vol101issue21

Volume 101, Issue 21

November 17, 2011 mcgilldaily.com

McGill THE

DAILY

Lost in the crowd for 100 years

Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

WE ARE ALL MCGILL 3, 4

mcgilldaily.com

RENOVATED APARTMENTS

ALL INCLUSIVE!

On Sherbrooke St., near Parc Lafontaine Quebec & McGill Universities Interior swimming pool & sauna Laudry room & interior parking ($)

514-522 Ǧ͙͡͞͝ Ȉ .cogir.net 1 ½ to 3 ½

ALL INCLUSIVE! Downtown on St-Marc St., near Atwater & Guy Metro stations & Concordia & McGill Universities. Interior swimming pool, squash and sauna in the building.

Interior & exterior parking available.

We’re mindbending

1 MONTH FREE + A $250 GIFT CARD* ON 4 1/2 3 ½, 4 ½ renovated apartments, all included Indoor pool & 24h doorman Interior & exterior parking available.

Close to everywhere!

1100 Dr. Penfield

Call (514) 286-9191 www.cogir.net *Limited promotion on certain units.

Certain conditions apply.

Prestige residential building!

1½ to 5 ½ renovated apartments Indoor pool, sauna & 24h doorman. Near shops & services. Interior & exterior parking available.

Close to Royal Victoria Hospital & McGill University

(514) 337-0003 www.cogir.net

514-935-4673 Ȉ .cogir.net

Sexy and single?

Become a Daily editor!

Email coordinating@mcgilldaily.com for more information

News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

3

“This isn’t the end” Community regroups in front of James Administration after November 10 Jessica Lukawiecki The McGill Daily

“T

his is what democracy looks like,” shouted nearly a thousand McGill community members who gathered in James Square on Monday.

The rally, “We Are All McGill,” was a student initiative organized in response to the events of last Thursday, November 10, when McGill students were pepper sprayed, teargassed, and pushed off campus by riot police.

Alex McKenzie, a U2 Arts student and Daily staffer, created the event on Facebook the night of November 10.

“I was sitting at the library getting these crazy text messages from my friends, saying they were getting hurt, and I got really angry, and posted one of those angry Facebook events which I was expecting 10 people to join and embarrassingly have to delete six hours later,” McKenzie explained. “And I had 500 people on it in 30 minutes.”

“I woke up the next morning to realize that there were over a 1,000 people attending, and something needed to be done,” he added.

McKenzie, a Mob Squad member, then conferred with other mem-

bers, who began to plan the event together. A meeting after the sit-in outside of James Administration on Friday formed working groups to help with organization.

The rally, which began with a march from Roddick Gates, opened with a sound collage from the night – which captured the screams of students as they were pepper sprayed by police – followed by a moment of silence.

A motion was then introduced to rename James Square.

The crowd voted to rename the space Community Square, or Carré Communautaire.

Those present were encouraged to share personal experiences relating to the events and discuss “how we can move forward,” according to the Facebook event page.

One of the first students to speak expressed his refusal to stay silent amidst recent events that have taken place at McGill.

“We can dramatically change this University. We really, really can,” he said. “We must stand up, we must get loud, and we must act now.”

Jonathan Sterne, chair of the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, and member of the McGill Faculty Labour Action Group, also spoke.

“In the face of administrative

inaction, let’s escalate our commitments to one another, and to other students around the city,” said Sterne. “Let’s escalate our commitments to fair compensation for our colleagues in MUNACA.” At one point during the rally, the crowd waved to the MUNACA workers picketing across the road from Milton Gates, shouting “solidarité!”

“I believe in the protesters,” Sterne added. “I believe in my students, and I ask you to believe in yourselves, and let’s work to write the course for this University, in this province, and in this world.”

The open forum culminated in a General Assembly, which discussed commitments to future action, including forming a committee to democratize McGill’s governance structure.

Despite the peaceful nature of the event, police officers were stationed at three entrances to McGill throughout the afternoon.

According to Montreal Police Sergeant Guiseppe Boccardi, McGill called the police “to inform us that there’s going to be some kind of gathering between 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., five to six hundred people, to make sure that everything stays well.”

“We’re on what we call standby mode, in case something were to get out of hand,” he added.

Nicole Gileadi for The McGill Daily

Nearly 1000 students gather in front of James Administration.

Administrators in the crowd included Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson and Principal Heather Munroe-Blum.

Munroe-Blum sat on the steps for a portion of the gathering, and was on the speakers list before she had to leave for another appointment.

In an email to staff and students yesterday, Mendelson said the administration “clearly understand[s] the concerns expressed at Monday’s gathering and elsewhere in response to the events of November 10.”

He goes on to list services available

to students who experienced “distress, fear or anxiety,” who “witnessed or were subjected to violence,” or were “hurt or otherwise affected” as a result of the events of November 10.

McKenzie said the most important thing to take away from the event was that “this isn’t the end.”

“This was a forum to start thinking about a set of ideas, to start making opinions about a set of ideas, and to start being active about a lot of ideas,” he said. ­— with files from Juan Camilo Velásquez and Erin Hudson

Eight of the fifth floor occupiers identify themselves Students walk out of Senate in protest of Provost Queen Arsem-O'Malley The McGill Daily

M

cGill Senate met on Wednesday, the same day that rabble.ca published the “Letter from the Fifth Floor Occupiers,” definitively identifying eight of the fourteen occupiers of the James Administration building on November 10.

Student Senator Matthew Crawford announced during his speech at the “We Are All McGill” rally on Monday that he had been on the fifth floor. In addition to Crawford, Arts Representative to SSMU Micha Stettin also signed the letter published on rabble, as did McGill students Jean-François Faucher, Ethan Kyle Feldman, Kevin Paul, Ben Patrick Stidworthy, Alex Timmons, and Derek Tyrrell. The other six occupiers wish to remain anonymous.

Senate suspended procedural rules to allow for a Committee of the Whole in which the events of November 10 could be discussed –

including the inquiry to be conducted by Dean of Law Daniel Jutras.

With a room capacity of 125 people, administrators warned students and professors that space for spectators would be limited. As a result, over 50 students who did not make it inside gathered outside of the room. A live stream of the event was set up so that those outside of the room could watch the discussion.

In Senate, Jutras explained the process for his inquiry. As he spoke, many members of the gallery rose and turned their backs to the rows of senators, to show their disapproval of the administration’s decision to appoint Jutras to head the inquiry.

Senators were invited to talk about issues surrounding November 10. Management Senator and former Daily Web Editor Tom Acker read a statement regarding the events. “Thursday marked the day [students] stopped seeing their campus as a safe space,” he told senators.

Acker also referenced the fact that, despite an entirely peace-

ful gathering on Monday, at which numerous senior administrators were present, “McGill still had police cars waiting outside three campus entrances,” leaving students – still reeling from their November 10 experiences – uncomfortable.

Darin Barney, a Senator and associate professor in Art History and Communication Studies, urged the administration to “reverse the trend of the securitization of this campus.” He further called on the Principal to rename James Square “Community Square” – to honour the decision made by students at “We Are All McGill” – as well as to designate November 10 “Freedom Day” at McGill.

Crawford addressed the room as he recounted his experience on the fifth floor. “I really, really hope that our efforts were not in vain, and that this sees a new era at McGill where we see frank discussions about student representation of the student voice on campus,” Crawford said in an interview before the Senate meeting.

Gallery members stood in sup-

port as Crawford explained that McGill Security should not be able to lay hands on students, deny giving their names when asked, or “wantonly call the police when a clearly peaceful demonstration enters campus.” Crawford assured those listening that the “fifth floor of the James Administration building was entirely peaceful.”

Provost Anthony Masi, who had previously been identified as participating in negotiations with the fifth floor occupiers on November 10, spoke minutes after Crawford.

“I actually witnessed some of the things on the fifth floor,” Masi said, claiming that staff was “subject to attack by individuals who were wearing scarves and hoods.”

Gallery members stood and turned their back to the room as Masi began to speak, hissing when Masi commented, “You can’t turn your backs on the truth.”

“The only thing we wanted to do was make sure that every one of them got out safely and securely,” Masi added, referring to office staff.

Crawford rose and left the room

at Masi’s comments. Students in the gallery began to walk out after Crawford, crying “lies.” Timmons, another occupier, shouted, “Students were assaulted… Shame on McGill” as he walked out of the room. The students joined a group of peers still outside, who began to chant “no more lies” and “shame on McGill.”

After the meeting, Timmons said he felt that Masi was “skewing the reality of what happened” on the fifth floor.

“As someone who had no voice [in Senate]... I feel that my voice had to be heard,” he added.

Crawford also expressed reservations about Masi’s monologue.

“I felt [Masi’s] narrative was problematic, planted in a particular bias that did not fully respect what the students [occupying] were trying to do,” he said. However, Crawford did say that he thought the Principal’s remarks on the subject “were extremely productive...even if they were somewhat late.”

—with files from Erin Hudson and Michael Lee-Murphy

4 News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Inside the investigations Senate questions Jutras Inquiry into November 10 as students launch parallel inquiry Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

O

ne week after the events of November 10, students and faculty are questioning the inquiry launched last week by Principal Heather Munroe-Blum to investigate the events.

The inquiry, led by Dean of Law Daniel Jutras, was announced the day after Montreal riot police broke up a student demonstration outside of the James Administration building. The demonstration formed in solidarity with 14 students who were occupying the fifth floor of the building in protest of numerous McGill positions, practices, and policies.

In an interview with The Daily, Jutras said he “thought it was important that I [lead] it,” adding that the fact-finding inquiry “relates to the hopes that this will not happen again.”

“If there are appropriate recommendations to be made with this purpose in mind, I will make them,” he continued.

“The process is not meant to assign blame to anyone,” Jutras said.

“The effort is to identify the facts, determine the facts, and report them to the community.”

Jutras said he has never performed an investigation similar to this one before, and added that he was unaware of any precedent for such an inquiry on campus.

Students and faculty have been quick to speak out against the Jutras Inquiry, however.

At a student meeting in the SSMU cafeteria the same day that MunroeBlum announced the Jutras Inquiry, three students – U2 Economics and Political Science student Christopher Bangs, U4 Anthropology student Allison Cooper, and U4 History and Canadian Studies student Matt Dowling – helped to form an independent student inquiry into the November 10 events.

“We think that there are some real problems with the idea of the Dean’s investigation,” said Bangs. “I’m sure the Dean will conduct a very comprehensive institutional review, but that’s not a student perspective.”

In response to a question about how he hopes to stay impartial in conducting his inquiry, Jutras stated that, “I stand on my own reputational integrity.”

Jutras said he would not have the authority to compel the Montreal police to give testimony to the inquiry, saying it “most likely will be up to the police itself.”

Furthermore, Jutras said similar parameters applied to dealing with McGill Security. The James Administration fifth floor occupiers have alleged that they were shoved, dragged, and kicked by McGill security guards.

“I have no power of constraint, or to compel testimony, so I’m inviting people to communicate with me, and I will solicit interviews whenever I think it’s useful – but if people don’t want to speak to me, I won’t be able to force them,” said Jutras, adding that he will be asking McGill

Security to provide testimony.

Regarding the occupiers themselves, Jutras said he will “see whether they communicate with me in writing” before interviewing them. He also stated that he had been unaware that student Senator Matthew Crawford was among the 14 occupiers.

Lerona Lewis, president of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill – who have called for an independent inquiry – said she was troubled by a perceived focus on police intervention in the inquiry.

“I don’t see much emphasis on what took place for the [fifth floor] occupiers,” said Lewis. “The fact that the security guards could actually physically assault students – I mean, this is what has been said – so I think that’s where we want to place emphasis, too. Who gave them the authority to do that?”

Lewis also questioned the impartiality of the Jutras Inquiry, saying that an investigator from another university would understand the “culture of universities” without having close ties to McGill itself.

The independent student inquiry is hoping to release a preliminary report by the end of November, and a final report in January. The deadline mandated by Munroe-Blum for the Jutras Inquiry is December 15.

Bangs said the students hope to offer a wide range of student and community voices in their inquiry.

“If we issue recommendations, they won’t be political or biased,” he said.

At the Senate meeting yester-

Meet Daniel Jutras • LL.B. (Université de Montréal, 1982); LL.M. (Harvard, 1985) • Member of the Quebec Bar since 1984 • Joined McGill Faculty of Law, 1985 • Associate Dean (Admissions and Placement), 1989-91 • Associate Dean (Academic), 1995-98 • Director, McGill Institute of Comparative Law, 1998-2002 • Principal secretary to Chief Courtesy of Claudio Calligaris for Publications McGill Justice of Canada 2002-04 (on leave from Faculty) • Appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law in February 2010 • Areas of interest: obligations, judicial institutions, civil procedure, comparative law, law and society • 3.5 out of 5 rating on ratemyprofessors.com —compiled by Henry Gass day, both student and faculty representatives voiced concern about the Jutras Inquiry. Post-Graduate Students’ Society Senator Lily Han said that the way the investigation is set up is “highly problematic.”

“It’s not merely the events that occurred that should be investigated, but the actual structures and systems that led to those events,” said Han. “The position of Dean is an inherent part of the administrative structure of a university, so the fact that [Jutras’] running the investigation is pretty problematic.”

