Vol100Iss1

McGILL DAILY!

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

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News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

MUNACA declares strike

McGill’s non-academic workers picket for parity on first day of class Queen Arsem-O’Malley The McGill Daily

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he McGill University NonAcademic Certified Association (MUNACA) commenced a general strike at 6 a.m. this morning, the first day of classes for McGill students.

MUNACA represents more than 1,700 workers, including library staff, lab technicians, and registration staff.

Over 200 McGill staff and students attended a rally outside the James Administration building yesterday.

Members of MUNACA as well as the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), SSMU, and the Association of McGill Undergraduate Support Employees (AMUSE) were present.

Some MUNACA members expressed disappointment that there was not a strong faculty presence at the demonstration, as the pension plan cuts against which MUNACA protests affect all employees of McGill. “[The administration] crossed the line when they started attacking the pension and benefit plans,” said Sean Devlin, a MUNACA member who has worked at the McGill bookstore for 22 years.

Devlin said that he believed the strike would be prolonged because McGill Principal “Heather [MunroeBlum] is very stubborn…and probably won’t budge an inch.”

McGill and MUNACA have met 23 times since January to negotiate a new collective agreement, but with no progress made on MUNACA’s primary issues, members voted last week to provide their executive with a strike mandate.

MUNACA maintains that the details of their demands are parity with other universities.

Currently, McGill’s proposal is an offer of a 1.2 per cent wage increase in reply to a demand for a 3 per cent increase, which MUNACA cites as the rise in cost of living over the past three years.

Another issue for MUNACA workers is the $1 million that McGill University cut from pension plans in January 2010. MUNACA is demanding protection for pensions so the administration cannot unilaterally implement changes to the pension plan, as well as restoration of damages made to pension and benefit plans.

“We just don’t feel we’re being respected,” said Suzanne Larivière, a student affairs coordinator and MUNACA member. Her comment echoed the sentiments of many of the members at the demonstration, some of whom carried faux severed limbs signifying they had sacrificed enough for the University.

In an email sent to McGill students and staff on Tuesday, Michael Di Grappa, VP Administration and Finance, claimed that agreement with MUNACA “can only be

achieved within the context of the financial realities that challenge us. As you know, the University is already facing a substantial deficit this year as well as a significant accumulated debt. This financial situation is further aggravated by the recent additional turmoil in economic markets.”

Kevin Whittaker, president of MUNACA, addressed the demonstration and responded to Di Grappa’s argument. “We know that there are financial problems out there,” Whittaker said. “Unfortunately, the administration doesn’t seem to be suffering from them. We’re spending $2.1 million on one floor! If we’re in such dire need, then put that money to better use.”

The $2.1 million figure refers to renovations on the third floor of the James Administration building, a project that includes removal of asbestos and construction of new conference rooms. Slightly over $190,000 was necessary for asbestos tests and removal, according to the budget MUNACA received through an Access to Information request.

Whittaker also addressed the policy of 1 per cent annual automatic progression within respective salary scales. Under this system, it would take 37 years for workers to reach their pay ceiling. “I don’t want to die before I reach my top [salary]. And I don’t want any of you to die before you reach your tops,” Whittaker told the crowd.

Joël Pedneault, SSMU VP External, also spoke to the crowd, telling them that as students fight tuition increases and unions fight for their demands, “Our struggle and your struggle are the same struggle.”

As an affiliate of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), MUNACA has access to the PSAC strike fund, which enables full-time workers to receive compensation of up to $375 per week, provided they participate in strike activities.

According to the Quebec Labour Code, employers are prohibited from utilizing the services of MUNACA members, as well as from utilizing the services of another contractor to discharge the duties of a striking employee. A person or institution that violates this provision “is liable to a fine of not more than $1,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues.”

MUNACA has encouraged members to report to union headquarters if they suspect another worker is completing their duties.

The administration refused to comment further than an email from Morton Mendelson, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning).

Mendelson stressed that academic expectations remain unchanged, and assured students that McGill would try to “minimize the strike’s impact” on them. Regular email and website updates from McGill will inform stu-

3

Winter break extended Jordan Venton-Rublee News Writer

A

Lindsay Cameron | The McGill Daily

dents of reduced hours or services.

AGSEM, which is also in negotiations with the University, wrote a letter declaring that the union is “in support and solidarity” with MUNACA, and encouraged members to avoid crossing picket lines.

“We’re advising members to absolutely not scab. If they’re asked to do any unusual workload or take over any of the duties of MUNACA members, to refuse, and contact us immediately, so we can take immediate action,” said Jonathan Mooney, a member of AGSEM’s bargaining team.

AGSEM also announced yesterday that they now represent McGill’s 1,300 course lecturers. The announcement came after an 18-month “UDrive,” a unionization drive for course lecturers. The addition of course lecturers means that AGSEM is “a bigger union, much more powerful, so we have greater solidarity,” said Lenora Lewis, AGSEM president.

Likewise, AMUSE informed members that, though the union is not on strike, it is supportive of MUNACA. “Everything that affects MUNACA affects AMUSE and vice versa, because we’re both negotiating on the same campus with the same entity,” said AMUSE Labour Relations Officer David Howden.

AMUSE workers are advised to go to work and complete only tasks that they normally complete, taking care not to complete duties normally assigned to MUNACA members.

Farid Attar Rifai, president of AMUSE, added that “AMUSE workers have the choice not to cross the picket line at all.”

McGill cancelled a negotiation session with AMUSE on Wednesday, though the parties are scheduled to meet again September 6.

—with files from Erin Hudson and Jessica Lukawiecki

longer winter break will debut this January, lasting from December 22, 2011 to January 9, 2012. Evening exams have been added to accommodate the longer break.

The decision for an extension started over two years ago with a proposal by then SSMU VP University Affairs Rebecca Dooley, who suggested a restructuring of the McGill academic calendar.

According to Morton Mendelson, deputy provost (Student Life and Learning), a work group was started, headed

by Daniel Juntas, dean of law, and Ellen Aitken, dean of religious studies.

The student body wasn’t consulted until it received a survey last winter, which attempted to address problems about where the extra time would come from.

“There would have to be tradeoffs in order for this to occur. We asked students about the tradeoff, we asked about starting later, ending later, evening exams and exams on weekends,” Mendelson told The Daily.

The study concluded that students most favored a compressed exam schedule. “The number of exam days will be reduced from twelve to ten, with exams on Monday and Thursday evenings to accommodate religious observances,” said Emily Yee Clare, SSMU VP University Affairs, in an interview with The Daily. “Fall and Winter exams will still end December 22 and April 30 respectively.”

“It was really done so all students could enjoy the extended winter break,” said Clare.

“Both students and professors concluded that an extended winter break would be the best. This way international students would have more time to go home, [and] professors could have more time for grading without having to cut down on the number of hours of teaching,” she continued.

According to Mendelson, it was an unusual move to change the academic calendar at such short notice.

“Typically we set the calendar 2-3 years ahead,” he said.

Both Mendelson and Clare confirmed that the extended winter break is on the academic calendar of dates for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years, and will be a permanent move for the University.

4 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Temporary housing for rez overflows McGill secures two floors at Quality Hotel for 74 students and two floor fellows Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

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eventy-six McGill students will occupy two floors of the Quality Hotel this year, making it McGill’s newest “residence.”

Numbers have once again exceeded the capacity of the campus residence system, resulting in the university’s acquisition of two floors at the Quality Hotel at Parc and Sherbrooke.

The decision to add the space was made by McGill Housing in late June, when it became clear that residence capacity could not satisfy application demands.

“The first batch of students that found out they were going to the Quality Hotel found out the first week of August,” said Michael Porritt, executive director of Residences and Student Housing. “[The decision] didn’t make a whole lot of people upset,” Porritt continued, “but it did catch them by surprise, just the same as when people first got assigned to Carrefour Sherbrooke the first year.”

The 74 students and two floor fellows will be living on the third and fourth floors of the hotel, and will be able to utilize resources at both New Residence Hall and Carrefour Sherbrooke.

Although the Quality Hotel is not equipped either with a cafeteria of its own or sizeable common rooms, students are being compensated with

benefits exclusive to their residence.

These include free wireless internet, a weekly cleaning service, free cable, garbage and recycling pickup, and a commuter meal plan which allows them to eat anywhere on campus.

Katia Fox, a McGill student and resident of the Quality Hotel, explained her initial reaction to finding out about her residence situation three weeks ago.

“First of all, I was thinking it’s kind of far – RVC would have been a lot closer – and the rooms are kind of small. As I’ve stayed here more its really nice though, its cozy, it’s homey, and it’s really not that far,” Fox said.

Hikati Semgoku, another Quality resident, said she “thought [the residence] was small, and it would be difficult to live in a hotel room, but now it feels like home because it’s a small community and people here are so nice.”

When asked if she had a problem living with other hotel guests in the building, Semgoku said, “I don’t think so – we just meet those people in the elevators.”

Residents of the Quality Hotel will be given full access to the facilities at New Residence Hall, and will be using their larger rooms for floor meetings, as well as joining the studets there in larger events such as Rez Fest. Brenda Shanahan, the residence director of New Rez, will direct both residences.

The hotel will continue to be monitored by Quality Hotel staff, along with the assistance of McGill

floor fellows Basil Kadoura and Erin Schwabe-Fry. Porritt explained that although McGill security is not currently involved with the facility, “that’s already worked into our agreement with the hotel – that we can add security as needed for special events.”

In reference to move-in weekend, Kadoura said that the group “didn’t have very many issues – it was really smooth. The students are all meeting each other and loving how small it is, how close everyone can get.”

Schwabe-Fry explained how students have been adjusting to the new residence community.

“It’s a totally new thing, so they’re very enthusiastic and taking the initiative to make their own community – we’ve been really impressed – but they’re still kind of mingling and reaching out to the larger residence communities that already exist,” SchwabeFry said. “They have existing models that they can base things off of, but this is its own space, its own group of kids.”

When asked whether the Quality Hotel facilities would be used again next year, Porritt did not have a definite answer.

“Next fall, we’ll have about 280 more beds at 410 Sherbrooke, in what used to be the Marriott Hotel.

If you take everybody that is on temporary spaces now, plus everybody that’s in the Quality Hotel, plus everybody that cancelled once they were notified they had been assigned to a

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

temporary space, [that] fills the building right there. So it’s not off the table that we could use [the Quality Hotel]

again, but its less likely than it was this year, because we’ll have the new building,” Porritt said.

Administration leads Frosh revamp Changes aim to accommodate local community and students Erin Hudson

The McGill Daily

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his year’s Frosh, now known to coordinators and the McGill administration as Integrated Orientation Week, has been altered in terms of the organization of the event and its activities. Notable changes include the beer tent charging $2.50 a beer, black Frosh shirts – chosen to render writing on the shirts less visible – and the banning of McGill chants in public places.

Jana Luker, Executive Director of Student Services, said that the idea for the changes began two years ago. Luker collaborated with a student working group last year to get feedback on what students and the Milton-Parc community thought about Frosh. Consultations took the form of focus groups and surveys conducted by the working group.

Luker explained that, through consultations, the local Milton-Parc community expressed concerns about the chants and inappropriate writing on Frosh t-shirts. Luker also pointed to alcohol as a reoccurring concern during consultations.

She said that students who were

not drinking alcohol at Frosh often expressed worries that they were subsidizing alcohol while others were drinking for free.

“We’ve got about 30 per cent of students who don’t drink or are underage, or both, during Frosh itself,” Luker said. “Then it became more of an equity issue.”

Despite the consultations, Josh Redel, president of the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS), said EUS was not included in the process and had yet to see the findings of the working group.

“These changes are not cooperative,” he said. “I would like to see really what people are saying. It would be nice to see and be part of [the consultation process].”

Redel also said the administration didn’t like Frosh “in the sense that it’s an all-drinking event, and that’s how it’s perceived from outside.”

“That’s not part of what they want their image to be,” he said.

Redel noted that the administration is “not necessarily wrong” about being concerned over the external perception of Frosh and the emphasis on drinking, but that “they’re going about it way too late, and they’re doing a pretty bad job at

communicating.”

Redel said that Morton Mendelson, Deputy Provost (of Student Life and Learning) told Frosh coordinators that they needed to charge a fee for beer in August. He also said that Mendelson blocked Frosh coordinators’ ability to book spaces for Frosh on campus until they had signed an agreement to charge for beer.

“We have to bend over backwards to meet the thousand requirements of McGill, but there’s no reverse-accountability,” he said. “Who do we complain to if Morton Mendelson says you have to charge at the beer tent?

Who holds him responsible that we can get in contact with who’s not already on his side?”

AUS President Jade Calver said that by the time AUS was alerted that they would have to charge for beer, Frosh tickets had already begun to be sold and it was not possible to adjust pricing. The ticket pricing had been originally set to cover the cost of the previously free beer tent.

“I think after this year it will give us a good idea of what to expect in revenues so that in the future then we can reduce admission prices for

Frosh,” she said.

Aside from the changes made to the event itself, Luker explained that there were also efforts made by the Frosh working group to integrate the various faculty Froshes differently, so that all Frosh coordinators were working together.

Redel thought that the new structure did not work well.

“The Froshes are different enough that it doesn’t always make sense to be working together,” he explained, citing Arts Frosh and its large size as something that other Froshes simply could not relate to.

Luker said the organizational changes were made so that Frosh would be an event “for students, by students, with the administration’s support.” Redel perceived the increased involvement of the administration differently.

“McGill wants to be organizing Frosh,” he said. “They want to be helping coordinate, making sure that it’s going in the direction that they want it - and there’s nothing wrong with that - but they have no idea how to organize an event like this.”

“It’s four months of organizing that we know how to do, and it’s a shame that they’re not tapping into

that,” he continued.

Frosh is the first large event that faculty societies undertake, normally earning revenue from the event and increasing their society’s visibility on campus. Redel pointed to these aspects of Frosh as being important to the faculty societies, adding that potentially losing Frosh to the administration was a real and scary possibility.

“I don’t doubt that they would pull Frosh away from students.

We’ve been told it’s serious enough,” he said. “This is the last year we have to show that we can deal with Frosh.”

Luker said eliminating Frosh as a student run event was not the goal of the working group. “How the students want it to be, that’s how we want it to be,” she said.

Redel stated that EUS needing to change its attitude when dealing with the McGill administration, saying that they are going to work on being less complacent.

‘We’re too concerned to step on people’s feet. We need to be more direct,’ he said. ‘We’re not OK with these changes…and it needs to be a cooperative effort. But we still need to work out what bargaining chips we have.’

News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

5

Principal’s salary contract reveals details of perks Queen Arsem-O'Malley The McGill Daily

P

rincipal Heather Munroe-Blum began her tenure at McGill with a $350,000 base salary and a list of perks, along with other compensations, worth tens of thousands of dollars, as her 2002 contract reveals. The document, which details the conditions of Munroe-Blum’s 2003-2008 term, was obtained in full by The Daily last month.

Munroe-Blum’s salary and benefits were previously publicized, but details of the contract were largely kept out of the public eye. Her current salary stands at $369,250.

In Quebec, the salaries and benefits of senior administrators are filed annually with the provincial Ministry, and full contract details are available through Access to Information requests. Based on documents acquired from the National Assembly, both the Journal de Montréal and Maclean’s OnCampus have published figures stating that Munroe-Blum’s benefits are worth more than $229,000 a year.

The contract states that the base salary figure has the potential to increase annually as per review by the Human Resources Committee, a committee of the McGill Board of Governors. Munroe-Blum sits on the Human Resources Committee, except when it is reviewing her own salary – eight other members of the Board compose the remainder of the group. None of the current voting members on the Board began their terms before Munroe-Blum assumed her position in 2003.

In addition to the University’s standard holidays and five weeks of paid vacation, Munroe-Blum is permitted to spend up to 20 per cent of her time engaged in “remunerated professional commitments outside the University.”

Munroe-Blum also accrues the right to administrative leave of one year after she serves a five year term. On administrative leave, she would receive a full salary equal to what she was paid in the final year of her term. Munroe-Blum did not exercise this right at the end of her first term, and the contract states she would discuss “the postponement of the administrative leave and…whether there ought to be any further accrual of administrative leave during the second term.”

Other benefits include a monthly housing allowance of $4,000, annual automobile allowance of $16,000, and annual maximum of $3,000 in personal financial planning services. McGill also foots the bill for travel expenses, club expenses, and expenses related to the hosting of receptions and events at the Principal’s residence.

Joël Pedneault, SSMU VP External, spoke about his surprise at the provision for club memberships, which he pointed to as a “concrete example of where the lines are blurred between Munroe-Blum’s role as the University Principal and her role as a member of the elite in Canada.” He added that Munroe-Blum is on many corporate boards and, that, last June, she was appointed to the Royal Bank of Canada’s Board of Directors.

When Concordia Interim President Frederick Lowy assumed

his position in February 2011 following the surprise resignation of his predecessor Judith Woodsworth – who received a highly-publicized $703,500 severance package – the website of the office of the president featured his full contract. The site also posted an update to the document when an amendment was added in April.

Christina Mota, director of media relations at Concordia University, said that this action was a decision on the part of Lowy. “[Lowy] himself said that he wanted to have the details of his contract posted online,” she explained.

“He felt that it was important for the community to know what the contents of his contract were,” she added. Lowy’s contract is the first that Concordia has ever posted in full.

Vaughan Dowie, executive head of public affairs at McGill, explained in an email to The Daily that “different universities take different approaches to the provision of this information, bearing in mind privacy considerations and other factors.” He said that McGill has no plans to change their practices regarding distribution of salary information.

