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Volume 101, Issue 5

September 19, 2011 mcgilldaily.com

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The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

3

Hundreds rally with MUNACA workers Demonstration on McGill College attracts Quebec politicians Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

L

ast Friday, around fifty McGill students and faculty joined a rally of hundreds of unionized Quebec workers on McGill College, a few feet from Roddick Gates.

Some of the students staged a walkout from classes before gathering in front of the Shatner building and marching across campus, through the Leacock and Arts buildings, and down through Roddick Gates to join the rally. The walkout and campus march were organized

by McGill’s Mobilization Committee (Mob Squad).

The rally, marked by speeches from representatives from various McGill and provincial unions, was held in support of the ongoing strike of the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA). The union represents more than 1,700 workers, including library staff, lab technicians, and registration staff.

MUNACA president Kevin Whittaker said he was “amazed” by the show of support.

“I’m overwhelmed – very happy to see the people out here [and] the support that we’re receiving. It has been a great day,” he said.

McGill has been negotiating with the union since January, and MUNACA has not budged on demands for what they consider to be working conditions comparable to those at other Quebec universities.

“We are not going anywhere until this University understands that

they need us. We deserve better. We deserve what all the other universities have, and we will be here until we get that,” said Whittaker addressing the crowd at the rally.

To date, negotiations are scheduled to continue until October 26.

MUNACA members at the rally admitted to being worn down by the lengthening strike.

Ann Jack, who has been working at McGill for 21 years – the last six as an undergraduate secretary for the School of Computer Science – said she felt “rejuvenated” by the rally.

“I feel like there’s hope.

Everyone’s here,” Jack said. “I was a little naive. I thought [the strike] wouldn’t go beyond a week. We’re now two weeks and I don’t know if we’re further ahead. We’re tired; physically tired, spiritually tired, but once you get here and you start that picket line, you sort of get motivated again,” she continued.

Federal and provincial politicians show solidarity The rally was punctuated by speeches from senior Quebec politicians Thomas Mulcair, NDP MP for Outremont, and Amir Khadir, Québec Solidaire (QS) member of the National Assembly of Quebec for Mercier riding with QS spokesperson Françoise David.

Mulcair, who graduated from McGill in 1977 with degrees in common and civil law, is scheduled to deliver the closing address at a conference at McGill on September 23. He told The Daily he plans to inform the University

he will not cross picket lines to attend the conference.

“I did my two degrees at McGill.

I know how important the workers are to our student life. They deserve to be treated fairly,” he said in an interview with The Daily.

Khadir and David addressed the crowd together.

“I implore the direction of the University to treat their employees with respect with good faith and go back to the table of negotiations and consider the fact that the services to the students are given by these [workers],” Khadir said in an interview with The Daily. “They have to be respected – they have to have a dignified job.”

McGill unions unite in common struggle Other campus unions are currently negotiating collective agreements with McGill: the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE) and Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM). The Association of McGill University Research Employees (AMURE) is preparing to enter their first bargaining process. All three unions have released statements supporting MUNACA. AGSEM President Lerona Lewis spoke at the rally before joining the TA bargaining committee to meet with McGill concerning the ongoing negotiations for the TAs’ new contract that afternoon.

As Lewis left the rally, she spoke to The Daily about her take on the event.

“I think it’s really impressive, and it shows that the McGill community

Lindsay Cameron | The McGill Daily

McGill College was blocked off for the rally. really cares about what workers are getting from the administration,” she said. “It’s about one McGill.”

Campus connections Both SSMU and the McGill PostGraduate Student Society (PGSS) have passed motions supporting the union. However, some students were underwhelmed by the student presence at the rally.

Lauren Pearce, a U3 Religious Studies student, said she “did expect it to be bigger, but I’m happy we’re here.”

U3 Art History student Sinead Petrasek walked out of her class along with several other students.

She said that “more students should be aware and should support the MUNACA strike.”

The rally was also the first to feature the vocal support of the new McGill Faculty Labour Association Group (MFLAG). English professor Alanna Thain and East Asian Studies assistant professor Adrienne Hurley

spoke at the rally.

“Every day the cracks in the University are getting larger. Every day we arrive to notices of more services cut,” said Thain.

A group of McGill Law students also attested to the effect the strike was having on University operations. Amanda Gibeault, a U2 Law student, said many of their faculty’s services were dependent on direct contact with MUNACA workers.

“It’s been putting a lot of people in the very difficult position of not being able to meet the academic expectations of professors,” she said.

The same day as the rally, the University posted an announcement titled: “MUNACA strike and impact on Faculty of Law activities.” The announcement states that, despite the strike, classes and other Faculty events are proceeding as scheduled.

– With files from Erin Hudson and Michael Lee-Murphy

SSMU Council officially supports striking non-academic workers VP Finance Patel announces the search for new tenants in the SSMU cafeteria Kallee Lins and Juan Camilo Velasquez The McGill Daily

T

he largest undergraduate student decision-making body at McGill, the SSMU Legislative Council, met officially for the first time last Thursday night, September 15th.

The Council’s first heavily-debated motion of the night was a resolution to support workers of the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA). Authored by Education representative and former Daily Design and Production Editor Kady Paterson and Arts representative Jamie Burnett, the Council considered several amendments that brought into question the degree to which SSMU would explicitly favour MUNACA over the McGill administration.

The motion was passed with a large majority – with two dissenting votes, and one abstention – with

the spirit of the original resolution remaining in tact. The resolution states that “SSMU supports a speedy resolution to the current labour dispute between MUNACA and the McGill administration insofar as it favours MUNACA.” An announcement from SSMU VP Finance and Operations Shyam Patel made public that, after the current contract expires in May 31, 2012, new tenants would be occupying the second floor cafeteria of the SSMU building.

Currently, the space in the second floor cafeteria is occupied by subtenants of franchiser MTY Group, Cultures, Tiki-Ming, and Franx Supreme. The subtenants have no role in defining or negotiating the contract between SSMU and MTY. In his announcement, Patel spoke to the process of negotiating with MTY. “We will not be working with this group, because in the negotiations with the group there was com-

munications where the MTY group was not responsive,” he said. “Our [SSMU’s] general manager tried very hard to communicate, negotiate, and compromise, but they were not as receptive.”

Negotiations broke off over the summer when MTY failed to continue contact with SSMU or SSMU’s lawyer. SSMU is contractually obliged to negotiate exclusively with MTY. “It is unfortunate that [the subtenants] are going to go through it this way,” stated Patel. The subtenants will vacate the space as soon as SSMU’s contract with MTY expires on next spring.

During the summer, the SSMU executive conducted a non-binding call for businesses interested in occupying the space. In reference to the negotiation process with new prospective tenants, Patel said, “We want to make it as public as possible.” He called for students to speak with him personally or attend the second Legislative Council to learn more

about the process of selecting tenants.

He also noted that SSMU plans to work with the new tenants to encourage hiring student workers. Patel announced some of the groups that had expressed interest in working with SSMU to occupy the space over the summer.

“The groups that we contacted include but are not limited to: Burritoville, Lola Rosa, the Green Panther, Crudessence, and La TribuTerre,” he said.

Patel added that SSMU is trying to reach out to small businesses that are student-oriented. “[SSMU wants] to introduce things that we care for, like sustainability, local purchasing and equity,” he said.

The negotiations will be conducted independently with each individual business on the basis of one contract for each tenant.

Guest speakers included Jonathan Mooney, PhD Chemistry student and representative from the Association of Graduate Students

Employed at McGill (AGSEM).

Mooney addressed the Council on the subject of AGSEM’s on-going negotiations with McGill and the nature of their demands.

“Our two priorities are to increase the number of TA hours and ensure that TAs receive proper training,” said Mooney. He added that “undergraduates complain that they don’t get enough attention from their TAs, and we believe that is a great concern for the quality of education here at McGill.”

AGSEM is also seeking to obtain a 3 per cent wage increase, and for the University to commit to provide paid training to first-time TAs. Additional motions included the name change of the former McGill First Aid Service and ratifying a three-year agreement to include PGSS members in the operations of SSMU. In exchange for comprehensive inclusion in all of SSMU’s operations, PGSS will pay annual fees to SSMU.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

5

MUNACA strike 2011

Caught in the “crossfire” How the strike threatens professors’ salaries, casual workers and course lecturers Michael Lee-Murphy The McGill Daily

A

s the McGill non-academic employees strike enters its third week, battle lines have been drawn and the two sides have dug in. Recent developments have seen professors and student workers caught in the “crossfire,” in the words of one union official.

After the McGill University NonAcademic Certified Association (MUNACA) began its strike at 6 a.m. on the first day of classes, Michelle Hartman, an associate professor in the Department of Islamic Studies, cancelled the first session of her first-year seminar.

“I spent a couple of days thinking about it...I did not want to cross the picket line for reasons of moral conscious and political solidarity. But I also feel a really strong moral conscience to teach my students,” she said.

Hartman decided to teach the class off-campus. She taught two seminars off-campus – one at a cafe, and one at her home. The decision was a “compromise,” she said, between two separate duties: to worker solidarity, and to her students.

Christopher Manfredi, Dean of Arts, contacted Hartman soon afterwards through the chair of the Islamic Studies department. After Hartman confirmed that she was teaching off-campus, Manfredi sent a message saying that the practice would not be tolerated, and that, if she continued, Hartman’s salary would be in question.

In an email to The Daily, Manfredi cited a McGill policy document saying that, during a strike, McGill academic staff who do not perform their academic

“duties” will not be paid.

Manfredi said that his office had received complaints about students having to take a bus to class, and missing other classes because of the commute.

“If the dictates of a professor’s conscience are so compelling that they cannot cross a picket line, then he or she should be willing to make the same sacrifice as non-academic staff members in the same situation,” Manfredi wrote.

Non-academic staff who refuse to cross picket lines are not paid for work that they miss by respecting the line.

Calvin Normore, a professor in the Philosophy department, said that of the ten universities he has taught at, McGill is the first place where the act of “holding your classes off-campus has been regarded as…dereliction of duty.’”

