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Volume 100, Issue 29

January 31, 2011 mcgilldaily.com

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News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

SSMU divided over GA motion

Criticism over lack of transparency mounts before Council session Queen Arsem-O'Malley and Maya Shoukri

however, that the meeting prompted discussion that gave rise to new ideas.

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controversial motion to hold a referendum abolishing the biannual General Assembly (GA) and replace it with an Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be debated tonight at SSMU Council.

The AGM, unlike the GA, is a consultative forum and would not provide an opportunity for students to vote. The motion, authored by SSMU President Zach Newburgh and moved by VP Finance and Operations Nick Drew, VP Internal Tom Fabian, and Athletics councillor Emilie Leonard, has caused a visible split among the SSMU executives. The process by which the motion was brought forth to councillors is also being criticized.

Leonard did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.

Aquil Virani | The McGill Daily

Abolishing the GA Members of both the SSMU executive and council are upset by the proposal to abolish the GA without first exploring a means of reform.

VP Clubs and Services Anushay Khan highlighted the benefits of the GA. “I feel that a lot of really great things have come out of the GA,” she said, citing SSMU policies regarding corporate influences, opt-outs, and room bookings. “The GA is a great forum to really have students come out and have their concerns be heard.”

VP External Myriam Zaidi also came out in favour of preserving the GA. “I think we should empower SSMU members in directing their student society,” she said.

“The fact that for decades students have come together and made important decisions as a whole, as opposed to 35 councillors, I think [that is] why a GA is critical to a healthy democracy that is representative of students,” Management councillor Eli Freedman said in defence of the GA. “The fact that we’re considering giving that up is crazy. I think that we haven’t looked at workable ways of reforming it.”

Newburgh has a different view on the GA, insisting on the necessity for change. “The debate ultimately comes down to whether the SSMU is willing to uphold an undemocratic General Assembly that limits voting to those who do not have class, work, and are among the first few to attend – or whether voting should be open to the entire student body.”

Fabian pointed out other flaws of the GA. “It’s just that people come out to vote on their issue, and they bounce. They don’t really care about the well-being of everything, and for that reason, a lot of people bring in some pretty stupid

motions,” he said.

“I’m very open to change,” said Drew, clarifying his reasoning for adding his name to the motion.

“We’re trying to find innovative ways to make sure that all voices are being heard, and not just the loudest or the ones with the biggest mob.”

He spoke to the inaccessibility of the GA’s structure. “It’s very complicated, unless you’re in student politics, to understand the process which the GA uses,” he said, referring in particular to Robert’s Rules of Order that structure GA debates.

Despite his protestations regarding the motion’s presentation during the last Council meeting, VP University Affairs Joshua Abaki displayed a more neutral stance when discussing the motion’s content.

“It is okay for there to be a difference of opinions, both within Council and the executive, and I think enough people have taken the time to make their views known about the GA,” he wrote in an email to The Daily.

Lack of Consultation In addition to clear divisions of opinion over the future of the GA, some executives and councillors were vocal about their disappointment regarding the amount of consultation leading up to the motion’s presentation at Council.

Freedman voiced his concerns about the steps Newburgh took in soliciting feedback from his peers prior to submitting the motion.

“The process [by] which this has come into light corrupts the political system... Zach needs to understand that the executive is non-hierarchical. You don’t have a president above the rest of [the executives] and have them respond to his actions, and he creates the vision for the society, because that’s false,” Freedman said. “[Newburgh]

has made it clear that his preferences are not to consult with students – not to reform the GA, but to abolish it,” he added.

Fabian and Drew both defended the way in which the motion was introduced to Council.

“I think too many people worry about consultation and process,” said Fabian. “The GA is in Zach’s portfolio; it is underneath him. All of us executives, we don’t consult each other on every single topic.”

Drew echoed his statements, pointing out that, “Executives have their own working schedules…you can’t consult everybody about everything. [Newburgh] could have been sneaky and pushed this through student-initiated referendum, and not have any consultation.”

Zaidi, however, disagreed.

“Three out the six executives were never aware that this motion was being created, or was even being brought forward, even though we see each other every day,” she said. She went on to emphasize the divisive nature of the issue, stating, “The people that brought this motion forward knew that the GA was an issue that the executive had different views on.”

Town Hall After considerable criticism over the seemingly minimal amount of communication between councillors and executive, Newburgh held a consultative town hall last week, in hopes of seeking student feedback.

Arts Senator Tyler Lawson referred to the meeting as “a great step forward in trying to ameliorate the circumstances.”

However, Councillor Maggie Knight claimed that the organization of the effort felt a bit “too little, too late.” She did concede,

Newburgh dismissed concerns that promotion for the Winter GA has not been as visible as in previous years. “No matter how well the General Assembly is advertised, individuals will only attend if they are interested in the motions,” he said.

Advertising for the GA, which is set to take place February 10, has been limited to online promotion and ads in campus publications.

Council decided against printing handbills to publicize the event, due to environmental concerns.

Confusion has arisen among SSMU councillors and executives, however, over the use of posters in advertising the GA. Despite confirmation from Dallas Bentley, SSMU’s Communications and Publications Manager, that posters are not currently being printed due to environmental concerns, Drew was under the impression that there would be no deviation from the usual practice of postering. “We should be postering around the faculties…and [posters] should have all the listings of the motions coming forth,” Drew said. “We’re planning to do that, so I don’t see any change in that.”

Knight and Lawson expressed confusion at the lack of postering on campus. “I suggested that we should use posters, [but] I don’t think that was taken up,” Knight said. Lawson also noted “posters are pretty much a staple of promotion in all aspects of SSMU, and should have been utilized.”

“You can question the amount of advertising,” Abaki remarked.

“Perhaps we can agree that it’s been half-hearted.”

Khan and Zaidi advocated for a more interactive form of advertising, aiming to inform students about the value and technicalities of the GA. “I feel like it’s about educating students about the importance of the GA, before talking about the mechanism as a whole, because if people don’t know the value of it, then obviously you’re not going to value it,” Khan said.

Zaidi added that understanding the process of writing motions is crucial to the success of the GA. “We could’ve definitely done more in terms of the motion writing promotion, and I believe that the quality of a GA really depends on the motions that are submitted.” She went on to criticize confusion surrounding the deadline for the submission of motions for the GA. Khan addressed the current divide among the executive as inevitable. “We run as individuals, and at some point in time, we will be divided on some issue. And this is that issue.”

Student mentorship program launched

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Juan Camilo Velasquez The McGill Daily

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oth students and staff are hopeful that the new StaffStudent Mentoring Program launched Tuesday will foster stronger ties between faculty and students.

According to its statement of intent, the program’s main goal is to “facilitate informal out-of-classroom conversations between staff and students with the ultimate goal of enriching the University experience for all.”

It also hopes to “help close gaps, foster connections and build networks, as participants discover new opportunities and share knowledge and exchange insights about a wide variety of topics and interests.”

The program is currently in an exploratory period, throughout which it will receive feedback from participants based on evaluation criteria that are still in development. It is expected to use this feedback, and continue to evolve over the next couple of years.

“The program targets all undergraduate students. While we don’t specifically target first-year students, I think this could be particularly beneficial for them,” said Amara Possian, student Senate representative for the Faculty of Arts, who helped develop the project. “Once you have an informal conversation with a professor or administrator and realize they’re human, it makes everyone else much more approachable” PGSS senator Alex Deguise brought up the possibility of mandatory mentoring for at-risk students during Senate’s committee discussion on mentoring and advising.

There are currently no plans to make the program compulsory. However, both Possian and faculty senator from the Faculty of Science David Harpp – who also collaborated on the program with Dean of Students Jane Everett – mentioned that they were looking into the idea of retired faculty mentoring at-risk students.

To join the program, staff and professors create profiles on the program’s website. Students then log in and fill out a mentee application form from which they will be offered a choice of two possible mentors.

Once they’ve made their selection, the Office of the Dean of Students contacts the mentor and the mentee. It is then up to the mentor to contact the student.

Possian added that there has also been a lot of interest in using the program to match undergraduate students with graduate mentors.

“The PGSS could easily take our template and modify it to create their own mentorship program,” she said. “What we’re ultimately trying to do is create a culture of mentoring at McGill where members of the community are continuing to learn from each other.”

4 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

New security contract now in effect

Board of Governors yet to approve contract amid legal challenges facing Sweden-based security company Naomi Endicott

The McGill Daily

M

cGill’s new contract with Swedish-based security agency Securitas came into effect Tuesday, despite allegations that the firm is involved in poor labour practices.

Securitas have been at McGill since mid-May after the University cancelled their existing contract with their former security company, the Bureau canadien d’investigation et d’ajustement. The Executive Committee of the Board of Governors (BoG) first approved the companies new contract on December 14, after the firm sent in a bid in reply to McGill Procurement Service’s call for tender.

Securitas Canada has been criticized since August 2010 for sending letters to its Halifax workers dissuading them from unionizing.

These letters violate the international agreement Securitas signed with Union Network International, and with the Swedish Transport Workers Union in 2006, in which it promised to aid employees in forming unions.

Dave Bush, an employee of the Service Employees International Union in Halifax, is working with Securitas employees on a campaign to get Securitas to honour this agreement.

Although reluctant to be quoted, as the campaign is still in its early stages, he spoke of the gen-

eral proceedings.

“Basically we’re sitting on a list of violations [of the international agreement],” he said over the phone. “But we want to wait for the right time. …My hands are tied.”

Elise Graham, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students Nova Scotia, commented on the importance of unionization for security guards on university campuses.

“I am part of the student union at NSCAD [Nova Scotia College of Art and Design], so obviously we believe that unionized workers and unionized students are stronger together than they are un-unionized,” she said.