While Munroe-Blum’s salary and benefits are comparable to her counterparts at universities like Concordia and Université de Montréal, Pedneault noted the apparent lack of guidelines in the contract for expenses. Lowy’s contract includes specifications, including the fact that his travel is Business Class, and that Concordia will pay for two club memberships.

Munroe-Blum’s contract is more loosely worded, allowing for membership at “any clubs in Montreal

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

where membership is related to… your duties at the University,” as well as “appropriate business clubs” outside of Montreal upon approval of Stuart Cobbett, Chair of the Board.

Munroe-Blum began her sec-

ond term on January 1, 2009. Her 2002 contract states that it was the “mutual expectation of the Chair and you that this appointment will be renewed for a second five year term following a review.”

Desjardins said FEUQ has evidence that Quebec student enrollment will decrease with higher tuition fees, saying, “There will be a massive dropout.”

The government outlined increased plans for financial aid in order to assist students with paying for education. However, Desjardins explained that a conditionality within the province’s financial aid system means that effects of tuition hikes are not isolated to students. Quebec’s financial aid program obligates families to make financial contributions towards their children’s education if parents earn over $30,000 a year.

“When you hike tuition fees, of course you will be raising student debt, but also family debt,” she said.

“We still have to make a lot of progress to find a way to convince the general population that this is an issue that concerns a lot of people and not only students.”

Though the ultimate goal of the student movement is to freeze tuition fees, Desjardins said that the more immediate aim is to dissuade the government from planning more hikes.

FECQ and FEUQ said that raising awareness of the consequences

of tuition hikes was one of the main goals of camping out. Desjardins described their work on public education and awareness as a “longterm process.”

CEGEP classes commenced two weeks ago, and both Goulet and Desjardins say that they have noticed a difference in terms of students’ awareness of the impending tuition increases.

“People are really listening to us; it’s not like last year where most of the [new students] didn’t even know about [tuition hikes]. This year, it seems like everyone knows about it and most of them know how much it will be and they know that it’s something they need to work against,” said Goulet.

Desjardins said that she feels the fight against tuition hikes will be one of the main issues during this academic year.

“A lot of students are wellinformed about the tuition fee hike plan and they’re ready to [take] actions,” she said.

FEUQ has begun to plan for a demonstration in Montreal to be held on November 10. The Facebook event had 2,583 attendees when The Daily went to press.

Students mobilize against tuition hikes FEUQ and FECQ camp out at Ministry of Education Erin Hudson

The McGill Daily

F

rom May 27 to August 12, two of Quebec’s largest student lobby groups pitched tents in front of the Montreal offices of the Quebec Ministry of Education in protest of planned university tuition hikes.

The Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ) and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) budgeted and organized for the camping in order to continue mobilization and action against tuition hikes throughout the summer.

FEUQ president Martine Desjardins described the camping as a demonstration of the strength of student protesters and of their determination to fight tuition hikes.

Tuition has increased $100 a year since 2007. However, this year’s provincial budget, released last March, shows tuition fees increasing by $325 each year from 2012 to 2016. In total, by this date, tuition fees will have increased by 75 per cent as compared to today’s fees.

A CEGEP student at the Collège Ahuntsic, Marc-Olivier Goulet, said

he was at the campsite almost every weekend. He described the experience as “awesome,” and said that he would do it again.

“We were trying something different. We’re not all about manifestations and strikes,” he said.

Goulet described a major event that took place at the beginning of the summer. The student federations rented a bulldozer, dressed a participant as Quebec Premier Jean Charest, and bulldozed over graduation caps. The hats had been filled with paint that stained the driveway outside of the Ministry.

The goal of the action was “to show that [Charest is] pretty much killing education,” Goulet explained.

Camping took place on weekends until the last week in August, when students stayed for the entire week. The weekend schedule was created in order to allow for students to participate in the camping action while maintaining other commitments, such as a summer job, explained Léo Bureau-Blouin, president of FECQ. Students would arrive late Friday mornings to pitch three tents that would house between 5 and 15 people throughout the weekend.

The campers did not receive any message or recognition from the Ministry of Education, and Goulet said that they had heard that employees working in the building had been instructed not to speak to them.

“The Ministry of Education isn’t listening to us,” Goulet said. “We’re really talking to a closed door.”

The Ministry did not respond to a request from The Daily for comment.

Benoit Springuel, an IT employee at the Centre de Services Partagés du Québec, which is housed in the same building as the Ministry of Education, said that for him the camp outside the building did not make an impact.

“You know that’s it’s the least expensive tuition in North America?

You know that universities are lacking money? $325 each year…that is really not a difficulty,” he said.

Goulet explained, however, that increased tuition would make university education inaccessible for many students.

“I talked to people [from] LacSaint-Jean, and there’s no university there. They have to move, pay their apartment,” he said, “and they realize that if they add $1,625 to their bill as well, they won’t be able to pay it.”

6 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Province backs down from fine on McGill’s self-funded model MBA tuition set to increase to $34,750 Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

M

cGill administration reached an agreement with the Quebec Ministry of Education two weeks ago, permitting the university to charge almost $30,000 over the provincial tuition cap for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.

Beginning next year, McGill will make several changes to the program, giving it an international business emphasis that qualifies it as a specialized program under Quebec law. Specialized programs are allowed to set their own tuition.

McGill previously charged $2,069 per year for its MBA, the provincial limit for tuition. In September 2010, the university moved the program to a self-funded model and raised tuition to $29,500. Tuition was increased to $32,500 this year, and Peter Todd, dean of the Faculty of Management, told the Daily in March that McGill intends to continue to raise tuition to the Canadian average of roughly $37,000. Tuition is scheduled to increase to $34,750 by fall of 2012.

Todd was unavailable for comment, but Don Melville, director of the MBA and Masters programs for the Faculty of Management, said in an email to The Daily the changes were made “to reinforce the program’s strong international focus.”

According to Melville, McGill’s MBA program has already been

recognized by the Financial Times as first in Canada in the international makeup of its professorial corps and the international mobility of its graduates.

The changes have ended a two year tête-a-tête with the provincial government that included a $2,011,719 fine in March for violating Quebec’s educational accessibility policy.

In an August 19 press release, Minister of Education Line Beauchamp said the changes to the program “considered the requirements I made known last spring.”

Accessibility still remains a concern for students. The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), a provincial student lobbying group and the Post Graduate Student Society (PGSS) issued a joint statement denouncing the government’s decision the same day as Beauchamp’s press release.

“By accepting the privatization of the program, [Quebec Premier] Jean Charest set back Quebec fifty years, when it was the size of the portfolio and not the intellectual merits which determined access to university,” said FEUQ President Martine Desjardins. “We will not let him do it.”

Beauchamp said McGill was not an exception, “as other Quebec institutions already offer programs of a similar status.”

PGSS VP External Mariève Isabel said most Quebec universities also offer a public MBA program along

with specialized programs.

“I do not know any other example in Quebec of a university offering only private MBAs,” said Isabel. “[McGill] can have all the specialized MBAs they want,” she continued, “as long as they keep it accessible to students as well as in a public system. McGill is a public university, it’s not a private university, and we want it to stay that way.”

Pat Tenneriello, president of the MBA Student Association (MBASA), said he thinks the majority of MBA students support the tuition increases, and are in favor of the new changes.

“We welcome the fact that there is no longer uncertainty over the program and its fate. So I think on the whole we’re happy with this,” Tenneriello said. “[McGill administration] are the ones who know what’s best for the program, and we welcome this decision by the government to let them run the program the way that they see fit,” he continued.

Tenneriello was disappointed, however, that the agreement did not resolve MBASA’s dispute with the provincial government, which withdrew financial aid grants from Quebec students in the program when tuition was first raised above provincial levels.

Melville said McGill is increasing its financial aid contribution to MBA students, including internal and external scholarships amounting to more than $12,000 in funding per student. Melville also said that more than 80 per cent of MBA

• •

A new learning objective will also be added to our program: “Ensure that all students have an international educational experience during the course of the program.”

Starting in 2012-2013, all students in the MBA program will participate in an international study trip. This ten-day trip will be combined with courses that precede and follow it, to ensure that students integrate their understanding of the global business environment.

- Don Melville, director of MBA and Masters programs, Faculty of Management

students received a scholarship this past year.

“That’s helping us,” said Tenneriello, “but it doesn’t appear that there are bursaries based on financial merit. They’re mostly academic and experience-based scholarships. So there’s still no bursary to fill the void for financial aid, which is a void that should be filled by the government.”

Tenneriello said MBASA will be working with PGSS this year to help lobby the government to resume supplying grants for Quebec students. PGSS’ tuition policy calls for completely free tuition for all graduate students in all programs, but Isabel said they still plan to meet with MBASA in the coming weeks.

“What we can try to do is to find common ground,” said Isabel. “We want to work together with them.”

However, Isabel pointed out that the changes do not consider prospective students who are deterred from the program because of the

self-funded model.

“A lot of [MBASA’s] students are in favor of the changes, so we do not want to oppose that if they are happy with the changes. We are not necessarily opposed to them having a more specialized program if they wish,” Isabel said. “[But] all the students that have been excluded from registering to the program because of the cost would have something else to say about this raise,” she continued.

Tenneriello said that, from a student perspective, “there won’t be a whole lot of change.” For example, a ten-day international trip that is now mandatory was previously an optional part of the program.

“By being able to say McGill is an exception, [Quebec is] saving face and stopping other programs from doing the same. And McGill is a happy camper because they get to continue moving forward with the self-funded MBA model,” he said.

came to us and said, ‘I don’t know anything about the newsroom, I won’t tell you what to write. I’m just the ad guy,’” Codère stated.

The agreement soured after Boisvert informed the Frontenac workers that many of them might not be hired – or paid – until September if business fared as expected. Only a handful of reporters would have been hired as of August 1.

Boisvert also named Michel Strecko as one of his investors.

“We were actually told the name like 15 minutes before the deal went through,” said Codère.

“We looked [into] him, and we didn’t like what we found. …This guy has, like, 80 civil law suits against him.”

In 2002, Strecko was convicted of extortion and fined $1,500.

On July 1, Rue Frontenac contributors announced their decision to abandon the project and stripped the site of its content.

Two days later, Boisvert countered with an open letter published on EstriePlus. In the letter, Boisvert maintains that Strecko was only brought on as a legal consultant, and not an investor, and blames miscommunication for the business deal’s failure.

Since leaving Rue Frontenac, most have found jobs elsewhere, said Pascal Filotto, a former editor.

“Some have jumped the fence and started doing PR work, a lot of us are doing freelance work.

Others are working for the New Democratic Party,” he said.

“There’s a lot of Rue Frontenac scattered around.”

Rue Frontenac shuts down Lola Duffort

The McGill Daily

A

search for ruefrontenac. com will no longer direct readers to the online French language newspaper, originally started by the lockedout journalists of the Journal de Montréal as a pressure tactic against their employer. The site has been stripped of all content by its own journalists. Only the logo remains, with the words “Bientôt de retour parmis vous …” which translates to “Soon amongst you again …” and four links to promotional websites.

Launched in 2009, the website established a reputation for solid investigative reporting and, in late 2010, began publishing a

weekly print edition. The site’s contributors stopped receiving pay cheques, which had been paid by the STIJM’s strike fund, following a resolution in April between Quebecor, owner of the Journal, and the Syndicat des travailleurs de l’information du Journal de Montréal (STIJM), the journalists’ union.

For nearly two months, Rue Frontenac’s team of 45 worked without salary to keep the site running, while trying to find financial backers. In late April, the paper stopped publishing a print edition, citing a lack of advertising revenue. Soon after, the group filed for creditor protection, which gave it thirty days to find a buyer.

A few deals fell through, including one with Transcontinental,

the fourth-largest printing media group in Canada. On June 15, management at Rue Frontenac signed a hasty deal with Marcel Boisvert, director general and VP Business Development at EstriePlus.com, a website which unites regional news outlets. Rue Frontenac would have been in charge of feeding a new website with general and national content, to which regional outlets would add their own content.

Jean-François Codère, formerly a Rue Frontenac coordinator, says that the deal proposed with Boisvert was initially interesting because “he had a good plan.

This afforded us the chance to tap into new, regional markets.”

Boisvert also promised a lack of editorial infringement, a sticking point at the Journal. “He

Write for news. Mondays, 4:30, SSMU Caf.

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You will tour state-of-the-art engineering facilities, explore innovative research programs, and learn about collaborations with the region’s growing list of technology, automotive, financial, health and environmental companies.

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Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

8

Sympathize or suffer The West’s problematic response to the London riots Davide Mastracci Hyde Park

W

hen the masses rose in Egypt, the Western public cheered. When the Syrian government gunned down protestors, Obama and other Western leaders called for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to resign.

When the rebels dug in against Libyan Ruler Muammar Gaddafi, NATO sent aid. Yet when England’s marginalized took to the streets, the English government and citizens of the Western world alike called for heads to roll. And, so, a trend continues. When it comes to the actions of the disadvantaged within Western nations, the public turns up its nose and calls for the long arm of the law to crush those who dare to be discontent with the conditions in which they live.

Rich conservatives and middle class liberals alike deny any political motivation behind the riots.

Some of the rioters may have been seeking to take advantage of the chaos for unproductive purposes.

It is true that the rioters could have been more effective in voicing their political demands if they had greater organization. Yet, the riots exemplify the very essence of mass politics: those tired of not having anything taking action to get something.

Unfortunately, the marginalization of the rioters has largely been ignored, and they have often been labelled mere criminals, taking advantage of a system which is already “too kind” to them.

These arguments usually come from those who, while residing in the same country as the rioters, live worlds apart. Poverty does not plague their communities, and as such, they cannot compre-

hend the depressing conditions in which many of their fellow citizens live.

Fuelled by this ignorance, the reactionary tide has quickly risen in England. Beyond the condemnation of middle class liberals who claim to be for the working people, self-labelled “patriots” have shown their opposition to the rioting by creating groups disengenuously seeking to “provide protection” for citizens affected by the rioting. One of these groups, created by the far right English Defence League (EDL), illustrated the racist intentions of this so called patriotism when they harassed a bus full of black youths in Eltham on August 9 until the police forced both the groups to disperse. Although the EDL is opposed to the riots, their actions give legitimacy to the rioters’ anger by providing evi-

dence of one of the main factors motivating the riots: discrimination. The poverty ridden communities in which the riots have taken place are largely made up of people of colour, and the riots themselves were partially incited by the murder of Mark Duggan, a black man with four children, by police officers.

The dangerous reactionary response to the rioting, however, is most evident in the decision of the English government to use the riots as an excuse to unjustifiably and excessively clamp down on its citizens.

Take for example the two men sentenced to four years in prison for creating a Facebook group which unsuccessfully called for a riot in their town.

Or the five month sentence handed to a mother of two for merely accepting a pair of shorts taken from a looting in which she was not involved. Beyond individual cases, David Cameron’s hint

at a possible social networking ban for suspected rioters not only undermines freedom, but resembles the actions of the dictators that Cameron has been quick to condemn.

This hypocrisy demonstrates the fact that condemning governments seems to be easy for the privileged, but only so long as the government is not their own. It is easy for the privileged to support the actions of victims of far off dictatorships, but when the victims are ones of a system which has treated them so kindly, they hesitate.

The disadvantaged should not have to rely upon the possibility of sympathy from the privileged to make progress.

Direct action is needed, the people are waiting.

Davide Mastracci is a U1 Joint Honours student in Political Science and History. You can email him at davide.mastracci@ mail.mcgill.ca.

McGill should keep its ties with The Hebrew University Exchange participants respond to calls condemning the academic partnership

I

n its March 28 editorial (“McGill should cut ties with The Hebrew University”), The McGill Daily called for an end to McGill’s partnership with The Hebrew University.

The editorial focused on the collaborative program between the human rights centres at the universities’ respective Faculties of Law. The editorial was one in a number of publicly-voiced comments raised in advance of the launch of the program. As participants having recently returned from our trip to Jerusalem with the program, we would like to respond and to share our thoughts on the benefits, richness, and importance of it .

To suggest that it is possible to study human rights in Israel and avoid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nonsensical. The Daily’s

editorial expressed concern over the absence of the occupation, the settlements, and the restrictions on Palestinians in the program description. In fact, the program schedule included a tour of East Jerusalem, where we saw the wall snake its way around settlements, cut through Palestinian-owned olive fields, and tower over divided communities.

We also paid a visit to Neve Shalom/ Wahat al-Salam, a Jewish-Palestinian cooperative village. A majority of the McGill students also went to Hebron in the West Bank with the Ramallahbased NGO, Al-Haq. More generally, the conflict and key human rights issues that related to Palestinians informed classroom discussion and coursework on a regular basis. To suggest that there was an agenda to whitewash the conflict or minimize

its impact is completely baseless; while it may not have been the focus of the program, it came up during relevant discussion in a natural and organic way.

At the same time, it is legitimate to study diversity in Israel and not focus exclusively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A key element of the program was gaining awareness of the dire situation of the massive migrant community in Israel, many of whom fled war in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. The migrants who are able to enter the country and resist deportation live precariously and are rarely given refugee status or residency.

We also visited destitute Bedouin villages in the Negev, where basic services such as water and electricity are lacking and economic opportunities are minimal. There is no question

that the conflict often informs the approach taken by the Israeli government to many of these groups. Still, it would be a serious disservice to the cause of human rights to ignore these groups and focus primarily on the conflict.

Finally, The Daily was particularly troubled by Mcgill’s collaboration with The Hebrew University specifically, claiming that the partnership could contribute indirectly to ongoing injustice. We disagree; we found The Hebrew University to be a hub of academic freedom characterized by a plurality of critical voices. Even if one were to accept The Daily’s claims about The Hebrew University, we maintain that the program is worth continuing. We consider The Daily’s proposal to be a disproportionate

response. It overlooked the benefits of dialogue, frank discussion, and exposure to serious human rights issues.

