Volume 101, Issue 6
September 22, 2011 mcgilldaily.com
McGill THE
DAILY Strung out for 100 years
Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.
Ten years of POP! Pages 12 + 14
News
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The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
mcgilldaily.com
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Vote to support striking non-academic workers fails at AUS Council
Other faculty societies preparing to debate issue Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily
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he Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Council was evenly divided yesterday over a motion to support striking non-academic workers in their negotiations with McGill. The McGill University NonAcademic Certified Association (MUNACA) represents over 1,700 McGill employees and has been on strike since September 1. The motion was brought to Council by Arts representative to SSMU, Micha Stettin, and VP External of the History Students Association, Jonathan Cohen. The motion read: “the AUS officially declares its support for the workers unionized by MUNACA and declare solidarity and agreement with MUNACA’s position in negotiations with the McGill administration.” The motion failed with 14 councillors voting in favour of the motion and 14 against. Stettin opened debate over the motion by stating that AUS “has the chance now to be a leader in the student body, and to do something that is just, and in the interest of the students that we represent.” Stettin also said that he had informally canvassed Arts students, and felt that there was overall support by students for MUNACA. “Arts students really are supporting the MUNACA workers,” said Stettin. “More students are trying to become involved, more students are realizing
that the MUNACA strike really does affect the McGill community.” Several councillors, including AUS President Jade Calver and VP Events Jason Karmody, expressed concern that without concrete information on student opinion, the motion could have a divisive effect on the Arts student body. “I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and we’re not really informed enough as a group to make a decision like this,” said the representative for the Economics Students’ Association (ESA), Hannah Herman. Calver explained to Council that, although she personally agreed with the motion, she felt it was possible for AUS to support MUNACA without issuing a direct statement. VP Finance Marlene Benavides expressed concern that issuing a statement of support for MUNACA would reflect badly on the McGill administration. “I just want to say that I personally do support what’s going on with MUNACA,” Benavides said. “What I don’t support is a resolution that seems one-sided and makes it seem like the administration are the bad guys.” After Council, Cohen explained in an interview with The Daily that he thought the motion was a “great opportunity for the AUS to stand in solidarity with MUNACA and represent its students, and display its willingness to take arguably difficult stances in its support for its students.” “I think that it was a disappointing refusal by many councillors and many members of the executive to do what
I think many students have in mind, and what I think is best for the AUS and the University,” Cohen added. Stettin agreed, explaining that “this is the biggest issue at McGill right now for the McGill community, for Arts students, and for us to not want to take a stance on it is unacceptable. We owe it to the people who elected us to be assertive, to say what we mean with conviction. When we all care that the MUNACA strike ends, and ends in favour of the MUNACA workers, then we should respond accordingly.” Isaac Stethem, representative for the Department of Philosophy, expressed his support for the motion in an interview with The Daily. “There were some things discussed in Council that were fair points, that perhaps we do need to be more informed and need to consult more. So that’s certainly a positive step, but I definitely think a lot of students have expressed their support, and we can definitely see the problems [the strike] is causing, so I think it is important that we express our support [of MUNACA] more strongly in the future,” said Stethem. The motion will be discussed further at the next AUS Council on October 5. Both Cohen and Stettin expressed their intent to continue seeking a statement of AUS support for MUNACA. Other faculty Societies, including the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) and the Education Undergraduate Society (EdUS) have discussed the possibility of a motion regarding the strike, but neither group has voted on the issue yet.
Ontario NDP pledges to freeze post-secondary tuition for four years Post-secondary education “increasingly out of reach,” says party leader Lee Richardson
CUP Ontario Bureau Chief
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ORONTO (CUP) — The Ontario NDP will freeze tuition fees for post-secondary students for four years and eliminate interest on provincial student loans if elected next month. “Post-secondary education is increasingly out of reach in Ontario,” said NDP leader Andrea Horwath as she announced the pledge in a speech at Ryerson University last week. “When tuition fees escalate and debts skyrocket, opportunities for young people vanish, and older Ontarians can’t upgrade their skills,” she continued. The hold on tuition fees would cause a loss of $110 million in the first year, with an estimated $365 million loss over the full four years. Some students, however, feel that more can be done – such as a reduction of fees – to relieve student debt. “There’s this implied under-
standing that tuition fees as they are right now are already too high,” said Alastair Woods, VP Campaigns and Advocacy for the York Federation of Students. “So to [prohibit] them to rise for the next four years is good, but if we already know that at this level they’re too high, there needs to be some effort to make a roll back,” he said. When asked about a fee reduction, Horwath replied, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” According to the NDP, erasing the interest on student loans would save a student with the average $25,000 of debt approximately $60 per year. “Not only will it help students in the future, but it’s meant to be retroactive,” said Woods. “It’s going to be able to help students now, and who may have graduated recently.” Ontario currently has the highest tuition fees in Canada, with the average undergraduate student paying $6,640 per year,
according to newly released data by Statistics Canada. The report, released September 16, shows Ontario undergraduate students paid 5.1 per cent more on tuition on average for the 2011–2012 academic year when compared to the 2010– 2011 year. That growth outpaces inflation, which increased by 2.7 per cent from July 2010 to July 2011, according to the Consumer Price Index. The NDP are the last to release their education platform. The Liberals have announced a 30 per cent tuition cut for families who make less than $160,000 annually. The Conservatives have pledged to boost the education system with funding of $2 billion, while creating 60,000 spaces in universities and colleges. “We’re glad to see education being an election issue,” said President of Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance Sean Madden. “Especially around the issue of affordability, which is important to so many students.”
News
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
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Shatner businesses in the dark over failed contract negotiations Deadline for new tenants to submit business proposals extended Kallee Lins
The McGill Daily
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ince attempts at negotiations ended between SSMU and the MTY Group, the contractor who operates the Shatner cafeteria, the current subcontractors of the space, have not been informed of the status of their contract. SSMU VP Finance and Operations Shyam Patel confirmed that SSMU provided prior notice to MTY that they would be publicizing the termination of their business relationship at the first Council meeting of this academic year. After repeated attempts to reach the president of the company, however, MTY has not responded to SSMU. “If we ever were to receive a response, it was, ‘Give us more time’, so I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on on their side,” said Patel regarding attempts to negotiate with MTY. Cultures, Franx Supreme, and Tiki-Ming are subcontractors of MTY, and therefore any information regarding their contracts in SSMU must flow through MTY itself, who ultimately holds the lease on the cafeteria space. “In our contract it’s MTY that should be telling them, but I also feel like telling them ourselves is appropriate because they deserve to know,” said Patel. When asked whether she had been in contact with MTY, Jing Yao, the owner of Cultures, said she hadn’t “heard anything for a while.” She explained that the cafeteria subtenants are currently
SSMU was not able to reach MTY to negotiate a new contract. on a one-year lease extension. She expects to be meeting with the SSMU General Manager in the near future to discuss plans for the upcoming contract term. “I don’t know what the plans are for next year. I think we need to sit down and talk about some changes [to the contract],” said Yao. Rena and Lihui Wan, owners
of Tiki-Ming, have heard that the contract with MTY will not be renewed next year. Patel said he was approached by the Wans, who expressed interest in continuing to occupy the space. Patel stated that SSMU would be accepting business proposals from the current subtenants to occupy the space as individuals unaffiliated with MTY.
Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily
“We understand these are the lives of individuals, and giving them the chance to make proposals is great,” said Patel. A presentation on the tenant selection process and the current proposals was originally scheduled for the next Council session on September 29, but it has been rescheduled for the first meeting in
October in order to give current subtenants adequate time to prepare any proposals they plan to submit. Multiple businesses, including Burritoville and Lola Rosa, have already expressed interest in working with SSMU and have outlined their plans for student-friendly food services. The deadline to submit proposals is October 3.
Students demand a student-run cafe on campus SSMU and an inter-faculty initiative work towards proposals Juan Camilo Velasquez The McGill Daily
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ince the closure of the Architecture Café in the fall of 2010, demand for a cafe run by students and for students has prompted SSMU to take action towards realizing such a project on campus. Following the closure of the Arch Café – and subsequent student demonstrations against the administration’s role in turning the cafe’s former location into a study area – SSMU VP Finance and Operations Shyam Patel told The Daily that demand has risen for a space managed by students and independent from corporate ties. Patel has been involved in the plan-
ning for a potential student-run cafe. “A student–run cafe will happen for sure; if not, I will resign,” Patel said. “It is something students care about and even the University criticizes us for not having a student-run cafe.” Financial concerns are at the forefront of discussions regarding the development of a student-run cafe. Financial mismanagement was among problems cited by the McGill administration as cause for the closure of the Arch Café. Patel described a student-run cafe as being a worthwhile investment. “I think in the past there was some hesitancy about finances, but right now we are in a position in which we are financially more sound and able to move forward, so this is the perfect opportunity,” he said.
A cafe would join a short list of existing student-run food services at McGill. Since its creation in 2002 under the name of The Food Club, Midnight Kitchen (MK) is one of the most prominent student-run food services at McGill. Carol Fraser, SSMU VP Clubs and Services and former volunteer coordinator for MK, spoke about the presence of a student-run food service on campus. “It is really important to create a community… It needs to be a place where everyone feels safe and welcome, and wants to come back,” Fraser said. Students are involved in the planning process through a SSMU working group, which Patel is a part of, to develop a proposal for the student-run cafe.
