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3 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

McGill student sues Homeland Security Detained on the train, his laptop searched, Pascal Abidor fights back Adam Winer News Writer

P

ascal Abidor, a McGill Islamic Studies PhD student and American citizen, is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after being detained at the U.S. border and having his laptop held for 11 days in May. Abidor’s arrest and the seizure of his laptop were prompted by a DHS policy that allows the search and seizure of personal electronic devices without reasonable suspicion.

The lawsuit argues a violation of Abidor’s 1st and 4th Amendment rights under the U.S. constitution, and is a potentially landmark case in defining the relationship between individual privacy and national security.

Railroaded on Amtrak Abidor left Montreal May 1 on an Amtrak train bound for New York, intending to visit his family. At the American border, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official boarded the train and began questioning him. As an American and French citizen studying in Canada, Abidor informed her that he was pursuing a PhD in Islamic Studies.

After speaking with him about his studies and travel history and looking at his passports, the officer asked Abidor to move with her to another compartment of the train, where she took out and turned on his laptop, ordering him to provide his password.

After going through photographs that Abidor had downloaded from the internet, including ones of Hamas and Hezbollah rallies, the officer took him off the train. He was frisked and handcuffed, and placed in a detention cell at the port of entry in Champlain, NY. Before being released three hours later, he was questioned by CBP and FBI officials. When he was allowed to go, he was told that his laptop and external hard drive would remain in custody.

Upon his arrival in New York City, Abidor tried several times to contact the seized property office back in Champlain in order to

recover his laptop and hard drive.

He was rebuffed, told that the U.S. government had the authority to hold on to the laptop for up to 30 days.

“As soon as this happened I knew this was wrong on multiple levels,” he said. “It completely contradicts all my basic ideas of what the government should be able to do.”

Abidor then contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who drafted a letter to the DHS on Abidor’s behalf demanding that his laptop be returned. It was returned to him two days later, after a total of 11 days. By checking the last opened date of specific files on his computer, Abidor ascertained that many files on his computer had been searched, including research, downloads, personal photographs, tax records, and correspondence with his girlfriend.

Having no legal recourse under current DHS policy, he decided to file suit.

“It wasn’t merely about getting my laptop back,” commented Abidor. “It was to attack the policy that enabled this to happen to me.”

Unreasonable suspicion Abidor is in the second year of his PhD program at McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies, and is researching the social history of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon in the 19th and 20th centuries. He insists, however, that his background of studying, and traveling to, the Middle East – he has travelled to Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt for his studies – is notespecially relevant in his case.

“Be wary,” he said. “For many students, I’d warn them about traveling across the border with their laptop.

No one can take comfort in the fact that what my studies are may have been responsible for what happened to me. It’s an arbitrary thing that can happen at any point.”

Current DHS policy, enacted in August 2009, allows for the search and seizure of electronics by American border officials without any specific, provable suspicion against the individual possessing the electronics – typically referred

Parker Moore for The McGill Daily

Pascal Abidor looks to set legal precedent with his suit. to as reasonable suspicion.

Border searches, unlike all other types of search by American law enforcement agencies, do not require reasonable suspicion.

When the policy was enacted, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano observed that, “keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States. The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders.”

In addition to laptops, all electronics that a traveler may be carrying are eligible for search without reasonable suspicion, including mp3 players and phones. DHS spokesperson Amy Kudwa wrote in an email, “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, searches of laptops and other electronic media during secondary inspection are a targeted tool that CBP uses in limited circumstances to ensure that dangerous people and unlawful goods do not

enter our country.”

Calling in reinforcements Abidor’s lawsuit, filed with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Press Photographers Association as additional plaintiffs, is represented by the ACLU. Abidor said that the diversity of plaintiffs “really shows a good spectrum of the type of people who are negatively affected by this.” The government has 60 days to respond to the suit, which was filed last Tuesday in New York’s 2nd Circuit court.

Catherine Crump, the ACLU staff attorney responsible for Abidor’s case, explained that, “we chose to become involved in this case because we believe that constitutional violations occurring at the border are serious ones. We believe that the 1st amendment and 4th amendment prevent the Department of Homeland Security from searching laptops at border absent reasonable suspicion.”

The 1st amendment, upholding freedom of speech, and the 4th amendment, protecting against “unreasonable search and

seizure,” form the backbone of the legal case against suspicionless searches at borders.

“After that, when he returned, he expressed interest in making sure that the government hadn’t kept any information about him that it had gleaned from his laptop through what we believe was an unconstitutional search,” continued Crump. “We asked that any information gathered from his laptop be expunged.”

The case’s stakes are high: approximately 6,600 travellers at American borders have had their laptops searched under this policy between October 2008 and June 2010.

Crump concluded, “Mr. Abidor’s goal, as well as that of our other clients, is to make sure no one has an experience like this again. The broad goal of the case is to get the court to declare suspicionless search unconstitutional. ... While it is recognized that the government has more discretion at the border than elsewhere, we believe reasonable suspicion balances civil liberties, [which] we are all beneficiaries of, with the need to secure the border.”

Be there when the admin declines to comment.

Break news at The McGill Daily news@mcgilldaily.com

4 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Newburgh says Mendelson lied Students rally to bring back Arch Café Mari Galloway News Writer

S

Flora Dunster | The McGill Daily

Arch Café is locked up and shut down following Mendelson’s unilateral decision.

tudents are banding together across faculty lines in an attempt to reverse Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson’s decision to close the Architecture Café.

On Monday, SSMU President Zach Newburgh and VP (University Affairs) Joshua Abaki met with Mendelson to present him with a memorandum showing that 80 per cent of undergraduate Architecture students are in favour of re-opening the Architecture Café.

“When I came out of the meeting, Josh and I had both left with the understanding that the deputy provost was going to reconsider his decision,” Newburgh said.

“This was confirmed by his statements, which was ‘I will consider this advice and reconsider’. … He said that, point blank.”

Mendelson has publicly denied that he said in the meeting he would reconsider closing the Architecture Café.

Asked if this meant Mendelson was lying, Newburgh said, “Yes, that would be correct.”

Since the administration decided to close the Architecture Café this fall, student outrage has centred as much on the handling of the closure as the closing itself. Students have repeatedly cited a lack of consultation as one of the most contentious

Arts VP Events resigns amidst speculation of impeachment Erin Hale The McGill Daily

T

he Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) VP Events Namapande Londe has resigned from her post, according to an AUS press release dated September 14.

Londe’s departure comes a week after the first AUS Council meeting of the year, when Londe reported that Arts Frosh – a central part of the VP Events’ portfolio – would run a deficit for the first time in several years.

Though registration shortfall was cited as an official reason for the financial loss, in the days after Council, Londe was singled out as responsible for many of the management and budgeting errors made while the event was being planned.

However, the press release – signed by AUS President Dave Marshall and VP Communications Frances Hui – stated that this was not a factor in Londe’s decision.

“Contrary to recent speculation as to Ms. Londe’s resignation over issues pertaining to the budget and organi-

zation of the AUS 2010 Frosh event, Ms. Londe cited personal issues in her decision to resign,” Hui and Marshall wrote. “Ms. Londe wrote in her resignation letter to the AUS Executive, ‘Unfortunately due to personal reasons, I will have to take a year off from my studies at McGill, and will therefore no longer be eligible to fill [the position of VP Events]’.”

Arts Senator Amara Possian told The Daily in an email that she and other councillors were considering moving forward with impeachment if Londe did not resign. She noted that several Frosh coordinators, who had worked under Londe to plan Frosh, had also expressed an interest to her in seeing Londe replaced.

“We were waiting for the release of the budget so we could see how much student money was lost and so we had time to look into how financial decisions were made,” Possian wrote. “Regardless, we had the constitutional grounds to go forward with an impeachment if necessary.”

In a separate email to The Daily, Londe said that she was aware of the impeachment rumours, but reiter-

ated that they did not factor into her decision.

“I was never planning on resigning or even on taking a year off, but I received some very distressing news Tuesday morning that made me realize I was going to have to take the year off, which forced me to resign my position,” Londe wrote. “I had heard that all of the buzz surrounding Frosh might have been leading to impeachment, but again, I was never planning to resign. I stand by what I said in Council, and in the interviews I gave, which is that Frosh was a learning process for me and for everyone involved.”

Marshall, however, explained that as of September 14, no official impeachment proceeding had gone forward. “There was no plan amongst the executives to go forward with impeachment. I can’t speak for all of council of any motion going forward.

There was no business slated for Council when the [press release] was written,” he said.

AUS Council is expected to elect a new VP Events at its next session, on September 22.

issues in the café’s closure.

“In the original memo that we got from the dean of engineering, which heralded the official communication of the decision to students, the strongest argument made for closing the café was that the architecture students wanted a study space. However, as the decision was made in the summer, architecture students were actually not consulted,” said Abaki.

According to the 2006 Principal’s Task Force on Student Life and Learning: “The Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) and the Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) should engage in broad-based consultations, through a round table or other appropriate mechanism, to streamline procedures and decision processes for the reservation of university space by student organizations wherever possible.”

Mendelson said that “there is no link between the Task Force recommendations and the administrative decision to close a money-losing food operation, especially where the space is required for other student activities. While I am certainly open to listening to arguments and suggestions regarding the positions taken by the University, nothing has persuaded me that I made the wrong decision.”

Despite Mendelson’s position, students remain hopeful about the possibility of the café reopening. A protest, called “Rally for Saving the

Architecture Cafe!” on Facebook, is scheduled to be staged outside Leacock on September 22 at 2:30 p.m. The Facebook event for the protest had over 1,000 confirmed attendees when the Daily went to print.