Arts Senator and Anthropology professor John Galaty proposed

that Jutras be assisted and accompanied in the investigative process by one faculty member and one student. Despite his recommendations, Galaty added that Jutras is “probably the best person in the University to head this investigation.”

Addressing concerns about his impartiality as lead investigator, Jutras told Senate that, “In this investigation and report, I will speak for no one but myself, and serve no one but the McGill community as a whole.”

Jutras also admitted that, given the mandate for the inquiry, “I will not necessarily receive [testimonies] from all sides of every story.”

McGill students host third annual TEDxMcGill event Fifteen speakers discuss “ideas worth spreading” Annie Shiel

The McGill Daily

O

n Sunday, November 13, McGill hosted its third annual TEDx event at BainMathieu on Ontario Est. The event brought together 15 speakers, about

half of whom were McGill students, to share their reflections on the theme of “Redefining Reality.”

TED is a nonprofit organization whose slogan is, “Ideas worth spreading.” TEDx, an offshoot of TED, brings people together in local, selforganized events to share the TED experience and spark discussion.

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Wienberg speaking at TEDxMcGill.

U3 Arts student Nida Nizam and postgraduate medical student June Lam organized Sunday’s entirely student-run event.

Lam said he was drawn to TEDx for its optimism. “I love TED Talks because it’s not financial, it’s not for economic success. It’s untinged in that it is just about ideas… I’m drawn to it because it’s pure joy, optimism, and idealism for the future.”

Regarding the preparation for the event, he explained that, “It’s been a challenge, but a really fun one.”

Within the broader theme of “Redefining Reality,” the speakers were split into three sessions, each with its own sub-theme.

The event featured speakers Morgan Wienberg, founder of Little Footprints, Big Steps and primary caretaker for over 75 children in Haiti; Alain Tascan, cofounder of Ubisoft in Montreal; Pinny Gniwisch, professor of McGill’s first ecommerce and social media course; and Joshua Kyle, U3

Engineering student and founder of Reboot McGill.

For Wienberg – who, at age nineteen, decided to forgo university to care for over 75 victimized children in a Haitian orphanage – redefining reality means changing your perspective and stepping outside the box. “[Redefining reality] means taking into account other peoples’ perspectives. Make sure your eyes are not the only ones that you’re looking through,” she said.

“Don’t let the expectations of society or your own expectations of yourself and your comfort zone stop you,” she continued. “If it’s never been done, who cares? You can do it.”

Alex Pritz, student and co-founder of Developing Pictures Media – an organization that films pro-bono films for NGOs in Haiti, among other projects – echoed this sentiment. “Step out of the one dimensional perspective that you’ve built up throughout the years,” he said.

“The key to redefining your reality [is] accepting other peoples’ realities as just as genuine as your own.”

Christian Elliot, Pritz’s partner in Developing Pictures, added, “Don’t accept your own limitations, because the moment that you do is the moment you stop yourself from potentially doing something amazing.”

Throughout the talks, audience members were encouraged to live-tweet questions on Twitter, to be answered in a panel discussion of speakers after each session. Audience members were also invited to give short reflections of each session.

For Tabia Lau, who gave a spoken word performance at the event, “The importance of TED is the discussion that happens after the talks.” “[TEDxMcGill] is the stirring pot that gets people thinking about ideas. [It] creates a space that’s safe for people to keep an open mind, to redefine and reevaluate their lives and ideas,” she said.

News

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

5

Negotiations with striking workers suspended Medical residents latest to suffer without support staff Henry Gass

The McGill Daily

T

he provincial conciliator assigned to oversee negotiations between McGill and its striking non-academic workers has suspended talks as both sides continue to struggle to reach an agreement.

The conciliator suspended negotiations at the end of a meeting last Friday. The meeting was the 17th between the two sides since the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA) went on strike September 1.

MUNACA President Kevin Whittaker said talks stalled at discussions over the implementation of a graduated wage increase grid.

“It became clear to both the conciliator and the parties that we are very far apart,” said Whittaker.

“The University appears to have no desire to implement a grid. They claim that it would be far too costly for them in the future, and that they simply don’t have money.”

Whittaker referenced recent negotiations at the University of Sherbrooke, where 85 per cent of striking non-academic workers voted against a deal that would have seen a 2 per cent per year increase to their existing wage grid.

“We haven’t got close to anything like that with what McGill was willing to put on the table,” said Whittaker. “We made it clear that this was not going to end the strike, and for them to end the strike they

would have to find more money.”

Although a November 12 statement from the union added that they have had “serious discussions” on other key issues, Whittaker said that all talks up to this point had been exploratory, with no concrete solutions agreed upon.

“Nothing was put down in writing and saying, ‘This is what we’re willing to do,’” he stated, “but I will not say that there wasn’t some movement, and I think that we could probably come to some clear agreement if we can resolve these other issues, mainly the salaries.”

In a statement released on November 14, McGill Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa said the University “will not rest in our effort to find a settlement as quickly as possible,” confirming that the two sides remain “far apart on wages.”

MUNACA has been asking for a base salary increase of 3 per cent to account for inflation. The last McGill counter offer was for a 1.2 per cent base increase. The union is further asking for an increase within the pay scale per year for members, so that they can reach the top of their pay scale faster.

“We have stated from the outset of these negotiations that we are committed to winning a fair agreement,” stated the MUNACA press release. “Unfortunately, McGill to date has not demonstrated that it is prepared to agree to this.”

Additionally, the union has been asking for the restoration of their benefits package, which was cut by

$1 million last year.

In his statement, Di Grappa said, “The administration wants an end to this strike as much as anyone at McGill.”

“To that end, the University made significant changes in its positions on a number of issues during the course of the negotiations – as has the union,” he said.

“We have always known that these would be challenging negotiations,” continued Di Grappa.

Although no date has been scheduled for the resumption of talks, MUNACA met last Monday morning “to prepare next steps,” according to their press release. Di Grappa also said the University is “exploring a number of options open to us in terms of resolving the issues.”

According to Whittaker, the conciliator will not call the two parties back to the table until she has reported to her superior, the Associate Deputy Minister of Labour.

“It’s up to [the conciliator] to call us back when she thinks that we can talk about this and get some resolution,” said Whittaker.

Medical residents jeopardized A letter obtained by the Montreal Gazette, from Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education Sarkis Meterissian and addressed to Interim Dean of Medicine Samuel Benaroya, details how the strike endangers both the academic year for McGill medical residents and McGill’s academic reputation.

The letter, dated October

Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

MUNACA is in its 11th week of striking.

17, states that the consequences of the strike lasting beyond November 15 – two days ago – would be “catastrophic” for McGill teaching hospitals.

At the time of the letter, there was concern that, without MUNACA, it would be impossible to meet the deadlines of the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) process, which begins December 1.

CaRMS brings together applicants and hospitals for postgraduate medical training in Canada.

“The ongoing strike places McGill at a significant competitive disadvantage,” reads the letter. “[It] has a clear and measurable impact on our ability to attract and train top-quality candidates.”

Furthermore, the strike could

“compromise the graduation of our residents,” as a lack of administrative assistants could affect exams and evaluations, and “disrupt our ability to trace the academic programs of our trainees.”

In a statement released last Friday, Benaroya said, “In the context of the MUNACA strike, certain priorities in the Faculty of Medicine were identified mid-October and an exercise has since been conducted in order to deploy resources to those areas to help mitigate disruptions.”

“Clearly, the strike presents challenges, and we are doing our utmost to maintain all activities, with the hope that a reasonable resolution will be arrived at very soon,” continues Benaroya.

Montreal police launch project to help sexual exploitation victims Sex worker advocacy group concerned about limitations of the project Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

T

he Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) launched a program two weeks ago that seeks to aid sex workers and other victims of sexual exploitation in the Montreal area. The project, called “Les Survivantes” – “the Survivors” – is mandated to provide counselling and better care from the police department for victims.

The project, which has received mixed feedback, is the result of joint efforts by the SPVM, the Centres d’aide aux victimes d’actes criminels (CAVAC), and former sex workers, who will work as consultants with police officers.

SPVM Commander Antonio Iannantuoni, who has been heading the project since its inception,

explained that the project intends to aid sex workers who, under this project, are regarded as victims of sexual exploitation.

According to an SPVM press release, sexual exploitation is a broadly-used concept that has many definitions. The term includes street prostitution, escort agencies, erotic dance, and pornography.

“The main goal of Les Survivantes is to bring prostitutes and other victims of sexual exploitation out of their situation, because it is really a context of exploitation and manipulation,” said Iannantuoni.

According to Iannantuoni, the project seeks to foster a broader understanding among police officers about the situation of sex workers so that they can better understand victims and their struggles. “[The project aims] at enabling the police officers to have an open mind. People think the girls, they

are doing it freely – they don’t see the whole picture I think,” said Iannantuoni.

Karine Lasanté, a CAVAC spokesperson, explained why the SVPM and CAVAC decided to team up for this project.

“We helped the victims in the past, and [the SPVM] realized that we were very specialized in our services, and that we were the resource to help those kinds of victims. So that’s why they invited us to join the project, just to help, to make the victims better know that we exist and we can help them,” said Lasanté.

Iannantuoni spoke to the importance of having former sex workers as consultants on the project.

“They were themselves victims, they went to testify, they went to the police and the criminal system. Because they went through the whole system, they know exactly where we could

improve,” he said. “[They] gave us their output, they told us how they felt when we spoke to them.”

Valerie, a former sex worker and consultant for the project, explained that she feels she is better able to help victims of sexual exploitation in Montreal because she has been able to identify with them.

“I lived the same things they live, I am the person who does everything the police cannot understand,” she said. “[The police] can say they understand what [sex workers] live, but it’s not true. I am the one that can truly say that.”

According to Valerie, the project would have had a great impact if it had existed when she was a victim of sexual exploitation.

“Now they have all these resources where they can go and get out. So the best thing I can say is that they are not by themselves

anymore,” she said.

However, not all groups feel that the project has been a success. Émilie Laliberté, director general of Stella – a Montreal-based sex worker advocacy group – explained that, although the project addresses some issues, it leaves the fundamental problems for sex workers unresolved.

“The real problem here, especially regarding sex work, is that sex work is being criminalized, so if you really want to make a change and have the women come forward and press charges when they do suffer an assault, they shouldn’t be the ones considered criminals,” said Laliberté.

“You have to make a distinction between sex workers who are consensual adults, and victims of violence and exploitation. It’s a really important difference to make,” she added.

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

6

This is not the McGill we once knew Students are making themselves heard Hyde Park

W

hen I read Erin Hale’s Hyde Park on November 12, I must admit that I thought I was reading an issue of The Daily from 2009 or 2010, as her commentary was so out of touch with the recent developments on McGill’s campus.

One has to be very pessimistic to overlook that, in the span of only two weeks, students at McGill have voted for a faculty association strike, showed up in great numbers to the November 10 protest, gave clear support to independent student groups in light of their impending Memorandum of Agreement negotiations (CKUT and QPIRG), occupied Principal Munroe-Blum’s office, and organized the biggest campus assembly in McGill’s history.

Students have more influence today than they’ve had in at least the past ten years. The principal’s presence at Mondayès assembly is significant proof of this change. Last year, she walked by a massive student protest against the closure of the Architecture Café, commenting condescendingly that it was just “students being students.” But last Monday, she cancelled whatever important schmoozing appointments she had in the afternoon to come listen to what students

had to say. Had she gotten “her way,” like Hale claims administrators always do, she would be at the Montreal Club drinking scotch with the CEO of Quebecor, or engaged in a similar activity reserved only for the Montreal elite, which entails anything but listening to campus activists speaking out against injustice. The Ivory Tower she once hid in, completely detached from students, has been broken into, both figuratively and literally.

On Thursday night, students could have “[given] in,” like Hale claims the administration usually convinces them to do. The presence of riot police is scary and could be an excuse to forfeit. Instead, most students remained peacefully on what they shouted is “their campus.” Pepper sprayed and beaten by police batons, they stood next to James Administration demanding that their friends be liberated safely (following reports of the occupiers being brutalized by McGill Security) and claiming their right to assemble peacefully. This manifestation of solidarity and perseverance is nothing short of inspiring.

Students around the world have historically fought, and still continue to fight, political repression, and they’ve led various social justice movements, while being subjected to police violence, and in a number of cases they have won. There is no doubt that these students also

had “finals to worry about.”

However, when you come to realize that the pressure of finals is very much smaller than the pressure of the status

quo, then you will definitely persevere until your goals are achieved, no matter how long this can take and regardless of the sacrifices you will have to make.

Listening to students’ speeches at the assembly on Monday, I firmly believe that many of them have come to realize the scope of the struggle at hand. And this is only the beginning, as this movement may very well be a gateway to deeper analyses of power, and the different injustices it creates and sustains.

Hale must not diminish the potential of current student activists on campus. Old hacks like Hale and

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Myriam Zaidi

myself need to move past what once was a student movement reduced to only electoral student politics, filled with political scandals, power trips, and complacency vis-à-vis a fierce and careless administration. We must commend the current grassroots movement and its successes, while remaining critical of it in order to make it more inclusive and empowering to those who are otherwise marginalized. In

other words, to make it a better representation of the socially just world we are all trying to achieve. All of this is in the hopes of having it become stronger, a force not to be reckoned with.

Erin, this is the movement we have both hoped for throughout all those years. We must turn the page on the past, and embrace the future of activism at McGill.

