Volume 102, Issue 21

Volume 102, Issue 21

November 15, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

McGill THE

DAILY

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

A contentious canonization

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S I L E N C E = D E AT H

UNITED IN ANGER T h e A C T U P R e v o l u t i o n O n S c r e e n

JIM H U B BAR D includes Montreal premiere screening of United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012, 90 min.)

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NEWS McGill asks for multiple ATI extensions

Senate discusses research

News briefs

06 COMMENTARY Montreal’s crumbling canals A response to Ethan Feldman Letters from our readers

08 FEATURES The canonization of Canada’s first Aboriginal saint

11 HEALTH&ED What makes us hallucinate?

Antibiotic resistant gonorrhea

ADHD prescription expands

13

CULTURE

Inherit the Wind stands trial Forays into Film looks at film club Cinema 17 E-books and the future of publishing

15 EDITORIAL The ongoing privatization of McGill

16

COMPENDIUM!

Anarchists at large

Thursday, November 15, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

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Students demonstrate against disciplinary process at Senate

03 NEWS Students interrupt Senate session

The McGill Daily

Inconsistent sanctions and targeting of activists on campus Lola Duffort The McGill Daily

A group of roughly fifteen students and professors raised a banner reading “McGill’s Committee on Squashing Dissent” at Senate yesterday while Interim Dean of Students Linda Starkey presented the Annual Report of the Committee on Student Discipline (CSD).

During the question and answer period of Starkey’s presentation, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Senator Ashraf Ismail asked if the group holding the sign could be heard from, but Schulich Music School Senator Sean Ferguson, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, said that they were “not part of the discussion.”

A flyer distributed by one student partaking in the action stated, “We are here because the University’s rules and procedures related to student discipline are interpreted and applied inconsistently and with bias against known student activists.”

“We are here because we do not agree with the [Disciplinary Officer] policing student dissent on campus and the [Disciplinary Officer]’s empowerment to ban dissenters from university properties summarily…” it continued.

The flyer concluded, “We do not support the appointment of André Costopoulos as the Dean of Students following his involvement and promotion of the above named practices in his capacity as Disciplinary Officer during the 2011-2012 year.”

Arts Faculty Senator Catherine Lu asked about the challenges the disciplinary office faced in trying to adjudicate several cases of students involved in similar violations. “Was anything done to ensure that like actions received like sentences? Does anything need to be changed institutionally?” she asked.

Starkey responded that this was a “good question” being addressed by the Code Revision Steering Group, but that ultimately it was the responsibility of the disciplinary officer to “hear every complaint as an individual.” She said that what might be considered by some to be “the same or similar situation” could translate to “different lived experiences.”

A letter sent to Starkey on September 18 and signed by ten McGill professors who served either as advisors or witnesses for students during the disciplinary process last academic year outlined what they claimed to be “wildly disparate sanctions imposed upon students for identical or very similar actions.”

The letter discusses one case in length, in which a student – whose name was redacted from the copy

Incoming Dean of Students André Costopoulos is handed a sign protesting his appointment.

Photo Hera Chan | The McGill Daily

of the letter obtained by The Daily – was admonished and faced no fine or conduct probation after having been found to have violated Sections 5(a), 6, 8(a), 8(b), and 10(a) of the Student Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures.

The letter reads, “He was charged with [action deleted], the act that was the crux of the [Disciplinary Officer]’s argument that the #6party was not a peaceful demonstration immunized against disciplinary action by Article 5(c). Hence, it is natural to expect that none of the #6party demonstrators should face sanctions more serious than those faced by [name deleted].”

“In general, formal hearings resulted in less severe sanctions than did private interviews. Those #6party protesters who had private interviews with Associate Dean Costopoulos, with but one exception that we know of, face both monetary penalties and conduct probation, and yet their cases were disposed by private interview because the allegations they faced were less substantial!” the letter continued.