On September 7, the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) and Architecture Students Association (ASA) sent a joint memorandum to Mendelson proposing that the café be put under the supervision of the EUS, which has a strong history of running successful business operations.

“The ASA is relatively small, given other departments, but on principle it’s really important. It’s the last student-run café and people identify with that. People see the corporatization of the school, the closing down of student-run services in the name of financial efficiency or whatever buzz words that Voldemort [Mendelson] is using these days,” said Arts Senator Tyler Lawson.

“What kind of administration is going to operate in stark ignorance of the students’ desires?” asked Lawson. “It’s important that this rally sets the tone for the rest of the year. We intend to mobilize students…[and] effectively take back this institution, what’s ours.”

—With files from Eric AndrewGee

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News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

5

McGill cycling out tenured professors to cut costs The final part of a four part series : Admin staff, salaries, on the rise

Henry Gass The McGill Daily

I

n a blend of economic, academic, and prestige enhancing goals, McGill has invested $9.8 million in an “academic renewal” program, essentially insitutionalizing professor turnover.

The measure is designed to replenish McGill’s professorial ranks, improving the University’s academic quality and international prestige, while also saving money in the long-term.

McGill started the program in 2000, augmenting it in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 with a retirement incentive package designed to encourage a greater turnover among tenure-track professors. More than 80 tenure-track professors aged 64 and older signed up for the retirement package, which offered the professors a one-time buyout of one third more than their annual salary. The added expense is offset by the hiring of non-tenured professors at lower salaries, while continuing McGill’s strong reputation for professorial research.

An McGill professor, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the budget’s phrasing of academic renewal can be misleading, however.

“Many faculty members are eager to retire from McGill because their salaries and working conditions have been so poor throughout their careers at this institution, and they would just like to get away from a workplace that has treated them so ungenerously,” the professor said.

The professor cited the lack of a faculty union to represent the faculty and their interests.

“The McGill administration can

“McGill wants to provide the number-one academic experience to students. Students are of tremendous benefit if we have successful academic renewal,” said SSMU President Zach Newburgh.

Academic renewal also plays a role in maintaining McGill’s international prestige, as renowned professors attract more graduate students and research grants. This added motive means that some programs may feel the benefits of academic renewal more than others.

“Some programs have more academic renewal than others…

[The renewal] leads to more grants and scholarships,” said Newburgh.

Newburgh identified medicine and science as programs that could see more professorial turnover than others.

Province wants “Bang for the buck” Daniel Simeone, former PGSS President and Board of Governors representative (BoG), said that McGill has been successful in balancing its commitments to research and the undergraduate academic experience by maintaining one of the highest tenuretrack professor-to-student ratios in Quebec.

Simeone said McGill is tasked with balancing provincial demands for increased undergraduate enrollment – putting more students in school in order to attract more votes – with the federal government focus on research innovation.

“Quebec City wants more bang for the buck,” said Simeone, meaning the provincial government wants McGill to employ more sessional lecturers than tenure-track professors, who can perform the

Academic renewal pattern (estimated) 120

New hires Departures

100 80 60

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Source: McGill University 2009 Staffing Report (modified for clarity)

autocratically say and do almost anything without ever being seriously challenged by the faculty any more than by the students,” said the professor.

2010-11 will see 76 new professors hired along with the departure of 80 more, leaving the end-of-year total of professors at 1,558. Following years will see the number of new hires exceeding those of departures, as well as the end-of-year totals steadily rising, reaching a projected 1,625 in 2014-15.

same lecturing duties of professors at lower salaries.

Meanwhile, the federal government – in an attempt to market Canada as a world-leader in innovation – is rewarding universities with lucrative grants in return for intensive research.

PGSS VP External Ryan Hughes said that this focus on research is not unique to McGill.

“The last federal budget explicitly cited research as a focus for investment, and as a research-

3700

University-wide administrative and support staff, as of May 31 3,491

3500 3,396 3,350 3,290 3300 3,187

3100 2,988

2900

Source: University Budget FY2010-11 (modified for clarity)

2700 2004 intensive university, McGill is following the money, but so is every other university with a graduate program,” said Hughes in an email to The Daily.

Increasing the number of tenuretrack professors at McGill serves to attract more graduate students, and subsequently more research grants.

These grants not only increase revenue, but also maintain McGill’s prestige as a top research-oriented university.

“The University wants to maintain its prestige…[it] needs to say it’s continually attracting the top professors,” said Newburgh, who also said that “[all] students are of tremendous benefit if we have successful academic renewal.”

Due to the direct relationship between research revenue, prestige, and the number of graduate students, the University and the province are subsidizing graduate education to a greater extent than undergraduate education.

Competition for research grants is fierce, and due to low government funding McGill relies on revenue from such grants.

Thus, McGill is attempting to attract more graduate students – and thereby more research – by supplying them with more financial aid.

The graduate student lifestyle, compared to the undergraduate lifestyle, is also a significant factor in this economic strategy.

“In some cases Masters and PhD students have incomes that offset tuition fees, either through their program as a TA or RA, or from being employed outside of the university in some professional setting. Plus, graduate students can

2005

2006

2007

be funded in a variety of ways that are unavailable to undergraduate students,” including various endowments and grants that only graduate students are eligible for, said Hughes.

Simeone described graduate studies, especially in the case of lab students, as a full time job, with some students working eight to 12 hour days. “[McGill] needs to pay to get the good [graduate students],” said Simeone. “Grads are doing the research the University is known for… It’s a different understanding of what school is.”

Student surveys forthcoming?

Amidst these efforts to increase the number of tenuretrack professors and graduate students, the administration is also making efforts to alter its own operations through the budget. In the budget, the administration states a desire to increase its own efficiency and transparency through streamlining its operations, cutting red-tape, and introducing more extensive selfevaluation procedures.

The budget describes professional development programs and a “Financial Specialists” program designed to professionalize the administrative workforce and improve the reporting of McGill’s spending. Newburgh also described recent rises in administrative salaries, and said that such funding could be allocated more effectively.

“Academics should be the top priority,” said Newburgh.

Non-academic salaries will rise between three and 3.5 per cent this

2008

2009

year, and the budget shows that management and professional staff at McGill has increased from roughly 1,150, to over 1,400 since FY2005, although the budget projects that the number of full time administrative staff is expected to decrease slightly in the coming years.

The budget also states a desire to “make sure we measure our internal performance.” It goes on to state that “we will be undertaking major surveys of faculty…[and that] we have already been surveying our students.”

No evidence of such surveys have been found by students at this juncture.

“I’m not familiar with any surveys [of students],” said Newburgh.

“SSMU is working to revamp the way we get student feedback. I hope the University is interested in consulting us.”

In her November 2009 Economic Letter, Principal Heather Munroe-Blum wrote that “McGill punches above its weight [economically]…[but] to do more with less is not sustainable in the medium to long run.”

In an email, Provost Anthony Masi – whose office drafted the budget – said that every member of the McGill community, from undergraduate and graduate students to faculty and administrators, should find ways to tighten their collective belt.

“Everyone, including students, should be vigilant about cost savings and feel free to make suggestions about how these [cost-cutting measures] might be obtained in any and all aspects of the University’s operations,” said Masi.

Letters

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

7

I deeply care about saving the Arch Café for future generations of students to treasure as we did.

Ioana Medrea BSc ’05 Computer Science, BSc ’07 Neuroscience, MDCM candidate

Speak for yourself Re: “The little black book” | Culture | September 13 You can tag other fellow Moleskiners as “gullible consumers,” but I actually WILL be the next Picasso.

Aquil Virani Daily staffer U2 Philosophy & Humanistic Studies

Replace Chartwells with student-run initiatives I am a 2008 BA & Sc McGill alumn, I was very disappointed to hear that the administration is trying to close the Architecture Café.

The Architecture Café remains one of my favourite cafés. It was a haven during undergrad, as it sharply contrasted the stale and uninviting other food spots on campus.

The student-run café is an inspiration of what students are capable of accomplishing when they come together as a collective force. The Architecture Café is also a unique feature of McGill campus; I recently started professional school at the University of Saskatchewan and was disappointed that there was not a similar spot to the Architecture Café on campus. I hope that the administration will show that it listens to (and more importantly CARES about) what students and alumni have to say. Most students I knew on campus (and those still there) would never want the Architecture Café replaced by another pathetic, overpriced, generic, and unappetizing Chartwells caf. Instead, they would rather all the infamous Chartwells be replaced by more student-run cafes like the beloved Architecture Café. The Architecture Café reflects students: their needs, their wants, and their personalities.

The Architecture Café is the best thing about McGill. Please don’t take it away; if you do you will lose the respect of alumni like myself.

Dia Austin BA & Sc 2008

Frosh coordinators 4 transparency Re: “AUS Frosh in the red” | News | September 13 Our quotes from last week’s Council were used in your recent article on AUS’s “Afrosh The Universe 2010”. As Frosh coordinators, we do believe that there were serious errors in organization, and that AUS has a responsibility to be upfront and transparent about where a large sum of their students’ money went. However, the tenor of your article left much to be desired. It framed the issue as a puerile back-and-forth between coordinators and AUS. One point that must be clarified is that we believe the AUS executive went into Frosh with all the best motives and worked hard to make sure it happened. The event itself was eventually a success, and this can be attributed to the hard work and skill of both the coordinators and key members of the AUS executive.

