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March 12, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

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News

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

PGSS votes for three-day strike Graduate students overwhelmingly support strike motion Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

T

he McGill Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) voted overwhelmingly last Wednesday to go on a three-day strike, March 20 to 22, in protest of upcoming tuition hikes. PGSS represents roughly 8,000 graduate and postdoctoral students at McGill.

The strike, voted on at PGSS’ Annual General Meeting (AGM), will take place on the days leading up to and including the March 22 provincial day of action against the hikes.

PGSS has a policy in place calling for free tuition for Quebec students and a freeze on tuition for international and out-of-province students.

“It’s one thing to have a policy; it’s another one when students overwhelmingly vote for a strike.

That will surprise many people coming from graduate students at McGill, I think,” said PGSS VP External Mariève Isabel.

PGSS has only declared two strikes in its recent history, once in 1996 and once in 2005. Both were one-day strikes.

Wednesday’s strike motion, moved

by Isabel, resolved that PGSS hold a one-day strike on March 22. A motion from the floor amended the motion to

lengthen the strike by two days.

Steve Peters, a PhD student in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education and member of the Graduate Students Mobilization Group (GSMG), moved the amendment. In an interview with The Daily, Peters said he and the GSMG had got the sense from talking to other graduate students that they wanted to “up their participation in a student strike.”

“Many of them want to see something more than a one-day strike – that’s more or less symbolic – to a three-day strike, which would allow more graduate students to participate and, I think, send a stronger message to the administration and the government,” said Peters.

The AGM also approved a slew of changes to PGSS’ governing documents. Various motions were passed without debate, changing PGSS’ name, purpose, and bylaws, as well as restructuring its Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

“The purpose of the PGSS literally was changed; they changed the name of the PGSS, the French name, and all of this went with no debate,” said PGSS VP Finance and former Daily columnist Adrian Kaats, who called the changes a “100 per cent overhaul.”

Kaats objected to the fact that,

while the motion was passed, it was “called to question” – a call for a vote – before the AGM engaged in any debate.

“I think if that happened at a place like the SSMU, it would have gone a little less unnoticed, it would have garnered a little bit of debate. So, I’m disappointed in that,” he said.

He said the vote was premature because the PGSS executive had planned on amending the motion at the request of PGSS Council. The amendment would have empowered Council to review the changes in the intervening period between the AGM and the changes going into effect June 1.

Should Council insist on the amendment being made, Kaats explained, PGSS may have to call a Special General Meeting.

“Doing it now is a big, huge pain in the ass, because how the hell are we going to call a Special General Meeting, get quorum again, piss all that money away, when we had the people in the room right there?” he said.

However, Kaats said he was happy with the results of the remainder of the AGM. Kaats was in favour of voting to join over 130,000 Quebec students on an unlimited general strike, but admitted that “logistically, it’s nearly impossible” for McGill graduate students.

“You’re talking about flushing work, which could be years of work, and it could actually mean lots of money and resources that are going to be wasted. So, it’s not just about losing your semester for a lot of grad students, it’s about losing a hell of a lot more,” he said.

Isabel spoke to the challenges of hikes for graduate students.

Citing studies conducted by the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) – PGSS’ parent society – Isabel said the average master’s student earns $16,000 a year, while working 25 hours a week on top of full-time studies.

She also said one out of every five graduate students has a family.

Peters said the hikes show that McGill doesn’t appreciate graduate students’ contribution to the University, “especially to [its] research agenda.” He drew attention to the most recent contract between McGill and teaching assistants, ratified last November.

Graduate students criticized the agreement for not increasing the number of hours TAs are allowed to teach.

“Grad students are being squeezed on all sides, and I don’t think that the contribution they make to the University is being acknowledged at all, especially by our administration,” said Peters.

MUNACA and McGill at odds again Review of collective agreement between parties stalls Erin Hudson

The McGill Daily

F

or the first time this semester, about 250 non-academic workers rallied – this time on campus – to demonstrate their opposition to the delayed signing of MUNACA’s collective agreement with McGill.

The union, which represents approximately 1,700 non-academic support staff, ratified its collective agreement with the University on December 5, 2011 after being on strike for the entire fall semester.

Since the strike ended, MUNACA and McGill have been reviewing the collective agreement’s wording and the interpretation of its new or modified articles. After the process is complete, the agreement must be translated into French, and then the agreement can be signed.

At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, MUNACA members and students gathered near the Roddick Gates before marching through campus to

demonstrate outside the James Administration building.

MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker addressed the demonstrators before going into the James building to deliver a letter to Chief of Staff Susan Aberman, who said she would deliver it to Principal Heather Munroe-Blum this weekend.

Whittaker called Thursday to make an appointment with the Principal, but she was unavailable.

“I tried to make an appointment to see the Principal because, as you know, [James is] Fort Knox now, and unless you have an appointment, [and] go through two security barriers, you don’t get into that James Admin building,” he added.

“During the last three months, several meetings have taken place and much progress was made, until February 17, 2012. On this date, the employer introduced an interpretation that departed from a reference to employees...which we agreed to eliminate,” the letter read.

According to Whittaker, the process came to a standstill due to the University’s inclusion of an additional

forty members to a list of employees who would receive modified pay increases in the form of lump sums applicable to their pensions.

The list was agreed on by both parties in October 2011, and consisted of eighty members who are unable to have their maximum salary raised due to the 2001 implementation of pay equity.

Whittaker stated that McGill has now added forty people, potentially more, without providing the rationale for its decision.

“The problem which has stalled the entire collective agreement is the sole issue of where are these forty people coming from. The University, after three weeks, has still not provided that information,” he explained.

Whittaker said that the three-week delay has made the union executive and membership “very frustrated.”

U1 Arts student Becca Yu attended the rally. “[McGill] basically has sucked three more months of work still without a contract,” she said.

“It was really good to see a huge group of people from MUNACA com-

ing together again and actually being able to go through campus,” she continued.

In a statement released on March 6, Associate Vice-Principal (Human Resources) Lynne Gervais attributed the delay to two issues, one of which was salaries that are higher than the salary scale maximum of the position.

In a post on the union’s website, a note by Gervais was quoted: “Even if there is still a dispute about any issue, MUNACA can sign the agreement as ratified and file an interpretation grievance to resolve this issue.” The note is no longer on McGill’s Human Resources website.

Speaking with The Daily, Whittaker called Gervais’ note “ludicrous.”

“Who would possibly sign an agreement that they don’t understand the clauses of and will just put their faith in the system that later it will all work out?” he said. “This is absolutely ridiculous and I certainly hope that this is not how the administration functions, but it would explain a great deal.”

3

Mac Campus declares firstever strike Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

T

he Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS) has voted to go on strike for the first time in its history.

MCSS held a General Assembly (GA) last Thursday, in which a motion for a one-day strike on March 22 was passed with a roughly two-thirds majority. There are currently over 130,000 Quebec students on an unlimited general strike in opposition to an incremental $1,625 tuition hike, scheduled to begin in September.

The MCSS – which represents 1,698 students – requires a quorum of 10 per cent, which was exceeded by over 100 students.

Alex Pritz, MCSS senator who helped organize the GA, said the large turnout was a result of the tuition hikes.

Pritz said the MCSS hasn’t had a GA reach quorum since 2005.

“It’s like seven years in the making,” he said.

MCSS VP Finance Nicolas Chantel-Launay said the GA was “probably the most respectful General Assembly I’ve ever seen.”

“There was not even one single verbal insult at the microphone; it really went that smoothly. I was surprised, very happily surprised,” he continued.

The final vote to strike was “far from close,” said Chantel-Launay, who explained that there were 140 votes in favour of the strike, and 80 against it.

The motion, moved by a member of the Mac Campus student mobilization committee, originally called for a three-day strike. However, an amendment passed shortening the strike to one day. Chantel-Launay said the amendment passed with a “very, very clear majority.”

Pritz said the major opposition to the strike motion came from students in the CEGEP-level Farming Management Technology program.

“They aren’t actually facing any tuition hikes. They’re not planning on going to school after this because it’s a professional degree,” said Pritz.

Chantel-Launay said MCSS would start planning the strike this week, by arranging buses to take students downtown for the march and asking professors to cancel classes.

Pritz said that some professors have decided to cancel classes on March 22, but that it is going to be “difficult logistically” to implement the strike.

“There’s a pretty good contingent of people that aren’t going to [strike],” he said.

“I think the first priority is just getting teachers, professors, and the administration just to recognize the strike,” he continued.

4 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Jade Calver discusses the increasingly political role of the AUS Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

T

his year has been an eventful one for Jade Calver, the president of the biggest faculty association at McGill.