“Here at NSCAD we have 24-hour access to our campuses so students can go into our studios and work in our studios and use the equipment for school. So we have security guards during the evenings and we know that having unionized workers would mean more stability in their jobs, we’d be seeing the same workers time and time again, and we could develop a relationship with them,” she added.

When asked whether the labour allegations affected McGill Security Services’ decision to employ Securitas Canada, Pierre Barbarie, Associate Director of Security Services, said, “We look at the company on how best they can provide the services we need, and that’s how we base our decisions.”

Barbarie said that the reason

for choosing Securitas rested on its scale.

“Securitas is a renowned company all over the world,” said Barbarie.

“It has contracts all over the world, agents all over the world. … So in order to attract the best possible candidates in terms of agents, they’re definitely a huge player in that.”

Barbarie and Security Services chose Securitas in conjunction with McGill’s Procurement Services department. The BoG has not yet officially approved the decision, as they have not met since the contract was awarded.

SSMU President Zach Newburgh anticipated that the contract would be brought up for review at the next BoG meeting, as the Executive Committee would be required to submit a report.

In an email to The Daily, PGSS president and BoG member Alexandra Bishop wrote, “The basics of the contract were presented to the BoG Executive Committee by Michael Di Grappa, Vice-Principal Administration and Finance on December 14 and approved. Previous consultation included the Selection Committee involved with the public call for tender, Legal Services and Procurement Services.”

“I do not know what will be in the report to the BoG beyond the basics that the Executive Committee recommended the approval of the contract,” she continued.

She also stated that Securitas’s was the only bid received.

Matthias Heilke for The McGill Daily

McGill was attracted by Securitas’s international reputation.

McGill profs discuss Arab uprisings Hastily scheduled roundtable attracts a hundred faculty and students Maria Surilas

The McGill Daily

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n Tuesday night, around 100 students and professors filled Arts W-215 to attend a roundtable discussion entitled “Recent Events in Egypt and the Middle East: A Conversation.” The event was organized by professors in the Institute of Islamic studies. Jamil Ragep, director of Islamic studies, moderated the discussion.

According to Ragep, the idea to hold a discussion in response to the recent events in Egypt came from Islamic Studies professor Prashant Keshavmurthy, who also participated in the discussion.

“It had to be done very quickly… and we wanted to be topical about it,” said Ragep. Efforts to organize the panel and find professors to speak began last Friday.

Department professors Malek Abisaab and Khaled Medani opened the discussion with lecture

style comments and analysis on the protests in Egypt and Tunisia.

Abisaab began his comments by reading the poem Mohammed Bouazizi wrote for his mother.

Bouazizi was the Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation in December, and subsequent death, catalyzed the nations uprising and overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January.

In later remarks, Medani touched on the number of myths that recent political events across the Arab world – from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen and Jordan – have been “punctured”.

“Is it a result of a spontaneous uprising? I think it isn’t, it is really a three decade transformation of political and economic changes. …

There is a great deal of hope, not only for Egypt and Tunisia, but for those other countries,” Medani said.

Professor Setrag Manoukian and Keshavmurthy responded to audience questions during a question period that lasted over half an hour.

The role of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook

“Is it the result of a spontaneous uprising?

I think it isn’t, it is really a three decade transformation of political and economic changes...”

Khaled Medani McGill Islamic Studies Professor in the uprisings were of particular interest during the question period.

Manoukian said that attributing the events in Tunisia and Egypt to technology alone is “presumptuous.”

“You have to consider how that enters into a broader dynamic in the sense that maybe technology is the most concrete sign of the way in which political communication works in a particular moment, but there has always been political communication…there have always been mechanisms to

spread the news very quickly that now seem to us maybe outdated,” said Manoukian.

Several questions were directed toward the popular comparison of the Egyptian protests to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. “Comparisons are good to think with but they are always very limited,” Manoukian responded.

Medani expanded on the IranEgypt comparison, saying, “This is not a revolution…it is a popular protest and part of a social move-

ment. … These people are asking for reform in the present institution and within the Egyptian constitution.”

Medani said he also enjoyed the student participation in the discussion.

“My impression was that it would be more interaction with the students…and that’s what it was like in the end. It was very good because it was more participatory than doing a lecture series,” Medani told the Daily. “It is very nice to see everyone so engaged in this region. It’s really important.”

During the panel Medani noted that the protests have been “surprisingly peaceful…given the amount of people on the streets and the potential for violence.”

Since the panel on Tuesday night, violence between supporters and opponents of embattled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak intensified Wednesday morning and, according to the BBC, gunshots were heard in the area of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo.

News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Bill to streamline export of AIDS medication Stiff opposition cites possible intellectual property violations Zach Lewsen

The McGill Daily

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federal private members bill to improve Canada’s ability to export low-cost AIDS medications faces numerous roadblocks as the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to cause millions of deaths annually in Africa.

Bill C-393, which aims to decrease the red tape around Canadian production and exportation of low-cost generic AIDS medications, has reached its third reading in the House of Commons, after being introduced in 2009. After this reading the bill must pass through Senate.

Winnipeg North NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who stepped down in April 2010 to run for mayor of Winnipeg, first introduced the bill.

Windsor West NDP MP Brian Masse then took over as sponsor of the bill, but recently handed the bill over to Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar.

In an interview with The Daily, Masse said “I’ve handed over the bill to Paul Dewar in response to the criticism that I [already] introduced a private member’s bill over the last year.”

MPs are generally encouraged to only introduce one private members bill a year. The Conservatives finally gave their approval to allowing Dewar to be the bill’s new sponsor yesterday. A new sponsor must be approved by all MPs.

One of the bill’s key clauses was the one-licence system, designed to reduce red tape regulating drug exportation. The one-licence system requires generic companies to have just one license to export drugs to countries specified as being in need of affordable medications without a strict quota on the number of drugs. Under the current system, companies are required to obtain multiple licenses to export drugs.

The House Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology, which includes Liberal critic and Westmount-Ville Marie MP Marc Garneau, removed this clause in December.

In a canada.com article, Garneau stated that this approach “would give generic companies too much freedom.”

Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, President of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), member of Médecins sans frontières (MSF), and founder of MSF’s Ottawa advocacy office, defended the onelicence clause in an interview with The Daily in December.

“For the developing countries, they would have known that once they received the license they would receive the drug...For the generic companies they know they don’t have to go through years of litigation and negotiations with the pharmaceutical countries,” said Kiddell-Monroe. “It is also a much faster system than the current legislation.”

Other organizations advocating

Other 761,000 Sub-Saharan Africa 2 million North America 27,000 Europe 12,000

Worldwide AIDS deaths, 2005 2.8 million Source: UNAIDS 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic

for the passage of Bill C-393 and the one-licence system include the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the Stephen Lewis Fund’s Grannies to Grannies Campaign.

The McGill UAEM Chapter has been raising awareness of the bill on campus. Chapter coordinator Rachel La Selva said in an email to The Daily that some of their members “attended rallies in Ottawa... gave announcements to our classes, and [encouraged] people to sign postcards” to their MPs. According to Masse, “most of the opponents to Bill C-393 have been pharmaceutical companies,” despite the fact that, according to a

statement released by the HIV/AIDS Legal Network, “the entire continent of Africa…represents less than two per cent of global pharmaceutical sales” due to developing countries’ inability to afford patented medicines.

Other opponents of the bill criticize it for potentially violating international intellectual property rights. Heather Hume, spokesperson for Industry Minister and Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Tony Clement, said in an email to The Daily that Clement is opposed to bill C-393 because it “would revoke intellectual property rights” outlined in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO)

Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This is 1994 agreement set minimum standards for international intellectual property regulation.

However, Section Four of the WTO’s 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health also states that, “While reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS Agreement, we affirm that the Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members’ right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.”

Campus unions sign statement of solidarity Administration says it won’t effect negotiation process Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

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n January 25, McGill’s three biggest campus unions signed a statement of solidarity to share respective bargaining agreements and support collective action. The three unions, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), McGill’s Union of Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA), and the Association of McGill Undergraduate Student Employees (AMUSE), represent about 5,000 campus workers. They signed the statement of solidarity, nicknamed the “founding document,” as all three head into bargaining agreements with McGill in the coming months.

“The administration has taken quite a hard line with the unions on campus the last several years,” said Michael Rozworski, AGSEM VP External. “We figure that if the unions agree to share information and formalize our relationship a bit more, we could be in a better position vis-à-vis the aggressive stance

of the administration.”

Rozworski said representatives from each of the unions have been in informal discussion about a statement of solidarity since the fall, but agreements accelerated as each union drew closer to beginning their bargaining negotiations with McGill. “[AGSEM’s] contract expires in June, MUNACA’s expired in November, AMUSE – as a casual workers union – is just negotiating their first contract,” said Rozworski.

“The fact that we’re all entering negotiations with McGill kick started the process.”

MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker, who is currently helping negotiate a new collective agreement with McGill, said that solidarity between campus unions could help present a united front against the University in contract negotiations.

“In the past there have been things going on in other units that not everyone has known about,” said Whittaker. “We don’t want them to pit us against each other, and give one group things and not others.”

Courtesy of Michael Rozworski

MUNACA, AGSEM, and AMUSE represent around 5,000 workers.

The statement articulates that all signatory unions will share information “relevant to union activity at the University…[that] is not necessary to keep confidential.” However despite the emphasis on greater communication, collective action, and information sharing, Rozworski said the statement maintains the autonomy of each union.

“The idea behind this is to have it be quite a simple agreement, and one that’s relatively noncommittal in some kind of deeper sense,” said Rozworski. “There’s no attempt at deeper integration, I don’t think there are any risks associated with this at this stage, in the form it is now.”