The letter also discussed disciplinary proceedings brought against students engaged in strike-related activities last spring: “There was no rhyme or reason to who faced summary judgments, who had private interviews, and who had formal hearings; nor was there any regularity in the sanctions imposed.”

The letter requested that all fines and levies of restitution be canceled, payments already made refunded, impositions of conduct probation be lifted, community service requirements imposed be cancelled, that students banned from campus have their records expunged, and that the Dean of Students formally apologize.

The signatories include associate

professors Adrienne Hurley, Derek Nystrom, Hasana Sharp, and Michelle Hartman, assistant professors William Clare Roberts, Yuriko Furuhata, and Alanna Thain, professor emerita Abby Lippman, Canada Research Chair in Philosophy and Psychiatry, and James McGill Professor Thomas Lamarre.

In her response sent on September 25, Starkey stated that “there are processes within the Code to address the questions you request,” and that students that had only received decisions based on a disciplinary interview could request a full CSD hearing, and those that had had a hearing could submit an appeal request to the Appeal Committee of the CSD. Incoming Dean of Students André Costopoulos, who served as the Disciplinary Officer for the Arts faculty last year, said that the “extreme privacy protection that surrounds the whole disciplinary process means that cases tend to be fairly self-contained.

There are no precedents in our system.” He also said that inequitable punishments for the same Code violations could not be the basis of appeal because all information pertaining to particular cases is strictly confidential.

“Nobody can confirm or deny.

So that’s a very odd situation, and we need to think about that very carefully,” said Costopoulos.

Science Senator Moe Nasr asked Starkey if there was any process in place to determine the credibility of complaints made against students before a formal disciplinary process was allowed to continue.

Sunci Avlijas, a graduate student “dragged through” the disciplinary process last year, partook in the disruption because of what she believes is a manipulation of the Code of Student Conduct to “squash dissent on campus.”

Though ultimately exonerated

after a month-long process, Avlijas was initially charged with violating Article 5(a) of the Code after she attended the Board of Governors meeting disrupted by a group of protestors dressed in pirate costumes. Video footage submitted by Security ultimately exonerated Avlijas. She claims that it was Security’s knowledge that she was politically active on campus that initially led them to file the complaint against her, and that this same knowledge led the disciplinary officer to investigate further.

“I was exonerated, but the process was very time-consuming, and extremely intimidating,” Aylijas told The Daily.

Post-Graduate Student Society Senator Jonathan Mooney asked Starkey how the CSD understood Section 5c of the Code, which stipulates that “nothing in this Article or Code shall be construed to prohibit peaceful assemblies and demonstrations, lawful picketing, or to inhibit free speech.”

Starkey responded that the Committee regularly discusses interpretation of the Code, and that disciplinary officers regularly meet to ensure consistent applications and interpretations of the Code.

In an email to The Daily, Mooney said that he felt “it critical for the committee, the officers, and the Dean’s office to take action to clearly communicate the framework of understanding they share regarding Section 5(c) to students […] In criminal law, one can look to past jurisprudence in gauging how a particular statute is interpreted by courts, which provides an essential safeguard for citizens in terms of being aware of their rights and in ensuring consistency of interpretation. I think more needs to be done to provide students with the same protections.”

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NEWS

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 15, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

University denies access to information Students file formal complaint for violation of Quebec law Annie Shiel The McGill Daily

M

cGill students Christopher Bangs and Mona Luxion released a statement on Tuesday claiming that the McGill administration had refused to disclose information related to military research on campus and the University’s ties to fossil fuel companies.

Bangs and Luxion also allege that the University is violating its responsibilities under the Quebec Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.

According to the statement, several McGill students submitted access to information (ATI) requests five weeks ago regarding military research conducted by the Shock Wave Physics Group (SWPG) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

“Public records show that over the past decade, the SWPG has regularly engaged in explosives research with the support of Canada’s Department of National

Defense,” the statement read. “This includes research on fuel-air explosives (thermobaric weapons) that has been used by the US Air Force.”