This year the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) had its first General Assembly (GA), and is about to vote on a student strike.

Calver has been involved with AUS for four years, and was the VP Academic before becoming president.

But her year as a president has been an important one for the Society.

Calver pointed to the political climate on campus this year, and the role AUS has played.

According to Calver, AUS has been “trying to address both students’ hurt as a result of what has happened, especially with police presence on campus, as well as polarization amongst students within the faculty with regard to different issues.”

Calver described how the increased political activities on campus have had an impact on student involvement.

“This is a time when we have seen the most student involvement ever in the AUS… It’s the most amazing thing to see students engaged in political life,” said Calver.

In spite of this political climate, the AUS did not take an official stance on the MUNACA strike that took place last semester.

According to Calver, “It was difficult because it came at the beginning of the year, and [the AUS] didn’t, at the Legislative Council, have enough information to take a stance about it. I think as it progressed further into the year, it was an issue for us once we began to see how it was affecting Arts students.”

Calver declined to comment on the Society’s joint statement with other faculty association presidents about the #6party occupation.

Another important item on the AUS agenda this year has been Orientation Week, previously known as Frosh. After facing deficits in past years, the event made a profit this year, despite a $12,000 theft.

Calver recommended a number of improvements to the event in years to come, including a reduction in price,

and a switch to making daytime campus activities alcohol-free.

One of the biggest changes in AUS this year was the implementation of the General Assembly.

Calver told The Daily that it is still “a work in progress,” as it has not been done in the past.

“I think that now there has been a push for more regular GAs, so I’ll be putting forward a question to students in the next GA,” she said.

In reference to the GA on January 31, Calver explained that, “like any GA or any council, we did have some positive and negative feedback. I believe that it was because of the personal views of the students who were there, but we will try our best for the next GA.” Calver discussed the resignation of two of the three Arts representatives to SSMU, Micha Stettin and Jamie Burnett.

“I think with regards to [Stettin], it was a personal issue for him, that he didn’t agree with the policies or ideologies of the SSMU or the AUS.” “With regards to Jamie, it was personal on another level, in that he didn’t fulfil the requirements for

Hera Chan | The McGill Daily

Arts Undergraduate Society President talks to The Daily

AUS President Jade Calver has overseen GA implementation. the position,” said Calver.

Calver told The Daily that she has been pleased with the overall performance of the other AUS executives.

“They have done so much with their portfolios… I’m proud of all of them,” she said.

According to Calver, financial difficulties were among the biggest setbacks for AUS this year. She referred to the lack of audits and tax returns produced in previous years as particu-

larly challenging.

Another impending issue for the AUS is the possibility of a student strike. Calver said that she will try to respect students’ rights.

“Ultimately students will vote whether they are in favour. I think our role in it is to protect students’ rights, whether it be their right to attend class, their right to miss class because of the strike, or their right to protest on campus,” said Calver.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Students not satisfied with consultation process Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

L

ast Tuesday, the Executive Director of Residences Michael Porritt met with residents of the first and second floor of Solin Hall to discuss the recent dismissal of their floor fellows, Francis (Danji) Buck-Moore and Drew Childerhose.

The floor fellows were dismissed from their positions nearly two weeks ago due to their involvement in the occupation of the sixth floor of the James Administration building in February.

The decision to fire BuckMoore and Childerhose was made after a period of consultation with the residence community, which was conducted by Porritt over reading week.

In response to the decision, two letters were delivered to Porritt, one signed by over 300 members of the McGill community, and the other by 61 of the 67 floor fellows.

The first letter states, “While we, the undersigned, understand that there are consequences to the actions taken on campus, we do not believe that the current option being considered by McGill administration is in the University’s best interest.”

Porritt told The Daily in an email that “I do not expect everyone to agree with controversial decisions of any kind, but I do hope people respect the extent of open consultation that I try to make a part of all of the important decisions in residence.”

“I gave the Rez community open access to share their thoughts and feelings and hundreds of people did so with a wide variety of viewpoints. All of them factored into the decision,” he added.

The meeting at Solin Hall, which media was not permitted to attend, took place at 10 p.m. last Tuesday. Around thirty students, Porritt and Acting Associate Director of Residence Colleen Lewis were in attendance.

Although Buck-Moore and Childerhose received invitations to attend – which were also emailed to students on their floors that morning – neither took part in the meeting.

Porritt told The Daily after the meeting that “I had the chance to talk with a lot of them over the course of the consultation period, so this was a chance to follow up with some of them...and let them know the exact details of what the situation is now so that they know, because they’re the ones that are

WHAT’S THE HAPS

Controversy over floor fellow dismissals

5

Arctic Realities: Inuit Perspectives on Change March 12 to 16 Various locations around campus McGill University’s Aboriginal Sustainability Project, Aboriginal Health Interest Group, Aboriginal Law Students’ Association, KANATA, and the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre of Montreal are hosting a number of events that examine how people in the Canadian Arctic are able to adapt to the rapid changes occurring today in health, education, and social services.

AUS General Assembly Tuesday, March 13, 6 p.m.

SSMU Cafeteria The Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill University is holding a General Assembly and voting on whether to join the unlimited general strike.

A McGill Arts Student ID is required for eligibility to vote.

SWSA General Assembly Wednesday March 14, 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The floor fellows’ dismissal had “nothing” to do with the Code of Student Conduct. most directly impacted.”

According to Caitlin O’Doherty, a U1 Arts student and resident of Solin Hall who attended the meeting, Porritt provided the students at the meeting with two reasons behind his decision to fire the floor fellows: their insubordination, and the oppression of the sixth floor staff of the James building.

“It was just really frustrating,” O’Doherty said. “[Porritt] kept saying these two things, and it was pointed out that they were very vague reasons.”

O’Doherty also spoke about the consultation, expressing some skepticism about its relevance.

“All the consultation that the administration keeps saying we’re part of, it’s really just a check box,” she continued.

“It’s just a reason for them to say they’ve talked to the students, but they don’t have to ever be accountable to listening and following up from the students, and that’s, I think, the biggest problem we were pointing out.”

The meeting in Solin was not the first between the residence community and Porritt in which the dismissals came up. On the afternoon of Sunday, March 4, Porritt attended the InterResidence Council (IRC) meeting in Douglas Hall.

D’Arcy Williams, president of Gardner Hall, attended the meeting at Douglas. He said the meeting was called to discuss a letter that Porritt wanted the IRC to sign, which addressed the dismissal of the floor fellows.

“Porritt approached us to sign off on [a] letter that would be sent

out to all the residence students,” Williams explained. “Basically, he wanted to use our signature on it as a way to show that we’re trying to be respectful of everyone’s decision, and to move forward from the decision, because what’s done is done.”

When asked whether the subject of the dismissals of the floor fellows came up at the IRC meeting, Porritt told The Daily, “No, because it wouldn’t. Those are personnel issues, and that’s confidential. That wouldn’t come up.”

A portion of the letter was written solely by Porritt, while the remainder was signed by Lewis and IRC president Sam Gregory, in addition to Porritt. Before the meeting, a copy of the letter was made public on Facebook.

According to Williams, the letter was a draft circulated by Porritt to certain members of the residence community as an example of the kind of statement he wanted the IRC to sign.

He also explained that the letter was not intended to be made public.

The portion of the letter signed by Porritt states that, “there have had to be some difficult decisions made with regard to the residence community in the aftermath of the James Building occupation. I hope that everyone will respect and understand that these decisions were made after an extended and open consultation period with the primary stakeholders involved.”

It also clarifies, “My decisions regarding student employment have nothing to do with the Code of Student Conduct [Green Book]. The Code is a separate

process that is administered by the disciplinary officer of the faculty involved or, in the case of an incident in residences the hall director is the disciplinary officer.”

Buck-Moore and Childerhose reiterated this point, emphasizing that their dismissals had nothing to do with the Green Book, a misconception that they said has been circulating around campus. Neither Buck-Moore nor Childerhose have had disciplinary action taken against them by the University.

Williams explained that the IRC decided not to sign the letter at the meeting on Sunday, “Not because we agree, not because we disagree, but because it’s simply not IRC’s place. That’s not our role. Our role is to represent the students, and some people thought this was a little bit inappropriate to be brought in front of IRC.” Buck-Moore commented on the decision, explaining that “I think one thing that a lot of us were confused and concerned about with that, was that that’s kind of inherently a political action, to ask a representative body of other people to support a decision that’s already been made.”

Buck-Moore and Childerhose have no plans to leave their residence accommodations, and will be remaining in Solin until further action is taken.