Derek Nystrom – a professor in the English department and member of the McGill Faculty Labour Action Group – wrote in an email to The Daily, “This isn’t about ensuring that classes happen on campus because that is in the best interest of students; it is instead an effort to enforce an imagined ‘business as usual’ environment on a campus where it is not business as usual, where it cannot be business as usual, because essential members of the University community are not at work, because the administration refuses to recognize their true worth to the University.”

In the wake of Manfredi’s directive last week, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson has retracted a statement published in the Daily on September 8, in which he said that professors who opted to teach off-campus would be tolerated. Mendelson apologized, and said that he “spoke out of turn.”

Allegations of scab labour Government inspectors have been investigating MUNACA’s complaints of scab labor on both the downtown and Macdonald campuses, according to a report in the Montreal Gazette.

According to a McGill Residences employee, who asked not to be named, casual student employees have been used to do the work of striking MUNACA members throughout McGill’s residence system, which would be illegal under the Quebec Labour Code.

The University denied the use of scab labour in a Thursday, September 15th email to students, saying that the Labour Code allows for “certain managers” to do the work of strikers.

Farid Attar, president of the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE), the union that represents casual workers at McGill, encouraged his members to report scab labour to the union, which is forwarding such complaints to MUNACA leadership.

Jaime Maclean, vice-president of AMUSE and a casual employee at Carrefour Sherbrooke, said that she was asked to fill in for a striking worker. She declined. Management has since denied her hours, she said.

“Since I told them that I wasn’t comfortable working for a MUNACA employee, I haven’t gotten my regular shifts that I normally would be working,” Maclean claimed.

Attar added that sometimes the union doesn’t have a clear legal basis for defining scab work. Casual workers often lack job descriptions, so the administration can get around the legal definition of scabs when they use AMUSE members to fill in for strikers. “Because of the divisive way which McGill has arranged labour...

they could be molded to whatever the administration wants,” Attar said.

Furthermore, Attar said that many of the demands MUNACA is making are similar to those of AMUSE, which is currently in bargaining sessions with McGill after being certified last year.

Course lecturer contract ended Angela Ngaira, a MUNACA member and former course lecturer, had her teaching contract terminated because of the strike.

Ngaira worked in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies as a thesis and graduation administrator, and was slated to teach a 400-level Swahili course in the African Studies department this fall.

After considering legal action, Ngaira reached an agreement with McGill that will see her paid 20 per cent of what her salary would have been for teaching the class. McGill also sent her a letter apologizing for her “last-minute termination.”

In terminating Ngaira’s contract, McGill cited an area of the Quebec Labour Code, which states that employers cannot utilize “the services of an employee who is a member of the bargaining unit then on strike.”

Officials from the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill, the union that represents course lecturers, teaching assistants, and invigilators, said that the area of the Labour Code is intended to prevent the use of strike breakers, and that McGill is the only employer they know of to use such an interpretation.

Ngaira is still on the picket line for MUNACA, but says that the issue of her course lecturer contract was “handled well” by the administration.

Union negotiations moved off-campus Queen Arsem-O'Malley The McGill Daily

D

espite the ongoing strike by the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA), negotiations have continued between the University and other campus unions.

Previous to the strike, the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE) held negotiations with the University in the McGill Human Resources offices at 688 Sherbrooke.

Since MUNACA commenced striking, AMUSE has decided to change their negotiation locations.

AMUSE Labour Relations Officer Dave Howden explained that, “Unions outside of the University sector usually negotiate in a more neutral setting, like a hotel,” rather than at one of the parties’ offices.

“As members of unions, we won’t cross picket lines; that has always been and will always be our policy,” said Howden.

“It was unclear whether 688 Sherbrooke would be picketed, and we asked McGill to move to other premises for that reason and they seemed to think it wasn’t an issue.

On the day of bargaining there was a picket line, and we didn’t cross,” Howden continued.

The next date set for AMUSE negotiations is September 20; they will be held at a law firm that McGill keeps on retainer at 1000 De La Gauchetière Ouest. The two sides have been negotiating the union’s first ever collective agreement since March.

The Association for Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) has two bargaining units – teaching assistants (TAs) and invigilators – currently negotiating

with the University.

“Invigilators’ [negotiations] happen off-campus, TAs’ happen oncampus, at 688 Sherbrooke,” said AGSEM president Lerona Lewis.

Lewis said that AGSEM consulted with MUNACA as to whether the union would rather that AGSEM find an alternate location, but found that MUNACA had no objections.

However, AGSEM has decided to hold their general meetings offcampus while MUNACA is on strike.

“The course lecturers’ general assembly will be at [l’Université du Québec à Montréal] next week, out of respect, because [MUNACA] said they would prefer if we didn’t have them on campus,” Lewis said.

According to VP External Joël Pedneault, when SSMU negotiates their Memorandum of Agreement with McGill, they negotiate either in SSMU offices or in James Administration.

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

AGSEM consulted with MUNACA before moving meetings.

Pedneault said that the location of negotiations had not been an issue, and that SSMU has never had to cross picket lines to reach their negotiations.

AMUSE and AGSEM, with

MUNACA, are three members of the McGill Inter-union Council.

AGSEM representatives said that the Council meets off-campus, currently at MUNACA’s temporary offices on Drummond and de Maisonneuve.

6 News Plateau-Mont-Royal fights for parking meter revenues

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

William Manning News Writer

O

ver the last few weeks, debate has heated up between the merchants of the Plateau-Mont-Royal, the borough administration headed by mayor Luc Ferrandez, and the City of Montreal over revenues from newly-installed parking meters.

Projet Montréal, which controls every seat on the Plateau borough council, announced the 2011 Parking Action Plan last October, which detailed the implementation of 600 parking meters and the standardization of parking meter rates to $3 per hour.

The Plateau borough administration claims that the City altered a revenue-sharing formula negotiated in December 2010, leaving the borough with a smaller portion of revenue from the parking meters than they had anticipated.

The City has argued that it has complied with December 2010 agreement, and that it has no cash to spare any boroughs as it oversees $250 million in budget cuts.

Ferrandez requested in a letter to Mayor Tremblay that the city compensate the Plateau borough with a cash advance of $2 million for the hole in their budget.

The request was rejected by Michael Applebaum, president of Montreal’s executive committee.

First meeting of the Commission on Francophone Affairs (CAF) Thursday, September 22, 4:30 p.m.

SSMU office boardroom (first floor of the Shatner building) If you are interested in learning more about French language and culture, or want to practise your French, the Commission on Francophone Affairs (Commission des affaires francophones - CAF) is here to help! To organize or participate in one of these activities, and to share your ideas, join us at our first meeting.

Parking costs in Plateau area were raised to three dollars an hour.

Applebaum could not be reached for comment at the time The Daily went to press.

In his letter, Ferrandez argued that if the City did not compensate the borough for the shortfall in parking meter revenue, the borough would have to impose a special tax – $60 for homeowners and $300 for businesses – something he explained would be damaging

for the small businesses that have already suffered financially this year.

The Montreal Gazette has referred to such a tax as “the ruling municipal party’s anti-business policy,” favouring residents of the Plateau at the expense of businesses in the area.

A sales representative of Kif-Kif Imports, a Mont Royal furniture store, told The Daily that the effect of such a

Matthias Heilke | The McGill Daily

tax would cost them “dearly.”

According to Plateau borough councillor Piper Huggins, the agreement with the City was “an agreement in black and white.”

Huggins explained that the Plateau’s crusade for funding was an issue of borough rights. “We’re fighting for the rights of all boroughs to have this agreement honoured,” she said.

Lower field pow-wow concludes Aboriginal Awareness Week Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

A

fter a full week of events running from September 12 to 15, McGill University’s

What’s the haps

Local businesses could be made victims in municipal budget battle

Convergence Launch and C.U.R.E. Wednesday, September 21, 5 p.m.

– 7 p.m.

QPIRG Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, #204 The second edition of the Convergence Undergraduate Journal will be launched featuring the CommunityUniversity Research Exchange (CURE) and Study in Action papers from previous years.

Stop by for free food and drinks and a chance to learn more about CURE.

first Aboriginal Awareness Week concluded with the tenth Annual Pow Wow on lower field.

This is the first year that the annual Pow Wow, a celebration aimed to showcase the talents and work of indigenous commu-

nities, was prefaced with a week of related events. Some of these events included a stone-carving workshop, rhythm nights, various lectures, spoken word performances, and a number of panel discussions.

Aboriginal community members participated in the pow-wow on lower field.

Sergey Tsynkevych for The McGill Daily

The week was a joint effort between McGill’s First Peoples’ House and the Aboriginal Sustainability Project, and was designed to heighten awareness and promote understanding of Aboriginal issues on campus.

McGill-based groups such as K ANATA, a student-run association and journal that aims to encourage awareness and education on indigenous issues and culture, actively participated in the week’s events.

Pamela Fillion, primary advisor and one of the co-founders of K ANATA, explained, “What this has really done is to bring different groups on campus and in the community to really work together, to work on our common goals of which there are many.”

The week was a enormous success, according to Kakwiranó:ron Cook, the aboriginal community outreach coordinator at the First People’s House at McGill.

The First People’s House plans to follow up Aboriginal Awareness Week with events throughout the year intended to raise awareness and promote education on Aboriginal culture and issues.

9th annual Mile End Legal Clinic Roundtable Wednesday, September 21, 5 p.m.

– 7 p.m.

Church of St. Michel and St. Anthony (105 St. Viateur at St. Urbain) The annual Mile End Legal Clinic 5 à 7 is back! Come meet the volunteers & community that help support MELC at this yearʼs annual 5 à 7. There will be a panel discussion at 6 p.m. with Isabel Schurman Ad. E., Nadia Rousseau, and others who will share their experience and commitment to improving access to justice.

McGill Sustainability Fair Friday, September 23, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Tent on lower campus McGill’s tenth annual “Rethink” conference will take place in the morning. This traditionally aims to provide the community with information on environmental initiatives across campus. It’s also an opportunity to provide suggestions on environmental projects that will be addressed with presentations by McGill faculty, students and staff.