The program in general did what it should: it gave us a new context in which our legal studies could be deepened and perhaps fundamentally changed by what we saw, shared, and absorbed. If the program were cancelled, this rich experience would not have been available to us. While the program had its imperfections, it also had great successes and was an opportunity that should be available to others.

Written by Emilie Blanchard, Eloge Butera, Will Colish, Chiara Fish, Miatta Gorvie, Daniel Haboucha, and Farid Muttalib, students at the Faculty of Law

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Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

The precursor to an African space agency How policy education can assist aspirant space nations Timiebi Aganaba Hyde Park

T

he International Astronautical Congress, the annual premier conference of space enthusiasts, students, and professionals, will be held in October in the African region for the first time in the event’s 60 plus year history.

In light of this occasion, increasing calls are being made for the establishment of an African space agency. While I do support the creation of space agencies in developing countries, such as the Nigerian Space Agency (NASRDA) and the newly established South African National Space Agency (SANSA), I do not believe that Africa is ready for a regional space agency. Other regional co-operative initiatives should be considered first to fully expose African countries to the benefits of Space Science and Technology (SST).

At the core of the topic of space, there are two basic tenets that have stood the test of time. Firstly, to be a “space capable” nation, a country should havewhat some would characterize as superior scientific and technological prowess. Secondly, this designation brings pride and prestige to nations.

But, to get to this stage is no easy task, no less because of the highly political nature of space engagement.

African countries would not be the only countries facing challenges entering the SST arena. During the 2009 Governance of National Space Activities in the Evolving European Framework Workshop in Budapest, major space powers told smaller countries that certain space activity should be left to established players.

But, this notion has not deterred nonclassical actors from pursuing their visions. These nations realize that they will have to be more creative in making their space goals a reality.

With the increasing awareness of the tangible benefits of SST, and with thought to avoiding some of the political barriers to entry, the focus for African countries should be on translation of space appli-

cations into usable ideas at the ground level for sustainable development. Such a proposal is in line with the 1999 Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development as adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III). The job now is to identify the mechanisms needed to actually implement those resolutions and recommendations, first for the benefit of the states and then for the benefit of the region.

While firmly noting the complexities of exporting case studies from experiences that may not serve as suitable models in the African context, it is clear that there are no shortages of “initiatives” in and for Africa.

Unfortunately, poor policy implementation prevents progression of good initiatives into tangible benefits and citizen’s apathy and loss of confidence prevents leaders from being held accountable. The importance of clearly articulating coherent policy with detailed implementation plans and appropriate performance indicators and metrics cannot be overstated. To this end, baseline SST policy considerations could be a substantial element of the new space law curriculum proposed for all the UN affiliated Regional Centers for Space Science and Technology Education, including the locations in Morocco and Nigeria. As the curriculum is currently in the drafting stage by an appointed “group of educators”, such an inclu-

sion is achievable and more will be gained from this integration of law with SST policy.

This initiative for the African

Regional Centers could foster development of strong national space interests and capabilities as well as provide them with a better understanding of the practical benefits of space science and technology.

This capacity will be necessary before the establishment of a regional initiative like the proposed African Space Agency so that contributions from all interested African countries can be meaningful towards the goal of sustainable development of the region. This will increase the confidence of the wealthier African states that they will not just be carrying the poorer States along and also ensure that the smaller states have a voice in regional space policy, despite their technological capacity.

I believe that through policy education and the increased promotion of space science and technology in Africa, there can be a new hope for the emergence of an African voice, at least in space related matters.

9

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Timiebi Aganaba is currently a Master’s student in the Air and Space Law Institute of McGill.

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

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Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

10

Med students caught in the crossfire Residents are asking for pay parity, but are medical students the ones paying the price?

Paulina Kyriakopoulos

Health and Education Writer

O

n July 11, 2011, the 3000 members of the Fédération des Médecins Résidents du Québec suspended their teaching activities indefinitely in hopes of accelerating negotiations with the government for the renewal of their collective agreement. The residents await an offer that would meet their demands, particularly on the issue of salary increases.

Every year, a new batch of medical students enters the hospital system to develop the skills required to become competent physicians.

Residents, doctors completing their obligatory postgraduate training in the field of their choice, are a crucial part of that learning process. Along with tending to patients during their seventy hour plus work weeks, they double as teachers and mentors. However, with the residents now abstaining from teaching, Quebec medical students are left wondering how their education will be affected.

Negotiations with the government have been sluggish since the expiration of the last collective agreement in March 2010. The residents’ primary demand is a pay adjustment aimed at bringing their salaries up to par with those of their peers in other provinces. The annual salary of Quebec’s residents is currently 37 per cent below the national average. One way they are looking to decrease the pay gap is with a teaching premium, a demand the government has ignored. In

response to this lack of attention regarding the value of their teaching duties, the residents have decided to stop teaching.

“Our question was how to have our demands heard so that the government would take us seriously,” explained Dr. Joseph Dahine, the president of the Residents Association of McGill.

“And during brainstorming sessions and general assemblies, we decided to suspend teaching activities, though it was not an easy decision.”

With their demands, residents contend that they are not solely looking for a pay increase.

“Why are we fighting for this?

We’re not doing it out of greed,” said Dahine. “We’re doing this so that in 5, 10, 20 years, we are not faced with an even worse shortage of physicians or less well-trained physicians. By getting better working conditions and eliminating the salary discrepancy we can attract the best doctors in North America here and keep our own residents here in Quebec.”

However, the medical students feel they are caught in the crossfire. They sympathize with the residents’ demands, but feel strongly that any tactic which jeopardizes their education is inappropriate.

“Under normal circumstances, it is the residents who teach us the nuts and bolts of how to function in the hospital,” explained Sameer Apte, President of the McGill Medical Class of 2013. “If this teaching strike continues for too much longer, it will mean that the future physicians of Quebec will

be less well trained than their predecessors. We will be less confident in managing patient illness, and we will be less efficient in how we use medical resources.”

In the meantime, medical students are being taught by staff physicians, doctors who have completed all required postgraduate training. This is not enough to fully compensate for the absence of residents because staff physicians already have a full load of patients to care for and regular teaching obligations.

“Students are getting better quality teaching directly from staff, but the quantity of patients they’re seeing is less,” said Dr. Robert Primavesi, Associate Dean of Medical Education and Student Affairs. “I think what the students feel they’re missing out most on is integration and learning how to function in the hospital environment.”

According to Natacha JoncasBoudreau, a press aide to Health Minister Yves Bolduc, the government wants to reach an agreement as quickly as possible, a sentiment the residents share.

However, the residents have yet to receive an offer they deem satisfactory. Joncas-Boudreau insisted that patient care is not affected, but that may change if the residents take further action in the form of a general strike.

A general strike is on the table, but the residents hope it won’t come to that. “Nobody is interested in a prolonged strike or a general strike,” said Dahine. “After all, we love working with patients, we love working with students and we love to teach. That’s why we’re here.”

Lindsay Cameron for The McGill Daily

Dollars for keeps: roll ‘em up!

A new option in McGill’s meal plan system hopes to accommodate more students Chen Zhiying

Health and Education Writer

A

sk any student who has lived in a McGill residence with a mandatory meal plan what the last few days of eating in the dining hall is like, and you’ll get the following response: it’s absolute mayhem. Everyone scrambles to use what is left of their meal plans, with people gorging down the maximum amount of food they can take and buying whatever dry food items are being sold.

However, with the introduction of the new ollover plan this year, it seems this rite-of-passage

for McGill students living in rez is over. Beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, unspent money in one’s meal plan account will be transferred over to a rollover plan that will only expire the following academic year. The only downside is that this money will be subject to federal and provincial sales taxes. Also, a minimum of 50$ is needed in your current account for this transfer to occur.

Such a rollover plan can be beneficial to incoming students, as it eliminates the need to eat excessively in an attempt to finish the money in their meal plan accounts. It’s often difficult to accurately predict how much you should spend for your meals such

that you don’t run out of money or are left with too much at the end of the school year. Oftentimes, students worry about overspending at the beginning of the fall semester.

Hence, they are cautious, always eating only what they need and choosing the cheaper food items.

However, come winter, as a result of weekends spent away from the city or meals taken outside, they soon realize that they are left with too much money on their account.

In contrast to the scrimping of fall, they begin to purchase the most expensive food items, having fullcourse meals comprising a starter, entree, and a dessert. Needless to say, this can have negative health effects. By getting rid of this effect,

the rollover plan would make it easier for students to ensure that they keep to a healthy diet and perhaps make them less susceptible to the freshman 15.

On the other hand, if students spend less in the McGill dining halls due to this new plan, the quality and variety of food provided to students may be affected. In order to compensate for a possible reduction in spending by students, would the McGill dining halls compromise on the variety of food items they provide? Would the McGill catering staff then still be able to satisfy the varying diet preferences of students?

Ultimately, the McGill Food and Dining Services introduced

the rollover plan with the intention of making the mandatory meal plan more accommodating to the diverse dietary needs of students. With this additional alternative, students are able to enjoy more flexibility in their dietary choices, as they are not bound by the quota of finishing their meal plan. For instance, students with smaller appetites can choose to eat less, without worrying about not finishing their meal plan. Also, students have the option of dining out more often. All in all, what is most important really depends on how students harness this extra flexibility to ensure their nutritional needs and dietary preferences are met.

Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

11

Jerry Gu | The McGill Daily

Mapping policy and infection New McGill project documents tuberculosis vaccination use around the world Melanie Kim

The McGill Daily

I

n celebration of World Tuberculosis Day 2011, a team of researchers from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre officially launched the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) World Atlas. This website provides detailed information on current and past policies and practices for administering BCG – the only known tuberculosis (TB) vaccine – for over 180 countries.

A third of the global population has TB: the infectious disease that continues to be the number one killer in the world. It mainly affects the lungs, and symptoms include prolonged coughs, weight loss, fever, and fatigue.

Most TB infections are latent, meaning those afflicted don’t have the disease or symptoms but still test positive for the infection. In healthy,

immunocompetent adults, only about 10 per cent of infected individuals will develop active TB at some point in their life. Nevertheless, the incidence of active TB surpasses 9 million every year, and ends approximately 2 million lives, according to the World Health Organization.

The most commonly used test for TB, the tuberculin skin test (TST), has been around for almost a hundred years. The test is administered by injecting a small amount of wTB antigens (substances that trigger an immune response) into the top layers of the skin and detecting whether or not a red bump forms on the site of injection, which would indicate previous exposure to TB bacteria.

However, the BCG vaccination can cause false positives for this test.

According to Alice Anne Zwerling, the website’s project leader and McGill PhD candidate in epidemiology, “If individuals have been vaccinated – especially if they’ve been vaccinated multiple times, or if they’ve been

vaccinated later in life, after infancy, in adulthood, or as teenagers, then they’re more likely to have false positives on TST.” Here in Canada, incoming immigrants get tuberculin skin tests as a part of routine immigrant screening.

More often than not, immigrants do not remember if and when they got vaccinations. Therefore, if an individual from a foreign country tests positive for TB according to the TST, the clinician may want to know what the vaccination policy has been in the person’s country of origin in order to confirm the results. This will help in deciding whether to request further tests, which are more specific and unaffected by previous vaccinations.

Countries have different vaccination policies mostly due to the variation in level of tuberculosis incidence: smaller occurrences usually lead to a lower likelihood of BCG administration. In Canada, for example, the risk of contracting TB is very low.

According to Zwerling, there are about

100 to 150 cases of active disease diagnosed every year in Montreal. On the other hand, many African nations must deal with thousands of cases every day. In this region, HIV is the single most important factor contributing to the sweeping number of TB incidences.

“TB/HIV co-infection is a huge issue,” remarked Zwerling. “If HIV-positive people are exposed to TB, they will have a much higher risk of developing TB, they are more likely to get other forms like extra-pulmonary TB – which are harder to diagnose – and they are already concerned about pneumonia and other infections.”

Furthermore, providing effective preventative treatment for all TB patients is hard in countries with high incidences that also lack the necessary tools, drugs, and infrastructure to combat the disease. Still, researchers remain optimistic about helping to cure TB patients around the world,

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since TB is very curable with current antibiotics. Finally, they hope the establishment of this website will be helpful for the design of new TB vaccines.

“A lot about what’s being developed now [are systems in which]… the primer is BCG, and there would [then] be a second, new vaccine,” explained Zwerling. “So in those situations they want to know which countries had [already] given BCG and which hadn’t. That would be very important information for where you do your trials.”

Although Canada does not have a high incidence of TB, McGill, along with the Public Health Agency of Canada, has taken a lead in the fight against TB by creating a free, accessible resource for clinicians, policymakers, and researchers worldwide. Perhaps this outreach to the global community can give one hope for more effective treatment of this disease in developing areas in the future.

12

Welcome to The Daily!

Culture Whether putting the spotlight on student theatre, chatting it up with the folks who make the music we like to listen to, or dishing about cheap eats and food phenomena, we dig into our University and our city to explore what exactly culture means for students today. And we have a boat-load of fun doing it! Culture writers scour their surroundings for whatever artistic happenings catch their eye, enjoy sleuthing, interviewing, and getting a chance to witness some uber-cool creativity.

There are a plethora of ways to get involved in the culture section.

A great way to start is by attending our section’s weekly meetings and scooping up one of the juicy pitches that we’ve concocted. You can also stop by or e-mail us with article ideas of your own. The culture section also loves creative writing, so whether you do poetry or prose, send us your creative submissions and they may just end up in our newspaper’s pages.

Illustrations Are your class notes full of doodles? Do you go through life with a pencil in your hand and a sketchpad in your bag? Would you consider yourself a person of creative persuasion? You should consider drawing for The Daily! Join the illustrations listserv or come in on production nights to catch last-minute drawing assignments.

Health&Ed Health physical, health mental, health sexual – become a writer for the Health&Ed section and educate the McGill public on the intricacies of health and education news and issues. Tag along at meetings to claim articles and offer contributions at weekly section meetings. Health&Ed joins Sports and Sci+Tech every Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Club Lounge (fourth floor of Shatner).

Sci+Tech Web Web is the very newest realm for this newspaper—we’ve had a website for fewer years than we’ve had any of our sections.

We’ve got a hunch it’s here to stay. Shoot web@mcgilldaily. com an email if you want to learn about CSS, design a web page for a special issue, or chat about the brave new future of journalism. Check us out on twitter (our handle is @mcgilldaily) and “like” us on facebook to find out what we’re up to in between production nights.

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Do you want to start a dialogue? Commentary is your platform for expression on politics, health, student life, McGill, sex, oppression, and anything else you can think of. Think of an idea. Then, email it to commentary@mcgilldaily.com for some direction. Alternatively, join the Commentary listserv for pitches and ideas. and fortify your argument. Read the commentary writer’s guide for pointers. Write a hyde park (500-600 words), two cents (125-300 words), apply to be a columnist, or write letters (300 words or less)!

Every part of the paper -– from content, to layout, to style, to small (but important!) formatting knick-knacks – must be copy edited. If you’re detailoriented and have a penchant for catching errors, then come in on production night and help out! To be a capable copy editor, you need to learn The Daily’s style guide and SOP like the back of your hand, so bring a working red pen.

News News runs twice a week with four editors managing content ranging from campus and Montreal news, to provincial, national and international affairs effecting McGill students.

The News section meets every Monday at 4:30 p.m. in the Shatner Cafeteria. Alternatively, you can email news@mcgilldaily.com to find out more and request to join the News listserv.

News editors email story pitches out to the listserv every week for writers to pick up. Deadlines range from three days to three weeks, and word counts range from 300 to 1,500 words.

And if you have a story you’d like to pitch to (and hopefully write for) News, send us an email or drop by Shatner B-24 and we’d love to chat about it.

Sports Do you play sports? Do you watch them? Become a sports writer and cover both McGill sports news as well as the political and social aspect of sports around the world.

tives or long-form journalism issues, unique and interesting articles fill out this section.

However, the Features section is not limited to what has been done before – it also means personal profiles, humerous schemata, gonzo journalism, strong political stances, critical thinking about power and privilege and creative fiction.

If you have an idea you would like to delve into, write to features@mcgilldaily.com. If you don’t have an idea but have the passion, dedication and curiosity to take on a topic come into the Daily Office in B-24 and talk about it with the Features editor.

Photos Carry your camera around with you everywhere? Give us some of those beautiful photos.

Email photos@mcgilldaily.com for assignments, more information, or photo essay submissions.

Compendium!

Generally regarded by the edboard as the most important section of the paper and the only one many people ever read, Compendium is under the purview of the Commentary editor and features the best of McGill satire.

If you fancy yourself a jokester or a master of the humorous parody, Compendium has a spot for you!

Features The Features section is the largest section and occupies the centerfold of each paper.

Features writers have two pages to explore their topic, whether through in-depth analysis, engaging narra-

Design As the connoisseurs of all things aesthetically pleasing, the design team is responsible for laying out the paper and ensuring that it’s as beautiful as it is informative. If you’ve got a knack for creating stunning eyecandy, or if you’re intimate with the Adobe Creative Suite (especially InDesign), come to production nights every Wednesday and Friday to help the design team create the paper long into the night... and morning.

THE

McGILL DAILY!

DISORIENTED! Vol 101 Issue 1 September 1, 2011

STUDENTS CONFUSED CAUGHT IN ACTION!

SCA

N O I T C U D O R T TREAL IN

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S U P M A C D N NDAL AROU

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S! L I A T E D D N A !

