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Volume 101, Issue 9

October 3, 2011 mcgilldaily.com

McGil goes to Ottawa Pages 10, 11, 12

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The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Former McGill Fellow presided over MUNACA injunction Union concerned over potential conflict of interest Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

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rian Riordan, the judge who presided over the Superior Court of Quebec case that approved the recent injunction against the striking McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA), is a McGill graduate and former McGill Fellow in the Desautels Faculty of Management.

The injunction, or emergency court ruling, restricts the union’s picketing activities around campus by limiting their noise level, group size, and proximity to the University. It has been in place since September 23.

MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker told The Daily that the

union was not made aware of Riordan’s involvement with McGill when the union was informed of the injunction.

In an interview with The Daily, Riordan explained that before he was appointed judge to the Superior Court of Quebec in 2004, he taught a class on partnership and shareholder agreements in Professor David Lank’s course on entrepreneurship.

Lank is currently the director emeritus of the Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies within the Faculty. “[The Fellowship] stopped when I was appointed judge,” Riordan explained.

According to the Desautels website, Riordan’s career as a Dobson Fellow was temporarily placed on

hold when he was named a judge of the Superior Court.

Michael Di Grappa, Vice Principal (Administration and Finance) told The Daily that, although he could not confirm details of the case, “it’s not uncommon for someone to take a leave or put something on hold when they’re exercising other functions. It happens with faculty all the time.”

When asked whether his involvement with McGill represented a conflict of interest in the case, Riordan answered, “No, I didn’t consider it to be. I heard the case.”

McGill Law Professor Richard Janda explained that, in a case that risks a conflict of interest, “A judge can recuse herself or himself…so that’s usually how it will happen. But if the issue is going

to be raised, if the apprehension of bias is going to be raised, it would have to be raised by counsel,” referring to the lawyers involved with the case.

According to Section 234 of the Quebec Code of Civil Procedure, “A judge may be recused in particular: (7) If the judge is a member of an association, partnership or legal person, or is manager or patron of some order or community which is a party to the suit; (8) If the judge has any interest in favouring any of the parties...or (10) if there is reasonable cause to fear that the judge will not be impartial.”

“The real question is whether there’s reasonable apprehension of bias – what I don’t know is whether MUNACA will seek now to raise that,” said Janda.

When asked whether MUNACA would pursue the issue, Whittaker stated that the union is “certainly going to look into the details to see if there is any form of conflict of interest, and if the lawyers feel that there is, then we will proceed to challenging that.”

“Right now nobody has enough information to say that this is a true issue,” Whittaker said. “We have no idea how deeply connected [Riordan] may or may not be to McGill… It’s just a matter of involvement, and if there was involvement, we should have been informed of that.”

The injunction expires today, and MUNACA and McGill will attend court hearings to decide on whether to extend, amend, or drop the ruling. ­— with files from Henry Gass

Newburgh requests SSMU member list Council votes to support TAs and worker’s struggles The McGill Daily

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SMU President Maggie Knight reported at Legislative Council last Thursday that former president Zach Newburgh has requested a membership list of all SSMU members. The list would provide Newburgh with the names, physical addresses, and occupations of every individual who pays dues to SSMU. The request is covered under the Quebec Companies Act, which gives all members of companies – SSMU is technically a corporation – the right to request a list of all members.

“The member in question was interested in obtaining information that was more than the names, as in the report that I’m able to access, that has all names, emails et cetera, of all student members, which this member is obviously aware of since he had access to this list last year,” said Knight to councillors.

Knight explained that SSMU would only be providing what is legally binding. “However, I did clarify that we have no legal obligation to provide anymore than names, addresses and occupations,” she added.

When asked by Knight for his specific purpose in obtaining the

list, Newburgh refused to give a response. “I asked him to tell me and he told me it wasn’t relevant,” Knight told The Daily.

According to Knight, the information released can be used for purposes such as knowing who SSMU members are and calling meetings of all members.

Newburgh has assured SSMU that he will use the information for purposes as outlined by law.

Knight maintained that SSMU “reserve[s] the right to take any necessary legal action to prevent any unauthorized distribution of the list…as we would with any person who wanted the list.”

Councillors expressed concern about the privacy of their constituents, and repeatedly asked about options for dissuading Newburgh’s request.

“Is there any way to convince the member who asked for the list to get just the names, and not other personal information, and tell him this is done in the interest of the entire 20,000 students of McGill?”

Clubs and Services Representative Sahil Chaini asked Council.

“People have been very concerned about privacy…however, my understanding is that privacy concerns [are] not usually considered to be a justifiable reason for withholding access to that list under the [Quebec] Companies Act,” Knight

explained to The Daily.

When speaking to Council, Knight referenced a series of emails between herself and Newburgh, but told The Daily that she is unable to release them due to issues of confidentiality.

Newburgh did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Juan Camilo Velasquez

Motions pass to support campus workers Also debated was official support for the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), which is in the process of collective bargaining with the McGill administration. The resolution passed by Council seeks to support AGSEM in the process of obtaining their bargaining priorities. These priorities include, but are not limited to, lowering the student-to-TA ratio, obtaining training provided by the University for firsttime TAs, and ensuring that course supervisors and TAs meet regularly.

Jonathan Mooney, a member of AGSEM’s bargaining committee, believes that supporting AGSEM is in the best interest of SSMU members.

“So many of our key demands have to do with improving the quality of education at McGill and the student body is a huge stakeholder in this process,” Mooney said.

“My understanding is that some

Council votes on motions deferred from GA. TA hours have been cut due to budget cuts...so that has obviously reduced the amount of time TAs have to support students. More TA hours hypothetically means more support for students especially around exam prep,” he continued.

“I have been in classes where the TA has maxed out their allowable hours by early November and they are not there to help with exams,” Knight said to The Daily.

The motion in support of AGSEM coincided with a vote to support workers’ struggles. The motion was referred to Council after passing in consultative forum when the General Assembly lost

quorum last week.

The resolution, which will expire in one year, urges SSMU executives and councillors to support unions that are in negotiations with the McGill administration.

“What was lacking before [the current strike of McGill non-academic workers] was that it took a long time for people to actually know what was going on, so next time there is a collective bargaining, in that period then people can become aware of what is going now…it will create a more conscious student body,” said Arts Representative Micha Stettin, one of the authors of the original motion.

4 News

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Internal letter from MUS president solicits feedback on governance changes Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

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revamp of the Management Undergraduate Society (MUS) organizational structure over the summer has inspired a faculty association-led inspection of SSMU governance.

A letter authored by MUS President Dave Fortin is being circulated among other faculty association presidents as a way of soliciting feedback on possible modification to SSMU’s organizational structure.

Fortin said the letter is still in its early stages as a draft document.

“It takes a look at the different structures of SSMU, and it’s really an analysis. So, it says what is in place, why it’s in place, how it came to be, what are some of the negatives, what are some of the positives, where is there room for improvement, and how could we strive to improve some of those things,” said Fortin.

“Because there are definitely areas where there is room for improvement,” he continued.

Josh Redel, president of the Engineering Undergraduate Society, said he was interested in how the document compares SSMU to other universities.

“I haven’t had too much time to go through it,” he said, “[but] it’s an

interesting look at how SSMU works and how it serves students.”

Redel also noted how changes proposed in the document could affect SSMU’s dual roles as a student service and a political body.

Fortin said the genesis of the letter came amidst MUS’ own reorganization over the summer, when the Society created a Board of Directors with academic area representatives and cut down the number of executives, giving them a more operational than governing role.

“We began the process of looking at the other things that we could potentially change. So we began to look at the money that our students pay to us, and the money that students pay to SSMU, and we realized that we wanted to make sure that SSMU was held accountable to students as well,” said Fortin.

Fortin didn’t discuss specific flaws he had found in the SSMU organization structure – saying he thought it was a process that’s “better done internally” – but emphasized that he thought the SSMU executive had been doing “a fantastic job” this year.

“What we want to look at was more the decision-making bodies of SSMU and whether they were appropriate,” he said. “There’s always room for improvement in any type of situation where you’re representing students.”

SSMU President Maggie Knight said Fortin had informed her of the letter last week.

“I’d heard sort of mutterings about it from various people during the summer,” said Knight.

“I haven’t seen any of the tangible documents at this point, but he’s assured me that they want to come forward with some ideas that are well thought-out. And so they’re kind of in the process of doing that,” she continued.

Knight said she wasn’t aware of any specific changes proposed in the letter, but that she’d heard they could include changes to the structure of Council and the SSMU Board of Directors, as well as changes to the election process.

“We might all agree on those things, and we might have different ideas about exactly how [the changes] could be enhanced. But I haven’t seen their ideas, so their ideas could be amazing, or I could think they’re awful. I don’t know yet,” she said.

According to Knight, any proposals that would involve changing the SSMU Constitution would have to go to referendum, while smaller proposals to change by-laws or policy could go through Legislative Council.

As for right now, Fortin believes the document is a long way from proposing specific changes.

“Everyone who I spoke to about it, I clearly wrote ‘Draft’ on it, and I said, ‘This is a working document, and this is really intended to garner your feedback, rather than to make any type of decision upon,” he said.

Knight noted that the relationship between faculty associations and SSMU isn’t well-defined, but continued by saying that “they have a good perspective.”

“Obviously faculty associations are different than SSMU, so not everything that works at one level would work at the other,” she said.

“For me, the more people that are interested in making SSMU better, the better. So if they’re interested in spending some of their time thinking about this then I’m happy to look at what they produce.”

While he said the letter has been receiving positive feedback, Fortin declined sending The Daily a copy, explaining that he was still focused on keeping the document an internal collaboration. He added that if he can get a lot of associations on board and provide a “document that [they’re] really proud of,” he will publicize the document and bring it to SSMU. “We want to make sure that everyone is board – or at least most people are on board – with coming up with solutions that everyone can agree to and agree are beneficial,” Fortin said.

Petition circulating to label all genetically modified foods Quebec environmental groups concerned over health and environmental implications Jordan Venton-Rublee The McGill Daily

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group of Quebec environmental organizations have filed a petition with the provincial government to introduce the obligatory labeling of genetically modified (GMO) foods in grocery stores.

The Réseau québécois contre les OGM (RQcOGM), a network of Quebec environmental groups, wants the government to adopt proposals it put forward in a 2004 report entitled “Food Safety: A challenge for society and responsibility of all the stakeholders in the food system.”

If the government adopts the proposal, it would be the first in Canada to do so.

Charles Tanguay, director of communications for Union des Consommateurs, a non-profit Quebec union defending the rights of consumers, told The

Daily, “We want to be a leader, to convince the rest of Canada it’s time for GMO labeling. It is a basic right of consumers to know.”

Thibault Rehn, a volunteer with RQcOGM, explained that Canada is the fourth largest GMO producer in the world, after Argentina, Brazil, and the United States.

The Health Canada website states that “Every new GM food product must undergo a rigorous pre-market safety assessment before it is allowed to be sold in Canada… No GM food is allowed on the market in Canada unless Health Canada’s scientists are satisfied that the food is safe and nutritious.” In spite of this, Rehn said that it is possible for some foods to go undetected.

Although Canada produces mainly GMO corn, soy, and canola, Rehn explained that GMO produce is also used to make products such as corn syrup, which is then used in multiple other products that the consumer is unaware of.

The proposal also calls for better inspection and regulation of GMO foods due to the unknown effects of growing and consuming such foods.

“There is more and more evidence that there could be consequences from GMOs that could be underestimated,” said Tanguay. He cited a study from Sherbrooke University Hospital that found Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) – a pesticide used to genetically modify corn, making it pest resistant – in women’s blood.

The researchers also discovered that the toxin could be passed through fetal blood.