Students also requested information about the University’s ties to fossil fuel companies and Plan Nord, the provincial government’s controversial plan for the development of the natural resources extraction sector in the northern Quebec. The statement claimed that the purpose of these requests was to “better understand the links between the University and the corporations involved in these destructive projects,” claiming that at least 11 out of the 25 members of the Board of Governors profits from fossil fuels, and at least five are implicated in Plan Nord.

The University had an initial twenty-day period to provide the information requested under the Act, after which the University invoked an allowed additional delay of ten days. After the thirty days, the University demanded an extra three weeks to respond and denied parts of the requests.

In an email to The Daily, Bangs – the creator of McGilliLeaked,

The Daily. “A conservative estimate puts the total number of documents at well over 100,000 pages. Each document needs to be read, redacted as required (under law governing access requests), and prepared for delivery. All within thirty days.”

Marcil also said that the SecretaryGeneral’s office currently devotes two full-time staff members to meet ATI demands, claiming that the total hours applied to these requests including other branches of the University “amounts to at least five people.”

The students who requested the ATIs in question have filed a formal complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information, which will initiate a review process.

“We have requested that our cases be taken forward collectively, as we believe this is a systemic failure to adhere to the law,” wrote Bangs.

“At least six people have faced extralegal delays in the processing of their requests in the last month and a half, and many others have faced similar delays in the past.”

According to Bangs, the review process involves going before a judge at the Commission and could

a website that publishes ATIs received from the University – explained that the University said they had to collect hard copies of the documents, which required more time. Regarding the parts of the requests that were denied altogether, Bangs said that they refused all requests for architectural plans of buildings.

Vice-Principal (External Relations) Olivier Marcil claimed that the University had not refused to provide the documents, but has been unable to do so within the time frame provided, citing the sheer volume of requests received by the University.

The Secretary-General’s office has received at least 26 requests containing 57 separate demands since the end of August and at least 155 requests since January, many of which are “broad in scope,” according to Marcil.

“For example, McGill has been asked to provide all documents related to all construction projects over the last five years. For the current year alone, that would be approximately 260 active projects – each involving thousands of documents,” Marcil wrote in an email to

take up to a year and a half.

Marcil claimed that the number of requests received places a burden on all affected University departments and requires the diversion of the University’s limited resources.

“If it is called before the Commission, McGill will be prepared to make this very clear,” he wrote.

Luxion and Bangs agreed that McGill’s behavior is not surprising.

“It’s not actually surprising that this administration is going to major, even illegal, lengths to avoid making public the extent of its involvement in research that ultimately enables armies to kill with greater efficiency,” said Luxion – a PhD student who submitted three ATI requests – in the press release.

“It was sadly not a surprise at all,” Bangs wrote to The Daily. “The only shock was the number of students faced with these delays.”

Marcil declined to comment on McGill’s current military- and fossil fuel-related research, as well as the University’s current lack of regulation on research with potentially harmful applications.

CAMPUS EYE McGill commemorates Remembrance Day Lindsay Cameron Montreal’s official Remembrance Day commemoration was held last Sunday on McGill campus. Two military helicopters flew over the ceremony and a replica of a cenotaph was assembled on Lower Field.

—Laurent Bastien Corbeil

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news

Administration’s definition of success remains unclear

O

n Wednesday, Rose Goldstein, Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations), presented to Senate an updated version of the University’s Strategic Research Plan, a document that highlights McGill’s “core commitments.”

Goldstein reviewed the University’s success in research as well as its challenges in funding.

Although McGill has moved up from fourth to second place in “research intensity” among U15 universities for the total tri-council funding, less research-intensive universities have been increasing at a quicker rate than McGill, “working hard and capturing more than their market share,” according to Goldstein.