Launch of Ecolibrium Radio Residency Tuesday, September 27, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Airing on CKUT 90.3 FM or online at ckut.ca A CKUT project that aims to empower environmental groups at McGill by producing radio aimed at raising awareness about the future of the planet. Dubbed the Ecolibrium Radio Residency, it is designed to equip campusbased environmental activists with technical skills in audio production, so they can amplify their message on the radio and across the globe through Internet podcasts. The pilot show is produced by Climate Justice Montreal.

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

9

Are you down to riot, bro?

The dark pleasure of rioting Hyde Park

A

s a Vancouverite who found himself in the middle of the Stanley Cup mayhem, I would like to offer the following observations on why people riot.

First, the riots had nothing to do with hockey. Admittedly, anger, frustration, and even hatred surged throughout the city after the tragic loss. Belligerent behaviour was expected. As noted by various sociologists, however, these effects alone do not spark riots. Instead, riots break out when a team is beaten suddenly, dramatically, after a long stretch of being neck and neck with its opponent (imagine a second overtime loss).

The defeat comes as such a devastating blow that the city’s fans cannot accept the game’s tragic outcome – violence and destruction ensue. This was not the case on Game 7. Boston, Vancouver’s opponent in the series, dominated Vancouver from beginning to end.

Half-way through the third period, it was apparent that the cup was not west coast-bound. The massive TV screens set up downtown had to compete for attention with the spectacle of random people climbing street poles.

Hockey was not the cause of the riots – it just provided the ideal excuse and the perfect set of circumstances (thousands of rowdy people clustered downtown).

Why riot then? Probably because rioting feels pretty fucking good. Life will afford you few opportunities to take a crude object and smash it through the window of a bustling downtown shop. Or to trash a police car and watch as it becomes engulfed in flames and burns and blackens. Or roam the downtown core feeling euphoric, invincible as you relish

in the anarchy and destruction filling the streets. There is no denying the carnivalesque atmosphere of a riot. There is a certain heightened sense of consciousness – every trivial decision, be it which street to walk down or whom to walk beside, is loaded with raw, primal excitement. Anything can happen. It’s an unbelievably powerful adrenaline rush, a consuming feeling of megalomania.

Is such an attitude socially responsible? Absolutely not. Does it take into account appalling damages to businesses or human injury? Most definitely not. It disregards the rule of law, disrespects the police, and throws away civic pride. My purpose, however, is not to moralize, but to try and shed light on the darker side of human behaviour. As of the time this article was written, no one had yet been charged in connection with the riots.

It is this once-in-a-lifetime, nopunishments-attached aspect of a riot that makes it so appealing and inviting: the chance to transcend the boundaries of social norms and temporarily indulge in destruction while still enjoying the privileges of anonymity.

One of the most striking aspects of the Stanley Cup riots was the amount of showboating that took place. The number of kids, some no older than nine or ten years old, posing in front of burning cars.

Looters on public transportation clutching handbags and purses (price tag still intact), bragging to anyone within earshot about how they “acquired” designer goods.

And others, perhaps more shamelessly, boasting on Facebook about how they were roughed up SWAT police or got a new wardrobe courtesy of The Bay. It would not surprise me if some of them vandalized X or attacked Y, merely because it would make a

Ian Murphy | The McGill Daily

Alvin Chauhan

good story to tell. “My name is Joe Blow. I was in Vancouver when the riots went down. And, boy, did I fuck shit up. As a matter of fact....”

But just a second – aren’t we the peaceful, polite, picturesque Canadian city? How could such an atrocity take place on our soil? If nothing else, the riots should demonstrate that violence and destructive behaviour are natural human

qualities. They can be committed by any person, found in any city, especially among groups of aggressive young men who are either disenchanted with life or simply looking to blow off a little steam.

Reputations, when given to cities comprising hundreds of thousands if not millions of people are superficial and cannot be expected to hold up. I have experienced tre-

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mendous acts of kindness here in tourist-hostile Montreal, and acts of shocking rudeness back in o’-sofriendly Vancouver.

It would appear that new things are in store for Canada’s “no fun city.”

Alvin Chauhan is a U1 economics major. He can be reached at alvin. chauhan@mail.mcgill.ca.

Reader’s advocate (RA) A twice-monthly column that weighs students’ concerns against the RA’s own assessment of The Daily’s performance. Possible tasks include reader surveys and interviews, thematic columns on events covered in the paper, critiques of how The Daily lives up to its principles, and judging of the relevance of the SoP and The Daily to the student body.

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

10

EXBAN-ding the truth behind the breaking of bonds Decreasing belief in the ‘magic exothermic bond’ Kelsi Lix

Science+Technology Writer

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he field of physical chemistry is largely driven by energy: it investigates the question of where it comes from and where it goes. Fundamental physical chemistry concepts play a crucial role in many fields of science, especially biology. The formation and breakage of the chemical bonds between atoms in biological systems are at the crux of most of life’s basic functions.

Despite this, the majority of students who have not taken physical chemistry courses share a common, erroneous belief: that the breaking of bonds is an exothermic process. The myth of the ‘magic bond’ – one which produces energy spontaneously when broken – is one that a group of McGill professors have been struggling to dispel for many years. EXBAN, the Exothermic Bond Breaking Abolition Network, aims to increase awareness about this frequently misunderstood process. The group believes that overly simplified textbooks and the misleading phrasing are major contributors to students’ struggles with the concept. Any student who has ever read a basic biochemistry textbook will find abundant mentions of “energy-rich bonds,” bonds which “release free energy when broken,” and energy “liberated with the breaking of bonds.” It is not surprising, then, that many students think that when a bond is broken, energy is magically released. While it is true that the overall reaction may release energy; the initial bond breakage requires an energy input. It is the formation of the bonds in the product molecules which actually release energy. When this released energy is greater than the energy input there will be an overall release of energy – this is what is known as an exothermic reaction.

Dr. William Galley, a professor of chemistry at McGill, began to notice that many students believed this common misconception shortly after his arrival at the university in the 1970s.

After noticing that a significant number of students misunderstood bond breakage year after year, he began to employ a questionnaire in his introductory physical chemistry courses to better understand where the confusion was coming from. He found that students from various backgrounds, including those who had studied general chemistry at McGill and those who had studied it at a CÉGEP, believed in this ‘magic bond.’ In 2003,

Professor William Galley is a founding member of EXBAN. Galley joined forces with Dr. Christian Hardtke – a former McGill biology professor – who, at the time, taught introductory molecular biology courses. Hardtke began to devote about thirty minutes of his class to explaining the true nature of reaction energetics. Since then, Galley noticed that the number of students who believed in the exothermic bond started to decrease. However, when Hardtke left McGill several years later, Galley found himself back at square one.

Galley continues to believe that students need to understand the chemistry behind how life, and energy, works in order to be competent in their future careers in science. He asserts that students need to have a firm grasp on fundamental concepts before they can learn

more advanced material.

In order to bring awareness to his cause, Galley has presented about the misconception of bond breakage at Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) conferences, encouraging professors to correct this mistake.

He has also written about it in the Journal of Chemical Education, a widely-read publication among those who teach chemistry.

Galley believes that educators are largely to blame for the students’ misunderstandings in this area. One instructor who perpetuates the myth can affect hundreds or even thousands of students, who then must relearn a fundamental concept in a later class. And those students who don’t learn the true nature of bond breakage instead learn to rely on over-

Jenny Lu | The McGill Daily

ly simplified books instead of their own critical analysis of the concept.

Many introductory biology and chemistry textbooks compress reaction energetics to the point where the idea of exothermic bond breakage is strongly implied, if not stated outright. In glossing over the topic, these books mislead students. This isn’t a unique phenomenon: after all, in middle school students mistakenly believe that electrons travel in concentric circular orbits, and that only compounds containing hydroxyl groups can be bases. These instances of simplifying complex concepts can help students better grasp new ideas, with the assumption that these erroneous notions will later be corrected.

But in the case of the exothermic bond, students aren’t purposely

misled with the purpose of helping them understand fundamental ideas.

Rather, the concept is treated as unimportant and no efforts are made to further educate students on the truth behind bond breaking. Full explanations of reaction energetics are missing from almost every introductory biochemistry textbook, and instead, ambiguous colloquial phrases such as “energy-rich bonds” are used in place of the truth. Further biology courses aren’t likely to spend time explaining endothermic bond breaking, so students will continue to believe in the ‘magic bond’ unless they take higherlevel chemistry courses.

For those who do not further their studies in cell biology, or biochemistry these simplified ideas may suffice. But biochemistry is a subject that is meant to incorporate biology and chemistry. There is nothing wrong with simplifying complex subjects to make them more accessible, but doing so without making mention of the possibility that there may be more to the subject matter does a disservice to students who are actually interested in this subject.

The reaction energetics of biological processes cannot be fully understood without recognizing that bond breaking is endothermic. The energy flow within a cell is determined by a series of chemical reactions, and our cells’ ability to break down and form molecules depends on the sources of energy in metabolic pathways.

Reaction energetics may remain an insignificant detail to some students but others in introductory science classes may go on to become doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and pharmacologists. One could ask: how can they understand how to fight disease if they don’t understand how the body works at a basic level?

Fortunately, though, most students have been very receptive to EXBAN. There are several student testimonials on the group’s website, many of which thank the group for encouraging them to think critically about what they learn.

Instructors and students alike can learn more about the energy changes associated with bond breakage at the EXBAN website (http:// exban-group.mcgill.ca). The hope is that instructors will see the page and make an effort to harmonize what is taught in lower level classes with what students are expected to know in their physical chemistry courses and beyond. Just like bonds themselves, the myth of the ‘magical exothermic bond’ will require more energy before it can be broken.

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

EAST

Photo Essay

11

The charms of Canada’s east coast.

—Lorraine Chuen

Ed na by ns at i o s tr illu A ll

The oil patch and the ivory tower

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12 Features

A science student explores her mixed feelings about corporate research

Shannon Palus

The McGill Daily

O

n May 3, 2010, just two weeks after being elected to the editorial board of this newspaper, I began working at the WOW Lab: a joint science and education research and design project that develops biology, physics, math, and chemistry projects for use by K-12 teachers in their classrooms to teach science in an interesting, engaging way. The goal of the project is to make science education in Canada better, to encourage students to be curious, inventive, and to ask questions. Sometime in those first few weeks, I found a Daily news article tucked in a folder in the lab: the headline read “Imperial Oil Pledges $800,000 to McGill project.”―The project in question was the WOW Lab. The article ran with a photo captioned, “Should McGill accept money from a climate change denier?”