David Szanto, a Concordia PhD student who teaches a course on food systems, explained that “Since we have been domesticating plants and animals we have been genetically modifying them, but GMOs created in a laboratory are much more recent. Part of the fear and the risk is that we do not know the long term effects.”

The petition also raises concerns over the contamination of non-GMO crops and the subsequent threat to biodiversity.

“We feel there is a lack of regulation of GMO crops that can lead to contamination of non-GMO [crops],” said Rehn. “There is no liability when such contamination occurs.”

Szanto stated a similar concern over cross-contamination. “Unlike chemical or nuclear waste, which degrades over time, biological waste actually multiplies,” he said.

“GMOs go into the environment, cross pollinate with non-GMO foods and then reproduce,” he continued.

“This is really showing us that you can’t fool around with nature without a chain reaction that could get out of control,” said Tanguay. “It’s changing the nature of things and we are very worried.”

The petition calls for proposed changes to be adopted by the Quebec government by July 2012.

What’s the haps

Student presidents discuss restructuring SSMU

Workshop: Going From Ideas to Awesome Sustainability Projects Wednesday, October 5, 4 p.m.

Lev Bukhman, Shatner Come find out: What is the Sustainability Projects Fund? How do I design and manage a project? How can I connect with student and staff partners? How do I apply? This workshop is useful for curious students, students with no ideas, students with big ideas, student interested in social and environmental and common sense issues, and students who feel daunted by organizing a project.

Indignez-Vous!

Hope in Resistance Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22 Marriott Château Champlain This two-day conference will explore how we can work together as civil society movements in Canada, Quebec, and the First Nations to create positive alternatives to a system that makes profits more important than people and the planet.

Registration required: http://canadians.org/ about/AGM/index.html Great Trials II Lecture Series Tuesday evenings starting October 4, 5:30 p.m.

Atwater Library, Auditorium 1200 Atwater Ave. Professor Michael van Dussen lectures on “The Trials of Medieval Heretics.”

The first of a series of public lectures, presented by The Institute for Public Life of Arts and Ideas, Atwater Library, and the School of Continuing Studies, examines the contexts and consequences of great trials in history. Future lectures include the trials of Louis XVI, Billy Budd, and Sacco & Vanzetti. $60 for entire series, $15 per lecture. Register at https://cce.mcgill.ca/cce_ shop/apply.asp Social Movements and Student Protest in Chile: the Beginning of a PostPinochet Order?

Tuesday, October 4, 3 to 5:00 p.m.

Leacock 429, Leacock Building While post-authoritarian Chile is often depicted as a depoliticized society, for the last few months thousands of Chilean university students have been engaging in regular, mass protests. They are denouncing the neoliberal model inherited from Pinochet’s dictatorship and demanding free high quality education. This panel will look at these protests from different angles and relate them to other ongoing protests.

News

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Quebec housing rights group launches caravan campaign

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Participants hold politicians accountable for current state of social housing Jane Gatensby

The McGill Daily

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o commemorate World Habitat Day, a long-standing activist group is set to launch a week-long caravan campaign to raise awareness and demand government investment in social housing.

The Montreal-based coalition of 138 activist groups in Canada, known as le Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), will begin a caravan campaign around Quebec on October 3. The FRAPRU caravan will stop in various towns and communities to hold demonstrations calling for federal and provincial politicians to take action on the issues of social housing and poverty.

“We’re taking our message to the streets all over Quebec, because we see the same problem in every region,” said FRAPRU organizer Marie-Josée Corriveau. She said she expected around 80 participants in the caravan.

The caravan will consist of two convoys. One departs from Quebec City, and the other from Ottawa; both will end up in Montreal on October 9, the same day FRAPRU is planning a demonstration. Corriveau explained that the convoys’ routes would include stops at the offices of various politicians – among them Quebec

Finance Minister Raymond Bachand and Minister of Municipal Affairs Laurent Lessard.

According to Corriveau, 160,000 people in Quebec have serious housing needs.

“What we’re asking is that the [federal and provincial governments] agree to investments that will provide for 50,000 new units over five years, if only to deal with the most urgent cases.”

Stéphan Corriveau, who works as a coordinator for a low-income housing advocacy group called the Fédération des locataires d’habitations à loyer modique du Québec (FLHLMQ), spoke to the large demand for social housing.

“There are currently 45,000 households – not people, households – on waiting lists, and, of those, 22,000 are in Montreal. Many more think the list is so long, they won’t even try to put themselves on it,” he said.

There are over 100,000 social housing units in Quebec, with lowincome housing making up the largest part of the public housing system. According to Corriveau, the mortgages on many of the buildings are due to expire soon.

According to Corriveau, maintenance on existing social housing units also has a long history of being underfunded and deferred.

“These buildings are 31 years old on average, and they were often made with inferior materials – they need significant upgrades,” he said.

Maude Ménard Dunn is a community organizer for Montrealbased homeless advocacy group le Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM).

She stated that much-needed maintenance to housing units will result in rent hikes to cover the expenses. “[Housing co-operatives] simply can’t afford to take responsibility for the subsidies because of mounting renovation costs,” she explained.

Dunn predicted a sharp increase in homelessness as a result of the funding shortfalls, something that could cripple RAPSIM’s already overcrowded shelters.

“Homelessness is a multi-faceted problem, one of the causes is, by definition, the need for social housing; the situation in Montreal has exploded,” she said.

Marie-Josée Corriveau also spoke to the effects of a decrease in government subsidies for rent in low-income housing and other units, such as cooperatives and non-profit housing organizations.

“These people could then be subject to rent increases of two, three, four, even five hundred dollars a month,” she said.

Courtesy of FRAPRU

FRAPRU caravan arrives in Quebec City in February 2011.

DISCOVER

University of Ottawa

Graduate Studies at uOttawa. uOttawa at McGill University Visit us at the Graduate and Professional Schools Fair – Arts on October 17, 2011 in the University Centre, Shatner Ballroom.

www.discoveruOttawa.ca

»

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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TROY DAVIS

The murder of Troy Davis The latest in a long line of racist attacks committed in the name of justice Zine Mustafa Hyde Park

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n Wednesday September 21, at 11:08 p.m., after spending twenty years in prison and making several appeals for clemency, Troy Davis was killed by the state of Georgia for a crime he likely did not commit. It did not matter that seven of the nine testimonies made against him were eventually revoked – the witnesses now claim that they were pressured into making them by investigators. Davis’ final appeal for another trial given that the evidence against him was shaky at best was also denied. This all serves to exemplify the frivolous way in which the criminal justice system treats the lives of poor and racialized peoples.

It will not come as a surprise to many of you that the American justice system is inherently racist and classist.

Many studies, such as the Minnesota House of Representatives study on Racial Profiling, have shown that it targets minorities. We’ve all heard the statistics on the ratio – people of colour greatly outnumber white people in North American prisons.

Furthermore, we live in a society where many crimes committed by the wealthy, such as fraud – which hurts many more people – are rarely investigated except in high-profile cases.

These crimes also tend to receive lighter sentences than those typically associated with the poor. Add to that the disturbing reality of the prison industrial complex – which leases American prisoners out to U.S. corporations for slave labour – and it becomes clear that some people’s lives have less value than others in the eyes of the law.

Which brings us to the death penalty itself; another racist system that goes out of its way to target minori-

ties. Once again, the statistics are clear – black people make up a disproportionate amount of the inmates on death row. So once again, there is differential value placed on your life depending on your race. Troy Davis was executed for the alleged murder of a white police officer. If the situation was reversed, it is likely that the cop would have gotten away with a much lighter sentence, if they even received one at all. This is not merely true of the civilian-cop dynamic. One is much more likely to receive the death penalty for killing a white person than a person of colour. While the death penalty is not an issue in Canada, racial profiling remains a major concern, and the lives of poor people of colour are still taken by police officers at a disproportionate rate.

Every few years, a case like Davis’ is

singled out, but if the law is capable of making these mistakes, how many more go unnoticed? The fact is that when a justice system is this fallible, it cannot be expected to make decisions about who lives and who dies. If one were to go through every death row inmate’s story, they would probably find more than a few whose guilt was questionable, which is quite a gamble to make on a human life. And we must question the validity of a system that functions on the principle of “an eye for an eye”. It is time for us to re-evaluate the

resources of protection available to us.

Useful prison reform can only come about if we make it clear that we are unsatisfied with the status-quo. Take to the streets, mail your congressperson or MP. Whatever means of dissent you feel is most effective is better than doing nothing. We must make our dissatisfaction heard, and ensure that Troy Davis’ story is the last of its kind.

The assault on poor communities and people of colour must end.

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Zina Mustafa is a U2 International Development Studies student. You can reach her at zina.mustafa@mail. mcgill.ca.

TROY DAVIS

The death penalty exacerbates racial inequity How the case of Troy Davis outlines more than one problem in the US criminal justice system Balaclava Discourse Davide Mastracci

balaclavadiscourse@mcgilldaily.com

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n September 22, 2011, the stories of two men in America came to an end.

One of these men was named Troy Davis. He was sentenced to death in 1991 for purportedly murdering a police officer in Georgia. Over the course of his time in jail, Davis acquired a strong band of supporters including Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, and millions of Americans who believed he had been wrongly convicted and targeted for being black.

The other man was named Lawrence Brewer. Brewer was one of three white supremacists who, in 1998, picked up the black man James Byrd Jr, as he was hitchhiking. After picking him up, the three men savagely beat him, urinated on him, and

tied him to the back of their pickup truck. They then proceeded to drag him to his death, leading his body to become so mutilated that officials believed the headless corpse was road kill. Since the day of that hate crime, which gained national attention, Brewer has shown no sign of repentance. A few days before being executed, Brewer was even reported as stating “As far as any regrets, no, I have no regrets. No, I’d do it all over again, to tell you the truth.”

Despite their differences, both men became the victims of state sanctioned murder. It is easy to forget the evil of the death penalty when heinous crimes such as Brewer’s are brought up. Yet, regardless of how heinous one’s crimes may be, the state should never have the right to put an end to one’s life. As such, if one is to fight against the death penalty, one must do so in all cases, not just the clearly unjust. Beyond the death penalty’s inherent immorality, Davis’ death

draws attention to other issues that plague the state’s right to murder.

For example, Davis was sentenced to death based solely on eyewitness testimony. No DNA evidence connecting Davis to the crime was presented. This alone is proof of injustice, as a death sentence should not be allowed to be handed out solely on the basis of eyewitness accounts – especially when these accounts were later withdrawn.

Seven of the nine witnesses who submitted affidavits went on to deny their allegations. One of them being Darrell Collins, sixteen at the time of the conviction, who claimed that “I told them it was...not Troy who was messing with that man, but they didn’t want to hear that. The detectives told me, ‘Fine, have it your way. Kiss your life goodbye because you’re going to jail.’ After a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear,” according to a 2007

Washington Post article.

Davis’ death is a reminder of the inequality African Americans face at the cruel hands of the law in America.

Despite making up only 12 per cent of the American population, 41 per cent of the inmates on death row are black. In addition, in the last 34 years, an almost equal number of black and white people were murdered in the United States. However, 80 per cent of the people executed over this span of time were those that had murdered white individuals. Black people are still ultimately sentenced to death in greater numbers, yet those who murder black individuals are often let free. While people of all races have been subjected to state sanctioned murder, the death penalty increases the severity of inherant in the system.

So, while it is easy to feel disgusted at the explicit acts of hate committed by men like Brewer, consider the more systemic evils committed by the state itself. In 2011, after having his life ruined and being confined to

prisons for twenty years, a black man was strapped down and put to death.

Sure, there was no tree or noose, and the angry mob was replaced by journalists and family, but, 149 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, black men are still susceptible to state enforced oppression.

Regardless of its brutality, the death penalty is only one of many structures of authority and domination that exist within our world today. This column will take up the task of examining these structures, and determining whether or not they deserve to exist.