“Legally, we feel like we’re entitled to [stay] for the time being,” said Childerhose, “and I feel like most lawyers would feel the exact same way.”

Wendy Patrick Room, Wilson Hall The Social Work Student Association votes on whether to join the unlimited general strike!

Three Minutes to Save the World Wednesday, March 14, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Thomson House Interested in graduate studies? Want to make a difference? Come hear how McGill graduate student research is benefiting our society. Free registration here: http://www. mcgill.ca/sustainability/threeminutes-attending.

SSMU Sustainability Case Competition Exposition Wednesday, March 14, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

SSMU Ballroom Six groups are competing to design the next sustainable, student-run cafe.

On March 14, they will be showcasing their proposals.

Come vote for your favourite concept! The Expo is the final day of the competition: each team will present their proposal to the judging panel and to the McGill community.

McGill Vision 2020 Event Series – A Community Conversation Friday, March 16, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

RVC Dining Hall Vision 2020, a year-long consultation around issues of sustainability, aims to identify where McGill is, what it could look like by the year 2020, and the steps we can take to get there. This will be done through committees, an idea sharing website (www.mcgillvision2020. com), and a series of events.

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Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

7

Stop tuition hikes Nadav Slovin Hyde Park

W

e are all being deceived.

Our perspectives need drastic transformations.

Hold up, forceful accusations!

Let’s take a step back.

We build a community. In order to effectively ensure long, meaningful lives, we create systems of education.

These systems enable us to provide more services to ourselves and our community that maximize utility.

These services include those provided by doctors, historians, engineers, chefs – experts in many fields!

As individuals who care for others and ourselves, we want to give everyone an equal opportunity to reach his or her potential through education, and to provide skills to the community. We gather the resources needed to build this system – all community members brings a portion of their resources and we create a university!

But wait – a problem: within capitalism, some have more control over resources and some have less. How will we collect resources evenly if some do not have enough to contribute?

A solution: a government collects resources unevenly – more from those with more control and less from those with less. We equal-

ize control by providing the services, such as the university, for all!

Well that was easy. Who needs a complex tuition and bursary system when we have, well, a tuition and bursary system already – we call it taxes and government services.

So why all these problems? Why tuition, and why financial “crises” that convince us that free education is impractical? One reason could be that citizens request unrealistic services – there are not ample resources within society. That’s hard for me to believe: as the wealthy drive Bentleys to million dollar homes, the Quebec government in 2001 and 2007 made tax cuts favoring fortunate citizens, costing the government $2 billion in revenue.

A second reason seems more feasible: individuals influence government decisions. Marx argues that the aspect of human nature that cares for the community is alienated into the government. The individuals with influence, therefore, use the government as a tool for gaining more control over resources rather than using it for its intended communal purpose.

People (and businesses that they run) with strong influence over our government have obvious incentives to increase tuition. Tuition hikes decrease government expenditure, decreasing taxes that are

Hera Chan | The McGill Daily

Why we need to strike

disproportionately extracted from the wealthy, influential individuals, and businesses because of their unequal control over resources.

But I shouldn’t need to convince you that tuition hikes serve private interest or that tuition hikes are irrational in a government that equalizes through taxation and subsequent provision of services.

Our perspectives need drastic transformations – this article should not be necessary.

The burden of proof must be on the government.

We are deceived into thinking that the burden of proof is on fellow citizens; if we are not sufficiently convinced that tuition hikes are wrong and fiscally unnecessary, we must not oppose them. We have become sheep and our shepherds must not be trusted.

When our government makes a decision that may contradict the goal of equalizing opportunity, we cannot trust subserviently. We have exposed individuals’ incentives to sway government decisions away from purposes of equality and betterment of overall

society. We have reason to be skeptical. Oppose tuition hikes. Oppose any government decision that seems to decrease equality and social justice, until the government has proven it just or absolutely necessary.

Despite many protests, the government has not changed its opinion. The only way to oppose tuition hikes is through an unlimited strike.

Nadav Slovin is a U2 Philosophy student. He can be reached at nadavslovin@gmail.com.

From each according to their ability, to each according to their need The case for income-contingent student loans Diego Zuluaga Laguna Soap Box

T

he Quebec government, in its 2011 budget, announced plans to increase rates by $1,625 over five years, bringing the cost of university education back to 1968 levels, adjusted for inflation.

This increase is consistent with two beliefs: that those who benefit most from a service (students in this case) should bear a bigger share of its cost if they can afford to do so, and that public universities must command enough resources to meet the twin challenges of global competitiveness and accessibility for students from low-income families.

Contrary to what some on the left would have us believe, these two aims are neither contradictory nor mutually exclusive. Rather, competitiveness and accessibility can be mutually reinforcing, since increased funds will allow public institutions to both maintain high-quality standards and to make financial aid, in the form of grants, bursaries, and student loans, more widely available.

With this in mind, the Quebec government needs to couple fee increases with an overhaul of its student loan policy. The government should replace existing schemes, which place an unnecessary burden on students and ignore their future earning potential, with low-risk, fairer, and more realistic income-contingent loans that will give universities a stake in their alumni’s success.

First proposed by economist Milton Friedman in 1955, income-contingent loans solve the problem posed by students’ lack of collateral when they begin their studies. Because their ability to repay depends largely on future income, under conventional loan schemes a significant portion of borrowers will inevitably default, unable to pay back the full amount of the loan plus accrued interest. At the same time, comparatively successful students will be liable to pay the same amount as less successful ones, even though the returns on their investment in post-secondary education are substantially higher. The prospect of long-term indebtedness and possible default will discourage some to take out loans in the first place, forcing

them to seek alternative sources of finance or to renounce their plans to attend university altogether.

By contrast, income-contingent loans acknowledge students’ uncertainty about future earnings and allow them to sell “shares” in themselves, the return on which will vary according to each individual’s postuniversity performance. Unlike conventional loans, payments in this scheme are not based on a fixed monthly amount, but on a percentage of income, so that the more successful pay more and the less successful are not faced with impossible commitments. Not only do they lower the risk associated with taking out a loan, but they are also self-financing, since the losses made on students with low future incomes will be compensated for by high earners, who will be paying considerably more than what they borrowed.

But is it fair that the more financially successful students should effectively “subsidize” the not-so-successful? Yes, for two reasons: First of all, future high earners are arguably, in the majority of cases, as uncertain about their future income when they

begin their studies as future low earners, so they will be more than willing to insure themselves against default by promising to pay a premium on top of what they owe if their earnings exceed a certain threshold. Second, it seems only fair that the repayment of a loan to finance an investment in education should be tied to the returns on that investment.

How does an income-contingent loan scheme enhance both competitiveness and accessibility? The latter is ensured by making credit available to all those who ask for it, regardless of their present economic situations, and by eliminating the potential for over-indebtedness. The former is inextricably linked to the way these loans work: because repayment depends on future success, universities have a stake in providing borrowers with the skills demanded by the market, since they will determine whether or not they get their money back. Such loans thereby provide an incentive for universities to remain competitive and up to date with employer needs.

Income-contingent loans were successfully implemented in

Australia in 1989 and New Zealand in 1992. Both countries simultaneously increased tuition fees and revamped their loan policy to ensure both adequate funding and universal access.

In 2005, Quebec announced plans to introduce a similar system, but student union pressures forced the government to abandon the idea.

As consensus grows over the real urgency of tuition hikes, the time is ripe to introduce such reforms to make sure no one is left behind.

By tying repayment to future performance, income-contingent loans eliminate the nightmare of default, while asking more from those who benefit the most from a university education and giving institutions strong incentives to furnish students with appropriate skills. They make credit available to all according to their need, and ask them to pay back according to their ability. It seems to me that you could even approach Karl Marx with such a policy.

Diego Zuluaga Laguna is a U2 History and Economics student.

He can be reached at diego.zuluagalaguna@mail.mcgill.ca.

8 Features

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STUDENTS UNITED USU tudent associations representing over 130,000 students are now on strike across Quebec, calling on the Liberal government to stop a five-year, $1,625 tuition hike set to go into effect in September. McGill Arts students are voting Tuesday on whether to join them. As the AUS strike mobilization committee told The

Daily’s editorial board recently, one of the main reasons for striking is that strikes have worked like gangbusters in the past. “Students united will never be defeated,” as the slogan goes. To see if this was true, I dug through The Daily’s archives and spoke to some of the leading scholars of the Quebec student movement. I learned that there have been suc-

1968: WIN GOALS Following the opening of the first CEGEPs in the fall of 1967, Rendez-vous ’68, as the movement was called, was more ambitious than any strike since: • Abolition of tuition fees.