Myriam Zaidi is a U4 Humanistic Studies student. You can reach her at myriam.zaidi@mail.mcgill.ca.

A letter to the fifth floor occupiers Criticism from a supporter Ryan Thom

Hyde Park

I

t is with admiration and anger, exasperation and love, that I write this letter expressing my gratitude and frustration regarding the occupation of Heather MunroeBlum’s office on 10 November.

Having read your statement of November 11, “Letter From the Fifth Floor Occupiers,” and as a supporter of the student movement, I must congratulate and agree with the eloquently worded sentiments behind your brave action. However, as a member of the McGill community and as a friend, I feel that

I must also respectfully point out some perhaps unconsidered consequences of your decision to occupy.

To preface, let me thank you for your courage, which seems to me beyond doubt. It takes stern stuff to stand up to the likes of the administration, considering all the wealth and power and force of arms at their disposal. Yet I must question the platform you chose to make your stand: why this day and why at McGill? Last Thursday marked a province-wide movement of thousands of students directed at the provincial government of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, from which the decision to raise tuition fees stems. I fear that the occupation,

in drawing the attention of our campus – and of the media – away from the message of Thursday’s protest, may inadvertently cause the community to lose sight of the stakes in the battle ahead.

In this vein, I also question the secrecy with which the decision to occupy was made. I understand why, perhaps, you did not consult the greater movement – you did not want an information breach to alert administration, who would, in all likelihood, have pre-empted your efforts. But, in keeping this knowledge from us – from the hundreds of students who followed you, the students who reacted passionately and forcefully to try and liberate

you from the police – you participated in the creation of a situation of conflict for which we were not prepared. I do not think I exaggerate in saying that we would have moved heaven and earth to ensure your safety, and, in attempting to do so, some of us were harmed. We are your supporters and community – we deserved to know what we were getting into. Furthermore, it is democracy and true empowerment that you fight for, is it not? I must remind you to please remember that, whether you intended to or not, your actions represent us to the greater world, and so the decisions that affect us all must be made openly, or else we risk replicating

the very administration and government we fight against.

Hindsight, of course, is 20/20.

I do not intend to impugn your integrity, only to query your forethought and to make a suggestion for the future: speak not for me, but with me. Be not my martyrs, but my brothers and sisters. Stand not ahead of me in the storm, but beside me, and together we will usher in the future we deserve.

In solidarity, Ryan Thom

Ryan Thom is a U2 Social Work Student. He can be reached at ryan.thom@mail.mcgill.ca

Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

7

A criticism of the unsympathetic students The events of November 10 brought some students together, but pushed others apart Balaclava Discourse Davide Mastracci

balaclavadiscourse@mcgilldaily.com

O

n November 10, our campus was occupied.

Occupied by riot police, by tear gas, by pepper spray, and by fear. On that night, the campus was no longer ours, and we were not all McGill. And since that night, I don’t want to be.

My head has been full of different thoughts and emotions since, yet embarrassment has been the most prominent. I’m embarrassed that nearly three months after the beginning of the school year, MUNACA workers are still standing outside our campus – shut out, and shut up. I’m embarrassed at the way in which Heather Munroe Blum, alongside other administration members, is running the school. I’m embarrassed that campus security has overreacted once again, with the assault of the fifth floor occupiers, despite the pacifist nature of their protest. And I’m embar-

rassed that riot police overtook our campus and drove fear into the hearts of students in a place where they should feel safe.

Unfortunately, I expect McGill’s administration to fail in meeting student expectations. I expect police officers to abuse their authority, and I have come to expect to see the faces of the dedicated MUNACA workers each day when I go to class. What I didn’t expect though, and what has caused the most embarrassment and sadness within me, is the reaction of students entirely defending the actions of police officers.

Most of those who defend police officers claim their actions were justified because protestors were violent. It seems as if some students on the McGill campus are just itching to find an excuse for the actions of police officers, as the violence they refer to was merely a few people throwing thin wooden sticks. If you want to label that as violence, fine. But it takes quite a stretch to logically claim that this action could warrant the indiscriminate beating, tear gassing, and pepper spray-

ing of protestors, professors, and passers by in general.

So, I have to ask myself, why has this stretch been made over and over? I really don’t believe that the student body at McGill is full of baton sucking police apologists. Instead, it seems like many students have been eager to justify the actions of the riot police not out of love for police, but rather disdain for the politics of those perceived to be behind the events on November 10.

Participated in the tuition protests? Quebec tuition is already the lowest! What are you whining about? Never mind that Quebec’s current tuition rates are a goal to work towards, not to stray from. Using direct action tactics to achieve this objective? Well then you must be a radical leftist who provoked and deserved the beating you got. Never mind that sit ins “are well established forms of student protest on North American university campuses, and they very rarely result in violent confrontation,” according to a statement by Ian Ward, an Assistant Professor at the

University of Maryland.

Since the beginning of my time at McGill, I’ve noticed that many students look at the far left in a patronizing manner, although caring about tuition and striking workers certainly doesn’t require a far left point of view. Yet I really did not believe that this demonization of left wing politics was entrenched so deeply as to prevent people from being sympathetic to the unwarranted violence their fellow McGill community members faced.

However, these views are not completely widespread, as some recent events definitely have shown signs of hope for our campus and student body. Certainly there are those who have put humanity before politics, and are now more prone to supporting student actions on campus due to the brutality of the police, as Monday’s events displayed. I have also spoken to otherwise apathetic students who were caught in Thursday’s crossfire, and are now devoted to the student cause. It is unfortunate, though, that it took a swing of the baton

to crack through the perception of police men as super heroes. It is a shame that it took temporary tear gas blindness for some to see that even if you are truly innocent, you may still be violently targeted by police.

Regardless of how they came to their conclusions though, the influx of those ready to support the student cause will be critical in making our campus a better place. And this is why I fully support the direct action tactics used Thursday, I had called for at the beginning of the year. Now that this call has been answered, I believe the student movement will become stronger and more effective, despite the students who will condemn it at every step along the way.

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.

Do not demonize authorities A response to the November 10 demonstrations Brendan Steven Hyde Park

I

f you walked up to a police officer and punched that officer in the face, would you expect retaliation? By law, committing an act of violence against the Service de police de la ville de Montréal (SPVM) is a crime which demands a serious response.

If you can’t punch a cop in the face, why would it be ok to throw placards and other objects at one?

Such is the leap in logic made by those who supported this past Monday’s “We are all McGill” protest. Billed as a collective moment of reflection about the “shocking presence” of riot police on McGill’s campus, Monday’s meeting was a textbook peaceful protest.

What was not a peaceful protest was last Thursday’s event, which

led to the deployment of riot police so decried by Monday’s protesters. As a friend once said to me, if people don’t want riot police on campus, maybe they shouldn’t riot.

Debate about the nature of police tactics has spiraled into claims of “brutality” and “oppression”. Little to no effort has been made to understand why police did what they did. Let me attempt to do that now.

Accounts of the fifth floor occupation of the James Administration building differ. In a letter to The McGill Daily, occupiers claimed that they were non-violent. In an email to the McGill community, Heather Munroe-Blum claimed that the occupiers “forced their way from a reception area outside the offices of the Provost and the Principal, pushing staff in the process.”

Either account may be the correct one. There may be elements of truth in both. No matter what

actually happened, it is understandable that McGill Security called the police. Occupying a building is an inherently hostile act. McGill Security had no idea of the intentions of the protesters, and no one wants to trust the safety of staff to fate.

The Daily reports that occupiers contacted allies by phone, asking for support. The result was a crowd of about 200 students around James Administration.

They formed a human chain around the building, effectively preventing staff from leaving.

This amounts, in my view, to forcible confinement, a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada.

The crowd thus demonstrated its willingness to break the law.

Daily coverage further describes twenty police officers on bicycles entering the scene. They worked to clear protesters away from the entrance of James Administration,

as the law mandates them to do. In my view, they were attempting to open a path into the building both for police to enter and for trapped employees to leave.

This is where things get out of hand.

Protesters attack the bicycle cops. Placards and other objects are thrown, eventually necessitating a police retreat from the area.

This was the right decision.

Twenty officers with bicycles had no hope of controlling a crowd of 200, especially a crowd that had shown a propensity for violence.

Once a peaceful protest turns violent, I believe police are justified in switching tactics to riot control. This is especially true when a violent crowd barricades a building filled with employees.

Undoubtedly, one of the police officers on the scene called in about the situation, and someone in command made the decision

to deploy riot police. Police brutality involves the intentional use of excessive force. A fair observer cannot say that is the case here. Police did their jobs – they secured the safety of those in James Administration, and they dispersed a crowd that had committed violence against the lawful SPVM. They did so with minimal injuries to protesters.

Instead of asking about police tactics, I have a better question.

Protesters attacked cops, barricaded a building, and got away without being held accountable for their crimes. Who will hold these demonstrators to just standards of lawful behaviour?

Brendan Steven is a U3 Political Science student and co-founder of the Prince Arthur Herald. He can be reached at brendan.steven@ mail.mcgill.ca

8 Commentary

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Got all the black girls mad ‘cause my main girl vanilla Delving into the racially gendered issues of interracial relationships Christiana Collison

tyronespeaks@mcgilldaily.com

A

s I sat across the table from a friend of mine in the Toronto Eaton Centre food court, devouring my non-toonie Tuesday KFC three piece meal, I blurted out, “I don’t think I’m a fan of interracial relationships where it’s black men and white women.”

Looking quite confused, he followed my seemingly uncensored and quite problematic statement with a simple, “Why?” “Why?” I thought. And yet again, I found myself plunged into conversation about interracial relationships… but, this time, with a spin. I was not going to discuss black men, nor white women.

They have been discussed enough.

“What about black women?” I counter-questioned. “Do we not matter? Do we not exist?”

Knowing exactly what he was going to say, he uttered, “Yes, you do. Why don’t you just date outside of your race too?”

His response set the tone for exactly where I wanted this conversation to go: a discussion of black women and non-black men in relation to that of black men dating white or non-black women.

When discussing heterosexual interracial relationships where the dynamic is black men and white or non-black women, several fail to see how this makes the black woman invisible. But also – the overarching issue at hand, which is the aversion both black and non-black men feel towards black women.

But in order to understand this concept in its entirety, one must see how relationships – and our construction of relationships – within this patriarchal society are highly gendered.

The act of sexual or relationship courting is an inherently male act.

In other words, man seeks woman, and it is very rare that this linearly masculine dynamic is reversed.

Having yet to demolish the patriarchy, what may seem like a very “traditional” method of courting is still occurring with great frequency.

Further, it is often the approach expected in heterosexual dating

or sexual relationships by both the male and female parties.

Thus, to make claims that black women should simply date outside of their race like black men is naive and lacks an understanding of the gendered implications of courtship and dating relationships. Black women do not have the same gendered privilege within dating as black men do. We are not able to simply go outside and “pick up” a non-black male in the same ways that black men can, non-black women. It does not work like that.

Furthermore, this claim is highly problematic because it puts the onus entirely on black women to seek other dating options without interrogating the real issue at hand: the (seemingly universal) aversion to black women shared by both black men and non-black men alike.

Rather than asserting that black women should go out and find non-black male partners, I instead ask you to take a critical approach to this topic. That is, not simply just that black women are not dating outside of their race (and, thus not getting married to the same numbers as their white female counterparts), but that men are not dating or seeking to date, court, or marry black women – ultimately resulting in the invisibility of the black woman.

John Mayer, in a recent interview with Playboy Magazine, shares this sentiment all too well. When asked, “Do black women throw themselves at you?” He replied, “I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist.” Not stopping there, this sentiment hit a little closer to home when a commenter on my article, “Shawty wanna lick me like a lollipop” (Commentary, November 3), stated “I do not find black women attractive. I am not at all racist.

It’s just that I am not sexually attracted to black women…”

These statements are prime examples of the aversion shared by men of the varying racial spectrum towards black women. Often aesthetically depicted as unattractive (or not depicted at all), constructed as un-wife-able and viewed as non-suitable dating or sexual partners (i.e. increasingly saturated images of black teenage pregnancy and young black mothers, welfare and poverty-stricken black women, et cetera), black women, while historically hypersexualised and hypervisibled, are dualistically rendered hyperinvisible.

The masculine-specific gendered implications of dating, the aversion expressed by men of all racial backgrounds towards black women and the growing pandemic of unmarried black women in our current society all speak to this hyperinvisibility. Black women are not seen. We are not seen as partners. We are not seen as aesthetically worthy

beings of courtship. We are not seen as potential lovers.

Thus, until this aversion is critically analyzed as one of socialized and learned behaviour, rather than one of coded, individualized personal preference, under white supremacist, heteronormative patriarchy, interracial relationships will continue to remain an all-too-haunting visual reminder of the broader social structures, processes, and attitudes in which

black women are structurally, socially, and systemically denigrated as beings unworthy of heterosexual partnership, relationship and courtship.

Tyrone Speaks is a column written by Christiana Collison on the subject of black feminism. It appears every other Wednesday in commentary. You can email her at tyronespeaks@mcgilldaily.com.

Louise Berrebi for The McGill Daily

Tyrone Speaks

Letters

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

9

As queers who continue to endure symbolic and physical violence at the hands of the state simply for dissenting from the norms imposed on bodies and bodily acts, we stand in solidarity with the students and faculty harmed by security and police forces on November 10.