“Anyone can join. We have one councillor, but to be honest, most of the members are outside of SSMU – not councillors, not executives,” said Patel of the working group. He cited the group’s research as being helpful to the eventual creation of the cafe’s business proposal. An alternate proposal for the project will be created by the Inter-Faculty Case Competition in Sustainability (IFCCS), which is sponsored by SSMU. The idea for the competition originated last year out of discussions between undergraduate faculty presidents. Omer Dor, chair of IFCCS, explained that this group would work independently from the SSMU working group, and would try to find the most sustainable
operating practices for a studentrun cafe. “The main objective is to create a collaboration from students across McGill to work on an issue that is pertaining to sustainability [particularly in] the student-run cafe,” said Dor. The competition aims to design a proposal for a student-run cafe that is “innovative and implementable,” including a business report and model for the project. Patel spoke about student reaction to the creation of the SSMU working group and IFCCS case competition. “Many people…are interested in when we will have the studentrun cafe,” he said. “It’s going to be two years from now… This year is going to be used to plan things.”
4 News
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
HEC Montreal Froshies wear blackface McGill law student witnesses and records incident Elise Hannaford News Writer
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McGill law student intends to file a complaint with the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ), the Quebec commission on human rights and youth rights, after witnessing students of the École des Hautes Études commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montreal) wearing blackface on September 14, 2011 during their Frosh activities. At the start of each fall semester, HEC Montreal, an independent business school affiliated with the Université de Montréal (UdeM), organizes Frosh events for incoming students as a way of facilitating their integration into the student community. After students were divided into several groups, each group was given a sporting event to represent. Group A01 was assigned Track and Field, and drew inspiration from Jamaican Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt. Jacques Nantel, general secretary of HEC Montreal and a marketing professor, discussed the incident with The Daily.
“The group [inspired by Bolt] decided to represent Jamaica, which up to that point was not a bad idea,” he said. But, Nantel explained, when the students showed up at the day’s activities with faces painted black and chanting defamatory songs, the situation became “unacceptable.” Anthony Morgan, an undergraduate law student from McGill, was passing by the UdeM campus when he heard the HEC Frosh participants. He heard one of the groups shouting, “Yeah man, yeah man,” and went to take a closer look. He told The Daily that he “was absolutely shocked and horrified to see that this group was painted, face, neck, arms and legs in blackface.” According to Morgan, students where chanting “smoke more weed” and some were wearing monkey masks. Morgan described feeling unsure of what to do, but concluded that he needed to take some kind of action. He noted other black students around him that looked uncomfortable, and who, to him, shared “a sense of humiliation that this was taking place as a representation of black people.”
After recording the incident on his phone, Morgan posted the videos on YouTube. When asked why he decided to make the videos public, Morgan explained that he wanted to create a public discussion around the event. “This is a problem at Canadian universities at large when it comes to representation, access to information and just free and fair discussion about the contribution of people of African descent,” he said. Morgan added that he was not trying to point fingers at the students involved, but rather at the lack of institutional framework that should prevent such scenes from happening. Nantel said that “if there is even one person being offended by this matter, that is too much for us.” The HEC administration has admitted that the actions were racist and unacceptable. Morgan stated that he was pleased with HEC’s response so far. “I think that this is a very commendable step as an institution, other Canadian universities have experienced blackface on campus and haven’t responded as effec-
Courtesy of YouTube
HEC administration calls the incident “unacceptable.” tively and as quickly, so I laud them for that,” he said. Morgan is planning on filing a complaint with the CDPDJ because he believes the commission has the expertise and resources necessary to deal with the incident. He explained that he is not looking for financial compensation, but rather wants to open discussion about similar incidents. Morgan said he is looking to the CDPDJ to set up an indepen-
dent investigation on what happened at HEC’s Frosh and how the situation got out of hand. He spoke about his hope that HEC and other universities will partner with organizations like the CDPDJ to create a safe space where students can discuss and be made aware of the representations of different people in society. Nantel stated that measures would be put in place to prevent such incidents from reoccurring.
News
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
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Quebec corruption report shakes university campuses Investigating the ethics curriculum in McGill Engineering The McGill Daily
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report leaked to the media last week confirming suspicions of widespread corruption, collusion and mafia connections in the Quebec construction industry has prompted questions concerning the ethical instruction students receive in Quebec university engineering programs. The report, compiled by the Ministère du transportation du Québec’s anti-corruption squad, the Unité permanente anticorruption, was first leaked to Radio-Canada and La Presse last Thursday. “In short,” the report reads, “criminal organizations are taking advantage of legitimate companies, in which they are silent partners, to funnel public funds, controlling the construction world.” For civil engineering students at McGill, the exposed corruption is especially damaging. “It reflects badly in the public’s eyes on civil engineers,” said Ethan Landy, President of the McGill Civil Engineering Undergraduate Society (CEUS). Engineers in Quebec are required to be members of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) and to adhere to their code of ethics. The code includes duties and obligations towards the public, clients, and the profession. “I don’t like it that this is reflecting badly on the profession when the profession is required to uphold such a high code of ethics, in theory,” Landy said. The report gave an example of the kind of unethical behaviour Quebec construction companies engage in: “An engineer foresees 1,000 loads of contaminated soil when he knows full well that [the removal of] only 100 loads is necessary. By communicating that information to a certain company he can [tip the construction company off] to a savings of 900 loads, which can be advantageous to his offer,” reads the report. The OIQ code of ethics stipulates that an engineer “must charge and accept fair and reasonable fees,” and that an engineer “shall not resort to dis-
honest or doubtful practices in the performance of his professional activities.” The Faculty of Engineering incorporates ethics into their curriculum, requiring that all of its students take two courses that deal with professional engineering practice. Mohamed Meguid, Associate Chair of the McGill Civil Engineering Department, said students will learn “more information about engineering as a profession,” the “expectations from professionals,” and “the obligations that are attached to the profession” from the courses. Ghyslaine McClure, a professor in the Civil Engineering department, who also acts as a liason between the OIQ and the Engineering Faculty, said that the ethics curriculum at McGill has been recently revised. Students used to take one course in their first year. The course has now been split into one 100-level course and one 400-level course. “At the end of your program
you have a better understanding of what it means to be an engineer and [of] the difficult decisions you have to make from a technical perspective,” she said. The two courses are replacing MIME 221, Engineering and Professional Practice. Landy, who took the class several years ago, said it was a discussion-based course looking at cases of engineers’ unethical behaviour. Landy said the situation surrounding the Quebec construction industry was not discussed. “We looked at a lot of different cases, one of which was the Challenger space shuttle, and it had to do with a fault in the [engineering] process,” he said. “There was a whistleblower, essentially. The person, the whistleblower, suffered consequences because they took a stand against it.” According to Landy, the class discussed whether engineering ethics encouraged or discour-
aged whistle-blowing. “I don’t remember, so maybe it is me, but I didn’t come out with a strong impression, a strong yes-or-no, what’sright-what’s-wrong, in that respect,” he said. “It would be good to know.” Landy stressed the importance of educating engineers in the ethical issues that surround their profession. “It’s really important for a civil engineer – especially for someone who’s going to be graduating soon, moving into the industry – to establish their view on this,” he said. Alain Azar, now a Masters student in Civil Engineering, thought the one course he took on ethics as an undergraduate was “more than enough,” and that the questions he faced in the class were “really straightforward.” McClure pointed out that students are educated about ethics long before they arrive at university. “It has to do with your own values,” she said. “Are you willing to compro-
mise and tell a few lies or not?” “I always tell the students that the most important thing that you have as a professional, and that you never lose, is your reputation,” she continued. McClure hasn’t read the report, but from what she has heard, she said its revelations don’t surprise her. “I know people who have to work in those situations, and this collusion thing,” she said. “It does exist, and I think in a way it must exist in many other professions too.” The report cites a decline in enrollment in civil engineering programs over the last decade in Quebec as a contributing factor in the corruption scandal engulfing the province’s construction industry. Enrollment in McGill engineering programs, however, has remained steady. “I’m not sure [the corruption] is a factor that plays a role into directing students or scaring students away from engineering,” said Meguid. — with files from Henry Gass
Full-time McGill undergraduate enrollment by engineering department Electrical, Computer, and Software 800
Mechanical 600
Civil 400 Chemical
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Alyssa Favreau | The McGill Daily
Madeleine Cummings
Source: American Society for Engineering Education
Commentary
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
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Getting to democracy How Libya’s history complicates its future
Lukas Theinhaus | The McGill Daily
Richard Carozza Hyde Park
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s Gaddafi has recently been overthrown, many in Libya are hopeful about the country’s path to democracy. The optimist in me hopes that the patriotism that comes with liberation from a brutal dictator will instill comraderie between the various factions of Libya. But more likely than not, I see the various tribes forming separate factions and economic woes continuing to hinder the path towards a more prosperous future. The country of Libya is the byproduct of illogical colonial partitioning. The country is ethnically composed of three
regions (which could be three countries): Tripolitania, centred around Tripoli in the northwest; Cyrenaica, centred around Benghazi in the east; and Fezzan, the desert region in the southwest. Imagine the chaos of postHussein Iraq: factional violence, which would formerly have been mercilessly put down by Hussein. Gaddafi acted as the glue, as Josip Tito did in Yugoslavia. And remember that after Tito’s death in 1980, the country splintered and a decade later engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. I’m not saying that there will be a genocide in Libya , but it is unreasonable to expect the National Transitional Council (NTC) to provide a quick and effective transition to democracy.
Not that I’m defending the reign of Gaddafi; the victims of his rule are so numerous that he is considered as notorious as many convicted of genocide. The usurpation of Gaddafi’s power is probably the best thing to happen in Libya in decades, and Libyans may prefer weaker government and sporadic violence to the bitter, authoritarian rule of Gaddafi. This government however is not only weaker, but includes many of those officials who were associated with the Gaddafi regime. I cannot deny that I am glad Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Gaddafi’s former Justice Minister who was globally commended for his opposition to some of the regime’s more vain tactics, has assumed a prominent role in the NTC.