IVE PHOTOS

KS FLY AND OOPS’ R A , P S S A H -P C X N U E A R F –– F S, FASHION D U T S G IN Y –– STUD GALORE! TO GO WILD S E C A L P F O –– DETAILS

5 S T N E T N O C ,... just FYI

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UM

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Groupie gossip

Student groups want you!

Cheap eats Our picks for the city’s greatest grub.

Letting loose

6 8

Drink, dance, and make mistakes with our guide to Montreal’s hottest bars and clubs.

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Study? As if!

The best libraries and cafes to spot McGill’s sexiest scholars.

Artsy fartsy We’ve got the fix for all your creative needs.

On the map Your guide to the boroughs and communities of Montreal!

We get around Transportation to get you where you need to go!

Move it, move it!

Public exposure Parks, markets, places to hang!

and

The language of love Where to French at McGill.

10 11 12

Feel the burn with fitness at McGill.

A-listers

The who’s who of campus politics.

Mtl: The inside scoop We take you around town and show you a good time.

Get serviced

Getting you help when you need it.

Religion Wonderful worshippin’

DOWNTOWN CAMPUS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Shatner Building Redpath Hall Redpath Library McLennan Library Bronfman Building Arts Building Burnside Hall

8 9 10 11 12

Schulich Library MacDonald Harrington MacDonald Engineering Leacock Building Adams Building

13 14 15 16 17

Maass Chemistry Building McConnell Engineering Wong Building Strathcona Anatomy & Dentistry

Molson Stadium

18 19 20 21 22 23

Currie Gymnasium Rutherford Physics Strathcona Music Building New Residence Hall 688 Sherbrooke Super Sandwich

PIQUE YOUR CLIQUE How to fin Habitat for Humanity

This nonprofit organization can be found at McGill working tirelessly to give a helping hand to Montreal’s disadvantaged.

Hillel McGill

A hip hangout for students looking to meet fellow Jewish students and to observe holidays with the community. They made waves in recent years lobbying against SSMU motions to divest from companies working in the West Bank.

Journalists for Human Rights

An organization working ‘round the world, the McGill chapter publishes a magazine featuring student work on important global issues. Despite rumours of romantic sparks with the Daily, sources say both parties are too focused on their respective work to commit to a relationship, but remain close friends.

Liberal Party of McGill

Still smarting from a crushing election defeat, McGill’s chapter is NOT licking its wounds. A podium for the politically active, they’ll also be hosting Liberal politicians all year, no matter who’s in Parliament.

Muslim Students Association (MSA) Observers of the world’s largest religion have MSA to help them socialize and observe. They support “activities brought into accordance with [the] Quran and Sunnah.”

MUNACA

Looking out for campus’ non-academic workers, they are shocking the school by striking today after nasty negotiations with the admin this summer.

NDP McGill

The NDP were the hot news of the summer with five students from this club elected to parliament, their sweeping electoral successes and the tragic death of leader Jack Layton will make this a big year for the NDP and their McGill chapter.

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d your PERFECT student g roup match!

Outdoors Club

Fresh air and fun can turn tragic and deadly in the Canadian wilderness, but traveling with the Outdoors Club should keep you safe with your fellow granola-enthusiasts.

Organic Campus

This nonprofit student service is “dedicated to bringing local organic fruits and vegetables” to Shatner on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Education on healthy and sustainable food practices are also available. Make sure you try the delicious sweet potato cinnamon bread – it’s what we’d call finger lickin’ good.

Plate Club

Green is so in this season, and Plate Club gives students the ability to help the earth every day. They provide reusable dishes to students for use in the SSMU cafeteria and lending out glasses, plates and cutlery for on campus events. Find them in the SSMU cafeteria on weekdays or visit their office in Shatner 201.

a strong social justice stand to promote Palestinian human rights locally and internationally. Among other advocacy activities and actions, they are involved with planning Israeli Apartheid week each year.

Tadamon!

A Montreal-based collective that considers Israel an apartheid state, and has joined an international movement for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel.

Student Society of McGill University (SSMU)

3480 McTavish), a VIP hotspot during the school yeah. They hold bi-weekly council meetings and a twice-yearly General Assembly, where all students can voice their opinion to the SSMU execs.

Post Graduate Student Society (PGSS) Another society hotshot – PGSS is the student government representing grad students at McGill.

They hold monthly council meetings and lobby for student issues at both the provincial and federal level.

Your student societies: AUS, EUS, SUS, EdUS, MUS, et cetera...

These societies represent undergrads from different faculties on SSMU council and to the administration. Plus, they can be spotted on lower field each September, holding their respective froshes, and they continue to throw killer parties and events throughout the year.

SSMU is a total superstar society - it’s the student government representing all undergrads at McGill. They’re housed in the Shatner building (at

Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) A student run, non-profit organization that coordinates research, action, and education on issues relating to social justice and the environment. Students can get involved with one of their working groups or apply to start their own. Rumour has it that they even organize Rad Frosh - an alternative frosh each September and continue to organize events such as Social Justice Days throughout the year.

Queer McGill

Promotes the social and political well being of queer people at McGill. A knowledgeable source tells us that their office is a safe space to discuss queer issues.

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)

A student run organization that takes

THE INTERNETZ! Disorientation guide content is online at: bit.ly/getdisoriented — All visuals by Victor Tangermann and Nicole Stradiotto.

PIGGIN’ OUT!

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McGill Student Shania Laboeuf can’t get enough of the city’s fantastic food.

Yum!

Broke Brunch Chez Jose | 173 Duluth

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Any sandwich will satisfy.

Place Milton | 220 Milton 16 Great omelettes. A morning after staple.

Bagel Etc. | 4320 St. Laurent A knowledgeable source recommends the Classic. And keep an eye out for Leonard Cohen, he’s rumoured to be a regular.

Burger Fever Patati Patata | 4177 St. Laurent 14 Great beef and tofu burgers alike!

Buns | 1855 Ste. Catherine or 3673 St. Laurent 8

! s t a E p a e h C T S E B s ’ l t M Bagels on a Budget Fairmount Bagel | 74 Fairmount

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2

Look out for Sesame, their giant mascot!

Mean Poutine La Banquise | 994 Rachel

Feast from the East

Meat Lovers

Midnight Kitchen | Shatner building,

Chez Mein | 3754 St. Laurent $2 chow mein. Must be drunk to enjoy.

Romados | 115 Rachel

12:30 weekdays

Over 20 types of mind blowing bagels!

St. Viateur Bagel | 236 St. Viateur

Campus Cuisine A steamy, student run vegan kitchen serving up lunches by donation.

Super Sandwich | Cartier building, Peel and Sherbrooke Better than Subway and only $3!

Liquid Nutrition | Shatner building,

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Open 24 hours with almost thirty varieties available.

Chef Guru | 4120 St. Laurent

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A butter chicken wrap that’s to die for!

Saint Henri Special!

Green Spot (G. Spot) | 3041

Open late, with a friendly staff and a hot portobello mushroom burger.

La Paryse | 302 Ontario

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Epic wedge fries and a decadent burger.

Hippie Hot Spots 3

Best chicken in Montreal.

Basha | 1202 Ste. Catherine and 666 Sherbrooke Ouest 4

Burritoville | 2055 Bishop The sweet potato burrito will give you a vegasm.

People’s Potato | 1455 Maison-

$3 flafel pita close to campus.

neuve, weekdays

Boustan | 2020 Crescent

Concordia’s version of Midnight Kitchen, only bigger.

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A fabulous family business that delivers until 4 a.m.

first floor

Notre-Dame 12

Le Main | 3864 St. Laurent

75 cent coffee! ‘Nuff said.

Where else around Solin are you going to get pancakes at 2 a.m.?

Smoked meat sandwiches that give Shwartz’s a run for its money.

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Pizza-palooza Pizza du Parc | 4827 Parc

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Cheese, cheese, cheese.

NIGHT LIFE: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

Dancing with the Stars As any boy band singer, reality TV star, or Glee cast member

would tell you, dancing is a total must on any hot night out. So, where do Montreal’s hot shots head when they need to bust a move?

Korova (3908 St. Laurent) is a dim, dingy, and dance friendly bar that’s become a mainstay for many McGill students. Monday nights are always bumpin’, as are the infamous motown nights on Thursdays.

For a solid Friday night

(156 Roy Est) is a prime escape for McGill students looking for a couple of low key drinks that won’t break their bank accounts. Plus, with a menu of tasty treats and free wifi, Else’s is an A-list spot at any time of day or night. And when it comes to dirt cheap booze, few places do the the trick like Verres Stérilisés (800 Rachel Est), where a pitcher won’t cost you more than a song in your heart and about seven bucks.

Local celebs groove, many of Montreal’s party kids head to The Playhouse (5656 Parc) to break a sweat at UpYours! or Faggity Ass Fridays, a couple of queer-positive dance parties that will undoubtedly get your booty shaking.

Cheap thrills Whether they’re saving money for a multi million dollar divorce or for tuition next semester, celebrities and students alike need a cheap drink every now and then. Else’s

Here’s a secret revealed to ya!

Montrealers don’t just like drinking beer, some of them make it as well!

If you want to drink like a local, head to Dieu du Ciel (29 Laurier Ouest) for some of the best hometown brews around. Reservoir (9 Duluth West) is another local brasserie perfect for star sightings, especially if you’re seated on their rooftop terrace, which has a clear view of every constellation in the sky.

Out of the closet, on to the dance floor Montreal’s Gay Village is one of the most famous around, with tons

of places to see and be seen. For drag shows it’s hard to beat Cabaret Mado (1115 Ste. Catherine Est), while one of the most popular bars catering to the lesbian scene is without a doubt Le Drugstore (1366 Ste. Catherine Est). If you’re looking for a big-budget blockbuster kind of night, head to the multi-level Sky Pub Club (1474 Ste. Catherine Est), or Unity Club (1171 Ste. Catherine Est). These clubs are geared largely toward gay men, but still manage to attract diverse crowds.

a popular North end haunt, tailor made for enjoying a beer along with some indie beats. Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent) is a popular Mile End study spot among students in the know, but in the evenings the back room is transformed into a delectably intimate concert venue. Many A-list bars, such as Le Divan Orange (4234 St. Laurent), also often play host to bands, so a tune to enjoy, or a musician to stalk, is never far away.

MTL music: beyond Celine Dion

Every scene needs a few funky players, and Montreal’s got plenty.

Icehouse (51 Roy Est) is a new Plateau hot spot with a hyped up array of tasty Tex-Mex food and drink. But, if you’re looking for a real Montreal veteran, head to Café Cleopatra (1230 St. Laurent). After over a hundred years, and several attempts by the city to redevelop the site, this Montreal institution still sizzles with some of the most original drag and burlesque shows in town. Snack’n Blues (5260 St. Laurent) is just one of many Montreal haunts catering to jazz fans. It may be small, but it packs a whole lot of personality, and even more classic tunes.

In Montreal’s bustling music scene, affiliated venues Casa del Popolo (4873 St. Laurent) and La Sala Rosa (4848 St. Laurent) are two of the hippest hot spots in town.

Offering a bodacious bevy of independent and alternative rock shows, stay tuned to these hoppin’ joints to catch a glimpse of a few big names as well as the next big thing. Casa del Popolo also holds regular DJ nights, while Thursdays at La Sala Rosa’s main floor restaurant feature live Flamenco performances along with some top-notch tapas.

Il Motore (179 Jean-Talon Ouest) is

Character actors

STUDYIN’ STUDS Birks Reading Room | 3520 University Monday-Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Even celebrities need time for quiet study. Our insiders tell us that, although shoes aren’t allowed, slippers are graciously provided to all students. Join the in crowd lounging amongst the beautiful decor, quietly cozy atmosphere, and tennis ball-footed chairs.

Tapioca Thé | 1672 Maisonneuve Ouest Monday-Thursday: 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Friday: 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Saturday: 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Sunday: 12 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Craving something with an international twist? Stop by Tapioca Thé, home to bubble tea, chinese food, and free wifi. It’s open late, so you keeners can enjoy both lunch and dinner alongside your plethora of readings and practice problems. How trendy of you!

Kafeïn | 1429 Bishop

Monday-Thursday: 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Friday: 9 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Saturday: 12 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Sunday: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Lounge on forties style couches, sip beer, and read coursepacks— all under the same roof in this snazzy café and bar combo. Melting off a little stress has never been so productive! This locale also boasts free wifi. We’ll drink to that.

Westmount Library | 4574 Sherbrooke Ouest Monday-Friday: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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McLennan may be chilly, but this hunk is hot, hot, hot!

When the campus libraries get old, make your way to the gorgeous district of Westmount!

Just a metro or bus ride west of campus, this spacious and modern library is open to all (though borrowing privileges are a members only exclusive). Major bonus: unlike the thermostat happy buildings on our campus, this nerd hang out boasts proper temperature control.

Café Névé | 151 Rachel Est

Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday to Sunday: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Spotted: coffee and one-liners being served up in the Plateau. Insiders say that many of the baristas happen to moonlight as comedians. A generous tip just might get you the entire stand up act along with your double espresso. But this wise cracking hot spot doesn’t forgo the essentials: the food and coffee are delish, the wifi and outlets are abundant, and breakfast is served until 3 PM.

Islamic Studies Library | 3485 McTavish Monday-Thursday: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Next time you’re strutting the beaten path to the McLennan-Red-

path library complex, try taking a detour. The Islamic Studies Library is located in Morrice Hall, right next door to Redpath. It’s home to materials on Islamic civilization along with an octogon shaped, stained glass adorned study space that makes the perfect place to get away from the cliche Cybertheque.

Burnside Hall (Walter Hitschfeld Geographic Information Centre, Edward Rosenthall Mathematics and Statistics Library) | 805 Sherbrooke Ouest Monday-Friday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Aspiring Stars!

TNC (Tuesday Night Café Theatre)

A place to see and be seen on lower campus, this student-run theatre in Morrice Hall performs a mix of internationally acclaimed and student written plays.

Players’ Theatre

This juicy, nonprofit theatre puts on four shows a year in Montreal’s oldest black box theatre. It’s also home to the McGill Drama Festival, the number one student written and directed theatre festival at McGill.

Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society

This theatre regularly puts on fantastic productions (such as last year’s show, Kiss of the Spider Woman) in Moyse Hall. Try not to miss their starstudded production this year!

Douglas Theatre Company

An up and coming theatre company headquartered in Douglas Hall. This hot young thing puts on student written shows, and allows only first years to audition.

Schulich Productions

Love classical music? McGill’s fab music school often offers free or cheap student performances!

Student Art Mags

If you want to channel your inner Picasso, student art mags such as Steps, the Veg, Scrivener, and Folio could give you the chance to do so! They regularly ask for art and writing submissions, giving students the chance to flex their creative muscles.

(6 p.m. for the Geographic Info Centre) The dreary, prison-like basement where science students lock themselves during finals isn’t the only study space in the Burnside building! Ride the elevator up from the dungeon to the 5th floor for the Walter Hitschfeld Geographic Information Centre or to the 11th floor for the Edward Rosenthall Mathematics and Statistics Library. Enjoy the view! (And, science students: you

have exclusive 24/7 access to that dungeon with the swipe of your student card. Aren’t you lucky!)

Campus celebutantes know where to go for the best parts and arts Student Choirs

Aspiring songbirds can audition for any of the many choirs at McGill – such as a capella ensembles Soulstice, Effusion, Tonal Ectasy, and New Earth Voices, and women’s choral ensemble Les Muses Chorale.

Vocal superstars can also check out the McGill Choral Society, which doesn’t require an audition to join.

Dance Groups

You can get your groove on in almost any style with the many dance groups at McGill, such as the Inertia Modern Dance Collective, Mosaica, Salseros, the Scottish Highland Dance Society, the Swing Kids Society, and the Urban Groove Dance Collective.

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t o p S t o N d n a s t o Hot Sp

Côte-des-Neiges (CDN)

The most populated borough of Montreal, this fun locale is home to over one hundred different ethnic communities. Geographically, CDN is right above Westmount, but it’s got a totally different vibe.

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG)

On the west side of the city, you’ll find this Anglo hub filled with old houses and young families. The area is a fab breath of fresh air that’s just outside of the bustling cityscape of downtown.

Westmount

Money, money, money! Technically its own independent city, this snazzy little enclave is home to some of the province’s biggest celebs and stars. Leonard Cohen was born here, while Heather Munroe Blum and Quebec’s premier, Jean Charest, currently own real estate in this hot spot. With fancy mansions and English signs, this area is an upper-middle class Anglophone heaven.

St. Henri

Rumour has it that this spot is home to McGill residence Solin Hall, as well as old factories and picture perfect parks. Rough charm, emerging vegetarian cuisine, and cheap rent have made the area hopping with students.

Pte. St. Charles & Verdun

Southwest of downtown Montreal, bound on the east and southeast by the Saint Lawrence River, this area has cheap rent and a sprinkle of gentrification, making it less diverse than it once was. A largely industrial area, this neighbourhood includes the former CN rail yards.

Concordia Ghetto

The bright and booming lights of Crescent are a draw in this bodacious area. Mingle with Concordia kids downtown and socialize your way into a world of fab visual artists. Insiders say that the rent isn’t bad either.

The Old Port

This juicy slice of Western Europe is filled with Quebec flags and moose-themed merch – and seems to be an on-trend spot for tourists. Nuit Blanche and Igloofest spice up this snowy haven during the winter months.

Chinatown

Cheap groceries, tasty foods, and bargain clothes! It may not be as large as New York’s or Toronto’s, but Monreal’s Chinatown is less overwhelming and just as loaded with art and yummy grub.

