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Volume 101, Issue 14

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October 24, 2011 mcgilldaily.com

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The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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TA union Students threatened over gathering signatures for MUNACA votes for Petitioners “disappointed” in University response Queen Arsem-O'Malley The McGill Daily

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wo graduate students in the Faculty of Medicine faced threats from McGill Human Resources after writing a petition in support of the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) strike. The students – who wish to remain anonymous in the press – began the petition in late September in response to McGill’s first injunction against MUNACA picketers.

The students, who work in the McIntyre Medical building, said that they found the injunction to be an “overreaction” on the part of McGill, and that they had never been denied access to their building or experienced any sort of harassment or violence from MUNACA picketers.

The petition is addressed to Principal Heather Munroe-Blum and Provost Anthony Masi. “We are writing this petition to show our concern with recent measures taken by McGill University to restrain the freedom of expres-

sion of its valuable MUNACA/PSAC [Public Service Alliance of Canada] employees,” the letter begins, and stresses the peaceful nature of the MUNACA strikers.

“Basically, the petition complains more about trying to prevent them to strike and trying to humiliate them and take away their dignity as workers and as citizens,” explained one of the authors in an interview with The Daily.

After creating the petition, the students hung posters to encourage people to add their signatures.

“Someone from Human Resources called a lady from our department and told her, ‘Look, if the people continue with this, not only they will have troubles, but also their supervisor will have problems. So, I advise them to take the posters off, and they cannot collect signatures inside the building,’” explained one of the authors of the petition.

The students asked for clarification of the complaint, and asked for a document or regulation that states that signatures cannot be collected within a University building or on University property.

According to the students, the Human Resources department changed their position upon questioning, and stated only that the students would need permission from the building director for posters.

The building director denied the request.

“He told us, ‘No, because this is for MUNACA; you are MUNACA, you are on strike,’” said one of the students. The students are not represented by any union, and had no correspondence with MUNACA in the writing of the petition.

The text of the petition was posted on the Facebook page of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), despite the fact that the union represents neither of the students involved in writing the petition.

AGSEM President Lerona Lewis said that the union felt it was “really inspiring that [the students] didn’t need an organized group to champion their cause. They decided to do it on their own, which is why we posted it.”

Lewis said that she was not surprised by the response from McGill, citing similar problems with the

course lecturers’ unionization drive last year, when Masi ordered posters to be taken down. The orders prompted an open letter from professors, who denounced the administration’s actions.

“It’s the same kind of desire to stifle free speech,” Lewis said. “It’s not really a good trend at a university,” she added.

The authors of the petition are continuing to collect signatures and still plan to send the document to senior administration.

“When I arrived at McGill, I felt really comfortable. I felt [it] was a good place, a good environment for knowledge,” said one of the authors. “I don’t have the same type of feeling that I had when I started here, because I don’t feel safe.”

“Sometimes, I feel like this is not a university, it’s a corporation,” added the second student.

“For sure, we are super disappointed, and we feel really hurt,” they added.

Personnel from Human Resources or from the McIntyre Medical building were not available for comment at the time of press.

McGill students undergo disciplinary hearing for involvement in MUNACA demonstration Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

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ast Thursday, two undergraduate students began a disciplinary hearing for alleged involvement in a Mobilization Squad (Mob Squad) demonstration in solidarity with the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA). The demonstration took place on October 11 at the Y-intersection.

The students, Arts Representative to SSMU Micha Stettin and SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault, were informed on October 14 that they would be presented with evidence supporting a case of a breach of the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures.

The notice came a day after Stettin confronted Provost Anthony Masi at SSMU Council about the administration’s “systematic intimidation” of students and professors supporting MUNACA. A private interview took place on October 20 with Associate Dean of Arts Andre Costopoulos, the disciplinarian for the case.

According to Stettin, the evidence included “a security report

filed by McGill head of security, saying that there were a group of students who were on campus at the Y [intersection] and were chanting calmly, and that we were causing a disruption and disturbing traffic.”

The report included a third student whose name had been crossed off of the document, and whom neither Stettin nor Pedneault identified.

The third student was not present at the interview with Costopoulos.

The McGill Student Handbook of Rights and Responsibilities states that “nothing in this article or code shall be construed to prohibit peaceful assemblies and demonstrations, lawful picketing, or to inhibit freedom of speech.”

Stettin explained that the report cited he and Pedneault as being in violation of sections 5a and 6 of the Code of Student Conduct.

These sections state that, “No student shall, by action, threat, or otherwise, knowingly obstruct University activities,” and, “No student shall, contrary to express instructions or with intent to damage, destroy or steal University property or without just cause knowingly enter or remain in any University building, facility, room, or office.”

Stettin confirmed his presence at the demonstration but denied

that it had been disruptive or damaging to the University.

Pedneault, however, explained that he had been in a SSMU Executive Committee meeting at the time of the demonstration.

“I wasn’t even there,” Pedneault said. “So I think it’s interesting that we’re basically guilty by association through our involvement with Mob Squad.”

“I think [the case] is definitely pretty arbitrary,” he added.

Although Stettin and Pedneault are both administrators on the Mob Squad Facebook group, Stettin explained that there exists no system of hierarchy within Mob Squad.

“The [McGill administration] can go after any three people in Mob Squad, and the entire Mob Squad is going to be affected,” he said. “We don’t operate based on leadership structure. They picked out three people who they thought could be seen as leaders, and they tried to make them leaders and entrench a hierarchy, but there is no hierarchy.”

Stettin explained that, “There have been many encounters in the past with Mob Squad and the administration. This is part of a process of intimidation. The other parts of the process didn’t work, and this surely won’t either.”

“We will continue to express ourselves, continue to struggle for the things we believe in,” he said. “Their intimidation tactics just fuel that.”

In an interview with The Daily, SSMU President Maggie Knight explained that the case wasn’t entirely without precedent, though “it is the first time I’ve heard of it in the specific context of the strike.”

When asked whether the case breached student rights, Knight explained that, “I think we’ll have to see what the outcome is and how exactly it is brought forward. In the case where students feel as though they will be pursued in this manner if they speak out against something the University has done, I don’t think that’s really creating the kind of culture we want to see at McGill.”

“We want to encourage students to think critically about everything that happens on campus, everything they encounter,” she continued, “whether it’s McGill decisions or SSMU decisions.”

Stettin and Pedneault were uncertain as to what action would be taken following the meeting with Costopoulos, and have sought counsel from Student Advocacy at the Legal Information Clinic at McGill.

Costopoulos was not available for comment at press time.

pressure tactics Michael Lee-Murphy The McGill Daily

F

aced with an apparent gridlock at the bargaining table, the union representing teaching assistants (TAs) at McGill voted last Wednesday to initiate pressure tactics in hopes of moving negotiations forward.

The General Assembly of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) was attended by over 100 TAs, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the use of pressure tactics, according to Jonathan Mooney, an AGSEM negotiator.

The vote comes after five months of negotiations that have seen McGill reject most of the union’s core demands.

Union officials were quick to stress that the authorized pressure tactics did not include any kind of strike or work stoppage, which would need to be authorized by a separate vote.

The authorization of pressure tactics explains the appearance of a number of AGSEM posters that have appeared around campus detailing the union’s talking points.

Union officials called off an action last Friday, based on “progress” made at the evening bargaining session on October 20 on the issue of TA training.

According to Mooney, the union and McGill signed off on two “noncore” clauses. Only a handful of clauses have been signed over the past five months, he said.

The administration declined to comment about the negotiations, but Mooney said there has been no progress on any of the union’s other primary demands. The union is asking for a three per cent pay raise, caps on the sizes of conferences and labs, the hiring of more TAs, and mandatory meetings with course supervisors.

McGill is offering the provincemandated 1.2 per cent pay increase, which union officials say pales in comparison to a 3.1 per cent rate of Canadian inflation.

While declining to say what other pressure tactics AGSEM had in store, Mooney said that any pressure tactic would “respect the McGill community.”

“Students can expect that there will be no work stoppage whatsoever. Our TAs will continue to perform their duties with the same skill and diligence that they always do,” he said.

“We consider professors and students to be allies and stakeholders in these negotiations.”

AGSEM went on strike in the spring of 2008, and the work stoppage delayed the release of course grades well into the summer.

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The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

MoA negotiations continue Kallee Lins

The McGill Daily

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S

SMU has yet to receive its student fees for this academic year, as negotiations surrounding the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with McGill continue almost five months after the former MoA’s expiry.

According to the previous MoA, McGill would advance SSMU its portion of student fees – calculated based on projected income from student fees to the University – on September 15. Any extra fees given to SSMU would be refunded to the University later in the year.

Since there is currently no active MoA, the University has no obligation to grant SSMU its fees

by September 15, and is therefore withholding the funds until a new MoA is signed.

SSMU President Maggie Knight explained that McGill is open to giving SSMU its student fees in increments if MoA negotiations continue through November.

“Fortunately, SSMU is in a robust financial position, so, even though we don’t have our fees and we won’t be getting the interest we normally would, SSMU is doing fine,” she said.

The only outstanding item on the negotiating table is Appendix G of the MoA – a list of all of the clubs and services under the purveyance of SSMU. The use of the McGill name by student groups has been a contentious issue, and it appears that the majority of student groups will be facing name changes.

“We’re happy with the current state of negotiations, in which students will be able to use the McGill name within certain parameters, but, obviously, it presents a problem for existing groups, especially McGill Outdoors Club and McGill Nightline,” said Knight, highlighting the difficulty caused to McGill student groups with long histories.

“We understand the concerns of the University,” said Knight about matters regarding liability, fundraising issues, and blurred lines surrounding the ownership of these names.

“However, as we have seen

recently from the principal, ‘We are all McGill.’ It’s unfortunate we haven’t been able to get the University to agree to grandfather the names of these longstanding clubs,” she added, referencing Principal Heather MunroeBlum’s recent email to McGill staff and students regarding the University’s ongoing labour dispute with striking non-academic workers.

Knight said that SSMU has been working extensively to understand the rationale behind the requested name changes, but that the University’s stance on particular names has shifted throughout the negotiations.

According to Knight, the word “club” seems sufficient in most cases to denote a student-run group that is unaffiliated with McGill, but “collective” is often problematic.

Julian Cooper, an executive member of the McGill Outdoors Club (MOC), said the group had known about the McGill name issue since the summer. “We were just wondering when they were going to come for us,” he said of McGill’s request to change the group’s name to McGill Student Outdoors Club (MSOC).

“We’re also involved with a lot of outside groups, so changing our name is a lot more than adding an ‘s’ to our acronym,” said Cooper.

The MOC, founded in 1936, is one of groups with whom SSMU consulted for new name proposals.

“Maggie [Knight] tried to explain the situation, but it still left us feeling dissatisfied because all of our proposals had been rejected [by the administration],” explained Cooper.

Inan-Ul Haq, another MOC executive, expressed concern about the degree of leverage that SSMU holds in negotiations with the University.

“I think their hands are tied in a lot of ways,” he added.

VP Clubs and Services Carol Fraser will be speaking with all of the affected clubs and services in the next several weeks.

After nearly two and a half years of negotiation on the issue, “finally, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m just looking forward to getting to support clubs and services in the work they’re supposed to be doing,” she said.

Want to write for The Daily?

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What’s the haps

McGill withholds SSMU student fees

Green Drinks Montreal October 25, 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Thomson House Restaurant The PGSS environment committee presents Christian Elliott, from the student group “Developing Pictures.” The presentation will focus on the Iwastology Project, an initiative to foster intercultural dialogue on environmental issues between high school classrooms in the Philippines and Montreal. All are welcome!

PGSS Labour Trivia October 25, 7 p.m.

Thomson House Ballroom A special version of PGSS Trivia, with questions and themes about labour issues.

Come out, support MUNACA, and win trivia prizes! All undergraduate and graduate students are invited to join. More information at pgss.mcgill.ca.

McGill Consultation Fair Wednesday, October 26, 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Shatner Ballroom Share your thoughts on issues such as undergraduate research, academic advising, food and dining services, sustainability, freedom of expression, diversity and equity, and more. Refreshments will be served, and the administration will be drinking in Gert’s after the fair. Confirmed attendees include Provost Anthony Masi, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson, and SSMU and PGSS Presidents Maggie Knight and Roland Nassim. RSVP at mcgill.ca/deputyprovost/consultation/ or register at the door.

End Poverty Now's annual dating function Friday, November 4, 9:30 p.m.

3 Minots, 3812 St. Laurent Starting the night with live music from Tommie Smith, Mission Avenue, and Monday’s Fiction, there will be 14 bachelors and bachelorettes available for bidding. The auction will be followed by karaoke.

The event benefits several grassroots projects in Africa.

Tickets are $5 at the door and $3 in advance, call 514-4356854, or RSVP on Facebook.

Gail Guthrie Valaskakis Annual Lecture on Diversity and Canadian Media Wednesday, November 9, 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Masonic Temple, 2295 St. Marc A joint initiative between Center for Research-Action on Race Relations and Concordia’s Department of Communication Studies, the lecture promotes research and initiatives with industry, government, and the broader community on issues of Canadian media and diversity. The activity is cosponsored by the Institute for Research and Education on Race Relations. The keynote speech will address the place of Al Jazeera in current global broadcasting and public affairs.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Over 300 cats to be euthanized if shelter does not find new home New owner raises rent while shelter experiences financial setbacks Esther Lee

News Writer

T

he Animal Rescue Network (ARN), a non-profit shelter for displaced and abused cats, is being forced to vacate their current location due to a rent increase and failure to meet building standards.

The ARN was founded in 1994 by Barbara Lisbona, describing itself as “Montreal’s largest no-kill shelter dedicated to the welfare of abused and abandoned animals.”