Both Robert Comeau, McGill Employee and Labour Relations

Director, and Lynne Gervais, McGill Associate Vice-President (Human Resources) – two of the University’s primary negotiators with campus unions – were unaware of the unions’ statement when The Daily approached them for comment.

“This is not going to impact our negotiations at all,” said Gervais.

“We negotiate with each other individually.”

“They [the unions] already talk to each other as it is,” she added.

AGSEM recently clashed with the University after attempting to incorporate sessional course lecturers into their union. They are hopeful that this statement of solidarity will help further this cause.

“That’s another area where the administration has taken a hard line, and where we need all the support we can get,” said Rozworski.

“I’m especially happy also because – as AGSEM representing academic workers, working together with the non-academic staff – that shows that interests are the same across…the different employee groups across campus,” he added.

6 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Students organize sit-in at Palestinian delegation in London Young Palestinians pressure the Palestinian ambassador to the UK for free and fair elections

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n the January 27th, about 20 students from the Palestinian diaspora met in the offices of Palestine’s general delegation to the United Kingdom to voice their concerns to the ambassador. Lé Délit, The Daily’s sister publication, interviewed one of the protestors, Merna Azzeh.

Le Délit: How did your group organize the sit-in at the embassy?

Merna Azzeh: Everything was more or less organized the day before. About 12 students were there from 1:00 pm, but most students came later in the afternoon.

We all came from different universities in the UK (LSE, UCL, SOAS, Oxford, Notthingham). The majority were of Palestinian origin (living in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, the West Bank, Europe). Even if I only knew two people in the group before the sit-in, we all wanted the same thing: to reclaim representation and direct elections.

LD: What triggered your initiative? The Palestine Papers? The social unrest in Tunisia and Egypt?

MA: It was a bit of both, but we didn’t want to make a direct link to these events. We spoke about representation with the ambassador.

No matter the corruption (because yes, there is corruption!), we asked for more democracy. This was our call for direct elections to the

Merna Azzeh was one of twenty students participating in the sit-in.

Palestinian National Council (PNC).

We were conscious of the limits of our demands at the sit-in, but we wanted our actions to be a wakeup call to the Palestinian youth. In other words, this was the launch of a campaign for elections and a new body of representatives for the Council. The fact is that this isn’t done regularly. Some have been in office since 2006 and the PNC

is very important because it is the main body that gives authority and strategies to the PLO. LD: How did everything proceed?

MA: Well, we didn’t invade the embassy. We simply wanted to get our voices heard in the most civilized way possible. Some students were sitting in the reception area while others were in the ambassador’s empty office. We said that we

Courtesy of Merna Azzeh

wouldn’t leave until he came and spoke with us. When he came, we shared our point of view and asked him to take action, but he answered that everything was out of his control. We continued discussing until the police arrived after they heard about it in the media. The ambassador, insisted that we should stay, and that we were welcome guests in our embassy. We left at around 8:00

p.m. Even if the ambassador agreed with our demands, I remain skeptical. Maybe this was just a utopian effort. But this is about people’s rights to choose their representatives, and we all knew that before the Palestine Papers. Moreover, being a refugee, I need to worry about my future and my people.

I think it was a good start for our campaign.

LD: Have you done this for the youth or for all Palestinians?

MA: We did it in the name of the youth, because we are the future of the country. We however called for democracy for all Palestinians, especially those in the diaspora: we called for direct elections, and it is the right of all of our people no matter where they are to take part in the process. At the end of the day, we talked about what we wanted to do next. I hope that it was a spark that will be transmitted to Palestine, because it is quite hard to protest over there. It’s the launch of a campaign: we need other initiatives of this kind in order to promote these goals of representation and democracy.

— Compiled and translated

by Xavier Plamondon This article previously appeared in the February 1st issue of Lé Délit.

Letters

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

7

Re: “A totally consensual society would have perverse consequences” | Letters | January 24

Asking for consent is about making sure our partners feel comfortable and we can all have the safe, fucktastic sex lives we want to have.

Al Blair U3 Environmental Studies and Women’s Studies

We are all criminals Re: “Montreal copy stores busted for photocopying textbooks” | News | January 27 It is rather unfortunate that the several copy stores in the area who were willing to skirt the law and cheaply photocopy textbooks for students have been brought under criminal inquiry. I understand that these copiers were self-interested, trying to make money from facilitating the creation of a cheaper textbook alternative, and while I have never had personally used this service, I can’t help but consider their actions courageous, as well as beneficial for the student population.

As the article indicates, this is not a new practice, and one proprietor admitted to having copied textbooks for years. What is unfortunate is the arbitrary nature of copyright law enforcement. I would be surprised if any McGill student could admit to never having wilfully infringed copyright law, most commonly accomplished through the downloading of movies and music over the internet. While the laws may make us all criminals for these actions, I doubt that most of us feel that way.

Because we all violate copyright law, it can only ever be prosecuted on a case-by-case basis, meaning that the enforcement of copyright standards is inherently at risk of abuse by the authorities. Unless everyone is prosecuted equally the application of the law can in no way be considered just. The laws have made all of us into criminals, meaning our prosecution is subjected to the whims of the authorities, regardless of the severity of our actions.

James Hirsch U3 Political Science and North American Studies

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization Re: “Confession of a member of the QPIRG board” | Commentary | January 27 In Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan’s “Confession of a Member of the QPIRG board,” he “confesses” that QPIRG and Tadamon! only seek Hezbollah’s removal from Canada’s list of terrorist organizations because the terror list “is both diplomatically unhelpful and the source of racial profiling in Canada.” It is hard to take this claim seriously. Surely RonderosMorgan and Tadamon! know that being a member of Canada’s terrorist list has real-world implications, including preventing Hezbollah from raising money in Canada, and preventing Canadian banks and businesses from working with Hezbollah. Considering Hezbollah uses its funds to orchestrate terrorist attacks from Argentina (85 killed in Hezbollah’s 1994 bombing) to Israel and Lebanon (hundreds of Israeli, Lebanese, and Palestinian men, women, and children killed since Hezbollah’s founding) it is difficult to understand why Tadamon! and RonderosMorgan would take issue with Hezbollah’s placement on this list.

Furthermore, if campaigning for Hezbollah’s removal from Canada’s terrorist list means supporting Hezbollah’s right to raise funds in Canada, and operate in Canada in pursuit of violence, isn’t Tadamon!’s (and by inference QPIRG’s) campaign for Hezbollah’s removal from a terrorist watch list not in fact indirectly supporting Hezbollah’s goals and aims, which would include being able to raise money in Canada as they did before being placed on the Canada’s terrorist watch list?

Spencer Burger U3 Joint Honours History and Political Science

Erratum

In “Eradication is not reform” (Editorial, January 31), it was stated that the name of the motion put forward by SSMU President Zach Newburgh was changed after student response.

This was not the case and in fact the name remained the same.

The Daily regrets the error.

We aren’t idiots

Consent is fucking sexy

Appropriation is disgusting

Re: “Military recruitment has no place on campus” | Editorial | January 20

Re: “A totally consensual society would have perverse consequences” | Letters | January 24

Re: “Rejecting Appropriation” | Commentary | January 27

To the writers of last Thursday’s editorial on military recruitment on campus: I just want to congratulate you on the wisdom and helpfulness of your editorial. It changed my opinion of the military completely, and I shall be forever in your gratitude.

It’s very difficult to have lived all one’s life as a hermit in a small, modestly-furnished cave in the Alpine foothills; I was so ignorant about the world I thought the military were nice men who simply marched into foreign countries to distribute free chocolate. But you enlightened me, and I have absolutely no doubt that scores of my fellow students lived lives of similar isolation, in caves in their own parts of the world, and were equally unworldly until they read your wise editorial. When those wicked military people said they were good, we simply took them at face value. We really did. It sounds incredible, I know, but we were just so naive, my fellow hermits and I. I hope you’ll forgive me the satire. We English are suckled from so young an age on satirical magazines that we sometimes forget we don’t always come across as lighthearted, especially in cold print.

So rest assured, I love you really.

Nevertheless, the point stands, and when you deplore the Canadian military for selling themselves as a “competitive career opportunity with travel benefits,” you forget that that’s actually, um, true. Growing up an expatriate, I went to a school for expats, and had much contact with the children of soldiers posted abroad. They loved living in Europe.

And the high salary isn’t there as some cunning subterfuge; the military knows people are hesitant to work for it, and has to attract them somehow. In short: we’re not idiots. Well, my hermit friends and I are, but I meant apart from us.

Sam Baker U1 Joint Honours Mathematics and Economics

To Mathew Powes, Concerns about the applicability of consent in interpersonal relationships are extremely valid – this isn’t something we’re taught how to do, let alone conceive of. In the media, the prevailing message is indeed, as you say, that “one of the basic and fundamental structures of human relationships” is this kind of mutual telepathy shared between two people who are “close enough” know each other’s thoughts and feelings.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t know exactly how my partners are feeling in any given scenario.

The only way I can know is if I ask.

Some people talk, others gesture, others have safe words or rankings (on a level of one to ten – pants or no pants?) Whatever your strategy, it’s important to communicate.

But do we communicate in order to “legalistically” request sexual favours from our partners? Not exactly. This is not about the law or the penal system. When we talk with your partners, it’s not simply to avoid jail time! Asking for consent is about making sure our partners feel comfortable and we can all have the safe, fucktastic sex lives we want to have.

And it doesn’t have to be awkward. In fact, what’s more uncomfortable: asking your lover if they’re actually enjoying themselves, or waking up the next morning and being told that they felt disrespected or uncomfortable about what happened the night before?