Goldstein described McGill as being in the “middle of the pack” in terms of its current growth in research funding. While presenting a pie chart of the University’s current sources for research funding, she explained that McGill relies heavily on “traditional sources” of funding – provincial and federal government funds. Goldstein’s report thus stressed the importance of diversifying funding by soliciting funds from individuals, foundations, and philanthropists, among others.

A Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) document, submitted to the committee on October 9, outlined the graduate society’s comments on the Strategic Research Plan and expressed concerns over the Plan’s definition of success and excellence: “How will McGill measure and monitor how research is fulfilling these goals? Citations? Publication in highimpact journals? The feedback of other faculty members? The social impact as expressed through media

coverage, partnerships, etcetera?

The strategic research plan should articulate these metrics.”

Goldstein added that researchers have a responsibility in the Strategic Research Plan to “know our funders and what they want to fund” and to “seek out the strongest projects with the greatest possibility of success.”

The Strategic Research Plan includes seven “areas of research excellence” that the University should strategically support: Examine fundamental questions about humanity, identity, and expression; strengthen public policy and create a deeper understanding of social transformation; capitalize on the convergence of life sciences, natural sciences, and engineering; support health research and improved delivery of care; unlock the potential of the human brain and the entire nervous system; advance knowledge of the foundations and applications of technology in the Digital Age; and explore the power of the Earth, space, and the universe.

Multiple Senators expressed concerns about the limitations posed by the list, claiming that their departments were not consulted in the Plan’s development and were not reflected in the listed areas.

In response, Goldstein said that these areas were simply “examples,” and that the list was not exhaustive.

PGSS Secretary-General Jonathan Mooney had similar concerns. “There are some overall problems with the value of ‘categorizing’ research in this manner,” wrote Mooney in an email to The Daily. “We could easily come up with seven completely different categories showing different overlaps, so it is important to emphasize the limits of such an approach and note that categories are fluid.”

Later in the meeting, Professor Chandra Madramootoo presented a report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the

Goldstein added that researchers have a responsibility in the Strategic Research Plan to “know our funders and what they want to fund” and to “seek out the strongest projects with the greatest possibility of success.”

Rose Goldstein Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations) Recording and Transmission of Senate Meetings.

The practices of other universities in Canada and the United States, as well as the practices of the Supreme Court and National Assembly, the committee recommended that Senate grant permission for the live video recording and transmission of Senate meetings on a pilot basis from January to December 2013. The committee said that this recommendation was based on the need for Senate to “show some leadership in history with respect to openness and transparency with respect to decisions made by the University that have implications in academic life in the University,” as well as to bring about “engagement from the broad university community from staff, academic support staff, students, and alumni.”

However, the motion to adopt this recommendation quickly became contentious after an amendment was introduced to include archiving the recordings, rather than only allowing the live streaming of meetings.

SSMU President Josh Redel was among those pushing the amendment, which was officially introduced by Dean of Religious Studies Ellen Aitken.

Redel said that not archiving the recordings for later use would be a “step backwards” in terms of maxi-

mizing engagement and gave the example of people who work fulltime and are unable to watch Senate meetings live.

Referring to the committee’s fourth recommendation, which cites Senate’s need to show leadership and maximize engagement, Redel said, “Leadership isn’t doing what other universities do. It’s going above and beyond what they do, not trying to catch up.”

In response, the committee cited its concerns that archived recordings could be leaked, reproduced, or recreated outside of McGill, and claimed that the current recommendation aimed to protect copywritten material.

Other Senate members expressed concerns over the possibility of legal action being taken over recorded statements.

After debate on the motion and its amendment, the amendment was withdrawn and the motion tabled to allow the committee to consult further with concerned Senate members.

The final portion of the meeting was dedicated to Interim Dean of Students Linda Starkey’s Annual Report of the Committee on Student Discipline, during which a group of students stood in the back with a sign that read “McGill’s Committee on Squashing Dissent” and periodically disrupted the proceedings with cheers, snaps, and boos.