Currently, the shelter is operated by approximately 150 volunteers and is home to more than 300 cats.

If the shelter is unable to relocate to a financially feasible and physically acceptable location, the cats will have to be euthanized.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) will take the animals and euthanize them if the shelter cannot find a new site.

Suzy Slavin, a McGill librarian and longtime volunteer at the ARN, spoke to The Daily about the shelter’s future.

“We have no Plan B,” she said.

Lisbona’s public relations liai-

son, Cynthia Marajda, explained that, after the change in ownership of the shelter’s building in December 2010, renting conditions changed, and the ARN was presented with a substantial rent increase.

There are no legal restrictions on rent increases for commercial properties. Marajda explained that, though the ARN pays the monthly rent in their Rosemont location, the shelter is not protected by a lease.

“It was evident that we would need to move rather than sign the lease as it was presented,” she said.

Marajda added that ARN will be “under strict pressure to leave” once the building finds a new tenant.

“The first and largest obstacle is the city’s zoning restrictions,” she said. “Each municipal district is operated under its own regulations and each municipality must be contacted to determine legal zones for animal shelters.”

Since the shelter is entirely run on volunteer support, accessibility and safety for volunteers are important criteria for the shelter’s new location. In addition to

finding a new location, budgetary setbacks are presenting a large challenge for the shelter.

“The money doesn’t come from any larger funder,” explained Slavin.

“All of our donations come from people we’ve made contact with… you know, people who read about us and have given some thought to the shelter.”

Slavin said donations ranged from $10 to $100.

“And I can tell you, I open all the envelopes. There are not a lot of $100 donations, and we are nowhere near the amount that we need,” said Slavin.

ARN is a no-kill shelter, which means that all cats taken in by the ARN are tested for Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, vaccinated, and cared for.

“For us, they all stay – the ones that come in,” she said.

“This means sometimes we have to say no at the door, sometimes when we don’t have rooms. And, right now, we don’t have enough space for all the cats that need our help.”

City policies have not responded to the circumstances facing the ARN and other non-profit animal

Esther Lee for The McGill Daily

No-kill shelter must find new location or put down cats. shelters such as the Rosie Animal Adoption (RAA).

Anne Dube from the R A A, a non-profit adoption program for homeless dogs, said that, “In Quebec, there is still the farmer’s mentality… I spoke with a member of Parliament [about the issue] – they did not seem interested.”

Dube added that, “High volume, low-cost spay and neuter

clinics must open…if we want to see changes in Quebec. Laws must be changed and make fines a lot heftier.”

Currently, there is no government funding reserved for animal shelters, with the exception of the SPCA, and the city has not revised their zoning regulations.

“This has to change,” said Marajda. “Education and effective legislation are needed now.”

Supreme Court rules in favour of supervised injection site Montreal organization looks to follow similar model Naomi Desai

News Writer

O

n September 30, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) would be allowed to continue running InSite for Community Safety, North America’s only supervised injection site.

InSite receives an average of 855 visits and administers about 587 injections per day. There have been 221 overdose interventions and no fatalities, along with over 5,268 referrals to detox or addictions services in 2010.

The Supreme Court ruling comes after attempts by the federal government to shut down InSite based on its presumed violation of the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The court ruled that the “federal government’s decision was an infringement of section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is the right to life, liberty, and security of the person.”

At InSite, people can inject preobtained substances under the supervision of a medical professional, receive free clean injectable supplies (syringes, cookers, filters, water, and tourniquets), and see an addiction counsellor.

British Columbia’s Ministry of Health funds InSite through VCH, which provides the healthcare component while their contracted partner, PHS Community Services Society, provides counselling services.

Out of Vancouver’s $44 million addiction services budget, InSite’s operational budget required only $3 million last fiscal year.

McGill law professor Richard Janda spoke to how InSite operated prior to the court ruling.

“InSite was initially allowed to run under an exemption…but the Minister of Health withdrew it, and the federal government said InSite couldn’t run anymore,” Janda explained.

According to him, the case sets a legal precedent not only as the first supervised injection site, but also because of the “interaction between

the Charter of Rights and who has jurisdiction over health matters.”

Janda also noted that, prior to the court ruling, there was confusion over which branch of government had jurisdiction over safe injection sites: provincial governments are in charge of health care, while the federal government in Ottawa controls criminal law.

However, in the case of safe injections, the Charter trumped both levels of government.

Janda explained that “the court is saying that, if the federal government fails to protect the Charter, then provincial authorities can come in and do that.”

“If there’s a framework set up by the city or province, the Supreme Court has said that it’s possible [to have such a site],” Janda continued.

This has led to talks of supervised injection sites following the InSite model being opened in the province of Quebec.

Quebec’s Health and Social Services Minister Yves Bolduc told the Globe and Mail that Quebec clinics would not function as “one big single clinic like InSite”

but rather “a model that will be socially acceptable, softer” and will meet the needs of the local population.

It is yet to be determined whether a supervised injection site will be opened in Montreal. However, the legal framework to establish one now exists.

The Montreal organization Cactus, which was the first needle exchange program in North America, would like to see a supervised injection site established to supplement its other services, which include counselling, distribution of free birth control and safe sex products, and syringe recuperation.

When asked about a similar clinic opening in Montreal, Anna Marie D’Angelo, senior media relations officer at VCH, explained that “Montreal health officials need to decide for themselves” on the right course of action.

Since InSite opened in 2003, there have been several peerreviewed studies of its positive effects on the community, including reduced crime and HIV/AIDS rates.

D’Angelo added that InSite also reduces the demand for first responders, such as ambulances and police.

Cailin Rodgers, spokesperson for Health Canada, said that, though disappointed, Health Canada would comply with the court’s decision.

“We believe that the system should be focused on preventing people from becoming drug addicts. Our government believes that spending money on treatment and support to help get people off drugs is the best investment we can make,” said Rogers.

“A key pillar of our National Anti-Drug Strategy is prevention and treatment for those with drug dependencies,” she continued. “As part of the strategy, we have made significant investments to strengthen existing treatment efforts through the Treatment Action Plan.”

D’Angelo spoke about whether InSite condones drug use.

“The doctors and healthcare providers discourage [drug use],” she said, adding that “calling [InSite] safe is incorrect…it is never safe, but in a supervised manner.”

6 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

McGill secures second injunction against striking workers Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

M

cGill has secured a second injunction against the striking McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA), restricting the union’s ability to picket outside of senior administrators’ homes.

The union, which has been on strike since September 1, has been picketing outside the homes of Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, Provost Anthony Masi, and VicePrincipal (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa.

The newest injunction limits picketers to groups of three people, and the group must keep a minimum distance of 25 metres from the residences.

The University secured its first injunction against MUNACA on September 23, which limited the union to picketing in groups of no more than 15 people, and kept groups four metres from various McGill properties. This injunction was recently extended to January 21, 2012.

“Effectively we really can’t picket there anymore,” said MUNACA VP Finance David Kalant. “We look at it as still another way of shutting down our freedom of speech.”

Di Grappa said 10 to 15 MUNACA members picketed outside his house last Tuesday.

“I think it’s very unpleasant

when they picket private homes, and this does absolutely nothing to advance the discussions at the table,” he said.

When asked if he considered it appropriate to picket outside private homes, Kalant replied: “In this case, yes.”

“We were not making excessive noise. We were not impeding them in any way from getting in and out of their houses. We were not insulting them, we were not acting in any aggressive way. We were saying, you know, ‘We’re here, and you can’t ignore us,’” he said.

Kalant added that MUNACA picketers also dropped explanatory flyers in the mailboxes of neighbouring homes.

Thursday’s second injunction also sets limits on picketing at the workplaces of members of the McGill Board of Governors (BoG). According to Kalant, picketers have to stay ten metres away from the workplaces of BoG members.

He noted that the impact of these restrictions vary depending on the particular workplace.

“If [they’ve] got an office on the 25th floor, we can certainly be picketing outside the building because we’re well outside ten metres from their workplace,” explained Kalant.

Also on Thursday, at least 300 MUNACA members formed a picket line at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Glen Campus construction site. Workers at the site, members of the Fédération des tra-

vailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) – Quebec’s largest labour federation – refused to cross picket lines, effectively shutting down work at the site, which is one of the largest work sites in Montreal.

In an email to all McGill staff and students that day, Di Grappa called the picket an “unnecessary, provocative action.”

“This doesn’t accelerate in any way the rhythm of the discussions, which, anyway, is set by the conciliator in conjunction with the parties,” Di Grappa said to The Daily.

“This is something that has absolutely nothing to do with people outside of McGill, and we would encourage the union to focus their energies on the discussions at the table,” he added.

Kalant said MUNACA contacted the FTQ before picketing at the site.

“They were all in support of us and our cause,” said Kalant. “Again, it was to show McGill that we’re here, they can’t shut us up, and we want them to come to the negotiating table and start talking about the serious issues.”

When asked on Friday morning whether the University was seeking an injunction for the MUHC site, Di Grappa replied that McGill was “not responsible” for the MUHC site.

“The MUHC is a separate legal entity. You would have to ask them about what they intend to do for their site,” said Di Grappa.

Kalant, however, told The Daily on Friday afternoon that McGill

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Quebec construction workers ally with MUNACA

The injuction limits picketing at the offices of Board members. applied for an injunction regarding the MUHC site late last week, noting that “we haven’t heard what the specifics are or what the final ruling is.”

MUNACA rally draws big names Brian Topp, a candidate for NDP leadership and McGill alumnus, spoke at a MUNACA rally on Friday at the intersection of McGill College and Sherbrooke.

Topp spoke about both the picketing at the MUHC site and outside senior administrator’s homes.

“I think it’s a sign that it’s time to get a settlement, it’s a sign that it’s time to bring this dispute to an end.

It’s time to get back to the table and find a reasonable settlement,” he said.

“People have the right to demonstrate in public spaces, and other people have the right to decide whether

or not to cross picket lines. And, so, a one-day protest at that work settlement [MUHC] didn’t harm anybody, it sent a strong message to McGill,” he continued.

Topp was joined at the rally by Maude Barlow, chairperson for the Council of Canadians, and Michel Arsenault, president of the FTQ. “Your fight is our fight, and I deeply thank you very, very much for having the courage to stay with this.

I know it’s tough to do this for eight weeks,” Barlow said in her speech.

In his speech, Arsenault reiterated the FTQ’s continued support for MUNACA. “Starting yesterday…you will not be alone in this battle,” he said.

“We are going to last a day longer than McGill, a day longer and win this battle.”

Senate rejects academic amnesty Students argue for right to conscientiously object Queen Arsem-O'Malley The McGill Daily

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cGill Senate voted on Wednesday against a motion for academic amnesty for students in times of strikes and lockouts. The studentauthored motion was subject to amendments and extensive debate before being defeated 44 to 26, with three abstentions.

The motion was introduced after a period of discussion about the McGill University NonAcademic Certified Association (MUNACA) strike, now entering its eighth week, and discussion about the right of faculty members to hold classes off-campus to avoid crossing picket lines.

Several members of the gallery wore MUNACA pins while Senators questioned the administration on its handling of the situation.

Senators raised concerns about the dissemination of information regarding the strike. Principal Heather Munroe-Blum refuted their claims, saying that campus media coverage and demonstrations in support of MUNACA mean

that the issue “has certainly gone beyond having a one-sided view on anything.”

Email updates from the administration were also discussed. Munroe-Blum, who sent a University-wide email on October 18 denouncing MUNACA’s actions during Homecoming events, said that the message was “the only time I’ve spoken out in the context of the strike.” She called the actions of MUNACA members at Homecoming “beyond the pale.”

“I spoke from the heart, and I believe that the Thursday [strike] reports [from Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa] have been factually based,” Munroe-Blum added.

SSMU VP University Affairs Emily Clare introduced the motion for academic amnesty for students. The motion requested that the “Senate grant the right to Academic Amnesty, as outlined in the provisions below, for all students in the case of a strike or lock-out involving a McGill affiliated organization.” It would allow students to “abstain from participating in academic commitments” for up to three working days, as a

means of expressing conscientious objection to a strike or lockout.

The document outlined a number of provisions, including notifying faculty members 72 hours before the date that amnesty would apply. Amnesty would not be applied to assignments worth 35 per cent or more, pre-scheduled mid-terms, final examinations, or mandatory clinicals, field placements, and rehearsals.

Clare explained that the idea was brought up at the first Senate meeting of the year.

“There was a discussion of the implications of a strike on students and different members of the community,” she said. “One of the professors had raised the idea of what would happen if academic amnesty was brought forward by a member of the community.”

Student senators conducted research into the history of academic amnesty motions at McGill and other universities.

“We went and got extensive consultation, we talked to almost all the faculties, at least some representatives of students within the faculties to see how they felt about it,” Clare explained.

“Additionally, we went into the history at McGill, how many times the motion has been brought up and the like, how it did, what were the major arguments against it.

Carleton also had a motion that they put forward at senate last year… That, too, was shut down.”

The motion faced argument from administrative figures, even after two amendments. Many of the arguments focused on pragmatic aspects of the motion. Dean of Law Daniel Jutras called the proposal “simply unmanageable,” while Dean of Science Martin Grant felt that the policy would lead to “chaos.”

Management Senator, and former Daily Web Editor, Tom Acker rebutted the claim by stressing that the policy would “not add significant strain” to administrative work, and that it had been framed to “make sure that students do not abuse this situation,” while SSMU President Maggie Knight pointed out that reasonable accommodation is already made for religious holidays.

The question of allowing for students’ moral positions was also brought up, with several senators voicing the opinion that students should accept penalties for missing

class and academic commitments.

Provost Anthony Masi pointed out that similar motions had been voted down in Senate three times before, and said that students should “live with the consequences” of their actions.