However, I can’t help but harbour suspicions about NTC members who were complicit with the previous administration’s human rights violations. In addition, there has also been staggeringly little conversation over economics. Indeed, the Arab Spring was half a fight over political and social freedoms, and half an economic struggle to combat unemployment and the plight of the forgotten impoverished. While the NTC has managed to cement some political authority over the country, it will have to work doubly hard to maintain the sort of control Gaddafi mustered – without using the egregious tactics he employed – and also find jobs for the tens of thousands of unemployed, young people who
fuelled the violence of the rebellion to begin with. If the former NTC rebels are not satisfied, I see no reason why there wouldn’t be a second call-to-arms to remove the NTC, especially if they don’t deliver on promises of political and economic improvement. I support the National Transitional Council. I believe they are the best shot that Libya has towards a freer, more prosperous future. I just fail to fully accept the notion that the council is inherently the antithesis to the colonel’s rule. Libya has just scratched the surface at reaching the democracy its citizens set out for. Richard Carozza is a U2 physiology student. You can contact him at richard.carozza@mail.mcgill.ca.
An open letter from the QPIRG McGill Board of Directors
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o the membership of the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA): On behalf of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRGMcGill), we are writing to lend our support to you during this strike period and to express our solidarity with your struggle as negotiations with McGill continue. With the spectre of the tuition deregulation planned by the Charest government overhead, McGill has hiked fees for international students and those in
already-deregulated programs, and it has dismantled resource and funding structures essential to faculties and departments. It is against this backdrop – and against the backdrop of a principal who is paid more than our prime minister – that MUNACA’s struggle for a proper wage scale, fairly negotiated pension-and-benefits programs, parity with other university workers, et cetera., must be placed. Just as the McGill community is more than its students and teachers, the fight for a positive and accessible university does not stop at tuition: it is also
the fight for workers’ rights. Neither students nor staff should bear the brunt of the government’s refusal to fund education adequately. MUNACA’s presence at McGill is vital. Not only because their struggle seeks to create and maintain reasonable and just working conditions for non-academic staff, but because – in the union’s own words – “McGill works because [they] do.” We all have a stake in the respectful, equitable and fair treatment of McGill’s non-academic employees. Without them, there can be no university. So it is incumbent upon
all of us – students, academic staff, community members – to stand in solidarity with MUNACA throughout this strike period. We would like to extend thanks to the members of MUNACA for their vigilant efforts to protect workers’ rights, and the strength you have all demonstrated in fighting to hold McGill accountable to the more equitable standards we see at other Montreal universities – standards which McGill falls far short of. In reaffirming our unwavering support for your struggle, we also strongly urge the administration to
negotiate in good faith with the union and to meet its crucial demands. At QPIRG, we recognize that the people who make up McGill – students as well as academic and nonacademic staff – also form part of the broader Montreal community. We see this struggle on campus as part of the larger fight to make our educational institutions accessible, and we will stand with MUNACA workers until their goals have been achieved.
– In solidarity, signed by the QPIRG McGill Board of Directors.
Letters
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
Don’t judge a picketer by their cover Many students resent us strikers because we block access to campus and because of the difficulties we have caused them in registering, securing financing, and so on. I might have felt the same way. However, rather than ignoring and judging us, please think about the following: While it might look like we are a bunch of two-year olds throwing a collective tantrum, we are simply following a convention in labour relations that dictates that walking around outside your place of work making noise and shouting corny slogans means that you want better working conditions. More significantly, in order to get any pay at all, we need to picket. In spite of appearances, I’m not having fun on the picket lines. The dancing and noise-making are poor substitutes for the meaningful and supportive interactions with co-workers and students that most support staff are inclined towards. Walking in circles is unbelievably boring and hard on the joints. There are a limited number of conversations one can have with co-workers and strike-mates. The noise is ear-drum busting, the pace glacial, and there are no guarantees that this will even be effective. And things are complicated: though I wear an “on strike” t-shirt and make noise sometimes, it’s worth noting that I, among many others, voted against the strike. But striking is all or nothing. Once begun, the continuation is scripted. Our future together at McGill rests in the hands of a few negotiators and the administration. Frankly, I don’t know who to trust less. So, next time you go to class, think about walking an extra few feet to avoid disrespecting this strike process. Or better yet, come talk to us or walk a few rounds. Maybe we’ll all get back to doing what we are here to do that much faster.
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50 Grads. One Weekend. Your Future. We’re inviting 50 of Canada’s top engineering students to Waterloo for one weekend to plan their futures.
The 50 Graduates Weekend is a chance for selected Canadian students interested in master’s and PhD studies to learn about graduate programs in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo and experience
Frances Spidle Secretary, Downtown Campus Alumni, Faculty of Music
life in one of Canada’s most vibrant
All expenses paid.† Want to join us?
communities. You will tour state-of-the-art engineering facilities, explore innovative research programs, and
Yeah, I’m down.
learn about collaborations with the
Re: “Are you down to riot, bro?” | Hyde Park | September 19
region’s growing list of technology, automotive, financial, health and environmental companies. You will also get a taste of the region’s exciting social life with visits to local cultural centres, restaurants and the idyllic village of St. Jacobs.
It’s happening
November 3 to 6, 2011
Apply at:
engineering.uwaterloo.ca/50graduates Apply by: September 30, 2011
†Details regarding travel expenses can be found at: engineering.uwaterloo.ca/50graduates 3212
Dear McGill Daily, I enjoyed reading Alvin Chauhan’s recent Hyde Park explaining “the dark pleasure of rioting” as related to the mayhem in downtown Vancouver this past June. Chauhan is correct in arguing – as any viewer of the relevant YouTube videos can corroborate – that what happened after the Stanley Cup loss had nothing to do with hockey, and everything to do with “the unbelievably powerful adrenaline rush, a consuming feeling of megalomania” that accompanies the “opportunit[y] to take a crude object and a smash it through the window of a bustling downtown shop.” As someone who has enjoyed observing at least at one of Montreal’s
own famous hockey riots (May 2010), and who has found myself rooting for the hooligans smashing the SAQ’s windows rather than for the wickedly effective police, I can appreciate this adrenaline rush. Chauhan’s observations regarding “the carnivalesque atmosphere of a riot” are spot-on. The kids in Vancouver burning cop cars were not doing so in the name of anything other than sheer destruction. I join Chauhan in actually respecting this a little bit. Everyone feels the need to break shit once in a while. What’s annoying, though, is when the impulse to destruction is clearly the underlying motive, but the rioter in question marches under a scrawled-out banner and expects us to believe that he or she breaks shit for the designated reason. Despite the menacing mask or the badass bandanna, it’s easy to see right through them. Which is why I think it a very good idea for The Daily to assign Chauhan to cover next spring’s annual “Anti-Police Brutality March.” The intention of the “March” – not the incidental outcome, as the organizers cheekily insist – is always to create the same seemingly spontaneous ejaculation of the riotous spirit that Chauhan observed in Vancouver. Send him to check it out, and if he’s lucky, get arrested. I’d love to know what he thinks. Ricky Kreitner U3 Philosophy
The world is watching Re: “Big brother is watching” | Editorial | September 12 The GAMMA task force does not lack, as Monday’s editorial stated, a “clear motive.” The SPVM’s project is motivated by the increasing, protestrelated violence over recent years, and by the well-founded conclusion that this violence is tolerated and even espoused by some anarchist organizations. The QCHRF protects the rights of all groups to assembly and expression – but we must be clear about what kind of assembly and expression this means. We would not argue that such protections extend to a group that encourages violence against blacks, Muslims, or queers, for example. What has developed is a situation where anarchist groups are similarly classified – and for no obscure reason. Anarchist groups, which decry state violence, have in general failed to stand against violence, especially violence targeting the police, from within their own ranks. Those who attack police officers, throw petrol bombs, or break windows will almost certainly be arrested. The organizations to which they are party will be investigated to stop such events happening again. Here, the state makes no distinction between racists, “nice” anarchists, or animal-rights advocates. By recourse to violence, whoever per-
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petrates it surrenders their “right” to freedom from police scrutiny. Not all anarchists are violent, but too many are – it is up to anarchist organizers to change this. Some will say, “Cops are never innocent.” Indeed some police commit crimes. These are for journalists to expose and for the law to punish. But when a woman is raped, or a homeless person assaulted (“Witnessing assault at the metro station,” 12/9/11) whom else do we call? Perhaps the distant future will see a new alternative to the state’s role in keeping the peace, as some anarchists suggest. But in our massive contemporary society, the only way that anarchists will achieve such a paradigm is through peaceful means of their own. If they continue to condone violence, the suppression of anarchist groups is inevitable. Mike Prebil U3 History
Definitely not, but thanks. Re: “Are you down to riot, bro?” | Hyde Park | September 19 Dear McGill Daily, As a Vancouverite, I am deeply shamed by both the riots and the idea that someone would write about them in so celebratory a tone, reveling in the denigration of any city, let alone my hometown. Mr. Chauhan’s shallow profiling of the rioters and his tenuous assertions, that “the riots should demonstrate that violence and destructive behaviour are natural human qualities,” are unhelpful and baseless. If human beings are naturally violent and destructive, how does one comprehend the outpouring of support and volunteerism to help clean up the downtown core the very next day? Further, the assumption that no one will be prosecuted, that rioters can “temporarily indulge in barbarism” without legal consequences, is naive and shortsighted. The legal system in BC is designed so as to make it more difficult for police and prosecutors to arraign suspects due to the amount of corroborating evidence required to lay charges. The protections in place are to ensure a freer society, one in which protest is recognized as a legitimate form of dissent. The senseless violence of June 15 jeopardizes the legitimacy of our justice system. Finally, Chauhan’s anecdotal evidence of human kindness is irrelevant. The fibre of our community was on display on Thursday, June 16, not the ragged edges you selfidentify with of the night before. I find Mr. Chauhan cowardly for publishing this story here, in Montreal, where it will have little permanence, and I suggest he try to have it published in the Vancouver Sun or Province for the judgment he has avoided so far. Matthew Milne U2 Political Science and English Literature
8 Features
So long, and thanks for all the fish A summer in the Alaskan hinterlands Elena Dugan
Features Writer
L