For, if authority figures cannot entirely justify their removal of freedoms, they have no right to do so.

Balaclava Discourse is a column written by Davide Mastracci on the structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in society. It appears every other Monday in commentary.

You can email him at balaclavadiscourse@mcgilldaily.com.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

7

The great greek tragedy Why the bond market culture needs to change Keat Yang Koay Hyde Park

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ike a Greek tragedy, the sovereign debt crisis in Greece captivates us with the downfall of the culpable tragic hero whose misbehaviour is disproportionately punished by the wrath of the Gods (the bond market). Yet, the deus-ex-machina of the European Union and International Mondetary Fund bailouts fail to elicit a moment of “catharsis” for most. To learn from this tragedy then, is to understand the circumstance surrounding Greece’s downfall and the unforgiving, sometimes irrational and arbitrary nature of the bond market.

A bond is like an IOU where the seller promises to pay the buyer back how much it owes plus interests. In the Greek case, both institutions and individuals bought bonds from the Greek government with the expectation that these bonds would be paid back with interest.

In this instance, Greece’s peril can be attributed to three fatal flaws that were aggravated by the bond market: its onerous government expenditure, weakness in tax collection, and an uncompetitive economy. For countries, as for individuals, loans will have to be taken out to make up the shortfall if expenditures exceed income. As government spending soared while tax revenues failed to keep up – due in part to widespread tax evasion – the Greek government had to increase its borrowing by issuing more bonds. Normally, this isn’t a cause for concern, as the private sector could pick up the slack. An increasing public debt dwarfed by an increase in national income of greater proportion isn’t worrisome. Unfortunately, Greece’s trade volume relative to

intra-EU trade is miniscule and stagnant. Access to the EU’s common market did not stimulate Greece to restructure its economy to be competitive and exploit the free flow of goods, labour, and capital. What it offered Greece, though, was cheap credit – the interest rate demanded from Greece was, at one point, just slightly above Germany’s. With cheap credit also came little pressure to change the status quo.

But why were the Cassandras crying foul over the previously ignored situation? As it were a calibrated political agenda, entrenched in populist sentiments gave rise to the greatest Ponzi scheme ever devised. When credit stopped flowing in as a result of bondholders’ paranoia, panic took over and Greece was suddenly in danger of default.

True, Greece is culpable for its own demise. Yet, the arbitrary and irrational nature of the bond market is equally untenable. In assessing the solvency of a country, (i.e. whether it is able to repay its debt) bondholders are fixated with a risk statistic known as the debt to GDP ratio. As Robert

Oles Chepesiuk | The McGill Daily

Shiller articulated it in “Debt and Delusion,” the fixation with the debt to GDP ratio is both arbitrary and irrational. Simple arithmetic tells us the debt to GDP ratio is merely a measurement in units of time. But why are we worried that a nation is not able to pay off all its debt within a year? Even banks do not expect any homeowners to pay off their mortgages in a year.

The sudden lack of bondholder confidence was comparable to a game of musical chairs, where one person changes their behav-

iour and everyone else panics.

Similarly, the sudden stop in Greek bond purchasing and panic selling of these bonds lowers their price falling, leading to a higher interest rate for the Greek government, creating a danger of the Greek government defaulting on its debt obligation. This threat of default forced Greece to accept loans from the IMF and the EU in exchange for austerity measures.

The austerity pill Greece is forced to swallow is in a “positive feedback” mechanism that does

not do anyone good.

Austerity measures depress the economy, which in turn jeopardised the growth prospect of Greece, which in turn made the bonds held by investors fall in value, which leads to the false confidence in austerity measures as a solution. What we’ve learned after the housing bust was foreclosures, which depressed house prices further, were actually much more costly than restructuring the mortgages of homeowners. The same lesson can be applied here, demanding pounds of flesh from Greece may be more costly than restructuring its debt (having matured bonds rolled over into new bonds, negotiating an extended maturity date, et cetera.) Perhaps the interest of all stakeholders is better served through debt restructuring, after all the best solution is to let Greece get back on its feet again.

Keat Yang Koay is a U1 Joint Honours Economics and Finance student. You can reach him at keat. koay@mail.mcgill.ca.

Merit matters Why one student feels he can’t support MUNACA’s cause Benjamin Heumann 2 Cents

I

grew up in a union household outside of Detroit, Michigan.

Much of my family worked for Ford and General Motors. In general, I support unions because they are the primary organizations protect workers’ rights – especially against predatory cor-

porations. But I’ve also seen how unions can force organizations into policies that, in the long run, only serve to harm themselves.

This is why I cannot support MUNUCA during their strike.

As part of their list of demands, MUNACA states that they want all hiring to be seniority-based (given minimum qualifications) rather than merit-based. This demand is both ridiculous and insulting. The university is sup-

posed to be a bastion of meritocracy. Admittance as a student is based on merit. Scholarships and fellowships are merit-based (as well as need-based). Grades and class rank are based on merit.

Hiring of faculty and promotion to tenure and full professorships are merit-based. Even for tenured faculty, research funding is not automatic. Instead, it is highly competitive based on the merit of the research and the capacity

of the faculty and institution to carry it out.

A meritocracy seeks to find and reward the most qualified and productive people. To move away from this ideal in an institution only leads to poorer quality of work and to service that drags down other parts of it. Furthermore, hiring based on seniority rather than qualifications prevents the infusion of external personnel with fresh ideas and new approaches.

McGill is not about doing the bare minimum. McGill – and universities in general – are about innovation, creation, and doing our best.

Is it so much to ask that all students, staff, and faculty be held to this standard?

Benjamin Heumann is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography. You can reach him at benjamin.heumann@mail.mcgill.ca.

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

8

McGill hosts first annual Pop vs. Jock Big stars and student athletes compete in a charity basketball game Drew Childerhose Sports Writer

B

efore the doors opened at 3:30 p.m., a large crowd waited anxiously outside the doors of Love Competition Hall. No, I’m not talking about when the New York Knicks practiced at McGill a couple of months ago, but, rather, the first annual Pop vs. Jock basketball game. As part of the Pop Montreal Music Festival, Pop vs. Jock is a charity game that features famous musicians, NBA stars, and athletes from both McGill and Concordia. This year, the proceeds from the game went to support DJ Sports Club, a non-profit organization in Montreal that promotes sports and recreational activities as healthy alternatives for youth. Notable players included Arcade Fire’s Win and Will Butler (brother duo extrodinaire), the San Antonio Spur’s Matt Monner, Vampire Weekend’s Chris Tomson, and many more.

When the game got going, it was as much a spectacle as basketball games can be: high quality competition, music by some of Canada’s premier entertainers, and a crowd that cheered whenever Win Butler so much as stepped on the court. The only thing missing were fireworks.

The only non-typical aspect of the game was that half of the players and the majority of the crowd looked like they would feel more at home at a murky venue in Mile-End than in the well lit Love Competition Hall.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the energy of the game was the same as one might witness at one of the musical performances of Pop Montreal, and the indie rockers played basketball at a level you would never suspect. Even though it was a friendly charity basketball game, there was a ton of heat on the court, and the competition was great. With Régine Chassagne – another member of Arcade Fire – on the organ, playing a host of favourites, including the Super Mario theme, and Kid Koala spinning next to her, the ambience of the game mirrored the play.

You might expect that a bunch of indie rockers wouldn’t be able to hold their own against some of the finest members of the McGill and Concordia Varsity basketball teams. However, largely bolstered by professional ringers Matt Bonner and Paul Shirley – a former NBA player – the Pop team had far more skill than one would expect, even winning the game in the end.

But, no matter the score, the game was ultimately about the cause.

Dexter John, the founder and executive director of DJ Sport’s Club suited up with team Pop. After the game, he fully praised those who played,

and the crowd that showed up. He explained that the game was held to raise finances for DJ Sports Club to “improve [their] educational programs, really stabilize the organization, and can continue offering programs that help the youth” in the Sud Ouest region of Montreal.

But, arguably, nobody received as much attention as Arcade Fire front man and basketball whiz, Win Butler. Austere on stage, his demeanor on the court could not have been more opposite. He constantly heckled the opposition, the crowd, and even members of his own team, while nailing shots that seasoned veterans would have trouble with.

Before the game, Butler told The Daily that he “usually plays on [Matt Bonner’s] team. We have chemistry.” And it showed. The two men worked well together from the tipoff onwards, creating space for each other, making three-pointers, and creating turnovers for the surprisingly strong Pop team. By the end of the first half, the Pop team led 49 to 40.

Halftime was an oddity all in itself, split evenly between Win Butler attempting to compel the crowd through karaoke and band mate Richard Reed Perry’s Drones/ Revelations, both of which left the audience wondering what exactly had just happened. Perry’s display featured almost twenty cyclists and

roller-bladers circling the gymnasium floor, all equipped with white lights and speaker systems. The inspiration came from drone planes and the Book of Revelations. However, the constant hum, bass, and treble blaring from the speakers made the spectacle drone on rather than inspire. It was simply the wrong artistic endeavor for the halftime show of a basketball game.

Coming back from this strange show, the second half made a comeback with a thrilling end. The Jocks came within striking distance of the Pop team’s score for the first time since the opening moments of the game. With just twelve seconds left to play, the Pop team had a mar-

ginal three point lead, but the Jock’s missed a critical three point shot, and left the win to the Butlers and friends. Vampire Weekend’s Chris Tomson made two blocks in the dying moments of the game, but, when asked if they were the turning point, he responded, “Absolutely not, it was the NBA players.” In fairness, Tomson seemed happy just to play on the same court as Matt Bonner, “making a couple steals and a bucket” were, for him, just added bonuses.

As for Matt Bonner’s contribution to the victory, he argued that with the looming lockout threatening his salary this year, Win owed him a position with his band – “at least a guitar tech or something.”

All photos by Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Clockwise from top: Team Pop celebrates the win, Win Butler in a pre-game warm-up, Matt Bonner with DJ Sports Club kids, and Paul Shirley dribbles down the court.

Sports

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

9

It’s hockey year in Canada Return of Winnipeg Jets pleases fans while posing larger questions to the NHL Evan Dent

Sports Writer

S

eason tickets for the newly relocated Winnipeg Jets sold out in less than thirty seconds.

To unveil the new jerseys, the team had four players step off a Hercules jet at an airfield full of servicemen, team officials, and, most importantly, fans. Andrew Ladd, a forward for the team, summed it up best at a press conference by saying, “It’s fun to have this excitement around the team. Unveiling the jerseys turns into something like this… I don’t think anything surprises me anymore.”

Suffice it to say, for Andrew Ladd and many other players on the Winnipeg Jets, this was a level of excitement they hadn’t seen in Atlanta, where the team was previously located. The shocking move took the Atlanta Thrashers from a market that was ambivalent about hockey to one that was hockey-starved for years, after having lost their team to Phoenix, Arizona. The relocation of the Thrashers to Winnipeg forces the NHL to make many changes that will shape the league for years to come.

The first major change the NHL will be forced to make in the wake of this relocation is conference realignment. Currently, Winnipeg remains in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, playing with teams from Florida, North Carolina, and Washington D.C. The team’s move was announced at a date that made it impossible for the NHL to change the conferences, and keep their schedule intact. So, Winnipeg must remain an outlier in their division. The teams in the Southeast division will now have

to take longer flights to and from Winnipeg. This is both a logistical nightmare for organizations, and a discomforting situation for players, who will have to spend more time traveling instead of practicing or resting. To try to mitigate this, the schedule-makers have set Winnipeg up for many alternating home stands and road trips, hoping to reduce travel.

This is different than many teams, especially on the East coast, who play alternating home and away games over the course of many weeks. The increased travel time for Eastern teams coming to Winnipeg may also create an extra home ice advantage for the Jets, who will be playing with more rest on many nights.