“I should not have to choose between my academic future and moral obligation,” said Arts Senator Matthew Crawford. Knight also pointed out that students on scholarship or other constraints would not have the ability to accept the consequences of missing classes.

A motion to vote by secret ballot was defeated 36 to 34, with two abstentions, before the vote on the motion itself.

Despite defeat, student senators have not abandoned the proposal.

“I think some of the senators may be interested on pursuing this on a faculty level,” Clare said.

“This might be something that needs to be brought to the faculty level, and maybe people will be more open to it… if it’s tailored to the needs of a specific community,” she added. ­— with files from Juan Camilo Velásquez

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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The strike is impacting all of us An open letter from McGill theatre groups

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here is little doubt that in the light of the ongoing strike, politics have taken centre stage at McGill University.

As a result many student groups have found themselves affected, whether or not they choose to take a political stance. We cannot speak for all student groups, nor do we wish to. However, we have witnessed first-hand the toll that this strike is taking on theatre at McGill and we feel that it is our duty to speak up on behalf of an aspect of our education that we are passionate about.

McGill has a very active extracurricular theatre community that boasts eight independent theatre groups who collectively mount over twenty productions annually.

Each week, students dedicate much of their free time to creating con-

sistently high quality productions while developing and honing skills that are not taught in the classroom.

That said, all of McGill’s student theatre groups have been working doubly hard this year to ensure that, despite the strike, our activities can continue to be “business as usual.” The following is a list of specific instances in which the strike is jeopardizing our upcoming productions: 1. All theatre groups have suffered due to the early closure of buildings – notably the SSMU, Arts and Leacock Buildings – as we have found ourselves scrambling for audition and rehearsal spaces.

In some cases, we have even paid for off-campus spaces with money that should be going towards the production of our shows. Players’ Theatre has had to pay for extra

security guards to ensure that the SSMU building remain open for shows. The Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society and the McGill Savoy Society have had to rent offcampus space to hold auditions.

2. At Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre, students shoulder production costs in hopes of being reimbursed by the English Department, whose accounts administrator is currently on strike. Students may end up waiting until the strike ends in order to be reimbursed up to hundreds of dollars.

3. Groups ranging from The McGill Savoy Society and the Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society to Musical Theatre Montreal were all slated to perform at Moyse Hall, whose technical director is on strike. Due to his absence, these societies must consider alterna-

tives, which range from performing off-campus (at venues that could cost three times as much money) to canceling productions altogether.

These are only a few of the ways in which the strike is affecting our lives in student theatre. And as the strike goes on, the repercussions will only grow in severity.

Right now we are all struggling to make ends meet, but if the strike continues, shows will be cancelled and deficits will be run. In student theatre, a deficit of even a couple thousand dollars could mean the end of a theatre group ­– not only for the year, but forever.

In the grand political scheme, this may not seem like much. But, for many of us, theatre is the path we’ve chosen to follow academically and professionally. For all of us, it is what we have chosen

to devote our time and energy towards while at McGill. And as McGill students, we rely on our administration and management to support us in our endeavors.

Many of us have differing individual opinions on the strike, but, as a collective, we maintain the right to a non-partisan stance. All we ask is that the Administration and MUNACA truly consider the negative effect that every passing day without a settlement has on us and on the productions of which we are so proud.

Signed by The Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society Executive, The McGill Improv Executive, The McGill Savoy Society Executive, The Players Theatre Executive, The Tuesday Night Café Theatre Executive

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

8 Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Dear Munroe-Blum

Actions speak louder than words In order to value staff and students, McGill’s principal must show respect and honesty François-Xavier Jetté Soap Box

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ear Ms. Principal, When you use subjective words like “threats,” “vandalism,” “defacing,” and “aggressive” without describing what actually happened during Homecoming, you are giving us your subjective assessment only, which amounts to nothing more than propaganda. Strikers can level the same sort of accusation against the University. For instance, when they are being spied on and photographed by security guards, they may also feel “threatened” and treated “aggressively”. To add insult to injury, I have myself heard security guards laughing and making fun of strikers, which would not help them feel less disrespected by the University. So both sides are guilty of the same sort of intimidation and belittling tactics. Your message is therefore so one-sided that it can’t even be called information, it can only be called propaganda. Furthermore, at the recent Leacock luncheaon at the Hilton Bonaventure Montreal hotel, McGill security guards were also pointing out MUNACA members to the police.

If you really respect us, then tell us what actually happened, not your interpretation of it. Besides, I’d like to know what you mean by “defacing” and “vandalism.”

If you are talking about writing in chalk on the sidewalk, then say so. Since you requested an injunction, you should not have to complain to us about vandalism, you could simply get the union fined. The fact that you didn’t do that says to me that they did not come close enough to the Martlet House to do what you’re accusing them of.

I find it hypocritical when you say that, at McGill, we work out our differences around a table, without threats. You have threatened the strikers and the union with severe fines when you obtained an injunction that restricts their rights. These people now seem to be terrorized if they walk over pieces of duct tape stuck on the sidewalk on their way back home from the end of their picket duty! Don’t tell me they would be so scared if you had not used legal threats against them! Don’t tell me you’d rather negotiate at the table than use threats because this is not what you’re doing. You should know that actions speak much louder than words, and your actions have already spoken!

I also take offence at the statement that, at McGill, people are “free to speak, to disagree and voice their views without harassment, intimidation and insult.”

This is not what Di Grappa told students (when they were protesting outside of James Administration building), despite what the Student Rights and Responsibilities guide says! The students that wanted to attend the Senate meeting were not only prevented from speaking, they were prevented from even attending. Do not tell me that they were going to disturb the meeting, since the very invitation they sent regarding the event stipulated a quiet and non-disrupting presence. Professors who object to crossing picket lines as a matter of conscience are also deterred with harsh punishment, even when they find alternative ways to continue to teach and to guide their students.

When one considers that classes can be routinely moved off-campus because of a lack of classroom space, whereas they cannot be moved off campus when a professor has an objection of conscience, it becomes clear that one is not free to speak and act according to one’s conscience at McGill. It is your very lack of respect for professors, stu-

dents, and strikers rights to speak in disagreement that led them to get upset and try to disturb the Senate meeting. In addition, one striker was even arrested this past Friday at the Hilton, just before the arrival of Di Grappa because she wanted the right to speak to visiting alumni about the fact that there was a strike at McGill. This is intimidation; this isn’t the right to voice one’s view without harassment! Again, your actions have spoken!

Finally, how can you say you are trying to resolve the strike quickly when you are not willing to even negotiate on salary, pensions, and wage scale? Talking and negotiating are two different things. When you negotiate, you actually make some compromises. When you refuse to budge from your 1.2 per cent salary increase offer while upper management received a 3.5 per cent wage increase, which makes your case that you have no money sound very hollow, then you are not working to resolve the strike rapidly. Your actions and your words are again in contradiction!

I have been a proud McGill alumni since 2000. I have given to McGill every year since then, until 2009 that is. I just finished a PhD this summer at McGill, and during the course of my work you

chose a new Dean for the faculty of Engineering, I noticed a certain deterioration in the way people were treated, from the professors to the students, to the admin and technical staff. McGill has become an increasingly hostile environment for its people. This is why I stopped donating in 2009; I do not feel the McGill upper administration represents its people anymore. There is no single “We are McGill” anymore. Now there are two: one “We are the McGill upper administration who make all the decisions” and one “We are the profs, students, and staff at McGill who do all the work that makes McGill great”. For that reason, I am still debating whether to go to convocation or not, but, if I go be assured that I will proudly wear at least one MUNACA button, because the respect they are fighting for is what is sorely needed at McGill. I am also not sure if I will give to McGill again in the future, I have found the last few years so traumatizing that I may never regain the respect I had for this institution.

François-Xavier Jetté received his PhD from McGill this past summer.

Fight fairly Why our principal can’t excuse herself from conflicts of interest Emilio Comay del Junco 2 Cents

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ear Principal Munroe-Blum, At the end of last year, I had the pleasure of taking part in a public dispute with you – I was an editor at The Daily, you wrote an outraged response to an editorial, and I replied in a commentary piece in the same issue of the paper. I couldn’t have disagreed more with what you said, but the whole exchange was a positive experience.

Your latest email update on the MUNACA strike was anything but.

(And Michael Di Grappa’s most

recent “Strike Update” was hardly better.) In it, you wrote about mutual respect and open discourse, which is striking given that both of these were in alarmingly short supply. No one reading accusations of “vandalism” and “violence” without any further elaboration would think of a handful of stickers and a few flowers thrown at passersby, which by all reports is what these amounted to. Your use of language is clever, but totally disingenuous.

What’s more, your email is decidedly one-way, anything but the beginning a clash of viewpoints or the sharp but civil discourse that you write about. Since only you and a handful of staff

have access to the list of every McGill student and employee’s email address, anyone finding themselves agape at your message has the option of writing you personally, but certainly has no chance of reaching the same audience. There’s an inequality implicit in this exchange that is not conducive to meaningful debate, which requires the participants to treat each other as equals. It’s hardly a real debate if the format so obviously favours one of the participants.

As much as I would love for you to simply retract your message and apologize for your rhetoric, I know that’s not going to happen. Having

spent the better part of your eight year tenure as Principal pushing for education “reform” that would make McGill operate less like a university and more like a major corporation, I can understand why you’re pulling out all the stops to reach the settlement that’s best suits your vision of the University.

However, there’s a conflict of interest, and not one that you can’t simply excuse yourself from. You can’t both run McGill as if it were a for-profit company and also act as the leading representative of the McGill community. With your last email, you took a sharp turn toward the efficient manager you want to be and an even sharper

turn away from being the representative of students, staff, and faculty you claim to be. You talk a lot about community, but it’s starting to ring increasingly hollow. Your email opens with the line, “We are all McGill.” Just apparently not those people unfairly targeted and excluded in your email and not the MUNACA members who are being denied a fair contract.

Emilio Comay del Junco is a U2 Honours German Studies and Philosophy student and a former Design and Production and Coordinating editor of The Daily.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Dear Munroe-Blum

Respect your community The administration should meet MUNACA’s reasonable demands Nora Belblidia 2 Cents

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ear Principal Munroe-Blum, I am a student at McGill, as well as an employee, and I am ashamed about the administration’s handling of the MUNACA strike. While I understand McGill has financial troubles, I am rather perplexed by the prioritization of funds; adminis-

trators receive oversized salaries and bonuses while the workers who allow McGill to function are refused reasonable wages.

Meanwhile, administrators have addressed the strike with condescending, dismissive, and unprofessional language.

You and your colleagues are denying the severe impact that the strike has had on students and workers alike; everything is not ‘business as usual.’ In my

experience alone, I have had difficulty getting an appointment at the health center because the nurses are part of MUNACA. I have had my research impeded because the librarians are part of MUNACA. I have had my coursepacks and textbooks delayed because the bookstore’s shipping department is part of MUNACA. I have received slowed service and had processing of important documents delayed because

workers at Service Point are part of MUNACA. I have seen my managers and other non-MUNACA members become overloaded with work because they must cover for striking MUNACA members. And I have seen the activities of friends and fellow students disrupted by the strike and seen them become outraged by your reaction to it all.

I believe MUNACA’s demands are reasonable and should be met,

and that bargaining should be settled soon for the well-being of McGill University. Furthermore, I urge that all future emails from yourself and your colleagues should adopt a tone of respect for your community.

I am a McGill student and I stand with MUNACA. Nora Belblidia is a U4 Geography student. You can reach her at nora. belblidia@mail.mcgill.ca.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

A personal appeal The spouse of a MUNACA member speaks out Lisa Di Michele 2 Cents

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nowledge is power. I hope more students will take the time and learn the reasons why MUNACA is on its current path. That everyone realizes the weekly, one sided, mass circulation of emails and ‘updates’ by the administration contain some erroneous information where MUNACA does not have the same opportunity to address these errors. And, to the professors and

other employees, put aside your fear of repercussion from the administration. We all have one obligation, and that is to inform ourselves of the truth before we render an opinion.

You may think that this is not your fight; you are wrong. This is not a MUNACA issue; it is now at the very core of the rights of all who are part of the McGill community and those of us on the outside. We live in a “not my problem” era. Let’s change that. The administration’s actions will be the same for anyone standing for change

and those expressing their rights.

The injunction and for anyone to silence the student protesters on Monday, September 26, have made that very clear.

Consider your mother, father, sister, brother, or (future) spouse being a MUNACA member who is treated with disregard, disrespect, and stripped of their rights. What would it take for you to help your loved ones?

Listen to your hearts and conscious and rise and take a stand for what is right – help them get this resolved now. Helping them,

will help yourself and many more today, and in the future.

Just as MUNACA members, you chose to attend McGill based on its reputation and quality of services as an educational institution – help those members get back to doing what they love and back to helping the countless students they come in contact with. Help McGill return to what it should be – an institution where everyone has rights and is treated with respect and dignity. As it is, the administration’s reputation is just a façade; they have clearly shown

that by trying to strip MUNACA of its reputation and rights.

You are 35,000 plus strong – stand up for what you know is right without fear and without indifference. You have the power to instill change – be the voice that McGill is trying to silence.

Stand tall, stand proud.

Lisa Di Michele is a Certified International Trade Professional and Spouse of a MUNACA member.

10 Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Atheists, theists, and gnostics, oh my!

The need for useful terminology for discussing atheism One Less God Harmon Moon

onelessgod@mcgilldaily.com

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here’s a popular idea that being an atheist involves sharing the exact ideas of all non-believers, a notion I would argue is extremely misguided. Since atheism is a personal philosophical position, there are a wide variety of approaches to the subject.

The first question to consider when looking at these approaches is the issue of religion at childbirth. Can you be born an atheist?

