience.

The contributions of AfricanAmericans to not only black heritage, but overall human history, are undeniable. But what about Africville – the community outside of Halifax composed almost entirely of black families, evicted in the 1960s to make way for a suspension bridge – and the park that it has now become? What about Canada’s history of slavery?

And the Coloured Hockey League in the Maritimes? These are the untold and untaught stories of Canadian black history.

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eil Donaldson, aka Logikal Ethix, is a hip-hop artist and

founder of Stolen From Africa, a global Toronto-based movement with a Montreal chapter that promotes historical awareness and cultural empowerment through programs that include community outreach and alternative media. In an interview, Donaldson expressed his appreciation of how Black History Month recognizes the contributions of black Canadians, but pointed out that “often times, it’s done on the surface level.”

“We like to have this image that we’re all holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya,’ but it’s not even like that,” he explained. On the contrary, Canada has downplayed a great number of its injustices towards its black citizens. “If you look at Africville, it was a human rights violation. They were bulldozed off their land.” According to Donaldson, these types of things are ignored because of their negative connotations.

T

he Coloured Hockey League and the black roots of hockey, which predate the NHL, are further examples of something that has been frozen out of Canada’s shared memories; the CHL has still yet to be acknowledged by Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame. Donaldson explained the effects of this on his conception of the sport as a young child: “When

I was younger I loved playing hockey but it was known as a white sport and I felt discouraged.” He affirmed that “if information like this was more documented in history textbooks, that would help with self-esteem and a sense of belonging.”

The effects of omitting black history from textbooks thus go much deeper than just distorting the historical record. What these books tell those of us that aren’t included in their narratives is that our history doesn’t matter, and consequently, that we don’t matter either.

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his year’s Black History Month, now marking its twentieth anniversary in Quebec, is themed “Reclaim Our History, Reclaim Our Values,” and will feature activities ranging from discussion to plays, live music, film screenings, photography and more.

Michael Farkas, president of the Round Table on Black History Month, and a community activist who works at Little Burgundy’s Youth in Motion, stressed that the theme of this year’s month is important especially because of the artificiality and distraction that pervades our society. “It’s to remind us that we’re made by our history, we’re molded by our history and that within this history, we’ve grown as human beings with solid values

Aquil Virani | The McGill Daily

African-American history casts its shadow over black Canadian identity. that have helped us grow over the years,” Farkas said. His unapologetic use of “we,” “us,” and “our” isn’t meant to exclude. “It’s very universal,” says Farkas, “meaning, our history is your history. Your values are our values.’

How, then, do we, and how should we, acknowledge our shared histories and values each and every February? Does the designation of a single month to commemorate black Canadians further marginalize Canadian black heritage?

According to Donaldson, Black History Month is an opportunity to mobilize, connect with others and maintain those relationships for the rest of the year – not necessarily something that ends on March 1. “For me, Black History Month is every month. This is my life. This is not a trend. This is what I do.”

For more information on Black History Month, visit montrealblackhistorymonth.com. A full schedule will be up February 1.

To a glass box, with love Concordia Fine Arts student politicizes the environment, invites postcard submissions Ed Dodson

Culture Writer

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search aimlessly around Concordia’s FOFA (Faculty of Fine Arts) gallery; “if he’s not in the vitrine, I don’t know where he is,” the receptionist tells me. The vitrine? Was he the man covered in paint, trapped inside a narrow glass hallway? Yes, I discovered.

Jim Holyoak, a Concordia Fine Arts Masters student, is working on his thesis project. The show is entitled “Holocene” and his artist’s

statement defines the term as “of, relating to, or denoting the present epoch. The Holocene is now.

It quite literally means ‘completely recent.’ It began 12,000 years ago, and in geologic time it is scarcely worth mentioning – a blink.” It is, most importantly, an era that is characterized by “the impact of humans on the rest of the biosphere.”

For Holyoak and his artwork, the politics of the environment and mass extinction are vital aspects of human impact. “The thematics in this show are kind of

Courtesy of Jim Holyoak

“Lonely Wanderer, Where Is Your Mother?”

heavy…Thinking about contemporary extinction is important to me.” Holyoak is using drawing as a medium to begin or continue a conversation about such ideas with the public. The scale of the work is huge, in keeping with the size of his ideas. He has covered a 115-foot long, 11-foot tall wall with paper and plans to draw over all of it. There are also five pillars dividing the canvas – he will seek to both get around them and use their protruding shape to add to the drawing’s individuality. The work is thus overtly site-specific, which is apt considering Holyoak’s aim to understand the development of life in certain environmental conditions.