Latin Quarter

Shisha bars, tree lights, and beautiful terraces! Check out the Quartier des Spectacles – an entertainment district sandwiched between The Plateau and The Village with a century-old tradition of shows and performances. Snazzy!

The (Gay) Village

Get ready to get down at Unity, leaf through a paperback in a small coffeeshop, grab a beer at a happenin’ three floor bar like Le Drugstore, or just get some shopping done. Enjoy leather and retro music at Woof! Bistro Bar, and walk the brightly lit and neon spackled streets (closed to cars when the weather is warm).

Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (HoMa)

French, French, and more French! The Value Village at Ontario and Pie IX is perfect for all of you fantastic bargain shoppers! Stop by The Botanical Gardens or The Olympic Stadium for fun times in this bit of the city.

The Ghetto

You’ll be spending a lot of time here, so you better get used to it. Not everyone in the neighbourhood is a student, but lots and lots of them do shack up here. This locale is packed with drinking students, students with backpacks, students on bikes, and the slipperiest ice in the city come January.

The Plateau

Almost like a McGill away from McGill, this nook is heavily populated with students and is home to some of the cutest cafés and coffee shops in the city.

Here you’ll find adorable little bars, vintage clothing, yoga, and cheap pizza. St. Laurent is one of the hottest party places outside of downtown, and it’s still walking distance from campus.

Mile-End

Head to this part of town to nosh on good bagels and jam out at some of Montreal’s best music venues. Snugly fit between The Plateau and Outremont, it manages to be one of Montreal’s more residential locals without sacrificing proximity to downtown.

Rosemont

Residential, low-key, and pleasant! Rosemont makes up a huge swatch stretching across a northeast chunk of the city.

Little Italy

Espresso and cannoli fill lovely cafes and charming terraces line St. Laurent. Plus, Jean Talon market is a wonderful reason to saunter over to this area up north.

Outremont

This beautiful borough is Westmount’s francophone counterpart. A source in the know tells us that it’s the home of many UdeM profs and Quebec’s most studly political and intellectual aficionados. This area has a flourishing Hasidic population and tasty, if pricey, restaurants along Bernard and Van Horne.

Park Extension (Park Ex)

Here you’ll find cheap rents and succulent food. You can munch on just about any type of cuisine here – flavours range from Indian to Greek to West African.

ts

Your tell all, exclusive guide to all the juiciest, ste amiest, fun-andflirty hotspots underneath the bright lights of the city!

7

8 Where to buy a bike:

craigslist | montrealen.craigslist.ca/bik This flashy webzine offers everything from vintage banana seat low riders to off road unicycles. Just name a price, and you’re guaranteed to find a bargain. Make sure you only buy if you’re confident that your new ride won’t fall apart after hitting one of those vicious Montreal potholes that are the cause of 78 per cent of all bikingwithout-hands-induced road accidents.

CAUTION! Some are still learning!

Velomakak | 215 Murray A popular shop stuffed with bikes and their parts. They may not always pay attention to bike registration or to the true origins of certain parts, but the price is pretty much always right.

Bring a bike-savvy friend.

Velo Villeneuve | 207 Beaubien E. (temporary) If you’ve got green in your back pocket, invest in one of Villeneuve’s finest fixies. The trendy Mile End bike shop offers a variety of flashy steels and wheels for those who can afford them. Currently in the midst of a move, they can be found at 207 Beaubien in Little Italy.

Where to get bikes fixed:

about your ride and how to patch it up.

McGill’s very own bike co-op has everything you need to revitalize your rusty ride. Flats and bent rims are no longer a problem, even if you aren’t a McGill student. You’ll find everything in their expansive used parts collection, from bells and reflectors to bottom brackets and fenders. Look out for their workshops on Wednesdays to learn

Belleville Cycle Co-op | 2111, rue de Bleury If you would wanna mingle with the hats and fixies of Montreal’s numerous bike messengers while you repair your flat or buy streamers for your handlebars, Belleville is the place to go. Plus, it happens to be very close to McGill’s downtown campus.

The Flat | Shatner basement

Right to Move | 2153 Mackay Started by QPIRG Concordia in 1997, Right to Move is a non profit bike collective which offers drop-in sessions or DIY hours to reanimate your cycle. Hands on workshops are offered in English and French.

Bikurious | 1757 Amherst If you want to save time and get that lesbian haircut you’ve always

wanted while your ride is being overhauled, Bikurious is most likely your number one choice.

The queer bike shop not only fixes bikes, it also hosts movie screenings, art openings, and supports oodles of diverse initiatives, projects, and people.

J.R. Cyclery | 201 Rachel E. A popular spot around the Plateau.

J.R. offers one of the widest selections

GET FIT FAST! Exercise

An active body makes a happy mind, as so many great gurus have put it. But don’t take their word for it!

Check out McGill’s Sports Complex and Fitness Center; it’s available for any student who wants to get fit.

You might even catch some major McGill celebs pumping iron beside you! For only $20 a semester, the opportunities are endless.

Intramural sports

Even if you’re not Jennifer Heil (silver medal winning Olympian and McGill student, no big deal!! Don’t sweat it. The show must go on and McGill offers a ton of intramural options where attitude counts for much more than skill! This fall, offered sports include soccer, hockey, flag football, basketball, among many others. Our all-time fave? Inner tube waterloo! It’s a great way to meet new people or to have tons of fun with your friends.

Free agents meetings are on either

September 6th or 12th depending on the sport. Check out the McGill Athletics mag on stands now!

Fitness and recreation courses

Get yourself moving by taking a McGill Athletics fitness or recreation course! For a small fee that varies depending on the course, you can take introductory to advanced classes in sports, dance, martial arts, or even “Abs, Back & Booty”.

McGill varsity sporting events More of a fan than a major leaguer?

That’s great! After all, where would all of the McGill sports stars be without the support of their biggest fans? When games aren’t free, they’re usually only $5. For the super fans, there’s Red Thunder, the group that plans tailgates, pep rallies, and other athletic events.

of cycle accessories in town, and they’ll repair or brush up your twowheeler at an affordable price.

Cycle Technique | 788 Atwater If racing in goggles and short shorts is more your thing, consider Cycle Technique your destination. They provide services ranging from training centres with high performance treadmills and a double endless pool to yoga and pilates classes. Oh, and they maintain your ride, too.

Swimming

While the weather is still warm, get to an outdoor pool and catch some waves! For no cost at all, you can go to the pools in Parc Jarry, Parc Laurier, and Parc Georges-Étienne-Cartier.

The hip and happening Hotel de la Montagne offers a rooftop pool and bar that’s open to the public. The summer may be ending soon, but you can go swimming all year round at the McGill gym or local YMCA.

Ice skating

In winter, the best hotspots are actually cold! Get yourself to the rinks available in Montreal for some good old fashinoned fun. For picturesque skating or for a pick-up hockey game, Parc Lafontaine is the best. If you’re dodging paparazzi, there’s also the more secluded Beaver Lake, which is atop Mont Royal. Both of these offer skate rentals on sight. Parc JeaneMance is another option, but make sure to bring your designer skates because they don’t offer rentals.

Porno Shocker in Public Park!

Square St. Louis Metro Sherbrooke It’s not all patooie at Square St. Louie!

Pass the pedestrian part of Prince Arthur to enter one of the Plateau’s nicest parks. Architecturally astonishing with a gelato stand and gazebo, Louis is lush with life.

Parc La Fontaine Metro Sherbrooke Caught drinking in public! This park is full of joggers and jugglers galore.

Come December, there’s winter wonderland ice skating.

Parc Mont-Royal Jeanne Mance Park Look up!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a cross?

Look out for the stunning lookout spots and shake your Tamtams here on Sunday. Eager beavers can be found at Beaver Lake. The bearer of this beautiful city’s name, the mountain promises a [Mont]real good time!

Jean-Talon Market 7070 Henri-Julien Catastrophe for coupon cutters!

Local farmers, free samples, and fun for all. Not for Provigo-ers.

Casgrain. Count your blessings, as cops are nearby.

Lachine Canal

A beautiful waterworks near Atwater market and flanked by factories. You can run, skip, jog, bring your dog, and finish with a savory St. Henri lunch.

Old Port

Ile St. Helene

Tourists trapped! Paris flights redirected to the Old

FRSL

Parc Maisonneuve Metro Pie IX Parc Maisonneuve takes home the gold! Tour books tote the big name attractions: the Olympic Stadium, Biodome, Botanical Gardens, Planetarium, and Insectarium.

Bus Graveyard Casgrain, Mile End Old STM buses see the light at the end of the mile. Rusted and graffitied, the buses meet their maker near the train tracks on avenue

S

For the Pros

The fab Départment de Langue et Littérature Française teaches literature courses in French. Warning!

It’s only for those who are really good at frenching.

! l l i G c M t a g n i h c n e r F y m Le Délit

This French rag gives the dish! The Daily’s fracophone counterpart is a mustread for sass, spunk, guff, and news. Fresh scoop on stands every Tuesday.

Ooh la la!

The scandal of a lifetime!

Careful with those hands!

Walk the windy streets and chow down on overly expensive eats.

Camera-shy?

Unlikely!

Metro Jean Drapeau Dancing days! Sundays offer Piknik Electronik, but regular picnics can be held any day of the week. Fear death by rollercoaster at La Ronde. Just a quick ride on the yellow line or cross Jacques Cartier to Jean Drapeau!

CAUGHT!tea Get the scoop on French programs at the language building (688 Sherbrooke Ouest). Sit for a “French as a second tongue” exam and learn whether you’re hot or not!

Port. Luckily, with cappuccinos and cigarettes, the Old Port proves a close second to that European city. People-watch at Place Jacques Cartier.

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CKUT

The hottest radio station at McGill keeps French on the air with its many programs done in theis sweet tounge.

Check out ckut.ca for listings.

J’explore

Newbies can pack their bags for the long haul and head out of the city.

Smalltown eastern Quebec residents take in visitors, feed them, and teach them.

Can you say heavy petting?!

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CELEBRITIES!

T S U J ’RE

THEY

!

S U E K LI

They dress sharp, move quick, and call the shots inside the bubble. When they’re not climbing in and out of tinted Escalades and buzzing into ivy-wrapped towers, they’re deciding things like how much you pay and where your dough goes. But regardless of their lavish lifestyles, which include helicopter pads, personal drivers, million-dollar Westmount mega-mansions, and even Gert’s tabs, these glam glitterati can get caught in less-than-flattering situations. With an unprecedented and exclusive look behind the electronic combination-locked doors of the rich and famous, The Daily! takes you inside the lives of McGill’s movers and shakers.

Back then...

The SSMU Executive Board

around the McGill government!

VP Finance and Operations – Shyam Patel

President – Maggie Knight Hailing from the chill ville of Victoria, B.C., Maggie Knight finally got her big break last year, becoming well known as one of the better minds on SSMU Council and earning the title of “Knight in Shining Armour.” Mags is sashaying into the role of SSMU President and effortlessly assuming the coveted title of campus “It Girl” (Tough break, HMB). Mags is taking on the job with vigour. Rumour has it that she’s been shut up in her office working day and night. Is that because she’s simply working ceaselessly for McGill students, prepping for the start of her second undergrad degree, or is something else afoot?

Frosh drama perhaps?! Though classy and elegant in her campaign, Mags’ keen and subtle-yet-unfaltering tendency to point out the problematics on SSMU Council last year has McGill students hoping that she’ll get out her claws to defend their interests against the administration.

VP University Affairs – Emily Yee Clare Self-described rabble-rouser, Emily Yee Clare hails from the Canadian Wild West, the land of country music and oil, Alberta.

Yes, like any true cowgirl, she says “y’all.”

E-Clare is this year’s VP University Affairs, which essentially means she’s the one handling all forms of student representation throughout the bureaucratic McGill government. She’s sworn to eliminate the red tape between student groups and the administration with a new communication strategy. E-Clare posted on her SSMU bio that she can “rock a boat like no other.”

We’re hoping this wild child will lure students out of the classroom and get them

Shyam Patel. He’s not just like us. He wears a suit 24/7. Word to the wise: a rumpled suit is not a good look. Watch out for that $lam Bam Patel. He’s got the money, literally. He’ll be controlling the SSMU’s cash-money sitch as the VP Finance & Operations. We hope he’ll be investing in some business casual if he’s serious about his desire to be called the bestdressed SSMU exec. He’s got big plans for our dollars this year: including funding student events and groups, a new marketing strategy for SSMU’s Mini Courses and getting his committees spending (and auditing). But he’s not all about the money . $lam Bam’s got ethics and integrity and promises to cash in on this quality throughout his term on Finance & Operations portfolio. He will be working on ethical and socially responsible investment strategies. $lam Bam, you look like a smooth operator.

VP Clubs and Services – Carol Fraser Describing herself as the “go-to person for all things clubs and services”, Fraser can help get you where you need to be if you plan on climbing the ranks of McGill Society. Because let’s face it, folks – to be anyone at McGill, you’ve gotta find your niche in a group or club. This enviro-chic exec certainly has found her thang, keeping track of all the comings and goings in the Shatner building while maintaining her duties as the point person for all internal relations between SSMU and its clubs and services. Keeping it cool as she bikes around campus, Fraser can often be spotted dishing out delicacies at Midnight Kitchen (12:30 p.m. on 3rd floor of SSMU for all you enviro lovers). You can be sure she will greet you with a friendly smile; don’t be

Clockwise from the left: Maggie Knight, Joel Pedneault, Todd Plummer, Carol Fraser, Emily Yee Clare, Shyam Patel

afraid to approach this green gal and find out how to get involved around campus.

VP External Affairs – Joel Pedneault Student politics is a passon for this SSMU Icon.

With cool composure and style, Joel lobbies municipal, provincial, and federal governments regarding student issues. This suave SSMU politician plans to spend the year advocating for accessible education at all levels and fighting rising tuition fees with a steel fist. Studying sociology and translation, we hope this VP can use his panache to keep student issues on the table, and on the minds of those outside McGill campus.

VP Internal Affairs – Todd Plummer The main man when it comes to events on campus, this sun-streaked SSMU VP comes to us from south of the border with plenty of enthusiasm and spunk. But Plumm Sauce, really? A little cheesy one might say saucy, too.

In charge of bonding SSMU’s admin and its members through activities and events, this social planner knows how to have a good time.

Keeping up communication is his main goal, in order to smooth out any wrinkles between faculty, school and other associations. Keep him close, folks – if Plummer’s there, you’ve probably found the right place to party.

The Administration

hand-shaking, and occasional Town Halls, Her Majesty Blum can also be found wining and dining with impressive types at the swanky Faculty Club for Board of Governors meetings, or jetting off to board meetings for the Royal Bank of Canada and Trudeau Foundation.

Senate The guiding light for McGill governing drama, Senate features a cast of SSMU hotshots (including VP University Affairs E-Clare and Pres Mags) as well as reps from each faculty, post-grad students, continuing ed and Macdonald College. Members of the Board of Govs, faculty deans, and support staff representatives round out the posse.

Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) – Morton “Eminem” Mendelson This McGill pro is responsible for going the extra (8) mile to ensure that students’ interests are repped in admin decisions – though he treated last year’s student protests against the closure of the Architecture Cafe like last year’s fashions. He tossed ‘em, and skipped out on a student-organized forum on student consultation. His run at McGill dates back to Trudeau’s PM years, and it seems that this real slim shady will be around for a while yet to pal around with BFF HMB.

Principal – Heather Munroe-Blum

Provost – Anthony Masi

The university’s long-term It Girl – boasting the titles of Principal and Vice-Chancellor – HMB calls the shots from her fab luxury suite in James Admin. The media-savvy HMBoss manages to shake off the paparazzi by retreating to her Westmount pad, but spotted meeting the masses for speech-making,

HMB’s trusted No. 2, this brovost has been in office since 2005 after a long career as a professor in Canada as well as Italy (molto bello!). He’s written extensively about workforce and labor issues, a good thing given all the labor disputes he’s gotten into with McGill unions this summer. He spearheads key fact-finding mis-

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sions for McGill, including the University budget every year and a ton of White Papers. He will also be leading the school’s Strategic Reframing Initiative – which will radically reinvent our approach to research, student and faculty support and services, enrolment mix and philanthropy, among other things – starting this year.

Not known for his public appearances, make sure you check him out when he stops by SSMU Council and other events, because this year he should have plenty to talk about.

Chair of the Board – Stuart Cobbett As chair of the Board of Governors, Cobb Salad is King of Kings at McGill. Bringing together all the CEOs, administrators and other high-rollers on the 25-person BoG, this high-status crew is in charge of all the major governance and financial decisions the school makes. Intensifying the intrigue is the fact that ALL these decisions are crammed into six top-secret meetings every year. Cobb Salad, a McGill grad as well as a managing partner of local corporate and commercial law firm Stikeman Elliot LLP, director of the board of Citibank Canada, and governor of the Quebec Bar Foundation, manages to keep to himself cool as a bowl of lettuce. And corn? What’s in a cob salad anyways?

... and now!

From the left: Carol Fraser, Emily Yee Clare, Todd Plummer, Maggie Knight, Shyam Patel, Joel Pedneault

Chancellor – H. Arnold Steinberg The Chancellator was at the centre of one of the biggest McGill gaffes of the millennium back in 2000, when the school gave him an honorary degree without realizing he already had a REAL one from back when he was an undergrad. Despite this embarrassing public incident, both McGill and the Chancellator were able to overcome the “Secondary Degree-gate” media storm and he was named school Chancellor nine years later. While The Daily!’s investigative team has yet to unearth what a Chancellor does, this chancellor, boasting a résumé that includes having a Harvard Business degree, being board member of Provigo, founding chair of the McGill University Health Centre and member of the Order of Canada, is hopefully doing it well.