The matter at issue is the deficit likely to be run by this year’s Frosh and the failures in management and organization within the events portfolio that led to it. Better preparation over the summer could have prevented the budget shortfall and made Frosh fiscally responsible and more fun for all involved. AUS needs to have a candid conversation about why these problems occurred and how they can prevent them from affecting its other events this year. At last week’s Council, the VP Events’ report on Frosh recommending the 1,800 cap for future Froshes was approved and adopted. We think this is unacceptable in light of all the problems that resulted from the cap increase this year. The VP Events, and by extension AUS, has a responsibility to current and future Arts students to undertake a clear, complete, and honest accounting of Frosh’s failures and successes so that the former may be prevented and the latter preserved.

Casey Adams and Yusra Khan AUS Frosh coordinators, “Afrosh the Universe 2010”

Sorry for the stench Re: “Olfactory environmentalism” | Health&Education | September 9 On September 1, I began my new job in the Office of Sustainability as the Project Coordinator for the Big Hanna Composting Project. In response to The Daily’s September 9 article “Olfactory Environmentalism,” I would like to apologize for any problems the composter has caused thus far to those who lunch outside the Wong Building. We are constantly monitoring the machine and making necessary improvements on a regular basis. The project is in its infancy and it is a learning process, but we are dedicated to ensuring its success and addressing issues as they arise.

A great deal of hard work over several years went into bringing this machine to McGill and it has already had positive impacts, producing quality fertilizer that is now being used on McGill grounds.

Any future complaints/ questions/comments can be addressed to myself at ana. vadeanu@mail.mcgill.ca.

Ana Vadeanu U3 Environment and Development

Food courts a sorry substitute I just heard that the McGill administration is threatening to shut down the Architecture Café yet again. As an alumnus with some very fond memories of my undergrad at McGill, I’m genuinely disappointed to hear this.

The Architecture Café was always a great place to run into people, to relax, to sit and have a conversation, to work on an assignment. That the administration is still trying to shut such projects down is disheartening. The opposite should be the case. Independent student initiatives should be encouraged with campus facilities and with funding. It’s hard to measure what an out-of-tune piano in the corner of a dark basement room adds to a student’s experience, but I think it’s important and I don’t think you’ll ever find anything like it in a food court.

Sundry things Neil has noticed Plans for the McConnell-Dawson tunnel have been around since the 70s; maps cite the Future Site of Physics, constructed in 1977.

Construction crews seemed to have dug the space up at least two times.

They didn’t bother to put the tunnel in. Fears were that the green space was going to be destroyed; in the great tradition of digging up trees, they replaced several of them with abstract art (art in front of PSEA Library, formerly tree).

In Burnside, they made it more claustrophobic: they’ve installed new doors everywhere and big, ugly, red fire hoses.

Shatner Building has a nice updated lounge. The free phone is still in place (Burnside: disappeared). They got rid of the clock, so now it’s difficult to tell how long you’ve been sleeping.

As someone who lived in the McConnell all-guys section, I resent the guys who can afford living in the newly somewhat-coed RVC. After that whole no-caf incident last year, they now have a New Rez style yuppie food court with a limited food plan.

They’ve reversed the insane ban on multi-semester membership at the gym, and you can buy a gym membership on-line.

They have yet to fix the gym toilets; some of them have been flushing non-stop for years.

There’s a new fast elevator in McLennan. It thinks the ground floor is somehow a mezzanine, which it clearly is not. The elevator talks at you, and reminds me of HAL. Scary electric shelves have been installed to keep up with the encroaching computer space. I’ll wager someone gets horribly maimed by a moving shelf.

The new “Service Point” has brought the ID cards back to McLennan; I spent hours in the line-up that reached all the way to the Y-intersection. I keep thinking of the MARS lady telling me I suck and then hanging up on me long distance.

Neil Edelman U3 Physics

Give us a say in Arch Café decision I am writing to oppose the closing of the Architecture Café.

The Arch Café is a wonderful, independent café with reasonably priced, delicious and FRESH fairtrade options. It is my favourite lunch spot on campus, and the only place I don’t dread having a meal at.

I personally know that the McGill admin has a long history of consolidating student-run cafeterias and turning them over to Chartwells, but I feel that food choices at and around McGill are already terrible – Chartwells meals leave a lot to be desired in terms of taste and freshness and price.

I feel that as an alumna and current student, I have a right to a say in the direction of the University, and I deeply care about saving the Arch Café for future generations of students to treasure as we did.

Thanks, Ioana Medrea BSc ’05 Computer Science BSc ’07 Neuroscience MDCM candidate

Alumni gon’ hold back if admin don’t back down I was disgusted to hear that the McGill administration is trying ONCE AGAIN to close the Architecture Café.

There are few locations that I felt such emotional connections to at McGill while I was a student.

The McGill International Student Network Lounge (recently closed) and the Architecture Café were the two that really made my experience at McGill.

Student-run, self-sufficient organizations on campus that provide services that matter so much to so many people should be encouraged, not removed.

My, and many other former students’, alumni contributions are riding on that fact.

Jason Bank BA, BEng 2006

Marco Taucer BSc 2008 The Daily received more letters about Architecture Café than it could print this issue. The rest will appear in the next issue. Send your letters (300 words or less) to letters@mcgilldaily.com from your McGill email address. The Daily does not print letters that are lesbophobic, classist, or otherwise hateful.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

8

Give us back our low FRSL tuition!

McGill should reinstate in-province tuition for French as a second language courses for deregulated faculties Salman Hafeez Hyde Park

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s an international student, I have been greatly concerned by the deregulation of international undergraduate tuition for engineering, law, and management. For example, management tuition for 30 credits (i.e. full-time) went from $18,000 to $27,000 in just two years. Just when I thought things could not get worse, I had the misfortune of experiencing yet another nouvelle politique pour les étudiants étrangers (new policy for international students).

Starting this past summer, international students in faculties with deregulated tuition are no longer eligible for the subsidy that in the past terms had allowed them to take certain French courses at the in-province tuition rate. For me, it all started last April when I received an extremely unpleasant surprise in the form a $4,000 charge for a French summer course on my Minerva account. On contacting Student Accounts, I learned that the French course subsidy for students paying deregulated fees is no longer provided by the Ministère de l’Éducation, des Loisirs et du Sport (MELS) and therefore, these students are required to pay the full rate.

From what I have learned and been told by Student Accounts, this change had been agreed upon by a “fee-advisory committee,” a com-

mittee with no student representation. In addition, no adequate notice was given to the students affected – those registered in the French courses. Only when I had begun knocking the Student Accounts Office’s doors did I learn of these changes. On the day of my last correspondence in April with the Office, the page about exemptions from international fees on McGill’s website still did not reflect the change in policy.

The provincial government announced the deregulation of international tuition in fall 2008, but the University only began charging the deregulated tuition rate in fall 2009. This meant that international students registered in programs with deregulated fees and taking French courses in fall 2009 and winter 2010 were still paying the Quebec tuition rate for these courses, even when there was no subsidy available from MELS. It is really disappointing to see the administration revoking that policy and charging international students thousands of dollars, without holding any student consultation on the matter. Furthermore, quite a few concerned people within the administration – like the International Students Services Manager, Pauline L’Écuyer, and the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning), Morton Mendelson – were unaware of this change until May. The few thousand dollars collected are drops when compared to the ocean-sized financial deficit of McGill. In fact,

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

it only discourages international students from learning French and thereby, limits their integration into the Quebec society.

Je ne peux insister assez sur l’importance du français dans notre société. For foreign students with limited resources and especially those coming from thirdworld countries (where the currency exchange rate with the Canadian dollar is unfavourable), there is no incentive to register for a course that pushes the tuition bill $4,000

beyond their financial capacity.

Some might argue that there are off-campus venues to learn French, but this is not always possible, given one’s course schedule constraints.

Additionally, there are visa restrictions that prevent international students from studying outside their “home institution.”

Given recent incidents and policy-changes, like the closure of Archicture Café, the introduction of self-funded tuition model for the MBA program, and proposed hik-

ing of Quebec tuition rates starting in 2012, this change in policy on French course tuition, though sudden and unpleasant, is not surprising at all. At the end of the day, it is really sad to see the exploitation of international students’ need and desire to educate themselves and integrate into society – all for shortterm monetary benefits.

Salman Hafeez is a U3 Mechanical Engineering student. Write him at salman.hafeez@mail.mcgill.ca.

The University’s future is broader than tuition rates Nicole Durocher & Christopher Coaloa Hyde Park

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everal articles in the September 9 issue of The Daily dealt with Principal Heather MunroeBlum’s announcement of proposed tuition hikes. This piece is primarily a response to an article by Adrian Kaats (“Raising tuition, really?”, Commentary).

Kaats’s description of McGill’s educational environment just a decade ago certainly seems different from the one we have witnessed since 2007. However, the argument we wish to advance is that Kaats’s attribution of the changes made under this administration to Principal Munroe-Blum alone is facetious and shortsighted at best. While no democratically elected McGill body (we personally question the

legitimacy of using the term democratic to describe any elected body at McGill) has come out in support of the plan, several groups undoubtedly stand to benefit from the “corporate” direction the University has recently taken and presumably will continue to take.

Kaats’s sweeping statement that this development has no popular support and has effectively pitted all of us who are not the principal against Munroe-Blum’s cabal is erroneous.