Queer McGill

Queers Condemn Police Violence The Queer McGill Political Action Working Group condemns the McGill administration, McGill Security, and the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) for their respective roles in the repression of student protest, culminating in the SPVM riot squad’s violent dispersal of an assembly in front of the James Administration Building on November 10.

We are outraged by the use of pepper spray, tear gas, and batons against those gathered in James Square, and see these events in a context of political repression that did not begin on November 10. In obtaining legal injunctions against MUNACA picketers, the McGill administration has illegitimately marginalized oppositional voices, implicitly threatening police intervention. By filming sit-ins and rallies and initiating disciplinary proceedings against student activists, McGill Security has used intimidation to suppress solidarity with MUNACA. We also recognize that the repression and police violence that appear extraordinary on campus have been – and remain – daily realities for many beyond the borders of McGill.

Across Montreal, Quebec, and the world, cops brutalize and kill with impunity. Women, people of colour, indigenous people, queers, the poor, sex workers, and other marginalized groups tend to face police violence on a particularly disturbing scale.

Locally, the SPVM’s creation of a unit tasked with monitoring and disrupting anarchist and “marginal” movements (GAMMA) has threatened to further normalize political profiling and repression as tools of the state in its function of defending capital.

As queers who continue to endure symbolic and physical violence at the hands of the state simply for dissenting from the norms imposed on bodies and bodily acts, we stand in solidarity with the students and faculty harmed by security and police forces on November 10.

We see forced submission to police authority as symbiotic with the systems of dominance, coercion, and violence that devour queer lives. If we allow the SPVM or the McGill administration and its security force to determine the legitimacy of our actions, we risk surrendering our self-determination as queers to a hostile ecosystem of power.

The struggle that intensified on November 10 is far from over. We must continue defying the boundaries dictated to us by an authoritarian administration. Together, we can reclaim our campus and build a community where people stand up for themselves and each other.

Queer McGill Political Action Working Group

Being honest about history It is a lack of respect to both students and to this province’s history to spread misinformation about Quebec’s student movement. Last week The McGill Daily’s joint special insert with the Link stated that if we “decide to go on an indefinite general strike in 2012 over the winter semester, international students could stand to lose over $10,000 in tuition fees.”

A student newspaper needs to be careful to protect student history, as no one else will.

So let me make this crystal clear: Whether international or out-of-province, Quebec students have never lost a semester in the history of general unlimited student strikes.

In 2005, student unions made it clear to the government that if even one school lost a semester, they would return to the picket lines. When necessary, the semester was merely extended and evaluations were re-negotiated.

No one lost $10,000 in tuition fees. Rather, we collectively gained $103 million per year in bursaries for Quebec residents.

And international and out-ofprovince students directly benefited from that strike as soon as they became Quebec residents.

The more students look out exclusively for their individual interests, the greater the risk to all students. Focusing on differences between us only benefits the government. The Minister of Education already justified her intransigence on Nov. 10 by saying “we can’t describe the totality of university and CEGEP students as being part of a monolithic group.”

On Nov. 10, Concordia and McGill students may have woken up to our collective history when they voted for a one-day strike.

But that alone was not enough.

If part of the purpose of higher education is to think critically, that includes looking at our current situation as a student body with a historical eye. And that eye tells us that when united, student strikes make history.

Nadia Hausfather Councillor, Concordia Graduate Students’ Association Free Education Montreal McGill Alumni •••

Re: Open Letter From McGill Theatre Groups (October 24, Page 7)

Reading about how the MUNACA strike is making it a struggle to mount theatrical productions, I was struck by how practical and valuable the experience had inadvertently become for McGill theatre students.

Learning on the job, as they say.

Because, frankly, if you’re going to routinely put on plays after graduation, venues may routinely need to be found lastminute, equipment may routinely never arrive, actors or producers or directors may routinely quit, and you may routinely lose money on many, many shows.

You also may, unless you’re truly fortunate, have the pleasure of rehearsing (and mounting shows!) in, among other similarly prestigious locations, apartments, backyards, decrepit art galleries, parking lots, offices, and church basements.

Nothing is guaranteed, for anyone, until the final curtain has fallen. (The Met recently had to re-cast the part of Siegfried– the hardest male role in opera – just one week from opening night; and David Fennario has been trying to organize a benefit reading for the MUNACA hardship fund for months now.)

The upheaval might also be a great opportunity to step back and deeply reflect on what theatre means to its community; what its role is; what its responsibilities are. Attending a play is a communal event. A lot at McGill, and the world, is in flux right now. What in your work might speak to/alleviate/mitigate/exacerbate things? What makes your work relevant to the community?

Regarding the McGill community: how many people know that Rahul Varma, the Artistic Director of Teesri Dunya Theatre, works at McGill? And how often are his works (or any other McGillian’s) staged

by McGill theatre groups?

True art doesn’t come from stasis, and “artists” who won’t persevere through trials are mere dilettantes. So stay strong, use adversity to make art that resonates, and never, ever expect it to be easy.

Ever.

Michael Mitchell 15-year veteran of Canadian theatre and Striking MUNACA member •••

“Flash-mob” Occupation of a yetbe-disclosed Bank: Don’t Miss it!

Dear Editors, A recent Globe and Mail article said that 58 per cent of

Canadians support us Occupiers.

Bravo! By the simple act of occupying a square we’ve managed to expose the profound injustices of our economic system. We’re there, in the financial heart of the city, and we plan on toughing it out through winter and cold.

In that sense, everything is perfect; we’re doing exactly what we need to be doing.

But, let us be mindful of a famous activist, Saul Alinksky, and his seventh rule for radicals: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”

This is not to say that the occupation has become a drag.

On the contrary, it is the corruption and crookedness of the 1 per cent that has dragged on too long! But we need to continue to mobilize and organize ourselves in creative and innovative ways.

And that’s why we’re proposing this simple intervention: On Friday, November 18 at 11 a.m., meet us at the statue in The People’s Plaza (formerly known as Square Victoria).

Together, we’ll dress up in Robin Hood costumes (props will be provided on site) and begin a peaceful “flash-mob” occupation of a yet-to-be disclosed bank in the downtown core.

Our goal? To raise public awareness about the Tobin a.k.a. “Robin Hood” Tax – a small tax which could be levied on each trade in currency or stock, generating billions of dollars a year, which would then go to fund development in poorer countries and favor economic justice at home.

So, come out and join us!

Let’s take action together to change hearts and minds in a fun and creative way. Email us at robindesboismontreal@ gmail.com if you’d like to get in touch with us, or check our blog at http://robindesboismontreal.blogspot.com/ •••

Friends of Occupy Montreal I find your editorial piece November 10 “We are all liabilities” (November 10, Page 23) too naive.

If you are insulted it is because you have wrongly assumed that this university, with respect to its students, “exists, above all, for their education and improvement.” The goal of this university is to generate revenue and cultivate meaningful relationships of power. Any action which jeopardizes its income base is indeed a liability. Any action which promotes the educational improvement of its student populace is contrived, consciously or not, to satisfy the principal goal. I doubt it is

about who or what is fit to use the McGill name but about the context in which the McGill name is used. A positive relationship equals money.

Similar points have been much more expertly stated by others: “Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience.

And that makes sense. If you’ve resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, ou’re an asshole, ” which maybe he or she is, and if you don’t say, “ That’s idiotic, when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job.” —Noam Chomsky

By Canadian and world standards, this is considered an elite university. My guess is the majority of McGill students are here to get a “good job”, which suggests that the university is being responsible in this respect towards that majority. It is not embarrassed, it is managing us.

The university you speak of, the one that promotes learning and encourages critical reasoning is difficult to find.

It does not necessarily exist but in the minds of those who genuinely wish to understand.

Maiko Sell M. Eng. 2013 ••• To whom it may concern, I’m writing in response to the November 10 article “McGill students violently forced off campus” (November 14, Page 3).

I’m a little amazed The Daily would even consider publishing an article this poorly sourced on an incident it considers important on campus.

With only one quoted source this is at best a bad news story – more likely, it’s it a column rather than a news story at all.

If you want us to take you seriously as a publication, follow some degree of journalistic standards. No news story should ever be published with fewer than three sources – more if possible for contentious stories such as this – and certainly none should be published without sources from each side of the story. If you’re not going to bother finding proper sources for your stories, don’t bother printing them at all.

Otherwise, keep it out of the news section and on the opinions page.

Sincerely, Malcolm Aboud Law 4

10 Features

“I’m not abou

Olivia Me

“D

on’t fucking call me biphobic,” says Sarah*. We’re outside Café Santropol, where we’ve just spent the afternoon drinking soy lattes and chatting about her sexual identity. Sarah is a self-identified queer woman studying Physics at McGill, and though she’s attracted to both men and women, she’s uncomfortable using the term “bisexual” to describe herself.

She explains that she’s not against the principle of calling oneself bisexual, per se. But she does feel that “bisexual is a term that went with these girls who were maybe kind of crazy and slutty or experimenting” – a term that just didn’t seem to apply to her. “The way that it’s portrayed by the media and really largely in society is just really different from how I see myself,” she says.

It turns out Sarah is not alone in feeling this way – far from it. Many women with romantic partners of more than one gender are reluctant to use the term “bisexual.” There’s a stigma attached to the word that’s emblematic of larger misconceptions about gender and sexuality.

In our interviews for this story, we spoke to self-identified bisexual women in their late teens and early twenties about their sexual identities and experiences. We decided to focus on female bisexuality, as male bisexuality is associated with a distinct set of stereotypes and experiences (that would take a whole other feature to delve into).

While the lives of all the women we spoke to were distinct, several common themes emerged from the interviews.

Edna Chan | The McGill Daily

The term Robyn*, a female self-identified queer studying Geography at McGill, echoes Sarah’s concerns about the word. When speaking of her identity, she says, “usually I just say queer, but if I had little checkboxes [and queer wasn’t an option], I would definitely check the bisexual option.”

Still, she says that she feels more comfortable with queer; perhaps, she admits, because of “how I’ve internalized the stigma about bisexuality and what the word brings to mind, for myself and for a lot of other people.” Like Sarah, she has seen bisexual as a label that signifies “high school girls who make out with their friends at a party and then the next day are like, ‘Oh, I’m bisexual, but I actually only date boys.’” For her, it doesn’t conjure up the image of someone who genuinely desires people of more than one gender.

Robyn concedes that she justifies her reluctance to use the label, “by saying that, ‘Oh, I don’t believe the gender binary, so I don’t like the bi part.’”

But, she admits, “it’s really less about that than just selfconsciousness.”

This is precisely in line with Margaret Robinson’s research.

Robinson, Director of the Bisexual Mental Health Project in

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

11

ut being men’s sexual dream-come-true”

esser and Joan Moses investigate bisexual experience and identity Toronto, found in one of her studies that a quarter of the bisexual women she interviewed preferred to identify as queer rather than as bisexual, “because they saw it as both more political and more socially accepted.”

The stereotypes The stigma around the term bisexual, though, seems to be only a facet of a larger problem. The tropes associated with the term bisexual do not remain on the level of language; they cling to the lives of those that have desire for individuals of more than one gender. The stereotypes of promiscuity, experimentation, and sexual frivolity affect bisexual women in a specific way, impacting their relationships and their experiences of sexuality.

“At their root, stereotypes of bisexual women as experimenting, or attention-seeking, or hypersexual are also homophobic since they assume that young women’s sexual experiences with other women are less important than those with men,” Robinson wrote in an email.

Taylor*, an English Literature major, speaks to how these stereotypes are played out in her experiences with different communities. “I’ve heard, ‘She’s not bi, she just doesn’t know she’s gay yet.’ There’s also the ‘She’s just a straight girl playing gay.’ And, ‘It’s just a phase’ – that’s something that comes from both the queer and straight community.”

Cheryl Dobinson, a bisexual and feminist advocate, writer, and researcher based in Toronto, spoke to this when we interviewed her by phone. According to her, the tropes surrounding the gender and sexual identities of bisexual women may interact to form a sexualized image of these women.

Dobinson says that this has been perpetuated by mainstream culture. “Female bisexuality is really sexualized through pornography, through ideas of it being something that’s there to please men, and not something that actually could have to do with women wanting to have relationships with other women.”

Indeed, Dobinson even describes herself as “feminist in relation to bisexuality” in order to reinforce the fact that she does not fit this stereotype. “I am a feminist bisexual,” she affirms. “I’m not about being men’s sexual dream-come-true.

I’m about something [else], another kind of bisexuality.”

This notion of bisexuality being linked with promiscuity impacts personal relationships too, she says. “I’ve certainly had the classic experience of lesbians who don’t want to date bi women and think, ‘Oh, that’s no good for a relationship,’ and some straight guys, too, think that bi women are good for sexy-fun but not to settle down with.”

The binary The socially constructed binary of gay and straight identities, so often taken for granted, can shape the acceptance or dismissal of bisexual identity. This notion of an either-or sexuality has deeply ingrained itself into our culture, and can make it difficult for bisexual women to recognize or accept their attraction to other women.

Sarah, for example, says that she had been attracted to women in high school, and had been “the type of girl that would go to parties and be very willing to make out with other girls,” but that she had not seen this as a serious part of her sexuality. “Up until recently I’ve never considered myself as having a crush on a girl.”