With his term up next June, we’ll find out if it’s good enough to get a second.

HMB

o it h W e vs r Morty wo ? t s e b

MTL EXPOSED! The city’s best bits revealed!

Montreal Planetarium | 1000 St. Jacques

cold hard cash. Or, bring your old textbooks in and get something in return.

Great balls of fire! Here you can catch a glimpse of stars off the red carpet. Uranus never looked so good.

Drawn and Quarterly | 211 Bernard Ouest

Montreal Symphony Orchestra | 260 Maisonneuve Ouest

Bad guys beware! This independent graphic novel trove saves Mile End from the evils of corporate comics.

At this hot spot, a black-tie crowd soaks up Bach and Brahms. A source tells us monocles are worn, money is burned, and souls are lifted. Check you local listing to get the 411 on upcoming concerts.

Cinema du Parc | 3575 Parc Star-studded cellar cinema saves starving students’ silver. Frequent foreign flick flood this film fantasia.

The Word | 469 Milton This McGill ghetto bookworm hub buys and sells old textbooks.

No plastic accepted here, just

Tam Tams | George-Etienne Cartier Monument, Parc MontRoyal Sunday afternoons At this mountain party, flower power rules. Drums are drummed and drags are taken; shoes and socks are always optional. To tie-dye for!

St. Michel Market | 3250 Cremazie Est Knick knacks strike back! Vintage triumphs at the St. Michel Market, which is filled with trinkets and second-hand steals. It’s a safe haven for hoarders and nostalgics; neatfreaks, beware.

Parisian Laundry | 3550 StAntoine Ouest Secret art gallery near Solin revealed! This gallery turns industrial space into installation art. Home to white wine vernissages, and even white collars.

Eva B | 2013 St. Laurent Clothes pile 20 feet high at this stellar friperie. Home to monstrous $1 clothing mountain, celebrity sightings of Mick Jagger boots and Leonard Cohen Suits.

Also serves up free espresso and self-expression.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts | 1380 Sherbrooke Ouest Contemporary Art Museum of Montreal | 184 Ste. Catherine Ouest These Montreal museums maintain many masterpieces, both modern and magnificent. M.A.C. tix are a bit pricey, but M.M.F.A is cheap as free!

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GET WHAT YOU WANT.

tar S l l A s ’ l l i McG s! e c i v r e S t Studen McGill First Aid Service (MFAS) Hot, trained and lifesaving-savvy, this student club provides free emergency first aid services to students or random friend-of-a-friendof-a-friends who need a helping hand. There’s about sixty of these bombshells walking among us and they’ve all got the rubber-stamp of Red Cross Emergency First Responder. They hang at all the big campus events: 4Floors, sporting events, charity walks, Frosh, and other special guest appearances. If you’re livin’ the life in rez, MFAS will be waiting for your call every night. But don’t take them for granted, these people mean business. If you need them, they’ll take care of you and make sure you get where and what you need. But don’t cry wolf; no one likes a tease.

They also offer first aid training courses so ordinary people like you and me can be just like them!

The Shag Shop | Brown building, suite 3300 Monday-Friday: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Shagging may or may not be part of your McGill experience. But if it is, The Shag Shop is the combination sexual health resource and boutique, conveniently located right on campus, with not-to-be-found-anywhereelse low prices. They’ve got safe sex products like condoms and lubricant, as well as toys, books, pregnancy tests, alternative menstrual products, non hormonal contraceptives, massage oils and so much more. This is also the place where you can find the deets on sexual health issues, and there’s even an online question service called Ask Dr. T. Asking for consent, clarification and safety on all your shag-alicious adventures is always super sexy! ;)

Nightline | (514) 398-6246

Every night during the school year: 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.

GET YOUR FAITH ON

This student-run service is waiting for your call! Their volunteers are

FIND WHAT YOU NEED.

trained to provide a “Three Pillar Service” – information, chat and crisis – for all McGill students. They’ll be fielding calls on any and every subject – from late night directions to feelings about things going on in your life. They are confidential, anonymous and here to listen or provide crisis and referral services.

Sexual Assault Centre Of McGill Students’ Society | Shatner building, basement B-27 (514) 398-8500 The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) is run by volunteers who are dedicated and trained to support survivors of sexual assault and their allies. They offer different services including direct support, advocacy, and outreach. All of their services are free, open to the public, and confidential.

For direct support over the phone, call hours run weekdays 12 p.m. - 12 a.m. and weekends 6 p.m. - 12 a.m.

For walk-in services, the centre has office hours from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

Union for Gender Empowerment | Shatner building, rm 413 This volunteer collective offers tons of services: events, workshops, an alternative lending library, a co-op and a zine “distro” (distribution centre). They’ve got a resource binder to help you find information on other services like abortion services, counselling, and queer and trans friendly health services.

They’ve got an office and lounge space where they invite people of all genders to come spend some time, eat lunch or have a cup of tea.

Career and Planning Services (CaPS) | Brown building, suite 4100 Searching for your dream job or just a job full stop? Visit CaPS to look for full-time or part-time jobs and internships. They’ve got workshops and one on one advising that will help you feel confident and in control when you’re looking

Chaplaincy Services | 3600 McTavish, suite 4400 Spotted! A spiritual panacea for any distress that university life spawns! You can find a team of pro chaplains embracing all faiths and geared up to guide you on the road to peace of mind. This star studded service opens its doors Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Muslim Students Association (MSA) | Shatner building basement, rm B09 Say hello to a hotspot for prayer on campus, which the MSA secured after some drama. If you’re looking to meet more of this community, join these friendly folks for their Friday Prayer, held in the Ballroom on the 3rd floor of the Shatner building.

for a J-O-B. Also check out their job posting service – like Craigslist but better – and their ENORMOUS Career Resource Centre.

Counselling Service | Brown building, suite 4200

These peeps provide confidential counselling to students, free of charge. They can assist and support you with whatever issues you may encounter during your time here: psychological, academic, vocational or life-skills. Their services comprise of brief intervention, supportive counselling (individual and couple), ongoing therapy, vocational testing, and different groups and workshops. You can drop in to their office anytime.

First Peoples’ House | 3505 Peel

This is a house for all indigenous students, including Métis, the Inuit & Native (both “status” & “non-status”), Maori and Aborigines. The House strives to create a community space and to give a voice to Aboriginal students on McGill’s campus. This is a happening place with lots going on.

Check out their Annual Pow Wow, held on lower field the third week of September. The Pow Wow is a day of celebration of Aboriginal culture with events such as music, dancing, arts and crafts, information kiosks, and Lacrosse demonstrations.

First Year Office | Brown building, suite 2100

This welcoming place is meant for anyone and everyone who is new at McGill. So if you are a new undergrad, grad, transfer, or visiting student, this service is for you! They’re here to help you orient yourself on the disorienting campus of McGill – all that construction has things looking different from day to day. If you need a service, these people can help direct you to where you’ll find it.

International Student Services (ISS) | Brown building, suite 3215

If you are from a land far, far away (19 per cent of us are!), welcome to McGill, Montreal, Quebec and

Canada! This is a service specifically for international students who are coming to a new country, school, and home. ISS offers a whole bevy of different services to help international students make the transition to this new locale. They can help with issues such as language support, health insurance, and paperwork to study in Canada.

Scholarships and Student Aid Office | Brown building, suite 3200 This office exists to help students find and manage the money they need to attend university. Education is a pricey endeavour and this office does its utmost to promote accessibility, support, and to encourage scholarships for students. They can offer you assistance for awards based on merit or need, and help you figure out options such as government aid or parttime work with the University’s work study program. They’re also available for assistance with borrowing from banks, dealing with financial emergencies, or managing your money.

Tutorial Service | Brown building, suite 4200

It’s complicated. A popular Facebook status, but also applicable to so many things here at McGill. This is not supposed to be Survivor, where you sink or swim. If you need some help, these people are available, willing and eager to give you that second explanation or extra assistance that you’re looking for. No tropical animals or backstabbing alliances included – though you may be wishing for that tropical climate come January.

Health Services and Dental Clinic | Brown building, suite 3300

Need the doc to give you a once-over?

Too many sweet treats got your choppers weak? This clinic will help you get what you need to get you back on your A-game. Quick tips: if you want a walk-in, no skipping the line – you’ve got to get there early. Like, 7a.m. early.

However, if you want to get an ap-

Impact Church | YWCA, 1355 René-Lévesque Ouest On the lookout for a non exclusive Christian community? These not-so-fishy organizers for Fish Frosh are a community of hip Christians from diverse backgrounds and denominations. You can track these guys down by attending Sunday services at 4 p.m.

The Newman Centre | 3484 Peel This fab centre not only runs McGill’s Catholic Studies program, but rumour has that it’s also a trendsetter for social justice oriented activities. Packed with hot events like Fireside Chats, Bible Studies, and Soup and Bagels, these guys know how to enjoy spiritual life!

Check out the weekly Sunday Mass at 5 p.m. or the weekday Masses (except Monday) at 4 p.m.

pointment, you’ll be able to skip the line VIP style to book your slot.

Mental Health Services | Brown building, suite 5500

These people are professionals with an excellent reputation on campus.

They’re the bomb – they assist students in getting the support and resources they need! Head into Health Services (and, yeah, you get to skip that drop-in line) to make an appointment.

Office for Students with Disabilities | Brown building, suite 3100 These folks are those of the ah-mazing persuasion. They work with you to provide academic accommodations and services within the campus environment so that your time here can be comfy, cozy, and all-around awesome.

Walksafe | (514) 398-2498 (or flag them down) Sunday-Thursday: 8 p.m. to midnight Friday-Saturday: 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

These fashion plates walk around in snazzy red blazers patrolling a perimeter from Peel to Sherbrooke to St. Laurent to Pins. You can give them a call, or go and ask them (nicely!) to walk you home. You’ll always get an escort of two student volunteers, at least one of whom will be female. So, if you want some company on your walk home, give them a call.

DriveSafe | (514) 398-8040 (or flag them down) FridaySaturday: 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.

This service is run by student volunteer drivers. Their patrol consists of a fleet of vans that can drive you home to or from anywhere on the island of Montreal for free. They don’t do joy rides (though maybe they’d be down to take song requests?!) so don’t rely on them as a quasi-taxi service.

However, for those nights where you’re in a jam and need a ride, these are the people who can come through for you.

Birks Chapel | William and Henry Birks building, 3520 University A versatile chapel reflecting the pluralism on campus! It’s a host for Christian services every Tuesday at noon, memorial services, and weddings.

Chabad Student Centre | 3429 Peel Hillel McGill | 3460 Stanley Ghetto Shul |3458 Parc Interested in getting info about Judaism? The groups above provide Shabbat celebrations, other holiday services, and are a great way to learn more about Judaism and meet fellow Jews.

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Imagine All You Can Be, Keegan Art essay by Aquil Virani

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Sports

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Women’s Cup shows more than just cleatage The tournament gains more coverage but continues to fall under the shadow of its male counterpart Olivia Lifman

Sports Writer

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rms strategically placed to conceal their nipples, three members of the French women’s soccer team were photographed nude in German tabloid The Bild over the tagline: “Is this how we should show up before you come to our games?” Similarly, five German players posed naked for Playboy Magazine, saying that they hoped such pictures would “disprove the cliche that all female soccer players are butch.” According to one of the players, “More and more sweet, pretty girls are playing [soccer] who also go shopping and place value on their appearance.”

These desperate attempts to promote the “beautiful game” serve as a sober reminder that women’s soccer does not yet garner the attention that it deserves. And, although the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which took place from June 26 to July 17 in Germany, received an unprecedented level of media coverage, the exposure was a far cry from the soccer mania that gripped the globe for the men’s World Cup last summer.

Take this year’s opening game between Germany and Canada as an example. Germany’s women’s team has won the past two World Cups and five consecutive European championships, giving Germans a reason to watch. FIFA reports that 14.1 million Germans

tuned in to watch the match – a new benchmark for televised women’s soccer in their nation.

While this figure both sounds, and arguably is impressive, when FIFA “put these figures in[to] context,” noting that “an average of 14.8 million watched Germany v.

Serbia at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,” this figure seems far less exciting. About ten per cent more of the German population watched the men’s game.

What’s more, FIFA failed to add that the men’s match took place in the middle of a workday, meaning millions of Germans played hooky from their jobs to watch it.

Perhaps this comparison is unfair and detracts from just how far women’s soccer has come in the last few years. In a sports market in which men’s soccer reigns supreme, the bar may be set so high that even the significant success of this year’s tournament may appear a failure.

Fran Hilton-Smith, the Technical Director of Women’s Football in South Africa, thinks that “in many countries” – often those where the sport is most revered – “soccer is still perceived as a man’s sport,” and, accordingly, “sponsors are not keen on [supporting] women.”

On the other hand, she also states that it is important to remember that “women’s soccer is relatively new in FIFA – the first [Women’s] World Cup took place in 1991,” making this year’s their sixth. While it is remarkable that such a young tournament has come so far, the fact that the men’s tournament began

six decades before the women’s is a testament to the disparity in the sport. It was also barely seven years ago that the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, remarked that women could enhance their game by wearing tighter shorts.

However, progress has undeniably been made. This year, with sixteen teams competing for the title and 80 per cent of tickets sold, the Women’s World Cup was a wonderful showcase of how the game has spread. It is no longer the private dominion of the United States, Germany, and Scandinavia. Colombia and Equatorial Guinea were first-time qualifiers. The French team’s passing was skillful and elegant.

There was also Brazil’s star player, Marta Vieira da Silva, who has won the FIFA World Women’s Player of the Year award five years running. The Japanese players also had some delightfully rhythmic passing and slick movement.

Indeed, Japan’s triumph provided encouragement for a recovering home nation and the women’s soccer world alike. Hilton-Smith remarks that “even in…South Africa, [where] women’s soccer is still small and amateur,” their sport is “well-supported.”

“We had huge coverage of the Women’s World Cup and all the games were broadcast live on TV!,” she says. The women’s game is clearly becoming more competitive, more globalized, and refreshingly lacks the phantom collisions, theatrical belly flops and exaggerated somersaults

that plague men’s matches.

Yet there is still a long way to go.

For example, the Nigerian team’s Eucharia Uche made homophobic remarks, claiming that she attempted to rid her squad of lesbian behaviour, calling homosexuality a “dirty issue” and “spiritually and morally very wrong.” Statements like these are a step back for the image of the women’s game and have tarnished the appearance of her Nigerian team.

China, a finalist in the 1999 Cup, was

a no-show at this year’s tournament.

Aside from Marta, Brazil’s play was hardly inspired due to a low number of warm-up matches. Furthermore, Hilton-Smith said that Canadians she met in Germany “knew nothing” about the World Cup which was going on, even though Canada’s team was participating.

Let’s hope that when the Cup comes to Canada in 2015 the women’s game will have continued to make further strides.

has to look at Brazil. The country is currently preparing for the 2014 Men’s World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

As Dave Zirin notes on his blog, Edge of Sports, “In the 21st century, these sporting events require more than stadiums and hotels. The host country must provide a massive security apparatus, a willingness to crush civil liberties, and the will to create the kind of ‘infrastructure’ these games demand…That means a willingness to spend billions of dollars in the name of creating a playground for the international tourism and multinational sponsors.”

In order to prepare for the two events, many Brazilian shantytowns, known as favelas, have been bulldozed in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, leaving many homeless without any other options. What’s more, many of these favelas were destroyed before residents had a chance to even recover their belongings. It is estimated that

1.5 million families will lose their homes in all of Brazil. McGill political science professor Rex Brynen, whose research focuses on the politics of developing nations, claims, “The effects [of major sporting events] are mixed, and in many ways hard to measure. On the one hand, redevelopment may come at the cost of poor communities who lose land that is used for sports infrastructure. There is also the ‘opportunity cost’ of investing in sports and tourist facilities, as opposed to other things like health, education, water and sanitation, and other services. Much of the infrastructure that remains (public transport, roads, airport upgrades, tourist facilities, and especially the sports facilities themselves) may be of far more benefit to middle and upper class citizens than the poor.”

Of course, one cannot ignore the obvious benefits of hosting a major

sporting event. Events such as the World Cup and the Olympics bring about international recognition and attention. As Brynen notes, “public spending may create construction and other jobs, and international tourism represents a significant external injection into the economy. On top of this, there is the difficult to measure factor of international profile, and how that might affect future tourism, investment, and other areas.”

Moreover, citizens of a host country may also gain an increased sense of pride in their nation.

With more and more developing nations winning the bids for major international sporting events, the call to reform the mentality around what is expected of host countries becomes ever more urgent. It is important to remember that beneath the veneer of polished excitement surrounding an event like the Olympics, there may lay hundreds, if not thousands, of displaced and disgruntled citizens.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Developing arenas Andra Cernavskis The McGill Daily

M

ajor, global sporting events have often been a vehicle for bringing the international community together. There are the obvious cases in which the Olympics have been used to make international political statements, like when the Soviet Union boycotted the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, or when protestors used the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a chance to fight against Chinese participation in the conflict in Darfur. Despite boycotts and protests, people tend to find a way to turn a blind eye to the global political issues at hand, religiously watching the events regardless.

However, the people at greatest harm are probably most ignored and least heard from in the political world.

Global protests made over the Beijing Olympics were about an international

political issue that has received countless amounts of media coverage over the years. Yet, what happens to a country domestically as it prepares for the Olympics and similar events is rarely of interest to the rest of the world. When push comes to shove, major sporting events cost a lot of money for any country, regardless of developmental status.