I would argue that feeling comfortable enough to ask is one of the most intimate things you can share with a partner – and not the opposite. In truth, for most folks I know, being asked how they feel is actually a turn on!

You say, “if you really desired your lover, you would not hesitate by asking.” I say if you really respected your lover, you would not hesitate to ask.

Before I read BSN’s statement on the use of their name in the QPIRG opt-out campaign, I was unaware of the poster that defames not only the BSN, but all black students at McGill. I’m not a member of BSN, but I’m biracial – half black and half white. I’m beyond offended by this poster. I’m also deeply disappointed that I attend an institution that has groups that promote racist stereotypes for political gain.

After reading BSN’s commentary, I cried – not only because it affects me personally, but because the whole ordeal is fucking disgusting, and it literally makes my stomach churn. I had no words after I saw the poster, but I managed to string these together because I can’t be silent.

I too believe that those behind this propaganda should be reprimanded. And I too will not stand for this.

Tiana Reid U3 International Development and Communications

Al Blair U3 Environmental Studies and Women’s Studies

The Daily received too many letters to print this week! Send your letters to letters@mcgilldaily.com from your McGill email address, and keep them to 300 words. The Daily does not print letters that are racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful.

8 Features

Montreal’s sec

Map by Am Research by Abby Lippman, Cleve Higgins

T

his map shows us a few of the Montreal-area companies involved in the security sector, organized by theme: biometrics; simulation and 3D entertainment industry; unmanned aerial vehicles (drones); and security companies. The map demonstrates the breadth of these industries’ reach in Montreal, and their significance for the city’s economy. We include atypical companies, such as those making video games, to underline the diversity of techniques of violence and repression. High-tech military operations now rely on elaborate simulators for training purposes; similarly, private security companies are extensively involved in military operations and training.

Biometric techniques used to identify and track people are developed in Montreal, and unmanned drones flying worldwide are made right here on the island.

UAVs

1. Presagis 2. Apollo Microwaves 3. Thales Canada 4. Meggitt Training Systems Canada 5. Top Aces 6. Xiphos Technologies

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are a clear example of the ongoing blurring of warfare and law enforcement. In recent years, UAVs have become a central part of warfare by the U.S. in Afghanistan and Pakistan. After being developed for war, UAVs are now being tested by police agencies in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. The “war on terror” has simultaneously been used to justify war abroad and political repression domestically, and UAVs are a key technology in expanding governmental powers on both fronts. As a centre for both the aeronautics and simulation industries, Montreal is home to many corporations that contribute to the development of UAVs, especially the capacity to control them remotely.

BIOMETRICS

7.Excellium Technologies Inc 8. Gemalto Canada 9. Central Security 10. Voti 11. Memorec 12. Lockheed Martin

SECURITY COMPANIES

SIMULATION INDUSTRY

13. Bombardier 14. CAE 15. Dassault Systemes 16. Embvue 17. Simthetiq 18. CM Labs Vortex

In a military and/or security context, simulation refers to the techniques and software applications used for complex modelling: generating and executing scenarios that involve human/crowd behaviour and other complex factors for the purpose of training and/or analysis.

The simulation industry is closely associated with the 3D entertainment industry (animation, video games, film, etc.) because software development is driven by these various overlapping applications (or “markets”).

Montreal is a well-known “international hub” for 3D animation, games and simulation. Technologies developed by small firms, and the firms themselves, are easily bought off by large companies, such as CAE. Montreal’s 3D industry is a small and closeknitted world that is hard to distinguish from its military counterpart.

Biometrics usually refers either to a “measurable biological [or] behavioral characteristic...used for automated recognition” of an individual or to the actual methods used for identifying individuals from these characteristics. The most common biometrics already in use include fingerprints and face, iris, voice, and hand geometry recognition. Walking styles, keyboard use habits, and other features said to be unique to individuals alone or in combinations are also used.

Biometric methods applied without the knowledge of an individual are of most concern; they are often used by watchdogs and others claiming a need for security.

Many methods have been developed separately by government, military, and private organizations, but these groups – several of which are located in Montreal – tend to share processes, research, and databases.

19. ASIS 20. Securitas 21. Garda World

A large number of private security companies have offices in Montreal, and one of the world’s largest security firms, Garda, was founded here. These companies provide armed personnel and armoured vehicles to protect the oil and gas, mining, construction and telecommunications industries, development organizations and NGOs, and even government agencies. These same companies provide the “security guards” we see in universities, businesses, and on the streets in Montreal.

These companies make “safety” a commodity, and violence a source of profit. They are intimately linked to the industries they support and enable. Board members of Garda alone, for example, have corporate ties to telecom firms, the Canadian government, the U.S. military and Secret Service, oil and gas companies, venture capital firms, and weapons and aviation firms, among others.

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

curity industry

my Novak s, Rachel Sandwell, and Sophie Le-Phat Ho

Surveillance without consent Using UAVs againsts Canadians is undemocratic Rana Encol

The McGill Daily In 2009, the Guardian reported that the American air force is now training more drone operators, or unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), than fighter or bomber pilots.

The increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the theatre of combat suggests that the current paradigm of man-killing-man is being replaced with one that is even more unsettling – that of machine-killing-man. The drone operators themselves are geographically and psychologically displaced, working thousands of kilometres from their victims.

According to Eric Edwards – President of Xiphos Technologies and a member of the Regulatory Issues Committee of Unmanned Systems Canada – UAVs were first deployed in the Vietnam War. “The technology for doing digital electronics and making efficient and higher-performance autopilots started showing up around the late 1970s and 1980s, but the industry still didn’t really take off,” explains Edwards.

“But some countries succeeded in building an industrial base – most notably Israel,

which was first using them in combat very successfully. The US, which is now one of the bigger players, was very late getting into this. They didn’t catch on to it until the civil war in Yugoslavia – it was the CIA that started using them for recon before the army and the Air Force – they had used them before, but it wasn’t considered part of their standard doctrine for war; the CIA started getting a lot of good intelligence, and then it all just sort of took off.”

Today, five thousand drones are currently deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the past decade they have killed hundreds of innocent civilians. In January 2011, the British daily Morning Star reported that Israel was training British forces to use Hermes UAV 450 drones – drones that have been adapted for attack in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Indeed, surveillance and attacks by UAVs have become a hallmark of modern military occupation. There is no civilian consent to the surveillance, and increasingly limited means with which they can resist this new technology of warfare.

Domestically, Canada has also started to expand its use of UAV technology for security purposes. Last week, a Predator B

drone conducted its first aerial survey of the U.S.-Canada Border, covering territory from Washington to Minnesota – just another step in a series of many to have several planes patrolling what used to be the longest nonmilitarized border in the world.

The Mohawk reserve of Akwesasne – which straddles the Canada-U.S. border – has likewise been under surveillance by UAVs since becoming embroiled in a protracted conflict with Canadian border guards over their possession of firearms on the job in 2009.

(To its credit, Transport Canada bans the use of drones over populated or urban areas, though Akwesasne is not classified as such.)

Xiphos and other companies in Montreal represent a backyard industry for surveillance and satellite technology.

UAVs fundamentally alter the relationship between civilians and the military. If Canada is going to continue to use this technology, both in Afghanistan and at home, legislators and citizens ought to have a well-informed, national discussion in which they democratically consent to it before going down the road of perpetual military surveillance.

9

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

10

On the subject of GA reform Stop the vicious cycle before it begins Sana Saeed Hyde Park

I

Aquil Virani | The McGill Daily

Without the GA, who benefits?

Erin Hale

Hyde Park

P

olitical language, goes one of Orwell’s most famous quotes, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Three questions to always ask are: who benefits, what narrative are they trying to spin, and what are they trying conceal?

Consider the completely random example of the General Assembly. According to SSMU President Zach Newburgh’s narrative, the GA is broken, students want direct democracy, and those who are attempting to maintain the existence of the GA as it stands are somehow content with the status quo (either no substantive debate, or wild debates about geopolitical issues). The solution he put forward with two other executives, and a councillor provides a new forum, the Annual General Meeting (AGM), with a limited agenda and no legislative impact, along with the capacity for students to introduce motions themselves at student council. It also deletes several pages of by-laws, which include things like speaking rights and procedure.

Take out your copybooks, and follow along as we break down what all of this actually means.

The General Assembly is broken SSMU politicos like to say this.

It’s snappy and concise, so it’s an ideal catch phrase for anyone trying to tokenize a complex issue. It’s true the GA as it stands is not working – the problem is that this fact is being used as a reason in and of itself to totally abolish it.

This point also misses the corollary that the GA is broken because SSMU councillors and executives made it that way. SSMU has to educate students on what the GA is and the kind of power it gives to them, and do a lot more than motion writing workshops, because at the end of the day, the GA is really just a set of rules and procedures (some of them arcane, it’s true). To have a genuine forum of constructive political debate on campus, you have to build your base and create conditions conducive to its success.

Students want direct democracy Again, this declarative statement is true, and it’s being used to address the very genuine concern that the GA isn’t representational.

The real joke is that this argument is being used to centralize and restrict debate. Somehow we are expected to believe that having an AGM with four available topics of discussion, a referendum (which we already have), and no guarantee of speaking rights at council (even if students present motions), we’re expanding democracy.

There’s more online at mcgilldaily.com/commentary

Supporting the GA is supporting the status quo I think very few people support the GA “as it stands,” because as it stands the executive and councillors don’t promote it, the rules are totally unintelligible to anyone not in Model UN, and the motion writing workshops aren’t promoted.