She continues, “I think that’s just the way that our daily social habits affirm things. When you’re going around the playground in fourth grade, and they ask you, ‘Oh, which boys do you like’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, well, Steven was looking kind of cute yesterday’ and then they ask, ‘Oh do you like him?

Are you going to talk to him?’ And then, the next day in class, someone comes up to you and goes, ‘Oh, Steven’s looking at you’, and you’re like, ‘Oh. Man, that’s awesome. I kind of like him.’ And so it’s constantly affirmed.”

Meggie, a bisexual woman and an undergrad at McGill, explains how this has played out in her own life. She was mostly confused by the fact that she could be attracted to women, yet still experience feelings for men as well. “When I

was confused in high school, I think the main thing I was trying to do was pin myself down. I thought about it for ridiculous quantities of time – I remember sitting and reading erotica and thinking, ‘How am I reacting to this? How am I reacting to that? What does this mean? I’m just reacting to everything, oh my god.’ I’d fixate on it, you know?”

Meggie wonders if this idea of a restrictive binary isn’t also relevant to other sexual minorities. “It’s just like gender. People are raised to conceive gender as being male or female – and no in-between space.” Meggie continued, “Somebody who’s been raised to believe that there are only men and women in the world, and then they meet a [non-binary gendered] person, it can be hard to wrap your mind around because you’ve never been exposed to the idea that there’s more than just two genders. Bisexuality could be similar in that way.”

Margaret Robinson explains that bisexual women often encounter the misconception that bisexuality is a steppingstone to an identity that fits within this binary. As Meggie explains, “A lot of people that I know identify as gay now, identified as bisexual at some point. Its just frustrating that people don’t see that it can be an endpoint also.”

For some lesbian women, bisexuality is a stage in the coming-out process. But, for many, bisexuality is a stable and permanent identity. The assumption that bisexuality is a stage is “an expression of biphobia in that it assumes bisexual identity is less real or authentic than lesbian identity,” Robinson says.

Pressure from both communities The way that bisexuality troubles this socially-enforced binary can also make it difficult for bisexual women to gain acceptance from either straight or gay and lesbian communities.

It seems that both place unique pressures on bisexual women.

Taylor explains that she has always had a hard time deciding which label to use. “Even when I was coming out, I was still questioning if bi was the right term to use, if I should just push it and say that I was gay even though I was unsure, just to seem more legitimate.”

Taylor did, in fact, come out to friends and family as bisexual in first year, but her identity wasn’t always taken seriously. “I’ve been recently talking to the same friend that I first came out to in the tenth grade – and he told me that, until I entered into my current relationship [which is with a woman], nobody really took me seriously as bi. So, there’s this lack of legitimacy in defining as bi. I mean, you’re either perceived as promiscuous by the straight community or illegitimate by the gay community. There’s really, like, no in-between – you’re screwed either way.”

Meggie expands on the idea that there’s a kind of doubleedged sword. “Within the straight community, especially amongst men, it’s one of those ‘that’s so hot’ things, which is very frustrating sometimes because I’ve definitely told guys before and had that response and been like, ‘You’re not taking my identity seriously.’”

However, Meggie also feels like the lesbian community has a hard time accepting her bisexual identity. “Within the lesbian community, oftentimes bisexual women can be viewed as sort of ambivalent or as sort of shifting and untrustworthy – I’m not saying that’s everyone – but it’s often a fear that [a bisexual woman] will leave another woman for a man because it’s ‘easier’ or because they aren’t really serious about women.”

Bisexuality can also be seen in these communities as a politically incorrect choice, says Dobinson. Although she explains that this is changing, lesbian communities still feel the “after-effects of a kind of lesbian feminism or lesbian separatism” – a theory “coloured by the idea of if we can choose to be with women, we should just do that, so that we can be more politically aligned to a lesbian kind of politic.”

The coming out process Bisexual women, unlike lesbian women, have the unique situation of being able to “pass” as either straight or queer, depending on their relationships and surroundings.

Accordingly, the coming out process is anything but simple.

Because of the binary of straight and gay, parents and friends may not understand their bisexual identity.

Meggie, for instance, is back in the closet at home. She just hasn’t discuss the subject with her parents since she came out at 17. “[My parents] didn’t understand why I was in a relationship with a woman if I could be in a relationship with a man – I think it’s one of the things that people don’t get. It’s like, ‘Why are you making life harder for yourself?’ But it’s not like – obviously, I mean I’m going to sound like some kind of self-help book – but it’s not a choice, right? You fall for somebody and you just want to be with them.”

Meggie feels like her experience was very different from her partner’s, in this sense. Because she’d expressed interest in men, her parents never would have guessed her sexuality. “I feel like they didn’t pick up on it at all – or barely – and then when I actually did come out, they were having trouble with the idea that I’m comfortable with things going either way. Which is something that’s different than coming out as a gay person. My partner is gay, so for her, it would be like telling her family, ‘This is what it’s going to be, and this is all its going to be if I’m going to be happy,’ whereas for me, it’s sort of like, ‘Well, either way I could be happy,’ which is a really weird thing for parents to accept.”

Coming out to uninformed straight friends can be equally difficult, partially because of the confusion about what a bisexual or queer identity means. This coming out may take, in Robyn’s words, “a lot of explaining.”

“I remember coming out to a straight friend from home,” she says, “and she was like, ‘So, are you bisexual?’” When Robyn explained she preferred the term queer, her friend replied, “Isn’t that a bad word?”

However, despite the challenges of coming out, Meggie explains that she still feels like it’s important that her partners, and everyone else, recognize that all aspects of her sexuality are still intact. “Even when I’m in a relationship with a woman, sometimes I feel like the straight part just sort of dies away or people don’t notice it as much. I feel like it’s important to be open with my partner about the fact that that still exists and not to let it, sort of, fall off a cliff – because it is a part of me.”

“One way or another,” she adds, “it’s frustrating for people to perceive you incorrectly.”

Spaces of acceptance Despite the challenges of maintaining a bisexual or queer identity, there are spaces where the binary of gay and straight can be broken down, and where bisexual or queer women can find acceptance.

For Sarah, this acceptance comes from her friends at university. She speaks of one bisexual-identifying friend who assuaged some of Sarah’s doubts about her own sexuality.

She explains that she had been feeling curious about girls, but worried that it was just a phase. Her friend told her, as they sipped two-for-one pints at Gert’s, that “no, it’s not a phase, it doesn’t have to be a phase, I felt that exact same way.’”

“That was affirming,” Sarah continued, “to just know that it was ok to have these feelings.”

Moreover, the larger queer community seems to be growing more accepting of female sexualities that break down the binary of straight and gay. Dobinson says that “I feel like there’s more acceptance of bi people in queer communities than there was even ten years ago.” But she maintains that “we’re still experiencing biphobia,” and that there’s still a need for creating an accepting and supportive social space.

Robyn is an optimistic and active participant in this evolving and accepting queer community. She finds the Montreal and McGill queer communities, “the explicitly queer communities, at least…to be pretty open about these things.”

Despite the progress that has been made, complete female bisexual acceptance – in both the queer and straight communities – has yet to be accomplished. As Meggie says, “the idea of bisexuality as a solid, permanent identity is still very far away.” *Names have been changed

Health&Education

12

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

The skinny on fatphobia mindovermatter@mcgilldaily.com

A

s children, we are taught to fear many things – the evils of drugs, alcohol, and violence, for example. But another concern in particular has begun to stand out: the fear of being fat.

This notion is clearly shown in a recently-published children’s book titled Maggie Goes on a Diet, which tells the story of Maggie, a young girl whose life is “transformed” after she goes on a diet and loses weight. She becomes more confident, gains more friends, and attracts more attention from boys. Nowhere in the story is there mention of being happy, secure, and healthy while overweight. According to this account, being thin, or “average sized,” by society’s standards, is what we need to strive for.

This past September, American Apparel held a campaign looking for the “next BIG thing.” The company, which has a history of objectifying women in its ad campaigns, was now attempting to address a plus-sized audience through a competition looking to find a “curvaceous” model.

But the contest backfired. The winner was Nancy Upton, a young woman who parodied the contest by posing sexually with stereotypically

The Fat Acceptance movement strives to change these ideas by showing that weight is not the problem. One of the main tenets of this movement is the idea of “Health at Every Size.” This paradigm places emphasis on exercising and eating nutritious food, acknowledging that overweight people can be just as healthy (or healthier) than those who are “average” sized. Further importance is given to the idea that promoting weight loss – in particular, constant dieting – can have negative effects in the long run.

In addition, much of the science used to claim that obesity is linked to morbidity does not have a strong cause and effect basis. New research from the University of Alberta used a tool called the Edmonton Obesity Staging System to rank overweight people in four stages according to their underlying health, not weight. The team, led

by Dr. Arya Sharma, found that up to 80 per cent of the patients classified as overweight or obese had a score of one or two – meaning that they had no apparent “obesity-related” health risks, such as blood pressure or cholesterol problems.

Due to the weight bias that exists in a culture where fat shaming is prevalent, negative repercussions can occur from doctors having preconceived negative notions about overweight patients, which leads to misdiagnoses and maltreatment. According to a study published in 2010 by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale

University, overweight women were at a higher risk of being misdiagnosed, less likely to have cancer detected early on, and were less able to find fertility doctors willing to treat them. It’s clear that doctors are not exempt from the attitudes towards weight that exist in our society This existing stigma can also further deter overweight people from even seeking medical care.

Perhaps, if people are looking to science to support their fatphobic ideas, they should instead be directed to the previouslymentioned research, and the multitude of other studies which have shown similar results. Or, perhaps, we should remember that a person’s appearance does not provide a full nor accurate picture of their overall health.

amenorrhea – the absence of a period in a woman of reproductive age.

most period-related cramping.

| The Mc Gill Daily

Roxana Parsa

fatty foods (one image shows her in a bra covered in ranch dressing).

Although she won by a large margin through an online vote, the company decided to award the prize to another woman who, in their words, was more able to “exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out”. This woman fit their ideal of a plus-sized woman who was willing to work within the company’s standards. By poking fun at American Apparel’s approach towards plus-sized women, Upton did not fit this ideal.

As shown by the two examples above, being overweight is often demonized and shamed by the media. One of the main ways this portrayal is justified is the idea that being overweight implies poor health. However, this is often not the case. Health involves remaining active and eating nutritious foods, and being overweight does not preclude these habits.

For example, a 2008 study done at the Best Israel Medical Center in Harvard looked at the effects of physical activity as well as BMI (body mass index) on coronary heart disease. They found that women who were overweight, but were walking more than four hours a week had a lower risk of heart disease than those who didn’t exercise, regardless of their weight. Thus, the amount of exercise was shown to be more important than weight. It is also important to note that being thin does not necessarily imply good health.

Amina B atyreva

Mind Over Matter

Oh, the monthly pains Alyssa Favreau

The McGill Daily

I

t’s happening: the painters are in, Aunt Flo is coming to visit, and you’re surfing the crimson wave. In short, it’s that time of the month. Getting your period is less than fun, and changes in hormonal levels can affect your mental and physical state during the cycle, so here are a few easy methods for lessening the discomfort. If, like me, you suffer from mind-numbing cramps and awkward bloating, along with the subsequent bad temper, these tips may make a big difference.

Stretching Even if all you want to do is stay curled up in the fetal position, stretching can be an excellent way to lessen cramping. During menstruation, the cervix stretches slightly to allow the endometrium – the blood vessel-rich lining – to shed. This is believed to cause some of the cramping women often experience. Stretching can stimulate circulation and oxygen

flow, and can help ease the pain in the muscle. Making time for a daily stretch can also help ease the leg cramps that are also common during menstruation.

No alcohol, but plenty of water Drinking water is good for the body at any time, but it’s particularly crucial during your period, and drinking a minimum of eight glasses a day is recommended.

Water helps transport nutrients to the cells and aids in their absorption, correcting any imbalances in hormonal levels related to the menstrual cycle. Water also helps decrease the bloating you might experience by minimizing the body’s salt retention.

Conversely, it is wise to stay away from alcohol during your period. It dehydrates the body, which – as anyone who’s ever experienced a hangover knows – can cause fatigue, migraines, and muscle cramps. During menstruation, this can exacerbate the existing discomfort. Alcohol can also disrupt sleeping patterns, increasing fatigue.

Limit your caffeine Caffeine is a diuretic, a drug that increases the rate of urination, and its consumption stimulates the excretion of important nutrients. If you feel anxious and irritable during your period, caffeine can also aggravate these feelings.

Increase your iron intake The loss of blood during menstruation doubles your daily requirement of iron, and an iron deficiency can lead to fatigue, dizziness, and irritability. Foods such as lean red meat, dark poultry, lentils, spinach, and almonds are high in iron, but, since the recommended intake during menstruation is a minimum of 18 milligrams, an iron supplement might also be recommended.

Stop smoking Smoking further reduces the body’s iron intake, and affects nutrient absorption. Cigarettes also cause the levels of estrogen present in the body to fluctuate, and can interfere with your menstrual cycle. Because of these effects, smokers are more likely to experience abnormal bleeding or

Have some magnesium and vitamin B6 Both magnesium and vitamin B6 help smooth out the contractions of the uterine wall and can lessen the bloating, swelling, and tenderness felt in your muscles. Magnesium also helps regulate activity in the nerves and muscles, decreasing the chance of cramping. Good sources of magnesium include artichokes, black beans, whole wheat flour, and almonds. Vitamin B6 can be found in baked potatoes, bananas, chick peas, and sunflower seeds.