The NHL has plans for realignment in place, moving Winnipeg to the Western Conference. Still, they need to decide which Western team will be moved into the East. The most viable candidates, geographically, are Columbus, Detroit, and Nashville. There are rumours floating around that Detroit has a longstanding, unwritten pact with the NHL to be the first team moved to the Eastern conference if ever there was realignment. Nashville, however, would probably be the most logical choice, as they would fit nicely into the Southeastern division of the Eastern conference, and Winnipeg would fit well in Nashville’s Central division, with Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, and St.Louis as part of the Western conference.

The dust from these moves will most likely settle by the 2012 season, but there could be many more changes coming for the NHL. The relocation from Atlanta to Winnipeg is a shot across the bow to Gary

Bettman’s “Southern Strategy”, in which teams were placed or relocated to big markets in the southern United States. Bettman, the NHL commissioner, thought he could maximize revenue for the league by placing the NHL teams in bigger TV markets such as Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, Raleigh, and Tampa Bay. Bettman failed to accurately evaluate the value of hockey in these markets, where it barely snows and ponds never turn into ice thick enough to skate on. There was no large intrinsic market for hockey in these places, but Bettman still thought the sport could win people over.

For the most part, it hasn’t. The only times these teams get a significant amount of attention is when they are successful (such as when Tampa Bay played in the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals). Otherwise, the fans remain largely indifferent. Relocation looms large for many of these Southern teams, with rumours of placing teams in Hamilton, Hartford, Quebec City, or putting another team in Toronto.

The NHL will now have to decide if they want to try and continue the “Southern Strategy” or mostly abandon it, keeping only the teams that have established a strong fan base, and moving most of the unsuccessful teams to cities that tend to care more about the NHL and hockey in general.

These cities would offer more dedicated fans (which means more merchandise sales), as well as more TV viewership, but would also deflate ad revenue gained by the league, especially if they were not American teams.

The NHL has these tough decisions to make as it faces a critical point in its history. Since the 2004-2005 lockout, the league has been steadily

growing in popularity in the American market and is gaining fans back every day.

The league has also signed a huge new TV deal with Versus, a sports network owned

by NBC, giving them some stability for the next decade. This season, if the NBA lockout continues and games start to be cancelled, Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily the NHL will have the most exposure it has had in quite some time. One also has to worry about Dustin How the league reacts to the myriad Byfuglien, the versatile offensive of issues facing it now in terms of relo- defenseman, who was charged with cation and realignment, especially in BUI (yes, that’s a B for boating) durlight of the league’s growing popular- ing the off-season and was weighed ity, will play a large part in the league’s at around 300 pounds, way over his reported playing weight. success for the foreseeable future.

These incidents set a negative And what of the Jets themselves?

While the local populace of Winnipeg tone for the start of their season. With bursts with excitement, what are many of last year’s playoff teams in the team’s realistic prospects this the East improving in the off-season, season? Well, it is still essentially like the Buffalo Sabres and the New the same team as last year’s Atlanta York Rangers, it seems hard to enviThrashers, who finished 13th in the sion Winnipeg being a realistic conconference and 13 points out of the tender for anything but 8th place in playoffs. In the off-season, they most the conference, and even that will be notably brought in right-wingers Eric an uphill battle. Despite this, there is Fehr and Kyle Wellwood to add some a buzz around the team that the playscoring and playmaking to the front ers haven’t experienced in a while, lines. The goalie position is weak, and, most importantly, the Winnipeg though, with a platoon between fans, very deservedly, finally have Ondrej Pavelec and Chris Mason. their Jets back.

MFLAG’s silent march Photo by Farid Attar Over 80 people gathered at Roddick Gates at 1 p.m. last Friday to take part in a silent march, organized by MFLAG, through campus.

Participants in the march taped green coloured tape over their mouths before beginning to march. Derek Nystrom, associate professor in the Department of English, addressed the crowd before the march began.

“What we’re going to do today is we’re going to dramatize the logical conclusion of such an injunction – the idea that you can silence any member of the McGill community that you don’t want to hear from,” he said.

Participating staff and students walked from the Roddick Gates to the James Administration building, where the group paused for a moment of silence. The march concluded outside the Milton gates with the reading of a “love letter” from East Asian Studies Professor Adrienne Hurley to the crowd.

—Erin Hudson

Off-Campus Eye

10 Features

From campu

A reflection on “The McGill Four”

Bora Plumptre

Features Writer

W

e had little warning. As the “Orange Wave” surged over us, it reshaped the landscape of Canadian politics in ways that few, perhaps none, had expected. Later, we agreed that only Jack Layton could have imagined it. But, on Election Night 2011, the political winds blew in a storm of shock and surprise: with the Bloc decimated, the Liberals pushed to the fringe, and, most importantly, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first majority government. Two of the nation’s most prominent politicians, Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe, not only led their respective parties to catastrophic results at the polls, but sank with their ships, and lost their own seats in the House of Commons. In the aftermath, both quickly resigned, leaving two of Canada’s most historically significant parties without official leadership, without direction, and without prospects. One brief, seismic moment – and Canada’s political trajectory took a radical new tack. Quebec traded in its secessionist aspirations for more genuine social-progressive representation (or maybe just for Jack). It really was a sea change. But, on the morning of May 3rd, the relevant question, was who’s still riding the wave?

The NDP surge in Quebec was astonishing, but what really sealed the province’s endorsement of “Orange”

politics was the election of some of Canada’s youngest Members of Parliament to date, all of them New Democrats.

Especially telling was the widespread acknowledgment – on the parts of both the electorate and the elected – that the NDP had done relatively little, if any, campaigning in many of the ridings it won. Quebec had gone in for ideology. Perhaps it had simply tired of the Bloc’s ineffective federal representation, and opted for the only comfortable alternative. Whatever the reason, the upshot was the election of a fresh cohort of eager, yet politically inexperienced, NDP MPs. Several were students, or on the brink of graduation. As such, these newcomers stood as testaments to an evident truth: they’d achieved victory neither on personal merit, nor because of the persuasiveness of their own campaigns (if they had run one at all). And few had any personal connection to their new riding.

Four of them were undergrads at McGill.

The “McGill Four,” as the national media labeled them, are Laurin Liu, Charmaine Borg, Mylène Freeman, and Matthew Dubé. (A fifth McGill student, doctoral candidate Jamie Nicholls, also earned a seat on the Hill.) Liu and Borg have yet to complete their undergraduate degrees, but, Freeman and Dubé dove straight from graduation into public office. In other words, until last May, they were all just like us. Or so we like to think.

Like many, I was captivated by the story’s sensationalism.

Major media seemed in turns dubious and exultant at the prospect of youth in – really in – politics. Of course, students and political activism is hardly an unusual blend, but students and political representation – especially at the federal level – is more than a little jarring. This is an attitude the “McGill Four” believe Canadians need to overcome.

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

us to caucus

Olivia Messer | The McGill Daily

” and the NDP’s new youth wing

In writing this piece, I often encountered that attitude.

It ran something along these lines: “The election of such young MPs was a fluke. Quebec voted for Jack Layton, or, at a stretch, for the NDP. But they did not vote for the ‘McGill Four.’ I’m all for giving them a chance, but let’s not go so far as to say they earned their seats in the House.

Their victories are simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.”

Charmaine Borg, who was taking political science and Latin American studies, is in a better position than most to address the impression that young MPs like her are unprepared or undeserving.

Borg won the Terrebonne–Blainville riding, just north of Montreal, without firing a shot. She ran no campaign to speak of. A local newspaper, Le Train D’Union, spent weeks trying to reach her for an interview, to no avail.

They ran a story about it, under the headline, “Avez-vous vu Charmaine Borg?” – “Have you seen Charmaine Borg?”

Finally, the NDP press secretary in Quebec explained that Borg couldn’t do an interview because she didn’t have a cell phone.

After the story ran, the paper finally got a call through to her. But, Borg said she was busy and would have to call them back later. In an updated version of the story online, they concluded, “We’re still waiting.”

During and after the election, the NDP faced media scrutiny for a seeming lack of candidate accessibility – a perception they have since made a large effort to change. But Borg’s aloofness during the campaign did nothing to allay the suspicion that the party was hiding their candidates from view.

When I spoke to her, Borg expressed her fervent disagreement with that characterization: “If anything, there was a

lack of handling. I certainly wouldn’t say I was shielded.”

I played a similar game of phone-tag with the Borg camp over the course of reporting this story. Eventually, I was able to get a phone interview with her. She explained her absence during the campaign as the result of being tied up in the campaign of Thomas Mulcair, the Outremont MP who, prior to the election, was the NDP’s sole representative in Quebec.

As Borg explains, “It was pretty much all hands on deck for [Mulcair]. We wanted to make sure he kept his seat, because if not we [wouldn’t] have anything in Quebec…

We put all of our resources there.” In other words, considering the NDP’s numbers historically in other ridings, they couldn’t realistically expect to win. So their efforts were better devoted to a campaign with a fighting chance.

A quick look at the Terrebonne–Blainville election returns from the past decade bears out Borg’s initial skepticism. The woman who lost to Borg, Diane Bourgeois, had won the previous four elections for the Bloc. No NDP candidate in that time span had come in better than fourth place; in 2000, the NDP candidate won 2 per cent of the vote, and finished in fifth, behind a candidate from the Natural Law party. In May, Borg won 49.3 per cent of the vote, crushing the incumbent Bourgeois by nearly 20 per cent.

To understand how the Four came to stand in the election, I asked them to explain the nomination process. Liu, Borg, and Dubé were all frank in their replies. Normally, a candidate’s selection is done by a riding association. But, in the case of many ridings, the NDP had such a weak base that these groups were either dormant or nonexistent. So, it fell to the party to seek potential candidates. “I’ve been Continued on page 12

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12 Features

Continued from page 11 known in the party as someone who’s been very present and very involved,” Borg told me. “So they essentially approached me and asked if I wanted to run. And I agreed.”

When I suggest there might be something incongruous about her running in Terrebonne-Blainville, a place to which, going into the campaign, she had no personal connection, she gets testy: “You can’t be guilty at all. I mean, you’re giving people the opportunity to vote for the NDP. If there was no candidate, then people couldn’t vote for the NDP, and we wouldn’t have a New Democratic representative, which, you know, 50 per cent of those who voted wanted. So.” She has a point.

As we continue talking, Borg mounts a persuasive argument for the value of youth on Parliament Hill.

“I think we have to change that whole outlook that a politician has to be a lawyer, or a CEO of a company for forty years,” she said. “Myself, I’ve been in the labour environment, and started a drama program for at-risk youth when I was younger. I’ve always had an interest in community involvement. And I’m noticing in my peers – people who come from all kinds of backgrounds – those are the people who know what it’s like in real life.”

I ask Borg about what Jack Layton’s commitment to youth meant to her. In a soft, almost nostalgic tone, she reminisces about her party’s former leader: “He believed greatly in our generation. Before we knew about his second sickness, he wrote an email to us – to the ‘McGill Four.’ We had done an interview, and he was really proud of it,” she recalls. Imitating Layton’s voice, Borg recallls his words: “I had tears of joy, because I’m so happy that I know our party is going in the right direction, and that you’re going to lead [it].”

As I learned – by sitting down with three quarters of the pack, so to speak – there is a very important sense in which each of these McGill students earned the right to represent. As the election proved, the NDP is a major contender in Canadian politics, and too serious a party to consider fielding candidates it felt were unqualified. With this in mind, its willingness to showcase young talent (or, put more charitably, to assign youth real responsibility) is heartening.

In Ottawa, Matthew Dubé’s office is located in the Justice Building, opposite the austere Supreme Court. After passing through security, I’m whisked through wide, paneled corridors – lined with MPs’ offices – to the interior of his new workplace. Empty bookshelves stood along the walls, and his desk was broad and imposing. It looked like office space that had been recently vacated, or not quite moved in to.