WHAT’S THE HAPS

Research goals and transparency on Senate agenda Annie Shiel The McGill Daily

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The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 15, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

International Students’ Day Community Square Lunch Friday, November 16 12:30 p.m.

Community Square, in front of James Administration

November 17 marks International Students’ Day, established to commemorate the history of student resistance. At McGill, this comes a week after the anniversary of the November 10 demonstration against the Liberal tuition hike, the occupation of the James Administration building, and the subsequent arrival of riot police. This will be a community reflection on the ongoing struggles on campus and around the world.

Save the Biosphere Friday, November 16 12:45 p.m.

Roddick Gates

The Harper government intends to turn the Biosphere’s environmental museum into a weather station and close off public access to the Montreal landmark. The SSMU Environment Commissioners are going to visit the Biosphere to learn and promote the Biosphere. McGill students will meet at the Roddick Gates and take the metro to the Biosphere as a group.

Dialogic Session with Charles Taylor

Monday, November 19 7 p.m.

Le Gesù, 1200 Bleury. $3 admission In part two of the thematic series “Dialgoues at Le Gesù,” host Norman Cornett and speaker Charles Taylor present the work of the BouchardTaylor Commission and open dialogue with the public. For reservations call 514-861-4036.

Briefs Student-run cafe in the works Plans to create a student-run cafe in the Shatner Building continue to develop as SSMU leadership considers different scenarios and the possibility of an extended time frame.

Brought forward last year, the project’s time frame has expanded significantly, and VP Finance and Operations Jean-Paul Briggs told The Daily that he does not believe the cafe will open at the beginning of the next academic semester as originally planned.

According to Briggs, “a fully functional and highly operational cafe…won’t be feasible for the start of next year. But we are still in the process of trying to make it happen.”

SSMU is currently carrying out a study to assess the feasibility of a student-run cafe. The project was allocated $200,000 last year and will

continue to operate with this funding during the startup period.

According to SSMU President Josh Redel, the undergoing lease negotiations with the University regarding the Shatner Building have affected the project.

“The lease negotiations have a huge impact on how much we get to spend on the cafe now and in the years,” Redel told The Daily.

“Right now, the way negotiations are going, we are just so uncertain, it’s too up in the air.”

According to Briggs, students involved in the feasibility committee are looking at what “niches” in the University marketplace are available to the student-run café.

“The core tenants of a studentrun, for-student enterprise is that it has to be accessible financially, socially, and every other way,” said Briggs.

—Juan Camilo-Velásquez

Arts Undergraduate Society VP Events resigns During last Wednesday’s Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Council meeting, VP Events Josh Greenberg was notably absent.

Speaking with The Daily following the closed session, AUS President Devon LaBuik stated that Greenberg resigned from his position for “personal reasons.”

Greenberg’s resignation took place last week according to LaBuik. As of Wednesday night Greenberg’s biography was still up on the AUS website.

When asked of a successor to Greenberg’s position LaBuik told The Daily that the search had not yet started but that a replacement would be found this month.

“Right now we are still deciding how to chose it, but hopefully we will have someone by

November 28th. It will either be someone from within the AUS or we will hold an election,” he said.

“Though that being said an election might be impractical at this point in time because we can’t hold it this semester because we can’t do it constitutionally.”

“If we were to hold it next semester we wouldn’t be able to have a VP Events until mid-February. So essentially we would have a VP Events for one month and then we would have to select a new one. So we are still deciding,” LaBuik continued.

In the AUS Constitution, article 12.13 states, “In the event that one of the Vice-Presidents positions is or becomes vacant, the Council or General Assembly shall elect a replacement, in accordance with the Electoral by-laws, from amongst its members until a by-election, if deemed necessary, is held.

Greenberg, as AUS VP Events, sat on the events planning committee.

When asked if there would be any problems with the committee due to his resignation LaBuik stated: “We have taken care of it.”

Almost an hour of the meeting was spent in confidential session, previous to which council members had to sign confidentiality agreements.