The WOW Lab officially kicked off on September 17, 2007. The Imperial Oil Foundation founded the lab as a gift, an $800,000 gift, which is still the sum total of the lab’s funding. Everything from the orange paint on the walls of our room in the Education building, to the flatscreen TV and the bookshelves that it sits on, to the hauls of PVC piping and glitter paint, to, most expensively, the above-minimum wage paid team of McGill students:―it’s all paid for by IOF. When I tell my radical journalist friends that I pay my rent with Imperial Oil money, they arch an eyebrow. I told a chemical engineer friend where my money comes from, and she said, “I’m hoping to get an internship at Imperial Oil this summer.”

The money for the project comes in the form of a commission, and it comes attached to a few, very flimsy, strings.

The lab is a five-year project, and should produce at least 15 “blueprints” for science lesson plans. There is a fulltime manager dedicated exclusively to the project – Maggie Weller, my boss. Weller sends the IOF yearly updates, and they send back two thumbs up. They don’t stick their fingers into our work.

WOW Lab was founded by former McGill professor, and

science popularizer, Brian Alters. A California native, Alters is an avid Disney fan –―he refers to the student researchers as “imagineers,” and the WOW acronym stands for “Winners of Wonderment.” His method of teaching is over the top: he once taught a lesson to a roomful of elementary students on buoyancy by suiting up in scuba gear, diving into a tank, and having the students predict how much air was required to make him float―a large balloon, a small balloon, or a medium balloon. When critiquing our project ideas, Weller, in this light, often delivers the line, “can you make that more ‘wow?’”

Still, I had some reservations about taking Imperial Oil’s money. “At least it’s not BP, right?” I said to Weller, after Deepwater Horizon happened, after I spent all weekend looking at media coverage of petro soaked birds, while curled up in my apartment with a glass of lemonade and a fan on full blast―– both courtesy of a brought-to-you-by-theIOF pay check.

“Oh, pet. No oil company is perfect,” Weller replied.

“Now, put on the tea kettle?”

This summer, I thought of that Daily article again. The piece quotes heavily from Pascale Tremblay, the thenVP University and Academic Affairs of the Post Graduate Student Society (PGSS). “In an ideal world,” says Tremblay in the article, “we shouldn’t need to have these kinds of huge donations.”

With this in mind, I decided to go into the belly of the beast. I took the elevator to the 15th floor of an office building on Peel, to meet with a man who explained that the “ideal world” Tremblay lays out is never going to happen.

And, moreover, that it should never happen. According to Jean-Francois Nadeau, the Director of Corporate Relations at McGill, the university of the future, like that of the present, is one that will work hand-in-hand with corporations.

Corporate funding for universities is on the increase – it’s not something that is going to be reversed.

“Corporate funding comes in many flavors,” Nadeau tells me. A company interested in giving to McGill can donate microscopes, services, or a building. They can give a lab a pile of money to work further on a technology or

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

line of research that is interesting to them, or they can work more closely with researchers, drafting up contracts, suggesting ideas, and patenting the outcomes.

They give money, in this case, but they also provide knowledge. This type of partnership is most common in the Faculties of Medicine and Engineering, which, by definition, set out to create things for society. It can be beneficial to have a corporation that operates on the front lines of society―and markets real products―talking to these labs. “It’s about having a conversation,” Nadeau says, holding up his hands and then lacing his fingers together. “Without corporations, the current model would not work. We need their money, but we also need their knowledge.”

McGill is not deeply entrenched in the corporatefunded model, but it isn’t entirely free of it, either. About 15 per cent of research funding comes directly from the private sector, which amounts to―roughly $54 million.

You can see these numbers in a nice little pie chart in one of McGill’s PR pamphlets. If you ask Nadeau for more details, he will decline to give them to you.

I ask Nadeau if he feels frustrated by people who are anti-corporate research. “Frustrated?” he replied. “No.” To him, arguments categorically against our university working hand-in-hand with corporations are misguided, based on the “urban myth that corporations are bad.” The way Nadeau tells it, it’s as simple as explaining to a fifth grader that there aren’t really spider eggs hiding in fast food, waiting for you to take a bite so they can hatch and spawn offspring in your esophagus.

To make an argument wholly in favor of corporate research, however, is to overlook more than just those cases where egregious conflicts of interest have cropped up. In science, conflicts of interest can operate subtly, little mistakes and small decisions can accumulate into a sea change, until, one grant at a time, the whole community is chasing the wrong questions. In “an ideal world,” we might have no conflicts of interest, not just those posed by corporations, but also by government grants, or by the “publish or perish” model of success.

Eric Martin, a doctoral candidate at the University of Ottawa and researcher at the Quebec think-tank IRIS,

is a strict anti-capitalist. He takes a pretty strong stance against all things corporate: “I am totally opposed to any commercial research in universities,” says Martin.

To be clear, he is talking about all commercial research:― both projects in which a corporation is directly interested in selling the results, and ones in which they hand over money through a foundation, and collect only a tax break and something to put on their public relations website. He is opposed to corporations giving money for buildings on campus. He is opposed to the Second Cup in the library at the University of Ottawa. “We have a Tim’s in our library!” I say. “That is disgusting,” he replied. When I spoke with him, he was on vacation, in a cabin.

I posed a question to Martin: what if a corporate-

funded lab at a university is capable of curing cancer?

He tells me that’s the kind of a trick question―that makes him look like the villain if he says it’s bad. He thinks that kind of research has a place, outside of the university, and that a university can better serve society by being free of monetary influence.

Martin says he’s conservative in a way: he wants to get things back to the way they were. “Historically, the university was a fortress,” says Martin. To him, researchers should not just be separated from the world by an arm’s length, but by a whole fucking moat, and by a whole doctrine of rules and beliefs. “University is no less sacred than the Church.”

There is something in Martin’s radical conservatism that appeals to me: his ideal university is one where

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14 Features

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

research happens in a vaccuum, away from the pressures of society – for curiosity’s sake, for the general happiness of our minds.

Two years ago, wrapping up my first year in the physics major program, I wrote an article that came out of an interview with Denis Rancourt, a former physics professor at the University of Ottawa who was fired for giving an entire senior class A+’s. He called the current system of education a “mind-fuck.”

After a year of labs that felt very much like they were designed to mold my brain into that of a drone who studies and listens to instructions, I agreed with him.

I applied to the WOW Lab not just because I needed money, but as an expression of this feeling. That little orange room is a haven for me, a pocket of curiosity and wonder.

As I explained an activity called “Polymer Balls” to a 4th grade teacher in July, kneading a wad of hardening liquid, latex, and vinegar into a super-ball shape, he interrupted me: “But how do I evaluate my students on this stuff? They need grades.” Moments like those are frustrating to me –―stop trying to quiz your students, and let them have fun!―– but they also make me feel like we’re on the front lines of something. I am being paid $12 an hour to be creative, a creativity that is going to be channeled for the good of society.

While trying to sort through my feelings about corporate research (and being declined the details of McGill’s policies by Nadeu), I emailed the current PGSS VP University and Academic Affairs, in an attempt to follow up on the 2007 Daily article –―“Is PGSS still looking at McGill policies on corporate partnerships?” I wrote―– and the note was passed along to the VP External, Mariève Isabel, who is investigating the topic. She said she would be happy to talk to me, and she sent me a text message after PGSS council let out that night, asking to meet up. “I’m offering a beer!” the text said.

So I hiked up the hill, and met her outside Thompson House. We sat down with our beer, and she explained that the council had just, that night, September 14, approved her proposal for a working group to look into how McGill is funded by corporations.

Isabel is studying environment and French literature.

In 2010, she read a report called Big Oil Goes to College.

The report looks at contracts that oil companies have with universities: the terms, the impacts, the loopholes.

In some of the worst-case scenarios – a handful in the states – students have ended up in jail for violating con-

tracts. “It raised the question, how is it going at McGill?

The thing is, we don’t really know.”

In August, PGSS hired a part-time researcher to find out, and as of that night, September 14th, they decided to allocate even more financial resources to this project. The researcher will look at the contracts that corporations have at McGill, determine how accessible they are to students, and identify the processes that go into drafting them. Isabel stresses that this research is to be as non-partisan as possible. They are not positioning themselves against corporate research with this decision, she explains: “In a lot of fields, like pharmacy, and engineering, you want to see your research applied. We want to protect fundamental research, research that is lead by curiosity, but we do recognize there is a demand for corporate involvement.”

Along with the work plan for investigating corporate ties, PGSS is also going to hire a researcher to look into the history of McGill as an organization. Isabel thinks that the current view of what a university should be is sometimes too romanticized. She recognizes that it is not only unrealistic, but that a lot of good solutions to problems can come out of labs that collaborate with industry. She just hopes that the trend is one that can be monitored and kept at bay.

In the middle of all this, in a sort-of panic, I emailed Andrew Komar, a masters student in the Faculty of Engineering, who started writing “Prose Encounters of the Nerd Kind” last year when I was Sci+Tech editor. Komar is one of a handful of small bridges between my Daily life and my science life, and sometimes I need someone to join me in the void. I explained the premise of the article in a Facebook message. “We obviously don’t live in a socialist utopia (much as I’d love that),” he replied. We met on lower field.

In his research, Komar is working on building a stronger concrete. He’s not currently funded by a corporation directly, but he’s applying for a fellowship from The American Concrete Association. “It’s going to be helping everybody if you develop a better concrete.”

He knows that there are problems that can come up with conflicts of interest, but those are things to be watched and investigated – not a reason to put a blanket ban on corporate money: “There’s going to be good people who are doing things for the right reasons, there are going to be people who are doing things that are questionable.” That’s going to happen in any situation.