He’s generous with his time. Finally, late for a meeting, he rushes away. His assistant walks me downstairs, and sees me out. Their professionalism is impressive.

A longtime NDP supporter, Dubé had not bothered to become a member because he was focused on school. One day, he saw a poster on campus advertising a talk by Outremont MP Thomas Mulcair, organized by the NDP campus club. He went on a whim, and loved it. Club members approached him about getting involved.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “Definitely something that would interest me.” Those members, Liu and Freeman, are now his fellow MPs. Within a year, Dubé had run for, and won, positions of both co-

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

president in the campus club and president of the youth wing of the NDP’s Quebec section.

When the party asked Dubé, who was completing his BA in political science and history, to stand for election, they took pains to impress upon him the gravity of their offer. “There wasn’t much drama to [my] decision,” he says. “Maybe it’s a young, idealistic way of looking at it, but I just kind of threw myself in. And, contrary to what might have been said, you’re always aware – and they warn you (as if it’s a bad thing) – they do discuss with you the possibility that, regardless of how remote it may seem, when you present yourself as a candidate, the intention is to win. The possibility is always there... They really wanted to make sure folks were aware of that.”

The discussion turns to his campaign, and, without prompting, he addresses the question on the tip of my tongue. “There was criticism at some points with regard to how active certain campaigns were,” he says.

“I know for my part – I won’t speak for others – but [the Chambly-Borduas riding] is where I’m from, first of all, which I think dispels one of the myths that everyone was from somewhere else. It’s where I live.”

To prove his local roots, he tells me a story.

Recently, at a meeting in the city hall of one of the towns he represents, one of the mayor’s administrators pulled him aside. “You know, I went to high school with your dad,” the man teased.

But Dubé goes on to explain that, when it came to campaigning, he simply did not have the resources to fund things like extensive signage. “You have to work with what you have,” he insists. So, he collaborated with other South Shore candidates, did door-to-door canvassing by bike, and gave a couple of local interviews.

What did he do when he found out he had won?

“The day after it happened, we were getting organized, returning phone calls, and trying to get everything up and running.”

“Being surprised and being prepared are two different things,” he added.

Still, for Dubé, adjusting to life as an MP has been a daunting challenge. He has to juggle countless new responsibilities: selecting staff, setting up two offices (on the Hill and in the riding), becoming familiar with parliamentary procedure, helping constituents access federal services, preparing for debate…the list goes on. But, he says, “help came from all sides, if we were ready to use it and seek it out.” For one, there was the assistance of “phenomenal, non-partisan” staff in the House of Commons.

It hasn’t all been a grind, though. Dubé recalls an emotional moment this past summer, in which a constituent thanked him for the work he had done on her behalf. After indicating that she’d felt his absence during the election, she went on to express how grateful she was his team had managed to resolve her issue, and how impressed she was at his first four months in office. (I asked what the woman’s issue was, but he said he wanted to maintain the confidentiality of his constituents). “You know what?” she said. “I voted for Jack Layton last time, but next election, I’ll be willing to vote for you.”

Laurin Liu’s constituency office, in the riding of Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, sits humbly on a main street in St. Eustache, just north of the river and

Laval’s southern tip. Getting there by bus from Montmorency takes about an hour and a half from my apartment in the Plateau. The office shares a street with grim, brick apartment buildings, a gas station, and a strip mall. The surroundings are bland, but her staff is jovial. (One of her staffers is Myriam Zaidi, last year’s SSMU VP External).

They offer me weak coffee, and, when I leave, an anxious-looking local man is ready to replace my abandoned seat.

During the interview, Liu displayed an impressive engagement with both the history and culture of her new home in St. Eustache. She tells me about the traces of cannon ball fire on the side of the local church, and recommends the flour from North America’s oldest functioning mill. “It’s really important that an MP is accessible and present,” she says, and points to the fact that during the summer she’s done at least six hours of door-to-door canvassing per week.

And Liu credits “the huge sense of collegiality” within the NDP for keeping the new, young MPs (each of whom was assigned a mentor) reassured. Liu’s mentor is Halifax MP Megan Leslie – a fitting choice, as Leslie was voted “Best Rookie” in a poll of her peers conducted by Maclean’s magazine in early 2009.

As Liu, expressing her frustration with media skepticism, reported: “We always bemoan the fact that youth aren’t involved in politics. But when they get elected to Parliament, we complain about it. It doesn’t make sense.”

In a strangely instinctive way, the election of students encapsulates so much of what we both love and despise in a democracy. It reinforces our treasured belief that anything is possible, for anyone.

It’s a case of odds overcome, of new people seizing new opportunities, even of marginalized views finding public expression. We want youth to represent vigour and optimism in politics, because those are the qualities we appreciate in youth. And yet, there’s also the voice – the cynic – telling us that what matters is concrete experience. Youth doesn’t mean fresh perspectives, but a lack of perspective. How much naivete can we allow in our politics? This is the business of running the country, after all. The flipside (perhaps the perversion) of the notion that anything is possible – particularly when coupled with the knowledge that these people were elected not on their own account but solely on that of their party – is a jealous self-righteousness. It could have been anyone. It could have been you. And then there’s the financial aspect: MPs earn an eye-popping $157, 000 per annum salary. A voice asks, “are they really worth that?”

But it’s important to remember that these new MPs have come a long way – possibly longer than they know. Another, now-distant, May election saw a very different result for aspiring McGill politicos. In 1979, McGill students David Winch and David Rowley stood in Quebec as candidates for the NDP. Both lost, Winch to one Pierre Trudeau. The Daily covered the story – “NDP launches Big Mac Attack.”

The headline referred to the broke students’ use of a McDonald’s as campaign headquarters. Discussing his loss, Rowley stated, “I wasn’t disillusioned, because I didn’t have any illusions in the first place.”

Winch, after discovering that fifteen dollars remained in the campaign fund, had a simple declaration: “Maybe we’ll go out for Chinese food.” Who says history repeats itself?

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Art Essay

13

Maiden Tower, Azerbaijan Rashad Yusifov

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

14

E ≠ m*c ?

2

Thought that nothing could move faster than light in a vacuum? You might be wrong.

Andrew Komar

The McGill Daily

P

hysicists from the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) program at the European Institute for Nuclear Physics recently released a paper claiming that they may have discovered particles that might travel faster than the speed of light. This revelation, if true, would mean that the universal speed limit, as laid out in Einstein’s theory of special relativity, would be incorrect. Relativistic physics is the keystone of our modern understanding of the universe, so this announcement has the potential to be one of the most important findings in over a century.

These astonishing conclusions come from an experiment on a very different type of subatomic particle, known as the neutrino. This particle, the existence of which was first hypothesized by the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in the 1930s, is generated during nuclear decay. These miniscule neutral particles barely interact with regular matter, which makes them exceedingly hard to experiment upon. At any given second, there are about 65 billion neutrinos, coming from the sun alone, flying through an area the size of your thumbnail. The vast majority of these neutrinos will fly right through

the earth and out the other side.

Making neutrinos even more peculiar is that they come in three different types: tau, muon and electron.

And in an even more bizarre twist, neutrinos are known to spontaneously change from one type into another.

It was this bizarre behavior that the OPERA team was investigating when they made their unexpected discovery. They originally intended to generate a beam of muon neutrinos at their lab in Geneva and aim it at a detector in Italy, underneath the Alps. The neutrinos were supposed to fly 732 kilometers through solid rock, with some spontaneously morphing into tau neutrinos along the way. Though most neutrinos were to sail clear through the detector in Italy, a tiny fraction of them would have been picked up on the otvher end.

It was because of this journey that this potentially universe shattering discovery was made. In addition to the proportion of morphed neutrinos detected, the team also made an extremely precise measure of the distance these neutrinos travelled and how long it took them to do so.

To determine the distance, they used GPS measurements that were so precise that they were actually able to detect the movement of tectonic plates under the detector. They measured the average travel time to an accuracy of ten billionths of a second (ten nanoseconds), and they found

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily that the neutrinos travelled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light.

While the OPERA team, like many other scientists, wished that they could dismiss this result as erroneous – and they tried rigorously to do so – they were unable to dismiss the significance of the results. As a result, OPERA published

their findings with the hope that the scientific community would be able to see an error in their ways. This is why the scientific process is the one of the most powerful intellectual tools ever created: before any claim is accepted, there must be multiple independent researchers who reach the same conclusions. If faster-than-

light neutrinos are a reality, it means that Einstein’s theory, and our current understanding of the universe is fundamentally wrong. Overturning inaccurate models of the universe is the purpose of scientific methodology because nothing, not even the genius of Einstein, is above the demonstrated facts of reality.

Coming clean about being clean A look at the potential dangers of antibacterial, antiseptic, and disinfectant products Ethan Yang

Science+Technology Writer

I

t is early January, and you are sitting in Leacock 132. Although common disturbances, such as people going on Facebook, eating breakfast, or hitting their keyboard with unnecessary force, are all distracting and irritating, nothing can compare to the incessant coughing that often accompanies the arrival of winter. With 300 million droplets of water released with every cough, each containing an unimaginable number of microbes, you might be tempted to reach for the nearest antibacterial product. These products all have one goal in common, to reduce the harmful effects of pathogenic bacteria.

There are many terms used to describe these products: antiseptics, antimicrobials, and disinfectants are just a few, and, while companies may use these names interchangeably, they actually mean very different things. Antiseptics are substances that kill or slow the growth of bacteria.

While antibiotics are technically synonymous with antiseptics, the category has grown to encompass a broader range of antimicrobial substances, which kill or inhibit the growth of all microorganisms: bacteria, fungi, and protozoans. Common antiseptic substances include: polysporin, antibacterial soaps (such as Safeguard), and other products that contain active antiseptic or antibiotic ingredients.

Disinfectants – which are commonly used to clean our environment – do not, like antiseptics, necessarily kill all microorganisms.

They are less specific, weaker, and are a poor substitute for proper sterilization, which kills all microorganisms. The active ingredients in these substances are often alcohols or povidone-iodine. Although these chemicals can kill many bacteria, they are not effective against nonresistant bacterial spores. Common disinfecting products include the entire line of Lysol products and all hand sanitizers (such as Purell).

For many people the allure of antiseptics is irresistible. The thought of being able to eliminate

any and all harmful bacteria sounds much safer than simply disinfecting. Although, while this may be true in theory, in reality it is impossible to kill all bacteria, regardless of how strong the antiseptic is.

Bacteria are unicellular organisms that keep the majority of their genetic information in chromosomes, much like we do. Additionally, many contain plasmids, which are extra circular DNA that can contain genes that make their owners resistant to our attempts to kill them. As these plasmids are not connected to the main portion of the bacteria’s DNA, they can be conveniently donated to another bacterium through a temporary melding of the two or ingested by one from the other. Furthermore, as long as one bacterium survives after the introduction of an antiseptic, it won’t be long before this resistance is shared with other nearby bacteria, creating an army of resistant minions.

A recent study done by researchers from the University of Iowa showed that, within a week, new hospital privacy curtains will have a significant num-

ber of contaminants, despite constant attempts at sanitization.

Another study from the United States show that children brought up in overly sanitized environments – which could easily result from the continual use of these kinds of products – have a higher chance of developing asthma.

In addition to the resistant bacteria that the use of antibacterial substances results in, many of these antibacterial substances are toxic to humans. For example, Listerine contains chlorhexidin, which, despite its ability to remove bad breath and kill bacteria, hampers the growth of gums and creates millions of microcracks in the gums, all of which are prime breeding grounds for bacteria to take root.

In light of all the dangers of using antiseptics, simple disinfectants may actually be our best bet at keeping harmful bacteria at bay.

Hand sanitizers, especially, seem to be the lone products to stand the test of time. Studies have shown that, on top of their convenience,

they are possibly even more effective than soap and water in removing bacteria and maintaining clean hands. However, nothing is perfect and disinfectants are equally capable of creating resistant bacteria.