• Expanded university facilities: 4000 students were denied admission to university in 1968 due to lack of space.

• Greater student control of university and CEGEP governance.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • College Lionel Groulx was the first school to go on strike.

• 15 of the 23 CEGEPs eventually joined them.

• Soon after, students occupied the now-defunct Écoles des beaux arts, which became a major counter-cultural hub.

• The strike lasted for a month.

RESULTS • The government didn’t formally concede it at the time, but UQAM opened in September 1969, marking the beginning of the Université de Québec system.

• Mandatory class attendance was abolished at CEGEPs, establishing students’ right to strike.

Although in retrospect the strike may look like an enormous success, at the time more radical students were disappointed that tuition wasn’t made free, and that wholesale governance reform wasn’t undertaken. “Paradoxically, members of the student movement saw it as a defeat,” said Benôit Lacoursière, author of Le mouvement étudiant au Québec de 1983 à 2006, in an interview.

1974: LOSS

1978: TIE

1986: WIN

GOALS • More investment in loans and bursaries.

• Elimination of the “independence” clause, which tied the amount a student could receive in aid to their parents’ income, unless the student had completed a first degree, had worked for two years, or was married. (In the early eighties, student groups even mounted a campaign to get their members to marry so they could qualify for greater student aid.)

GOALS • Abolition of the “independence” clause (again).

• Free tuition.

• Greater investment in loans and bursaries.

GOALS • Despite being elected with a promise to keep tuition frozen, the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa began making noises about reversing course.

Students were determined to keep tuition levels frozen.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • Widespread discontent with the student aid regime, spurred in part by a 30 per cent jump in the number of rejected applicants, brought students back to the picket lines for the second time in a semester.

• 55,000 CEGEP students went on strike for about two weeks.

• Minister of Education Francois Cloutier “threatened striking students with [the] loss of their first term credits,” according to a Daily report on December 12.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • Rural and smalltown CEGEPs like Rimouski, Alma, and Ahuntsic began the charge, going on strike in early November.

• SSMU VP External Ted Claxton called the CEGEP movements “unrealistic” and “Marxist.” McGill didn’t go on strike.

• ANEQ’s strategy included getting teachers and unions involved, to neutralize the criticism of students as a “privileged minority.” The Quebec Teachers Union and the Union of Quebec Government Workers jumped on board.

• At the strike’s peak, schools representing 100,000 students were on strike.

• ANEQ finally called off the strike in early February

HOW IT WENT DOWN • On day one, 19 CEGEPs and the main student union at UQAM were on strike.

• Thirty student associations, mostly from CEGEPs, eventually joined.

• For students, it was a cakewalk. Renaud, who helped organize the strike at Collège Lionel Groulx, said, “It was a bit of a boring strike. For most students it was just blocking the door to your CEGEPs.”

RESULTS • The government promised to abolish the parental contribution provision for loans and reduce it for bursaries.

However, it didn’t follow on its promise – there remains a version of the “independence” clause to this day.

• In February of the following year, the Daily’s Larry Black wrote “it appears today that despite that demonstration’s pledge of solidarity, Cloutier’s move to quell student unrest by dividing the CEGEPs has been successful.”

• The province-wide student union L’association des étudiants du Québec (ANEQ) was created following the strike. “During the strike itself, there was an ad hoc organization of the student unions, and a decision was made to make it permanent,” said Benoit Renaud, a former student organizer now working for Québec Solidaire, a leftist provincial party.

• ANEQ continued to dominate the student movement for the next decade and a half.

RESULTS • Though it was an election promise in 1976, Morin balked at free tuition, saying it would cost $200 million to implement.

• The parental income requirements for getting student aid were altered to make it easier for students to get loans and bursaries.

• The government promised to gradually increase the amount of money available for loans and bursaries.

RESULTS • After just two weeks, the government caved, and promised to keep tuition frozen. “There were some students who thought we should have continued, because the government gave in so fast,” said Renaud.

• According to Benôit Lacoursière, the government’s acquiescence was a “tactical retreat,” in order to save up political capital for the eventual tuition hikes of 1990.

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

UALLY AREN’T DEFEATED cessful strikes, failed strikes, and strikes whose victories were ambiguous or partial. Some accounts have ignored this fact: the news site OpenFile Montreal excluded two of the least successful examples – 1988 and 1990 – in their brief history of Quebec student strikes. A primer on the website of the Concordia Student Union makes the same omission. But, for the

most part, student strikes have been successful, often wildly so, blocking tuition hikes and forcing governments to halt hundreds of millions in cuts to loans and bursaries. Below is a crib sheet to the past eight Quebec student strikes: their goals, their defining moments, and their achievements.

—Eric Andrew-Gee

1988: TIE

2005: WIN

GOALS • A broader definition of what constitutes an “independent” student, to allow more widespread access to loans and bursaries (the third time this had been a strike demand).

• Access to financial aid for part-time students.

• Maintaining the tuition freeze.

GOALS • The reimbursement of the $103 million that Jean Charest’s Liberal government had cut from loans and bursaries the previous year.

• The more radical Coalition de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante élargie (CASSÉÉ) also wanted to scrap changes to the student aid system that sent money out every month instead of every semester – they thought the system was “paternalistic.”

• CEGEP students also opposed a government policy giving colleges the right to choose which classes to offer.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • ANEQ called a three-day strike in late September, frustrated by the slow progress of student aid negotiations with the government.

• SSMU held a GA on joining the strike. Sixty people showed up, missing quorum by 140 students.

• By late October, 100,000 students from 32 CEGEPs were on strike.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • At its peak, 230,000 students were on strike.

• McGill grads and undergrads each staged a 24-hour strike in March (though undergrads voted online to reject a second day of striking).

• The government put forward several offers to partially reimburse loans and bursaries, which negotiators for FEUQ, and its CEGEP counterpart FECQ, rejected outright.

• In late March, 103 students sent locks of hair to Jean Charest: one haircut for every million cut from student aid.

• Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier threatened students with an extended, or cancelled, semester.

RESULTS • In early 1989, Education minister Claude Ryan announced reforms to loans and bursaries: • $40 million extra was invested in student aid.

• 17,000 part-time students became eligible for limited loans and bursaries: an average of $490 each.

• 25,000 “independent” students became eligible for more student aid money.

• However, when the Liberal government was reelected in September 1989, they announced they would be raising tuition, a slap in the face to the student movement.

1990: LOSS GOAL • To stop the government’s two-year, $700 tuition hike, which would increase tuition from $500 to $1200, a 140 per cent increase.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • The student movement was demoralized from the beginning: this was the third strike in five years, and students were fatigued.

• Many thought 1988 had been a bigger failure than it appears today, and thought that ANEQ dishonestly spun it as a victory, sewing fissures in the student movement.

• Still, there were flourishes of promise from the strike, which straddled February and March: Université de Montréal (U de M) students occupied the floor of the stock exchange, and, separately, shut down their university for three days, while some UQAM students refused to pay tuition.

RESULTS • The strike was a failure: the tuition hikes were implemented.

• The Bourassa government had issued “a challenge to the student movement,” said Renaud, who took part in the strike as a U de M student. “And, basically, the movement was unable to meet that challenge.”

1996: TIE GOAL • Maintaining the tuition freeze.

HOW IT WENT DOWN • In October 1996, the Parti Québecois government of Lucien Bouchard proposed a 30 per cent tuition hike.

• Thirty CEGEPs went on strike in response.

• The moderate Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) began negotiating with the government to keep tuition frozen.

• At its peak, the strike counted 100,000 students.

RESULTS • Students won on tuition: the PQ backed off their proposed hikes. Tuition would stay frozen until 2007.

• However, Education Minister Pauline Marois introduced differential fees for out-ofprovince Canadian students.

Until 1996, a student from Ontario or B.C. paid the same tuition as one from Quebec.

Now, they would pay more.

• During the strike, Marois announced that the government would introduce a “failure tax” the following year, which charged CEGEP students a fee for failing a certain number of classes.

OVERALL RECORD: 3-2-3

RESULTS • By April, the government had caved and agreed to put back all $103 million into the loans and bursaries system. FEUQ and FECQ called this a victory and told their members to go back to class.

• Still, 70,000 students remained on strike, holding out for the elimination of tuition fees, root and branch reform of student aid, and free contraception and abortion.

• “It was pretty much as much as the movement could possibly expect to win,” said Renaud.