What’s more important though, is that the GA as it stands has one important thing no one seems to want to talk about (and would be completely removed): Strike GA’s. In 2005 SSMU participated in a province-wide strike to protest tuition increases, and in 2012 it will likely find itself in the same position. SSMU is supposed to be committed to accessible education, and participating in this strike could be an important expression of that ideal. Even if you don’t agree with free education, or prefer increases in student aid, there are many reasons to participate in this debate, not least of all out of solidarity with our francophone counterparts.

It’s true you could have a strike referendum question, as you could have many other questions significant to student life listed in a multiple choice format. But these kinds of events – and democracy in general – are about more than clicking a button.

Erin Hale is a U3 Philosophy student and a former Daily editor. Write her at erin.hale@mail.mcgill.ca.

Brendan Stevens on the Prince Arthur Herald Haaris Khan on activism and unrest in Egypt

t wasn’t too long ago that SSMU President Zach Newburgh, who ran on a campaign of essentially depoliticizing the student union (thus… attempting to render VP External completely useless?), led a crowd of boisterous undergraduates through campus demanding the “saving” of the ever in-perennial-existential-crisis Architecture Café. The closure of the Architecture Café, it was argued by those who vehemently opposed the McGill administration’s actions (resonant of a similar attempt just a few years back), was an indication of the growing marginalization of student life on campus, by first and foremost limiting the physical space available to and controlled by students themselves.

Yet the very elected representative who is at the head of the student body that has pledged support to expand and work on issues relating to student space is now attempting to limit student space on campus by bringing about a referendum question that seeks to completely weaken, near-well abolish, the General Assembly (GA) – the only opendemocratic forum we have on campus through which the opinions of everyday students can be expressed equally and without marginalization from any colloquial “Man.” I entered McGill six years ago, in 2005. Heavily interested in the student political scene, I immediately sought out ways to get involved. It was only in the following year, the 2006-2007 academic year, that the first GA took place. We discussed pretty damn controversial issues that year, including the now-infamous, but unfortunately forgotten-by-many, Héma-Quebec Blood Drive issue, an invasively divisive issue easily traceable in The McGill Daily archives. There were always problems of quorum and decorum, idiotic motions, and questionable intentions. Yet despite this, the GA provided a forum in which any student was allowed to come and participate actively, to the extent to which they were interested, in a discourse that affected them directly or perhaps indirectly, or maybe not at all in any capacity. Students were allowed an open space, allowed to create their own boundaries within this space, and control the rules. The GA, in essence, promotes precisely what so many of us learn on a theoretical level in our classes: an actualization of our ideas, knowledge, and ability.

The GA is a student-run space for all students. There are problems, yes, but many of these can be fixed in the most simplest of measures. There needs to be better advertisement: when under-

grads come to McGill, make sure it’s one of the first things mentioned to them during the Orientation tour, by the newly elected SSMU executive; poster the call for motions and, for god’s sake, advertise the actual GA at least three weeks in advance.

And Facebook should not be the only medium for marketing dissemination – campus publications should also get in on that action. Listen, Daily, if you could rally for student space in the form of the Architecture Café, do more for the GA. And please, no more excuses about the GA not being representative of the student body – SSMU is? What’s the percentage required for quorum at a GA? And what was the percentage of voter turnout for the last election? Apparently issues of representation only become relevant when things get a little too heated for other groups of students, apparently more representative of all students than any other group.

Aside from virtually ridding students of the one open public forum they do have, Newburgh’s motion also takes out SSMU from striking next year alongside other Quebe universities’ student unions against tuition hikes. Thus, not only is the motion limiting student space to engage with campus politics, it is further limiting SSMU’s space in the broader realm of student politics. And why? Because some people can’t handle the words “Occupied Palestinian Territories” or “No Pants Fridays?”

The ever-demonized McGill administration is not the only institution limiting student space on campus; Zach Newburgh’s motion to “reform” the General Assembly ultimately is no different from actions taken by the administration – for whatever reason – to cramp space available for students to call their own. And it is also a form of censorship, an issue too many are afraid to discuss in public, but is acknowledged most voraciously by those well acquainted with the impetus behind the motion. The recent suspension of Midnight Kitchen should alert us to how precious and vulnerable the space that we can actually call our own, as students, actually is.

Save the GA, or else students three years from now are just going to put forward another referendum question to bring about a democratic public forum for student discourse on issues relevant to campus life and operations.

Vicious circles are for bicycles anyway.

Sana Saeed is a former Daily columnist, is currently a member of the DPS Board of Directors, and is in her final year of a Masters in Islamic Studies. She can be reached at sana.saeed@mail.mcgill.ca.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

12

Maple syrup funk Quebec porno soundtrack is returned to its rightful creators Nick Jeffers and Adrian Fogelquist Culture Writers

I

n 1969, an 11 piece funk band formed at the Fontaine Bleu in St. Jean, Quebec. They called themselves Illustration.

By 1970, Illustration was on the verge of superstardom. Under the direction of organist John Ranger, they recorded an album with Janus Records in New York City. The group shared the stage with the likes of Tina Turner, Miles Davis, and Funkadelic, and received rave reviews from Rolling Stone magazine and the New York Times.

The scent of success can be intoxicating. In the wake of the promising release of Illustration’s first album, the band’s manager and record producers began to squabble over money, and Illustration split with Janus Records. By 1971, the group’s prospects had begun to fade. Forced to return to Canada to renew their visas, the band took root in Montreal and found themselves newly impoverished.

While playing a bar in Montreal, the members of Illustration were approached by a film director with an offer to record a soundtrack.

Pressed for cash, the band accepted the meagre offer, which worked out to less than a hundred dollars each.

As Ranger explained in an interview with The Daily, “that was easily a five thousand dollar session, and we only got a thousand…but we were

desperate, and a hundred dollars is a lot of money when you’re on the road.”

The film was Après Ski, a canonical work in the Québécois genre known as “maple syrup porn.”

The film follows the exploits of a ski instructor in his attempts to woo women off the slopes for a private “après ski.” Though clearly never destined for critical success, the film became a cult favourite of Québécois cinema, both for its “plot” (three words: moustaches, Ski-Doos, and breasts) and for the sublime funk featured on its soundtrack.

Illustration recorded the soundtrack from unreleased material they had already composed.

With each song recorded in a single take, the entire process took about five hours. Unfortunately, due to certain legal constraints stemming from their previous contract with Janus, the band was not permitted to record the music under the name Illustration. As a result, they were not credited for their work, nor did they ever receive royalties for the use of their music. Ranger revealed that he was never preoccupied with being credited for the music, he felt it was simply important to get it out so that people would hear it, adding that “it was a thrill to hear my music on the big screen.”

Illustration’s contributions to the soundtrack were falsely credited to “Jacques Crevier et son

ensemble.” Crevier was a music arranger who was present when the album was recorded, but how exactly he came to be credited for Illustration’s work remains a mystery – to both the public and the band themselves. One thing, however, is clear: he made absolutely no musical contribution to the soundtrack. Illustration was all but completely forgotten; the real artists behind the soundtrack were never revealed.

Now, forty years later, Illustration is finally receiving recognition for their work on an album that has come to be regarded as a forgotten masterpiece in the annals of Quebec music history. Les Disques Pluton, a Montreal-based record company with the self-stated goal of “helping rediscover Quebec’s musical heritage,” is doing a limited rerelease of the soundtrack, with Illustration rightfully credited for their contribution.

Why, after all this time, is the album being rereleased? Félix B. Desfossés, owner of Les Disques Pluton, explained his motivations, “The Après Ski soundtrack is, in my opinion, the best funk album ever recorded in Quebec. Problem is, it was very little known…It was clear and simple to me that this album had to be (re)known here and worldwide.”

The rerelease has generated an unexpected level of interest.

Originally set to be released solely on vinyl, the album is now going to

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

be released in CD format as well.

“In the beginning, I wasn’t sure exactly how much interest the project would generate,” Desfossés said.

I knew [the Après Ski soundtrack] was in demand worldwide. But I had no idea just how big it would be. There is a huge response worldwide. The LP isn’t launched yet and we’re almost sold out. We have no choice but to have a CD version of it, to fulfil the demand we’ve created. In simple terms, people love the record.”

Desfossés captured the prevailing sentiment of the whole affair perfectly when he said, “In my opinion, John Ranger and Illustration deserved the attention they now have. These guys were musical geniuses, and time had forgotten their name.” He concluded, “Il faut redonner à César ce qui appartient à César!”

“Après Ski OST” was released on Pluton Records on January 25. Go to bit.ly/apresski for details.

The new night out Kid Koala invites partygoers to swap poppers for pencils Julia Bloom

Culture Writer

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t’s a chilly Monday night, and Ste. Catherine is glowing beneath flickering signs for exotic dancers and pulsing club lights. But instead of a night of boozing and dancing, I’m going out for a cozy night in.

This unique blend of staying in while going out is exactly what DJ Kid Koala’s current gig at Théâtre Ste. Catherine offers. “Music to draw to…” is a soothing alternative to Montreal’s usual downtown nightlife, providing calming music for creative souls looking to get out of the house. For $5, guests can bring their own creative supplies and enjoy a night of drawing, painting, sculpting, knitting, and absolutely no dancing while listening to a mix of dreamy tunes courtesy of Kid Koala.

Just a few doors down from the

throb of club beats, “Music to draw to…” lends a whole new meaning to the concept of “going out.” Despite being hosted at a theatre, the event has little to do with performance.

Kid Koala sits tucked away behind his turntables alongside fellow artists on the floor, instead of alone onstage. When he’s not mixing tunes, he sketches intently in his notebook, pausing only to select a new record or change to a new song.