This, however, occurs at a much slower rate than that which takes place with antiseptics and results in many fewer deadly microbes.

Ultimately, none of these products do anything to combat the flu.

“The flu is a virus, not bacteria,” Professor of biology Tom Bureau points out. Professor of microbiology and immunology Albert Berghuis concurred in an interview with the McGill Reporter, emphasizing that using these products to combat the flu “is both useless and promotes antibiotic resistance.”

So the next time you start coughing, take a day off instead of spraying your house with Lysol and forcing your roommates to douse themselves in antibacterial soap. Not only are you doing yourself a favour, but you are also helping fight the on-going battle against resistant bacteria.

Science+Technology

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

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Hot potato, hot potato Anqi Zhang

The McGill Daily

R

ecent years have seen a surge in the awareness of environmental issues and climate change. This has been largely due to the huge advances in research that have occurred, and in the ability of scientists to convey this research to the general public. Despite this, there remains a small, yet significant, portion of the population that remains unaware or misinformed about the issues around global warming. This group is not unique – they simply epitomize the disconnect that exists between two distinct lines of thought: scientific and general.

It is on the basis of addressing this problem that Project Climate Change and European Marine Ecosystem Research (CLAMER) was built. On their website, CLAMER suggests that, “there is a gap between what is known through research and what policy makers and the public know and understand about the effects of climate change.” As such, they have published a synthesis of the research conducted within the European Union in the past 13 years and have compared it with a poll of public opinion.

Though the project’s focus is on the marine environment and the effect of global warming on coastal regions, the polling results are relevant to climate change as a whole.

The culmination of 13 years of marine-related environmental research by scientists in the European Union includes some

well publicized facts. For example, we know that our coastal cities – New York, Tokyo, even Montreal – will be in dire trouble should the sea level continue to rise. Europe seems particularly vulnerable to this. The synthesis notes that 35 per cent of European GDP is generated within 50 kilometres of the shore. Similarly, the effect of global warming on the frequency and severity of storms has been well publicized and publicly observed in recent years.

The CLAMER synthesis also draws attention to lesser known consequences of warmer marine temperatures, such as bacteria growth leading to increased risk of illness and the migration of fish colonies away from the same areas that will experience extreme drought and crop failure.

The second part of the CLAMER synthesis is comprised of a poll conducted this past January, led by a part of Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC, the world’s largest custom market research company. This is the first poll of its kind to focus on public perceptions of climate change’s impacts on the coastline and sea.

Though conducted in Europe, it manages to reveal some characteristics of general public opinion, especially those opinions that may be standing in the way of finding viable solutions to climate change.

The poll revealed that, though worried citizens take personal actions toward more sustainable living, they place most of the blame for climate change on other

nations, and assign responsibility to governments and corporations.

Dror Etzion, of the McGill School of Environment and the Desautels Faculty of Management, is unsurprised by this. “[The] government is often a whipping boy for these concerns, but the same is true for issues like education, health, and quality of life in general, so it is not unique to environmental concerns,” he says.

But if the European public is hoping that these feelings will elicit a more rapid response from governments, it may be severely disappointed. When asked if governments would feel any pressure from publications such as this recent synthesis, Etzion replied that they would not feel any pressure in the near future.

So how does this European research synthesis relate to our North American perceptions and reality? How would a public opinion poll in Canada compare to the poll featured in this study? Etzion thinks a poll would produce similar results in Canada, asserting that we do tend to blame other nations and governments. He added, “In North America the situation is worse, in that many individuals do not pursue personal measures to the extent that is done in Europe.”

This is an incredibly dangerous attitude to have when we live in a country where close to 60 per cent of municipal water usage comes from residential usage. This startling statistic does not even take into account the fact that, in several provinces, less than 5 per cent of residential water users are metered

while almost 100 per cent of business users are. In addition to this, water for agricultural use is largely not metered, and even free.

And that’s not all: it also appears that North Americans are, on average, less informed than our European counterparts. The synthesis notes that while 86 per cent of Europeans believe that climate change is caused mainly or entirely by human activities, 32 to 36 per cent of Americans believe that it is mainly or entirely a natural phenomenon.

With such demoralizing statistics, the real question becomes: can studies such as these really propel individuals, governments, and corporations to break what Etzion refers to as the “societal gridlock” on such environmental issues? While projects such as the CLAMER synthesis are made accessible to the public, they are not advertised and, as such, reach a very limited audience. Even though these projects begin with good intentions of bridging the gap between scientific and popular opinion, they not only fail to do so, but, they continue to support their own esoteric scientific communities. These failures are not just a call to governments, scientists, and researchers to step up, they are also a call for individual action.

We, as individuals, may be the only ones who have the ability to penetrate the “societal gridlock.” This can only happen if we become informed and take action in our own lives.

Governmental and scientific institutions can only do so much. The future belongs to all of us, and so does the ability to change what it will be.

Sci-DE BAR

Research synthesis points out the dangerous blame game we are playing with climate change Making headway: from classroom to the field Monday, October 3, 12:30 p.m.

On canalsavoir.tv Student researchers in the Arctic, Africa, and Quebec take their classroom learning into the real world.

From archaeology to outer space microbiology to engineering food security learn about the amazing opportunities available to you outside the lecture hall.

Mini-med: children’s cranial facial surgery Monday, Wednesday, Friday, October 3, 5, and 7 On canalsavoir.tv This week’s broadcast will allow students and other listeners to get a taste of medical school with hour-long mini lectures concerning facial surgery for congential facial anomalies

Taking life-saving science from lab to village Tuesday, October 4, 5:30 p.m.

McIntyre Rm. 521 The inspiration for this lecture stems from one simple fact: if you live in a modernized European country, your life expectancy is double that of your counterpart in any other part of the world. We are standing on the cusp of a revolution with the amount of scientific power at our dispoal. How will we use it? And will this differ from how we should use it?

Fourth McGill conference on global food security Tuesday, October 4 to Thursday, October 6 New Residence Hall The McGill Institute for Global Food Security was launched in October 2010 in an attempt to deal with the impacts of the 2008 food crisis, especially on those who were most vulnerable. The institute will be focusing its efforts on advancing annual agricultural productivity growth without sacrificing the environment.

Religion and the brain lecture series

Rashud Yusifov for The McGill Daily

Wednesday, October 5 to Wednesday, November 16, 5:30 p.m.

Birks Building This month and a half long lecture series is presented by a partnership of the Faculty of Religious Studies, the Centre of Research on Religion, and the School of Continuing Studies Personal and Cultural Enrichment unit. They will offer a series of seven lectures on Religion and the Brain.

Culture

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The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Out with the old, in with the Old Port A gallery go-ers guide

Louise Berrebi for The McGill Daily

Alexandra Borkowski Culture Writer

O

h, Old Port. How to describe you? We’ve all been to it, whether as wide-eyed new arrivals or as locals dutifully taking visitors on the obligatory tour of Montreal. Yet for most students, it remains on the periphery of our experience of the city – as if confined to its own little alternate universe.

The fantastic architecture and cobble stone streets give the impression of a different era, which, when coupled with eccentric street performers and horses with dyed pink manes, creates a bizarre amalgam of elements that come together in a surreal Canadian version of Disneyland. Despite this otherworldly quality, the astounding number of art galleries crammed into Old Port’s narrow streets attest to the fact that the neighbourhood is an active hub of contemporary culture.

It would require an elaborate taxonomy to analyze this eclectic art scene. However, some major trends can be identified. One example is the proliferation of Canadiana. There are a number of galleries devoted to the display of First Nations art. At Galerie Image Boréal, for example, row upon row of small stone sculptures are accompanied by cards issued by the Canadian Government confirming their authenticity as First Nations.

The gallery also contains a large polar bear skin rug, complete with growling head, with which tourists line up to have their photo taken.

This playing up of seemingly nationalistic qualities highlights the emphasis many of these galleries place on the local character of their artwork. A number of galleries demonstrate a penchant for large, colourful abstract canvases – those of Stéphanie Rivet at Galerie Émeraude stand out in particular. These pieces are strikingly reminiscent of the work of Jean-Paul Riopelle, whose distinct style is exemplary of the Quebecois automatist movement. When asked, gallery workers are eager to stress that the majority of their artists live and work in the Montreal area. This emphasis on the distinctly local character of the artworks undeniably caters to visitors to the city, for whom an object d’art serve as a souvenir.

This evident appeal to tourists is doubtlessly linked to the commercial nature of the majority of the art spaces in Old Port. Rather than presenting a specific exhibition with an overarching curatorial scheme, many of the galleries (Galerie d’Art le Bourget and Galerie le Luxart, for example) display a wide range of art works as objects of interior decor, favouring paintings that can be hung in a bedroom or kitchen, and small sculptures designed to sit on a mantlepiece. This commercial intention is also perceptible in the ambiance of the galleries, which is far

removed from the hushed contemplative spaces of fine art museums. The background club beats and startlingly bright whitewashed walls that accompany artist Corno’s pop-arty portraits at Galerie AKA are reminiscent of shopping-mall shoe stores.

However, commercial concerns do not negate the possibility of exhibiting some truly great art. The move westward away from the throngs of tourists brings us to more refined commercial spaces, such as Galerie Le Royer, which is currently showing a breathtaking exhibition of metal works by Quebec artist Marie Josée Roy. The artist has carefully painted and etched angelic figures onto large panels of aluminum and copper, creating ethereal images reminiscent of religious icons.

Still, the works are intended to hang in a living room, albeit an exceedingly tasteful one, belonging to someone with a spare $14,500 or so. Once again, the soft jazz playing in the background reminds visitors that this is a place of commerce, not contemplation.

And, then, tucked away on the more secluded streets, there is the blessedly silent DHC/ART foundation.

Marked only by small red sandwich boards, the gallery is easily overlooked, which perhaps adds to its clandestine character. DHC/ART’s status as a privately endowed foundation sets it apart from the majority of Montreal’s art galleries. Unlike the commercially oriented spaces that surround it, DHC/ ART does not depend on selling their

art works in order to remain afloat.

Nor is DHC/ART concerned with government funding or corporate sponsorship, which can influence the programming of publicly funded art spaces and museums. DHC/ART is thus at liberty to make bold and eclectic curatorial choices, mounting esoteric shows that invite critical engagement and introspection. While DHC/ART only exhibits three shows a year, each one brings veritable superstars, such as Mark Quinn, Jenny Holzer, and Sophie Calle, from the international art scene to Montreal.

Currently on display in DHC/ ART’s adjacent galleries are works

by American painter John Currin and Belgian sculptor Berlinde de Bruyckere. Bruyckere’s ominous sculptural installations provide a startling confrontation with themes of humanity, animality, and cruelty.

The monumental scale and the realism of her maimed taxidermy horses, or seemingly flayed human skins, render her work immediately unsettling. She also invokes antiquated museum practices, as she places her wax sculptures resembling tree trunks and warped humanoid forms into large wood and glasses cases, the doors of which are precariously left open, exposing the violence inherent in our attempts to arrest life and transform it into a specimen.

Her sculptures are also incredibly tactile, creating an uncanny resemblance to human skin and hair that

at once repulses and appeals to the viewers desire to touch.

Bruyckere’s nightmarish sculptures are counterbalanced by a selection of works by John Currin, whose works are notoriously grotesque, yet, humorous in their deprecating depiction of humanity. His warped, sexualized figures serve as an exploration of the perversities of contemporary bourgeois existence. Currin also employs clashing archetypes and art movements to create works that are marvellously subversive as they resist classification and defy common standards of high art. Each painting is like an illegible amalgam of folk art, children’s illustration, classical perspective, cartoons figures, and pornography. Both artists elude expectation and seek to challenge our comfortable perceptions of the world around us.