A few questions are up for debate: we need to decide what kind of institution McGill should be, and what sacrifices must be made in order to facilitate its transformation into the school we would like to see. At this moment, McGill is in limbo. Though a partially publicly funded institution, it bears a prestigious name, which is a large factor in drawing both international

Erratum In the article “AUS Frosh in the red” (News, September 13), it was stated that an anonymous frosh coordinator said Concordia students may have participated in frosh. In fact, an operations staff member made the comment.

The Daily regrets the error

students and renowned professors to our learning community.

Though the proposed tuition hikes will largely affect undergraduates who do not stand to immediately benefit from the programs it will fund, the name McGill has made for itself through groundbreaking research is reflected in every diploma the McGill insignia is stamped on, regardless of the quality of education that undergraduates – who largely have no part in the production of research – receive.

This isn’t to say that we personally agree with this state of affairs.

Both of us would rather that McGill focused more on its undergraduate programs, which arguably are the best way to deepen and broaden the effects of higher education in our greater community, ultimately bridging the inequality gap both we and Kaats fear will stem from increased

tuition. Ultimately, though, we have to be honest about what freezing tuition will do for our university’s ability to attract renowned scholars and produce respected results.

Whether or not we want to admit it, though we might not benefit intellectually from the mildly cattle-like manner in which McGill handles its undergraduate students, the increased job prospects and further education opportunities garnered from its international reputation might just be a tradeoff that many McGill students are willing to accept (on a very short and stereotyped list, we are thinking about students in the faculties of law, medicine, management, and science, as well as anyone who owns a “Harvard: America’s McGill” t-shirt).

There exist rather obscure postsecondary institutions whose students and faculty quietly build their

intellectual capacities. While the graduates may have to locate their alma mater on a map when applying for jobs, schools like Annapolis, Maryland’s St. John’s College do not compromise academic rigour in favour of prestige.

This problem is systemic and cannot be boiled down to the schemes of one member of the administration. If McGill wants to foster intimate, high quality, publicly funded undergraduate programs, it may have to step off the beaten path and refrain from participating in the prestige competition.

Nicole Durocher is U3 Religious Studies and Anthropology student, and Christopher Coaloa is a U3 Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics student. You can write them at nicole.durocher@mail. mcgill.ca.

September 16, 2010 Dear Reader, I miss you so much. Every time we’re apart, I’m just aching for you to write me.

Write me, write me, write me – every day, every hour, about everything. I so want to publish a two-page spread of your delicious communiqués. I love you. letters@mcgilldaily.com

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

9

Trapped by the cops Police entrapment will be debated during the Opening of the House, hosted by the McGill Debating Union on Monday, September 20, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. in the Shatner Ballroom. More information on the Debating Union can be found by visiting ssmu. mcgill.ca/debate/ or by emailing mcgill.debating@gmail.com.

COUNTERPOINT

POINT

Police entrapment stops crime before it starts Natalya Slepneva

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he laws that prevent police entrapment exist ostensibly to prevent the innocent from being unjustly convicted and to protect the integrity of the justice system. They’re also unfair, unnecessary, and ultimately harmful.

Two acts constitute entrapment in Canada: the first, known as random virtue testing, is when the police create an opportunity for a person to commit a crime when they have no reason to suspect that person of criminal intent. They are, however, allowed to create opportunities for those they suspect or randomly target people in areas with a problem with a particular type of crime. The principle behind banning random virtue testing is that police are creating a crime and a criminal where none existed, because the person wouldn’t have encountered the temptation otherwise.

Yet this relies on a strange concept of guilt, ascribing criminality not on the basis of the willingness of a person to commit a crime, but on an accident of fate. It means that all of us are potential criminals, but only some of us are culpable. Police are allowed to entrap people in areas with specific crime problems, so someone might be offered the chance to buy drugs from an undercover agent if she lives in a poor, crime-ridden neighbourhood, but avoid criminality if she lives in a peaceful suburb. This disparity is unjust.

In the second form of entrapment, police go beyond creating an opportunity for suspects to commit a crime, and try to actively convince them to break the law. They can offer to sell those suspects drugs, for instance, but they can’t goad them into buying them.

Again, this makes a tenuous distinction between being very willing to commit a crime and being somewhat willing to. A person convinced or goaded into crime, whether by a police officer or by another criminal, is still a person who has made the choice to commit a crime – a person who, in the end, poses a threat to society.

Arguments against entrapment ignore its usefulness. Sting and decoy operations, which often end up along the blurry edges of entrapment, are known to reduce crime and have a strong deterrent effect.

These types of operations are also the most effective tools against crimes like corrup-

tion, trafficking, and terrorism, which rely on human networks and are increasingly harder to police as criminals turn to cell phones and the internet for communication. Imagine a person suspected of being involved in terrorism. Is it really so unethical to test whether they can be convinced to build a bomb?

Finally, such methods allow police to catch criminals before they harm society.

Consider methods like the ones used on the popular show To Catch a Predator.

They allow a pedophile to be caught without a child being molested. One might argue that current methods are enough, but what, ultimately, is the difference between a person who solicits sex from a child and a person who says “yes” when offered? The first is a sting, the second is entrapment, and the law that sends the first to prison and lets the second free is a law that must be changed.

Natalya Slepneva is a U3 Cognitive Science student. Write her at natalya.slepneva@ mail.mcgill.ca.

Entrapment harms our society and violates our rights Carol St-Gelais

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ccepting the premise that entrapment would represent an expansion of the powers that the police currently hold to stop criminals, the question then becomes whether or not this change is necessary. What also needs to be considered is how such decisions are typically made, and what is most important in decision-making: the rights of the individual or the effectiveness of our police forces.

As soon as you allow the police to begin actively persuading people to commit crimes, there is a potential for abuse – whether in the level or type of persuasion being used, or simply because certain groups would find themselves unfairly targeted. The fact of the matter remains that entrapment could result in the arrest and prosecution of individuals who would not have committed crimes unless provided the opportunity to do so by law enforcement. Typically in justice systems where innocence is presumed, laws tend to favour the individual, rather than aiming for a higher chance of conviction.

Accepting this, entrapment should not exist, in the sense that there might be innocent people who have been unfairly brought into a situation where they might commit a crime.

Even in a situation where the harms of entrapment are limited to a minimum, everybody should feel uncom-

Esma Belkir for The McGill Daily

fortable having a police force that creates crimes in order for people to be caught committing them. If the argument is that the person who gets caught would have committed a crime anyway, then the police should watch them until they are actually caught doing something illegal.

Surveillance of suspected criminals has worked very well in the past, and in this case they are actually caught, independent of police involvement. There is really no need to expand police powers by allowing them to mislead individuals, since the current mechanisms are effective. Furthermore, there is a severe problem with a society that presumes that everybody is innocent, yet exposes everybody to perpetual checks on their honesty. The presumption then becomes that everybody would commit a crime if provided the opportunity. Honest people should not be exposed to constant government checks on their law-abiding status if they have committed no crime.

The question that must be dealt with why it is any different when a private citizen offers another private citizen the opportunity to commit a crime. The response is simply that in the case that no police officer is involved, both private citizens are guilty of a crime, and the crime originated organically. In the case that a police officer offers to sell drugs with a private individual, for example, only the private individual is guilty of a crime.

When a police officer isn’t involved, entrapment is not a possible defense; when an officer is involved, all of a sudden it becomes one possible defense. In a sense, we are allowing the police to create additional crime in order to stop people whose status as criminals we are unsure of. This seems unfair: the police should focus their efforts on stopping actual crimes, rather than submitting citizens to random honesty checks.

Carol St-Gelais is a U2 English student.

Write him at carol.st-gelais@mail. mcgill.ca.

10 Features

“F

rançois was right; I do have these tips that come down from my ass.”

I frowned at her, politely confused.

“It’s probably your panty-line.”

“No it’s my fucking ass... Do you think I would look better in a skirt?”

“Well, I think you do have really nice legs; so yeah.” This wasn’t me being honest either, but in comparison to her arms and torso, those legs were pretty amazing.

“You’re such a sweet girl...so my black skirt with this shirt would look nice right?”

“Yes.” I was a puppet and Maria was the master; tromping me back and forth with my arms full of kitchenware, nodding my head approvingly after her every voiced idea. Of course she hadn’t asked me for a real opinion; I could never have told her, “No, those jeans don’t look good on you. They emphasize the sag in your bum too much.” But François could. François – who had spent 30 years in prison for robbing banks and now supported a medley of drug addictions – his conscience never stood a chance against cold, easy cash. When I walked into the take-out area he had been cupping the portions of Maria’s buttocks that pointed conspicuously towards the ground.

“There, right there. It’s no good. You see the tips? Ok – give me the money.” Maria opened the cash and handed him a twenty-dollar bill.

Dumbfounded, I quickly returned to the safety of the giant espresso machine. Obviously someone who pays an employee an extra twenty dollars for an honest opinion about her ass can be considered insecure. But she was so inept that these occasional bouts of self-doubt tempered

my distaste for her. It showed that she did have a vague grasp of reality. Most of the time she did no wrong, and every problem came as a complete surprise – like the sag in her ass.

T

he Hen was a Portuguese grilled chicken restaurant and take-out counter where I worked. Maria, an Italian Montrealer, owned and ran it with her lover, Farid. Lou, her husband, worked the barbeque. It was a bad soap opera – the kind where passion results in nothing but incessant bad-mouthing and all of the main characters have grandchildren. Complicated, no.

Uncomfortable, yes. Though most uncomfortable, for me, was serving breakfast.

“What the hell’s the matter with me? I’m breaking all of the yokes,” Maria would say while pushing another pair of hemorrhaged eggs out of the pan and into the trash.