Upon arrival, guests are greeted with a pencil, complimentary hot cocoa, and the irresistible aroma of freshly baked goods. Desks and chairs arranged in circles fill the theatre and stage, while dimmed Christmas lights provide a warm, casual atmosphere. Students clad in sweaters and checkered scarves read novels or write in notebooks, while professional artists and illustrators sketch comic book panels or program video games on laptops. Once the music has begun, conversations

dull to a murmur as guests allow themselves to become absorbed in their respective crafts to the hum of Radiohead and Björk.

Especially during the coldest months of the year, when finding an excuse to leave the house can become difficult, “Music to draw to…” provides a perfect compromise between an entertaining night out and an intimate night at home with good food and better company. In an interview with The Daily, Kid Koala admitted that drawing to music is an activity he does frequently at home, similarly noting that he doesn’t “know anyone who draws without music.” By drawing together this common love for art and music, Kid Koala has taken a typically private activity and expanded its potential and borders.

A McGill graduate, Eric San began DJ-ing under the pseudonym Kid Koala at the age of twelve. Since then, his beats have

been heard alongside DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and in the alternative hip hip group Deltron 3030.

For this DJ, music and art are tied closely together; when he’s not spinning discs, Kid Koala also draws all of the artwork for his album covers and illustrates comic books. While touring, Kid Koala’s beats don’t usually stray too far from the dance floor, so something more low-key is somewhat of a departure. Kid Koala says the idea for this sober, low-key social event came to him after witnessing the isolation suffered by busy artists.

“I have a lot of animator friends who say they can’t come out ‘cause they have two-hundred frames to draw,” he explained. “This is a way they can get out of the house while keeping up on their work”.

Indeed, the event satisfies this craving for social interaction without the distraction of alcohol. Kid Koala said that, when first orga-

nizing the event two years ago, he specifically chose Monday night in order to discourage the high-energy, party hard attitude associated with the weekend. In response to the event’s overwhelming success, Kid Koala has brought it back for another three Monday nights this year - after a yearlong hiatus.

“Music to draw to…” cannot be compared to a performance or even a party; rather, it alludes to a completely different type of socializing than that found mere blocks away in the bars and clubs of downtown Montreal. A gathering of friends and crafters alike, “Music to draw to…” provides a cheap, relaxing social release – without the hangover.

“Music To Draw...” To runs from 7 p.m. to midnight on February 7 and 14 at Theatre Sainte Catherine, 264 Ste. Catherine E. Entry $5, and there’s a bake sale.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

13

Not just a load of bull

Ph.D. candidate establishes an online review for McGill’s literati

T

he Bull Calf is a tri-annual journal reviewing Canadian fiction, poetry, and literary criticism. The McGill Daily sat down with one of its creators, J.A Weingarten – a Ph.D. candidate studying Canadian Literature at McGill – to discuss his motivations for starting a new journal with fellow Ph.D. student Kait Pinder and his views on reviewing literature in a technologically advanced age.

The McGill Daily: Why did you start the Bull Calf?

J.A. Weingarten: Kait and I wanted to have a better idea of what is being published today in Canada and how it relates to the literature we study from the past.

We also liked the idea of getting a lot of books, to be honest! So, Kait suggested that we start our own review, and I was excited by the idea. We spent the rest of fall 2010 organizing the first issue and finding reviewers. So many friends from McGill and elsewhere, mostly graduate students, offered to review for us. As well, two professors in the English department – professors Allan Hepburn and Peter Webb – graciously offered to write reviews for the first issue.

MD: How is your review different than others?

JW: We wanted to use some traditional approaches to reviewing, but we also wanted to offer new ways to review books. Kait proposed the idea of a retrospective review, where contributors write about texts published before 2000. It was a great idea, especially because grad students across the country read a lot of canonical texts when working on a thesis; we thought that our journal could give them an opportunity to offer some casual thoughts on these books. In addition, we wanted to include a group review (where two or three reviewers critique the same

book) because we thought it would give greater perspective on the reviewed text. We’ve also considered reviewing short poetry chapbooks in future issues, which are rarely reviewed in most journals. We’ve also added a section for Ph.D. dissertation abstracts, where recent Ph.D. graduates can advertise their area of specialization on our site.

MD: Why do you think reviews matter in literature today?

JW: When it comes to literary criticism, I think it is important to demonstrate that people are paying attention to and acknowledging the work that scholars have done. A lot of effort goes into critical work, and that deserves recognition. The same goes for writers or poets – they deserve an audience, and a review is verifiable proof of one. It’s important to me to know that colleagues and writers feel validated in some way; the arts depend on that, I think.

MD: Can anyone review for you?

JW: Well, for the time being, we have been limiting our reviewers to graduate students and professors because there is a certain familiarity with early literature and contemporary literature that we value. We want reviewers who can best draw those links, and those are usually students or professors who have read widely.

Kait and I really pride ourselves on the fact that our first issue and its reviewers were so strong.

MD: What kinds of texts do you seek to review?

JW: Almost anything written by Canadian writers. We’re really interested in the new and established voices in this country.

MD: Why limit the review to Canadian writers?

JW: Kait and I wanted the journal to be of the highest calibre. Both of us study Canadian literature, so our expertise rests in that field.

When we keep reviews focused on Canadian content, our back-

ground makes it easy for us to know when a reviewer is hitting the right notes. As well, our other editors – Renaud Roussel, Laura Cameron, and Claudine Gelinas-Faucher – all specialize in Canadian literature.

We’re most confident dealing with Canadian writing for that reason.

MD: If you could review any author or poet who would it be?

JW: I think it would be cool to review some of Irving Layton’s or John Newlove’s earlier works, which you can only really find in rare books libraries. Layton’s an especially interesting case, because he didn’t get very good reviews in the fifties. I wonder, sometimes, how he’d fare with audiences today.

But I’d almost always pick poetry to review, even though I love novels; I understand poetry much more instinctually than fiction.

MD: The Bull Calf is an online journal. Why did you decide to publish in that format instead of in print?

JW: It is obviously cheaper to publish online, and for two graduate students that is definitely a plus. Publishing online also allowed Kait and I to organize the journal much faster. An online journal is also far more accessible; people who are interested can just Google the Bull Calf on their own time, whether for causal interest or for academic use.

MD: Do you think that print journals are dwindling in our technologically advanced world?

JW: A lot of print journals have decided to go online, or others publish online before they publish in print. However, some tenaciously stick to print. The Journal of Canadian Poetry, for example, still prints their issues. Canadian Literature publishes their reviews online and in print. I find print is usually reserved for articles these days; even interviews are published online quite often.

Fabien Maltais-Bayda | The McGill Daily

Weingarten started the Bull Calf as a literary review for McGill.

MD: Why did you call it the Bull Calf?

JW: When Kait had mentioned we start a journal, I kind of just blurted out the name because I had recently been reading “The Bull Calf” by Irving Layton. We were touched by the poem, I think, and remembered it fondly. It is about a small calf that tries to stand with pride, but is too weak to do so. He dies, shot by an onlooker, and is buried in the mud.

We thought there was something tongue-in-cheek about naming a blooming Canadian journal after a dying animal.

MD: What are your hopes for the review in the future?

JW: Certainly that we are not shot and buried in the mud! But hopefully that we can continue, that we are able to keep enlisting reviewers of a high caliber and expand the content. Right now though, Kait and I are happy to take it slow and see where the Bull Calf takes us.

—Compiled by Laura Chapnick For more information visit thebullcalfreview.ca

CULTURE BRIEF

Illustration Grace Brooks | The McGill Daily

Bizarre finds This Saturday the basement of Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka Church will be full of film fanatics. In its fourth year, MEDIAFILM.ca’s CinéBazar returns, and it will be bigger than ever. After last year’s 2,000 attendees, Martin Bilodeaux, chief editor at MEDIAFILM, is obviously excited for 2011’s enlarged event. There is “more room, more tables,” he said, pointing out that even in this twenty per cent bigger space, they “had to say no to some sellers.”

Bilodeaux told The Daily over the phone that the event began with no such grand intentions.

MEDIAFILM, a press agency providing synopses and ratings of new films for Montreal’s French magazines, newspapers, and TV guides, was trying to make some room as they moved offices. Collected from fifty years’ worth of business, they realized much of the material they had could be of interest to friends and colleagues. After calling around, they realized there was a “real demand’ for some of the products on offer. For die-hard collectors, some these items were dreams come true. For others, the sale was simply a way of finding cheap DVDs, vintage posters, projectors, and indeed almost any-

thing related to film. In its second year, they drew in twice as many sellers and by the third year (2010), they had a widely popular event.

Bilodeaux cited this popularity as being partly due to the bazaar’s location. “It’s in the heart of the Plateau,” he was pleased to claim.

As well as collectors and film industry people who seek out contacts, families come to pick up cheap children’s films, or posters for decoration. “In movies, we stand in line,” Bilodeaux pointed out. We don’t necessarily discuss and meet other movie fans, but at this event, communication between customers and between sellers is part of the

fun. Bargaining is more than welcome and a key part of the relaxed atmosphere.

This year, Ciné-Bazar is pleased to “welcome several new exhibitors, including 24 images magazine, as well as distributors Les Films du 3 Mars and K-Films Amérique.” The key addition however, according to Bilodeaux, is “a Cinémania gallery [with] a hundred giant posters mounted on polymer panels, to be sold at low prices.” Not only a treat for consumers, these large and aesthetically-pleasing posters, most of which are rare, or at least rarelyseen, “make the Ciné-Bazar a kind of exhibit.”

After this year’s event, Bilodeaux is optimistic for the future. In chatting to him about ExpoZine, which took place last November, he was excited by the sudden idea of a potential collaboration. He envisions bringing these events together and drawing an even more diverse crowd. For now, Ciné-Bazar seems a more than ideal way to spend a good part of a cold Montreal weekend.