9

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

10

Other(ing) fans Stereotypes break down under pressure A Fan’s Notes Evan Dent

afansnotes@mcgilldaily.com

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here’s a common saying at Chicago’s Wrigley Field – the stadium where my favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, play – that goes, “I’m rooting for the Cubs and whoever’s playing the White Sox.” (The White Sox are Chicago’s ‘other’ baseball team, playing on the South side of the city). In the 100 years since they began to play at Wrigley, the Cubs haven’t won a championship. They haven’t even made it to the World Series since 1945. Needless to say, there hasn’t been a lot to celebrate, so we jump at the chance to root for anyone playing “the other” team.

Long story short, it’s fun to hate other teams. If your favorite team doesn’t win, well, there’s still some solace to be had when your least favorite team loses.

A part of this hate is the creation of a nameless, faceless mass: the “other team’s fan.” You apply a stereotype to those fans of the other team, and use it to fuel your glee when they lose.

White Sox fans believe Cubs fans don’t actually care about the baseball, and that they just want to get drunk to forget that their team hasn’t won a World Series for over

100 years. For Cubs fans, White Sox are fair-weather fans.

Similar stereotypes extend throughout the whole country, in all sports. New York fans are obnoxious to the rest of the country. Canadians turn their noses up at Southern fans, believing that they don’t really know anything about hockey. Miami fans would rather be at the beach. Boston fans have a fatalist, woe-is-us attitude when they lose, and are insufferable when they win. On and on it goes, until nearly every fan base has been reduced to one, easyto-target person. This is how we make a recognizable “Other” of the enemy.

But why? Certainly some of it has to do with primal notions of superiority, a feeling that our team is better than yours, or, at least, that we’re more committed fans. Perhaps more importantly, all sports fans know how bad it feels when their favourite team loses. We have all been crushed by an overtime loss or playoff disaster, and we relish the fact that the opposition is sometimes suffering too. The stereotypes are necessary for this. Without them we might feel empathy for the other team (gasp!), the one we swore we hated with every fiber of our being.

Once you start to know fans of other teams, who are committed fans that love sports as much as you do, the joy is sapped. These

people become humans in your eyes, and maybe even become your friends. And as much as we joke around with our friends, make fun of them, or try to rub things in their face, it’s rare that you ever want to see your friend hurt. That’s just basic human empathy. A good enough friend should, and does, transcend sports.

If you want to continue hating other teams and delighting in their failures, you can’t really make deep friendships with anyone besides people with similar allegiances. So what happens? If you know one fan of another team, know that they are as involved with the ups and downs with their favorite team, it becomes impossible not to know that there are thousands more out there. The illusion of the stereotype fades away. It’s become harder for me to celebrate when another team loses. You can still hate the team, the players, and managers, but you pass a point where it’s hard to hate the fans. There are lapses, possibly some exceptions, but you still can’t shake that nagging feeling of empathy, especially when I know there is someone like me who has had that losing feeling entering their chest or hung their head in sadness. Maybe sports and rivalries aren’t meant to contain any humanity – just pure, cold feelings of supremacy – but I can’t help it anymore.

Jacqueline Brandon | The McGill Daily

The CFL’s Canadian problem Andy Fantuz begins to fill the noticeable void of Canadian talent in the league Sports, eh Sam Gregory

sportseh@mcgilldaily.com

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ndy Fantuz, one of the biggest Canadian-born stars in the Canadian Football League (CFL), made the move from the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the Hamilton Ti-Cats on February 17. The receiver is from ChatamKent, Ontario and is making his return to the province where he played – when growing up and, then, while he was at University of Western Ontario (UWO).

Fantuz was given the CFL’s “Outstanding Canadian of the

Year Award” for 2010, and his stellar play earned him a contract with the NFL’s Chicago Bears in that offseason. Less than a year later, he returned to Saskatchewan, failing to make a single appearance for the Bears. Now that he is back in Canada, he is one of the CFL’s most recognizable names.

The CFL is littered with American athletes who are well known to sports fans across Canada: Anthony Calvillo, Arland Bruce, Jamel Richardson, Henry Burris, and more. Over Fantuz’s six seasons in the CFL, he has managed to join this talented group of players; however, he has the distinction of being the list’s only Canadian. This singularity highlights one of the league’s

most prominent criticisms: the lack of star Canadian players.

In Canada, the CFL has to compete with the NFL – a league with such a lucrative TV deal that its’ exposure in Canada far outweighs that of the CFL. In order to compete with the NFL, the CFL needs to offer something different and distinctly Canadian with which people can connect – having a different set of rules than the NFL does not create enough interest. This is why a player like Andy Fantuz is so important to the future of the league.

Fantuz’s story started the same way as thousands of other Canadian football players’ do. He played high school and university football at Canadian schools. He

began to show his exceptionalism, though, while at UWO, winning the Hec Crighton Award in 2005 as the best university football player in Canada.

Despite the prestige of the Hec Crighton award, the CFL isn’t littered with past recipients. The simple reason is that – in order to win the award – a player must be playing in a noticeable position; it usually goes to either a quarterback, running back, or receiver. CFL teams tend to fill these positions with Americans coming from American colleges. Other than Fantuz, the most successful recent recipient of the award has been running back Jesse Lumsden – the 2004 winner – whose success has come as an

international bobsledder and not as a player in the CFL. Fantuz’s move away from Saskatchewan to Hamilton sees him going to the much larger sports media market of Southeastern Ontario. However, the CFL is not as popular in Ontario as it is in Saskatchewan. As one of the most, if not the most recognizable, Canadian player in the CFL, he will have an important role in furthering interest among CFL organizations to give Canadian football players a little more leeway. Hopefully, his continued success and the introduction of more Canadian star players will give the CFL a more distinctly Canadian identity and help the league compete with the NFL in Canada.

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

11

Itsy-bitsy bloodmobile Wireless tech, coming to a vein in you David Anidjar

Science+Technology Writer

I Julia Boshyk | The McGill Daily

magine a device, about the size of the head of a pin, that can zip through the bloodstream at about half a centimeter per second. It can perform a number of tasks – including microsurgeries, data analysis, blood clot removals, and delivery of drugs to organs. Researcher Ada Poon and her team at the Stanford School of Engineering have developed such a device.

What makes this apparatus feasable is its energy source: other prototypes for tiny bodytraveling machines have always relied on battery power, and as such, have remaind little but pipe dreams. This required them to

be relatively large and meant that they needed frequent battery replacements. They were also more likely to corrode and have broken wiring. Poon’s apparatus uses an antenna that receives radio signals from an external transmitter. The transmitter will power the device, erasing the need for a battery.

Moreover, the optimal frequency for wireless transmissions is about one gigahertz. This estimate is 100 times higher than previous ones, meaning the antenna can actually be 100 times smaller than was once possible.

The wireless transmission method has never been tried before because body tissues, such as skin and bone, were always assumed to be good conductors of electricity. According to the math-

ematical models, high frequency waves would dissipate more and more as they penetrated deeper layers of tissue.

In her research, Poon treated tissues as a type of insulator rather than a conductor, meaning that they were governed by an entirely different set of mathematical principles. She found that the radio signals, contrary to previous belief, travel through human tissue well enough to wirelessly power a chip.

According to this new framework, although the tissues could also conduct electricity, they could still receive radio waves, making wireless radio transmissions possible.

Although human and animal trials are pending, the contraption seems to be medically viable.

What’s in a kilogram?

The last SI unit to be defined in a way that can be universally replicated Vikram Natarajan

Science+Technology Writer

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bservations depend on units. Without them numbers would be absolutely meaningless – simply stating that the height of a building is 100 is unhelpful, while stating that it is 100 metres is a lot more useful. It is unsurprising, then, that there exists an International Committee of Weights of Measures, headquartered in Paris, responsible for monitoring the use and definitions of these units. Most of the world now uses the successor to the metric system: SI units (abbreviated from the French Système international d’unités), formally established by the committee in 1960. The system is based on seven units, from which all the other units can be derived.

How to define the base units?

Since units are nothing more than human-made magnitudes of given physical quantities, there needs to be a standard that scientists, researchers, and fruit-sellers alike can use to find out what the true quantity is.

In the beginning, this was achieved with physical objects. A cylinder of platinum iridium was created with a weight of exactly one kilogram, and all other kilograms were based on this cylinder. Similarly, a rod of the same material was used to standardize a metre. However, this method has an important flaw – despite the relative stability of the platinum-iridium alloy, it does degrade over time.

In a world where we increasingly rely on very precise measurements – particularly in fields such as nanotechnology – we need an unerring and infinitely reproducible standard. The result of this need is a rush to attempt

to redefine the standard SI units in terms of fundamental constants of nature. The metre, for instance, is now defined in terms of the velocity of light. Similarly the other SI units were redefined, rendering their physical standards obsolete. The exception to this was the kilogram, which has retained its original definition.