On Komar’s right hand, there is a black wristband

Breakdown of McGill’s research funding Federal Government 53.75%

Quebec government 9.96% International and municipal governments 2.46%

Private sector 14.39% ($54.09 million)

Foundations and non-profit organizations 10.78%

Other 8.66%

Alyssa Favreau | The McGill Daily

Research funding 2006-07, as noted in the 2008/2009 “McGill at a Glance” pamphlet. The total funding for this year was $375.75 million dollars.

The 2nd annual Science and Policy Exchange, organized in partenership with PGSS, will be held next Friday, September 23rd at the McGill Faculty Club. The first two panels of the day – Funding: innovative sources of revenue for research, and Partnership: university, industry, and small business – will feature discussions between scientists and CEOs. Visit http://www.sp-exchange.ca/ for information.

that says “Friendly Atheist,” which he explains he won in a blogging contest. On his right pinky, there is an iron ring. “And can you tell me a bit about the iron ring tradition?” I say, slipping back into interview mode.

In Canada, when you earn a bachelor’s degree in engineering, you don’t just walk across a stage and pick up a diploma. There is another ceremony, one that happens in secret, and puts an iron ring on your working hand.

“It is to constantly remind you that you are bound to society. You don’t exist in a vacuum.” Komar might not be into the brouhaha surrounding the ceremony, but he subscribes to the sentiment behind this one. “We hold ourselves to a standard, ethically,” he explains. “Even if you don’t do anything legally wrong, you can still mess up. You can have your engineering society membership revoked.”

So, where does that leave us, wide-eyed and young and, as so many university students are, politically left?

We are going to grow up, and,―unless you intend on living in the woods and cutting yourself off from the world,―inherit a system in which this is how things work.

If they change, if they need to be steered on a course that is more ethical, it will be a subtle and slow process: little ideas and small decisions. This is where to start off: we need to be skeptical. We need to be curious. We need to ask questions.

During the first summer it existed, the employees of the WOW Lab joked about being paid by Imperial Oil, but they tired of the concept by the time I joined the lab in 2010. I don’t recall when I found out our source of funding, but it was sometime during the application process, long before I saw that Daily article.

Recently, I pestered my colleagues for their thoughts on where their paychecks come from, and the consensus boiled down to shrugged shoulders, a general feeling that there was rent that needed to be paid. One of them said, “I think people just hear ‘oil!’ and have this knee jerk reaction, but there is nothing negative going on here.”

Perrin Valli, a former WOW lab employee and now a law student at Queen’s, said that he did have concerns going into the job―that his work would be directly in support of the oil company, influenced by their beliefs,― but they evaporated quickly.

“When I proposed a project about renewable energy, I encountered no resistance from Maggie [Weller] nor from Dr. Alters,” Valli explained in an email. “To the contrary, everyone in the Lab was very excited about the project.”

Valli created a project called “Wind Farm” in which students build windmills out of construction paper and pop bottles. Several of these placed on a desk, hooked together with copper wire, and powered by the moving air from a fan (or, theoretically, real wind) can make a series of LED lights light up. An extended version of the project explains how to make an eight-foot outdoor windmill that can be used to charge an iPod. The project was sent to Imperial Oil Foundation in one of the lab’s yearly status updates.

This past August, a representative from the IOF came to visit McGill to see what we had done with their money. Escorted by the dean of science and the dean of education, she came to visit the WOW Lab. Valli’s prototype had been brought out for display.

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Art Essay

15

Ganymede

by Amina Batyreva

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

16

Canadian cyclist captivates Montreal and the world Top cyclist Ryder Hesejdal sits down with fan and Daily sports writer to tell his story

Hesejdal in the Montreal Grand Prix de Cycliste.

Drew Childerhose Sports Writer

I

n sport, there is likely no name more fitting to the athlete that bears it than Ryder Hesejdal. A soft-spoken, humble cyclist, Hesejdal lets his riding do the talking. So far, it’s brought him to the podium of the World Championships, a top-ten placing at the Tour de France, and enough accolades to fill this page.

Hesejdal was in town for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal – a 205 kilometer, one-day race that takes place over a 12 kilometer circuit through the streets of Montreal. The course is characterized by three climbs on each lap, and always proves to be incredibly selective, suiting the characteristics of a cyclist like Hesejdal, who is a time trialist and climber best known for long solo breakaways in the mountain passes of the Alps. A year ago, he dazzled the crowds of Montreal with a third place finish at the Grand Prix and was awarded the day’s “Most Combative Rider” prize. This year, he was one of the most watched men in the Grand Prix, and a good placing in the race did not come with ease.

I met Hesejdal in the lobby of a ritzy hotel for an interview that was never meant to happen. After numerous emails and phone calls to his press agent, I was led to a dead end. It wasn’t until a last ditch tweet that Hesejdal agreed to meet.

Finding him, however, proved to be much easier than contacting him. Standing at 6’2’’ and weighing 159 pounds, the lanky Victoria native is pretty easy to pick out in a crowd, especially when he is clad in his black outfit adorned with the sponsors of his team, Garmin-Cervelo. As we spot each other, he’s bombarded by middleaged fans looking for pictures, the spouse of another racer, and the eyes of everyone else in the room ceaselessly following him – we work quickly to get somewhere more secluded.

In a city abunadnt with cyclists, Hesjedal is far from being under the radar, but the road to recognition has been anything but short.

Like most kids who grew up in the suburbs, Hesejdal “grew up riding and getting around on bikes.” Hesejdal comments that he also played conventional “team sports like baseball, football, basketball, but was just always biking.

All photos by Drew Childerhose for The McGill Daily

That’s just what I did for fun.” By 12, Hesejdal’s biking ability was causing a stir. He raced mountain bikes on Vancouver Island, and “kept progressing and progressing.” Before long, he was making his way onto the international scene, scoring major sponsorships along the way. Now known for road cycling, his short mountain biking career was one of Canada’s bestkept sporting secrets.

He eventually became an international star on the World Cup Mountain Bike circuit at the turn of the millenium. Thrice medalling silver at the World Championships (Junior in 1998, Espoir in 2001 and then Elite in 2003), he was poised as the front-runner for Olympic glory in 2004. But his dreams of winning a gold medal in Athens were cut short, and he was left chasing a new dream – one with significantly less dirt and significantly paved roads.

Hesejdal discusses how the switch from mountain biking to cycling was “mentally hard, but I was also ready for it with the way everything culminated at the Olympics and the World Championships that year [2004]. I had a mechanical issue in the Olympics, and that was really the cause for my switch.”

Hesejdal hoped to redeem himself

after the fiasco at the Olympics at the World Championships of that year but crashed while training the week before, ending his chances at winning the World Championships.

The events of the summer of 2004 were arguably Hesejdal’s biggest obstacles and something that, he says, “I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but it definitely helped me refocus and leave that behind, take on a new challenge, and move forward.”

The next season, Hesejdal made the switch to the road, but international success and recognition did not come nearly as quickly as it had with mountain biking. He was riding with some of the world’s best teams and winning smaller races, but he was largely filling the role of domestique – a rider that works for the benefit of the team. Hesejdal flourished in the Tour de France by selflessly helping teammate Christian Vandevelde win a surprising fifth place finish in 2008, and teammate Bradley Wiggins win fourth place the next year.

However, personal success was not far off for Hesejdal. It came on the mountainous stage of the 2009 Vuelta a España, a race in which he went on the attack. The race is the first stage of the three Grand Tours of Europe. Winning this stage was

a critical victory for him, and, from that point on, his career trajectory changed. Hesejdal showed that he could beat the best riders when it mattered. He further proved himself in the Amstel Gold Race and The Tour of California in following years.

When his team leader, Christian Vandevelde, went down in a crash during the 2010 Tour de France, Hesejdal was the logical choice to take over the reins. He had an incredible ride on stage 17, vaulting himself into the top ten of the world’s most famous cycling race: he finished the race in seventh place. It was the second-best placing ever for a Canadian, and it was the top result for a Canadian in more than twenty years.

At this year’s Tour de France, he wasn’t quite so lucky. He recalls, “I was riding G.C. [for the General Classification] and was fighting for every second of the day, worrying about every moment and every position.” He continues, “there can be a split, and staying out of trouble is the hardest aspect of the sport.” Ryder ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time on a couple of occasions and lost valuable time. He took it in stride and helped the team achieve a four-stage win with a top ten placing continued on page 17

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

continued from page 16 for teammate Tom Danielson. He also won the Team Classification Award.

His rise to the top echelon of cycling has paralled the growth of professional cycling in North America. There are not only more and more cyclists on the roads, but there has also been the addition of major races on this side of the Atlantic.

Ryder notes, “it’s great not just to be in North America, but also to see the level of racing and how big it is now.”

The images of thousands of people cycling in the Alps are being replicated in cities like Montreal with races like the Grand Prix. Unlike the fans in France, North America also offers a familiar language with “English cheers.” “It’s a hard, long season in Europe, and, more so now with these new events in North America, you can break it up. It’s nice for North American riders,” maintains Hesejdal.

Those same North American riders are also getting far more opportunities – the last decade has seen American teams, most notably Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal squad, come to the forefront of cycling, and governments are starting to provide more funding for their national cycling teams.

The creation of new teams, like Spidertech, a Montreal- based professional team, has given Canadian and American racers more chances to compete on professional teams. As Hesejdal points out, “it’s harder to crack into an Italian or a French team.” The increased presence of professional teams in North America has shown teams “that there is plenty of market and desire for the sport here.” When asked about the chances of joining Spidertech, Hesejdal responds casually, “You never know. I think it’s a great program, and I think what

they’re doing is great. I hope that I’m helping it with by doing what I’m doing, even on Garmin. What I’ve been able to do, for the sport in Canada is getting that awareness out there and that momentum.”

Hesejdal’s goals haven’t changed since adolescence. His goals are “right now, to just keep improving, just keep knocking on the door of the biggest races.” But there is no guarantee when it comes to cycling, as “there are so many moments out there where half a second is the difference sometimes, in all sorts of situations. It’s got to go right, your legs have to be good, and everything has to fall into place. A lot of times, it’s the things not even in your control, the other teams and riders and what they’re doing, and for it to fall into place, it’s a pretty special thing.”