With such a large task ahead, he plans to basically live inside the vitrine for a month. Since January 13, until February 11, he will be enclosed within it for at least nine hours a day. Usually more, he hopes. Holyoak’s artist statement explains his intention: “Thinking of myself as an amateur paleoecologist, and of the FOFA vitrine as a large terrarium, I will volunteer myself as a semi-captive specimen, and grow a paper forest. This indoor forest will be not only a timescape, but also a mindscape – a realm of fact and fantasy, inhabited

by monsters and other animals, extinct and endangered, throughout the span of life on Earth.”

Holyoak’s concern is not only for the extinct creatures, but also for “everyone who will have to deal with the consequences of what happens now.” Whilst his statements express such political motivations, the exhibition itself is still welcoming and approachable. It is an act of discovery to walk up and down the drawing, searching for animal life, seeking connections, following what Holyoak is working on and trying to trace his thought process. As Holyoak said, “I’m not trying to be didactic. But I’m not shying away from the political aspect. I’m dead serious about it.”

It will be interesting to see, as the drawing grows, how Holyoak can convey the seriousness of his politics; there is a danger that the show lacks a tragic message required to provoke serious reflection or even action. To accommodate for the need to engage the audience, Holyoak has devised a unique postcard submission process: “What I’m hoping for most are postcards that depict real or make-believe places, or pictures of endangered, extinct, or imaginary beings. They could be descriptions

of, or reflections on, your experience of wherever or however you are, or your perception of the state of the Earth. Subject matter could also be memories, daydreams, fantasies, or ideas.”

He has received a few already, which are also there for the viewer to look at and relate to the drawing; they are stuck onto the glass case of the vitrine. He is even open to receiving criticism: anything which can help him learn and can potentially change his ideas about the drawing. There is no strict plan; it is really a work in progress right up until the finissage (February 11). We, as the viewing, participating public, have the opportunity to alter the drawing and thus alter the construction of environmental history. As a result, Holyoak hopes, we may also have a chance to think about altering the environmental future.

“Holocene” shows at the Concordia Faculty of Fine Arts gallery, 1515 St Catherine O. until the finissage on February 11. Open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Holyoak welcomes postcard submissions.

Deliver by hand to FOFA, or by mail to Jim Holyoak, c/o Faculty of Fine Arts, 1455 Maisonneuve O., EV 1-7-715, Montreal, H3G 1M8.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

13

Updating history, naturally Redpath Museum revamps biodiversity exhibit Carly Shenfeld Culture Writer

P

assenger pigeons were once so abundant in Quebec that according to Ingrid Birker, Redpath Museum’s Science Outreach Coordinator, flocks could “blacken the sky at high noon.” But after finding their way into the recipe for the popular French-Canadian dish tourtière, they were hunted to extinction.

But there remains a valuable specimen in the Redpath Museum, featured in the recently updated biodiversity exhibit – the only one of its kind to showcase Quebec’s natural heritage.

The exhibit opened in 2000 and was revamped last year to mark the International Year of Biodiversity.

According to Birker, it was extremely important to update the exhibit, since new species are constantly becoming endangered or extinct.

A committee of specialists in the field, including McGill professors and museum coordinators, carefully redesigned the exhibit, adding new specimens, 3D models, and updating their accompanying

texts. Since the Biodome is more of an indoor zoo with live specimens, Redpath is the only museum where visitors can learn about Quebec’s natural history. It is the only museum that focuses solely on Quebec’s ecosystems.

The museum collaborated with a number of different experts to collect specimens for the exhibit.

Several samples of insects and local plants came from entomologists and biologists at the Macdonald campus.

The small reptile models were made by collecting animals, freezing them, and pouring a mould over them.

The process does not harm the creatures, as freezing is a natural experience for reptiles that allows them to hibernate during the winter.

The biodiversity exhibit showcases the flora and fauna of each of Quebec’s ecosystems. It begins with the arctic and moves through the taiga tundra, the boreal forests, cities and urban backyards, and finally to the Atlantic coast. Highlights include a record-breaking narwhal tusk that stretches from floor to ceiling, two wolves, and the last eastern cougar ever recorded.

Redpath’s Cultural Director Anthony Howell stated that it is

Carol Kwon for The McGill Daily

important for visitors to get a sense of “the concept of biodiversity and the limitless differentiation of species we have here in Quebec.” Birker similarly noted that the museum’s mandate in

redesigning the exhibit was to “preserve the natural beauty of this part of the world,” and to showcase the artifacts that “define the natural heritage of our province.”

The Redpath Museum is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m. Entrance is free and Redpath Museum Club volunteers offer free tours on Sunday afternoons.