When the government of British Columbia raised taxes in order to host the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, citizens were angered. Similarly, in order to build the Olympic park for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics, the city shut down Europe’s secondlargest housing cooperative, Clay’s Lane Estate, displacing up to 450 tenants. One must wonder: if the citizens of developed nations like Canada and the UK feel negative economic strains from hosting major sporting events, what happens to countries that can be classified as developing nations?

To answer this question, one only

Photo Essay

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Everyday life in post-revolutionary Egypt

Camille Chabrol

The Egyptian people seem able to enjoy a new sense of freedom in their everyday lives after the removal of Hosni Mubarak from power. Parks and public squares have gained a level of animation they had not seen during Mubarak’s regime while artisans continue to produce traditional Egyptian crafts. ­­—C.C.

Science+Technology FIN

Survivor!

Undergrad edition

ISH Finals sneak up on you faster than you thought . Stay calm and pace yourself and remember the mistakes you made during your midterms. While a 70 per cent final can seem daunting, always keep in mind that in the grand scheme things you’re only here for so many years, and, in the end, you want to walk away with more than just a sheet of paper!

Your midterms don’t go as well as you would have liked, but you remain calm. Learn from your mistakes and start planning for finals. Climb the ladder, then take a break. You’ve earned it.

Create study groups with your peers. Advance one space.

Instead of actually doing practice problems, look at the solutions and tell yourself you understand them, without actually trying to do them. Go back two spaces.

Remember there’s so much more to school than just getting good grades and going to class. Participating in extracurricular activities is not only good for your CV but also imparts crucial life skills that you would never learn in class. Advance two spaces.

Copy your friend’s assignment and tell yourself you’ll learn the answers later, but never do. It’s a slippery slope! Slide down the snake.

Do assignments on your own! First year assignments and labs are the easiest marks you will ever earn in your time at McGill.

If they seem difficult, practice easier problems from another source. Assignments are intended to be used as learning tools; so learn from your mistakes! You can do poorly on all your assignments and still leave the class with an A. Move forward one space.

Don’t buy your textbooks before you know you are taking the class. More often than not you’ll be able to find a second hand one for a fraction of the bookstore’s price. Don’t be distressed if the latest edition is not available or costs more than you would ever want to pay; the material hasn’t changed significantly within the past few years. Advance two spaces.

TAs

Go to tutorials and office hours even if they are not mandatory.

It’s a good way to reinforce your in class learning and the only way you get to know your professors and TAs. Advance two spaces.

Alyssa Favreau | The McGill Daily

Midterm season arrives. The most important thing is managing your time properly.

Everybody has different study habits and methods that work best for them; take the time to learn what’s best for you, preferably well before the day of the exam.

Stay put and study!

16

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Experience the joy of learning, even if the material isn’t going to be tested. Go forward three spaces.

Forget to change your courses before the add drop deadline? Do not move forward.

Go to every single class if at all possible. If you can’t go, make sure you watch the lecture recording if there is one, or ask to borrow somebody’s notes. Go forward one space.

STA

Did you pick the seat at the very back, hidden amongst the hundreds of other undergraduates, concealing your quick daytime nap? Go back one space.

RT

You have just come out of high school and have landed a promising spot in the Faculty of Science or Engineering at McGill!

After collecting all course syllabi, record all important dates such as midterms, finals, assignments, et cetera. in your agenda, smart phone, computer, or whatever it takes. Advance two spaces.

Before the first day of class, go to the building and see where your classes will be. This exploration will save you the embarrassment of walking into the wrong class and sitting there awkwardly for 15 minutes wondering why your introductory calculus professor is talking about partial differential equations. Get to class early in order to snag seats that will optimize your learning ability. Advance two spaces.

– Compiled by Ryan Lee

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

17

The vitamin D-bacle To D or not to D. That is the question.

Jenny Lu

The McGill Daily

A

s a vegetarian, I am aware that there are several important nutrients that may be lacking from my diet: one of these is vitamin D. Vitamin D has long been known to be crucial for bone health.

In addition to dietary sources of vitamin D, such as fatty fish and eggs, vitamin D can be synthesized in the skin upon contact with sunlight.

For the past several years, I have not given this any thought, believing, as many do, that the sun exposure I get is enough to fulfill my daily requirements. But seeds of doubt were planted within me when I left the doctor’s office with a note that had “2000 IU (International Unit) vitamin D” scrawled across it.

It turns out that, according to many researchers and health practitioners, most of the population is actually vitamin D deficient. Behind this simple vitamin lays a contentious and convoluted debate that has split many scientists, doctors, and lay people into several warring factions.

The spurt of interest in vitamin D in recent years has shown vitamin D’s promise as a way to prevent or fight cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other maladies. Many physicians and other health practitioners have begun to recommend vitamin D supplements to ill and healthy people alike. In light of this, the governments of Canada and the U.S. have asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assess current data and update the Dietary Reference Intakes, a nutrition guide. These values are used to – among other things – determine the percentages of vitamins and nutrients that appear on the back of a bag of chips or on a box of oatmeal. After amassing over 1000 studies concerning the effects of vitamin D and calcium on health, the ad-hoc panel will be able to resolve the problem.

Many numbers are thrown around in the massive 1132 page report. The brief states that a blood level of 20 nanograms per millilitre is the “level that is needed for good bone health for practically all individuals.” In order to achieve these levels, the IOM recommended a daily vitamin D intake of 600 IU, or 800 IU for the elderly.

Since the amount of sun exposure varies greatly from person to

Students enjoy their share of vitamin D on lower field. But is it enough? person and individuals are discouraged from excessive sun exposure due to the risk of skin cancer, the IOM created these guidelines assuming minimal sun exposure. However, this is often not the case, and the IOM found that sun exposure is, in fact, a substantial source of vitamind D for most North Americans.

The most important take-away message from all of these numbers is that, according to the IOM ,most people are not vitamin D deficient.

According to the IOM, in lieu of a standardized system for determining sufficiency or deficiency, many labs could have used inflated values, thus exaggerating the number of people who are actually vitamin D deficient.

Finally, to top it all off, the IOM stated that excessive levels of vitamin D are not only superfluous, they are actually harmful to bone health.

Since the report, the IOM’s methodology has come under heavy fire from all quarters. They looked at each study and ranked them based on reliability. Any studies that involved too small a trial group were excluded as this increases the chances of random errors, which could exaggerate misleading findings. They also excluded any studies that did not pertain directly to bone health, as the results were varied, inconclu-

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sive, and could not prove causation. Studies that were randomized and placebo-controlled trials received the highest rating.

While their reasoning is sound, there are several problems with their methods. Firstly, by focusing on only large, randomized, placebo studies, the IOM reduced their sample size from over 1000 studies to roughly 70. Second, the policy of eliminating any and all smaller experiments was opposed by many of the original researchers who felt that although the studies were small, they were valid.

Finally, the IOM ignored all ecological and case-controlled studies. Ecological studies use populations as a unit of analysis while case-controlled studies compare subjects that are similar, with the exception of the condition in question. Studies like these cannot always prove causation, and, in the case of ecological studies, are often subject to an ecological fallacy: it assumes that individuals of a population have the same attributes as the population itself.

However, history teaches us that the importance of these “lower grade” studies cannot be ignored; it was a case-controlled study that first suggested the link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer.

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

In addition to criticisms against their general methods, the IOM received criticism regarding specific calculations and studies. There are disputes over the way they calculated their ideal levels, their inclusion of a non-double-blinded study, and the use of a study involving 500000 IU of vitamin D – an outrageously high number. All of these undermine the validity of not only the IOM’s findings, but the integrity of the panel and organization at large.

Many people who disagree with the IOM are turning to the Endocrine Society, which submitted a guideline just a few months after the IOM. They state that people should aim for vitamin D blood levels of 30-60 ng/mL, levels the IOM would deem harmful.

The IOM and other organizations and experts continue to remain cautious of overly high recommendations of vitamin D. While the study involving 500000 IU of vitamin D was excessively high, it did show that the chances of falling increased even at blood levels of 40 ng/mL, which can be achieved with less than 4000 IU – the IOM’s recommended upper limit. While the Endocrine Society also recommends an upper limit of 4000 IU for daily maintenance, it suggests up to 10000 IU to correct deficiency.

The history of science gives many examples of the dangers of acting based on initial observations. In the late 50’s, thalidomide was sold as a cure for morning sickness in a number of countries around the world. It was not known at the time that thalidomide causes extreme birth defects and often even death.

In the United States, Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration denied Richardson-Merell’s application, demanding further studies to be done. Even though thalidomide was already being sold in over 20 countries, including Canada, Germany, and Australia Kelsey still refused to allow thalidomide to be sold in the U.S. Six years later when the drug was finally taken off the markets Kelsey received the President’s Award and was widely regarded as a hero.

Although these kinds of incidents are rare, they can leave lasting scars. After all, a treatment performing exactly what it promised in clinical trials is hardly newsworthy.

But a treatment going surprisingly and terribly awry captivates the attention of many, especially those who make the guidelines and give permission. When Kelsey managed to save countless lives, what lasts in the minds of policy makers is the thought that a rigidly dogmatic attitude can avert disaster.

But how can one tell how much of the IOM’s claims are playing it safe and how much of it is too definitive? Are the IOM’s calls for further studies really fueled by a better-safe-than-sorry mentality, or is it a cop-out? Is there enough evidence, even without large placebo-controlled trials that require decades, to give advice to the general public? With each day that passes, new information emerges and current Dietary Reference Intakes become more and more obsolete. The studies the IOM demands could take anywhere from three years to three decades, making it extremely difficult to arrive at a decisive result.

Either way, almost all parties agree that the discussion is not over. In the meantime, I am going to try to walk a fine line – that is, the line between sunlight and shade. At least that way half of my body will be right in the end.

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Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

18

Breaking legs, not breaking down Tips and tricks for students facing theatre auditions at McGill Fabien Maltais-Bayda The McGill Daily

L

ike many things at McGill, the world of theatre can be as confounding as the plays of Samuel Beckett, leaving newcomers wondering which way to turn and how to get involved. But no one likes to be left waiting for Godot. While dates, times, and sign up sheets for auditions may be found in the Arts building lobby, scrawling a name into a time slot is only a fraction of what makes up the audition process for any of McGill’s many theatre companies.

Even before scoping out the parts up for grabs, it’s important to realize that theatre productions at McGill are unique in comparison to other universities.

“McGill theatre, it bites harder” exclaimed James Campbell, a McGill student and a veteran of the University’s stages, when he sat down with the Daily to shed some light backstage and behind the scenes. Campbell attributes McGill’s theatrical individuality to the proliferation of student directing on campus – a realm he himself will be inhabiting this year as he directs The Hazards

Not only do the auditions themselves vary from show to show, but what a director is look-

of Love, a new work for Player’s Theatre. While professors do take a seat in the director’s chair from time to time, two of the primary theatre companies on campus, Tuesday Night Café Theatre and Player’s Theatre, feature productions exclusively with students at the directorial helm.

Regardless of the company one may be auditioning for, Campbell stressed that the audition process is always variable. The requirements of the specific script majorly contribute to how an audition will be run. One thing that prospective actors can expect to encounter is a mix of improvisation and

script work in the audition room.

“In these auditions you are looking to get [actors] to improvise, first off, because then you get a sense for who they are outside the script. Then you get them to read the script to see how well they can interpret scripts,” Campbell explained. The penchants and peculiarities of a particular director also make a big difference in the audition process, and often continue to effect a play’s progress long after the cast list has been posted.

“You can tell how a show is going to end up several months later based on how the director [runs] auditions.” observed Campbell.

Nicole Stradiotto | The McGill Daily

ing for within them can change just as much. “If you’re doing musical theatre, frankly, there’s a bit more experience required because you need people who can sing and dance,” Campbell specified. More often than not, however, he stated that what directors really have their eyes on are “interesting people”. “You want people who are intense, interesting people, and who walk into a

room, and change the room that they enter.”

Naturally, prior experience is always beneficial for those wishing to grace McGill’s stages, but by no means is it necessary. “Generally people with experience will come in and they’ll be less shy and they’ll give you what they have,” noted Campbell, but when it comes down to the final casting, memorable energy and a willingness to experiment are often what will really give any candidate an edge.

“Directors will always need to shape you,” he emphasized, so an ability to be flexible and adaptable within the audition is key. In many cases, directors aren’t just looking for someone who can act a part, but rather someone who can respond to direction, and be moulded to the director’s vision of the piece.

A little preparation is also something that will go a long way.

“Definitely read the script before coming into your audition,” Campbell emphasized. Getting to know the characters can be particularly helpful. “Pick out the people that you can see yourself actually excelling at becoming,” he suggests.

When it comes down to it, auditions are all about giving it a go. And perhaps, with a whole lot of energy and a little bit of luck, you’ll land the role of a lifetime… or at least of a school year.

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2.2 Within this optic, the staff of The Daily recognizes that all events and issues are inherently political, involving relations of social and economic power. Further, we recognize that at present power is unevenly distributed, especially (but not solely) on the basis of gender, age, social class, race, sexuality, religion, disability, and cultural identity. We also recognize that keeping silent about this situation helps to perpetuate inequality. To help correct these inequities, to the best of its staff ’s abilities, The Daily should depict and analyze power relations accurately in its coverage.

2.3 As an autonomous student newspaper, relatively free from commercial and other controls, The Daily can best serve its purposes by examining issues and events most media ignore. In particular, it should deal with the role post-secondary education plays in constructing and maintaining the current order. It should also assist students and other groups working for change in a critical framework, with the aim of empowering and giving a voice to individuals and communities marginalized on the basis of the criteria mentioned in section 2.2. The Daily’s methods should be both educative and active, and determined democratically by its staff.

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20Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

A fair weather festival?

With a lack of compassion for its hometown, Osheaga muddies Montreal music culture Fabien Maltais-Bayda The McGill Daily

W

ith countless talented and innovative local artists, and numerous venues in which to house them, Montreal consistently offers music lovers a veritable smorgasbord of sonic samplings. So, what results when a large scale festival like Osheaga arrives every summer, turning Parc Jean Drapeau into a cultural petri dish, and bringing a variety of international and national acts to mingle with this already dynamic musical environment? Fantastic performances and a lively atmosphere made the weekend a treat for the ears, but it seems that a unique Montreal festival experience was overshadowed by international stars and sponsors.

“I don’t think [Osheaga] affects [Montreal’s music community] too much, bringing Eminem to Montreal didn’t really change much,” Raphaelle StandellPreston of Braids told The Daily in an e-mail. While many headliners contributed to a decidedly international presence, the inclusion of the Montreal based group Braids seems to have exemplified Osheaga’s attempts to include at least some popular local acts in the festival. The band has deep connections to the city, which Standell-Preston alluded to during their set, exclaiming, “We live here with you.” They have also been gaining prominence outside of Montreal, with the launch of their debut album Native Speaker earlier this year, which resulted in wide acclaim for the band. The album subsequently wound up on the short-list for the Polaris Music Prize, one of Canada’s top music awards.

A performance spot at Osheaga may have been reflective of their new-found fame. Held on a large stage in an expansive outdoor setting, the show was distinctly different for Braids fans, who are accustomed to seeing the band in more intimate – if sometimes cramped – venues. As the band went through their pre-show checks, it was easy to doubt whether their sound could translate successfully to an outdoor festival setting. However, by the time the music swelled in their first number, “Glass Deers,” it was clear they had the power to pull it off.

It wasn’t just music listeners, however, who noticed a distinct difference between the festival and a more typical Montreal music experience. “I think that environment changes everything” Standell-Preston explained.

“People tend to be much more excitable at festivals; festivals are outdoors, there are usually hot dogs and sodas, bikini’s are being sported, joints are being lit, people are just trying to have a good

said Standell-Preston.

Another local addition to the festival was the Montreal based band Karkwa, who played to a large crowd on one of the biggest stages at the festival, a setting that

Quebec. In a telephone interview with The Daily, Stéphane Bergeron, the band’s drummer, acknowledged the relative linguistic inequality at this year’s festival, while also expressing a

Fabien Maltais-Bayda | The McGill Daily

time. At a venue it’s usually dark, people have their arms crossed.

It’s a much more serious event.”

While Braids were part of a relatively significant Montreal contingent at Osheaga, it seems that the festival’s size and international reputation prevented many local acts from performing, especially lesser-known ones. “ I feel that once you get to [Osheaga’s] level it’s hard to incorporate the little guys – which are the people who for me, and I feel for many people – define our music scene,”

seemed tailor made for the band’s high energy, folk rock sound.

Karkwa has risen in commercial prominence throughout recent years, particularly after they became the first Francophone band to win the Polaris Music Prize in 2010. However, as one of very few Francophone bands to perform at this year’s festival, Karkwa seems to have exemplified the tremendous disparity that exists in the success rate between Anglophone and Francophone musicians, even in

certain level of understanding for it. “Mathematically, yes, there were a lot more Anglophone bands than Francophone bands,” he conceded, “because [Osheaga] tries to book world wide, and international bands.”

He emphasized that this disparity did not particularly bother him, and expressed a view that, from an artist’s standpoint, bands should be free to write in whatever language suits them. “I’d like to encourage people, if they speak French for the most part of

the day, to create in French, but I don’t have a problem with people who sing in English even if they are Francophone,” he explained.

While artists like Bergeron may not have been bothered

by Osheaga’s anglo-centrism, it seems that the festival missed an opportunity to distinguish itself from other large North American festivals by not taking advantage of the multi-lingual possibilities Montreal has to offer. “I feel that Osheaga could be in Toronto and it wouldn’t feel much different,” revealed Standell-Preston. “You don’t get that taste of Montreal when you attend it.”