ast summer, I worked at a salmon-processing factory in Alaska. After telling people that, I generally add that I worked 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, and watch their jaws drop. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I had never been to Alaska, never been to the west coast, barely even left the northeastern U.S. of A. The very thought of venturing out of the lower 48 was enough to send me into spastic visions of polar bear adventuring and high seas skullduggery. I dreamt of clear skies and hardy locals and transporting wild horses across the frontier. Real Davey Crocket fare. But, like most manifestations of the American Dream, my Alaskan summer turned out to be far murkier, messier, and more jarring than I had expected. What really happened was my father upped my summer earnings goal to the preposterous sum of $6,000 dollars, and with no skills and no work experience, I was hard up for better ideas. I started out in a crappy motel in Seattle – the illustrious Seattle-Tacoma Travelodge, to be exact. I was ecstatic to be alive, glorying in the ash-stained carpet and polyester blankets as symbols of my freedom, independence, and adulthood. I pranced around in my room for about an hour until I received a call from a perky-sounding girl named Ashley*. In her cheerleader’s voice, she asked if I wanted to split a cab to our employee meeting tomorrow. My heart sank – surely this goodie two-shoes had no place in my summer of adventure. But the cab was too steep to go it alone, so I begrudgingly accepted her offer. The next morning, I was relieved to find that, far from being the pom-pom wielding type, Ashley had white-girl dreads, a tube stretched through her earlobe, a backpack the size of Mongolia, and absolutely no inhibitions. Ashley was once evicted from an apartment for making disruptively loud sex noises, won amateur night at a strip club (“I can’t dance so I just acted shy”), and rivals Timothy O’Leary for prolific drug experimentation. Her idea of a good time turned out to be the rule rather than the exception at the salmon processing plant. Ashley’s roommates at the cannery were all equally wild. Barbie-like Alexis (“lush” was how one fisherman described her) transferred departments three different times, got fired, and wet the bed at 1 p.m. after drinking since 9 a.m. that morning. Recently-divorced Julie flopped around the Dillingham bar scene (the only bar scene on earth that will welcome a 40 year-old with a pixie cut so enthusiastically), and was also fired. All of them somehow
contracted a combination of bronchitis, pneumonia, the “cannery cough,” and hypochondria – not to mention breaking records for most Nyquil mixed with whiskey ever. That said, I loved them very, very much. Still in Seattle, two days before flying to Alaska, Ashley and two Filipino guys (whom I came to call the New Boyz) are informed they need to retake their drug tests, to which they collectively mutter “shit.” Like any good employee, they had all taken copious amounts of drugs in the days prior to dispatch. A guy called Snick confesses to me that he had done meth the previous day – a Tuesday – at noon. So I end up wandering through a foggy and barelyawake Seattle with Ashley and the New Boyz looking for a GNC health food store, looking frantically for an off-brand Master Cleanse-like substance. Upon finding a bottle, they guzzle it down. Only Ashley and Snick pass, but our experience bonds us enough that Snick – while sadly waving to his fallen comrade, the second of the two New Boyz who was sent home – offers to share his Four Loko with us in celebration. The next day, we all fly up to Juneau and wait for our connecting flight to Dillingham, Alaska, population 2,400, three of whom are Palins (they’re everywhere). Unfortunately, small-town Alaska has not upgraded their airplanes since Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. In my new friends’ words, it is the “ghettoest” airline in existence. Their flight schedules don’t show up electronically because they’re done manually on a black sign behind the desk, upon which many of the “letters” are accidentally numbers, or upside down. They weigh our carry-ons and ask for our weight upon entering the plane, because the plane is so goddamn small that weight distribution is actually important. Should five passengers be on the same side of the plane, we would be looking at a continual barrel roll. The plane arrives two and a half hours after it is scheduled to depart – a wise-ass at the front desk reminds me that Alaska is timeless. While I wait for the plane, I take Tagalog lessons from Snick and get crossword help from a stringy old Filipino man with no teeth. Without exception, the draw of the plant is the money – five grand or so over the course of four weeks, thanks to 80 hours a week in overtime, sometimes more. And the standards for employment are nice and low. Convicts, drug addicts, alcoholics: all are welcomed as long as they can stay awake to do their relatively menial tasks. A remarkable percentage of the workers at the plant are Filipino, though there is also one black man with bloodshot eyes, some Serbian boys who seem to have less than legal paperwork, lots of Mexican people, a posse of Ukrainian girls, and some Turkish men with an interest in the Mormon Church.
Until the salmon season starts, the employees mostly scheme to get paid work elsewhere – otherwise there’s nothing to do but drink, read, and play cards. There is no cell phone service, and the town’s offerings consist of a supermarket, a hardware store, and one bar whose sign advertises a seal with breasts. Rebecca, a tall, slender social work student, becomes my partner in crime as we help Big Dan, a 400-pound forklift driver, weigh giant plastic crates. Dan has three teeth and three thousand opinions, and is as much of a joy as he is abrasive. He lectures us for hours about how sissy the ice truck drivers are on the Discovery Channel, and what a truly great movie Fiddler on the Roof is. Apart from the expanse that was Big Dan, there isn’t much wilderness to explore – the tundra gets awfully boring quickly. There are no trees, few animals, and a whole lot of spongy permafrost. Mostly, we play President and Bullshit, and try to mine information from the old-timers about when exactly the season will start. While we bided our time, we got a treat in the form of our factory tour, led by the cannery foreman, Jerry. He would make a decent drill sergeant, and has been known to carry a lit cigarette in each hand, with one behind each ear as back-ups. He implored us over and over to obey the cardinal rule of the plant: “DO NOT STICK YOUR HANDS IN THE MACHINE.” He illustrated this with countless graphic stories of gruesome deaths that were the fate of people who did not follow his dictum. “Do you know what it’s like to hold a young boy whose arm was ripped off by the machinery, watching the life drain out of him as he waits for the medivac to arrive? It put tears in my fucking eyes, and I didn’t cry at my own father’s funeral. DO NOT STICK YOUR HAND IN THE MACHINES.” He became my life hero very quickly. Finally, the fishing boats on the rivers started to bring in salmon, and the season began. There are five varieties of salmon – king (also called Chinook, the highest-quality and largest), sockeye (a.k.a “red,” smaller but good quality), coho (or silvers; didn’t come in until later in the season), pinks (apparently called humpback, though I usually heard them called “crap”), and chum (also dog, also just absolute crap). The best quality fish was headed and gutted by hand, most often by a group of Mexican men. They knew considerably less English than the goofs on the night crew where I worked, but also got in fewer salmon-gut fights, and were on the whole probably less drunk on the job. That said, I don’t know if they felt for the salmon as strongly as I did. One night I was inspecting and sorting the salmon, and I found one with a particularly bad case of sea-lice (an infes-
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
tation of parasites near the tail fin). I immediately burst into tears at the injustice of harvesting such an unselfishly giving organism. I never stopped getting shit for that. The assembly line was called “fresh-frozen,” where we froze and packaged either fillets or whole fish, depending on the specific orders from distributors. Kings are never filleted – they’re too valuable to be ruined by us idiots – so we generally weighed them, froze them, and shipped them off in giant boxes. Sockeye, on the other hand, were sent through a variety of machines which head, gut and fillet them, leaving the employees to clean, vacuum pack, and make them look presentable. The cliquey Ukrainian girls in tight clothes generally worked this fillet line, which didn’t discourage the college boys in packaging from spending a majority of their time trying to sneak to meet the Ukrainians and con the girls into becoming their “salmon sweethearts.” Next to the fillet line worked the apparently lusty Serbian guys, one of whom was rumored to have worked his way through the entire woman’s bunkhouse. The sassy older Filipino women, whom I absolutely adored, dominated the pin-bone line. They were in charge of removing small bones from fillets with a tweezer. When I was forced onto the pin-bone line against my will (I really was awful at it), it was very comforting to listen to them chatting and gossiping (about me, probably) in the gliding and popping lilt of Tagalog, while waiting for their ringleader to come over and pinch my butt and whisper, “pick harder!” I finally learned enough Tagalog to say I hated fish, this job, and my life, which really helped me to fit in – turns out my native New York-style kvetching is universal. My section, “case-up,” worked on packing the already frozen fillets into 22-pound boxes – a job that required gloves, a high tolerance for boredom, and several sweaters to ward off the refrigerated chill. I printed and put stickers on boxes of frozen fillets most of the time, earning me the illustrious title of “tally girl.” Our section was mostly made up of young white kids, and Turkish people. With the advent of the season came the long hours that everyone had simultaneously anticipated and dreaded. On the 18-hour night shifts, 15 other people and I worked from 1 p.m. to 7 a.m the next morning. As a result, we spent a majority of our time cooking up schemes to nap, ranging from getting our boss drunk, to passing out on the floor in the box loft, to simply not waking up for work, knowing our boss would send someone to unceremoniously dump us out of bed. Sickness was not an excuse to not show up to work, drunkenness was seemingly encouraged, and playing nookie had to be done on your own time (despite rumors to the contrary). We got occasional breaks – short ones to
eat cookies, or longer ones if our boss was off conducting a meeting with his salmon sweetheart under the docks at low tide. The temptation of sleep took up permanent residence on all of our shoulders, in turns whispering, weeping, and demanding that you couldn’t possibly need the money this badly. Problem was, we did need the money that badly. So we learned to lean on each other. We didn’t have the fear that bonds soldiers in war, or the common idea that bonds revolutionaries, just the stark equation that time equals money. So you do anything to give the time away, anything to take away its burden. I quizzed any person who worked within ten feet of me on every aspect of their lives. My friend who worked the box strapping machine and I played chuck, fuck, or marry – mostly using the Ukrainian girls and the Serbian boys as candidates – for hours on end. I would ask the five-foot-two Mexican forklift driver to teach me swear words in Spanish. I played basketball really terribly with Snick, and I asked the Turkish people about Turkey. Rebecca and I played pranks on our boss (like forging sexual harassment write-ups), messed with the label machine, and spread rumors that beluga whales were in the bay if we wanted the factory to clear out so we could take a break. We gossiped, swapped secrets, and talked about anything that would fill up the time. We talked religion, sex, drugs, politics, race, gender, class, high school castes, and lots of fish. And in those endless discussions, in that meaningless work, and in that cold fucking factory, I lost myself. The “I” that had guided my expectations for the summer, the glorious memoir-worthy individual triumph that I had expected, lost significance. “I” became “we.” So we wired money home, or spent it all on alcohol, or on off-brand herbal medicine from the internet. We waited to see if the sun would ever fully go down (it never did). We tried unsuccessfully to look attractive in our rain gear in order to snag ourselves a forklifter, or we called our loved ones every morning without fail. Leaving was the same hysterical, dysfunctional mess that arriving was, but my night crew came to see me off, following me as I chased around the truck that seemed determined to leave for the airport without me. I took a ferry part of the way home, from Juneau to Seattle. And somewhere between Sitka and Ketchikan, amid the endless conifers, my fractured thoughts rearranged themselves into something that, ironically, felt an awful lot like independence. * All names have been changed to protect the privacy of the article’s subjects.