“Calm down. Take a deep breath,” I suggested once, helplessly, and decided that it wasn’t a good time to warn her against using a metal spatula on teflon.

“They wanted white toast right?”

“No, I wrote it down; she asked for brown.”

“Fuck. Well it’s too late now. Just bring it anyway.” And I did, keeping my eyes averted as I set the plate down in front of a friendly woman who had come alone and would therefore notice the mistake.

“Et voilà.”

“I asked for brown toast,” she reminded me perfunctorily.

“I know. I’m sorry, the cook...I’ll go make some brown ones.”

Maria was rummaging through the freezer. I made straight for the bag of whole wheat bread.

“Did they say something?” she asked with a quick guilty glance.

“Yeah, she wanted brown toast.”

“Bitch.”

I dropped two slices into the toaster and stood waiting for the ding, vulnerable.

“Bridget, you know that note that I was writing to Farid yesterday? Well, he told me that he ripped it up without reading it and left it in a cup in his car. Except his wife found it and put it back together.” This was Farid’s wife who, according to Maria, had attempted suicide on multiple occasions. I watched her remove a clear plastic bag of something from the freezer.

“And it was all about how I know he doesn’t love her anymore and how he stays with her out of guilt and all of this stuff. Farid said to me this morning that if she dies, he’s going to kill me.”

S

he opened the bag and I realized with horror that what I would be serving was a plate of toaster waffles (you know, Eggos) sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. It was dreadful. For the low, low cost of $9.95, we inserted frozen waffles into a toaster and took them out after the ding.

Most people learned after one ill-fated visit that The Hen could not provide a comfortable dining experience. The only time it was busy was during the World Cup final. Twenty minutes before the game was scheduled to start, Maria told François, the delivery guy, and a few other randos that she wanted a television put on the terrace. They quickly carried one down from her apartment above the restaurant, and before long dozens of fans came, took tables,

The McGill Daily | Monday, Setember 13, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Bridget Sprouls | The McGill Daily

and ordered iced coffees. Later they kicked themselves for giving The Hen this vote of confidence. We were never able to get the sound to work.

But I felt bad for Maria. The business was a last miserable attempt to survive. She had debts – big ones, to dangerous collectors – and she sold cheap food because she didn’t give a shit. And the ambiance was poor because she didn’t give a shit. Nightmarish paintings of roosters wearing aprons and carrying platters of cooked chicken and an inexplicable collection of knee-high ceramic elephants furnished the inside. On the outdoor terrace large parasols advertised beers we weren’t licensed to sell and an unpainted trellis was all that separated the tables from the trash and recycling keep. On especially hot days the area was inundated with thick wafts of rotting chicken carcasses. Luckily for Maria, there were enough tourists, optimists, and general passivity in the world to create a steady trickle of business.

Still, why anyone would come was a mystery to me. When Maria wasn’t “cooking,” she would hover around yelling in her deep gruff voice at Lou (who, as far as I could tell, was good humoured and a hard worker) or she’d sit on the patio complaining to her friends and bewildered customers about how terrible her husband was, how she needed to get laid, how she thought she was dying.

O

ne morning after four blissful days at my leisure I walked into work to find Maria splitting chickens in the back and throwing them onto the coal grill. This was not normally her job.

“Good Morning,” I offered. Then, “Where’s Lou?” “I kicked his ass out. If he wants to stay out to four in the morning gambling and fucking that whore, then he can find his own place to sleep.”

I wished I hadn’t asked. I also wished Maria would just accept that she and her husband were in an open relationship. Apparently Lou had a girlfriend with whom he periodically escaped to Martinique on vacations. But if Lou was no longer going to cook at The Hen, I didn’t know how I would cope. He was the last affable worker left. A few weeks earlier François had managed to get an advance from Maria for sixty bucks and was never seen again. I missed him. He had made me laugh with his mischievous winks and giddy whistling as he poured himself the day’s first paper cup of beer somewhere around nine a.m.

He had also shared his life dream with me, namely “to get a money truck.” The thought of François sticking up a bank van with nothing but a taser (he swore he never wanted to hurt anybody) was one I returned to with a smile on many occasions, wishing wholeheartedly for his success.

But Lou, he was almost fatherly (in spite of calling me Brigitte Bardot); when I felt exhausted or angry or bored, he would sit at the bar with his cappuccino, listen, shrug, and say comforting things like “All men are dogs” or “Yeah, life’s a bitch, and then you die.”

I

stood there looking at Maria’s heavily-lined, tearing eyes – mute. She continued, couldn’t help it; I was that good a listener.

“He’s been out since the beginning of the week. And you’d think that he would have spent some time thinking about things, about our marriage. But, no. You know what the asshole’s been doing?” She stormed over to the wall where photographs of Lou with his kids and a recent Father’s Day card were taped. “He’s been skinny-dipping with that ugly bitch in my son’s pool. The fuck!” She clawed at the mementos, ripped them from the wall, and shredded them maniacally into the garbage.

“I’m sorry, Maria.” I was sorry – sorry for her, for myself, and for her son, for whom skinny dipping in his pool would probably never be the same.

That night I drank with my friend Skylar and let her talk me into quitting. Then I talked her into quitting for me because I was too chicken.

She added a bit of throatiness to her voice. We practiced saying “Hi Maria, It’s Bridget” a couple of times in unison. I was delighted and nervous and amused. She called.

“Bonjour, The Hen,” Maria answered in a weirdly sexual voice. I stood listening next to Skylar’s ear.

“Hi Maria, it’s Bridget,” Skylar said.

“Oh. Hi Bridget,” The voice lost its mellifluous character immediately, obviously disappointed. I was terrified but could barely keep from laughing.

“I just called to say that I can’t come in anymore,” Skylar said, painfully.

“That’s fine, Bridget.” Skylar hung up. Her worried expression softened to a smile. My smile sunk into a frown. Once again, I was unemployed.

11

Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

12

New laws of attraction David Zuluaga Cano examines the margnialized status of asexuality

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t leaves you tired, sweaty, and smelly – when one stops to think about it, sex is not very sexy. Yet sex appears to be one of humanity’s favourite activities, reflected in our more-than-positive population growth-rate. For a segment of our society, however, sex holds little appeal. These people, whose sexual behaviour has only in recent years begun to be studied seriously in recent years, may identify as asexual.

The precise definition of asexuality itself is somewhat a subject of debate. The Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), a prominent advocacy and support group founded by David Jay in 2001, defines asexuality as a lack of sexual attraction to another person. Although the AVEN definition has found wide acceptance within the community, the exact meaning of asexuality is something defined by those who identify with the term.

A study conducted in 2008 by Kristin S. Scherrer of the University of Michigan asked 160 participants, recruited through an ad on the AVEN website, to answer an online questionnaire. Although it found that a plurality of people identified with the AVEN definition of asexuality, the rest of the participants fell into smaller groups with slightly different definitions. “Of the 89 participants who responded to the question ‘What does this identity mean to you?,’ 39 of participants (44 per cent) said that their asexual identity means that they do not experience sexual attraction or sexual desire,” writes Scherrer.

“The most common description of asexuality used the same language as the AVEN website, however the remaining 50 participants (56 per cent) put forth alternative understandings of their asexual identity.”

A lack of sexual attraction toward other people does not mean that asexual people are incapable of forming interpersonal relationships.

Rather, asexuality complicates the picture, creating relationships of many different varieties.

Some asexual people form romantic relationships, which may be celibate, or, in the case where at least one of the partners is sexual, include an agreed upon amount of sexual contact as a compromise.

Asexual individuals tend to exhibit certain patterns in their dating behaviour, whether it is a preference

for opposite-sex partners, same-sex partners, or gender-blind dating.

Although some asexual people develop romantic relationships, this is not true of everyone who identifies as asexual. Instead, many asexual people prefer to build committed networks of platonic friendships, whether such an arrangement takes form mainly with a primary partner or with a greater number of individuals. Whether a person has or lacks a “romantic drive” is in itself not a marker of asexuality.

“In the sexual world there is a sense that romantic relationships kind of stand above other kinds of intimacy. That when you talk about intimacy, if you’re not in a romantic relationship, then you’re not really doing it – which is why words like single exist – whereas in the asexual community the definition is more fluid,” argues Jay. “There’s less of a sense you need to be in a romantic relationship to be happy.”

One misconception about asexuality is that those who identify as asexual do not enjoy any type of sexual activity. The more nuanced reality is that asexual individuals dislike sex with other people – some enjoy masturbation.

“The distinction between sexual and asexual people is that, if asexuals think about other people during masturbation (many asexuals don’t think about anything specifically sexual), it is only as fantasy. If they were actually given the opportunity to be sexual with that person there would be no attraction, or the drive would be so low as to be completely ignorable,” explains the AVEN website.

In 2007, Nicole Prause and Cynthia Graham, two researchers at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, published a study in the journal Archives of Sex Research that touched on the apparent dissonance between masturbation and asexuality. For the study, the authors sampled a number of individuals, both sexual and asexual.

“The interviews...suggested that asexual individuals interpret fewer behaviours as sexual, as compared to non-asexual individuals, possibly due to the lack of pleasure associated with them,” argue the authors. The report also observes that “asexuals reported significantly less desire for sex with a partner, lower sexual arousability, and lower sexual excitation, but did not

Jerry Gu | The McGill Daily

Asexualiy is an increasingly nuanced expression of (non) sexuality. differ consistently from non-asexuals in their sexual inhibition scores or their desire to masturbate.”