— Ed Dodson

Ciné-Bazar runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on February 5 at SaintStanislas-de-Kostka Church, 4816 Garnier.

14Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

CULTURE BLOG

The emotion of art Ed’s Shorts Ed Dodson

ed.dodson@mcgilldaily.com

I

would like to begin this blog by introducing an unusual video. In this post and future ones, I will try to contextualize various online discoveries and relate them to what is going on not only at McGill, but also in that scary wider world out there. I also very much welcome further links from you, sparked by (or railing against) my own musings.

Last Monday I attended professor Jennifer Doyle’s (University of California at Riverside) excellent talk entitled Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art. She began by discussing controversies

in contemporary art and recalled a recent example from the exhibit “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” at the National Gallery in Washington D.C.. Last December, the video piece “Fire in my Belly” by David Wojnarowicz was removed from the gallery due to the protests of a small Catholic contingent (Bill Donohue and the Catholic League).

The news story had caught my attention at the time, but – foolishly – I had not followed up my awareness with an investigation of the artwork itself. I assumed that the work should not have been pulled and got on with things.

Many like-minded, but more influential, folk rallied behind Wojnarowicz. As Doyle persuasively

argued, however, there is a tendency in liberal academic arts discourse to defend controversial or scandalous art, which in fact diminishes the political power of that work. No, Doyle protested, let’s not lose the vital radical praxis of these works. As she put it, “controversy comes from a real place,” and it is important that scandalous works offend. They offend because they are new and disturbing, they are difficult and emotional, and they challenge the established order.

If we feel like art no longer kicks up a fuss as it did when Manet made his debut at the Salon des Refusés, it is because art’s defendants acquiesce to criticism rather hail the controversy of the works. Impressionism was a term of derision. Manet did not respond by claiming his art was

in fact adhering to academic convention. He had thrown out these principles for a reason and stuck to his guns. We admire him for it.

If Wojnarowicz hates the Catholic Church and expresses that in his art then let’s make space for it (I’m not sure he actually does, but still, it is worth being able to consider).

Of course, the irony is that I would probably never have watched this video unless it was banned. Thank you Catholic League! I have now seen the video; it is intriguing and perhaps shocking. All the better. It can be seen at dai.ly/Wojnarowicz.

On another note, it occurred to me this week that the music video has been a somewhat wasted form.

In essence, it is the combination of music and short video art. The

amount of short filmmakers who make stunning 34 minute pieces who do not turn their skills to creating music videos must be huge.

I was alerted to one example of a fine song and video working in conjunction (Bruce Conner’s video for Devo’s track Mongoloid, bit.ly/ connermongoloid) and I hope to discover more. If anyone has any favourite suggestions, please make me aware. If there is indeed a serious lack, then one of you budding filmmakers, please fill this void!

This is Ed Dodson’s first blog post.

He will be publishing sporadically from Friday at mcgilldaily.com/ blogs. Next week, Tiana Reid will be launching her blog in this space.

Canada rules the world of YouTube Is the new national pastime something to be proud of?

Sean McEvoy

The Xaverian Weekly (St. Francis Xavier University)

A

ntigonish, N.S. (CUP) – Double Raindbow Rainbow, The Bed Intruder Song, Old Spice commercials, Greyson Chance singing Paparazzi, Keenan Cahill lipsynching Teenage Dream, Katy Perry singing with Elmo, Teach me how to Dougie, Kanye West’s Runaway, and a three-year-old crying over Justin Bieber are all YouTube videos of 2010 that you have likely seen.

In fact, we as Canadians are

the most likely of any nation in the world to have seen these cultural phenomenons. A recent report from comScore have declared Canada the undisputed “king of YouTube.”

Canada has the largest percentage of Internet users that visit YouTube on a regular basis among the G8 nations at 71 per cent, topping even the U.S., who comes in with only 55 per cent.

One cannot deny the cultural influence and power that YouTube has over society today. With each new trending video, it seems like almost everyone is quoting lines from said video, trying to recreate

something they have seen, or posting their own video responses to it.

If I say, “Swan dive into the greatest night of your life,” or “Hide your kids, hide your wife,” you most likely know what I’m talking about.

Some observers have claimed that sitting in front of our computer screens watching random videos is quickly becoming our new national pastime. While this may seem laughable, it is not far off from the truth.

There is great concern that our culture is spending more time in front of a computer or television screen, rather than getting outside or being physically active in one way or another. In regards to our official national pastime of hockey, which we love so much, there are fears that it actually may be slowly dying in Canada.

No, our love for the sport has not diminished, as evidenced by the obsession with the 2011 World Juniors competition, and the painful reaction to our loss to Russia that filled cyberspace shortly after.

However, the fact remains that enrolment and actual participation in the playing of hockey is on the decline. The well-respected magazine, the Hockey News, recently dedicated its cover story to this pressing issue.

While we cannot place the sole

News hates kittens and babies. Write for Culture.

Meetings Tuesdays at 5:30 in Shatner B-24.

Contact culture@mcgilldaily.com for more information.

Screenshots from YouTube

blame for our inactivity on YouTube, it is interesting to speculate what life would be like without it, and how we would spend those hours instead. Would we be a more ambitious society, instead of simply marvelling at the amazing accomplishments of others, or have we in fact used the site as a means of inspiration for ourselves? The debate can easily be made for both sides.

Whatever your opinion of the issue, we cannot deny the good that has come out of it; the careers it has made, and the dreams it has made come true. We need look no further

than the homeless Ted Williams, who had a “God-given gift” of a perfect radio voice. Mere days after a video of him was posted this past week, he has already landed jobs with Kraft Foods and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

So while we will for the foreseeable future continue to love the site, it is important to not get caught up in it all, and take time to appreciate our own world. Get out there and live your life cause who knows, you may find a double rainbow of your own? Just make sure to upload it to YouTube, so I can see it, too.

15

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 100 number 30

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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Niko Block

commentary&compendium! editor

Courtney Graham

coordinating culture editor

Naomi Endicott culture editors

Fabien Maltais-Bayda Sarah Mortimer science+technology editor

Alyssa Favreau

health&education editor

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Eric Wen

photo editor

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0livia Messer

production&design editors

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Flora Dunster web editor

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Victor Tangermann le délit

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Shaina Agbayani, Sam Baker, Al Blair, Julia Bloom, Grace Brooks, Spencer Burger, Juan Camilo Velasquez, Rosie Dobson, Ed Dodson, Adrian Fogelquist, Erin Hale, Matthias Heilke, Cleve Higgins, James Hirsch, Nick Jeffers, Sophie Le-Phat Ho, Zach Lewsen, Abby Lippman, Derrick Lovell, Sean McEvoy (CUP), Amy Novak, Xavier Plamondon, Tiana Reid, Sana Saeed, Rachel Sandwell, Maria Surilas, Eleanor Vaughan, Aquil Virani

The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the Daily Publications Society, an autonomous, not-for-profit organization whose membership includes all McGill undergraduates and most graduate students.

EDITORIAL

In recognition of Black History Month In February 1996, Canada celebrated its first Black History Month.

The original idea was presented to Parliament by MP Jean Augustine, the first black woman elected to Parliament and later the first black woman in the federal cabinet. Its goal was, and still is, to educate all Canadians about the achievements, contributions, and experiences of Canadian black communities, something often lacking in the history curriculum taught in schools and in our country’s collective consciousness.

Our conception of black history often neglects the reality of the shared experiences of black Canadians while simultaneously pointing to the more distressing situation south of the border. This use of contrasting narratives enables Canadians to both trumpet their involvement in the Underground Railroad, for example, while ignoring an equally problematic relationship with slavery and institutional racism. The resulting conclusion is that Canadian society is liberal, progressive, and colourblind. This post-racial narrative, often described in terms of Canadian multiculturalism and acceptance, is both counterproductive and fundamentally untrue.

Oppression faced by black Canadians is both institutional and systemic.

In 2008 Canadian police reported that forty per cent of racially-motivated hate crimes were committed against black people, the most heavily targeted racial group. A leaked internal Montreal police report drawn from 63,000 “contact cards” filled out by police officers between 2001 and 2007 showed that 30 to 40 per cent of young black males in some Montreal boroughs had undergone police identity checks as compared to five to six per cent of white males. In 2009, McGill student Jackie Jones was handcuffed and slammed to the ground by five STM security guards in an act of excessive and unwarranted aggression. Jones had been asking for clarification on an order given by STM guards – her experience further demonstrates that racial profiling is an ongoing and systemic problem in Montreal.

According to a 2010 study of Montreal black communities, poverty and unemployment rates are twice as high as those in non-black ones.

The reason behind the discrepancy is attributed to black people being overrepresented in low-paying occupations and underrepresented in high paying ones. The average annual income for black Montrealers is $22,701, while other racial groups make on average $34,196.

The reality that black communities continue to be economically disenfranchised is a reflection of how Canadian society is organized. Even if most members of society don’t hold racist views, that doesn’t change the fact that to be economically disenfranchised is to be poltically disenfranchised, leaving black communities at a severe and long-lasting disadvantage. Programs that enable the poor to be upwardly mobile, such as national childcare and welfare, are either non-existent or poorly funded, which simply serves to compound the problems of intersecting racism and poverty. Affirmative action programs alone, like Canada’s Employment Equity program, cannot transform the broader system that has been perpetuated through capitalism.

Capitalism’s historic roots are based upon imperialism, which in turn relied on the brutal subjugation and dehumanization of many peoples. Canada must acknowledge that endorsing capitalist ideology involves an inherent and systemic legacy of racism, elitism, and violence. Deliberate ignorance of these institutional facts, specifically through the belief that we have moved beyond racism, perpetuates inequality and limits the policy prescriptions available to address these problems. This legacy of institutional racism lives on through the perception that black history and Canadian history are polarized and mutually exclusive – a view that needs to be both acknowledged and transformed. Black history is an inseparable part of all history, and this month is an opportunity to start a discussion about race and racism that should continue year-round.