This is in the process of changing: the National Physics Laboratory in the UK has developed a piece of equipment called the watt balance, which can be used to make an accurate measurement of Planck’s constant–the number that relates the energy of a photon to its frequency. With the watt balance calibrated using the improved Planck’s constant, it would be used to weigh the platinum-iridium lump, and thus define the kilogram in terms of the energy. The watt balance uses a loudspeaker coil and a magnet

to determine the mass of the system independent of its properties.

Measurements using this apparatus have been accurate to an uncertainty of just over two parts in a hundred million, which is what is needed to reliably construct a new definition.

The research is currently being continued in the National Research Council in Ottawa (who purchased the equipment from the National Physics Laboratory), with even lower uncertainties. In fact, according the Alan Steele, director of the projects, the results are so precise that gravitational changes from the first to the second floor, or even the presence of a large delivery truck nearby, can severely skew the results.

From the evidence, it appears that a certain lump of platinumiridium may soon be consigned to an antique vault.

THERE IS SO MUCH MORE SCIENCE OUR (CARNIVOROUS) COLUMNIST ANDREW KOMAR ON THE SHITTY TECH OF FACTORY FARMING THE DAILY’S ANQUI ZHANG ON THE LATEST INITIATIVE IN THE OPEN COURSEWARE MOVEMENT MCGILLDAILY.COM/CATEGORY/SCITECH/

The metre is the distance that light travels in three hundred millionths of a second, which is based on the radiation of a caesium atom.

The candela is the intensity of light from source with certain specifications.

Amperes, moles, and Kelvins (the rest of the SI units – save the kilogram, of course), are similarly, fundamentally, defined.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Art Still Matters

12

Victoria Lessard ventures to Concordia’s student art festival

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n another installation of interviews, The Daily investigates the creative minds behind Art Matters, Concordia’s fine art festival.

Ovum, 2011 Léa Trudel

The McGill Daily (MD): Tell me a little bit about yourself. What is your specific area of interest in terms of medium?

Caleb Feigin (CF): I’m starting at Concordia, and I’m making up this major in Sexuality studies, so most of the work I’m doing at school is theoretical stuff and I also participate in activism and create art. I really like performance art because it’s a mixture of all those three things.

This is going to be my second public performance at [art show] “Citation.”

MD: What is the performative aspect to Hey, Um, I’m Sorry that I Killed You: A Performance Piece of Mourning, Guilt and Disregard (2011)?

CF: Essentially, it’s a performance piece, but there is an installation component that people can interact with as well. There is a pool that’s filled with things I collected from people, from friends, or that I found – it’s filled with things that help them to live, or that makes living more difficult. It’s a really interactive piece, people can come and take stuff from the pool, or put things in. I’m performing at the opening on Wednesday, and on Saturday as well. What I’m doing is really an antiperformance – I’ll be dressed up in drag, and I’m just going to be standing, doing nothing; and then I will be drowning myself in the pool filled with these meaningful things.

MD: Was there a particular event that inspired your performance?

CF: The performance is about mourning. The whole process of me drowning myself is a message to a friend who committed suicide; he drowned. I wanted to make an artwork about it, I was thinking about it so much – it was a long process, he passed away two years ago. I started researching suicide prevention and techniques to stop suicide. Basically, the research I did showed that queer kids are the most prone to committing suicide, and I found this really interesting and bizarre, especially the way in which the media discusses this issue and my experience through this friend. Through my research, I saw that there were two trends to why suicide happens: the way that people talk about suicide, they always say, “Oh, this person was crazy, they had mental issues”, and obviously there are bullying and social factors as well. Both of these things are valid, but for me it felt wrong to let everyone off the hook. There was no research

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Hey, Um, I’m Sorry that I Killed You: A Performance Piece of Mourning, Guilt and Disregard, 2011 Caleb Feigin

saying that there are things we, people, do that cause suicide – it’s not abstract. My performance is talking about that; I’m performing my feelings of guilt, and how I think this guilt is not something that just I feel. We are all guilty for making this world the way that it is. The whole point is for the audience to see the pool, and see if the representational things inside of the pool have no effect on you, or if you look closer and see that this really intense thing is happening.

MD: In honour of the mandate of the festival, tell me why art matters to you.

CF: My performance is a pretty good example of how the lines between art and politics mesh. Art matters because it has potential to change things, or make people feel differently about things in a way they couldn’t if they were just reading about it. Art makes you confront things and ideas that you wouldn’t otherwise. “Citation” is a really cool show about the body and gender, and we [the artists] all have these different approaches that are all really cool and meaningful.

Untitled Series, 2011 Peter Bleumortier MD: Tell me a little bit about yourself – how did you decide to become

an artist? What is your specific area of interest in terms of medium?

Peter Bleumortier (PB): I’m interested mainly in photography and video art, but also have been known to explore other mediums. I’ve always been interested in the arts but I think I was driven to photography mainly for documentary purposes.

MD: What is the intent or artistic conception behind your prints?

PB: It’s a typology of male nudes, mainly friends or people I know, ranging from twenty to thirty years old. I hope to play with the space between the subjective and the objective; in this work subjects appear as objects. By looking at the male nude I aim to question the reception of the male versus female body in a gallery context – in a way, this is a feminist project.

Here, seemingly objective bodies may reveal themselves as subjective reflections. Their respective stances produce cues of their subjectivity, helping to destabilize the conceptual identity of the male form.

MD: In creating a stripped down portrait of the nude, what do you feel you are revealing about perceptions of identity, especially sexual identity?

PB: These figures, stripped of almost any reference to the world outside of their bodies, begin to nod signals of who they are: a hand, an awkward posture, an oblong glance. [These gestures] reveal multitudes despite [the sub-

jects’] stark nakedness. Here, both the comfort and anxiety of the model may reveal to us something of their selfhood. Exhibitionist arrogance and self-conscious posing alike may tell us something of their character. The slipping-off of their clothing is a corollary shedding of constructed identity: left are intensified layers of selfhood.

MD: What response do you hope to evoke from viewers?

PB: I hope that this work is somewhat confrontational or unsettling. I want to reveal something of selfhood by acknowledging the subject’s character. The viewer’s gaze may equally register as my own; the naked bodies of my [subjects] mirror my body through the camera lens. They are objectified nude men staring back to the (presumably) clothed viewer behind the lens.

MD: In honour of the mandate of the festival, tell me why art matters to you.

PB: I hate to sound preachy or cliche but, in tough economic times, art programs are usually the first to be cut, when, in reality, they are what “matter” the most. The arts aim to question and redefine history. With art we can achieve real social and political change, it is a way of not only coping, but is also a tool that will define and redefine our culture and its values by means of intervention.

MD: Tell me a little bit about yourself – how did you decide to become an artist? What is your specific area of interest in terms of medium?

Léa Trudel (LT): I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. I don’t know that I ever decided to become an artist, but I believe that coming from a family of creative thinkers has contributed a lot to my artistic growth. I was passionate about photography from a young age, but my practice now also includes experimental video animation and installation.

MD: Your video and photographs evoked scientific photographs and medical videos of the inside of the body in a very realistic manner – how did you create these pieces?

LT: Ovum was made by observing various plant, mineral, and animal specimens through a microscope. Recently, I have been interested in using optical mechanisms of the sciences and extending their function to the arts. The controls of the microscope allow me to animate and navigate this world that is invisible to the naked human eye.

MD: I found Ovum really compelling, as it brings up so many different themes. I felt as though there was an exploration of the ephemeral experience of the human body. What was your artistic intention in creating Ovum? Was there a prominent issue you felt that you were exploring?

LT: I find it very interesting that you get a sense of ephemerality from my piece. It was my intention to give a certain life back to these specimens of microbiology, which are removed from their source and origin to become objects of scientific study. In a sense, photography does the same – it has the ability to negate and transform a reality into a new context. I became interested in the mediated nature of scientific study and how this might parallel the act of photographing.

Also, I am fascinated by the beauty of microbiology and how it might mimic the infinite reaches of the cosmos – a kind of micro/macro relationship.

MD: In honour of the mandate of the festival, tell me why art matters to you.

LT: Art matters to me because communication is important to me. I find it exciting to be a part of a community of creative people that are passionate about expressing their ideas.

Hey, Um, I’m Sorry that I Killed You: A Performance Piece of Mourning, Guilt and Disregard and Untitled Series will be at the AB Gallery (372 Ste. Catherine Ouest) from March 2 to 16 and the vernissage is on March 7. Ovum will be showing as a part of “everything you see is real” at Eastern Bloc (7240 Clark) from March 2 to 15 and the vernissage is on March 6.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

13

Ooh, that’s tender Christopher Webster Culture Writer

M

aking a name for yourself in the music industry is no small feat, and when you’re based in a city such as ours, with its astonishing artistic diversity, the task is even greater. Establishing a sound, a schedule, and a fan base are all integral components to success, and hundreds of performers fall short in their attempts to achieve all three.