Without the ability to have communicated to them the idea of God, can a newborn nevertheless hold belief in such?

In a nutshell, no. Atheism, as I’ve argued in other pieces published here (“Beyond a reasonable doubt,” Page 15, December 1, 2010), is primarily a negative state; without some sort of positive proof suggesting that the case is otherwise, we by default assume that there is no God. Those that cannot consider new evidence to the contrary must be atheists, even if they do not selfidentify as such. Animals are a good example here. Since they can’t process an idea as complex as God, they’re atheists. Sorry, Fido.

Such is what is called “implicit atheism.” From there, one makes the leap to rejecting God, and

becomes an explicit atheist. But wait, there’s more! It gets complicated from here, though, so you might want a larger coffee.

Picture a graph with two axes: gnosticism vs. agnosticism, and theism vs. atheism. Gnosticism, for our purposes, is the belief that there is an absolute knowledge, so that one can say definitely that something is or is not true. So, in this case, somebody on the far “gnostic” side of our graph would argue that the statement “There is a God” can be proven to be 100 per cent valid or invalid; somebody on the far “agnostic” side, would argue that the same statement can never be proven to any degree of accuracy because it’s impossible to know.

Theism vs. atheism is the debate over a god like power: a theist would say “There is a God” and an atheist says otherwise. Somebody between the two would say “maybe there’s a God.” Is this the definitive way of charting people’s religious positions? Of course not. But it provides a helpful mental image when trying to discuss people’s views. A “strong theist” – let’s say the Pope – will be found at the maximum poles of gnosticism and theism: there is absolutely a God. Whether it exists and can be known is completely beyond doubt. A “strong atheist” hangs around the maximums of gnosticism and atheism, lifting weights and giving nasty looks at those on the theism side: there

is absolutely not a God; its nonexistence can and will someday be indisputably proven.

Meanwhile, in the quieter parts of the graph, we find at themaximum theism and agnosticism poles the “weak theist,” mowing his lawn. The “weak theist” believes that there is a God, even if it’s impossible to be absolutely certain of this, and acts accordingly.

Cleaning his glasses at atheism and agnosticism we have the “weak atheist,” who feels that there’s no way to know for sure, but figures that, well, there’s probably no God. Everybody else falls somewhere between the four poles.

This examination just brushes the surfaces of the different philosophies regarding a god or omnipotent power. Thus, one

shouldn’t be quick to assume an exact agreement of beliefs among atheists.

One Less God is a twice-monthly column on atheist communities and philosophy. Harmon Moon is a U2 History student and VP External of the McGill Freethought Association. He can be reached at onelessgod@mcgilldaily.com.

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

Western lies and Iranuendo The West’s lack of self-criticism Haaris Khan Hyde Park

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ypocrisy and cowardice were on full display in New York City on September 22.

The United Nations was once envisioned as a forum for dialogue and peace-building, but it’s clear that the governments of Canada, the United States, Australia, and the European Union only subscribe to these ideas insofar as they benefit them.

As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the podium and entered into the core of his address to the world, the delegations from Western countries walked out.

The audacity of Ahmadinejad

to question the supposed “truth” that Western countries have tried to impose on the world and to illustrate the problems of Western hegemony and abuse of power was too much for the remarkably sensitive world elite to bear. The fact that most of the world’s developing countries did not walk out on Ahmadinejad’s speech played perfectly into the Iranian president’s hands and served to reinforce his message that the current global power structure is deeply and unmistakeably unjust.

Western governments and media frequently paint themselves as heroes, and as the coordinated force of liberty in the world while insulting the integrity of for-

eign governments and peoples.

Ahmadinejad echoes the sentiments of people worldwide – the villains of CNN fame are not the only abusers of human rights and manipulators of mankind. The leaders of the very nations that have appointed themselves the leaders of the “free world” also abuse human rights and manipulate individuals.

Spin doctors like Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said: “Mr. Ahmadinejad had a chance to address his own people’s aspirations for freedom and dignity, but instead he again turned to abhorrent anti-Semitic slurs and despicable conspiracy theories.”

But of course, lies and propaganda cannot cover the truth. While President Ahmadinejad has made anti-semitic remarks in the past, he refrained doing so in this speech, and he posed legitimate questions that run through the minds of the majority of the world’s population.

Ahmadinejad did, in fact, address his own people’s aspirations for freedom and dignity. He addressed the entire developing world’s desire for liberation from neocolonialism and crippling inequality. Somehow, that message was lost in our newspapers and reports.

The mass walk-out of Western diplomats served to prove that the United States and the European Union continue to masquerade

as upholders of freedom when, in reality, they have contributed very little to the freedom of man. As Ahmadinejad correctly pointed out, the legacy of the Western world includes slavery, colonialism, mass murder, environmental degradation, and crony capitalism. Our leaders criticize Ahmadinejad for his questioning of 9/11 and the Holocaust, and these criticisms are then used to unfairly delegitimize the crux of Mr. Ahmedinajads argument: that western governments are just as oppressive as those they condemn.

Haaris Khan is a U2 International Development Studies student. He can be reached at haaris.khan@ mail.mcgill.ca.

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Art Essay

11

On The Prowl Nicolas Roy

12 Features

Mordecai Richler Was Here Ten years after the Montreal novelist’s death, his widow Florence keeps his memory alive

All photos courtesy of Florence Richler

Anna Foran

The McGill Daily

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t’s 10:30 in the morning and I’m standing across the room from Florence Richler, the widow of Mordechai Richler, once Canada’s most famous novelist. She is 83 – her eyes are a glassy blue, and almost completely blind. Perched on the edge of a mahogany desk in the den is a picture of Mordecai in a simple frame. She catches me staring at it and picks it up very gently, running her fingers across his face. This, she says, accompanies her wherever she goes.

The picture was taken at the country home in the Eastern Townships where Richler did most of his writing from 1974 – when they bought it – until he died in 2001.

Like so many authors, he required undisturbed silence as he wrote.

One morning, Florence caught sight of Mordecai on the balcony just outside the kitchen, deeply absorbed in what was then the manuscript of Barney’s Version, his last, great novel. It was clear, from his furrowed brow and hunched posture, that there was no summoning him. Instead, Florence picked up a nearby camera, crept into position, and took a picture of her husband in what was his natural state.

He didn’t realize he was being photographed at the time. Now, he has no idea how this image of his oblivious self is pored over, caressed, watched with half-blind eyes, day after day.

Mordecai died a decade ago, but Florence still lives part-time in the lavish apartment on

Sherbrooke they shared, a few blocks west of McGill’s downtown campus. Their building is called the Chateau, but that doesn’t do it justice – it’s much more grandiose than most castles, covered in turrets and arches and majestic grey stone, taking up a full city block.

When I arrived in the lobby the doorman said, rather inexplicably, “You must be one of Florence’s angels.” As I ascended in the elevator to her eighth floor home, I began to sense that I was in fact entering a different realm.

Florence’s voice, soft and lilting, somehow matches the walls of her pale pink apartment. Dressed in a dark, flowing, shapeless dress, which barely reveals her feet, she ushers me to a velvet couch on the far side of the living room. Sherbrooke, buzzing with traffic eight floors below us, might as well be a foreign country.

Florence sits down next to me and starts leading me on a visual tour of her apartment. Though she can barely see, she knows the contents of this room by heart. She describes it to me with her eyes almost fully closed, like an oracle.

A few months ago, the Richler family cleaned out their country home, and miscellany from the house now clutters Florence’s living space in Montreal. The items form a kind of constellation of memory. Florence muses that each one contains a specific memory of her children, who spent so much of their childhoods in the Townships. The objects also contain memories of Mordecai.

••• For half a century, Richler was an ines-

capable and controversial figure in Canadian life. The native Montrealer – he was raised on St. Urbain – was also a native-born pest, getting under the skin of Quebec nationalists in particular.

His greatest literary contribution was to fiction: he published ten novels, many of which are Canadian classics. His final novel, Barney’s Version, won the country’s most prestigious literary prize, the Giller, in 1997, and was recently made into a film starring Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman. He died in 2001, at age seventy.

The last time I visited his and Florence’s apartment was at the end of my first year at McGill. I went to read Florence one of the final drafts of a mammoth biography of Mordecai, which was written by my father. She and I sat next to one another at the dining room table, and, as I read, Florence stopped to correct my pronunciation of Jewish and French names. Until my arrival, she had been trying to read the first pages of the biography using a computer-sized magnifying glass that blew up one word at a time.

The time between my first and more recent, second visit to Florence’s apartment had seen the casting of a brightened spotlight on Mordecai’s life and work. The woman I was visiting in October 2010 had, during the intervening sixteen months, devoted herself endlessly to the commemoration and, frequently, the defence of her controversial husband. She keeps a crowded schedule of interviews and public discussions, some of which can be grating – at a recent talk in Toronto, a reporter asked about Mordecai’s fairly heavy drinking, never a pleasant topic

for a widow to breech.

While Florence wears this public persona well – she is unfailingly elegant and polite, often described as Richler’s “better half” – it is the privacy of her apartment that reflects her and her relationship with Mordecai best.

For Florence, Mordecai was not “controversial” or “inflammatory” or “legendary.” He was, simply, hers.

••• The tour of the apartment continues. One of Florence’s wells of memory is a mahogany desk that sits in the den, a valley amidst a mountain of books. The desk’s overwhelming presence, Florence points out, commands the small room, just like her imposing husband once did. “Even when he stood still,” she says, “he still occupied a room in its entirety.”

With a flick of her hand and a sigh, Florence guides me to another moment in her eternally vivid past. It’s a photograph of her and Mordecai in Cairo, a pyramid towering behind them.

Giggling, she describes how a small boy had approached them and asked Florence if she would have her picture taken next to the camel he was holding firmly by the reigns.

Much to Mordecai’s dismay, she accepted.

An intensely private man, any pressure to put on a public face, even for a simple photo, could summon the irascible personality he was known for.

Though he huffed and puffed, he finally agreed to pose, albeit sombrely, alongside his grinning wife and her camel. This photo later appeared in a travel piece he wrote titled

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com “Florence of Arabia.”

Just as Mordecai’s solemn expression was characteristic of this intensely shy yet publicly outspoken man, so Florence’s display of elegance and tact was what friends and family would forever associate with her. Though it was Mordecai’s mug that graced the pages of books and magazines, many thought of Florence as his best face.

•••

Florence Isabel Wood was born October 18, 1929, in a foundling home in Montreal.

Her adoptive parents, Albert and Ethel Woods, lived in Point St. Charles – a mixed neighborhood of English, Scottish, Irish, and French-Canadian descent known as “The Pointe” – with two other adoptive children, a boy and a girl. The Woods, both born in England, were raised to follow a model of British politeness that they would consistently emphasize to their children. At age ten, Florence got a job working at a five-and-dime store owned by the Stotlands, a rare Jewish family in the neighborhood. The store, and the Stotlands’ apartment above it, became like a second home, and the family encouraged her early dreams of a career in the arts.

At eighteen, the aspiring actress embarked to London, where she found part-time work as a store mannequin, and fell in love with the city – despite its devastated post-war condition. Upon returning to Montreal she became involved with the Mountain Playhouse, where she met the young actor Christopher Plummer, and Stanley Mann, whom she married when she was twenty-two.

When she was in her twenties, she lived in London with Mann. Mordecai was living there too, and she saw him often enough at parties to figure out she was in love with him.

She and Mordecai began seeing each other before her divorce with Mann was finalized.

It was a scandal – and illegal. Whenever they spent the night together they enlisted a friend to keep an eye out for police nosing

around for adulterers.

They were married in 1960, had four kids, and brought up another from Florence’s first marriage. In 1972, they returned to Montreal and spent the next 29 years together in the city and the Townships.

•••

The next stop in the den’s memory bank is the last photograph ever taken of Mordecai, which captures him sitting, once again, in the family’s country home. Though he rests in an archetypal pose, his eyes look unusually weary. The skin below them has begun to droop and his hand, resting uneasily at his side, seems to bear the entire weight of his slowly declining body.

Florence recalls the rigour with which the photographer conducted the session, and her sense, watching the scene from afar, that her husband was fading. She approached the photographer, and whispered that Mordecai was not well, and that the session would have to end soon. She knew that Mordecai, though by nature introverted, would sport his strong, public face until the photographer had finished shooting.

In the dining room, Mordecai’s presence is not felt in photographs, but in a number of his possessions, which sit, untouched, where she left them on the day he died. One of these is a place setting at the table, which Florence insists be kept out for her husband.

On one side of the living room entrance sits the leather overnight bag that Mordecai took to the hospital during his chemotherapy. One day, he asked Florence to take the bag back home for him. That day, just forty-eight hours before he passed away, she dropped it carelessly next to the bookshelf. The bag has never left that spot. “Family and guests find it upsetting,” she says, “but I find it only comforting.”

Next to the overnight bag, atop a wicker chair, lie a cashmere sweater and a pair of mittens. Both belonged to Mordecai. They rest there as if he will soon snatch them up

and tear out the door in a state of deep mental absorption. Though she speaks about it with a slight smile, it is clear that with every glance at these everyday objects, the pain of missing him, and his larger-than-life presence, surfaces.

Soon enough, she reveals to me, some of these same objects will be used to create a replica of Mordecai’s country office for the public to visit. Along with his desk, typewriter, and a portion of the 2500 books the home once contained, the exhibit – organized by the Segal Centre and Jewish Public Library, in conjunction with McGill – will do in a sense what Florence has done in the Chateau apartment: immortalize a human life through the objects which defined it.