Lots of ibuprofen Ibuprofen relieves cramping by limiting the body’s production of prostaglandins, the hormone-like substance that helps the uterus contract and expel its lining. Prostaglandins are naturally high during menstruation and can cause the extreme pain known as dysmenorrhea. Doses of ibuprofen under 200 milligrams can be purchased without prescription and are usually potent enough for

Raspberries If you want to take a more natural route, raspberry leaves have been known to serve as an alternative to medical solutions. The leaves can help regulate the menstrual cycle, and can decrease the occurrence of both amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea. The raspberry fruit will also alleviate cramps. Raspberries have antispasmodic properties that smooth muscle contractions and lessen the associated pain. They are also high in fiber content, and a diet high in fiber will decrease the hormonal imbalances in the body, keeping menstruation stable and painless. Fruits and vegetables are also a good way of sating your appetite without making you feel sluggish.

While these recommendations should be enough to eliminate most of the pain felt during menstruation, if you still suffer from severe cramping, talk to your doctor. The pain could be a sign of underlying conditions such as thrombosis, embolisms, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, or ovarian cysts.

Health&Education

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

13

An emerging threat in the fight against HIV/AIDS Growing apathy regarding the epidemic may undermine previous efforts Health&Education Writers

S

ince the first identification of AIDS in 1981, and the discovery of its causative agent, HIV, in 1983, HIV/AIDS has become a dominant global public health priority with a wide range of political, humanitarian, and economic implications.

The pandemic has taken a devastating toll in the past few decades.

According to USAID, a government agency that provides U.S. economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide, an estimated 60 million people have been infected with HIV and 25 million have died due to AIDS since the 1980s. Though billions of dollars have been invested in HIV/ AIDS prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS still remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries three decades after its recognition, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

As HIV/AIDS has been largely controlled in developed countries, and as other domestic issues – such as debt and deficit crises – consume international attention, is combating HIV/AIDS becoming less of a global priority for donor countries and international organizations? After thirty years of awareness campaigns and massive international investments into treatment and control, is the world becoming desensitized to HIV? First, it is important to acknowledge how far we have come in our

fight against HIV/AIDS in the last three decades. The development of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) – medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses like HIV – has resulted in greater control of the disease and a prolonged, better quality of life for those infected. Multilateral action on awareness and prevention techniques has resulted in a decrease in the number of newly detected cases each year, as well as a decrease in the number of AIDSrelated deaths worldwide.

Efforts in HIV/AIDS education have also helped to reduce the stigma around the virus, which has made dealing with the crisis a lot easier. Today, the life expectancy of someone who is HIV-positive in the developed world is comparable to someone who is HIV-negative. In the developed world, being HIV positive is no longer a death sentence.

While great strides have been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, many challenges still exist. Though incidences of HIV has declined, prevalence remains high. Millions of individuals, particularly in low and middle-income countries, are still in need of life-saving ARVs. An often overlooked challenge in the fight against HIV/AIDS is a trend known as “AIDS fatigue,” or the apathy regarding this issue as the public increasingly feels that the problem doesn’t affect them, or isn’t as urgent anymore. In the past few years, AIDS activists have become concerned with the waning interest in solving the AIDS crisis, as the spotlight on HIV/AIDS has been fading. Many assume that,

since HIV/AIDS is treatable and has been controlled in the developed world through near universal access to ARVs and effective prevention strategies, the crisis is over. It is this attitude that influences how we continue to respond to the crisis, and, unfortunately, it seems that we are sending the wrong message.

The most significant consequence of “AIDS fatigue” is its effect on international funding done by organizations and donor countries.

As people become less interested in fighting the epidemic, and as many HIV/AIDS targets come into their final years, many governments and organizations are not renewing their efforts to combat the crisis.

Goal Six of the Millennium Development Goals includes the halting and reversal of HIV/AIDS by 2015, but, without proper funding, the only reversal we will see is from the progress we have made in the last 25 years.

The reduction in funding has many other implications. It means prevention initiatives and treatment expansion will now have to fight for funding, exacerbating the argument of whether prevention or access to treatment for HIV/AIDS is more important. Due to interruptions and inadequate treatment, strains of HIV resistant to the original ARVs have surfaced, necessitating the provision of second and third line drugs. Decreases in funding will limit the research for new drugs to keep pace with the proliferation of resistant strains of HIV. Additionally, the high cost of these new, patentprotected drugs will make them

increasingly unaffordable for the millions who need them. As the World Health Organization (WHO) and other NGOs typically only provide first line drugs, these new ARVs will likely only be available to those in developing countries who have the means to purchase them out of pocket.

The fight against HIV/AIDS is at a pivotal juncture. The decisions made now by donor countries and international organizations will have tremendous implications for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. These effects will be felt by all those who, whether directly or indirectly, are touched by the epidemic. It is imperative to tell the Canadian government that they should increase their financial support to the Global Fund, as well as meet their promise to the Millennium Development Goals to commit 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (instead of the 0.32 per cent they are giving now) to official development assistance. But just as importantly, we should recognize that HIV/AIDS is still a pressing issue, and even as we turn to other issues, we need to see that contributing to “AIDS fatigue” would allow millions of people to continue dying unnecessarily.

We have to work to keep AIDS in the spotlight until all those who are infected have access to treatment, and until we see substantial control over the spread of HIV. We must ensure that complacency does not become the dominant policy for dealing with HIV/AIDS.

Alyssa Favreau | The McGill Daily

Deveney Bazienet and Morgon Banks

December 1st is World AIDS Day, a day to raise awareness for the pandemic, and a day to honour the millions who live with the virus and the millions who have lost their lives to it. Every year the McGill Global AIDS Students Coalition, in collaboration with other global health student groups, puts on a series of events in the weeks preceding this date to raise awareness on various HIV/AIDS issues and raise money for deserving organizations working in the field combating the epidemic. For information on upcoming events, email mcgill.global.aids.coalition@gmail.com.

Into the life of an Environment student Juliana Just Costa

Health&Education Writer

M

any of us have seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary outlining the impending doom of the planet, and have hopefully heard something about global warming.

But, what is it to actually study the phenomenon of climate change and other environmental issues? Well, I hope to share some insight on what it is to think, act, learn, and feel as an environment student at McGill.

To confirm some stereotypes you may have about environment students, I ride my scooter to school every morning and pride myself in the relatively low amount of gas my convenient and hip mode of transportation consumes, as well as the minimal amount of carbon emissions it produces. Moreover, I’ve switched to vegetarianism after my

first two years studying in the McGill School of Environment (MSE) ingrained the negative impacts of the meat industry into my head until I could no longer ignore them. Yet, these aren’t the only influences that studying Environment at McGill has had on me.

The MSE accommodates students on two separate campuses: the bustling downtown campus and the quieter, more serene Macdonald Campus, affectionately coined “Mac,” located in SainteAnne de Bellevue. U2 environment student Emily Coffey describes the relatively suburban campus as a “close community where teachers are more likely to get to know you.”

In addition, students can trek just forty-five minutes east of Montreal to immerse themselves in Quebec’s most pristine natural settings as they make the lush forests and the peaceful lakes and mountains their classroom.

Some environment classes focus on the mechanics of environmental problems such as climate change and overfishing, while others discuss practical ways in which we can solve these issues.

In Environmental Management 1, Professor Holly Dressel, who is best known for co-authoring two books with David Suzuki, sheds light onto what it’s like to actually work as an environmental activist. As Dressel has contributed significantly to the advancement of the environmental movement in Canada and around the world, her experience provides students with an accurate account of what it is to work in this field. She mentioned having values and work undermined, priorities disregarded, and her voice silenced by more powerful actors, such as industry and government, in her tireless endeavor to push her beliefs forward and preserve what we have left of our beloved planet.

This is one of the toughest parts of being a student of environmental science. While the concepts and the applications we study in class feel so logical, it baffles us how the industries pursuing new markets, and profit and governments prioritizing the economy to gain leverage in the political context, undercut efforts to preserve our environment. The dominance of economic interests in today’s society suggests that effecting environmental change will require not only practical solutions to ecological problems, but also a deeper shift in society away from materialistic and consumptive lifestyles.

In the introductory class Society, Environment and Sustainability, Professor Madhav Badami says he seeks not only to equip his students with the “knowledge and skills needed to understand and address” these issues, but also to show “how change is in fact possible, that change is

being made in small and significant ways, including in circumstances far less favorable than our own, or else students are left despondent.” While Badami recognizes hope as a crucial element of an environment student’s education and intellectual development, he emphasizes that “hope, on its own, is not a plan.”

Each day, environment students seek to comprehend the local and global environmental issues facing humanity today. We work hard to understand why we are currently facing this ecological crisis, and even harder to find ways to alleviate it. Despite the challenges and uncertainties that lie ahead, we environment students develop a heightened connection to our planet. We consider it our personal responsibility to make up for the damage we have done, all the while maintaining hope that, someday, every other member of the global community will do the same.

14 Photo Essay

Andrew Gallai

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

15

Doing it yourself and doing it well Documentary chronicles three of Montreal’s “fiercely independent record labels” Steve Eldon Kerr Culture Writer

F

ilmmaker Kenneth Thomas’ documentary Blood, Sweat, and Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century charts a small portion of Montreal’s rich artistic heritage.

The film focuses on the experiences of three fiercely independent record labels, one of which, Constellation Records, has been a stalwart of the Montreal music scene since it was founded in 1997.

Many of Constellation’s bands, such as Godspeed You!, Black Emperor, and The Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra, are now influential names with legions of loyal fans worldwide. I met up with Kenneth Thomas to find out more about the documentary before it screens at La Sala Rossa next Monday, November 21.

The McGill Daily: Why did you decide to make the film?

Kenneth Thomas: Well I’m a big fan of this music first and foremost. A lot of what I listen to can be connected to three record labels: Hydra Head, Neurot Recordings, and Constellation Records. When I went to the shows of these labels’ bands, I noticed that a lot of the same people showed up, so I started looking for connections between the labels. I found that each of the labels had their own aesthetic and vibe. To me, that is an example of a DIY or punk attitude: the attitude of wanting to do everything yourself and not really caring about major labels or top-forty radio or anything like that. With these labels, I feel that you get more than just the music, you get an overall aesthetic because these bands and these labels value the visual art, which is one reason why it is so great to buy their stuff on vinyl – because it’s not just an album with a picture of the band on the front cover but it’s incredible artwork that one of their friends made or someone who works at the label made. A lot of thought goes into both the music and the presentation of the music, and I, like a lot of fans, really value that.

MD: Presumably, on some level, you also felt that there was a story there that needed to be told?

KT: For sure. In the early 2000s, there were a lot of documentaries about punk rock, and about the Ramones and bands like that, but no one was talking about how those ideas and those attitudes translated into the present. I can’t stand it when people say there is no good music today, or that the punk rock movement is dead, because it’s evolved, and is still very much alive, just being done differently.

So I wanted to create something that

Abby Howard for The McGill Daily showed that punk rock and DIY ideals are still alive, and these people are doing it this way today. That was my original intention, and it was spurred on by the fact that, while people knew about these bands, no one was documenting the fact that these bands were doing something special and continuing the DIY tradition.

MD: And you think those ideals are important?

KT: Well, yeah, and the way I filmed this was pretty much in line with the way the bands operate. The film was self-financed – I did it myself because I felt it needed to be done. I never had aspirations to sell this to MTV or VH1.

I was making this for the fans, and for people who would have an open mind to discovering new music, and I feel that that is in line with the spirit of punk rock that these bands are continuing, because their primary goal isn’t massive financial gain or massive popularity. They are fully dedicated to the idea of creating and putting out a vision that is uniquely theirs, and I wanted to show that. I don’t think I can do justice to their art or visuals, but I wanted to give people an insight as to what they could expect at a show.

MD: How did you discover these bands and labels in the first place?

KT: Well I used to live in Seattle in

the late 1990s, and I had two friends who lived on an island, and I visited them. So I was in this secluded forest, inside a trailer, and my friends put on the first Godspeed [You! Black Emperor] album, and the music and the setting were just so beautiful that I couldn’t concentrate on conversation and I remember thinking ‘when was the last time I heard music so powerful that I had to stop and listen to it?’ I couldn’t just have it on in the background.

Once I’d discovered Godspeed I did some research, and discovered this label called Constellation Records, and I kept digging and I discovered

another band called Hangedup and then it was just a domino effect.

MD: When you were filming the documentary, what did you learn about the world of independent music that you didn’t know before?

KT: Well, you would think that independent labels would really suffer from downloading, and it has made it harder for everybody in the music world, but I think that the independent labels are a little more connected with their fans than the majors are.

The independent labels are unlike the majors because they know their fans, and they know that their fans value actually having a physical item, and so will buy the vinyl. It will always be a struggle to be an independent label, but I found that they were not as affected by the whole downloading thing as I had thought they would be.

I think that is because the people who run the labels are really big fans of the music they put out, which makes a real difference in terms of how they sell their music, and the amount of time they put into physical releases in terms of artwork, which is something I think major labels just don’t get in the same way.

MD: What were the biggest challenges for you making this film?