One of the main goals of the asexual movement is to build awareness of asexuality in mainstream society. When thinking of asexuality as a part of the realm of sexual orientation, it may be helpful to think of people as being on a gradient between sexual and asexual, rather than grouping asexuality as an alternative to heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, pansexuality, or any other sexual identification. Unlike these forms of queer sexuality, whose movements have aimed at combatting governmental and societal persecution, the biggest challenge currently faced by asexual people is becoming part of the public consciousness.

“The biggest issue facing the asexual community is invisibility.

Historically, it is not that we’ve been told that we’re bad and evil. We’re told that we don’t exist,” explains Jay. In the pursuit of that goal, the asexual community considers universities as one of the key battlegrounds to attain visibility.

Academic research on asexuality, which had been met with tepid interest until very recently, is seen as a means to promote understanding of asexual people.

“Universities are really, really powerful places to build a discussion about the fact that asexual people exist,” asserts Jay. “The more people who research asexuality and write papers on us, the more we become part of the mainstream dialogue about how sexuality works.”

Another valuable aspect of university campuses, according to Jay, is the prevalence of queer student support and awareness groups.

Such a group, if inclusive of the asexual individuals at the school, can benefit the larger asexual community by helping to build awareness. Whether asexuality should be classified as “queer” is a subject of much debate within the asexual community, as some asexuals feel excluded by queer organizations.

“Most university LGBT groups are extremely sex-positive, and that’s good because most asexual people are extremely sex-positive.

However, groups that are really sex-positive can be weirded out by the fact that people feel empowered by not having sex,” says Jay. “That is unfortunate because it makes an unsafe space for asexual people. In some ways, it makes a space that is limiting for everyone else. You have a safe space to celebrate enjoying sexuality at the expense of a safe space to cel-

ebrate things other than sexuality, meaning certain kinds of non-sexual intimacy.”

Jay finds some of the changes he has observed in U.S. universities in recent years encouraging, however. As more asexual people take ownership of the queer identity, they also have become more prominent within queer organizations.

“One of the cool things that’s happening on college campuses around the country is that, as asexual people are getting involved on campus LBGT groups, the groups are talking about non-sexual connections in the same way they talked about sexual connections in the past. They are starting to queer non-sexual intimacy, in the way that they’ve been queering sexuality,” says Jay. The advent of the internet and AVEN, along with the increase in societal inclusion of marginalized sexualities, has benefitted the cause of asexual acceptance and visibility.

It’s likely that a better understanding of asexuality will produce a more tolerant and nuanced conception of interpersonal relations, sexual and otherwise.

For more information on AVEN, go to asexuality.org

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Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

13

Asphyxiation and its discontents Why have asthma rates shot up in the last two decades?

Mathura Thevarajah The McGill Daily

A

ccording to the World Health Organization, childhood respiratory asthma is globally the most common chronic illness in children. It affects 20 per cent of the population, and incidence rates have shown no signs of decreasing in the last decade.

In fact, in the 90s, incidence rates increased by an alarming 160 per cent in North America, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health. The reasons for this immense increase still perplex scientists.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs where airway tubes periodically and temporarily narrow in response to stimuli such as cold air, dust mites, exercise, perfume, allergens like pollen, viral infections like the common cold, and air pollutants. During an asthma attack, airway muscles constrict, the lining of the airways swell, and thick mucus fills the bronchial tubes, leading to symptoms that include wheezing, coughing, difficulty breathing, and/or chest tightness.

Dan Cooper, Director of the Institute for Clinical and Transnational Science (ICTS) at the University of California at Irvine believes that there are many reasons for the increase in asthma rates. “For one thing, great medical advances have allowed an increasing number of premature babies to survive,” he said. In these babies, the immune system is triggered more and the lungs have less time to develop properly, perhaps making them more prone to [lung] diseases. It might also have something

to do with the recent increase in pollutants and pesticides in the air,” he said.

Christine McCusker, a pediatric allergist, and associate professor in McGill’s Department of Pediatrics, and a researcher at Meakins-Christie Laboratories, believes that the current statistical plateau in asthma incidence rates exists because physicians are becoming more adept at differentiating asthma from other respiratory diseases, such as viralinduced respiratory distress.

“Asthma has gone from a disease that physicians attributed to any condition that resulted in wheezing to a diagnosis that can only be made after a more comprehensive analysis of past medical history, frequency and duration of symptoms, trigger determination, and age considerations are made,” she said.

But diagnosis still remains difficult: people with asthma seem perfectly healthy between attacks even though their lung function is sub par. Also, patients cannot always determine why asthma attacks occur, or even predict when their next attack will occur. Unlike other diseases, such as HIV, sickle cell anemia, and tuberculosis, there is still no blood test to diagnose asthma. Though patient history, chest x-rays, sputum tests, and pulmonary function tests can point physicians towards asthma, they are still not conclusive.

Asthma also presents myriad symptoms that often overlap with other diseases. “Wheezing is associated with asthma, but can occur in patients with pulmonary edema or heart failure, and can also be triggered in healthy individuals given certain conditions,” says Cooper.

Hye-Won Shin a prominent researcher at ICTS, explains that

even taking a proper patient history is problematic. “There are many children from low-income families who simply do not have the insurance to afford clinic visits [and medication]. [There] have been many reported cases of parents having to lie to clinicians about the severity of their child’s symptoms,” she said. However, treatment in Canada remains more accessible than in the U.S. “In Canada, you have the opposite problem in fact,” claims McCusker. “You have relatively easy access to care and most provinces have programs to supply [inhalers].

However, because of the huge number of prescriptions issued per year, it does become a costly disease to manage…”

Beside ambiguities in diagnosis, the controversial “hygiene hypothesis” may also explain why asthma rates have increased significantly in developed countries and not in developing countries. When a foreign substance attacks the body, an inflammatory response is initiated.

However, any time the inflammatory response is stimulated, an antiinflammatory response is also triggered to curb the initial response.

This curbing response is developed more in countries where there is an exposure to a variety of pro-inflammatory triggers, such as viruses. In Western countries, because there is less exposure to such triggers in childhood, there is thought to be a deregulation and disruption of pro- and anti-inflammatory mechanisms, partly neutralizing the curbing response and rendering inflammatory diseases, like asthma, diabetes, allergies, and autoimmune disease more common.

McCusker has her own reaso why asthma and allergies are virtually absent in Africa. Individuals

who could potentially have asthma symptoms often die before those symptoms appear “because access to medical care is much more difficult” than on other continents.

“Either that or the immune systems is so busy fighting off malaria, schistosomiasis, sleeping sickness, and other infectious diseases, that asthma doesn’t even manifest,” she said.

According to McCusker, the hygiene hypothesis was originally theorized in 1995, and was formulated partly based on observations made after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. “Epidemiologists have had a field day since the wall came down,” she said. “Berlin was a relatively uniform population when the wall went up, since genocide had gotten rid of a lot of ethnic diversity. When the wall went up, it literally split the city in two, and so for about 40 years, there were people living in socioeconomic conditions that were almost polar opposites, but genetically, the people were similar. It was beautiful fodder for lots of studies,” she said.

When the wall came down, epidemiologists predicted that asthma and allergies would be rampant in East Berlin, where health care was relatively less accessible, people lived in overcrowded conditions, and infections were high. Instead, West Berlin was found to have higher asthma rates. Since the genetic populations of both West and East were relatively uniform, the argument maintained that environment, specifically hygiene, was making a difference. West Berlin had less viral diversity, and thus newborns’ immune systems were not conditioned to respond properly to certain stimuli.

Cooper believes in an exercise

corollary to the hygiene hypothesis.

In contemporary Western society, food is readily available and cheap.

He believes that human beings, rather than working towards maintaining a balance between energy intake and energy expenditure, now tip the balance towards intake.

“Physical activity also stimulates the immune system towards a response similar to the response that bacteria and viruses trigger,” Cooper said. “Because children are not as physically active as in the past, the immune system is not being triggered as much in childhood, perhaps also contributing to increased asthma rates.”

McCusker agrees that asthma is often associated with inactivity and thus, obesity. “It’s like a vicious cycle. People with asthma often have exercise limitations that make them less likely to be fit. This leads towards an increased risk of obesity. Fat cells release molecules that are thought to worsen asthma, and therefore asthmatics become even more exercise limited, and are less likely to engage in exercise,” she said.

As common as it is in the developed world, it is still a serious mystery in the scientific community what exactly constitutes asthma. Is it disease of the airways, or is it more a systemic disease of the whole immune system? To what extent do genetic and environmental factors play a role in causing asthma? Can diverse viral exposure in childhood have preventative effects? Why do some children respond to treatment and some do not? Until these fundamental questions about asthma are clarified, Cooper believes that the quality of life of children living with asthma may not increase significantly.

Illustrations by Rana Encol | The McGill Daily

HEALTH BOOSTER A case of the (meatless) Mondays Meatless Mondays McGill (MMM) is the latest step toward sustainability hosted by the McGill Food Systems Project – a joint organization between students, faculty, Dining Services, and the Office of Sustainability.

The campaign, organized in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a concerted effort to inform people about the benefits of eating vegetarian one day a week – which translates to

almost a 15 per cent reduction in meat consumption.

After a promising trial campaign at Royal Victoria College (RVC) dining hall earlier this year – with three quarters of responders pledging to avoid eating meat at least one Monday – the event started September 13. Students in three dining halls on campus (RVC, Bishop Mountain Hall and Douglas Hall) have taken part in the first Monday in a long-term campaign.

Meatless Mondays McGill does not simply promote vegetarianism.