For lovers of his novels, Mordecai Richler is preserved by his words. The city of Montreal commemorates him with a shabby gazebo on the side of the mountain. For his widow, however, he is everywhere she goes: in his stories, letters (some of which hang framed in the apartment), in the eyes of their children, and every corner of the apartment they shared for a quarter century. When I ask if her memory ever falters, Florence laughs slyly and peers out the window. “He’s just as present now as he ever was,” she says.

The most prominent image in the den is a large poster of Mordecai’s face.

Florence encountered this massive image in the window of the Chapters on St. Catherine only days after his death on July 3, 2001. The sight of her husband’s face, wearing a typically grave expression, brought her to tears. It also filled her with a desire to secure the poster for herself.

She entered the Chapters and asked the man at the desk if she could have the image in the window when it was taken down. She gave no name, just a phone number. Three weeks later, Florence was called back to the store and handed the wrapped-up poster by the same man at the desk. When asked why she was so interested, she replied, “I knew him well.”

13

Science+Technology

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The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Webical diagnoses The internet is no substitute for a medical professional Anqi Zhang

The McGill Daily

W

hen I got sick a couple of weeks ago, my first instinct was not to call the doctor. Nor was it to crawl out of bed and into line at McGill Drop-in Clinic before 8 a.m. Instead, the first place I looked was WebMD. And I am probably not the only one.

WebMD is a website that offers a multitude of services. It provides in-depth information on a variety of both common and obscure diseases.

It offers information on drugs and supplements. It has a “Healthy Living” section with diet information. But, what WebMD is perhaps most famous for is its symptom checker. This tool is straightforward: the individual essentially tells the website what hurts on a diagram of the body, and in what way. The tool’s algorithm will churn its cogs and, for any given mix of specific symptoms, produce a list of possible ailments sorted by relevance.

WebMD was created in 1995, but did not become successful as a search engine and information hub until 2003. After that, growth of this and other health search engines and selfdiagnosis tools was so rapid that by 2008 Microsoft dedicated an entire research study to the emergence of “cyberchondriacs”. Amelie QuesnelVallee, an associate professor of Medical Sociology at McGill, explained in an email to The Daily that this phenomenon is a result of these tools’ attempts at exhaustiveness, which leads to a listing of conditions “from the mundane and widespread to the serious and extremely rare.”

It is this diversity of possibilities that, to put it bluntly, freaks people out. Even if you know you probably have the common cold, it is easy to suspect that you may have one of the more dire diseases that appear further down the list. For some, this is enough to send them to the doctor’s office seeking confirmation or, hopefully, negation. Pierre-Paul Tellier, coordinator of Student Health Services at McGill said that this can sometimes come as an annoyance to doctors, who “want to know what their [patients’] symptoms are, not what disease they think they have.”

WebMD is not the only virtual diagnosis tool, nor is it the only site culpable of encouraging these cyberchondriac tendencies and the ensuing trips to the doctor’s office. The very design of these sites makes these effects unavoidable. The distinction between a meaningful and a meaningless symptom is not one that a computer algorithm can determine.

Furthermore, Quesnel-Vallee noted that “because of liability, these websites tend to tell you there might

be a problem when there is no problem.” This tendency, she said, leads to “more, not fewer physician visits.”

While WebMD’s mission is to “streamline administrative and clinical processes,” it has actually accomplished the opposite, increasing the burden on already understaffed and inefficient health services.

“As individuals, we know when we are out of sorts. However, what we are ill-equipped to answer is the extent to which that individual deviation from our own baseline is clinically significant or not,” Quesnel-Vallee said.

Obviously, WedMD and other such websites are a poor substitute for proper medical attention, so why use them at all? WebMD is in the top 200 most trafficked websites in the United States and in the top 600 in Canada. It could be that many in our society are lacking what Quesnel-Vallee calls “a long-lasting relationship with a good primary care physician.” Certainly this is the case for students, many of whom are living alone and away from home. Dr. Tellier also suggested that impatience may be a reason for the popularity of these sites, saying “This is a way they can get answers right away when they are anxious.”

A slightly more psychological analysis of sociological trends points to the growth of our unwillingness to blindly accept decisions made by others – even if they have authority.

We live in a society where so much of what we do is self-monitored and where we have so much control over the ways in which we lead our lives. It is natural for us to want greater control over that which is closest to us – our bodies.

And using online symptom checkers gives control to the individual; not only can you check symptoms on your own time, without the hassle of making an appointment (in fact, WebMD’s

symptom checker is available as a Blackberry and IPhone app for on-the-go diagnosis), but you can also control which symptoms the most emphasis is placed on. Using an online tool the moment you feel under the weather can be empowering – but Quesnel-Vallee has noted this can actually lead to more worry than relief.

But, after all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and, as such, these sites also offer health education in addition to their purported clinical services. They are information hubs for all things medical. Many of these sites have valiant intentions: FamilyDoctor’s mission statement states that articles are written at “a grade eight reading level to make information understandable and accessible to all users.” Despite this, equal access of information is still not a reality. In fact, one of Quesnel-Vallee’s

students here at McGill found that “individuals who seek health information on the internet are usually better educated to begin with, and are more health-oriented.” That is, the populations that already know a significant amount about healthy lifestyles and disease prevention are the same populations that have access to, and are familiar with, informational health sites. On the other hand, “the populations most likely to benefit from this additional information may not be getting it,” Quesnel-Vallee said.

It is possible, that with time, these sites can grow to become what they were meant to be – a means of offering clarity of information and efficient medical support. But, for now, it is clear that they have not achieved either the goals set out for them by their creators, nor have they merited the trust placed in them by their

consumers. While these websites offer a quick and easy substitute for medical attention, these diagnoses are a long shot from being accurate or reliable. A better alternative may be telephone services such as Telesante Quebec, 8-1-1. They are quick and easy but are slightly more flexible – and less encouraging of paranoia – than websites. In a futuristic world, an online tool might accurately and reliably diagnose a single disease from a list of symptoms, but today that ability remains in the hands of trained doctors and nurses. That being said, WebMD and websites of the like cannot magically reform their online diagnosis tools overnight. Instead, we as consumers should always keep this distinction between online tool and medical specialist – a caveat emptor of sorts – in our minds when we seek out these speedy solutions to our day-to-day ailments.

Alex Chalk for The McGill Daily

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

2011 Nobel Prizes

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Almost 150 years ago Alfred Nobel patented dynamite – a mixture of nitroglycerin and an inert substance (like dirt). This invention amassed him a fortune. Years later, when his brother died, a French newspaper erroneously published Nobel’s own obituary, calling him a “merchant of death.” Worried about his legacy and potentially plagued with guilt, Nobel donated the majority of his estate to the creation of the Nobel Prizes after his death. Each year, the Nobel Prize committee gathers together to choose laureates for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. Astute readers may wonder why there is no Nobel Prize for math – legend has it that Nobel never got over the fact that a mathmatician stole away one of his lovers.

Physiology or Medicine: a rare exception Science+Technology Writer

N

early 50 years ago, a man by the name of Ralph M. Steinman graduated with a B.Sc in Honours Biochemistry from McGill. Today, thousands of students at McGill, and all over the world, are studying the groundbreaking discoveries made by that very same man.

On Monday, October 4, the Nobel Prize Committee announced the recipients for 2011. Among the new laureates were Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffman, and Ralph Steinman, who were jointly awarded the prize for Medicine or Physiology: one half to Beutler and Hoffman “for their discoveries concerning activation of innate immunity” and the other to Steinman “for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.” It was only a few hours after this announcement was made that the Committee received news of Dr. Steinman’s untimely death, his

four-year battle with pancreatic cancer had ended just three days earlier.

This drew some last-minute deliberations among the committee, stemming from a rule that prevents prizes from being deliberately awarded posthumously. This rule prevented Rosalind Franklin, whose work with x-ray crystallography contributed to the discovery of the helical structure of DNA, from receiving a Nobel in 1962. At the time Nobel Prizes were not awarded to women and she passed away four years before a Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins for the development of the DNA model.

Steinman’s extremely unique situation – wherein he was awarded prior to his death – makes him one of only three posthumous Nobel Prize recipients in history.

Up until his death, Steinman worked as an immunologist at Rockefeller University, studying the mechanisms of dendritic cells in tolerance and immunity and how this could be applied in medicine.

Dendritic cells play a crucial role in immune response, as they capture and process antigens, either material from self or the environment.

They then present these antigens on their surface and, in doing so, help the body to differentiate “self” from “foreign”, preventing autoimmunological attack. They also act as the link between the innate and adaptive immune responses.

The other two recipients of the prize, Beutler and Hoffman, were also recognized for their contributions to immunology. Their research focused on the initial stages of the body’s immune response. The work of all three of these new Nobel Laureates paves the way for the development and improvement of treatments used to fight infectious diseases such as HIV/ AIDS and other conditions, such as cancer. While this research may have been too late for Steinman, himself – he had been using his research to develop immunotherapy vaccines in order to treat his own cancer – it paves the way for future therapies.

Illutrations by Nicolas Roy for The McGill Daily

Caitlin Loo

Physics: written in the stars Taylor Holroyd

Science+Technology Writer

T

he 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics has been jointly awarded to American scientists Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess for observing distant supernovae and proving the expansion of the universe. One half of the Nobel Prize was awarded to Perlmutter, and the other half to Schmidt and Riess.

Perlmutter is now a professor of Physics at UC Berkeley, where he heads the multinational Supernova

Cosmology Project. Both Riess and Schmidt are members of the High-z Supernova Search Team, which spans multiple countries and uses supernova to chart the expansion of the universe.

The three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae,” according to the Nobel Prize press release. They used type 1a supernovae, which result from the explosion of white dwarves, to measure the rate of the universe’s growth since the conjectured Big Bang, which is estimated

to have occurred nearly 14 billion years ago. A supernova is essentially an energetic and luminous star explosion that causes a burst of radiation. There are different types of supernovae, and they are categorized according to the composition of the light emitted. In type 1a supernovae, the light breakdown lacks hydrogen. Because hydrogen is usually a primary fuel source of stars, if it has no hydrogen, then we know the star has completely used up all of its existing fuel.

Perlmutter, Schmidt and Riess actually made their discoveries in 1998, but the corroboration of their

evidence was not completed until recently. Both research teams separately came to the same conclusion and had identical results after years of observing and cataloguing type 1a supernovae. The scientists wanted to find out what is going to happen to universe in the future. Their results show evidence that the universe is spreading apart and accelerating due to the forces of “dark energy”, indicating that the future of the universe is, essentially, a cold, dark void.

This proposed “dark energy” is deduced from the ever-increasing expansion of the universe. Since gravity would cause ordinary and

dark matter – matter that does not emit or scatter light – to decelerate, a new type of energy had to be hypothesized – that is dark energy.

The confirmation of dark energy’s existence is the corollary of confirmation of the universe’s accelerating expansion and it was this discovery that the Nobel Prize was awarded for.

This may not seem like an extremely applicable or practical accomplishment, but dark energy appears to constitute about 75 per cent of the mass of the entire universe. As a result this discovery is extremely important to our understanding of the nature of the universe.

structure, which assumes that only two, three, four, and sixfold symme-

tries were possible. Pentagonal or fivefold symmetry, was considered to be impossible due to unachievable spacing between atoms. Amazingly, the results of Shechtman’s research showed fivefold symmetry in the crystal structure. The fact that Shechtman’s fivefold pattern didn’t repeat itself caused other scientists to disregard his results. His results were so controversial that he was ridiculed by the scientific community and was asked to leave his research group shortly after he made his discovery in 1982.

However, this didn’t stop Schectman. Along with several colleagues, he refined and published their findings in 1984. Shortly thereafter, other scientists discovered other seemingly impossible crystal structures, such as structures containing

eight and twelvefold symmetry, giving more legitimacy to Shechtman’s results. As his discovery became more widely accepted, a paradigm shift occurred in the field of crystallography. The very definition of a crystal was altered: it could no longer be said that all crystals contain a regular, repeating pattern of atoms.

Many types of quasicrystals have now been synthesized, and have recently been found occurring in nature in a mineral sample from Russia. Due to the nature of their structure, quasicrystals are extra hard and are poor conductors of both heat and electricity.

Although quasicrystals have no practical applications yet, quasicrystal fyring pans may soon be in use, as quasicrystals have a nonstick surface. They may also be useful in diesel engines and LED bulbs to control the flow of heat.

Chemistry: crystal clear Kelsi Lix

Science+Technology Writer

S

ome ancient Arabic mosaics are known to feature a distinct pattern. These patterns, although unvarying, never repeat themselves.

Their organization follows mathematical rules: the pattern is scaled using the golden ratio, a number approximately equal to 1.618 and commonly used in art and geometry to create aesthetically appealing images. However, the other characteristic of mosaics – the non-repeating patterns – aren’t a phenomenon unique to art. Surprisingly, these macroscopic patterns helped reveal that the microscopic properties of crystals are not as simple as once believed.

On October 5, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Dan Shechtman, an Israeli chemist who

discovered quasicrystals. This form of solid crystals contains no translational symmetry – that is, the crystals do not look the same no matter which direction or how far they are shifted. A wallpaper with a repeating pattern is an example of translational symmetry – even if it is slid to the right or left, it will appear the same as before. Before Shechtman’s discovery, crystals were thought to be like wallpaper, arranged in symmetrical, repeating patterns. Yet, when Shechtman examined a rapidly cooled metal alloy under an electron microscope, he found that the crystals that formed did not contain repeating units. Instead, they resembled the patterns found in ancient mosaics.

Shechtman’s discovery broke the most fundamental law of crystal

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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A day in the life of a McGill athlete Kripa Koshy shadows Redmen varsity basketball’s Nicholas Yantzi for a day

I

woke up Thursday morning to a beeping alarm clock, completely disoriented, and was greeted by the sight of a dark sky.