KT: Well, it took over five years to make because I self-financed the film. I couldn’t take time off work to make it, but my workplace was very supportive. I’m a freelance filmmaker and videographer, so I shoot and edit documentaries for a living, which means I had access to equipment. So when Silver Mount Zion was in town, I could borrow two extra cameras and do a three camera shoot. The biggest problem, though, and it was more of a challenge than a problem, was editing. I had over eighty hours of footage, and editing that down to ninety minutes was a big challenge. If I put in everything that I thought was great, this film would be ten hours!

MD: How would you persuade someone who isn’t that familiar with these labels to come to the screening and discussion?

KT: Well, like I said earlier, I remember that when I heard Godspeed for the first time it totally blew my mind.

So for those people who haven’t heard of these bands or labels, but who are open to discovering a new kind of music and a new way of thinking about music, I would say they should come to the screening because they will see a snippet of independent bands that are making wonderful music that can’t be easily defined and that affects a lot of people mentally, musically, and emotionally. If they can just get a snippet of that then maybe they will enjoy the discussion, ask about where they can find out more, and then leave and find it themselves. Come with an open mind for new music and you’ll dig it!

16 Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

November 10, here and there

The Day Intelligence Died (Stand up to Radicals)

An international student reflects on simultaneous protests The McGill Daily

T

he forecasted rain on November 10 foreshadowed the impending threat of the events that were to transpire.

That morning I decided to wear my heavy coat, even though it might have slowed me down – because on this date I wished to hover in time as slowly as I could; it was a day I wanted to prolong. On November 10 I chose the pants I wore the day before, because on this date I had no concerns for vanity; this day promised to descend upon me and take with it all the insecurities and fears of this faint-hearted creature.

Life as an international student holds an intrinsic duality that, in many ways, divides my existence in two. Every four months or so, when I return to Colombia, I am called to dismiss all accustomed behaviours and identities attained in Canada, making my life a never-ending cycle of nomadic impulses. This is not to say that my life in Colombia is unbearably dissimilar to that in Canada. But it is certainly different. The underlying effect that language inflicts upon me segments my life, chopping it into two different entities. It’s not just a matter of living one life in Spanish and another in English. In contrast to language, life is not something I can easily translate.

The rare occasions in which events permeate my two realities are usually deliberate and unexciting. But on November 10, the extent to which coincidence would unite the two and crush this duality of mine, truly made an impact on me.

On November 10, students in my hometown of Bogotá, Colombia, organized a demonstration against the educational reforms proposed by the Minister of Education. The reform, amongst other things, seeks to further privatize edu-

cational institutions and make accessible education even scarcer. On that same day, students here in Montreal staged a rally against the reform to the provincial budget planned by Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

The November 10 student demonstration in Montreal was my opportunity to stand in spirit beside my friends fighting to support education in my country. Colombia is a country where education is already largely privatized and, in my opinion, this reform would further hinder development in the nation. Being miles away from the demonstrations in Colombia truly disheartened me; I was failing my duty as a citizen of Colombia and I was failing my friends that were fighting for an education.

But on this date of mysterious edification, coincidence stepped.

On November 10, as I was reporting the rally for The Daily here in Montreal, I was truly standing besides my friends and family in Bogotá. The reforms in Quebec and Colombia are not the same, and by no means do I mean to equate them, but the spirit of the students transported me to the place I wanted to be; walking down my childhood streets and corners, with that impetus of a child asking for the education my country so badly requires.

On November 10 students in Colombia demonstrated the power of young leadership in a nation that sorely needs it. From what I have been told, the events in Bogota were peaceful, with pictures of students embracing police officers surfacing on the Internet and displaying the truly peaceful nature of the Colombian population. November 10 could have been a remarkable day in my memory, it could have been a day of existential reconciliation, it could have been that day where I finally existed in peace

with the world and myself.

But on November 10 I faced the most violent experience of my life.

Never during my eighteen years in Colombia did I feel as vulnerable as I did in the afternoon of November 10 on McGill campus. My sense of security was completely shattered by the people that were supposed to protect it. The roaring hand of authority descended upon us, leaving us unguarded and defenceless. I did not witness the events that preceded these instances, but I can say that the reaction of this authority should not have been as enormous as it was.

They are here to protect us, and for that reason WE give them authority, that should never be forgotten.

While my fellow McGill students were indiscriminately attacked, my friends in Colombia were experiencing a peaceful student demonstration.

Somehow any labelling, or degree of “development” these countries might have had, seemed irrelevant as the tables turned and violence occurred where I never thought it would. What I deemed to be my great date of unity became a demonstration of disrespectful use of authority and violent means of repression.

November 10 will continue to pervade the consciousness of many individuals and shape the collective identity of McGill students for months to come. Whether or not you support tuition hikes and regardless of what your opinions on the occupiers are, the violence inflicted on McGill students in their campus was by no means acceptable. For my part, November 10 will continue to bemuse me: on the date where my existences were supposed to unite, they could not have stood in stronger opposition. The dream of inner peace was disrupted, even as I thought this would be a date of unity and reconciliation between my two selves. But I learnt to mistrust coincidence – and learnt that maybe life is not meant to be one, at least not for me.

I stood there in the locker room, stunned.

I also believe protests must be organized intelligently.

For all we know, these people arrived crazy

on day one.

The police did what police do.

Thanks for having the clarity that so many university students today lack: The police did what police do.

Hello? Try storming the office of any CEO in Canada and see what happens.

We have allowed our universities to be run by left wing professors

and we should not expect our young people to be brainwashed by them?

Give me a break!

Riot police are not traffic cops, their job is more fast paced,

and therefore more prone to innocent mistakes.

McGill’s liberal majority: “Okay, well then get on your knees” The police did what police do.

There should be a sense of gratitude that McGill students belong to a school that’s consistently top 20 in the world, while paying half of what their Ivy competitors pay (Adam’s 21 Birthday IPA KEg party !!!!!!1!!1) In the famous words of the entitled everywhere: “I want to know and I want it now!”

Either way, it isn’t something McGill administrators have any power over).

You throw shit (including a stick) at a cop and chances are they are going to: a) smack you around and arrest you or b) call for reinforcements if they crowd is too big.

Bingo.

Guess what happened kiddies?

HMB’s persistent negligence and cowardice The police did what police do.

There is space at McGill for every voice in civil debate (the devil lies in the details of their mandates and independence) while Canadian students waste their own money and the taxpayer’s money on degrees in “gender studies” Either way, it isn’t something McGill administrators have any power over.

Tomlison Professor of Political Theory, McGill University; blogs at: The police did what police do. (a very small fraction of students outside the core activist community where there. Does anyone have strong and even mildly informed views about which Canadian cell phone carrier is overall best?)

Thanks for presenting an insightful and educated point of view as opposed to one which was simply crazy, out of proportion,

which is what I’ve been hearing a lot of lately.

MD: How does it feel to be arrested on your own campus?

“Okay, well then get on your knees.”

You speak of McGill not worthy of its reputation.

I think its more that these student occupiers are not worthy of attending McGill (There is space at McGill for every voice in civil debate).

If you don’t like, leave and go anywhere else in North America,

but

I doubt you will since we have the cheapest education and still do after these 300$ a year hikes.

The police did what police do.

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Juan Camilo Velázquez

“The University did not call the riot squad. I can tell you that, unequivocally,” Mendelson said in an interview Friday afternoon.

“I know that the police who were here called in [the riot squad]” (Riot police are not traffic cops, their job is more fast paced, and therefore more prone to innocent mistakes.)

A refreshing viewpoint on McGill’s current madness (would totally rather be back with my faves than writing my French compositions #suckynight) Today is November 10, 2011 16:35 EST. Campus Announcements: The police did what police do.

—Joseph Henry

Inkwell

Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

17

HMB, at face value Ryan Healey on how we receive an image

I

have only her name and face. After 3.5 years here I can affix only static photos and anesthetic PR-penned emails to the name Heather Munroe-Blum – no voice, past, character, future, or kinetic body.

This is only half her fault: power works in these inverting, dehumanizing ascents, where, the more people know you, the less you can know

them. It’s an ugly exchange we’ve had since Mesopotamia, and all I can do is gape. As I work to understand what’s communicated here, I might toe at an ocean of misogyny. But no, this is no exercise in male gaze. Rather it’s an earnest glance at Heather Munroe-Blum, because when speaking of her as a real person (more than a figure-head), it’s really all I can do.

Her name takes two public forms. There’s “HMB” for students and insiders, a bloated three-letter acronym typically reserved for politicians (think GWB). This is the shorthand for statuses and tweets, angry acrostics (Her Majesty Blum), and florid signs. But then there’s the long form that’s a mouthful on the run – Heather Munroe-Blum, five disparate syllables for her many boards and conferences. Heather. Munroe. Blum. Her name in full intimates estates in autumn, dead leaves on marble, a still-life of bloodless animal hides (Heather, the colour of fur), or a bust of Beethoven near fruit (Blum). Of course, this gulf in the usage of her name speaks to more than petty dialect differences or shibboleths.

“Heather Munroe Blum/HMB” speaks to the larger, slippery appropriation of who she is, what she is, and for whom.

A virtue of being the first female anything is having richer hair than one’s predecessors.

HMB keeps it closely cropped and across a wealth of brown hues – tawny, sienna, russet – the color of running fur under a savannah sun. Its uniform straightness imparts Order and ever more calm. It falls on her shoulders like a hoplite helmet, but without any peacocky plume or fanfare. Fiery but subdued, it’s made for both brownpaneled conference rooms as well as media appearances.

Straight as it is, it looks like it’s never missed a day of thorough shampoo and conditioner, never perspired or violated, just fixed permanently in place.

I say slippery because, of all the past principals of McGill, HMB is certainly the most likeable, prima facie. From 1824 to 2002, it’s mostly eminently hateable-looking white guys named Arthur and Bernard, with sweat-beady, prim T.S. Eliot hair or windblown muttonchops. As far as images of ire go, she perplexes our expectations with her mostly benevolent and serene face. A true patrician at ease – never agitated, never furrowed – even when she appears on the steps where riot police tear-gassed students only four days earlier. After violence like November 10’s, there’s a desperation to put a face to the event. Yet the WANTED poster that gets printed and posted is a delicate face with skin the color of a newly sliced apple. Certain photo angles manage to catch her in mid-glare, frowning with her strong chin protruding, a dimple-arc that rises from one end of her lips and falls to the other with its apex at her nose. But these shots are anamalous compared to how she appears elsewhere – that is, in other photos. In her hand-picked studio photos, she projects a face that many of us want to genuinely possess in our own way: a face of personal success, happiness, the softness of casualwear, and maybe a bemused smile above the whole enterprise.

Eyes may be the most telling of facial features, so it’s little surprise that HMB’s tend to be cryptically ambiguous.

This is where she comes off most British headmistressy – with well-sculpted, lean ovals of blue-gray with heavy lower lids. They are the only feature that evidence an aging process. It comes as a surprise to some that she’s sixty-one years old, as she looks maybe forty-something. The average tenure of a McGill principal is 23 years – she’s been here for 8 – and she looks to be here for the long run, a regular Ponce de Leon. This immutability isn’t uncommon on a campus – with no new buildings and students forever turning over – but it’s particularly weird to see an adult so embody this principle, as if administrating McGill is healthy. And this is where the HMB-figure registers scariest to me, that she’s less a principal than a principle, a constant that grows while students wither and graduate, a force above the fluctuations of exams or weather and, thus, not subject to our shortcomings.

I have never seen this mouth animate – no videos, no speeches, no glad-handing appearances. In my head it’s always closed and resolute, a caricature of two air-tight, thin lips vacillating from frown to smile dependent on whether she’s before students or Bill Clinton, or in The Daily or the Tribune.

A lot is lost when a mouth doesn’t open and close in chatter. When talking to someone, one receives a spectrum of disposition to this or that conversational facet – a quick lesson in someone’s character. It’s not that HMB is taciturn or without character – on the contrary, I’m sure she’s a congenial conversationalist – but that she’s keeping something squirreled away. She probably holds her word-energy dear. Her speech seems to be a precious resource, reserved only for her Desautels and Schulichs.

And though I’ve tried to approach her ethos as it’s worn in her face, I may have completely failed, as I think, in the end, there’s not so much an accountable person with an auditory system for hearing us out, but rather an itinerant abstraction that singularly quantifies rankings and donations and couldn’t waste time reading my face and what it says.

18 Culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

To the beat of his own drum A former McGill jazz student riffs on the musical, post-academic life Matt Herzfeld

Culture Writer

T

ime passes, but the beat goes on.

Interestingly for a drummer, Efa Etorama Jr. is not moved by time. This isn’t to say Etorama, who graduated from McGill’s world-renowned jazz performance program a year ago, has any trouble holding a beat. Far from it. Playing from a young age, Etorama has always been ahead of the curve, just on top of the beat, and ready for new challenges. It is with this spirit that Etorama swept straight from cap and gown to the recording studio in June 2010.

Before and After, the album that emerged from those recording sessions, is admirable amongst jazz albums for letting the musicality outplay technical skill. Recorded with funding from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Before and After features tunes that build from the ground up, a kind of refrain on artistic restraint. Etorama – who describes improvisation as “telling a story,” – avoids disorienting the listener at the outset.

Instead, he acquaints the listener with a mood, making us

characters in his musical setting.