All illust rati
o ns by Nicole Stradiott
9
o | The McGill D aily
An ode to fresh frozen Fresh frozen, no posin’ just rollin’ We know so much our heads is all swollen We work so hard we never just strollin’ Now here’s a list of why we great and why we cool COLON We case up, just face up you tricking cannery To the facts,you ain’t jack, with your lower salary We smell fresh to death our rain-gear is shining Our blood is as blue as our thirty pound linings And who be trying to outclass us? Oh yeah egg house But we still got our souls, we ain’t no Faust We know that our containers ain’t your mil and a half But you know that we the greatest so stop making us laugh With your feigning that we don’t process enough With your whining and your crying that your jobs is too tough You know we put out more than Carmen Electra Now do you get the picture? I’ll recolor the spectra. Every client, every order, every deal, you know who’s closin It’s your favorite fools right here at Fresh FROZEN — Elena Dugan wrote this while working at the cannery in Alaska
Health&Education
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
10
The continuing legacy of the RSS Investigation into First Nations children’s welfare reveals an undesirable reality Health&Education Writer
T
he establishment of the residential school system (RSS) in the 19th century was a dark stain of prejudice in Canadian history that continues to show its devastating effects today. Although these schools – which were created to assimilate the aboriginal peoples
Indians under the age of 16 compulsory. This resulted in the forced relocation of aboriginal children from their families to severely underfunded designated schools far from their homes. At these schools, children were punished for speaking languages other than French or English, and for practicing non-Christian faiths. These policies seemed to attempt to strip the children of remaining ties to their own culture.
There are more First Nations children in care right now than that at the height of the RSS. of Canada into European-Canadian society – no longer exist, the current circumstances in these communities are grievous as there are more First Nations children in care right now than that at the height of the RSS. A major study conducted in 2005 puts the number of First Nations children no longer living with their parents at 27,500. Further data produced since then solidly suggest that the numbers are continuously growing. John Beaucage, a First Nations leader hired by the Ontario government to investigate the welfare of aboriginal children, reports that present-day conditions are distressing. Overwhelmingly, First Nations children take up the majority of the resources of the child welfare system on territorial, provincial, and federal levels. The statistics are staggering. Beaucage’s findings place the general First Nations population in Ontario at 2 per cent, and, yet, First Nations children make up 10 to 20 per cent of all those in provincial care. More alarmingly, reports from British Columbia show the aboriginal population sitting at about 8 per cent, while the children make up over 50 per cent of those in foster care. “If anything, it’s an underestimation,” commented Nico Trocmé, director of McGill’s Centre for Research on Children and Families, about the data presented. He suggested that the data for aboriginal people is incomplete and not often kept up-to-date, and that it’s comparatively difficult to keep track of those who cannot be easily reached. An examination of why the residential school system had such lasting adverse effects requires looking back several decades. The enactment of the Indian Act in 1867 and its amendment in 1884 made residential school attendance for status
In addition, the conditions within the residential schools were far from what one would consider humane. These institutions were established under a severely underfunded system, and many students were forced into menial labour in order to maintain the basic operations of the institutions. Aside from under-trained teachers and inadequate education standards, the living and health conditions were deplorable. Doctors and nurses were seldom present, and, as a result, tuberculosis spread and became commonplace. For the most part, the schools made no effort in quarantining the infected students, and some even forced the critically ill to continue attending classes. Additionally, many of the aboriginal students were subjected to sexual, psychological, and physical abuse by school employees. The last residential school in Canada, White Calf Collegiate, was closed in 1996. Yet even 15 years after the its closing, the system of support for the aboriginal community still can be improved upon. “The [current state of welfare] is not well-covered by the media, and people predominately tend to turn a blind eye to it or are just generally not well-informed,” said Trocmé.
The “Millennium Scoop” Beaucage coined the term “Millennium Scoop” to describe the current situation of aboriginal families who are pressured to send their children off reserves to receive better care. This stems from the large discrepancy in funding for child welfare services on reserves, which is provided by the federal government, versus
funding for services off reserves, which is provided by the province. On-reserve care is currently receiving much less monetary support. Trocmé states that the provision of funding by different sectors of the government, which creates such a discrepancy, makes it difficult for the aboriginal welfare system to coordinate itself. “The people providing the money [didn’t have much] to do with those spending it,” he said. Though the term “Millennium Scoop” echoes the “Sixties Scoop” – the practice of forcibly placing Canadian aboriginal children into white families that began in the sixties – it is very important to realize that the two periods are more different than similar. In the sixties, aboriginal children sent off reserves were predominantly placed in European-Canadian homes. Nowadays, assimilation is no longer an option; a clear effort is being made to place First Nations children into other aboriginal homes when foster care is deemed necessary. Furthermore, it is estimated that about 90 per cent of the children in foster care do eventually find their way home.
Digging into the welfare system For mainstream Canadian society, removing children from their homes is not the focus of the child welfare system. The primary concern has long since moved towards helping troubled families and providing resources devoted to prevention. Substance abuse programs and home visiting are examples of such support strategies. However, the First Nations community is only recently starting to benefit from such a push. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, the Assembly of First Nations, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission have all taken a stand towards the funding discrepancy. Collectively, they have filed a human rights complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal against the government of Canada, asking for equal-quality care on and off reserves. However, the federal government has tried its hardest to prevent the case from receiving a full hearing. To date, the case has lasted over four years, and one can only speculate on how much longer it will take for it to finally be resolved.
Unfortunately, as the legalities drag on, more and more First Nations children will be forced into institutions or put into foster care as their families are no longer deemed capable of caring for them. Even though the child welfare system for First Nations children is indeed beginning to move towards preventative efforts, the problem cannot be solved by simply restructuring the financial model being used. The oppressive legacy of the RSS has taken away a lot of the first-hand knowledge of childrearing from aboriginal parents. Furthermore, many experts and professionals find that family dysfunction is often rooted in poor health, poverty, and lack of various other basic needs such as access to clean water and resources – all issues significantly affecting Canada’s aboriginal population. “It would only take a few months to restructure the federal spending system, but it would take years to fix the real causes of the adversities experienced by the First Nations families,” said Trocmé. “All the statistics I have seen suggest that preventative efforts are the most successful when it comes to solving this issue.”
Alan Thicke* | The McGill Da ily
David Ou
Health&Education
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
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New risks in a new setting A McGill seminar addresses the impact of immigration on women’s health Sohyun Lee
Health&Education Writer
T
his past Monday, the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF) at McGill hosted a seminar that discussed the ways that both biology and gender roles put immigrant women at higher risks of health problems. As immigrants constitute more than 18 per cent of the
Canadian population, the health of this subgroup is a pertinent issue. The speaker was Julie Cwikel, a social epidemiologist and director of Israel’s only academic cen-
ter on women’s health, that is, the Center for Women’s Health Studies and Promotion at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She identified several factors that make women more vulnerable to various health issues. First, she emphasized women’s role as “buffers” during the immigration process. Often it is men – husbands or fathers – who make the decision to emigrate,
and women follow along. When the transition to a new environment takes place, stress and trauma accumulate before, during, and after the process. This is especially dangerous to women – men tend to bring anger and frustration into the household, potentially resulting in women having adverse health issues, or being put in situations of domestic violence. Furthermore, women’s reproductive role may lead to health risks, as their reproductive years coincide with their working years. The double role of being a worker outside of home, and a mother in the household confers on women a larger responsibility, and, thus, considerable stress while trying to adapt to the different physical, social, cultural, and political environment of the host country. Cwikel, in her talk, pressed Canadian society to give greater recognition to women who manage these responsibilities.