This year in Montreal, Hesejdal came close to something special. He stayed out of trouble and sheltered himself from the wind, leaving him with energy to spare. With two laps left, he and a select group of cyclists attacked, gaining crucial seconds over the main pack, livening up the crowd that adores him, and putting his competitors on the chase.

However, a win was just not in the cards for Ryder. His team’s chances dwindled as the competition edged closer, and they were eventually chased down. Another group of riders countered Hesejdal’s team’s attack and ended up winning in what was an extremely exciting day of racing. Ryder went on to finish in a respectable 11th place, becoming the best-placed Canadian for the second consecutive year.

As I thanked Ryder for the interview and wished him luck, we briefly spoke about how I had admired him since I was ten years old, when I had dreams of following in his footsteps into the realm

of professional mountain biking. He looked over to a couple of old friends sitting on the couch across from us and asked if they’d heard how the interview came up.

Concisely, he told them, telling them about the hashtag he had seen on his Twitter early that day, which read #FanSince99BleachedBlondeHairAndGaryFisher.

17

When he repeated what I’d written on his account only hours earlier, laughter ensued. I realized then that it was the only reason he agreed to sit down with me.

Cogeco killed the radio star Montreal’s only Francophone sports radio station becomes a bilingual traffic station Emile Janda

Sports Writer

T

wo weeks ago, Quebec lost a veteran player of the sports radio game. CKAC 730 AM, Montreal’s only all-French sports radio station, has definitively changed hands and direction. The 90 year-old institution – which had served as the main broadcaster of Canadiens, Alouettes, and Impact games for the last half decade – is now devoted exclusively to traffic reports. This change officially took place on Tuesday, September 6 at 4:30 a.m. The beloved sports station is now “Radio Circulation,” Montreal’s first radio station devoted entirely to traffic and weather. They will broadcast in both English and French.

In April 2010, Cogeco Inc. paid $80 million to Corus Quebec in exchange for numerous radio stations in the province, including CKAC, the oldest francophone AM frequency in North America. Cogeco assumed ownership at a time when there was a serious decline in radio audiences, especially on the AM air waves. While the move

away from sports broadcasting could possibly have been foreseen, it still comes as a shock to Quebec sports fans, many of whom were loyal listeners to the station.

It comes as no less of a shock to Quebec residents that their government was involved in the change. This past May, the Quebec Transport Department signed a deal with Cogeco to establish two radio stations – one in English and one in French – that would provide Montrealers with non-stop traffic information. Due to a conflict with competitors Bell Media and Astral Media, Cogeco has only established one bilingual traffic station.

Richard Lachance, the executive vice president at Cogeco Diffusion, told The Gazette, “It’s not with a happy heart that we change the vocation of CKAC. At the same time, we think we’ve made the best decision given the circumstances because Montrealers desperately need continual up-to-date information of traffic and roadwork.

So it was urgent that Radio Circulation get on air by early September.”

Since the station has ended all

sports broadcasting, many of its top announcers, like Michel Villeneuve and Ron Fournier, have decided to move to CHMP (98.5 FM), which will now serve as the main French broadcaster for Montreal sports teams.

CKAC’s airwaves did not always exclusively broadcast sports. The station saw some important historical and cultural moments before “bumper-to-bumper on the 20 West” took over. Major events of the October Crisis of 1970 unfolded in the studios of the station. René Lévesque, Prime Minister of Quebec from 1976 to 1985, even co-hosted a show at the end of his career. During the Ice Storm of 1998, CKAC offered news coverage in the greater region of Montreal, when battery-powered radios were the only option for accessing news.

In 2005, Corus Quebec shut down the newsroom at CKAC. This marked its shift towards an all-sports station. The move seemed reasonable.

CKAC was able to compete with FM frequencies during and after Habs games. However, it proved hard for the station to attract audiences, and the revenue they generate, during

hockey’s off-season.

Before 2004, CKAC hadn’t experienced much difficulty attracting listeners. In 1972, Major League baseball came to Montreal in the form of the Expos. CKAC immediately picked up the rights to their games, and Jacques Doucet began his long career as the play-by-play commentator during the games. His voice still resonates in the hearts of baseball fans around the city.

For the 32 years the Expos played, CKAC carried almost every game.

While some games were broadcast on television, it was common practice to mute the TV and listen to the radio during those games. My grandfather did it all the time.

The thing about baseball is that it’s made for radio. The pace is slow and there is no time limit. Between each pitch, there is a lot of time to talk about stats, history or anecdotes. Doucet had the baseball knowledge, and the linguistic ability, to fill these time slots extremely well. He captivated his listeners and turned them into Expos fans. During hockey’s off-season, Jacques Doucet held the CKAC sports fort.

In 2004, as many AM frequencies were already losing listeners, Montreal lost baseball. This was probably the beginning of the end for CKAC as an all-sports station. Coverage of the Alouettes and the CFL did not offer a real alternative to baseball on the radio: a football season is 18 games long; a baseball season is 162 games long. The multitude of sports talk shows aired at the end of CKAC’s life simply did not cut it, it seems.

The death of CKAC sports puts into question the place of sports on the radio and, perhaps more upsettingly, the place of francophone stations on the radio. The very possibility of streaming live games on the internet seems to undermine the necessity of live radio coverage, especially to students like us who don’t get around by car. The availability of the image may decrease the importance of the sound. Hopefully, the shift away from the radio will not lower our standards for commentators. It would be nice to have a few more Jacques Doucet’s around for Montreal sports fans, whether on television or radio.

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Mental meanderings Short film exhibition at Concordia gallery explores the image of the modern “nomad” Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Bliss and Heaven, part of A Nomad in One’s Own Mind, explores gender, sexuality, and the image of the “nomad.”

Victoria Lessard Culture Writer

N

omad in One’s Own Mind, a Jesper Just exhibition at Concordia’s Leonard &

Bina Ellen Art Gallery, is a thoughtprovoking and evocative display in which the artist explores the varying ideas and meanings surrounding the word “nomad.” Curated

by Anne-Marie Ninacs, the show presents the viewer with five short

films, four of which are provided with headphones so the viewer can listen to them. The headphones create an introspective and personal relationship between the artwork and the viewer, which allows for an intimate feeling within the gallery.

This is the first solo exhibition Just has presented in Canada, and is a part of the 12th edition of Le Mois de la Photo a Montréal, a series of exhibitions throughout the month of September.

Just plays on different interpretations of the word “nomad” throughout the show, and allows the viewer to create their own meaning of the word. However, the primary theme running throughout his films can be found within the title of the exhibition itself: Nomad in One’s Own Mind. Just questions the labyrinth of the human mind in his short films, and examines how we become lone travellers in our own consciousness when we struggle through important issues within our lives. Concepts such as sexuality (another strong theme within his works), loneliness, and the human condition are particularly emphasized.

Upon entering the exhibit, viewers are confronted with Romantic Delusions (2008), which is projected onto three-screens. It’s the largest film in the show, and the only one in which the sound is projected into the gallery. The viewer follows the protagonist through endless confusions. First through a city, then through an opulent palace; the main character is ignored by those surrounding them. As they struggle with their identity, the protagonist’s inner journey is signified by their attempt to navigate the outward commotion of the city and the maze of destroyed rooms within the palace.

Just also explores the idea of the “nomad” through a portrayal of sexuality and gender roles.

The artist plays most prominently with the latter in his works, Bliss and Heaven (2004) and Some Draughty Window (2007), questioning the traditional roles for men and women that are ingrained within our society. Just also asks

the viewer to contemplate the struggle of a person coming to terms with their sexuality, and the vulnerability they experience when presenting themselves in a new light to society and to those whom they love. The idea of the “nomad” becomes someone who traverses their own path to remain true to their inner being – despite potential isolation – to explore the possibility of happiness.

In Just’s final work for the exhibition, entitled No Man is an Island (2002), the artist contemplates the “nomad” concept in a more public setting. The other films in the exhibition explore the concept through an interior focused examination, using labyrinthine spaces, or the transformation of interiors.

However, in No Man is an Island (2002), the work is performed and filmed in an uncontrolled, public setting. A man dances enthusiastically to uplifting music; leaping, twirling, and spinning. Another man sits watching him, and begins crying from happiness at the first man’s uninhibited dancing.

This work suggests the idea of a “nomad” as someone free from the constraints and inhibitions of the mind, a carefree person enjoying life without any public embarrassment or restraint.

Just’s exhibition is a haunting but optimistic exploration of the “nomadic” journey through the fabric of our lives – through our pain, loneliness, sexuality, and humanity. These films resonate with the viewer, causing recognition within oneself of the inner struggles we all face. The intimate setting of the gallery, the melancholy soundtrack, and the evocative films create an exhibition not to be missed.

A Nomad in One’s Own Mind will run until October 8 at the Leonard and Ellen Bina Gallery (1400 Maisonneuve Ouest.)

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Of sugar and spice

Culture

19

A look into life in Kianyaga, Kenya

Esma Balkir | The McGill Daily

Kurtis Lockhart Culture Writer

I

awoke, climbed out from beneath the mosquito net that shielded my bed, and went for breakfast – two eggs, two sausages, served with tea, or chai, which comes with most meals here in Kenya. I then picked up the Daily Nation, a national newspaper, because the front page story caught my attention. The title read ‘Popular Kenyan crop found to have negative long term health effects.”

The crop that the article was referring to was sugar. Yes, sugar.

After I spent a few moments hoping that most people already knew about sugar’s adverse health effects before the revelations of the Daily Nation, the article reminded me that my chai needed a little sweetening itself. Accordingly, I put a spoonful in my cup and stirred – much better.

The fact is that the taste of most foods here, and everywhere, are made more palatable by the addition of some sugar or spice. I am partial to having githeri, a local dish, with pilipili (a certain spice whose English name eludes me). I enjoy chapatti with salt – and, of course, chai needs sugar. But following such an addition, I can’t help but wonder whether my tongue is being betrayed – am I enjoying the food, or am I, in fact, simply enjoying its saccharine enhancer?

I set the newspaper down, picked up my travel guidebook to Kenya, and began perusing.