While this is a rare event in my life, this is how most mornings begin for the average McGill athlete.

This Thursday, I attempted to live out the life of a McGill varsity athlete by trailing a basketball player.

Heading out of my residence, I trudged down the sidewalk with other sleepy Montrealers, making my way to a nearly deserted Second Cup to grab a cup of tea.

The man behind the counter gave me an oddly suspicious look when he realized I was not awake this early to study for an upcoming midterm.

For most people, that might seem to be the only plausible and rational reason for someone being up that early. Little did he know that ,as we spoke, members of the McGill basketball team were heading out for their morning practice.

One of these athletes was the McGill Redmen’s center, Nicholas Yantzi, the U0 Science student who I would shadow for the rest of the day.

Armed with my cup of tea, I left the bewildered Second Cup server and walked over to New Rez, where Yantzi lives. After a healthy breakfast of cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, and a bagel, it was time to head over for practice. What ensues is recounted here, our entire day broken down into individual time frames: 6:30 a.m.: Walking up Parc, we make our way to McGill’s Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium.

Scanning our student ID cards, we walk down hallways lined with McGill’s signature red on the walls, and head up to the court. I take a spot on the bleachers and watch

the players filter in slowly and start to warm-up.

6:50 a.m.: With nearly the entire team now present, basic warm up exercises begin. As the players stretch, a look of anticipation settles on their faces as it nears 7 a.m. They are waiting for practice to begin.

7:00 a.m.: Finally, it’s game time.

After a quick swig of water, the players head onto the court.

7:00 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.: Practice consists of several drills, practice shots and intense playing. When it’s over, the players leave to change and get ready for class. Yantzi has an 8:35 math class.

8:35 a.m. to 9:55 a.m.: Yantzi and I work our way through chain rules and integrals, diligently taking notes while trying to stay awake.

9:55 a.m.: Thursday is a particularly rough day for Yantzi, being a day with four lectures back to back.

This means Yantzi barely has time to grab lunch. A few bagels and coffee, however, provide an ideal brunch solution during Yantzi’s breaks between classes.

10:35 a.m.: Biology class begins.

We learn about the phylum Nematoda and the anatomy of an earthworm.

11:25 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.: With 10 minutes between his Biology, Chemistry, and Physics classes, Yantzi shuffles between ideas of the VESPR theory and circular motion.

3:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.: When he’s finally done with classes, Yantzi heads to the gym again to practice shots and skill work for a post-class workout with his team members.

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Yantzi grabs an early dinner – his second complete meal of the day. He chooses freshly made pasta with meat sauce and finally sits down to eat back in the New Rez cafeteria

with his teammate Riley.

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.: With his dietary, academic, and athletic commitments complete for the day, Yantzi goes to his room to begin packing for his trip to Halifax, where the Redmen are traveling to for their next game, bringing an end to his hectic day.

Athletes like Yantzi work hard to maintain a strong academic front while taking some time off to enjoy their university experience by playing the sport they love. Everything about basketball elicits excitement from this 6’10’’ player from Burlington, Ontario.

“It’s everything from the competition and the wins to the great sense of team spirit. It’s great to see us work on and improve our skills as a team. For me, personally, it’s when I have the most fun in my day,” says Yantzi.

Yantzi’s definition of fun, however, may not necessarily be the same as most McGill students.

The varsity basketball team practices five days a week, once a day on Mondays and Tuesdays for two hours and for four hours Wednesday to Friday. With 16 hours of practice each week, Yantzi must make time for his busy academic schedule. While most students try to work parties and social events into their busy lives, student athletes like Yantzi are having a bit of a different university experience.

As a varsity athlete, Yantzi carries the responsibility of being a McGill Redman and a full time student. It is very impressive that varsity athletes successfully manage all that they do, ensuring that their McGill experience is not all work, but consists of something they have a real passion for as well.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

An alternative to varsity sports Extramurals grow in popularity at Wilfred Laurier University’s Brantford Campus Craig Hagerman The Sputnik

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R ANTFORD (CUP) – At a small school like Wilfrid L aur ier Universit y’s Brantford campus, there is little opportunity to compete in varsity sports. However, this doesn’t mean there is a lack of athletic talent. This abundance of talented athletes has been part of the reason for the introduction of extramural sports at Laurier Brantford.

For those unsure of what exactly extramural sports are, Nolan Kreis,

captain of the Laurier dodgeball extramural team, offers a description. “[They are] higher than intramurals,” he said, “but not as competitive as varsity sports.”

In other words, these teams participate against other postsecondary institutions, but do not follow the format of a structured league like one would find with Ontario University Athletics (OUA) or the Ontario Colleges Athletics Association (OCA A).

The different extramural teams that Laurier Brantford offers are men’s basketball, men’s hockey, women’s hockey, co-ed volleyball, co-ed

dodgeball, and co-ed indoor soccer.

Dodgeball extramurals started this year after the dodgeball team was asked to participate in a tournament at George Brown College.

Kreis was asked if his intramural squad, along with a few other players, would like to go to George Brown and compete against other colleges, and he agreed to go.

The team faced competition tougher than expected and used it as a lesson. Now, all extramural teams are chosen through tryouts.

Besides getting the athletes to play for these teams, there is also a lot of work done behind the scenes.

Extramural Coordinator, Kate Doyle, and the Manager of Athletics and Recreation, Greg Stewart, handle most of the work involved.

“It’s my job to go to tryouts, pick captains and help pick the teams so it’s fair,” said Doyle.

Meanwhile, Stewart described his job as, “finding, entering, and arranging tournaments along with seven other senior students.”

The men’s extramural hockey team got their start in 2009, and co-ed volleyball entered extramural competition last year. Although the men’s hockey team performed decently, finishing one tournament

in fourth place out of eight competing teams, they were often met with a small roster and an inconsistent line-up.

Across campus there appears to be support for Laurier Brantford’s extramural teams and for the idea of extramural sports in general.

As Doyle said, “[Extramural sports] are great for athletes who don’t have the opportunity to take on varsity.”

Stewart also believes they are great for the school as a whole.

“Extramurals offers extra stuff for students, they are small in cost, but they are close to varsity,” he said.

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Academics over athletics McGill athletes must prove scholastic excellence to receive scholarships Victoria Downey Sports Writer

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he role of sports scholarships varies greatly in the university community.

University policies governing the granting of sports scholarships across Canada, as well as the U.S., help determine the make-up of the athletic segments of the student body. For U.S. universities that are known as big sports schools, the funds for sports scholarships granted by the school are substantially higher because they try to entice the best athletes (rather than the best students) to attend their schools. Overall, the Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s (CIS) budget for scholarships is lower than the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCA A) budget in the U.S. However, there are schools in both countries that do not offer scholarships for athletics. In the states, Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale do not take part in the practice, and, here in Canada, McGill does not offer sports scholarships to any of its athletes. Rather, McGill uses their funds for academic scholarships and need-base financial aid.

Theoretically, based on McGill’s system, an athlete should only receive a scholarship if they also deserve one based on academic or need-based merit alone.

McGill is a top, internationallyranked university where the focus is, first and foremost, academics.

The financial aid office at McGill reflects this priority, and distributes its funds accordingly. “The Raison d’être of a university is for learning. So, to encourage learning and to encourage scholarship, it’s in line with our mandate,” says McGill’s Financial Aid Director, Judy Stymest. McGill’s athletic department does try to encourage the best student-athletes – as in the case of applicants who are talented in both the academic and athletic spheres – to come to McGill, with an emphasis on the student aspect.

McGill’s athletic department is trying to target the demographic of athletes who aren’t looking to go pro, but, rather, who want to get a reputable degree and play a sport that they love at the same time. McGill’s Athletic and Recreation Department’s director, Drew Love, concludes, “The reality is that a few student-athletes from across the country choose to go south, for instance, to play their sport. I think what we would like to do is keep as many of our top student-athletes

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily as possible in Canada and it’s that next group [that we target]. It’s the group that goes off and plays sometimes at Division 2 schools, sometimes they’re Division 1 programs, but they’re not necessarily well-known academic schools, and we think we have an opportunity and a program to give them where they can get a fantastic education and a quality sport experience.” He continues, “the likelihood of them going on and being professional athletes really isn’t a reality anyway. So, for that group, we rather that we convince them and show them why they should stay in Canada.”

As a result of the adminstration’s attitude towards sports scholarships, students with different motivations choose to come here. Logan Murray, of

McGill’s women’s ice hockey team, claims, “I could’ve gone to a few American schools, like NCA A [schools]. That’s where they provide scholarships. But, the teams that I would’ve gone to there are just as good as the team at McGill, but the education wasn’t as good. And [McGill is] reasonably priced too.”

Murray’s fellow teammate and one of McGill’s best hockey forwards, Leslie Oles, is another such student-athlete. Being from Montreal, she claims that one of her reasons for coming to McGill was that she “thought it would be nice to support a Canadian university” as opposed to bringing her talent to another country, such as the U.S. Katia ClementHeyra, another Martlet hockey player, is also from Montreal and

says that she looked at playing for schools in the U.S. “Of course, they have more money for the teams over there, so it’s more prestigious to go there, but too much is concentrated on hockey and not concentrated on school at all,” she says. McGill’s strong academic base also enticed Ryan McKiernan of the men’s ice hockey team to come here.

Having played for a minor league team in Iowa, the Des Moines Buccaneers, he says that he is “considering the pro option and, playing at McGill is not hindering this. It is just ensuring that I have a solid degree if [going] pro does not work out.” For many athletes, it is important that they have a solid degree to fall back on because the risk of a careerending injury is so high.

Even though McGill’s scholarship fund targets those with high academic standing rather than extraordinary athletic ability, this does not mean that there are no injustices in this system.

In order to entice certain athletes to come to McGill, some coaches have been given the ability to offer potential students academic scholarships – regardless of academic ability – if they agree to play for a McGill team. This undermines McGill’s academic standards, and the academic integrity that it admirably tries to uphold, by willingly not offering sports scholarships.

On the other hand, the benefits of offering sports scholarships to McGill athletes may improve their grades, keeping them in superior academic standing. “I think that the important thing is that we continue to seek the best studentathletes who combine both athletics and academic success. In order to help them achieve their goal in both of those areas, we think that financial assistance is important. It gives them the opportunity then, particularly during the school year, to really focus on their studies and on their training, and not have to necessarily seek a lot of hours at part-time work or other things,” Drew Love says about McGill’s stance on athletic scholarships.

“What we want to be sure of is that the experience that they have as a student-athlete doesn’t hinder their success academically.” By not offering its athletes athletic scholarships, McGill may be hurting its students who are passionate about their sports.

McGill is a world-renowned academic institution, ranking 17th internationally on the QS World University Rankings for 2011. Many student-athletes choose to study at McGill because of its academic criteria and reputation. Given this temptation to come to the University, McGill has the appropriate attitude towards its distribution of scholarships.

Similar to the top U.S. schools that McGill likes to compare itself to, McGill’s policies on financial assistance fit the University’s main focus – academics. “Compared to the [big sports schools in the] U.S., it’s a whole different world… The whole culture is quite different,” said Judy Stymest when comparing Canadian and U.S. universities’ criteria in giving entrance scholarships. “Canadian universities have typically directed their endowments to the leadership scholarships, and everybody is out trying to get the very best students.”

18 Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Big hit fetish

The NHL and NFL run into hurdles attempting to eradicate a problem that they created in the first place

A Fan’s Notes Evan Dent

afansnotes@mcgilldaily.com

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his year’s NHL and NFL buzz phrase is “player safety.”

Both leagues have become increasingly aware of the consequences of hits to the head of athletes, which often times cause concussions and long term brain damage. The NHL has had to deal with the loss of its biggest star, Sidney Crosby, because of a head injury, as well as the suicides of three former players, all who played the “enforcer” role on their team, giving and receiving many head injuries both during play and during fights.

Last season, the NFL had a rash of scary injuries – with many players ending up unconscious on the field – that led to key players missing playing time. This has evolved into a public image problem for a sport that already has a reputation of being violent. Matters escalated when former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson committed suicide in February – he made sure not to shoot himself in the head because he wanted to make sure doctors could study the effects that football had on his brain. Both leagues have had to face the facts, all of which suggest that the long term effects of playing either sport can lead to brain tissue degeneration. All in all, this is a disaster for both sport’s

athletes and audiences: the games look too dangerous, and players aren’t playing at their peak.

Each league has taken responsive measures by having team doctors treat head injuries more carefully. The mentality is no longer “get over it, wimp.” Instead, team doctors have to comprehensively examine and clear a player of lingering symptoms before that player can return to play. More importantly, though, each league has begun levying fines and suspensions for players who endanger the safety and health of the other players. While each league should be applauded in their attempts to protect their players, there’s one problem: until now, these leagues have celebrated it, fetishized it, and ingrained “the big hit” into the current generation of players. Now, both leagues are trying to backtrack and fix the very problem they helped create. So far, this has proven to be difficult. The players are complaining that these fines change the way the game is played, and they’re right. After all, they’re being told not to do something that they were trained to do.

Let’s consider, for a moment, the generation of players that are currently playing in either league. Even the oldest players, at around age forty, grew up in the “modern” era of sports media coverage, which began around the time ESPN was founded in 1979.

The youngest, at around age 18, were born right as the internet started to prosper. The nature of modern sports media coverage is that highlights are

played almost all day. Moreover, for both football and hockey, until about two years ago, highlight packages focused on one of two things: scores or huge hits. “NFL Countdown”, the ESPN pregame show, featured a segment called “Jacked Up!” in which the commentators played scenes from the previous weekend’s games that featured the biggest hits. Essentially, there was a whole reel of potential brain injuries being played in the studio, while the commentators squealed with delight and told the victims of these hits that they were just “Jacked Up!”. Defensive players in the NFL saw the segment as a badge of honour – they were publically applauded for being able to deal such punishing blows. The same trend exists in hockey. Don Cherry, the venerated NHL commentator, releases videos annually of what he deems the best hits of the year in his Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Hockey series. Almost all the hits featured in the past are now ones that would lead to a suspension.