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ISSN 1192-4608.

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

Co m p e n diu m !

Lies, half-truths, and ginger snaps

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

People around the world continue to stand up and peacefully fight for their rights Demonstrations in Sudan continue, too!

SNL does a skit called... “Bride of Blackenstein?”

WTF?!?!?

The White Stripes broke up... tear?

John Lapsley | The McGill Daily

Storm of the Century! Oh no! But really?

Check out more of John’s work at lemoncoin. wordpress. com!

Being a straight white male is not a crime

A

lright. When I saw compendium’s, “Straight White Male speaks out,” I was really fucking irritated. As a straight white male I am sick and tired of being demonized by people, even if those people are almost certainly white, likely straight, and possibly male. I dislike feeling as though my credibility or morals are somehow in question because of who I am. “Oh ho,” some of you clever dicks will chortle, “So you don’t like how it feels when others make broad generalizations about your race or orientation that don’t apply to you.” Well no, I don’t fucking like it, and I resent the disingenuous insinuation that I, as a straight white male, am a bigot or make bigoted or prejudiced statements about others, and thus this is just a cute little lesson to put me in my place. And this brings me to the second source of my irritation, which is that the paragraph isn’t even good satire; it’s just the sentence, “I should get to talk first because I am white, straight, and male” repeated over and over again with different phrasing. There’s no depth. It is essentially a shoddy knock off of Christian Lander’s “Stuff White People Like” without the humor or biting relevancy. The Daily can be funnier and smarter than this.

Smoking is my right, Ma’am

M

16

PLUS 200 PLUS 73 MINUS 102 EVEN MINUS 20

Rupert Murdoch and Apple made an iPad newspaper... “The Daily”

EVEN

There’s not room for more than one Daily. Sorry Rupert

MINUS 5

Punxsatawney Phil says it’ll be an early spring!

PLUS 50

No one understands why we get our seasonal predictions from a Groundhog...

TOTAL LAST WEEK’S TOTAL

EVEN PLUS 196 PLUS 45

The Métromètre is a weekly quality-of-life index. Something bothering you? Exciting you? Making you sad or elated or anything in between? Tell us about it, we’d love to hear from you, compendium@mcgilldaily.com.

Hard on for the Shag Shop

T

welve condoms for $3? And six more for free with a coupon?

Complimentary vanilla and banana flavoured condoms on popsicle sticks? Yes, yes and fuck yes. The McGill Shag Shop has everything you could possibly need for when it comes to getting down, everything from massage oils and books on oral sex to lubricant that heats up and vibrating sponges. Their volunteers give free safe sex workshops to rez students and make all kinds of sexual health information available to all McGill students. They have even recently launched a new website, AskDrT. ca, to provide an online resource to students with questions concerning contraception and infections. Thank you Shag Shop for being so goddamn awesome and for making business time that much more safe and enjoyable for all of us!

Hell yes MK’s back!!

a’am: I understand your desire not to walk in the cloud of second-hand smoke floating in my wake.

What I do not understand is your preferred method to escape the trail of carcinogens. Running by me, brushing me with your bag, and yelling “CAAAAAANCEERRRRRRRRR” does not seem like an appropriate response. Had you thought of switching to the other side of the sidewalk, or increasing your velocity without exclaiming?

I

Fuck this! is an anonymous rant column. Send your rants, diatribes, or non-hateful diary entries to fuckthis@ mcgilldaily.com.

Fuck yeah! is an occasional anonymous rave column. Send your blurbs to fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com. Try to keep it less than 150 words please!

met A LOT of cool people when volunteering at MK. Today I have a significant other and I am no longer a virgin. Seriously! All thanks to MK! I cannot believe other good-hearted students could ever be deprived of this!

The McGill Daily | Thursday, February 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Commentary

11

Masculine military muscle The gadfly Shaina Agbayani

shaina.agbayani@mcgilldaily.com

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ischarged American soldier Steven Green is currently attempting to repeal a lifesentence for his participation in the gang-rape and murder of a 14-yearold Iraqi girl in 2006 while on duty.

His case brought much-needed attention to the military’s pervasively sexual culture, where sexual violence, while rampant, remains largely underreported.

The military is fundamentally an institution forged on the precept that coercive execution of power over another party is acceptable. If we anthropomorphize this military pathology in its inner clockwork, it should not be bewildering that U.S. military nurses who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq have conceded that they felt more preyed upon by fellow soldiers than by “the enemy.� According to a study conducted by the Journal of Military Medicine, 71 per cent of female American veterans since Vietnam have been sexually assaulted or raped while serving, an egregious figure despite and because of the truism that Military Sexual Trauma (MST) often remains a silent grievance.

Obama’s ratification of the Defence Authorization Bill earlier this month, in spite of its spurious expansion of the military’s tendrils, laudably incorporates provisions poised to better assist those who have suffered from MST. While this charts a course in the right direction for addressing the military epidemic of sexual assault, silence amongst the assaulted remains the

norm due to a military judiciary which coddles perpetrators.

In filing charges, victims imperil their career and professional credibility, given the possibility of their allegations being deemed unfounded. The exigency of earnestness in such claims should therefore be reflected in high rates of criminal prosecution. On the contrary – of 2,974 reported cases of rape and sexual assault in the American military in 2006 (when the Pentagon was first mandated to

Rosie Dobson for The McGill Daily

record it), a meagre 292 proceeded to trial, out of which only 181 prosecutions resulted. With the onus placed on the victim to substantiate the assault, which in many cases occurred years ago, a dearth of evidence ensures low prosecution rates.

While the disgraces of America’s chauvinistic military culture are being reversed by the repeal of the homophobic Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and the increasing pressure to permit women to serve in combat, an attack on the military’s gender disequilibrium and heteronormativity does not address the preeminent vice of military sexual culture. The military remains a milieu encouraging to the deleterious execution of power within the tremendously asymmetrical power dynamics of cultural conquest and division.

As this cultural access is globalized, the interplay of masculinity and violence remains pervasive outside the military realm. When traditional channels through which to satisfy notions of “manhood� – namely by fulfilling the economic and professional breadwinner function – are barred, power outlets shift. The violent groundswell of xenophobic right-wing movements in the West and religious fundamentalism in the East are largely populated by downwardly mobile, lower to middle class men militantly reacting to globalization’s economic and social shifts through a process of scapegoating. These bellicose, often nationalistic movements manifest disenfranchised men’s attempts to re-assert “masculinities� impoverished by hostile economic realities.

Aggressively channelling blame for emasculation – powerlessness in the economic sphere – onto “others� becomes a rudiment of masculinity.

The military likewise operates on a logic of “othering,� one through which the inhuman enemy is simply fodder to supplement a chronic appetite for power and “manhood� while simultaneously placing men in a power matrix that normalizes prescribed gender roles and sexual violence by normalizing power hierarchies and coercion. As states mortgage off their economies by fortifying their military muscle, they are expanding the channels for their batteries – mainly men – to exert a military conceptualization of “power� concocted with the noxious spices of caricaturized masculinity. As a result, it is the rule – not the exception – that the military enterprise adulterates both its agents and its subjects. !

Right to choose Eleanor Vaughan Hyde Park

B

efore you prepare yourself for an earnest defense of women’s rights, I should warn you: this article is not about abortion, it’s about QPIRG. I suspect many Daily readers would agree with me that women have the right to choose what to do with their bodies, but likely far fewer would concur that students have the right to choose what to do with their student fees. Yet, the underlying ethical issue is the same. By opting out of my QPIRG fees, I am exercising my right to choose to act in a way congruent with my conscience.

A conscientious objector is an individual who refuses to serve on the grounds of conscience or freedom of thought. In the 1960s, the McGill campus was overrun with American youth who objected to serving in Vietnam. The University embraced free thinkers who defied the status quo in order to be true to their beliefs. Admittedly, paying

$3.75 a semester is not the same as going to war. Yet, when faced with any ethical quandary, we owe it to ourselves to carefully consider whether to float with the status quo or whether to be true to our beliefs.

Certainly, I agree that there’s a role for the ideas QPIRG articulates on campus. University is meant to be an environment in which opinions are bandied, voices raised. “I may not agree with what you say,�

Voltaire is reputed to have said, “but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.� But what this great enlightened philosopher did not support was mandatory financing for your opponents’ working groups. Student fees should go toward keeping the lights on, the library stocked, and the professors professing. Legitimate student fees allow the University to provide an environment in which knowledge can be acquired, opinions formulated, and ideas discussed. Legitimate student fees do not go toward funding the promotion of a specific political agenda. No matter what that agenda is.

Funding for QPIRG is different

from that of other campus political groups. Most campus political groups – such as NDP, Liberal, Green, or Conservative McGill – obtain their funding by applying to SSMU. If successful, these groups obtain limited grants of a few hundred dollars per year, allowing them to support internal events. QPIRG, on the other hand, operates on an approximately $150,000 annual budget funded by a separate fee on our student bills. QPIRG uses its funding to support external activism for radical causes. Funding the “Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble,� an anarchist street band, ain’t the same as hosting a wine and cheese in the Shatner Building.

With due consideration, I exercise my right to choose: paying for QPIRG is not for me. I conscientiously object.

Eleanor Vaughan is a U3 Political Science student, a member of Conservative McGill, and SecretaryGeneral of SSMU. The opinions expressed here are her own.

She can be reached at eleanor5vaughan@gmail.com.

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