Yet one local band might just have all their ducks in a row: the up-andcoming outfit TOPS. TOPS is a four-piece band made up of Jane Penny, David Carriere, Thom Gillies, and Riley Fleck. They released their debut album, Tender Opposites, on March 1, and are currently touring through the U.S. promoting and playing their new music. No strangers to the Montreal music scene, each band member has been previously involved in other groups, backing up vocalist Sean Savage and combining forces – minus drummer Fleck – in the band Silly Kissers. After the two other members of the band broke off from the project last winter, Penny, Carriere, and Gillies invited Fleck, who was using the same practice space, to join their group, and the rest is (fairly recent) history.

The album itself is unique, balancing laid-back ethereal numbers with more energetic indie jams.

Penny’s leading vocals give the tracks an intimate feel, and her range - in terms of both ability and attitude - set the tone for the record.

Outside of the standard four-piece instrumentation, the band employs a variety of other musical tools to add depth and complexity to their songs – keyboards, flutes, and synthesizers all make appearances throughout the album.

In the song “VII Babies” – my personal favorite – the chorus gives way to an instrumental breakdown consisting of an inspired flute solo played over an assortment of echoing tones and whistles, giving the number a rather jazzy quality. The drumming is tight throughout the record, and the guitar and bass are smoothly expressive, never taking over the tracks but striking an assertive balance within them.

One can envision the band performing in a low-ceilinged smoky club, crooning out subtly reflective music for their listeners (indoor smoking laws notwithstanding).

In an email interview with the band, I talked to them about their debut album, as well as Montreal’s music scene and how it has affected their work.

“Amongst the music community we’re a part of,” said Fleck, “it’s more important to create a

CULTURE BRIEFS What did you say to me?

You just read Doug Harris’ novel, You comma Idiot. When you began reading the story, you were very confused, as it is written in a second-person narrative. “Who is the author addressing?” you wondered. “Am I supposed to be the main character? Is the protagonist telling me the story?” You even went so far as to Google “second-person,” and look at a very suspect website that advertised “Power Novel” courses (if it can’t be written in under a day, it is definitely not great literature), and informed you that the second-person point of view was the most difficult to write, and that they did not recommend using it, especially for first-time writers.

Yet, there is Doug Harris- first-time Canadian novelist, who managed to write in the second-person quite successfully. Yes, you, should really read You comma Idiot. (You have decided to stop writing in second-person for the rest of this article, as you’re not sure how Doug Harris wanted to write this way for his entire novel because you’re so exasperated you want to throw your laptop across the library).

The press release for this novel used the descriptor words “quirky” and “gritty” and referred to the writing style as a mix of Nick Hornby (About a Boy) and Douglas Coupland (The Gum Thief ). I approached feeling deeply skeptical, as I’ve found that usually when something is described in a manner involving the words “eccentric” or “idiosyncratic”,

musical project which is an honest expression of the musicians themselves than hitting the right cultural markers.” This is evident throughout the record. It is not a certain demographic that the group seems to be directing their music toward, but their own set of ideals, treating the album as a space to flex their own creative muscles.

On the subject of interacting with the diversity of sounds found in Montreal, Fleck stated that, “some of us [members of the band] make music which sounds totally different from TOPS, but we all hang out and play with

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

Taking a listen to the debut album from TOPS

each other and if anything it gives us the confidence to try to make music which doesn’t sound like music that is currently being made by people around us.”

It is this combination of willingness to experiment, while also remaining true to their core values, that will hopefully allow TOPS to carve out a name for themselves in the crowded underground music - scene on both a local and national scale.

“It’s an exciting time for music,” quips Fleck, and Tender Opposites certainly proves it.

it means the novel is pretentious and pseudo-intellectual. I cracked open Harris’ work and, for the first fifty pages, I was slightly confused, but mostly irritated and unimpressed. To my surprise, by the time I reached one hundred pages, I was hooked. Lee Goodstone, You comma Idiot’s protagonist, is a drug-dealing slacker who also happens to be sleeping with his best friend’s girlfriend. Somehow his charm sneaks up on you. By the end of the novel, Lee felt like an old-friend, someone that I had run into again after a long time and spent the day reminiscing with.

Harris’s book is a surprisingly meaningful work. The author has managed to engage in a rare combination of wit and realism, creating a story in which the action of the plot is secondary to character development. You comma Idiot is mostly a really fun and engaging read, and a welcome break from all the other “eccentric” or “quirky” novels out there, overbearing in their attempts at literary greatness through offbeat realism.

—Victoria Lessard

Reviewing Intensive Care’s It Takes Time Intensive Care’s new release starts off with classic guitar riffs that fade into silence. Yet, seconds later, come electronic sounds It Takes Time the EP. Their new single “It Takes Time” on It Takes Time the EP sounds a lot like a Franz Ferdinand song, with a steady beat and gripping rhythm. In every one of their songs, the band manages to provide a broad range of sounds.

The Montreal-based band – composed of McGill alumni – is releasing a new album on March 22. The four members of the band got together five years ago, bringing together their

various Lebanese, American, and Canadian cultural backgrounds. Espace Emergence Records released their first album, Fairytales from the Island, in 2010. Their EP It Takes Time previews four tracks from their upcoming album.

Intensive Care manages to blend raw rock with electronic recording techniques, creating a sound best described as fuzzy vintage rock meets resonating electronic. Intensive Care’s first album, Fairytales from the Island, had a more orchestral feel, a background that seeped through in this EP. The songs manage to stay grounded while reigning in a feeling of epic grandeur through resonating vocals and echoing instrumental, leaving the listener with a feeling of controlled chaos. The range of sounds these musicians bring to their EP makes for refreshing music that breaks out of the mold.

The basic layout of the songs is lyrically simple, and most songs seem to repeat a few catch phrases to accompany to the instrumental flurry. Reverberating, U2-like vocals, echoing a few chosen syllables, are a lyrical staple.

The songs feel multi-layered and complex while still remaining catchy and easily appealing. If their shows are anything like their music, expect a healthy dose of variety. Dancing around for some songs, while quietly sipping a beer and reflecting during others – the evening is sure to offer something for everyone.

—Nathalie O’Neill

Intensive Care is ending its North American tour in Montreal with a special launch event at Casa Del Popolo on Thursday, March 22 with Technical Kidman and Golden Isles. Handmade EPs will be available for sale. The band is going on tour to promote the EP and showcase it to record labels, as the band remains unsigned for the moment.

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and Rob Ford in a clown suit

14

Welcome to The Daily’s McGill-based pop culture and current-events March Madness bracket. The series will run all month! Email compendium@mcgilldaily. com or tweet at @mcgilldaily with your picks or if you think you have better match-up ideas. All contestants subject to our comedic whims.

SSMU elections Student apathy

Samosas

Winner 3

Winner 1

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford

FINAL SHOWDOWN Winner 2

Margaret Atwood

Winner 4

Smart Burger

SSMU VP External Joël Pedneault Tuition hikes

STRIKE!!!

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford vs.

Margaret Atwood

A straiku

Rob Ford’s older brother, Doug, made some rather embarrassing Twitter comments about not knowing or caring who literary legend Margaret Atwood was last summer.

The mayor, wanting to avoid the year of the flood in Toronto’s popular support, put himself in the centre of the cat’s eye of Toronto’s cultural scene by dressing up in a clown suit for a local production of The Nutcracker.

The Daily believes Atwood is surfacing as the winner of this battle, considering Rob Ford had not yet won a Governor General’s prize for his poetry when The Daily went to press.

Grace is no alias for this lady oracle.

Congrats!

McGill, stop the hike.

Take direct fucking action, vote to go on strike

SEND US YOUR FUNNIES COMPENDIUM@ MCGILLDAILY.COM

RITE OF SPRING The Crossword Fairies The McGill Daily

Across

1. Scrapes (out) 5. Door handle 10. Egyptian cat goddess 14. Money transfer 15. Fertilization site 16. Bounce back, in a way 17. On the road 18. Idaho, e.g.