What’s more, while the NFL and NHL players competed for this perverse honour, the future players of the leagues were watching those shows and joining the cult of “the big hit”. These children looked up to the pros, as most young children are wont to do, and celebrated those hits, wanting to emulate their heroes. In addition, many coaches at all levels of either game were supporting these dangerous hits. These hits were simply seen as a part of football and hockey culture. When the opportunity presented itself, a

player was supposed to go for the head. In a recent interview with GQ Magazine, James Harrison, the often-fined linebacker of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, claimed, “That’s what we’re told by coach… ‘blow through the guy, not to him’. When the fines came down he said, ‘Don’t change a damn thing. You’re doing it the way we do it on this team.’”

Now, each league is desperately trying to change the rules and, consequently, their culture. They want to kill the monster they created, and the players, as well as staunch traditionalists, are having a hard time coping. The players are struggling to balance competitiveness with safety. There have been instances in both sports where players have passed up tackles or checks in an apparent decision to avoid a penalty or fine, while, in other cases, players are upset with calls being made on hits that they think are normal or just ‘part of the game.’ Overall, it seems like the real issue is inconsistency when it comes to calls: some hits get fines while others don’t, and the players are acting out.

Brooks Laich, a forward for the NHL’s Washington Capitals, recently claimed that he doesn’t “care about all that [concussion] awareness crap…

This is what we love to do, guys love to play, they love to compete… How can you take that away from somebody?...

We accept that there are going to be dangers when we play this game… sometimes it feels as if we’re being babysat a little too much.” The old guard of each sport cry out against

what they perceive as the ‘wuss-ification’ of the league. Don Cherry’s first “Coach’s Corner” segment of the season played a highlight reel of crushing hits by former NHL star Scott Stevens, and Cherry asked how many games he would be suspended in with today’s new rules. As the clips rolled, Cherry ranted, “Hall of Famer, we used to love this guy, we used to say ‘what a hitter’… How many games would you give him for this [hit]? Enjoy this folks, because you’re never ever gonna see it again. Never… It’s ridiculous, what they’ve done. The players will not hit.

Guaranteed!” This profusion of passionate admiration came in a response to clips of hits that left the opposing players lying on the ice, dazed, and, most likely, concussed. In fact, one of the clips showed a hit that ended the career of the recipient.

He’s right, though, about one thing: the fans and both leagues were in full support of dangerous hits, creating a big hit fetish that was instilled into the players’ psyche.

They’ve now turned their back on hits because of the pressure they receive in today’s hyper-aware, safety conscious culture. Right now, the players are struggling to adapt to the limits that have been put on their style of play and the way they were trained to play the game. The NHL and NFL will continue to fight these issues, but they won’t be wiped out of the game for quite some time, at least not until the first generation of players who have grown up in this new, safety conscious reality reach the pros.

Culture

19

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

St. Henri hops Montreal microbrewery about more than inebriation Meagan Potier

The McGill Daily

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anuary 17, 1989 marked the first day McAuslan brewery started producing their now wildly popular St-Ambroise blonde. Twenty years later the beer is still being brewed, along with several others, in the same Saint Henri brewery, and with the same essential ingredients.

Peter McAuslan, the founder of McAuslan Quebec – then, as now, a pioneer in micro-brewing in the province – founded his company with biologist and trained brewmaster, Ellen McAuslan (nee Bounsal), and British brewmaster Allan Pugsley.

Peter McAuslan has been around our city’s block. He attended Sir George Williams University, has served on the Concordia Alumni Association, and sits on the board of the Empress Cultural Centre. He also currently sits on a board that works towards the development of neighbourhoods along the Lachine canal, and has started a program to help development along Notre Dame in the St-Henri neighborhood. Ellen McAuslan, who graduated from University of Ottawa, works as Peter McAuslan’s business partner and as the master brewer. Like her husband, Ellen McAuslan is interested in community development and volunteering, being a founding member of The Tree Within – an organization that seeks to help battered women in Montreal’s immigrant populations. Her beers have won a number of awards on both a national and international scale. Throughout its history, the company has expanded and currently employs a staff of around forty people, Today it’s a multimillion dollar company. McAuslan beers are recognized both in and outside of the province as what Deborah Woods (guide, beer critic, and friend of the McAuslans) describes as “World Class Beer.”

Despite this world class recognition, it holds a special place in the hearts of Montrealers.

Year round, McAuslan produces six different beers – the original Saint-Ambroise Pale Ale, an Oatmeal Stout, an Apricot Wheat Ale, St-Ambroise Cream Ale, the Griffon Red Ale, and the Griffon Extra Pale Ale. Seasonally, they produce another six, including the perfectly autumnal Pumpkin Ale. Without going into too great detail, the brewing process includes combining, cooling, and filtering a number of ingredients.

The unique taste of St-Ambroise

is a result of several factors; the strand of yeast­– McAuslan has used “Ringwood” since opening­– and the inclusion of hops (which make the beer bitter in taste)

in my case, included the standard Pale Ale, the Griffon Red Ale, the Oatmeal Stout, the Pumpkin Ale, and the Apricot Ale. Each of these beers has a unique body and fla-

the heat is recovered and reused, greatly reducing energy waste.

The bottles used at the brewery are often sent from local grocers and depanneurs around Montreal.

Matthias Heilke | The McGill Daily are balanced out with malt. Most beers have a combination of malts, usually a base along with the presence of a more unique malt that can make something sweeter or heavier, as in the case of the heavy Oatmeal Stout. Each tour of the facility includes a tastetest of five of their products, and,

vour, and is recommended to be paired with different foodstuffs or used in particular recipes (all of this information is available on the brewery’s website, http:// mcauslan.com/en).

The McAuslan brewery uses a relatively environmentally friendly brewing process, in which much of

Each standard brown beer bottle is meticulously cleaned, sterilized, and used in a final product six or seven times before going to a glass recycling facility.

Peter McAuslan considers the product to be the basis of the success of the company, “We’ve done okay – twenty year grind, we’ve sur-

prised even ourselves. The major thing that we’ve done is made beers that have been different from the standard product, different and well brewed, and that’s why it’s done well. It all comes back to a well made product.” McAuslan also considers Montreal’s unique cultural attitude to be an influence on their beers, “[Our products] tie into Montreal culture, the style is a reflection of it. They are more adventuresome, our beers are audacious. We are an edgy company, we make edgy products that reflect the mixing of cultures in Montreal. Things take place here…The city itself has a cultural edge and our products are consistent with that. I think it is a positive thing to make beer for a culture as vibrant as Montreal.”

Besides keeping busy at the brewery, the company has taken it upon itself to support Montreal’s art community and to be a contributor to the cultural landscape of the city. The brewery has a terrace that hosts numerous cultural activities from May to October of each year. These include live Djs, movie-marathons, tastings, and mini-music festivals. McAuslan’s support is a postive factor for the community, and reflects positively on the company. Peter McAuslan elaborated: “We’ve always seen ourselves as a Quebec company, but, really, a Montreal community product, which is important to us. The more we can do to touch people, the more they’ll think of the company in a positive light – as kind of a home grown company. At the beginning, [one of the first ways we supported the arts was] providing fine arts students at Concordia with beer at reasonable price at events and [therefore provided] support from an arts orientated consumer.

This worked very well for us. We’ve helped with Montreal Fringe theatre festival going way back and POP Montreal right since the beginning.

We were also involved in the Arcade Fire event – it was a real thrill. We personally like [the Montreal arts scene], I don’t always have time to make it to the events but I like the people, I like the risks artists take.

We are risk takers ourselves…being an entrepreneur is a risk.”

That risk has certainly paid off, for the McAuslan brewery, the Montreal arts community, and most importantly, beer drinkers of all tastes. Bottoms up!

Check out the McAuslan website (http://mcauslan.com) for a schedule of activities at the brewery and the terrace, and for more details about their products and where they’re available.

20 Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Clapping at all the wrong times Matt Herzfeld Culture Writer

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efore the kilted pipers called the ceremonies to order, I gazed around, finding myself immersed in a sea of white hair. While Montreal has thus far been spared of snow, the scene in Salle Pollack Hall early in the afternoon on October 15, was equally chilling.

The stage in Salle Pollack was strangely arranged like a scene out of a medieval court, complete with a 10 foot high makeshift throne.

McGill Principal Heather MonroeBlum and several high-ranking administrators from the Faculty of Music were there to present legendary classical pianist, Alfred Brendel with an Honary Doctorate. Brendel, of the class of 1979, is one of the leading classical performers of the past century, receiving numerous honours for his performances from the Germanic classical repertoire, particularly his complete recordings of the Beethoven Sonatas. Brendel stopped performing in December of 2008, instead dedicating himself to public lectures and his equally-acclaimed writings. These writings have proven immensely insightful to countless music students.

On the afternoon of his lecture, we were all students of music. Upon receiving the honorary doctorate from McGill, Dr. Brendel launched into a performance lecture entitled, Should Classical Music Be So Serious?

As much as McGill has endeared me to administrative functions, I was there for the lecture. I was there because there was something I was expecting to hear. But, before discussing Brendel’s lecture, let me send you on a necessary diversion.

There is a mounting concern that classical music, especially the world of opera, is geared towards an aged

elite class. In a recent NPR blog, ”Is opera stuff (only) rich people like?,” Anastasia Tsioulcas bemoaned a New York Times article which described a $295 plate at NYC’s best restaurant, Per Se, as a bargain when compared to aisle seats at the Metropolitan Opera, which regularly sell for $300 each. Cost, however, is not the only thing that might be driving away young classical enthusiasts. Mainly, a downright suffocating cultural atmosphere pervades many symphonic halls. There is a code of etiquette surrounding classical performance, which I was hoping Brendel would address, which he did…to a degree.

Although Brendel’s lecture was a springboard for this piece, consider the following my own opinions: In an age when trends in music change as quickly as an iTunes song shuffle, the classical music industry needs to catch up. This isn’t to say that efforts to attract a younger audience are non-existent. In fact, most orchestras, opera companies, and performance halls advertise deals geared towards the younger-than35-set (the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal offers student tickets for $25, for example). Even so, many classical outlets could afford to cater to more economically modest music enthusiasts. As proof that many classical institutions have strong ties to the so-called “1 per cent,” Tsiolcas noted how the New York Metropolitan received a 50 per cent endowment increase to $182 million amidst the height of the Great Recession.

The classical music industry, grappling with the need for wider appeal (and of course future donors) is at a crossroads – while the 20th century involved unprecedented leaps in the way we hear and understand classical music, a sense of tradition pervades. However, the way we perform the music may not be as close to the

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Honorary doctorate recipient gives a class in the quirks of classical ettiquette

past we revere. In 2008, the Scottish Pianist and Music Historian, Kenneth Hamilton, reminded us of a time when the world of classical music was more rock concert than art auction. In his book, After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance, Hamilton describes a time when classical audiences were unruly and interruptive, and where longer compositions, such as Chopin’s E Minor Piano Concerto, would feature interludes by other composers.

And, surprisingly, the composers loved it. “Silence is not what we artists want,” Hamilton quotes from Beethoven, “we want applause.”

And now, back to the lecture.

Brendel spoke clearly and convincingly, punctuating his ideas with

expertly crafted musical examples, performed from memory.

Bemoaning many modern performers for their emotional stiffness, Brendel suggested that performance should honor the diversity of emotions within a piece. His inquiry, “where does one look for the comic in music?”, is not only a question for the listening audience, but also for the performer. There has always been a constant dialogue at play between audience and performer, which, due to several trends in the past century, has grown nearly silent. Performers have put themselves on a pedestal, and, in response to this, the modern classical audience has adopted an etiquette that speaks more of religious ritual than musical bliss.

As a musician myself, I respect the struggle of the performer. But, for me, persona is second to art, and art has a life of its own. My question remains: if a performer can express a composer’s humour, why can’t we laugh back?

Why is audience response such a faux pas? Naturally, nobody would find it obscene to cry at the end of moving piece of music, say, Mahler’s Second Symphony (or any his symphonies, for that matter). Therefore, if we can cry, why can’t we clap?

If classical music wants to be young again, it needs to take a step back from the mirror. When classical music can laugh at itself (and not polite laughter, I mean real guffaws), then the music will stop fading grey. And I might applaud too.

Stop motion starts a commotion Montreal film festival pays tribute to a favourite animation technique Rachel Reichel

The McGill Daily

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rom the special effects of the late 1970’s to early 1990’s, to our most beloved children’s shows, stop motion filmmaking makes worlds come alive in a way that Computer Generated Images (CGI) and traditional animation just can’t match. This week you can see the reemergence of this antiquated medium at the 3rd annual Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival.

Stop motion film has a special place in cinematic history. The original method for creating special effects, it was used to make

objects magically come alive. We can thank the method for bringing us many of the infamous special effects of the late 1970’s and 1980’s, such as the Star Wars Trilogy, Robo Cop, and The Terminator. Stop motion was also used as a medium by itself, creating entire worlds in our favorite feature films and shorts like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Wallace and Gromit.

With the emergence of CGI however, the outpouring of stop motion films has slowed to an almost invisible trickle. Recently, much of what we have seen of stop motion in the media has been children’s shows and advertising. This has caused

the technique to be deployed in an entirely different way. “For the longest time, stop motion was used for television shows for kids [like Bob the Builder and Lunar Jim].