The rest of the meeting, which continued in open session, was focused on approving money from the Fine Arts Council (FAC) to campus publications such as The Veg and Steps as well as to the Fridge Door Gallery and the Undergraduate Theatre Society.

On Monday, AUS will be holding its first General Assembly of the year in the FDA Auditorium. The next AUS Council meeting will be held on November 28.

—Jordan Venton-Rublee

Commentary

The McGill Daily Thursday, November 15, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

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Water and our society On Montreal’s crumbling water systems Declan Rankin Jardin Commentary Writer

W

ater management in Montreal has always been a difficulty. McGill has been flooded by breaks in the reservoir, and currently traffic on Sherbrooke is bottlenecked because of an unexpected water pipe failure.

And who would believe, in this day and age, that we are still dumping raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River?

A visit to the urban sewer explorer Andrew Emond’s website, undermontreal.com, shows how ancient our system – and how systemic the decay – is.

Not that the current municipal council has been altogether ignoring the problem, but the recent resignations have cast doubt on the spirit in which water management is conducted: short term repairs, plenty of advertising, and minimal follow up.

Case in point: The Lachine Canal was a crucial waterway that put Montreal on the map in the 19th century. Ships from all over the world used to bypass the Lachine Rapids by this route in order to go on to Detroit or Chicago, or to come from the Great Lakes to export grain. The canal’s banks were filled with manufacturers and industrial complexes that led the Canadian economy through the age of progress, but unnoticed at the time was how the canal was built to absorb

industrial waste. Environmental standards back then were not at all what they are now.

The waterway remained relevant well into the 20th century, until it was dwarfed in 1959 by its much larger counterpoint, the St. Lawrence Seaway on the South Shore. Generations of this industrial exposure left the sediments at the canal’s bottom ridden with heavy metals and fecal matter.

Though now heavy metals (copper, chromium, lead, zinc, mercury) have stopped being dumped, contamination by fecal matter is still an issue because of systems like the Rockfield Overflow or the Vézina/St-Patrick conduit diverting raw sewage to the canal after heavy rainfall. Jurisdiction is another factor that plays into the Lachine Canal’s complex state, because though most of it is owned by Parks Canada, the Old Port regulates the eastern part, and each conduit into the canal is administered by its respective borough.

A 1996 study on the Lachine Canal established the water quality as hugely substandard but, due to weak population density in the area and elevated cost-benefit margins, called for no action at the time, and rightly so. But by 2012, gentrification has happened. Old factories are now the skeletons for huge condominium complexes alongside the canal, from the Old Port all the way to Lachine.

Business is booming by the Atwater

Illustration Bracha Stettin | The McGill Daily

market, and people from the Plateau are moving to St. Henri! Just take a walk to the bottom of Guy to see the massive tracts of land that await the new developments.

So, where is the committee to reevaluate the necessity for reinvigorating the canal’s waters, now that, 16 years later, there is no excuse to let the issue sit? What concerned real estate owner doesn’t understand the monetary value of useable waterfront? The canal presents a great

opportunity for communities to interact with nature and participate in a variety of recreational activities.

Each summer there is boating, fishing, chess, biking, running, et cetera on the banks and above the canal, but no one ever dares to get in the canal.* Now is the time to begin rousing the public interest, and galvanizing everyone to action, for a clean canal, but also for societal issues in general. Because hell, as we all know, debates in Montreal that sur-

round real change only happen over the winter, where the cold keeps us inside and makes us care. *As it happens, there is a group that wants to swim in a clean canal, co-founded by Anteneh Meshesha, a graduate student in Bioresource Engineering at McGill. Their website is: www.lecanal.wordpress.com.

Declan Rankin Jardin is a U3 Arts and Science student. He can be reached at declanrj@gmail.com.