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and sexy purple sweaters

14

Shatner sex scandal!

SSMU President, VP Finance admit to “solicitatation” at Town Hall

A

mid a maelstrom of rumour, intrigue, and whispers throughout the corridors of power, SSMU President Smack Schoolberg decided to clear the air last Wednesday about whether he has been moonlighting as a sex worker. Reports of his work in the industry emerged in the past months when campus political hacks and upstarts questioned why relations with the administration had reached a decade high, despite a growing protest movement on campus.

At his two-hour “town hall,” Schoolberg and VP Finance and Operations Pick Brew admitted to “solicitating” from students during their tenures as SSMU executives. Schoolberg canvassed members of the audience – including campus press, political hacks, and student councillors – on their opinion, as Brew took notes on his Macbook.

Daily investigative reporter Mémène Sansfaçon met with Schoolberg to get his side of the story.

The following interview has been edited for general distribution.

The McGill Daily: Has there been much backlash or negative press?

Smack Schoolberg: I think [it]

was very well received. It gave individuals an opportunity to finally have something to work with… whereas in the past people simply didn’t feel compelled to share their thoughts.

MD: Are you working with Pick Brew closely on this?

SS: I’ve been working with a lot of individuals on this topic.

MD: What kind of consulting do you do with [former SSMU President] Jake Itzkowitz?

SS: Yes, I actually had emailed a number of individuals among whom Jake was one to solicit some individuals with background.

MD: Did you know he once took his shirt off in front of me?

SS: [confused] Really?

MD: What role do you see organizations and [unions] play in this now and in the future?

SS: I hope members of the legislative council and student groups will play a role in adding to a constructive debate.

MD: What methods do you use for solicitation? I hear the internet is popular.

SS: We used many different forums. I would say that in our attempt to get consultation, since there was recognition that individuals were not interested or did not feel compelled to do a lack of immediacy, urgency or interest.

Bikuta Tangaman | The McGill Daily

Schoolberg stands tall to display his attributes. VP FOPs not pictured.

MD: From which kinds of students do you like to solicit “feedback?”

SS: All corners of the university.

MD: Do you think the media fairly represents people such as yourself?

SS: Such as myself? I think sometimes the media does a decent job representing the views

Active galactic nucleus The Crossword Fairies

of individuals.

MD: What do your parents think of your career choices?

SS: I can’t speak for my parents.

MD: How much do you make, if I can ask.

SS: I’m not allowed to comment on this question. We are remunerated for the number of hours we put

Across 1. Microscopic aquatic plant 5. Intelligence 9. Fancy tie 14. Beat badly 15. 2002 Winter Olympics locale 16. Stock unit 17. “And ___ thou slain the Jabberwock?”

18. Artificial bait 19. Prepared an apple?

20. Materialization 23. Flip-flop 24. Egg cells 25. Babysitter’s handful 28. Decemberists’ song, “The __ ___” 33. Dash lengths 36. Air hero 37. Inclined 38. Set free 41. Funny bone 43. Kind of mill 44. Mas’ mates 45. Balaam’s mount 46. B.C. holy book 51. Start of a giggle 52. Dusk, to Donne 53. Elliptical path 57. Overrepresented, underpopulated town 62. Bugleweed 64. Echelon 65. 1/500 of the Indianapolis 500

into the job.

MD: Do you ever feel like you’re “whoring yourself out” to SSMU? SS: I do this because I love the society, and I love student life. I admire the student movement. So whoring no.

MD: Have you ever been arrested?

SS: No I’ve never been arrested.

66. Four of these in Quidditch 67. Roll call call 68. Connive 69. Stream 70. “Cogito ___ sum” 71. Ancient colonnade

Down 1. Buddhist who has attained Nirvana 2. “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” director 3. Oomph 4. Adjust 5. Partner of void 6. Pencil case in France 7. Battlefield 8. Pulley component 9. Fungal spore sacs 10. ___ fly, don’t bother me 11. Meat-eating order 12. Iron, e.g.

13. A Kennedy 21. Active galactic nucleus 22. Bit 26. Restaurant lists 27. Newspapers 29. Neon, e.g.

30. “Rocks” 31. Dashboard abbr.

32. Anger 33. Grain disease 34. Blackbird

35. Calculator precursor 39. Extreme suffix 40. Broke bread 41. Son of Noah 42. Treat shabbily 44. Bicycle basket 47. Band performance 48. To cut one’s teeth 49. “___ any drop to drink”: Coleridge 50. Stamps on 54. Jacked 55. White house?

56. Iota preceder 58. Eye 59. Charge 60. Shipping hazard 61. Snack in a stack 62. Easy as 63. Bump

Solution to “Cheers!”