Rather, it is an attempt to spread awareness about the perks of eating meatless one day a week. By doing so, claims the organization’s website, one can reduce the risk of heart disease by 19 per cent, and also decrease their risk of cancer.

One fifth of man-made greenhouse gas emissions stems from the meat industry, a proportion that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates to be higher than that for transportation emissions.

Russell Vinegar, Meatless Monday Coordinator states, “Here’s

why I really like MMM […] as consumers, we are blinded by convenience and affordability, especially when it comes to food. More than just encouraging students to take a closer look at their meat consumption, I hope that MMM will make folks pause and think about the countless consumer decisions we make each day. Food is too beautiful to be taken for granted.” New Rez and Sherbrooke Carrefour dining halls are also scheduled to implement MMM later this fall.

— Irina Gulerez

The Erotic and The Wise.

Health & Education Meetings, 5:30 Thursdays Shatner B-24

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Activities Night Photo by Victor Tangermann On the way to breaking the record for attendance, the first of two Activities Nights saw 2,600 students pour into Shatner on September 14 to check out dozens of SSMU clubs and services.

Campus Eye

Photo Essay

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 16, 2010 | mcgilldaily.com

Grand Prix Cycliste de MontrĂŠal

By Victor Tangermann

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Culture

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Secrets of the night Covering the Main’s graveyard shift

Photos by Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft for The McGill Daily

While Schwartz’s is more widely known, The Main feeds its clients until the early hours of the morning.

Susannah Feinstein The McGill Daily

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or those of you new to McGill and Montreal, there is a one block radius around Duluth and St. Laurent where the fumes of roast chicken, beer and Armani Acqua Di Gio quickly shift to the inviting fragrance of smoked meat. Here lurk two of the city’s proudest establishments: some weird place starting with an “s” that nobody’s ever heard of and Restaurant de la Main.

Founded in the 1970s, Restaurant de la Main – which loyal patrons lovingly refer to as “La Main” – has undergone no drastic alterations in either its appearance or its menu since first opening. Its owners are still in charge of food preparation, and the same solitary Polish woman has been providing Eastern European specialties for about 29 years. Serving smoked meat sandwiches, homemade desserts, poutine, and other delicious heart

attack inducing foods well into the wee hours, this place has seen a lot of crazy stuff.

The endlessly entertaining Suzanne Brisebois, the primary graveyard shift waitress, has been working at La Main for about eight years. “You want to know how I got this job?” asked Brisebois, “I saw a sign that said ‘Help Wanted’ in the window, walked in, handed someone at the counter my CV, and they called me ten minutes later, telling me I had gotten the job.”

Relatively calm during the week, Brisebois claims that the weekend is when the night shift really comes to life. “On weeknights we have our regulars. It can be pretty quiet.

But on the weekend we get lots of students, McGill kids mostly, very drunk at about three a.m.,” she said.

“I know they’re from McGill ‘cause they’re wearing their sweatshirts that say ‘McGill’.” (On a side note: guys, if you’re going to get belligerently drunk at Korova, please refrain from doing so in McGill attire.)

Brisebois elaborated on her inter-

actions with intoxicated students, explaining, “I usually have no trouble with them. I am used to [drunken behavior] because I worked for 12 years as a bartender. If someone is too rude, other customers will help me out and say something like ‘Hey, leave her alone!’ In my eight years here, I’ve only had to call the police twice. The first time was because there was a fight. The second time was because there was a man who was walking around picking food off people’s plates and refusing to leave.”

Wandering food snatchers aside, Brisebois genuinely enjoys her job. “You get to meet all kinds of people and form relationships with the regulars,” she explained.

She pointed to a seat in the back.

“That’s Leonard Cohen’s seat, I’ve seen him here a few times. Justin Trudeau used to come here all the time. He loves latkes.” When asked about the craziest thing she’d ever seen during the graveyard shift, Brisebois had no trouble answering. “I was working one night, and

a man and a woman came in. They had a bill of about $70, and the man left me a $100 tip. He asked me if I’d ever gotten a tip that big, and I said ‘Yes, I used to be a bartender,’ and then he started handing me hundred-dollar bills till he got to about $330. I didn’t want to keep it, but the woman told me to.”

As we wrapped up the interview, Brisebois wished me luck in my future career as a journalist. “I wanted to be a journalist when I was younger,” she said. “I love to talk to people. Maybe that’s why I like this job so much.

Maybe you might work here someday too!” Soon-to-be graduates of McGill, there is hope for you yet!

La Main’s night staff say the crowd is polite, if often sauced.

Bitumen beautiful Aerial photographs show another side of the Alberta tar sands Seble Gameda The McGill Daily

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rumbling earth, oil, and toxic water encapsulated within the faulty restraints of a tailings pond, unfathomable magnitudes of bitumen, rich hues of poison, piles of sulfur, heavy metals gushing out of a metal pipe. All this portrayed as beauty?

Combining both his talents as photographer and pilot, Louis Helbig has created “Beautiful Destruction” – a photo exhibit featuring aerial photographs of Alberta’s Tar Sands, currently showing in Ottawa. Helbig’s exhibit offers emotionally conflicting images that oscillate between the beauty of the visual and the

atrocity of the large-scale industrial project. This, he explains, is the result of his effort to delve into more serious subject matter.

“While it’s nice to take pretty pictures I wanted to do something that was more politically compelling, more topical.”

Helbig’s photos deliberately blend the lines between reality and artistry. In his photos, the residual bitumen is confused with a painter’s brushstroke, and an alluvial fan laden with oil is mistaken for the shimmering roots of an ancient tree. The swirling shades of copper mix with the blue tinge of oily waters, reflecting a late summer’s sunset. The viewer is dizzied into a fantasy world of dreamy hues and glistening colours; photographs become

nearly impossible to identify from their true form. “It seems to engage people. They get drawn into the art as well as the aesthetic and then it opens a place to think about, to reflect and to identify with the imagery, however they might do that,” said Helbig.

But the massive scale of this environmentally devastating endeavour shakes us from this dream world.

The sheer extent of the industrial project becomes undeniable. A Greyhound bus is dwarfed by the immensity of a tailings pond, the Tonka trucks tearing up the boreal forest appear minute, a lone sailor is unidentifiable in a sea of oil, and a sound cannon (used as noise pollution to deter migratory birds) is dwarfed against the immense backdrop of bitumen slick.

“What I find most compelling is what the whole project says about Canada, and Canadian institutions… It’s a bit of a déjàvu in terms of natural resource exploitation,” noted Helbig, citing the depletion of cod fisheries in Newfoundland as an example.

Helbig’s photographs also resonate with the number of social issues inherent with the project, including the housing conditions of the numerous migrant workers and the artificial landscapes that are created around these areas.

Helbig’s exhibit colourfully aestheticizes the tar sands project, while still vividly portraying the environmental destruction the tar sands project has caused.

A photo of a misty evening near Fort McMurray captures the serene

beauty that is the boreal forest, evoking an honest and sincere depiction of the land. This is contrasted with the horrific scenes of open-pit mining that take place once the so-called “over-burden” is removed. In this way, Helbig plays with the senses to truly engage the viewer. “The purpose of the exhibit is to have people reflect and think and that is way more powerful,” said Helbig. “That reflection, that philosophical space or imaginative space or emotional space, that speaks to us as individuals, as a community, our human spirit, and that’s really powerful.”

“Beautiful Destruction – Alberta Tar Sands Aerial Photographs” runs til September 26 at Ottawa City Hall Art Gallery.

Culture

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When meaning is gone Artist Michael A. Robinson confronts the chaos of war Amanda Tucker Culture Writer

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n a room full of men in turtlenecks and horn-rimmed glasses speaking animatedly about art, Michael A. Robinson is a completely unassuming young man. His art is the opposite. Despite his youth, Robinson has exhibited frequently around Montreal, and is on the staff of UQAM. His latest solo show, “Even When Bombs Are Gone,” is now appearing at Parisian Laundry.

Upon entering the open gallery space of Parisian Laundry, the viewer is immediately confronted with a circle of strewn debris right at their feet. Further on, shapes of bombs are carved into the wall.

A voluminous piece stands at the back of the exhibit: wooden beams angling out in all directions from a small focal point. Each work suggests the effects of war’s destruction that easily situate the viewer within the exhibition’s title, “Even When Bombs are Gone”.

“It’s a general protest,” says Robinson. Debris of scraped-off drywall lies on the ground underneath the wall carving, bringing attention to the action it took to create it by recalling the bits of walls that have been torn down.

A palimpsest of the past and present emerges. Haphazardly-placed crutches and billiard cues merge with the wooden beams in a hedgehog-like explosion – an eerily seamless explosion of lines and debris. Robinson gestures around lazily as he explains that the show is about playing with spontaneity and improvisation within the space of the gallery. He portrays this by bringing the viewer into his process, drawing focus more to the experience of creating the work, rather than just the end product.

His work in two dimensions is

equally evocative. One piece entitled “99 Red Balloons,” portraying a sole balloon made of perpendicular and parallel lines floating in empty space, is an obvious reference to the well-known song protesting the militaristic oppression of the USSR. Other works on paper speak to the relationship between lines and space; but with titles like, “Cluster Bombs over Gaza,” and “Minefield Sweeper,” these relationships are clearly meant to reflect real world violence. These small minimalist drawings may be an odd choice of medium to express the enormity of the subjects, but the end results is more interesting, than the shock value of more realist or bloody depictions.

The most eventful part of the night gave real insight into the process Robinson means to emphasize.