The guidebook detailed idyllic rural villages and verdant scenes – pristine natural beauty undisturbed by man-made things.

Having studied international development, these viscerally attractive descriptions seemed all too reminiscent of quixotic textbooks I’d read. These texts never fail to exclaim the many virtues of a particular developing coun-

try first, before turning, rather apologetically, to enumerate its problems. Or they write dramatically of a country’s founders and past, glamorizing what, in most cases, was a long and thoroughly unglamorous march for independence, growth, stability, et cetera.

Revolutionaries like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Kwame Nkrumah, and Mao Zedong are written of reverently, and admired for their egalitarian convictions and indomitable determination. With such unjustifiably rosy language, development literature in general, and my Kenyan guidebook in particular, ends up romanticizing its subjects. The bitter reality of these countries is, in effect, sweetened – much like my chai.

Don’t get me wrong, there is something admirable about the way the local people here, mostly ethnic Kikuyu, live their lives. But still, life here in Kianyaga is anything but romantic. Many live in unsanitary conditions, open to different diseases and afflictions.

There is struggle and hardship.

While some back home would protest to this statement by saying that everyone, no matter where they live, endures hardship, I would respond to them with the following facts from Matt Ridley’s book The Rational Optimist: “Today, of Americans officially designated as ‘poor’, 99 per cent have electricity, running water, flush toilets, and a refrigerator; 95 per cent have a television, 88 per cent a telephone, 71 per cent a car, and 70 per cent air conditioning.” Needless to say, the poor in rural Kenya are not so lucky. I believe these facts give me the latitude to say that the majority of hardships encountered in the West are #whitepeopleproblems. By “struggle and hardship,” I mean a struggle to survive.

That said, I am of the opinion that the aforementioned romantic and rosy misrepresentations that pervade many writings on development are harmful distortions – distortions that take

away from the urgency of current demands. These misrepresentations are – like sugar – packaged, processed, and artificial. However, without the sugar, without the idealized romanticism, our world just doesn’t taste right. The romanticism creates a sweetened veil, shrouding the true flavor of Kenyan reality, and, indeed, that of the developing world in general, in an appetizing carapace. This veil allows us to live without shame or guilt over the current circumstance. Namely, the opulence of the few juxtaposed with the straitened plight of the many.

To change, we must take reality as it is – bitter and raw; untenable, unsustainable, and unsweetened. It is true that adding sugar makes the world’s current inequity easier to swallow. But I believe that the front page of the Daily Nation was correct – sugar is indeed unhealthy in the long run.

20 Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Spray it, don’t say it

Talking to a graffiti artist about the art of our generation

G

raffiti: is it an art or a crime?

This is a question which has, once more, sparked debate as Montreal’s boroughs renew their efforts to crack down on the medium.

Said to have one of the richest graffiti communities in Canada, if not North America, Montreal has tried a number of different approaches to handling this touchy issue. From setting up legal graffiti walls to imposing stricter penalties for artists, nothing seems to have quite done the trick.

The most recent tactic employed by some boroughs has been to impose heavier fines on both artists and property owners who do not remove graffiti within a certain amount of time. On September 9th, an artist who wished to remain anonymous shared his thoughts on the topic with The Daily.

The McGill Daily: What have your experiences been lately? Have you noticed any kind of crack-down?

Graffiti Artist: I haven’t had the impression that there’s really been a crack-down in Montreal recently.

The media and the city often say that they’re going to do a clean-up, but in reality, those clean-ups only constitute buffing walls. For our part, we haven’t experienced any extra pressures, even though the city has ordered and carried out several events encouraging graffiti such as “Under Pressure” and “Can You Rock?” I believe they’re only using this technique to reassure people and in reality the areas that are really affected by graffiti aren’t the ones that are getting cleaned up. The budget for the crack-down is all going to go to areas like Ville Marie or the Old Port – areas where property owners are capable of buffing graffiti. But if you look at areas like Verdun and Pointe St. Charles, the main thing is that the budget is going into buffing graffiti and they don’t do that as much in those areas, so they won’t benefit from a crack-down.

MD: What would the effects of such a crack-down be?

GA: For a graffiti artist, the effects of a crack-down like this will only serve to open up new spots to paint again.

They’ll go clean all the places that we’ve already tagged, so that graffiti artists will pass by and reclaim that newly-freed spot. If the graffiti that’s erased has been there for over a year, for example, and that spot suddenly becomes available, it’s certain that someone’s going to go repaint that spot in the hopes that their graffiti will also last for such a long time.

MD: Would something like this actually deter people from doing graffiti?

GA: Absolutely not. And, as I explained earlier, it could even encourage graffiti artists to paint more. A crack-down is just a way for the authorities to give the impression that they’re dealing with the problem, but I sincerely doubt that there will be any real improvement over the past few years, espe-

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

cially since graffiti has become more and more common on both the north and south shores. I don’t think the approaches they’re taking can actually help to solve the problem.

MD: Why do you think graffiti is an important form of expression?

GA: Graffiti is a form of expression, yes, but it is, above all, an artistic movement. For most young people who have some skill with a pencil, graffiti is the “cool” thing to do. It’s much more interesting for them to

paint big, fat, colourful letters on their school than to do canvasses in their basement where no one will ever see them. Most emerging artists under the age of thirty will have been active in the graffiti world at some point. I think it’s going to become the most important art movement of our generation.

MD: Why do you think graffiti is such a big issue in Montreal right now?

GA: It’s not just now that graffiti’s a big deal in Montreal – it’s been like this since the late nineties. Montreal

has one of the most important graffiti scenes around, after New York, where graffiti was born. Also, we have a lot of well-known artists here, as much for the artistic side as for the vandalism side. Lots of artists come here from the United States and are surprised by how this city doesn’t really take the problem seriously. In Montreal we have two stores that specialize in graffiti, the city provides legal walls, Montreal organizes two of the largest graffiti

events in North America...all these elements create a scene that maintains the popularity of graffiti in Montreal.

MD: How would you get around a possible crack-down?

GA: For me, it doesn’t change anything. It’s an urban legend, a headline in the newspaper to reassure the public that everything is under control, but graffiti is impossible to control.

— compiled by Emily Meikle

Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Is Blue Sunshine setting? Not yet Independent cinema’s future may be uncertain, but its dedication to movie culture isn’t Laura Payne Smith Culture Writer

T

ucked away above bustling St. Laurent, Blue Sunshine, Montreal’s premiere “Psychotronic Film Centre,” is a safe haven for all types of film aficionados. Owned by Dave Bertrand and Kier-La Janisse, the small film studio is a labour of love, a sanctuary for film lovers looking to experience all types of cinema, from the independent to the totally bizarre. Blue Sunshine recently celebrated their one-year anniversary by screening the 1978 cult horror film Blue Sunshine from which the space takes its name. Attendees were joined by special guest Jeff Lieberman, who directed the cult classic.

Blue Sunshine is a small theatre club that requires a free membership to view screenings, which vary in cost and start at $8. It’s a space for like-minded people to hang out and enjoy good, weird movies. Bertrand and Janisse focus on playing obscurities that have never been previously released in North America. They try to connect filmgoers with both North American and international rarities. Most recently, the Dastardly Diabolikal Super Kriminals series featured freaky villains from all parts of the world. The tastes of the members and the owners are extremely varied so they try to show a bit of everything. These films are not from corporate movie stores like Blockbuster or HMV. Blue Sunshine

prides itself on using a projector to show original 16 millimeter prints, enabling patrons to experience something outside the cineplex.

Programming on Thursday through Sunday follow specific themes. Thursdays feature musicoriented films, ranging from recorded concerts of Nina Simone to Punk Rock cult films. Fridays show a mixture of trash, cult, and horror, and, on Saturdays, you can experience art house, independent, and avant-garde films. Ultimately, Blue Sunshine’s goal is to introduce something different to their members via a variety of materials that branch beyond cult to something they have not experienced before. Each screening is a unique experience due to the atmosphere and audience. It is a private, intimate setting that incites discussion, and viewers are encouraged to become immersed in the screening, focusing on not just the film, but also its cultural relevance. It takes the best aspects of a film festival, packs it into an intimate venue, and spreads the films year round.

Yet Blue Sunshine’s reach extends past Montreal. Recently, the screening of George Mihalka’s 1980 film Pinball Summer sparked renewed interest in the film, causingpopularity of the film’s soundtrack.

There was so much interest in the film and its music that the composer and director (who traveled from Toronto) decided to come to visit Blue Sunshine for a Q&A session. All the enthusiasm surrounding the film and its music convinced them to rerelease the soundtrack.

Over the past year, interest in the

Oh, you

venue has been small but substantial.

Blue Sunshine’s size restricts promotion, so word of mouth has been vital for garnering attention from the community. There is an unfortunate shortage of repertory theatres in Montreal, which is why Blue Sunshine’s following continues to grow. Despite its relative success, Blue Sunshine’s future is uncertain. The financial reality of running a small independent film centre makes it difficult for Bertrand and Janisse to determine how much longer they can last. In an interview with the Daily, Bertrand explained how “a venue like this is not realistically sustainable forever,” yet the owners and members would like to see it run as long as possible. For now, Blue Sunshine will screen films as usual, and function as a venue for POP Montreal’s upcoming Film POP segment at the end of September.

Even though Blue Sunshine is more a labour of love than a realistic source of income for Bertrand and Janisse, the project offers the best of all possible worlds for film-lovers. Its small size and affordability enables an intimate atmosphere that creates a common ground for the owners, the patrons, and, at times, the artists themselves. There are opportunities to get involved, or you can go by and check it out: new members are always welcome. Even with winter fast approaching, Montreal’s movie lovers will have a place to catch some sun–for now.

Hebe Though it seemed they’d be OK made love timidly on the kitchen floor the ranges burning on the stovetop when the heater broke the whimpering lull of the oven the soft catches and moans of a lip or a thigh meeting in the air as a single, resounding note Straining— aching to hear Letting slipped breaths pool in their upturned mouths such ecstasy in merely listening to it or the radio or perhaps the blind woman downstairs singing to her pets It never mattered!

When they fell in love the first time it was as if they had only fallen asleep and woke to find they’d risen from the same dream.