Thought provoking shows such as Currin and Bruyckere’s make DHC/ART the jewel in the crown of the Old Port art scene. However, one shouldn’t disregard the role that other small galleries that contribute to the art community. Despite its status as a historical district, Old Port is far more than a picturesque relic. The unusual balance between esoteric interest and mass appeal, between the gaudy and the refined, is completely unique. This multifarious art scene demonstrates that the Old Port is not just a museum piece, but still very much alive.

Culture

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A call for cushions and candlesticks Student blog proves that well decorated apartments are just what the doctor ordered Anna Silman

Culture Writer

F

or most, the phrase “student apartment” does not conjure up a pleasant mental image, and with good reason. In these transitory collegiate years, where movement is frequent and money is sparse, student digs often tend to be treated as little more than places to sleep in the brief interval between studying and partying, and the interior decor belies this sense of aesthetic abandonment. Decked out with the usual selection of self-assembled Scandinavian furniture, the most elaborate decor consisting of a ratty Scarface or John Belushi poster and a years supply of used liquor bottles, many of these temporary homes make no apologies for being just that: temporary.

Yet, for one McGill student, the phrase “student apartment” was a source of inspiration, not approbation. Nicole Park, a third year and B.Sci psychology student, who describes recreationally browsing for apartments on Craigslist as “her guilty pleasure,” was so inspired by the unique student homes she kept encountering that she decided to start a blog, “The House Call,” in order to feature some of these fantastic feats of interior design. Along with her photographers Ian Murphy

and Molly Teitelbaum, both also third year students, Nicole visits student apartments around Montreal to showcase these innovatively decorated student living spaces. For Nicole and the students she profiles, a student budget is no reason not to live in splendor, and she hopes that her blog will inspire those in “a decor rut” with the idea that creativity trumps cash.

The Daily sat down with Nicole to ask her a little bit about the inspiration behind this project.

The McGill Daily: What prompted you to start “The House Call?”

Nicole Park: Well I’ve always had a morbid fascination with what the inside of other peoples houses looked like, I think ever since the end of first year when we were looking for apartments. It’s so hard to come across a nice apartment, and looking at design blogs like the Selby (http://www.theselby.com/) I was really inspired by all the house decor, and I thought, well, students can do that too. Even if we don’t have the budget we are just as creative as these “high rollers.” So, in that sense, I was really interested to see what other students were doing with their apartments.

MD: What other blogs and websites inspired you to come up with this idea?

NP: There’s a German site called Freunden von Freunden (http://freundevonfreunden.com/). I’m also a big

fan of “The Covateur” (www.thecovateur.com), which is like a fashion blog mixed with inside decor. That and the Selby would be my top three.

MD: What sets these places apart that you’ve visited so far, what makes them unique?

NP: I guess the quirkiness of some decoration. I mean a lot of students will just buy their furniture from Ikea, you know, furnish their places in the cheapest way possible and make it look kind of cookie cutter, but I think what really sets people’s apartments apart are their decorations, and the inspiration they bring to their house.

MD: What would be your advice for someone on a low budget looking to jazz up their digs?

NP: For inspiration I would definitely check out some home decor blogs, you’ll always see some really cool art that you could definitely do for cheap. And even garage sale hunting is a big thing for sure, there are the garage sale postings on Craigslist that I check out every weekend and if there’s something interesting that pops up I’ll try to stop by. And, literally, even walking down the streets people will throw out perfectly good furniture like lamps and stuff and you can totally just pick it up and bring it home.

That’s what my friends and I do.

MD: Can you tell us a bit about your own apartment? What is your personal decorating style?

Ian Murphy, Nicole Park, and Molly Teitelbaum for The McGill Daily NP: I guess I would say cozy, lots of little matching prints in my room and framed pictures. I think a lot of personalization is important because it makes it feel like home, even though it’s not the home you grew up in. I think Christmas lights are a really nice touch to any home, it really makes them cozy–and Christmas is my favourite time of year.

MD: Why do you think living spaces are important? Is there any connection between how you live and how you feel?

NP: Yeah, I definitely think there’s a correlation there. I mean if you’re living in a shoebox I’m sure its not going to be conducive to either studying or

creativity, and I think if you have a place that you’re happy in, ultimately you’ll also be happy.

MD: How do you find the places you feature on your blog?

NP: Usually it’s from word of mouth, from my other friends who say, ‘oh my friends just moved in to this really cool place and its decorated really nicely,’ and they’ll kind of set me up with the person. But, I’m still looking for people to cover, so, I’m just hoping people will start contacting me.

Check out “The House Call” at thehousecall.blogspot.com. Contact Nicole at nicole.g.park@gmail.com.

Bonny says: “eat your veggies” Cole Powers

The McGill Daily

I

have never been particularly gungho about vegan food. The exclusion of meat from a meal is one thing – the complete elimination of any and all food products derived from animals is another. I have, however, enjoyed vegan food in Montreal before. In particular, while sitting on the back patio of the old Mile End stalwart Aux Vivres, I was served one of the hands-down best brunches I’ve ever enjoyed. If brunch, a meal typically heavy in the animal by-product department can be palatably, even deliciously, served without meat, surely there’s nothing to fear – flavour-wise – from vegan joints come lunch-time.

So it was without trepidation that I entered Bonny’s vegan and organic restaurant and sat down for lunch around 2 p.m. this past Monday.

The restaurant wasn’t very busy and, after having seated myself in one of the restaurant’s twenty or so seats, I was quickly handed a menu, and served a pitcher of lemon water. After a brief perusal of the menu I settled on the soup and sandwich combo, attractively priced at $10. My dhal soup arrived piping hot in a small tea-

cup sprinkled with green onions and freshly cracked pepper. “Is it the lighting?” I thought, “or is this dhal brown?”

Indeed the dhal was brown, but not for any sinister reason, as it turned out. Dhal, (denoting lentils generally [or any dish made with them] but, in this case, referring specifically to a style of soup) is usually flavoured with generous amounts of turmeric, which gives the dish its bright yellow colour and earthy aroma. Digging into the cup, I discovered I had been felicitously duped – the dhal was delicately seasoned with Chinese five-spice powder and cardamom instead. The result was a bit heavy on the cinnamon, but overall pretty exciting, for soup. The consistency was thinner than I am used to enjoying in a dhal soup, but I found it refreshing – especially with the distinctly Chinese addition of green onions – and enjoyed it almost as a tea rather than a soup.

The veggie-pâté sandwich was unfortunately not as exciting. Served on admirably fresh and delicious bread that smelled deeply of toasted wheat, the sandwich was spread with a too-thin layer of lentil and wheatberry veggie-pâté, and topped with spinach greens, pickled red cabbage, fresh shredded carrots, and dijonnaise. The ingredients themselves

were acceptably fresh and gardenvariety – the pickled cabbage, obviously done in-house, was pleasant and crunchy, the veggie-pâté was soft and savoury, and it’s hard to complain about carrots and spinach at great length. My problem with the sandwich was that the fillings weren’t particularly filling. For a few extra bucks, I could get a twice as large sandwich at Aux Vivres, where the satiating nature of the food seems to be an integral part of their success.

Bonny’s has everything going for it: a good location in an up-and-coming restaurant district (Joe Beef anyone?), a unique concept ‘if your mom cooked vegan’ and a nice interior space. It has more than enough to set it apart from the pack (read: Aux Vivres). What it needs to do is start serving bigger portions, not necessarily better or different food, just more of it.

Check out Bonny’s at 1748 NotreDame Ouest.

Nicole Stradiotto | The McGill Daily

Griffintown staple attempts to satisfy eaters of all kinds with vegan treats

18 Culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

The human wrongs in “human rights” New book from independent Montreal publisher criticizes the social justice status quo Anqi Zhang

The McGill Daily

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aniel Fischlin and Martha Nandorfy’s book The Community of Rights – The Rights of Community begins by introducing a phenomenon that is rarely explored in human rights discourse: the tendency to overemphasize the importance of the individual. Not only is this concept rarely mentioned in discussions of ethics and rights, but it seems, at first glance, to be counterproductive to the pursuit of human equality. After all, human rights activists tend to emphasize the worth of every individual, of every life – a sentiment that this concept seems to undermine. But, in this third volume of their trilogy, Fischlin and Nandorfy address the necessity of moving away from addressing the worth of every individual life, and moving toward considering the worth of individuals in rela-

tion to one another, the worth of community.

This trilogy, which began with Eduardo Galeano: Through the Looking Glass and The Concise Guide to Global Human Rights, has its roots in South American human rights issues and social justice. Convinced to widen their scope after the first book to global issues, the writers now tackle the paradigm through which we view human rights. In their view, the community is the basic unit of society rather than the individual. A community is not defined by the shared characteristics of the individuals that belong to it, but, rather, each individual “exists as the function of a community of relations.” We are, in other words, only as strong as our communities. And the concept of community, say Fischlin and Nandorfy, has much to be desired.

In their book, Fischlin and Nandorfy discuss at length the meaning of community as it

pertains to global human rights.

They propose that the legal instruments and public consciousness currently involved in the effort to uphold human rights fail to do so. These forces fail not only in their inability to account for the community, but also in their failure to incorporate storytelling as a means of conveying human interest.

In an email interview with The Daily, Nandorfy said, “We always suspected that knowledge [held] more hope of any real change than all the theorizing and legal instruments.” This book is an attempt to compel human rights activists to turn away from government and market rights as the assumed authorities in dealing with these issues. Holding knowledge as the key to inspire personal agency, the authors seek to inform and influence, to change our interpretation of human rights, creating solutions that have not yet been explored.

In this book, it is not only the

way in which we approach human rights problems that is under attack, but also the term “human rights” itself. “‘Human rights’ always felt too narrow and selfcentred, and this led us to think about how maybe community is the missing link,” said Nandorfy.

This criticism has arisen through the authors’ own literary journeys, they loosely used the term in their first book on Galeano, and now challenge what exactly constitutes a right.

Fischlin and Nandorfy’s voices ring clearly throughout the book – their assertiveness is what lends otherwise slightly esoteric and philosophical work its momentum. But, this assertiveness is not, according to Nandorfy, widely accepted in our society: “Few presses publish such books on colossal social problems and equally colossal visions of how to overcome them.” She alludes to this covert censorship, and the importance of independent publishers, such

as Black Rose Books, in enabling the open criticism present in The Community of Rights – The Rights of Community. This expression is particularly urgent now, in what Nandorfy refers to as “a time of disinformation and manipulation…[with] unparalleled greed and violence.” Now is the time to reevaluate our perception of human rights and our methods of upholding them. Now is the time to challenge the structures that are not working – these are the messages of this book.

In the introduction, Fischlin and Nandorfy offer the basic criterion that they feel should determine the effectiveness of any perspective on human rights: “The baseline measure for success of rights instruments globally is the degree to which they protect the interests of the poorest, the most disadvantaged, the most fragile.” What remains to be seen is whether their discussion, as comprehensive and forward-thinking as it may be, will fulfill this self-imposed criterion.

Enlightenment He Regarded as Good Clothes Ms. Cirillo saw herself in colour but was determined to impair others with the B&W so dreaded of children nurtured throughout the 90s-00s – that kind of dog-eyed boredom conditioned by AMC movies and ‘Nick @ Nite’ that evinced a sinister broadcaster’s business plan above it all, underlining HEY they’re asleep now (this was remarked, of course, between the infomercials), and yet, there you were, wondering if other kids really were asleep. Well, don’t worry, they weren’t.