She also urged Canadian health care to provide a more welcoming medical environment to immigrant women. Medical staff who understand the culture and customs of a woman’s origin can make her feel more comfortable about the services she receives, especially regarding delivery. “Diversity is a key,” Cwikel said, as she recommended more investment in training and educating staff so that they can become more sensitive to different customs. Moreover, Medicare can be made more accessible by offering consultation in the immigrant’s native language or providing translation for medical advice. By current law, new immigrants in Canada start to receive health care three months after they arrive. They are strongly advised to apply for private health services during the first three months, but specifications regarding “where” and “how” are unclear. For the immigrants who are not accustomed to the language or the Canadian system, the process may be arduous. As many immigrants are susceptible to diseases upon their first arrival, Cwikel proposes to make health care resources, if not free, at least widely available and easy to use. Cwikel provides a simple answer to the question on how to advocate for women’s health. “Educating women about their own health is the first major step,” she said. “It raises an awareness of the health risks many women are prone to. [Women] need to be advocates for [themselves], not only for [their] children and family.”
Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily
Changing the child’s brain landscape A study reveals amygdala enlargements in children of depressed mothers Rachael Kim
Health&Education Writer
A
s humans, it is in our nature to crave other peoples’ attention. The level of affection we receive is critical to our development and psyche throughout the course of our lives. Its significance is further heightened in childhood, as we are most vulnerable at this stage. This raises a question: can an adverse upbringing environment alter a child’s brain landscape? A recent study, led by Drs. Sonia Lupien and Jean Séguin from the Université de Montréal alongside McGill colleagues, found that children of depressed mothers have a larger amygdala, a structure vital
for emotion regulation and danger level assessment of an environment. Researchers speculate that children raised in an environment where the support – especially that needed to help assess the environment – is insufficient may be better at threat recognition than those raised in more supportive environments. For the study, 38 children whose mothers suffered from maternal depressive symptomatology (MDS) were selected from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. The MDS scale measured depressed mood, positive affect, and psychomotor retardation. MDS scores of the mothers were measured at various intervals of child growth between 5 and 156 months, and the sample consisted of
children with exposure to MDS since birth, and those without this. When the children reached ten years of age, their brains were scanned at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Contrary to popular belief, no correlation was found between MDS level and income. However, there was a positive correlation between a child’s amygdala size and the mother’s MDS score as well as her level of cortisol – an important stress hormone. Although the hippocampus, a structure responsible for retrieval of memory, has complementary functions to the amygdala, no difference in the hippocampal volume was detected. It is speculated that the change in the hippocampus may only be visible in later adolescence or adulthood. An
alteration in the amygdala size may imply that this part of the brain is especially delicate and responsive to the quality of maternal care. Any implications of the amygdala enlargement are yet to be discovered. However, this morphological change could be beneficial. “[When the baby is neglected,] the mother is not acting as a buffer between the baby and the environment,” explained Séguin. “The brain could compensate for it by growing the [amygdala] structure a little broader or larger.” This ensures protection and, ultimately, survival of the child. In addition to the mother’s MDS level, there are other presumptions that may explain this physiological alteration. The amygdala enlargement may arise from the genetic
transmission of the depressed mother. Further studies that investigate the hippocampal and amygdala volumes in siblings and twins may confirm the influence of genetics. There are, however, precautionary steps that can be taken to minimize the undesirable effects on a child’s brain growth. For one, children often benefit from biparental care A level of paternal involvement may also influence the child’s brain development, and low paternal participation during infancy is shown to cause mental health problems. Moreover, Séguin speculates that a variety of experiences, such as enriched daycare environment and interactions with other children, may help reorganize the brain’s morphological development.
Culture
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
12
A peek into POP Previewing a few POP-ular attractions
Isle of Pine In Henry Neville’s 1668 novel The Isle of Pines, he depicts a utopian island where the introduction of technology and weaponry pushes the once peaceful population to the brink of civil war. It seems fitting, then, that musician and current McGill undergraduate student Tim Beeler would name his music project Isle of Pine after Neville’s work. Isle of Pine, initially the result of two days spent recording with a Tascam 02 fourtrack cassette recorder and a $4 karaoke microphone, shows the beauty of simplicity. The product of those two days
spent recording in Beeler’s woodland house in New Hampshire is the Marches demo (Pt. 1). In an email interview with The Daily, Beeler explained how Isle of Pine “came at a time that I was feeling kind of distant from my songwriting and this really gave me a chance to make music that I was really excited about.” With his mother’s old four-track, “a handmade guitar, a tambourine, [and] a pill bottle,” Beeler’s minimalist setup proved successful. Once back in New Hampshire for the summer, Beeler continued recording, which lead to his second release, Kettle States. “I would
come home from work every day and track something. Ignoring the obvious limitations of recording to tape, it was a pretty perfect situation – there’s something really organic about recording without too much technological interference. You’re forced to simplify. Everything takes on a sort or permanence (for a short while, at least) that a click-and-delete-able computer track doesn’t have… When you don’t have Logic or ProTools right in front of you, you’re sort of forced to embrace the tape hiss and ambient noise as part of the song. It also roots things in a spe-
cific moment” Beeler reflected. It was these organic, beautifully authentic recordings that lead Isle of Pine – with musical backing by a couple friends – to snag a spot in this year’s POP Montreal Music festival. However, music isn’t Beeler’s only talent. Some of his creative writing has also been published in a few of McGill’s campus media outlets including The McGill Daily and Steps Magazine. Beeler’s poetry is imbued with the same heart-felt honesty as his lyrics, although the two remain artistically separate: “Joni Mitchell once said something about how some artists need different outlets
for different emotions. Lyrics are, in a strange way, pretty separate from poetry for me… I’m almost always more satisfied if I write the words to really match the feeling of the song... Even if that results in a few songs where the lyrics are less than transcendent. Some of them are just pop songs with heart.” And at the end of the day, what’s POP Montreal without a little heart?
enhance the viewers’ experience of the music they encounter. For example, one of the art shows Bokenfohr expressed the most excitement about features work by members and affiliates of the band the Raincoats, who are playing at this year’s festival. “The show is a collection of works and memories dating from 1977 to 2011,” explained Bokenfohr. The exhibit features works in a variety of mediums by vocalist and guitarist Ana da Silva, and videos created by the band’s bassist, Gina Burch. It also includes photography by the band’s longtime manager Shirley O’Loughlin, along with a variety of other pieces she provided, such as scans of letters responding to the band’s music by Kurt Cobain. “It’s really really really touching,” Bokenfohr emphasized. Another show to keep an eye on include an exhibit focusing on new media and sound art opening on Friday at La Société des arts tech-
nologiques. “We have the Montreal sound map, which is a collection of field recordings,” described Bokenfohr. “Sound artists have this bank that has been going on and on, keeping a record of the city and the sounds that come out of it. That’s an exciting project.” Another intriguing venture is an exhibition of web-art displayed via Boca online gallery (bocagallery. com). “Web art is really counter-institutional, which is sort of what POP is all about too,” Bokenfohr enumerated. POP Montreal has always been a feast for the ears, but with a wealth of exciting visual art shows to explore, Art POP has made it a feast for the eyes as well.
Jane and her former foolish smoochers, David Carrier and Thomas Gillies, is the bands new drummer, and former McGill student, Riley Fleck. “He’s a really good drummer and his contribution has been really good” Penny explained. While there may be a significant overlap with Silly Kissers in terms of members, according to Penny, the overlap in sound is fairly minimal. “Silly Kissers was electronic, and this isn’t, to put it simply. But also, I think there are different influences now.” While the differences may be clearcut, the Tops’ aesthetic remains “a little difficult to describe.” “I think we started out with soft rock because, in all manners of speaking, what we’re doing is rock music, but I don’t think we really feel an affiliation with rock necessarily.” Like its music, the band itself has taken
on a new life of its own. “It’s really collaborative, we all write the songs together, and it’s really rehearsal based… It’s more of a band” Penny laughed. For this relatively new Montreal music outfit, performing at POP is a welcome proposition. “It’s really a show that everybody can go to and everyone knows about,” noted Penny. “I’m really hoping that we get to share what we’re doing, cause I feel like it’s really reached a point of development where it’s ready to go.” – Fabien Maltais-Bayda
– Christina Colizza
Isle of Pine recordings can be found free online at isleofpine. bandcamp.com.
Art POP Now in its tenth year, POP Montreal has grown a lot as a music festival. Perhaps one of the largest changes that the past decade has brought is the addition of a slew of non-musical components, such as Puces POP, Film POP, and Art POP. “It’s been the creative direction’s mandate to open up to include other forms of entertainment and amusement for the festival goers,” said Stephanie Bokenfohr, a director and curator for this year’s Art POP segment, in a phone interview with The Daily. The idea of supplementing the music festival appears to be a significant motivation behind Art POP’s composition. “Basically every crack, corner of the festival – we artify it,” Bokenfohr explained with a laugh. The proliferation of visual stimuli that Art POP brings to POP venues not only provides attendees a welcome entertainment between musical acts, but in many instances also serves to
– Fabien Maltais-Bayda
For more information on Art POP programming visit popmontreal. com/en/art/events.