Indeed, many of the songs begin by capturing the spirit of the rural Alberta region in which they were recorded – a balance between austerity and complexity. On the trio album, which features fellow McGill musicians, Conrad Good on bass and Dan Reynolds on piano, Etorama’s solid rhythmic approach holds together simple but evocative compositions and arrangements.

Acknowledging that jazz is no longer defined as popular music, nor the swing band music it once was, Etorama suggests that “the function has to change and the sounds have to change” so that “the music evolves to become accessible,” a mature statement for a young jazz musician, and a sentiment that his recording upholds. The drummer notes that even in the still-great bastion of jazz music, New York, “there’s been a lot less swing, but there’s still a new way musicians can swing that people can relate to.”

With traditional attachments to the avant garde, jazz may often seem inaccessible. Aware of this, much of Etorama’s music focuses on bridging the gap between popular and more cerebral music.

Readers may be familiar with one of Etorama’s other projects, the Ruckus Fo’tet, which plays fre-

quently on campus and throughout Montreal. The group exhibits a similar crossover of influences (he describes the music as jazz with a “hip-hop, rock, and latin edge”). Alternatively, Etorama’s current trio reflects “jazzier” influences like the Mulgrew Miller trio, Herbie Hancock, and Robert Glasper.

The last track, is fittingly named, “Final Thoughts.”

Meditative on the process of recording and being a practicing musician, the song also calls to mind the after of Before and After. It inadvertently asks the questions, “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” The song features excellent and texturally rich brushwork like running water on the hillsides of spring, the final thaw where students emerge from an endless winter of study. As the album ends, the scene clears for a new performance, a new sound, a new set of ideas and aspirationsproof that jazz is still growing, that its spirit is forever young.

Now back in Montreal, Etorama is performing and actively living the life of the modern jazz musician, promoting himself, trying to be heard, but above all, making music.

Etorama spoke with The Daily about his upcoming per-

Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily formance, as well as life after McGill, of which he was tremendously positive. He said, “McGill showed me everything I can do, all the possibilities, and so I can’t really get bored with music.” With the fundamentals McGill grounded him in, Etorama can now approach the music and “just let go.” The learning and practicing thus continues well past graduation. “Even at McGill there are a lot of options for musicians that even musicians studying at the school are not aware of,” Etorama explained. When asked if there was any aspect of the McGill

music experience he might improve, he invoked the need for music marketing and business training because as a musician, “you’re being a business man, and the product is yourself.”

Come see the Efa Etorama Jr. Trio, Thursday November 17 at Upstairs Jazz Club at 1254 Mackay.

They will play 3 sets at 8:30 p.m., 9:45 p.m., and 11 p.m. Tickets are $8 before 11 p.m. You can purchase the cd on his website, or for physical copies contact Etorama at efajrtrio.bandcamp.com.

Art meets academia: a field study Eastern Bloc exhibition brings together the seemingly disparate disciplines of art and anthropology Brett Howie

Culture Writer

E

ven sceptics nursing a grudge against the art world for its supposed cultural elitism – its penchant for creations with meanings unfathomable to all but experts or the artists themselves – should have their hard feelings softened by the Ethnographic Terminalia exhibition currently running at Eastern Bloc studio and gallery.

Upon entry they’ll find themselves confronted by a piece that is comfortingly functional: a large, cozy-seeming quilt that strikes you as vaguely American – “Piece #4, Pennsylvania Dutch Quilt,” according to my pamphlet.

Primed for “an initiative that brings artists and anthropologists together,” I thought “here is the extent of the disciplinary interaction: an anthropologist wanted to share the beauty of a culturally distinctive art form that she had studied – good.”

Another level of complexity (and

of interest) was added, however, in remarking that the work was coupled with a small display running Amish Country (the making of a quilt), a video revealing the quilt to be a product of a collaborative effort between artist Renee Ridgway and an Amish Pennsylvania Dutch family.

Intrigued by a dozen or so papers attached to a column, with a handful more in a box below, I approached Siraj Izhar’s “Tent X: Democracy Village, Parliament Square,” and, in so doing, left my reductive first impressions of the exhibition behind. Izhar’s creation was more ambiguous in and of itself: sketches of the tent village set up in London as part of the global Occupy movement had been crumpled up, and then re-flattened for viewing. Putting the piece’s individual meaning aside, I mused on the connection between it and the quilt – two works not only employing very different mediums and techniques but seemingly for very different goals had been brought together for a common purpose.

My next stop only served to increase my confusion. Drawn by a comment which seemed more appropriately directed to an employee of a science center than to an art gallery volunteer – “We need instruction” – I arrived at “Making Sense: Lab as Gallery as Field,” where two young men tried to figure out what they should be doing with a computer, petri dishes, some homespun gadgetry and circuitry work, and what turned out to be a spectrometer.

I had already noted the participatory nature of some of the pieces, but this was a striking example: a two-part installation which, on the one hand demonstrates the power of collective participation (via open-source knowledge-sharing) to change the essential function of a “Roomba” robot, and, on the other hand, asks for guests’ participation in accumulating experimental data for some sort of spectrum analysis. Leaving the two to their devices, I approached one of the curators – Kate Hennessy, an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive

Arts & Technology – to try to better understand what made this art, or anthropology, and what thread ties the whole package together.

Ethnographic Terminalia, Hennessy explained, actually refers to a curatorial collective of six anthropologists who mount one exhibition per year, timed to coincide with the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting. The collective shifts responsibilities for putting on each year’s show, and Hennessy, along with Fiona McDonald, (University College London, England) and Trudi Lynn Smith (York University), in cooperation with Erica Lehrer (Concordia University), were charged with selecting among artists’ proposals, finding a location, and putting the whole thing together here in Montreal.

The collective aims to provide a venue for forms of cultural expression and inquiry – and the voices contained within them – which the traditional academic conferences leave out.

Additionally, local communities have a chance to not only encoun-

ter, but participate in, anthropological research. Anthropologists have a reason to get out of their conference and hotel rooms and experience the cities where the exhibitions are held.

Dialogue, it seems, is the current running through it all – what makes every piece selected a work of art and of anthropology: the voices emanating from the field, the studio, and the lab, are free to speak to one another and to the public in the unbounded imaginative space of the art gallery. Highlighting the project’s self-reflexivity, curators keep busy documenting the gallery’s goingson with notes and photographs, ethnographic records which find their way into subsequent academic reflections on the project, and so the conversation continues. As for me, Hennessy photographed my unexpected interaction with “Piece #10,” a set of books belonging to the International Public Space Library – I took Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.

Ethnographic Terminalia runs at Eastern Bloc (7240 Clark) until November 19.

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

EDITORIAL

volume 101 number 21

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

Joan Moses

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com coordinating news editor

Henry Gass news editors

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

Eric Andrew-Gee commentary&compendium! editors

Zachary Lewsen Olivia Messer culture editors

Christina Colizza Fabien Maltais-Bayda

science+technology editor

Jenny Lu

health&education editor

Melanie Kim sports editor

Andra Cernavskis photo editor

Victor Tangermann illustrations editor

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

Victor Tangermann Contributors Morgon Banks, Laurent Bastien Corbeil, Deveney Bazinet, Tim Beeler, Louise Berrebi, Juan Camilo Velasquez, Edna Chan, Steve Sarah Gliech, Eldon Kerr, Ryan Healey, Matt Herzfeld, Brett Howie, Abby Howard, Juliana Just Costa, Anthony Lecossois, Austin Lloyd, Davide Mastracci, Roxana Parsa, Annie Shiel, Andreanne Stewart, Brendan Steven, Ryan Thom, Myriam Zaidi

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.

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318

Boris Shedov Letty Matteo Geneviève Robert Mathieu Ménard

advertising & general manager

sales representative ad layout & design

dps board of directors

Marie Catherine Ducharme, Alyssa Favreau, Joseph Henry, Tyler Lawson, Sheehan Moore, Joan Moses, Mai Anh Tran-Ho, 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.

Education is a right Last Thursday, people took to the streets of Montreal in protest of five years of tuition hikes planned to start next September. The hike will come to a total of $1,625, amounting to an increase in base tuition of approximately 75 per cent.

Quebec students are marching, occupying government offices, and facing tear gas or arrests not because of the extra hundred dollars they may have to begin paying next year, but because the entire conception of an accessible post-secondary university system is being drastically challenged.

Quebec is one of the last strongholds for accessible education in North America, and is the only province with a high rate of university participation and relatively low student debt. The average Quebec student debt is $14,000, while the average Canadian student debt is roughly $25,000.

Further, a rise in tuition fees, even if accompanied by a rise in financial aid, has been shown to deter students from seeking higher education. Evidence suggests that, when tuition is raised, many people are denied post-secondary education.

During the mid 1990s, before the tuition freeze was instituted in 1997, undergraduate enrollment decreased by 14.6 per cent. During the ten year freeze, enrollment recovered by 22.1 per cent.

Access to post-secondary education is not a privilege. Education creates informed, engaged citizens and is a public good whose worth cannot be tabulated. It is also an increasingly crucial factor in being able to secure financial prosperity and find employment. According to the 2006 Canadian Census, the average person with a college degree earned $745,000 more throughout their career than someone with a secondary school diploma. Being unable to afford education, or becoming indebted in order to do so, exacerbates a cycle of privilege and poverty within Canada.

Moreover, tuition increases will further oppress already marginalized groups.

Racialized people on average earn lower incomes than non-racialized peoples, and with the burden of tuition hikes proven to be felt the most for low or middle-income families, the fee increases disproportionately affect racial minorities, further perpetuating the institutional racism that is evident when we look at the makeup of university student bodies. According to a Canadian Federation of Students report, tuition fees make up almost 26 per cent of visible minority income while making up only 15 per cent of non visible minority incomes.

If we truly want to create an educational system with significantly reduced systemic barriers, Quebec should look to eliminate tuition fees. The cost of providing free education for Quebec is estimated to be $700 million – while this may be a high price, Quebec seems to have available revenues given that it already has the lowest corporate tax rate in North America. Increasing this tax rate to that of most provinces would help to provide Quebec with the necessary funds to make education free.

The Quebec government fully funds primary and secondary education. This funding should be extended to post-secondary education, given that it is almost a necessity in the current job market and should be a right.

Advocates of tuition hikes say post secondary education is an investment; The Daily agrees, but thinks that students should pay back this investment only through taxes if and when they earn high paying jobs off the back of their university degrees. So the rich, who pay higher tax rates, would end up paying a larger share of the cost of universities, just as they pay more for hospitals and daycare. This seems fairer to us than charging everyone, rich or poor, the same thousand dollar tuition charge that the poor are less capable of paying. This is a workable model: free education existed in England before September 1998, while the country maintained a reputable post secondary education system.

The student movement is not purely self-serving in opposing Quebec’s tuition increases; they are also fighting for future generations and students in other provinces. The movement speaks for students in elementary and secondary school who are heading into a more expensive future, and for provinces like Ontario where tuition has tripled in 20 years. In particular, an increase in Quebec tuition fees would take away the precedent for lower tuition fees in other regions of North America. Quebec students are fighting because free education is a human right, not a commodity.

19

Compendium !

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 17, 2011 | mcgilldaily.com

20

Lies, half-truths, and secret deals!

Student agrees to back-door deal with Principal Fuck Yeah November 10 Facebook friends

4.0 GPA for life in exchange for forgiveness “for everything” Olaf Cortez

The McGill Daily

M

cGill U2 Biology student Adrian LazarevicFogelquist concluded a secret back-door agreement with Vice-Fearless Leader FairWeather HumDrum right under students’ noses at a November 10 rally earlier this week.

The deal, which Compendium! staff learned of after LazarevicFogelquist’s outraged friends turned him in, involves the student receiving a 4.0 GPA for life in exchange for the student body forgiving HumDrum “for everything.”

Fuck yeah November 10 Facebook friends! Nothing says solidarity after getting pepper sprayed and beaten than a half-dozen friend requests from people who also attended “We are all McGill” on Monday. I know you were there on Thursday. I probably heard you shout for water, or ask the police why they were there. If there’s one good thing that comes out of this, it’s all you beautiful people. Message me for hugs.

The litany of grievances now erased from the public record include personally clothes lining cyclists as they cruise through Milton Gates, the closure of the Interior Design Café last year, and fracturing Max Pacioretty’s C4 vertebrae in a Habs-Bruins game last year.

Lazarevic-Fogelquist could not be reached for comment, but plotting former-roommates said they overheard him say he would use the new GPA to get “like, a million different degrees. I want all 26 letters.”

“It’s gonna be alphabet soup in front of this motherfucker,” he said, holding up a name tag he’d just made.

Editor

ORGY

scheduled for January

Everyone is unsure about Justin Bieber.

No more pumpkin spice muffins at Tim Hortons.

Simple Plan is still touring.

McGill athletics has inner tube water polo.

Great turnout for the We Are All McGill Rally!

That turnout includes HMB. The holidays are approaching!

The Sufjan Stevens Christmas album never gets old.

TOTAL

Even

Minus 28 MINUS 13

Run for a position

now!

PLUS 43 PLUS 2,000 PLUS 1 Plus 25

Applications due November 27

Plus 11 PLUS 2,039

Elections November 29 and 30

Start

stretching!

Bikuta Tangaman | The McGill Daily

Lazarevic-Fogelquist makes secret deal with Principal HumDrum.

Anne Onymous | The McGill Daily