BUT: Ms. Cirillo thought it’d be mindful to prompt this kind of animal thing in others and keep the cones for herself. That’s the dream. So she went about researching eyes online and in-class and learned enough to the point where she forgot about her original dream and became an optometrist because she found she already knew everything that her hobby allowed her, and she might as well make money. Ms. Cirillo was a practicing optometrist in the sandswept parking lots of Long Branch, NJ where the one person who knew her extinct dream would occasionally stop by to check up on her and make sure nothing excited or depressed her to the point of making little surgical catch work on irises, or flooding cones, or incising pupils. There’d be a lawsuit stirred up in the brown shit of legal pads with DAVE HESSELING written right below, or beside: COMPLICIT NEGLIGENCE. It was ugly but the terms weren’t up to him.

Hesseling was Ms. Cirillo’s one friend, who worked two part-time jobs when he should of/could of worked one full-time, which would of even paid more, but he likes variety, that’s what he always valued, so let him be, alright. Hesseling was thirty years old or so and the only thing that kept him going was that he kept reading symbols into things, which was some mild cognitive slight that he was well aware of but didn’t exactly hit the clinic for.

Instead Hesseling kept the thing around and let it swell, eventually forgetting that it was originally a disorder type thing, which was fortunate for him.

I mean, let him be, alright. But this guy would read symbols into everything, like, for example his optometrist-friend Ms. Cirillo was part of this arcane revelation rivaling John and Zarathustra but fitted for E-Z late capitalist dollars (his words, trust me). He was always very unclear about the structure of this revelation but he always called it a “RELEVATION” for a reason. He would hint at the structure of the relevation, and there definitely were chapters and hymnal choruses and he said you had to play all seventeen minutes of the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” as you read the hallowed piece or you were going to miss the point. Dead serious when he’d say this. His friend Ms. Cirillo played a prominent role in his vision, something of a siren figure with wings open, feathers lightly spiraling down, harpy cawing someone over to go ape-shit on their eye sockets. Hesseling said that in the entirety of What He Sees there was A LOT (he underscored) OF PAIN involved in the actual de-colouring process, but once etiolated and B&W stasis achieved, the patient was so overwhelmed with the new sight so as to forget any pain. But beyond this, he was waiting for more symbols.

When pressed about it, he said that yeah he saw the whole thing in this internally coherent code, but what, you want me to tell you what the ciphers mean? What does this eye sucking siren mean? Hesseling would shake his head and say you’re just missing the point you always miss the point, and your inability to get the point’s probably a symbol as well. I’ll get back to you on that one. ­— Ryan Healey

Are you a dork for

Inkwell

doric? Do you conspire with corinthian? Cause Culture is looking for COLUMNists.

Send a letter of intent, outlining what your column would be about, along with two sample columns to culture@mcgilldaily.com. And we’ll be in touch. Don’t be afraid to be ironically

ionic!

19

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com EDITORIAL

More than just going through the motions

volume 101 number 9

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

Joan Moses

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Henry Gass news editors

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

Eric Andrew-Gee commentary&compendium! editors

Zachary Lewsen Olivia Messer culture editors

Christina Colizza Fabien Maltais-Bayda

Since its establishment in 2006-2007, the General Assembly (GA) held by SSMU has suffered from chronically low student turnout and perceived ineffectiveness. This year was no exception. Some have suggested that this is reason to abolish the institution altogether. But the biannual GA is the most direct way in which undergraduate students can influence their student government. Thus, the student body’s disengagement from this democratic process is alarming and should galvanize us to seek immediate and effective reform.

This year’s SSMU executive ran on a platform pledging this kind of reform, but any promised improvements were notably absent last Monday. The GA lost quorum after the third motion passed, when attendance dropped below the meager 100-person count required for the resolutions passed to be binding. This turn-out can be attributed to the conspicuously early date chosen for this semester’s GA, which was moved up to September 26 from last year’s date of October 21. This was compounded by insufficient advertising in the two weeks prior to the event – the time frame in which the Speaker of Council must solicit motions from the student body. As a result, the five motions at Monday’s GA were unilaterally authored by executives and councilors.

The Daily urges the SSMU executive and Speaker of Council to fulfill their responsibilities in advertising the GA, and to do so more effectively. This should include a more aggressive publicity campaign, including a greater number of pre-lecture announcements, posters, and an increased online presence. Publicizing motion-writing workshops and making Robert’s Rules (the rules which govern the assembly) less opaque will improve accessibility for students. Making use of SSMU’s website to allow resolutions to be submitted online through a template, as well as maintaining a public list of these resolutions throughout the semester, could make students more willing to get involved. Moreover, faculty associations should take greater responsibility in advertising the GA.

science+technology editor

Jenny Lu

health&education editor

Melanie Kim sports editor

Andra Cernavskis photo editor

Victor Tangermann

But, as a student body, we should remember that the democratic process involves responsibilities as well as rights. Increased accessibility at the GA won’t amount to much without increased student involvement. Write a motion about anything from instituting no-pants Fridays to advocating for free and accessible education. This is your chance to see positive change at McGill, whether you’re politically passionate or just want to make campus more fun. Either way, it’s important to remember that the GA is only as interesting and effective as we make it.

illustrations editor

Amina Batyreva production&design editors

Alyssa Favreau Rebecca Katzman copy editor

Peter Shyba web editor

Shannon Palus le délit

Anabel Cossette Civitella rec@delitfrancais.com cover design

Amina Batyreva Contributors Farid Attar, Alexandra Borokowski, Esma Balkir, Louise Berrebi, Edna Chan, Oles Chepesiuk, Drew Childerhose, Evan Dent, Jane Gatensby, Joel Entwistle, Benjamin Heumann, Keat Yang Koay, Andrew Komar, Davide Mastracci, Zina Mustafa, Bora Plumptre, Cole Powers, Jordan Venton-Rublee, Anna Silman, Juan Camilo Vasquez, Ethan Yang, Rashad Yusifov, Anqi Zhang

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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advertising & general manager

sales representative ad layout & design

A false sense of security Last Monday, approximately 40 students participated in a sit-in at the Y-intersection in the heart of campus. At times, up to ten security guards were stationed around the demonstration, even though it was peaceful and accommodating of campus traffic. Security guards asked for some students’ ID cards, including those who were simply standing on the sides. Security Services threatened that they would call the police on students – without any good reason.

This incident is not unique. Since September 1, Security Services has been more visible than usual at McGill, positioning guards at frequent intervals on campus. These practices create an atmosphere of continual surveillance. While their motto reads “working with you, for a safe community,” many Security Services’ interactions with the McGill community at and around demonstrations since the start of the semester throw the legitimacy of their services into question.

Tactics such as asking students for identification and threatening to call the police result in a feeling of widespread intimidation. Students should not feel intimidated by our Security Services when we express opinions on campus.

Even more unnerving, Security Services have repeatedly filmed demonstrators with a handheld camera. When asked, both security staff and senior administration refuse to disclose what said footage would be used for. Additionally, Security Services sometimes films from vantage points that are not readily visible to protestors. This means that we’re not always aware when we’re being filmed. For example, on September 30, a member of security staff was filming a demonstration from across the street, blocked from view by both moving traffic and parked cars.

The opaque operating methods and lack of accountability of Security Services amount to serious cause for concern for all members of the McGill community. Plainclothed security staff have had more of a presence in recent weeks, making it difficult to even identify where security are. Though security staff wear ID badges, these are not clearly visible, making it more difficult for students to even identify with whom they’re interacting. This makes it a challenge to hold security guards accountable for their actions.

By using threats of police, unexplained operating procedures, and a disproportionate presence around demonstrators, Security Services subverts its own purposes, making students on campus feel less safe when they should be doing the opposite. The behaviour of Security Services since the start of the year, and last week in particular, calls into question what the job of McGill security really is. If they aren’t here to protect us, then what are they here for?

dps board of directors

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

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

All contents © 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 Due to an editorial error, an article titled “The SSMU Executive was decadent and depraved,” (Features, page 14, September 29) incorrectly stated that Jack Layton was SSMU VP External when he was an undergraduate at McGill; in fact, he ran for the position, but lost. The Daily regrets the error.

The Daily article “Hundreds of animals seized from Quebec dog breeding facility” (News, page 7, September 26) incorrectly attributed a quote to Rebecca Aldworth that said the needs of food and water were not being met for animals in Clarendon Township. In fact, Aldworth did not specifically comment on which needs of the animals were not met. The Daily regrets this error.

Due to an editorial error, an article titled “Say no to forced prison labour in Ontario” (Commentary, Page 10, September 29) incorrectly implied that Tim Hudak was running in a reelection campaign; Rather, he is running in an election campaign. The Daily regrets the error.

Com p endium!

The McGill Daily | Monday, October 3, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

20

Lies, half-truths, and overzealous padding.

Crazy Eye

In soviet russia, crossword does you!

Rockin’ and a-rollin’ Photo by Bikuta Tangaman

The CFL introduced new safety measures for players in the college league.

League director, Jock McRodent, states that “this will reduce injury by at least 12 per cent.” Red Thunder fans were riveted, student Thunder Fandington III pointing out that “it’s fuckin’ ace, bro.”

—Bikuta Tangaman and Anne Onymous The Crossword Fairies The McGill Daily

Across

FUCK YEAH AIR MAILED CHOCOLATE

A

s outlined within these very pages last week, I am in the midst of a sexual strike – 2 weeks, 3 days, still going strong. But despite my picketing powers, and the solidarity of some steadfastly single friends, I recently experienced a crisis of faith. Can you blame me? Everyone needs a little somethin’ somethin’ now and then. It was in this moment of weekness that God – and by God I mean the spirit of Beyonce, obvs – intervened. You see, when I went to my hometown for a couple weeks in August, I left a bunch of crap there, and my parents had to mail it to me. Being the kind and loving guardians that they are, they filled the package with some extra treats for their stressed out student, namely chocolate. Thanks to the powers that be, the package arrived just as I was contemplating putting down my blow horn and heading back to the bargaining table – or rather bed – with the assholes who prompted the strike. But I stood strong. FUCK YEAH AIR MAILED CHOCOLATE. Cause who needs to get laid when you can lay into a something dark and sweet that will quench your craving, without misbehaving!

Hey you!

Yeah you!

Make us laugh.

We dare you. compendium @mcgilldaily.com

1. Spirited horse 5. Heroic tales 10. Ringlet 14. Partner of rank and serial 15. YouTube commenter 16. Lenght x width, for a rectangle 17. Baal, e.g.

18. Slack-jawed 19. Scoop 20. Kindred spirits 23. Become a member 24. Thomas or Peter 28. Anarhichas lupus, with -ish 32. Hawkeye 33. Darling 36. Lachrymosity 39. Final, e.g.

41. Lab containers 42. Hunt for 43. Virtualness’ opposite?

46. Assay 47. Pre-Revolution leaders 48. Kind of drive 50. Endeavours 53. New Mexico’s state flower 57. International __ __ 61. Give off, as light 64. Town near Moscow 65. Shakespeare, the Bard of __ 66. Pink, as a steak 67. Gain access 68. South American monkey 69. Mass unite 70. Lyric poem 71. Choice word

Down

1. Biscotti flavouring 2. Radioactive noble gas 3. French romance 4. A deeper, louder moo 5. Asterisk 6. Jason’s ship 7. Blame bearer

8. Top dog 9. “To __, perchance to dream” 10. Ammunition chests 11. Ashes holder 12. Call, as a game 13. Indochinese language 21. Remove excess ink 22. Agitate 25. 140 characters or less 26. Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation 27. Exalt to the heavens 29. Bulgarian coins 30. Give 31. Swiss capital 33. Animal hides 34. Take up space 35. Turkic language 37. Cut out 38. Red letters?

40. Stem cell location, for plants 44. Invitation request 45. Bean used to make miso 49. Change your DNA 51. American symbol 52. Ice cream serving 54. Kind of engineer 55. Doddering old codgers 56. “Tomorrow” musical 58. “Cogito __ sum” 59. __ row 60. Food sticker 61. .0000001 joule 62. Mutilate 63. Óglaigh na hÉireann