Tops
Edna Chan | The McGill Daily
It wasn’t long ago that a beloved Montreal band, Silly Kissers, laid down their instruments. While this may have been disappointing at the time, it’s important to recall what our mother’s told our childhood selves when things didn’t go our way: every cloud has a silver lining. This time, that lining can be found in the fact that three former Silly Kissers band members have reunited, along with a little fresh blood, to form Tops. “Silly Kissers sort of came to a head in the spring” explained Jane Penny, the band’s vocalist, and a graduate of McGill University, in a phone interview with The Daily, “and then we still wanted to make music, but it was a really nice opportunity to kind of take it in a different direction, and sort of do something that is more relevant to what we are into now.” And thus, Tops was born. Joining
Tops will be playing along with other bands signed to Arbutus Records at Mission Santa Cruz (60 Rachel Ouest) on Thursday September 22 at 8:30 p.m.)
Culture
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
13
Howling for better jazz Jazz collective means well, but is a little out of tune Matt Herzfeld
Culture Writer
S
t. Laurent had a strangely dignified air last Thursday night. While the first vestiges of winter – that is, the months that envelop July and August – transformed summer bodies into a tangle of coats and scarves, an eager crowd gathered in La Sala Rossa. Inside, musicians disappeared into a dim coatroom behind an auburn curtain where captivating sounds lurked. While older couples sipped small glasses of port, the younger crowd huddled by the bar for their obligatory plastic cup of $5 beer. After some time (it’s not jazz if the show starts on time), a smart, bearded announcer emerged from the crowd. Stefan Christoff – a prominent local activist, artist, and organizer introduced this latest installment of the Howl Collective as an event promoting “culture as having a context... as having deep roots in social and political history.” Good idea, now what? There were three solo sets, each nearing an hour’s length. First up was Kaie Kellough, a wellregarded spoken word artist from Vancouver who now lives in Montreal. Kellough’s set proceeded smoothly
and enjoyably. He assured the audience that this was “not a performance, but a linguistic intervention.” Comfortably versed in his own material, Kellough delighted the audience with wordplay and a slew of rhythmic utterances. It didn’t require a trained ear to hear the link to Bop jazz – like the kind Beat poets recalled in their writings. And yet those same untrained ears undoubtedly realized, something was missing. While the poet’s command of language’s rhythmic nuances was impressive, his set felt like an endless, though well-received, monologue. Where were the drums? The thumping bass? The wailing saxophones? Kellough entertained, but he’d have had the crowd in a frenzy if he had the luxury of musical accompaniment. Throughout the night, the difficulties of performing solo would weigh down each artist to a degree. In his funniest piece, Kellough rattled off a list of complaints, including “a mind obliterated by meditation.” Yet, further meditation suggests that a backing band would do wonders. Following a brief intermission, Christoff introduced the next performer, Matana Roberts, an alto-saxophonist from New York. I was waiting for a band to set up, but my silent cries for even a snare drum went unheard. Solo sax is treacherous territory, but to
Robert’s credit, she handled that territory with full-bodied lyricism. Solo performances, particularly on reed instruments, can often turn into flashy cadenzas that show off chops but not musicianship. I am grateful to Roberts for avoiding endless note runs that might lull the audience to sleep. As a whole, the performance sounded like a great declaration, like Charlie Parker’s stratosphere-erupting landmark solo in “A Night in Tunisia.” Even with three solo sets, there could have been some unifying element between them. But then there was Matthew Shipp. After Robert’s set, my neighbor remarked that she “didn’t understand the language” of the performer. I’m nearly positive she was even more bewildered by the final act. As a New Yorker and amateur jazz musician, I was drawn to Howl when I saw the name Matthew Shipp. The jazz world is a special, but borderlinegeriatric, community where everyone has at least heard of everyone else. Though I was not entirely familiar with the pianist’s music, Shipp has a strong reputation within that world. Besides the over-run and expensive Montreal Jazz Festival each summer, great jazzers coming into Montreal is always an event. For at least an hour, Shipp coerced powerful and technically brilliant passages from a well-
miked piano. But he never addressed the audience. And here’s the kicker: he played the hour set straight, with no breaks between movements and not a moment of silence. There were beautiful improvised moments, a stunning counterpoint of voices (like piano for four hands), but all the sounds began to blur and detract from the set as it went on. Shipp has his own sound (often compared to the preeminent free-jazz pianist Cecil Taylor), but it is infinitely hard to relate to. When he returned for an encore, I feared the worst. Luckily, the second song was brief, if only a continuation of his first. This was the third edition of Howl, and should not be the last. The collective is an admirable group with admirable aims. Nevertheless, in the spirit of collective progress, the group should bear in mind Ben Ratliff’s closing mantra from his John Coltrane biography: “the truth of jazz is in its bands.”
Nicole Stradiotto | The McGill Daily
Beatniks at the BBQ Steps Magazine’s backyard reading launches their new season Amanda Kron
Culture Writer
T
he great Leonard Cohen allegedly took his first steps as a poet on the pages of McGill University’s literary magazine, the Forge. Whether or not this myth is more fiction than fact at McGill, the university has kept up with its tradition of creative writing by being the home of three creative writing magazines: the Scrivener Creative Review, the Veg and Steps Magazine. A month prior to the release of their upcoming issue, the Steps editors have taken an unusual approach to poetry readings by hosting a BBQ reading in the back-
Nicole Stradiotto | The McGill Daily
yard of one of the editors’ homes. Under an ideal setting of starry skies and faint blue lights twisting around a clothes line, ten artists with different approaches to creative writing, along with a crowd of friends and fans, squeeze together amongst randomly dispersed chairs, bowls of chips, and a large grill. The readings were done in three parts with intermissions in between, giving the audience time to think about the readings, eat, and talk, and allows me time to speak with the editors. “Why did you decide on hosting a BBQ poetry reading?” I asked editor in chief Ryan Healey. “Because we prefer our readers cooked medium well in a closed space (laughing). Well, for one thing, it’s hard to make money out of poetry, and this seemed to be a good way to get donations. The campus can also be a more difficult setting to host poetry readings,” he replied. “What would you say the creative writing scene is like in Montreal and at McGill?” “There’s a palpable writing community, but it’s sometimes dwarfed by Montreal’s much stronger music scene. With music so predominant, with more visceral, capital-F Force, we have to hold readings on lighter, chiller Sundays (instead of more profitable Friday, Saturday nights) to stay afloat. This is my pet aesthetic war,
but that’s the medium we’re coping with.” After spending a summer in New York, you realize that the scene there is much better than here. Independent bookstores host regular readings, and the scene is also advertised more widely in New York. The community in Montreal is divided into a few close-knit groups. As for the universities, Concordia has a stronger creative writing scene than McGill, since it has a fine arts program.” After a little over two hours of poems, short stories, reflections on perhaps not the finest traits of personality and translations from Arabic, the reading came to an end and the audience slowly started to leave. “I went here because my roommate is reading tonight,” said Matt May, who doesn’t consider himself an avid reader of poetry. “I like the sense [in poetry readings] of peoples’ personality showing in a way that you can’t get otherwise. People who get nervous and start doing small talk, and overall very different styles of reading.“ The editors are always looking for new contributors – so if you’re aspiring to become the new Atwood or Ondaatje, or if you’re just interested in those 15 minutes of literary fame, send your pieces to stepsmagazine@gmail.com. The deadline is October 1 and the next issue will be released around Halloween.