19. Stash 20. What Mick Jagger presumably can get 23. Garlicky mayonnaise 24. Obnoxious car sounds 25. Prayer leaders 28. ___ Mix 30. In ___ (harmonious) 31. Ruche 33. Bran source 36. Equivalent 40. Society of Automotive Engineers 41. Furious 42. Toy with a tail 43. Egg 44. Moon of Neptune 46. Madcap comedy 49. Far Eastern 51. Strong force, weak force, ___ force, gravity 57. Balsam resin 58. Writer Wharton

59. Fizzy drink 60. Uptight 61. Large musical group 62. Tabloid twosome 63. Naughty message 64. Shift, e.g.

65. Chop-chop

Down

1. Quaint outburst 2. Fuzzy fruit 3. “-zoic” things 4. Rice condiment 5. Numbers games 6. To no ___ (fruitlessly) 7. Rwandan people 8. Musical symbol 9. Juno’s Greek counterpart 10. Grant 11. Be part of the cast of 12. You ___ me all night long 13. Population agglomerations 21. Order between “ready” and “fire” 22. Task 25. Egyptian fertility goddess 26. Mimic bird 27. ___ meridiem 28. Coal site 29. .0000001 joule 31. Bogus

32. Pillbox, e.g.

33. Final notice 34. Choir section 35. Freshman, probably 37. Hole reinforcer 38. French vineyard 39. Impaired body movement 43. Supernatural 44. Stockings 45. Campaigned 46. Brine-cured cheeses 47. Single-handedly 48. Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit 49. Nitrogen compound 50. Fills 52. Cleave 53. Aroma 54. Little ones 55. Brainchild 56. Summer home away from home

The McGill Daily | Monday, March 12, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 101 number 36

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EDITORIAL

Vote to strike This Tuesday, March 13, McGill Arts undergraduate students will take an historic vote on whether to join the ongoing, province-wide unlimited general student strike in opposition to impending tuition hikes. These hikes will come to a total of $1,625 over the next five years, representing a 75 per cent increase in Quebec tuition fees. This increase will also harm out of province and international students, given that they pay Quebec tuition as a base fee in addition to an out of province or international supplement.

These hikes must be stopped. They will have a concrete and immediate effect on the accessibility of education in Quebec – despite government promises to increase funding to student aid, 83 per cent of students will have to pay the full amount of the hike without government assistance, according to the Institut de recherche et d’informations (IRIS).

History has proven that tuition increases lead many students away from post secondary education. Between 1992-1993, there was a 5 per cent decline in Quebec post secondary enrollment, following tuition hikes of $700 earlier that decade. Further, this increase will disproportionately affect already-marginalized groups. According to a Canadian Federation of Students report, visible minorities spend a greater percentage of their income on tuition than non-visible minorities, and are thus more affected by tuition hikes.

Furthermore, if these hikes are not stopped, they set a precedent for raising tuition even further. This has been the case earlier in Quebec’s history. During the early 1990s, Quebec tuition increased by more than 100 per cent. The government tried to raise tuition again in 1996 by 30 per cent, but rejected this plan because of a large scale student strike.

In order to halt this trend, it has become clear that students need to take direct action.

Since 2010, students have taken part in a number of actions against the hikes: there have been major demonstrations in Montreal and Quebec City, occupations and blockades of government buildings, letter-writing campaigns, banner drops, and an over-200,000 strong symbolic student strike on November 10. Students have asked the government – time and time again – to reconsider their decision and stop the hikes, but the government has refused to listen.

It is now time to use the tool of an unlimited general strike. It’s the only recourse students have left to make the Charest government pay attention to our demands. Unlike previously-used tactics, it would give students real leverage in their fight for accessible education, since it puts economic pressure on Quebec.

A prolonged strike will be a financial burden for some McGill students. While not a perfect solution, SSMU’s Strike Solidarity Fund will provide some assistance to the students who will be hardest hit. However, in the face of this difficulty, it must be remembered that the actions we take now are to prevent a much greater financial burden from affecting generations of future students. Additionally, some student associations have been on strike since February 13, while others are now entering their second or third weeks of striking. They are facing strike-related financial difficulties and have persevered in spite of them. It’s time for McGill to join these students and stand in solidarity with their struggle.

Going on unlimited general student strike is a chance for McGill to take an active part in the larger student movement and band together with the more than 170,000 students in Quebec who are already on strike or who have a strike mandate. This group includes the Concordia Student Union, which represents 30,000 undergraduates, who voted last week to begin striking on Thursday. In addition, multiple student associations – including the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society and the PGSS – have declared limited strikes on and around March 22, a provincial Day of Action.

Historically, McGill has not played a major role in the Quebec student movement – we’ve never gone on an unlimited general strike and rarely have had a significant presence at demonstrations or other actions. This political indifference needs to change. McGill should break this tradition of apathy and join the student movement in an unprecedented way. AUS students can start by attending the General Assembly on March 13 and voting ‘yes’ to go an unlimited general student strike.

Editor’s Note Below you can find The Daily’s endorsements for the Winter 2012 Referendum. You can vote online at https://ovs.ssmu.mcgill.ca/. You’ve got till 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Dépêchez-vous.

1. Question Regarding the Composition of Council. Vote ‘yes’. As cool as Architecture is, they don’t need a rep to EUS and to SSMU. 2. Addition of an Interfaculty Arts and Science Representative on the SSMU Legislative Council. Vote ‘yes’. Someone’s gotta be repping Arts and Science on SSMU Council. Plus, 98 per cent of Arts and Science students want someone representing them on the Council..

3. Question Regarding Reform of the Judicial Board to comply with Quebec Law. Vote ‘yes’.

The J-board doesn’t need another legal encore. They shouldn’t be the highest governing body, rather, they should be reporting to the SSMU Board of Directors.

4. Question Regarding Judicial Board Procedural Accountability. Vote ‘yes’. Keep the J-board’s procedures public. Peeps gotta know what’s happening with all campus governing bodies.

5. Question Regarding the SSMU Health and Dental Plan. Vote ‘yes’. SSMU Health and Dental fee has gotta go up. Gotta get your cavities drilled, and that cost is going up.

6. Question Regarding CKUT Opt-Out. Vote ‘yes’. Again, don’t let opt-outs kill the radio star.

CKUT can’t operate without paying various fixed costs. Opt-outs make CKUT way less awesome. (Full disclosure, The Daily collaborates on a podcast with CKUT, Unfit to Print.)

7. Question Regarding Composition of the Judicial Board. Vote ‘yes’. The J-board needs nonlawyers too. All J-board members go through one intense selection process. And, still, the majority of J-Board members would be third or fourth year Law students.

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Daily Publications Society’s

JOURNALISM WEEK 2012

LA SEMAINE DU JOURNALISME ÉTUDIANT 2012

5 1 H C R A M Y A D S R U H T O T 2 1 H C R A M Y A D N O M Monday

Tuesday

ARTS&FASHION JOURNALISM PANEL: LOLITTA DABOY, JOURNALIST, BLOGGER, AND CONSULTANT FOR FASHIONISEVERYWHERE.COM AND CLINDOEIL.CA, AMONG OTHERS TODD PLUMMER, VOGUE INTERN SSMU BUILDING, LEV BUKHMAN ROOM 11:30 A.M. TO 12:30 P.M.

STORIES FROM THE FRONTLINES: THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY HONDURAN JOURNALIST FELIX MOLINA, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE OF MONTREAL TROTTIER BUILDING, ROOM 1090 3:00 P.M. TO 5:00 P.M.

Wednesday PANEL DISCUSSION: MIKE FINNERTY, CBC DAYBREAK ELLIE MARSHALL, TVM – STUDENT TELEVISION AT MCGILL GRETCHEN KING, CKUT DOMINIQUE JARRY-SHORE, RÉDACTRICE EN CHEF, MONTRÉAL – OPENFILE REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED. LEACOCK BUILDING, ROOM 232 6:00 P.M. TO 8:00 P.M. TVM – STUDENT TELEVISION AT MCGILL WORKSHOP: EDITING SSMU BUILDING, TVM OFFICE, B-23 4:30 P.M.

TVM – STUDENT TELEVISION AT MCGILL WORKSHOP: CAMERAS SSMU BUILDING, TVM OFFICE, B-23 4:30 P.M.

Thursday KEYNOTE: LE JOURNALISME D’ENQUÊTE ALAIN GRAVEL, JOURNALISTE D’ENQUÊTE QUÉBÉCOIS ET ANIMATEUR DE L’ÉMISSION ENQUÊTE, DIFFUSÉ SUR RADIO-CANADA WHISPER TRANSLATION AVAILABLE ARTS BUILDING, ROOM W-120 6:00 P.M. TO 8:00 P.M. WINE AND CHEESE RECEPTION THOMPSON HOUSE BALLROOM 8:00 P.M. TO 10 P.M.

le délit