15

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 31, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 100 number 29

editorial 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor

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Robert Smith le délit

Mai Anh Tran-Ho rec@delitfrancais.com Contributors

Ludivine Baugier, Al Blair, Jenna Blumenthal, Stephen Brophy, Sean Campbell (CUP), Edna Chan, Ed Dodson, Katie Esmonde, Erin Hale, Adrian Kaats, Andrew Komar, Carol Kwon, Carolina Millan-Ronchetti, Emma Mungal, Sam Neylon, Erin O’Callaghan, Shannon Palus, Roxana Parsa, Rachel Reichel, Tiana Reid, Carly Shenfeld, Maya Shoukri, Robert Smith, Colleen Stanton, Vincent Tao, Aquil Virani, Stacey Wilson

EDITORIAL

Eradication is not reform One day after SSMU President Zach Newburgh served a notice of motion to abolish the General Assembly (GA), student uproar led him to re-title the motion and announce a town hall meeting to address concerns. The sudden rhetorical change doesn’t hide the fact, however, that should this motion pass, the GA – the only forum for direct student consultation, debate, and reform – would cease to exist.

The motion seeks to eradicate the General Assembly in all forms and replace it with an “Annual General Meeting.” The Annual General Meeting (AGM) would take place twice a year and present the state of SSMU, ratify nominations to the SSMU Society’s Board of Directors, review audited financial statements, and nominate a financial auditor. Newburgh has also claimed that motions and referendum questions can be debated at the AGM and submitted to Council, but this removes any legislative autonomy students have by subjecting them to Council’s amendments and final approval. This, combined with the new concept of “private members’ bills,” (which are introduced by students to Council and are subject to the steering committee and Council debate) only further concentrates power in the hands of SSMU executives and councillors.

Given that the SSMU Constitution already requires the four aforementioned purposes of the AGM to be included in a GA agenda, the only purpose the motion appears to serve is to eliminate this forum for direct democracy.

While the GA has yet to be perfected, its proposed replacement and what remains – including the online referendum process – are disembodied and sterile alternatives. While referendums can alter the policy of the student union, wording in referendums cannot be changed, and the power of binding face-to-face political debate on a campus where students are often highly isolated cannot be reproduced by voting alone in front of a computer.

While the GA is flawed, it must be improved, and with that in mind we would like to propose three simple solutions to some commonly referenced problems.

Complaint 1: Not enough people attend GAs. Promote the GA (more). Outside of the occasional poster and advertisement in the campus media, SSMU has not capitalized on its vast financial resources to inform students of the one event where they can actually change SSMU policy.

SSMU only allocated $6,000 for the GA this year – $300 less than last academic year – despite the fact that it began this year with a much increased surplus of nearly $600,000. Pointing to a general neglect of the GA, of the $6,300 budgeted last school year, only $4,922 was spent. Faced with an enormous surplus and – as a non-profit corporation – required not to make a profit, student fees have been poured instead into new events like Homekoming, and proposed events like a three-day SSMUfest music festival. This money would be much better spent on instructive, proactive, and transparent advertising, and outreach to make the GA and all of its inner workings more accessible.

Complaint 2: Not enough space.

Again, SSMU has money to burn, and GAs don’t have to be limited to the Shatner ballroom, cafeteria, or outside. Possible campus locations include Leacock 132, McConnell Arena, and the Tomlinson Field House. If security presents an issue in dealing with the admin on non-student space, they could even rent out a downtown hotel ballroom for an afternoon.

Complaint 3: The GA has been too political in recent years.

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Unions are by nature political and speak out on a variety domestic and international political issues – so ours should too. Lack of GA turnout has been attributed to apathy and an aversion to politics, but students’ political beliefs have instead been shackled by a lack of information and accessibility on how to involve themselves in SSMU policy. We shouldn’t further inhibit students’ desire to engage in campus politics, but instead encourage involvement in campus debate.

Most of the complaints people have about the GA are structural, and should be addressed before considering abolishing it entirely. Others have to do with uninformed students. SSMU executives need to make a strong commitment to outreach and education about the GA, and we as students share an equal responsibility to be informed in order to equip assembly with the power of reform that a twenty-thousand-strong student body can exercise. It is equally important to ensure that a large enough proportion of those twenty thousand students come to make their voices heard, in order to address complaints that GAs aren’t an accurate sample of students.

We urge every student to get involved in the policies of their student union. At SSMU Council this Thursday, councillors will debate whether to abolish the GA. Go to Council, and lobby your representatives.

We need to preserve the GA long enough to actually reform it.

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

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