14 Culture
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
Post-punk makes its way to POP 1970s female group still standing strong Culture Writer
T
he year is 1977. While The Eagles release “Hotel California,” John Travolta unabashedly shakes his (much skinnier) ass in Saturday Night Fever. Elvis Presley overdoses, Bob Marley and the Wailers are “Waiting in Vain,” and Jimmy Buffett gets hammered in “Margaritaville.” All the while, two girls at the Hornsey College of Art in London flip the middle finger to all of it. While studying at Hornsey, Gina Birch and Ana da Silva formed The Raincoats. Neither had ever written a song before, and they both had next to no musical training. They were looking for a creative outlet and were spurred on by the technical accessibility and general devil-may-care attitude that characterized the early punk scene. “For us, punk was about rebelling against what came before, reacting against pomposity and too much show-offy virtuosity,” wrote Birch in an email to The Daily. So Gina picked up a bass, Ana a guitar, and they hit the road running. Yet they stress that they were interested in being more than just contrary – “We didn’t think, ‘Oh, let’s be different to them [more traditional punk bands],’” da Silva told The Daily in a phone interview. “We just took from that time the fact that you were supposed to have your own ideas; to look for your own path. This is how we interpreted it.” Elaborating on this sentiment, Birch wrote, “At the time there were some punks who thought they knew exactly what punk should be, but it was a broad church of people doing things in different ways. The music of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Subway Sect, The Slits is actually all quite different from each other… Our music was inspired by punk, and an inventive attitude, which was prevalent in the way we dressed, the way we lived our lives and our approach to song writing.” Not everyone, however, appreciated The Raincoats’ ingenuity. Joined by drummer Paloma McLardy, aka Palmolive (formerly of The Slits), and violinist Vicky Aspinall, the band assembled an all-female line-up, playing “post-punk” by the end of ’78 before anyone had ever used the term. Although punk was considered a fringe movement throughout much of its history, it was especially marginal in its earlier years. The Sex Pistols and The Clash had only hit the scene a couple years earlier, and the emerging genre was met with much disdain by already established subcultures. The fact that a group of ostensibly
“renegade” or “delinquent” girls were a part of this movement made The Raincoats that much more of a target. This surely didn’t make life any easier amongst the socially stratified youth of 1970s London. Those who identified with the “Teddy Boy” style, a revival of the aesthetic of rockabilly-listening Teddies of the fifties, weren’t so keen on the rise of the punk scene. “When punks started to wear Brothel Creepers shoes, Teds didn’t like it. They felt their look was being misappropriated. I got chased and attacked by some Teddy girls in Leicester Square when I was wearing my red Brothel Creepers,” Birch recounts. All things considered, being an all-female proved a badge of honour for The Raincoats. “Oh you know, life is full of people who think women shouldn’t or can’t do certain things,” Birch explained. “So, inevitably there were moments that were frustrating, but mostly we encountered supportive environments… Funnily, there didn’t seem to be that many young female bands doing stuff… Since we have been playing again, we seem to
have garnered a lot of support and interest, probably because we represent a female perspective that crosses generations.” This isn’t to say that their popularity rests simply in the novelty of being women playing punk. “It’s difficult to say why people are still so interested,” notes da Silva. “I think it’s because [the music is] a bit wacky, a bit different. We’re getting older, and people still want to see us, which is funny, because a lot of the audience is really young as well. It’s not just the people from our generation that come to our gigs. I don’t know, maybe you should ask them.” Her somewhat brusque answer (“go ask them
yourself!”) exemplifies the band’s hesitance to mythologize their personal history or overemphasize their legacy. They don’t want to reduce their music to a cultural dipstick, a mark of the times, or any sort of easily-swallowed message short of ‘this is our music and you can like it or lump it.’ “We never really had pressures to be something different from the record label, or from the other bands in Rough Trade [Records], and we were happy with the audiences we had. We weren’t expecting to sell out big stadiums or anything,” da Silva
explains. “I don’t really follow the whole history of punk or whatever, so much, but to start with, it was a lot to do with energy, and having ideas. It was not about being necessarily good at your instrument. In fact, things like guitar solos were a complete “no-go” area. And so it was very much about a raw energy. And I think some people still try to do that, in their own way.” Punk music has, of course, since splintered into many sub-genres, as well as given rise to new genres altogether. Much of modern alternative music has its roots in the early stages of post-punk, which at the time was referred to as “New Wave.” Birch writes that, “Punk has certainly fragmented and means many different things to many different people. To me it still means what it always did. I wouldn’t have said so until recently, but perhaps we might have left some kind of mark.” The Raincoats will be playing Sunday, September 25 at Cabaret du Mile End at $25 a ticket. Gina Birch and Ana da Silver will hold an art exhibit entitled The Raincoats: Adventures from September 21 to September 25 at L’École des beaux arts de Montréal at 3450 St. Urbain.
Nicole Stradiotto | The McGill Daily
Brendan Lewis
15
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
volume 101 number 6
editorial 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor
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Shannon Palus le délit
Anabel Cossette Civitella rec@delitfrancais.com Contributors Richard Carozza, Juan Camilo Velasquez, Madeleiene Cummings, Lola Duffort, Elena Dugan, Elise Hannafard, David Herzfeld, Rachael Kim, Amanda Kron, Sohyun Lee, Brendan Lewis, David Ou, QPIRG Board of Directors, Peter Shyba, Lukas Theinhaus, Alan Thicke*
EDITORIAL
Opt-in to campus diversity The perennial QPIRG student fee opt- out campaign has returned this year to paint a misleading portrait of QPIRG that threatens campus vibrancy. The Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at McGill is a non-profit, student-run group that provides funding for research and education on social justice issues, as well as an alternative library and meeting space for student groups. QPIRG’s projects give voice to marginalized peoples and address topics that are too often ignored. QPIRG is an anti-racist and anti-imperialist organization whose working groups include KANATA, which provides a space for discussion and research on issues affecting First Nations peoples and groups; Montreal Media Co-op, which offers grassroots coverage of political and social movements; and END EXPLOITATION, which seeks to ensure quality workplace standards for temporary and foreign workers. The undergraduate fee for QPIRG is $7.50 a semester. Opt-out campaigners advertised that one could choose not to pay this fee and buy three episodes of The Hills. This is entirely true: the same amount of money can pay for three television episodes, which can entertain you for a few hours, or fund an organization that provides space, resources, events, work study positions, and services for the student population for an entire semester. The opt-out campaign has alleged that QPIRG does not enjoy mainstream student support, yet, the fact that QPIRG has survived multiple existence referendums since 1988 proves the inaccuracy of that claim. QPIRG is not the only valuable organization that is hurt by opt-outs. Midnight Kitchen, Nightline, TVMcGill and CKUT are opt-outable; so is the SSMU Environment Fund – which has funded groups like Ghetto Shul, Farmer’s Market at McGill, and the Desautels Business Conference on Sustainability – and the SSMU Library Fund, which provides money for extended library hours and services University should be an environment in which students can learn outside of the classroom and have the opportunity to engage in discussion about political and social ideas. This can only be achieved with a plurality of voices on campus, including those that may be characterized as radical, showcasing the diversity of thought in the student body. Opting out of paying fees to fund fellow students’ initiatives undermines support of this diversity, divides the McGill community, and silences student voices. Students considering opting out should first educate themselves on how these groups affect campus life. The option to opt out should exist so that students who are less financially stable have the option to save the money they need, not so that groups can take funds from their ideological opposition. Regardless of one’s political views or opinons, to opt out of these fees is to deny fellow students access to the resources that make our campus vibrant, diverse, and accessible to our peers.
*pseudonym
The Daily is published on most Mondays and Thursdays by the Daily Publications Society, an autonomous, not-for-profit organization whose membership includes all McGill undergraduates and most graduate students.
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The Daily is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian University Press. All contents © 2011 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff. Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec. ISSN 1192-4608.
Errata The Daily retracts the story “Barriere Lake working groups raise funds for legal aid.” (News, page 5, September 15) This article misrepresented the fundraising efforts of McGill QPIRG working group, Barriere Lake Solidarity, and similar groups in Toronto and Ottawa. After obtaining information following the article’s publication, the article has been rendered inaccurate. We, the editors and writers of The McGill Daily, sincerely apologize to the organizations in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa fundraising for the Barriere Lake Legal Defense Fund.
In the article “Caught in the crossfire” ( News, page 5, September 19), it was stated that Michelle Hartman cancelled her first class; rather, her first class was not scheduled until the week following the first day of the Fall semester.
In the editorial, “McGill should create an aboriginal studies minor” (Editorial, page 23, September 15) it was stated that 10 per cent of the Quebec population is Aboriginal; this is incorrect; rather, 10 per cent of the aboriginal population of Canada resides in Quebec. The Daily regrets the errors.
Compendium!
16
The McGill Daily | Thursday, September 22, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com
Lies, half-truths, and diffused seal pups!
I <3 U MUNACA,
but I’m tryna watch a movie One student’s riveting account of a hungover morning spent living across the street from the Roddick gates Arts N’ Crafty
The McGill Daily
D
ay ten of the MUNACA strike. Its 10:39 a.m. and I am hungover. Last night, I went to the MUS-produced AVICII concert and as one can imagine, I lost more fluids than I could replenish before I went to sleep. So I’m sitting here in the living room of my apartment trying to reorient myself, and all I can hear is goddamn Phil Collins with the volume up to 11 being played from outside my window. That would be the strikers. I live at 900 Sherbrooke, the apartment building across the street from Roddick Gates, next to that Smart Burger joint. And every day, I wake up to the sounds of protest. Now, I don’t want to give off the impression that I disagree with the goals of MUNACA, because I do support them. In fact, I take the striker’s persistent clamoring as a sign of determination; they truly believe in the cause they are rallying for. Who cares if my alarm is set for 9:45. The protesters are there at 6:30 sharp to remind me that the administration is trying to screw them out of their pensions. So if I’m losing my sanity because the
strikers won’t shut the hell up, then I guess MUNACA is doing its job effectively. The thing is, I just never thought it would be a disadvantage to live so close to campus. Sometimes, it seems as if MUNACA is actively picketing against me and my roommates. It’s Friday morning as I’m writing this, and the protesters aren’t even in front of McGill’s gates – they’re lined up on McGill College, by Paragraphe, literally outside my roommate’s window. We’re trying to watch The King’s Speech in peace, but it is not a loud movie, and Colin Firth just cannot keep up with that guy on the megaphone belting out “Hit the Road Jack” with spirit and soul that would make Ray Charles envious. A Michael Bay movie couldn’t compete with that guy. I’ve heard all their chants and rally cries countless times. My favorite so far: “You gotta fight… for your rights…to PARITY!” My least favorite: singing “We Are the Champions” over and over. It just doesn’t make sense in context, seeing as they’re still on strike. All in all, I’d give them a C for creativity, but a solid B+ for performance (hey, it’s McGill, we’re tough graders). Every day that passes, I become increasingly fed up with
the din outside and ever more supportive of a reconciliation between the parties. I can assure you that if Heather Monroe Blum
were one of my neighbors at 900 Sherbrooke, she would be considerably more receptive to compromise. But she’s not, so the mega-
phone guy may have to extend his concert series for weeks to come. Maybe I’ll go over there and teach him some new songs.
Send your jokes, satirical articles, and comics to:
compendium @mcgilldaily.com
An Edmonton radio station is giving away a Russian bride as a prize.
MINUS 100
BDA today!
PLUS 50 MINUS 247 MINUS 4 MINUS 40 EVEN?
MUNACA still on strike. Admin STILL mean. R.E.M. broke up after 31 years. Titanic necklace stolen in Copenhagen! Health Canada wants stricter regulation on energy drinks. Beautiful weather lately, maybe winter won’t come at all?!?!
TOTAL
PLUS 150 MINUS 191
Mark H. for The McGill Daily
Diffused Seal pups