- Tim Beeler

Blue Sunshine is located at 3660 St. Laurent. For more info call 438380-5869, or check them out on Facebook.

fancy, huh?

Write for culture.

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

Inkwell

21

Compendium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Lies, half-truths, and first crossword of the year!

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STUDENTS MISS OUT ON FROSH GRAND FINALE Arts students denied water park event Dr. O'Fache

The McGill Daily

O

rganizers expressed disappointment at the low turnout at what was meant to be the grand finale of this year’s frosh celebrations, as froshies disgusted with the financial mishandling and poor organization that marred their frosh experience snubbed Thursday’s event.

AUS organizers had hoped to redeem an otherwise disappointing frosh with their spectacular transformation of the McTavish pedestrian zone into a fully functional water park Thursday evening. However the event was largely unattended, and participation was so low that the water park was briefly opened to students not registered for frosh before being shut down completely.

Last minute stipulations from the administration that froshies must pay for drinks meant that students ended up paying an inflated registration fee that reflected the cost of providing free drinks, while being forced to pay a shocking $2.50 for beer. In an attempt to make sure that students got their money’s worth, arts frosh organizers poured the extra money into this expensive project. However, complaints about poor organization of this event are already surfacing.

Many attribute the poor turn-

out to a lack of publicity. “I’m still upset with the way frosh was handled,” commented one first-year “ but if I had known about [the water park event], I probably would have come.” Organizers are saying that they didn’t have time to advertise the event and had hoped it would be an exciting surprise for students.

The event was so poorly publicized that there was much speculation about the cause of the transformation of McTavish, with many believing that it was an accidental flood: the result of a burst pipe at the McTavish reservoir.

Another popular theory was that the flood was a result of monkey wrenching by striking MUNACA employees frustrated with lack of progress in negotiations with the administration. A MUNACA spokesperson denied this, and expressed irritation at the disruption of their picketing activities. “We are very grateful for the support we have received from many student groups,” he stated, “However we think that frosh organisers were very inconsiderate not to warn us of their planned use of McTavish. Many signs were destroyed, and picketers inconvenienced.” The event may also have resulted in serious damages to University property, with flooding in the basement of the Redpath Library likely destroying collections of rare books.

AUS President Jade Calver could not be reached for comment.

La rentrée

Feeling punny?

Send compendium@mcgilldaily.com your love!

The Crossword Fairies The McGill Daily

Across

1. “Inglorious Basterds” foe 5. Castrated rooster 10. Acquire 14. Children’s author Blyton 15. Tri-oxygen 16. Kitchen redo 17. European volcano 18. Ancient city NW of Carthage 19. Mixed-up whale 20. Getting power, off the grid 23. Make into law 24. The __ of Troy 25. Mooring line 28. Cats and dogs 30. Hip bones 31. Miyazaki genre 33. Biathlon sport 36. ___ fat, e.g. Omega-3 40. Band performance 41. It’s getting ___ outside 42. Rind 43. Tuques

44. Singer Jackson 46. Dislike, and then some 49. Archipelago components 51. Bathing trunks 57. Shopaholic’s delight 58. Honeydew, e.g.

59. Geometric interpretation of an integral 60. CHEM 287/297 61. What a group of lions are?

62. Neptune’s real 63. “___ Poppins” 64. Carbon residues 65. Bush’s alma mater

Down

1. Southeast asian evergreen 2. Start to freeze?

3. Brass component 4. It seems to me...

5. Mountain lion 6. Montezuma, e.g.

7. Tip 8. “___ bitten, twice shy” 9. Imminent 10. Free 11. Cliffside dwelling 12. Anon.

13. Nary a soul

21. True, in binary 22. Daisylike bloom 25. Shakira’s don’t lie 26. Sunburn soother 27. Fade, as a flower 28. Feel sorry for 29. Australian big bird 31. Cleopatra’s COD 32. 40 winks 33. Boeuf bourguignon, e.g.

34. Eager 35. At rest 37. Deprive of heat?

38. Puppy’s bite 39. Auto-excommunication?

43. The Crossword Fairies are 44. ___ have more fun?

45. RVC or New __ 46. State in NE India 47. Master, in Swahili 48. ___ious, haha 49. Icebox?

50. Front-runner 52. Little devils 53. Black in Italian 54. 1st synthesized natural molecule 55. Breakfast, lunch or dinner 56. Alleviate

23

The McGill Daily | Monday, September 19, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

volume 101 number 5

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

Christina Colizza Fabien Maltais-Bayda

science+technology editor

Jenny Lu

health&education editor

Melanie Kim sports editor

Andra Cernavskis photo editor

Victor Tangermann illustrations editor

Nicole Stradiotto production&design editors

Alyssa Favreau Rebecca Katzman copy editor

Amina Batyreva web editor

Shannon Palus le délit

Anabel Cossette Civitella rec@delitfrancais.com Contributors Esma Balkir, Lindsay Cameron, Edna Chan, Alvin Chauhan Drew Childerhose, Lorraine Chuen, Max Dannenberg, Lola Duffort, Matthias Hielke, Emile Janda, Victoria Lessard, Kallee Lins, Kurtis Lockhart, William Manning, Emily Miekle, Ian Murphy, Michael Lee-Murphy, Laura Payne Smith, Sergey Tsynkevich, Juan Camilo Velasquez

EDITORIAL

End a decade of Islamaphobia This past week commemorated the ten-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. The tragic effects of this atrocious event still reside in the hearts and public consciousness of many in North America and around the world.

Among the many devastating outcomes of the attack is the growing trend of Islamaphobia that has pervaded North American society. Although significantly heightened after the tragedy of 9/11, Islamaphobia is by no means a new development. However, it is pertinent, in light of the ten-year anniversary, that this discrimination be addressed.

Islamaphobia, although commonly associated with the post 9/11 American discourse, is present in Canadian society as well. For example, earlier this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in an interview with the CBC, remarked that in wake of 9/11, “the major threat [to Canada] is still Islamicism.” “Islamicism” is not actually a word. Islamism, however, is a diverse set of beliefs that, broadly speaking, advocate an increased role of Islam in political life. Although Harper later corrected his statements and explained that his intention was to say “Islamic terrorism,” the original sentiment still stands and is Islamaphobic. His remarks were sensationalist and inflammatory. In actuality, terrorism is a multi-faceted and violent practice enacted by many different kinds of people for many different political ends. Terrorism, whether one agrees that it is the biggest threat to Canadian society or not, is not inextricably tied to Islamism.

However, North American Islamaphobia is not confined to political discourse or comments like Harper’s. In reality, it’s harmfully played out in the daily lives of citizens. The 2002 case of Maher Arar’s extraordinary rendition precisely shows the sheer extent of Islamaphobia after 9/11.

Attempting to return home to Ottawa after a vacation in Tunisia, Arar was detained at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City for two weeks on false accounts of affiliation with Al Qaeda.

After his detainment, the United States wrongfully deported him to Syria where he was jailed and tortured for an entire year. Canada simply turned the other cheek to the U.S.’s actions.

Another shocking example of Islamophobia has been the case of Adil Charkaoui, a Moroccan born Montreal man suspected of Al Queda ties by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He was arrested and detained. Charkoui remained in jail for 21 months and was released on house arrest where he was expected to wear a GPS tracking ankle bracelet until he was freed in 2009.

The Canadian government justified Charkaoui’s treatment under the Security Certificate System.

Unfortunately, Charkaoui’s devastating situation is only one of many examples where Muslim Canadians have been alleged to have ties with terrorist groups and have been imprisoned under security certificates. In article 81 of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, it states, “The Minister and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration may issue a warrant for the arrest and detention of a person who is named in a [security] certificate if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person is a danger to national security or to the safety of any person.” The treatment of people such as Charkoui, justified by the use of article 81, proves that Islamaphobia plays a crucial role in deeming which grounds for arrest are “reasonable”.

The lives lost on 9/11 should not be forgotten, but the subsequent spike in North American Islamaphobia also deserves to remain in the public consciousness. Of the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that day, many were Muslim. Their families were affected just as much as others. It is imperative that the current Islamaphobia not follow us into this new decade.

Cover design by Edna Chan

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The McGill Daily apologizes to Professor Sherwin On September 8, 2011, the McGill Daily published an article entitled “McGill Clears Professor of Academic Fraud.” The article appeared in the ‘News’ section (Page 4) of the issue.

The article contained numerous inaccuracies, which accounted certain facts in an erroneous manner and incorrectly portrayed Professor Barbara Sherwin.

We, the editors and writers of the McGill Daily, would like to sincerely apologize to Professor Sherwin for the printing of said article and any harm that may have been caused to her. We deeply regret our actions.

We are reviewing our internal procedures to ensure a similar event does not occur in the future.

The following highlights the errors and corrections of the September 8, 2011 article:

– Incorrectly identifying the nature of Professor Sherwin’s misconduct in the subhead; she was not reprimanded for falsely crediting her article.

– Incorrectly identifying the nature of Professor Sherwin’s misconduct in the article; she was not reprimanded for failing to acknowledge a co-author, but, rather, for failing to acknowledge Karen Mittleman’s assistance with the 2000 article; – Reference to Professor Sherwin’s reprimand as a “public censure”; this is technically inaccurate, as the University did not make their decision public.

– Identifying Provost Anthony Masi as leading the internal review committee; such information is confidential and could not be confirmed; – Professor Sherwin’s article dealt with a range of pharmacological treatment options for mild cognitive impairment, not hormone replacement therapy, as the article

stated; – Misrepresentation of Designwrite’s role in drafting the article; Designwrite provided modest editorial assistance to Professor Sherwin.

– Paraphrasing Professor Janda as stating that Professor Sherwin was “under emotional strain”; he did not comment specifically on her emotional state.

In the article “Canadian Human Rights Act amended to include Aboriginal citizens” (News, September 15), it was stated that Sherri Helgason is the Director of Communications for the National Aboriginal Initiative; she is in fact the Director. The article subhead also incorrectly described the changes to the complaint processes under Bill C-21; in fact, Bill C-21 opened up complaint processes against federal and First Nations governments. The Daily regrets the errors.