One man accidentally stomped his way across the circular ground sculpture of white pieces of debris, in what one spectator called a “pretty catastrophic break.” But such an event could only add more gravitas to a show about destruction and its consequences. It wasn’t until the “catastrophic break” that it became obvious that the pieces of what appeared to be plaster had been so meticulously placed; even those just a few centimetres across were balanced against one another so as not to lie flat on the ground. Which begs the question, how does one go about assembling a sort of balanced order out of chaotic destruction? Robinson was able to reassemble the piece within a half an hour, rebalancing some of the broken pieces on each other and removing the crushed pieces from sight.

“It’s just one after the other,” sighed Robinson when he was finished. His message had been driven home through a real act of destruction showing how the pro-

Carly Shenfeld | The McGill Daily

cess of creation really works.

Robinson emphasizes process over meaning in his work, but he maintains a joking approach: responding to a question about his work, he quipped, “What? It

has to have meaning? Nobody told me it had to have meaning.” “Even When Bombs Are Gone” may not refer to a specific war, but in its effort to address the chaos inherent in all wars, Robinson’s disre-

gard for meaning seems starkly appropriate.

“Even When Bombs Are Gone” runs until October 9 at Parisian Laundry, 3550 St. Antoine O.

The most important meal of the day Breakfast at Les Saveurs du Plateau Christina Colizza Culture Writer

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or those of you looking for healthy and cheap way to start your day, head on over to Laurier and Papineau. Located minutes from the Laurier metro stop, Les Saveurs du Plateau offers both a French-style bakery and a separate restaurant within just a few steps of each other.

I had come for the restaurant’s $4.99 promise of “Le Spécial” breakfast, but found myself distracted by the bakery’s tempting display of chouquettes (6 for $1) before I reached my destination. Oversized plastic mushrooms made up the window display, at first convincing me that Les Saveurs would be a

psychedelic, rather than delicious, experience. Offering a mixture of tasty pastries, baguettes, and blues serenades, the bakery is a triple threat: it looks like a smoke shop, tastes like an authentic Parisian café, but feels like what we all imagine our parents’ basement was like in the 60s. Fairly priced, with comfortable bar stool seating, this place offers the most delectable comfort food I’ve found in Montreal.

Venturing a bit further down Laurier, I arrived at the Les Saveurs du Plateau restaurant, home of “Le Spécial”. A Plateau couple hung over the railing, exchanging “bonjours” with the waitress and milkman, awaiting the restaurant’s 9:30 a.m. opening time and, more importantly, their “Spécial”. At a whopping $4.99,

Les Saveurs serves up two eggs, a choice of bacon or sausage, potatoes, fresh fruit, AND coffee. For $4.99. Splurge on some freshly- squeezed OJ? I think I just might.

Swaths of blue paint, gold paneling, and velvet seat coverings make for a very Van Gogh Café Terrace vibe, complete with Rococo chandeliers and polished teapots – just like those old ones your Mom never let you take out of the cupboard when you were little.

The restaurant decor matches the clientele: rustic, filled with character, and French. No English menus here, and certainly no time to spare for an English student to ask a few questions to the waitress. Despite the meagre five patrons for their 10:00 a.m. breakfast, Les Saveurs’

staff seemed to give priority to their regulars. This became clear later on, when the waitress asked me when I had been there before, surprised that she did not recognize me. A compulsive liar, I blurted out August, figuring she would have been on vacation. It did the trick, but the not-so-petit déjeuner didn’t sit any better.

Feigning the inability to use my debit card, I finagled a few more questions out of the waitress.

Owned by a couple, the elusive Nicole and Patrick, the restaurant recently reached its 16th anniversary with almost the same set of staff. Business is good, asserts the waitress, considering “Les Saveurs” is closed on both Monday and Tuesday. How could business be anything but great with such

a sweet deal on the “Le Spécial”?

Yet, don’t be fooled. This seemingly cheap breakfast joint becomes a chic tapas bar at night, with prices ranging from $9 tapas to $20 main courses.

Despite encountering some communication issues, I truly found two for the price of one at these samenamed joints. A charming neighborhood treat, “Les Saveurs du Plateau” provides a little bit of Paris in a big ole’ American breakfast. So skip across Laurier some morning with a couple toonies in hand. While the service may lack warmth, the delicious food and pastries most definitely make up for it.

Les Saveurs du Plateau can be enjoyed at 1602 Laurier E.

Art Essay

Grace Brooks

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6 News

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Med school scraps MCAT Standardized test abandoned in effort to improve accessibility Erin Hudson The McGill Daily

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n an attempt to make its medical program more accessible, McGill has dropped the popular Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) for applicants to the Faculty of Medicine.

At the end of July of this year, the McGill Faculty of Medicine announced that all Canadian applicants with degrees from Canadian universities would no longer be required to submit a MCAT score.

The MCAT is a standardized test administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), accepted at schools throughout Canada and the United States.

The test has been criticized for limiting the number of francophones applying to medical schools, as the test is administered exclusively in English.

Saleem Razack, the Assistant Dean of Admissions at McGill’s Centre for Medical Education, says that requiring applicants to write the MCAT can be a deterrent for francophones looking to enter medical school, as some have a hard time with the verbal reasoning section of the test.

“The changes are to get at all the excellent qualities of applicants,” explained Razack. “We want to eliminate all barriers.”

According to a 2010 class profile published by the McGill Faculty of Medicine, 92 per cent of the 175 students who were admitted to the faculty in 2010 were residents of Quebec, but only 27.8 per cent identified as francophone.

“We have social accountability obligations, [in particular] where we fit in the local context,” Razack said.

“This is a far preferable outcome than having all institutions ignore their local stakeholders and result in the same cookie-cutter admissions process at every medical school,” he added.

The McIntyre Medical Building overlooks campus from its spot up on Promenade-William-Osler.

Of the 17 medical schools in Canada, the six schools that do not require MCAT results, with the exception of McMaster University, are francophone or bilingual universities: the University of Ottawa, Université de Montréal, Université Laval, Université de Sherbrooke, and now McGill.

Victoria Bentley, a prospective medical student currently in the Faculty of Science at McGill, argued that the test levelled the playing field.

“The MCAT aims to provide a standardized assessment of a student’s knowledge of scientific concepts, ability to think logically, and work under stress (a lot of stress),” Bentley wrote in an email. “It’s designed so that any two

students of equal ability should reproducibly get the same mark. It’s supposed to silence any statistical noise.”

Harold Reiter, the Admissions Chair of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, further explained the use of the MCAT. “Each on its own (GPA or MCAT) are valuable predictors of future performance,” he said in an email. “And combined they are even more predictive.”

McMaster does use the verbal reasoning section of the MCAT, but not other parts of the test.

Bentley seconded Reiter’s concerns. “The MCAT’s real value is that it judges all students with a uniform set of criteria,” she said. “GPAs from differ-

ent schools mean different things, and even within one school it’s harder to get As in some classes more so than others.”

“Now that McGill has dropped the MCAT, it’s going to have to place more emphasis on GPA, which is not necessarily fair to all candidates from various academic backgrounds,” Bentley continued.

But Reiter conceded that the MCAT alone cannot determine the quality of applicants. “No tool will provide perfect overall test reliability (the ability to reproducibly differentiate between applicants) nor predictive validity,” he said.

“Ideally, having multiple tests to look at any one domain (e.g. cognitive

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

ability) is advantageous in diluting out the biases inherent in any one test.”

“The MCAT needs to be put in its place,” said Razack. “[It is] only one of the tools in our armamentarium.”

Razack attempted to quell concerns that McGill’s Faculty of Medicine would lose prestige because of the changes to its applications standards.

“This medical school is incredibly competitive to get into and will likely continue to be that way,” he said.

“We’ve been accepting applications since September 1, and, though it is early to tell, the stats [on number of applicants] are up 165 per cent compared to this time last year.”

Kim Phúc speaks out at McGill Maya Shoukri News Writer

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im Phúc, immortalized as one of the children in a photograph of an American napalm attack during the Vietnam War, gave a presentation entitled “I Crave Justice: A Story of Faith and Forgiveness,” Monday at McGill. The talk was organized by McGill’s branch of Campus for Christ.

Before a crowded audience in Leacock 132, Phúc explained how the iconic image of war impacted her life, and how she finally forgave those who conducted the air strike on her village.

“I’ve learned to accept what happened to me, and move on to reach

out and help others. That is my point, not politics. I’ve learned how to control my photo.”

Phúc is outspoken about her devotion to Christianity, but insists that her mission is to speak about how she found solace, rather than to promote her religion.

“I don’t want to advise people to commit to my God,” Phúc said.

“I believe in Jesus Christ and I just want to share what happened to that little girl. I want people to have free will and see how they can have happiness, freedom, and peace.”

Phúc is currently a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and has founded numerous hospitals and shelters for children affected by war through a secular, non-profit organization called the Kim Phúc

Foundation International.

The organization is currently building a health center in Ongutoi, Uganda. Phúc spends most of her time travelling and working on behalf of her foundation.

The McGill event’s organizers requested that all questions directed at Phúc remain apolitical.

According to Andrew Williamson, a representative of Campus for Christ, Phúc’s capacity for forgiveness is the primary message the organization wishes to convey, rather than focusing on the photograph’s historical and political significance.

“Politics aren’t a big part of it,” said Williamson. “It’s really important to talk about Kim’s story and the role that her faith played in her ability to forgive.”

“I’ve learned to accept what happened to me and move on to reach out and help others. That is my point, not politics. I’ve learned how to control my photo.”

Kim Phúc