[It was] also used as a special effect art form, but since Jurassic Park, stop motion is not used any more for moving big monsters – computers do that these days rather well,” explained Eric Goulet, the director of the Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival.

Despite stop motion’s recent fade from popularity, the technique is having a bit of a renaissance. Major filmmakers are using the method to make full length feature films, despite the avail-

ability of the latest technology.

For example, Wes Anderson used stop motion with the release of his wildly popular 2009 film, Fantastic Mr.Fox. “Stop motion went back to its roots and now we see more and more features films being made…

There is a preference [for stop motion] because you can work with your hands and touch the medium…the audience can identify with the material used since it is so close to human reality,” Goulet added.

This magic and meticulous care that invisibly exists between the shots is now captivating filmmakers all over the world. With 314 applicants from over 300 countries,

it is clear that the reemergence of stop motion is well under way. The festival boasts 71 films across four categories, and, globally, there are now seven stop motion film festvals in production. Goulet is taking full advantage of this comeback, noting that “the wave is coming and we are riding it.”

The festival runs from October 21-23 in the J.A. de Sève Theater at Concordia University (1453 Mackay, Montreal). Adults: $10 per session, children (12 years and under): $5 per session, VIP Pass: $50. For more information, visit our website: www.stopmotionmontreal.com.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

21

Bred to bake Breton baker butters up The Daily’s Angus Sharpe

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atthew 4:4 states “Man shall not live by bread alone.” The Bible has been an ample source of contention over the years, but this really takes the biscuit. It is a little known fact, even more so here than in my native Britain, that I once went three days sustained by nothing other than plain bread. No fruit

loaf, no olive flute, just plain white bread. It was a bet, conjured up by friends who were as sick of my constant eulogizing about bakeries as they were of watching me save countless monies lunching on solitary baguettes. Needless to say, I passed their anti-Atkins examination with flying colours, enjoying (almost) every mouthful.

So, when my editors proposed a trip to review “this wonderful little boulangerie” on Mont-Royal, you can imagine my delight. In fact, it is the oldest boulangerie-patisserie among Mont-Royal’s wide selection, sating dough and pastry junkies like myself since around 1920.

This may well not be the first you hear of the much touted Au Kouign

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Amann, a blogosphere smash and a stalwart on any respectable hipster’s recommendation list. The current owner, Nicholas Henri, is seven years into his tenure and things look to be going swell as we arrive at half nine on a crisp Saturday morning to join a reassuring queue, the kind that endorses its end without making you feel like a dick.

Embedded discreetly into the street-side, the small (I won’t say quaint, I won’t) space boasts three tiny tables exuding the tacit ownership of loyal customers.

One particularly rugged patron is already here, in the corner, in a llama sweater, looking the part with a French paper fanned out. After all, we are near the corner of Saint-Denis and you would be advised to come armed with some elementary “Je voudrais…” led phrases so as not to be scoffed at by the proud mix of regulars and students on a worthy splurge; apparently Nicholas himself speaks no English, but he leads a welcoming, slick, and mostly bilingual team. They definitely know how good they are – not one of the four to whom I spoke expressed any excitement at a press opportunity – but only bear this awareness in a confidence and pride in their products,

almost all of which are delicious.

“Au Kouign Amann” is Breton, the Celtic language native to the French region of Brittany.

This initially unpronounceable name is taken from its signature dish, and literally means “butter cake.” Admittedly less alluring in translation, it does call a spade a spade. Vegans beware: these bakers do love their beurre.

But, thankfully, the menu poses a far greater threat to your heart than your wallet, with most items set around the two dollar mark, including a delightfully dark hot chocolate and a coffee to placate even the most pretentious javaphiles. Croissants, chocolatines, Viennese baguettes, Tarte Tatin, and brownies are all present and entirely correct, fulfilling every cliched adjective I don’t want to use – light, crisp, golden, fluffy, et cetera – but it’s the almond croissant and trademark kouign amann that mustn’t be missed. The latter is simply several hearty layers of glucofied pastry, of which one slice is fine for breakfast, but a full circle ($21 when requested a day in advance) would be perfect for, let’s say, a study group lock-in. For the socially conscientious, there’s also soul behind the success. The fantastic in-house honey is sourced from a local Quebecker beekeeper, and apples from a struggling orchard outside Montreal. I am told that Monsieur Henri insists on the orchard more out of altruism than business sense. All the more reason to part with five dollars that will guarantee you a fine Montreal morning.

I myself could spend days there.

Well, at least three.

A Strain That Gives You So Much More There’s a girl with a gray peasant skirt and she’s cold. She’s heaving something like a cloth sack. She shivers as she makes her way, northeasternly, through Hochelaga. Her hair holds an unshowered gloss. She’s cold but sweats throughout her brown top. She’s walking towards an intersection dragging the bag on the ground. She feels a subwoofer in her feet before seeing a Jeep Wrangler careen around the corner towards her. And lo, it bears these scrappy fucks, Massachusetts license plates. Head down, she continues on. They pull up to her and say over one another, “yo wassa whatcha got there sweets?” She looks up quickly and pulls again at the bag, which just budges. The dudes turn off the car and get out. They are three. One of them takes the bag out of her hands and says where do you want this? Where are you goin with it? I gotya back. She reaches after the bag, pissed it’s taken, naturally. The second guy remains in the car playing with the iPod. He turns on some melodramatic Berlioz, but it’s soon clear that it’s overlaid with rhymes, in some internet mashup. The third guy eyes the girl. She’s focused on the first guy, bag in hand. She’s scared—again, naturally– so she says, “monsieur, s’il vous plaît, c’est mon sac.” The guy howls, YO GUYS YOU GET THIS LISTEN TO THIS GIRL TALK IT’S CRAAZY. The guy in the passenger seat instead turns up his song. It’s the Symphonie fantastique, still recognizable beyond the autotune filter. It’s a little obtuse. And now—naturally—she doesn’t know what’s to happen. Because this is now playing: crossbeams of violins or whatever lacing with a bratty baritone “Imma fuck ya over thay-yer imma fuck ya over ay-yer let me get at you, hear me some of that god, cause imma fuck right hee-yer.” She doesn’t understand this of course. Her voice feels coarse, “STOP…pour le moment—mon sac, vous.” Of course she’s heard this piece before but not like this, never like this. She can’t smother the smile—naturally. The guy in the car pumps his chin in rhythm with the violin pizzicatos followed by a series of brassy thrusts. The guy holding the bag is laughing, and hands it back to her, Haha I’ll see you later and I mean if anyone gets onto you just scream and we on em aight? He returns to the car with its pulsing sub. As they pull out of view, she smiles and coyly rattles her head, palms raised up. She gets a good grip on the bag and keeps pulling.

—Ryan Healey

Inkwell

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and unnecessary iphones!

22

Occupy Burnside Science students react to SUS iphones Pannon Shalus

Bikuta Tangermann | The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily

Burnside hall, more casually known as the new science student occupy site

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n the wake of SUS spending over $4,000 on apple products, a new movement has cropped up: Occupy Burnside.

As of Monday night, students will be encouraged to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in Burnside basement. There have been debates about whether or not to continue to take advantage of the printing services (which are comped by SUS funds).

The movement, largely organized on Facebook and Twitter (#occupyburnside), has already started drafting a list of suggestions for the SUS with regards to their cell phone bills: Why not use a computer? Why not print out your emails so you can read them when you’re away from your computer? Have you ever read

The Secret? Telecommunication by means of quantum mechanics!

Jeez.

Most say that the intent behind this movement is unrelated to that behind the Wall Street movement.

“Look, I wear bootcut jeans. I went to the Taylor Swift concert,” said Jill Goodnone, a U8 Behavioural Ecology student. “Our movement isn’t about changing the world, or singing kumbaya – its about a few students in our community who are abusing their power for a the sake of a brand-name gadget.”

When asked Goodnone if she thought that the “We are the 99 per cent” slogan might be applicable to the Occupy Burnside demonstration, she flipped over the back of an envelope and jotted down a few equations before replying, “No, that’s a really egregious misinterpretation of our cause. There are 8 SUS execs, and 20,000 students total, so it’s a question of .04 per cent vs 99.6 per cent. Anyone who tries to

confuse the two movements should be aware that there is a 96 per cent error between 1 per cent and .04 per cent. So those figures should not be confused” I asked her if she knew the origin of the “Occupy” moniker.

“You mean, why is it called, ‘Occupy Burnside’? Because we’ll be here, outside there offices, all the time, showing them that we are here, and we have opinions – in a situation like this, we don’t have many routes to contradict those in power, but we can use our presence to make a point. We can occupy. I don’t know, my friend thought it up.”

“So do you think it’s a funny coincidence that “Occupy Wall Street” uses the same word in its name?”

“No, not at all. Coincidences aren’t funny – they are a normal, rational, part of life. Why are you asking me these things? Have you ever taken a statistics course?”

Crossword Fairies are on strike!

The Crossword Gnomes The McGill Daily

Across

Fuck up Daily editor Anne Onymous wishes to apologize to everyone who tried to complete last week’s crossword. She was pretty hungover, and honestly, this crossword is a bitch to layout. Anyway, it was her bad, and here are the clues that were left out: 55 down. “@#$%!,” e.g.

41 across. Rhyming binary: ones and ____ 56 down. “___ Karenina” 57 down. It may be raw

1. Catalogs 6. Phi Delt. e.g.

10. Acid 13. Capers 15. “Field of Dreams” setting 16. Rowing instrument 17. Federal vs. ____ (South of the border) 18. “What is” game show 20. Strategic Pacific Front locale 22. BBC or Pier 23. Marienbad, for one 24. Leathery-leaved heather 26. Feudal victim 28. Atomizer output 32. Vermin 33. Exhume 37. ___ out a living 38. Accident averters 41. ___ v. Wade 42. Precursors of listservs 43. Aquatic plant 45. Apple variety 46. Knight fight 50. Rivalries 52. ___-tac-toe 55. American med. research center

56. Vonnegut novel with “Five” 61. Less conducive to handholding 62. Breezily 63. __ cakes, Scottish staple 64. Field of study 65. Home maker 66. Be in the red 67. Buffalo Bill’s last name 68. “Cabaret” director

Down 1. Snares 2. Chant 3. Less fresh 4. Yugoslavian President-for-life 5. Cons 6. Neighbour to Vanuatu and 20-Across 7. Some deer 8. Missing from the Marines, say 9. Spanish snacks 10. Better-than-thou 11. Whiners 12. Arid 14. Hogwash 19. Pedantic 21. Least densely populated African country 25. “Malcolm X” director 27. Kind of approval 29. As a whole 30. Streak 31. Beach bird

34. An end to sex?

35. Catch, as flies 36. Fix, in a way 38. Deli dish 39. Manage 40. Montreal time zone 41. Brit. fliers 44. First mate?

47. Native Canadians of the North 48. Hosiery fabrics 49. We’re, you’re, ___ 51. Poison plant 53. Modern Persia 54. Sitting Bull, e.g.

57. Bank transfer 58. Pay attention 59. Cafeteria carrier 60. Around 61. Dove noise

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 24, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com EDITORIAL volume 101 number 14

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! editors

Zachary Lewsen Olivia Messer culture editors

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Stay strong MUNACA On Friday October 14, MUNACA member Joan O’Malley was arrested after refusing to leave an Alumni luncheon at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure Hotel, where she and other union members were distributing flyers. O’Malley was pushed against a wall, put in handcuffs, and escorted to a police car where she spent an hour. “I’m 63 years old. I’ve never been arrested in my life,” she told The Daily.

Last week, Heather Munroe-Blum sent out an email accusing MUNACA members of vandalism and of throwing objects. However, she failed to mention that the socalled “vandalism” was stickers. The “thrown objects” consisted of flowers and one single umbrella – which, rather than an organized tactic by MUNACA, was a mistake on the part of one person. We are all part of McGill, she explained, “we don’t do that here.” This strategy of using misleading rhetoric to delegitimize MUNACA is petty and demoralizing – and strikers have no way to respond with the same reach that members of the McGill admin do.

As we enter week eight of the strike, things only seem to be getting worse. There is a mental and physical toll that comes with being on strike – one that certainly only increases as the weeks drag on, as the injunction is extended, and negotiations are scheduled for further and further in the future. And with the first snowfall on the horizon, its going to be a lot tougher to stand outside and brave the weather in the coming weeks. On top of that, workers come home with a paycheck that is a small fraction of their normal one: only $375 a week. This reduced pay is inadequate for many MUNACA members to support themselves or their families when it comes to making ends meet.

Moreover, MUNACA workers cannot simply return to their jobs at McGill. They need what they’re asking for in these negotiations. The University has repeatedly denied them the same pay as comparable workers at other Quebec universities. They’re trying to get back to their previous benefits, which were cut last year.

Moreover, if they give in now, they lose leverage with the administration in future negotiations.

It’s important to remember that MUNACA members are part of our McGill community. They are members who should be listened to, and – no matter which side of the bargaining table you are on – treated with the respect that every member of our community deserves. And in the meantime, they need our support: wear pins, write to Heather Munroe-Blum, and ask them how they’re doing when you pass them on the street.

Read the MUNACA side of the story at munacastrike.wordpress.com.

Email HMB at mcgill.principal@mcgill.ca.

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Graduate and Professional Schools Fair 2011 McGill University Centre – Shatner Ballroom November 2, 2011 10:00 am – 03:00 pm Come see us at our information booth! www.utm.utoronto.ca/mmi

Calling all First Years!

Let your voice be heard!

Come out and VOTE in First-Year Council Elec ons--have a say in who will be running your events!

Polling Sta ons will be in the RVC cafeteria 2-6pm October 24th to October 27th or you can vote online any me a er the 24th at:

ovs.ssmu.mcgill.ca