Osheaga not only failed to exhibit Montreal’s musical distinctiveness, but also denied accessibility to many of the city’s music fans through its high ticket prices. Artists like StandellPreston and Bergeron, however, recognized that this was an unavoidable part of the music festival structure. “All festivals have higher ticket prices as there are many bands that you can see,” observed Standell-Preston. As she saw it, attendees were likely not drawn by any single band in particular but by the allure of the festival as a whole. It seems that festival organizers did, however, keep in mind the possibility of individual bands attracting distinct crowds by offering alternatives to the full festival pass, such as single day tickets.

A high price tag was not the only aspect of Osheaga that may have detracted from the festival’s musical focus. The proliferation of corporate sponsorship on the festival grounds was so heavy in many cases, that it served as a distraction, undermining both the music and the liveliness of the festival’s atmosphere. The festivals sponsors were, like much of the musical line-up, predominantly international.

Osheaga once again missed an opportunity to make itself distinct by avoiding ties with more local companies, in this respect.

Festivals like Osheaga occupy a somewhat tenuous role in the musical culture of a city like Montreal. Certainly, the festival brought together a broad spectrum of musical talent, giving Montrealers a chance to witness a slough of stellar performances over the course of just a few short days. As Bergeron observed, “Montreal is a city where you have a lot of music lovers,” and a festival like Osheaga undoubtedly caters to them. Even so, the festival, due to a variety of factors, such as cost or language barriers, remained inaccessible to large demographic swaths of the city it exists to serve.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Turn on, tune in, POP out

21

A fool-proof guide to Montreal’s music festivals

PRICE

All the bands you want to see for all the prices you suckered Mom and Dad into paying for: 3 day festival pass: $230 general admission 2 day classic pass: $145 general admission Single day tickets: $80­-$100 general admission

The only festival to hold any free shows, the Cheap. Most tickets range from $8 to $15. However, this Jazzfest prides itself on its public accessibility. year tickets to Jean Leloup are close to $50 an unfortu- However, a $50 ticket to The Roots this 2011 nately high cost for a nonprofit festival such as POP. festival was hardly inviting to McGill summer students. Leonard Cohens $200 concert in 2008?

Near impossible.

LOCATION

Parc Jean Drapeau on Ile St. Helene. With sponsorship from the STM, Osheaga promotes the Montreal metro as the best means of transportation. Spent all your change on the ticket? Ride your bike across the Jacques Cartier bridge!

Unlike Osheaga or the Jazzfest, POP takes has an eclectic 10 outdoor venues mainly held at the Quartier mix of venues. Smaller-scale shows often appear at ven- des Spectacles. 10 indoor concert halls around ues such as Le Cagibi or Casa del Popolo whereas Club Montreal.

Soda or S.A.T. house bigger bands.

CLIENTELE

Any summer-stayer knows Jazzfest week by the With undergrads and twenty-somethings pouring in from Art goers and Music buffs alike. With such cheap tix, POP rampant tourists crashing bixis all over downneighbouring provinces, Osheagers are generally Anglo, attracts starving artists and penniless students. town. Almost 2.5 million visit the Jazzfest every and ready to party. summer, including 3,000-plus musicians and major figures in the jazz world.

HISTORY

As their website states, Osheaga was created in 2006 in order to “showcase Montreal’s acclaimed local talent alongside some of the industry’s biggest names.” Osheaga has maintained this sentiment, featuring bands from the internationally renowned Beach House to McGill’s own Braids.

POP celebrates their 10th anniversary this year! A fusion of music, art symposiums, and film, POP has become a major player in the North American independent art scene. With growth in size, however, comes growth in prices.

Inaugurated in 1980 by the legendary Ray Charles, the Jazzfest has slowly worked its way into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest Jazz Music Festival.

—Compiled by Christina Colizza

The battle of the beets Local restaurants rival for Iron Chef title

Origin Stories

Christina Colizza

From the last wane and shouts of my influence I made my loss a shadow but one of weight—

The McGill Daily

A

h, Montreal restaurants: terraces, art-covered walls, and even the sweet nothings scribbled on napkins inside the drawers of Lola Rosa’s tables.

Ambience is key, and these small local food joints work hard to make sure the customer is always right, and relaxed. However, Santropol Roulant’s upcoming Iron Chef competition this Thursday is sure to be spicyas six local restaurants go for the gold.

The teams are only given one hour to harvest vegetables from the Edible Campus Garden in front of Burnside Hall.

With little more than salt-n-peppa, the teams will prepare a meal

to be judged on taste, presentation, portion size, and creativity.

Each restaurant is allowed to bring one ingredient that is exemplary of their menu’s signature style. As the saying goes, “simple is best,” especially when working towards greater sustainability.

Despite the competitive nature of Iron Chef, Santropol Roulant’s purpose is, and has always been, to nourish the local Montreal community and encourage eating locally and seasonally. All six contestants, including Lola Rosa Café, McCord Café, The Green Panther, Laloux Restaurant, École Hotelière Calixa

Lavalée, and returning champion, Crudessence have committed to raising $500 for Santropol Roulant’s Urban Agriculture Program. With these donations, Santropol Roulant will greater serve Montreal’s elderly with their “Meals on Wheels” initiative and launch several other greening projects.

So let the games begin! The competition will be followed by a corn boil and musical performance by Valody Klesmer Band. To wash down the whole experience? Beer will be on sale from the McAuslan Brewery.

The Iron Chef competition will be held this Thursday, September 1 outside Burnside Hall at 5:00 p.m.

a newspaper park blanket that I could draw up to my chin to hide me from the arching eyes of streetlights and though true it keeps me warm it reads itself to me incessant I hear it far away but I know it has a force Like an impossibly loud horn sounding at the very bottom of a well

And if only I could draw it up it would surely say that Seraphim felt fit to fall to filthy streets and burn and wait and animate pleading, humming like a breast, watching two or three bodies catch against each other and burn engorged— pleading, that enough of it might diffuse back upwards Two or three beds not warm but unthinkably bright, hot and we, a fraternity of ghosts, staring skywards apologizing to incredible frightening unseen expanses, wondering what would it be like to love at all ­­­­­­— Tim Beeler

Inkwell

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and blurry babies!

22

Welcome back to the land of hangovers

FUCK EYAH OAP!

Blurry Babies

Y

ou guys, it may have its problems, whatever, but go to a greatschool. We’re the only joint in Canada, nay the world, that has aplace where you can drink beer outside, no, SMACK in the middle of campus, smack in the middle of the day (don’t fact check that part about us being the one and only place that has that, I’m just guessing). It’s not even that bad of beer, Moosehead = decent. For example, I’m drunk now and its not even four, and it only cost me $7.50 (being a lightweight helps, but still), and now I’m on a computer on campus getting some work done. Kids, try this at home: Go to OAP and drink a beer (or fuck, go anywhere outdoors, but its helpful for the next part of this instruction if its on campus, and helpful for future employment if its somewhere not illegal) and then do some of you work. It won’t come out better, the work I mean, but life will be fucking awesome. And that’s what it’s all about.

Wait, NOTE BENE: the one thing is you seriously need an ID to get into that place, and your McGill ID if you aren’t with someone with a McGill ID. They won’t take your Facebook page (via smartphone) and/or proof of enrolment in place of photo ID.

Fuck yeah! is an occasional anonymous happy rant column. Send your rants to fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com.

“A man who wants time to read and write must let the grass grow long.” - Sloan Wilson

A

re you tired? Everything feel kind of foggy? Have a lil’ too much fun last night (and the night before (and the night before that))? It’s been a while since March 18, so perhaps you’ve forgotten what it feels like to wake up on the morning after St Patrick’s day. Let me remind you. Here’s your brutal awakening--it’s your body’s way of saying “Welcome back to school you selfish, hedonistic asshole”!

Hangovers are bullshit. They are the bullshittiest bullshit in the world. I have ant bites on my legs and I started wheezing just on my walk to school through the park. I slept in my contacts, so now I have to wear my glasses, which slide down my nose when I sweat from the mild Montreal summer heat. I found a new pimple on my chin, and I can’t get this taste out of my mouth no matter how many times I’ve brushed my teeth. The room spins when I turn my head too quickly. My hands smell like coffee sleeve cardboard from the café on my corner. Also, I just realized that I forgot to put deoderant on when I left the house this morning.

Honestly. Fuck you, drunk self. Sober me is so fucking pissed off at you right now. Look, I bought those shoes with my own hard earned money-you had no right, drunk self, to just get mud all over them and tear the straps off because you thought they were too complicated after nine beers.

Fuck this! is an occasional anonymous rant column. Send your rants to fuckthis@mcgilldaily.com.

“Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill, laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass. “ - Rupert Brooke

Lumps of grief

“Grass.” - Loris Littlington IV

McTavish has sprouted boobs Georgina Sand

The McGill Daily

A

s the new school year begins, few physical changes on campus have drawn as much attention from students as the low, grassy mounds artificially constructed on McTavish. The dualhumped hillocks, vaguely resembling a pair of uneven, mossy breasts, have caused much confusion and consternation among the student population. We spoke with one student who expressed disgust with the design and placement of the mounds, while another student, identified only as “Widget,” added that the hills will never look natural so long as they are on a concrete road.

For the real reason behind the construction of the mounds, we spoke to Brad Greenblatt, the fourth-year student liaison for the Arts Legacy Commemorative Society of McGill, who revealed that the hills were actually burial plots for the hopes and dreams of Arts students.

“When I was little I wanted to grow up to be a politician someone who fought injustice, bettered his community, and made a good salary at the same time. I thought I could make the world a better place, or at least make a lot of money.

I speak on behalf of the Arts undergrads and especially

Political Science majors when I say that our degrees are next to worthless, and in a few years we will be unwashed and unemployed or working for an NGO.” Brad added that these graves not only commemorate shattered childhood dreams of useful employment but

also serve as areas where Arts students can congregate and offer each other emotional support.

A memorial for the ambitions of the 94% of biology students who never become doctors is currently being discussed for implementation next fall.

This past weekend, a hurricane totally wrecked the east coast of North America.

MINUS 100

OAP is heaven on earth.

PLUS 73 MINUS 23 EVEN PLUS 45 MINUS 147

Hangovers everyday.

School has started.

The Daily’s publishing again!!

MUNACA on strike. Admin still mean.

There’s grass growing out of McTavish.

The sun is out and the weather is beautiful.

You just saw all of your friends again for the first time in four months!

Drunk froshies everywhere you turn.

TOTAL

PLUS 2 PLUS 100 ARBITRARY REALLY BIG NUMBER

EVEN PLUS 203

No one wants to hear about just our quality of life: compendium@ mcgilldaily.com.

23

The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 1, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 101 number 1

EDITORIAL

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

Joan Moses

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Henry Gass news editors

Queen Arsem-O’Malley Erin Hudson Jessica Lukawiecki features editor

Eric Andrew-Gee commentary&compendium! editor

Zachary Lewsen Olivia Messer culture editors

Christina Colizza Fabien Maltais-Bayda

science+technology editor

Jenny Lu

health&education editor

Melanie Kim sports editor

Andra Cernavskis photo editor

Victor Tangermann illustrations editor

Nicole Stradiotto production&design editors

Alyssa Favreau Rebecca Katzman copy editor

Amina Batyreva

web editor

Shannon Palus le délit

Anabel Cossette Civitella

Exclusive: The Daily’s Dirty Secret!

Born on October 2, 1911, The McGill Daily is just a true Libra at heart – we’re always striving to be balanced!

The pioneer of student journalism at McGill was started one hundred years ago by a group of students who were craving a campus sports rag. Over the last century, the oldest student newspaper on campus has exploded into the hottest, most bodacious paper in Canada. Though it’s been leaked that the paper has changed shape over the years from a single daily broadsheet, to a multi-coloured hot mess of pages that hits stands every Monday and Thursday our heart is in the same place: it’s still run by students, for students. This year, like always, we’ll be inking the latest scoop on what’s hot in McGill and Montreal politics, health, commentary, science, design, art, and sports. We’ll confirm the rumours: in our news room we like to dig a little deeper and deliver you exclusive angles from marginalized voices not heard anywhere else.

The star studded halls of this university aren’t home to a journalism program, so we like to think of ourselves as a red carpeted replacement option (actually our carpet’s blue): whether you’re down for a behindthe-scenes peak at how print media operates or you‘re dying to live with a notepad in hand all day, err’ day, we’ve got your extracurricular course load covered.

Alums have gone on to write for The New Yorker and The Washington Post…and to become Leonard Cohen!

And so, we invite you to join us: as readers and more.

If you’re a McGill student, you’re an official member of the Daily Publications Society, which is responsible for the production of The Daily and the production of our francophone roomie paper, Le Délit. Whether you’re into chasing beats, snapping pix, photoshopping, penning headlines, tweeting, facebooking, tumbling, tungling, or some other verb that no one has heard of yet, we’ve got a hot seat waiting for you. No experience necessary. In an era before we became Daily editors, we were all eager beavers who had never seen the inside of the Daily office!

Can’t get enough? We’re online 24/7, 365, at mcgilldaily.com. Follow us (@mcgilldaily) and like us ( facebook.com/mcgilldaily).

Our coordinating editor (coordinating@mcgilldaily. com) can also answer any question you might have.

You can also contact each section individually, and some of us have weekly meetings you can attend!

News (news@mcgilldaily.com) Meetings held Mondays at 4:30 p.m. in SSMU Café

Features (features@mcgilldaily.com) Commentary (commentary@mcgilldaily.com) Culture (culture@mcgilldaily.com) Meetings held Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. in The Daily’s office (B-24 SSMU Building)

Science+Technology (scitech@mcgilldaily.com) Health&Ed (healthandeducation@mcgilldaily.com) Sports (sports@mcgilldaily.com) Meetings together held Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. in the Shatner Club Louge

Photos (photos@mcgilldaily.com) Illustrations (illustrations@mcgilldaily.com) Design (design@mcgilldaily.com)

rec@delitfrancais.com Contributors Timiebi Aganaba, Tim Beeler, Emilie Blanchard, Eloge Butera, Lindsay Cameron, Camille Chabrol, Will Colish, Lola Duffort, Chiara Fish, Miatta Gorvie, Daniel Haboucha, Paulina Kyriakopoulos, Ryan Lee, Olivia Lifman, Davide Mastracci, Sheehan Moore, Farid Muttalib, Jordon Venton-Rublee, Chen Zhiying.

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

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318

Boris Shedov Letty Matteo treasury & fiscal manager Pierre Bouillon ad layout & design Geneviève Robert Mathieu Ménard

advertising & general manager

sales representative

dps board of directors

Marie Catherine Ducharme, Joseph Henry, Tyler Lawson, Sheehan Moore, Joan Moses, Aaron Vansintjan (chair [at] dailypublications.org), Debbie Wang

The Daily is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian University Press.

All contents © 2010 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

McGill Buries Accessibility Last week, after a years-long dispute culminating in an over $2 million fine in March, the Quebec Ministry of Education made a deal with McGill, permitting a tuition hike of over $27,000 in our MBA program. Quebec based its decision on the fact that McGill has redefined the program as a “specialized MBA” with an international business focus. The University has promised to hire more international professors – so that they form the majority in the program – and will mandate a required study abroad session.

MBA tuition stood at $2,067 per year for Quebec students until September 2010 when the figure ballooned to $29,500. Tuition was increased another $3,000 this summer, and Peter Todd, dean of the Faculty of Management, has stated his desire to continue to increase MBA tuition to the national average of around $37,000. Quebec students, who will be affected by these changes, make up roughly 50 per cent of the student body of the MBA program. Before McGill switched to the self-funded model, out-of-province tuition was at $5,667.60 and international students paid a rate of $25,272. Now everyone will pay the same: $32,500.

The Ministry of Education initially argued that the fee hike violated Quebec’s educational accessibility policy.

However, the province excuses increased fees if they apply to a “specialized” program, and with the promised changes, McGill will qualify for this category. The Daily agrees with the Ministry’s initial argument. Such a radical increase (over 1,000 per cent) jeopardizes the academic prospects of any students pursuing this program and contributes to a trend of tuition hikes that lowers accessibility to higher education in general. It is disappointing that the University has been able to escape punishment through such a superficial alteration.

McGill’s administration argues that the program was

unsustainable in the past. The cost per student for an MBA degree is roughly $22,000, and with Quebec students paying only $2,000, the administration said the program was losing its elite international status while being subsidized by other programs. Regardless of whether or not these arguments are valid, this decision seriously inhibits accessibility and could result in similar increases in the tuition of other programs. Any improvements in the programs quality would be negated by the accompanying increases in inaccessibility. For those who can no longer afford to attend the program, any chance of upward mobility in an increasingly degree-dependent job market is made even smaller.

Furthermore, the high price tag itself has proved enough to discourage students from even applying to McGill’s program. Last year, with the $29,500 fee, enrolment in the program dropped 65 per cent. To make matters worse, with the program now funded independent of provincial grants, Quebec has withdrawn its contribution to financial aid for the MBA program, denting any internal efforts to increase accessibility for the program.

A portion of the new tuition revenue is being funnelled to financial aid, but the increased aid is still inadequate.

This further change, which will be implemented in the fall of 2012, will only widen the gap between those who have enough money to attend self-funded MBA programs and those who can’t afford higher education at all. Furthermore, with a degree focusing on international business, graduates will be even less likely to seek employment in Quebec, instead taking their reinforced resumes elsewhere. Quebec is effectively approving a program that will not benefit the province. Unlike the province, The Daily maintains that this decision sets a dangerous precedent for tuition hikes in all programs.

t ge

MONDAY. TUESDAY. WEDNESDAY.

dents u t s

off

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OUR SUPERMARKETS ARE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD:

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