Dear baton-licking pacifists An open letter to Ethan Feldman and company Alexei Simakov Commentary Writer

T

hank you for composing yet another excellent article, “Dear Boot-Licking Apologists: Remembering the war that continues” (Commentary, November 8, page 8). I am delighted that you continue devoting such a large portion of your time to resisting the capitalist machine, all on top of academic responsibilities. Now don’t get me wrong; I categorically disagree with all the idle whining that you’re able to spew and have accepted by The Daily’s editors (I can barely imagine what it’d take for them to reject an article at this point). I love what you do because your whining is special.

Unlike the majority of the radical leftist ideology propagandized by campus newspapers, your commentaries are more than just whining; they’re toxic.

Every year our school is flooded with politically ideological clean-slated freshmen; 17- and 18-year-olds desper-

ate to label themselves with an “ist”; environmentalist, capitalist, Marxist, creationist, and so forth. I, for one, do my part to enlist them in the dark side (aka, liberalism). We herald the teachings of Frédéric Bastiat, J.S. Mill, and Milton Friedman, preach the virtues of property rights and civil liberties, and of course use basic facts and history to show how much better life is in laissez-faire economies.

I’m not sure what ideology it is that you support, but it seems to involve lots of yelling at anyone with a job, anyone who one day hopes to have a job, anyone who is white, a man, straight, cis-gendered (I had to Google that one), eats imported fruit, and virtually everyone else who isn’t a displaced child sweat shop worker laid off because of outsourcing. Fortunately for you, this ideology seems to appeal to lots of students, especially the upper middle class ones, its popularity manifesting itself in the success (and eventual decline) of last year’s Mob Squad. But recently, you’ve been tipping the scales in my favour.

Let me explain; last year, the poster boy of leftist propaganda mas-

querading as journalism (the position you’re currently trying to fill) was Davide Mastracci. His commentary pieces were mostly lively observations with a pinch of subjectivity and lots of self-deprecating remark. For example, “McGill students were born on third base and believe they hit a triple” (“Is McGill really progressive?”

Commentary, February 2, page 8). It was usually a treat to read, and most certainly appealing to the aforementioned freshmen.

Ethan, you on the other hand, are something different altogether. I’m not referring to your fundamental misunderstanding of some of the simplest aspects of history. No, I’m referring to you equating getting hit by bicycles to mustard gas, comparing tuition hikes to Kristallnacht, labour courtinjunctions to the Gestapo. I’m referring to that deep, rudimentary confusion inside of you. To a Toy“R”Us Lego aisle temper tantrum you throw at the very first dissatisfaction that comes your way. But most of all, I’m referring to that searing hate that blinds you: blinds you to history, to facts, to reality. The all-consuming hate that makes

you incapable of reasoning or logic.

Ethan, just consider how you ended your article for a moment: “The fastest way to stop imperialist killing is to rid ourselves of our colonial society…recognizing that it crosses every border and intersects every person.” What does that even mean?

What is this indefinite, utopian course of action you have in your head? After spending an entire article raging on against some cancerous evil enveloping the world, I’d assume you’d flush out your conclusion slightly. Are we supposed to eat more organic food?

Should we protest the imprisonment of Pussy Riot? Not do laundry on Thursdays? Please tell me, please!

You think you’re encouraging solidarity and community, but all you’re doing is spreading fear and despair.

You’re not fighting for a cause; you’re creating disillusionment and despondency. And as philosophically raw as these freshmen may be, they are still smarter than you give them credit for. They can identify utopian hysteria when they see it, and you’re giving them plenty to look at. So please, continue. Continue spreading what-

ever this message is. Champion your movement and wear it on your sleeve for all to see. Just know that after they read your drivel and run away in disgust, we’ll be waiting for them, armed with respect and gratitude for the soldiers who lost their lives in wars they did not start, who sacrificed everything so that you have the freedom to shit on their graves. We who wear red poppies not because we are “jingoistic nationalists,” but because we recognize the tragedy of war. We who have the ability to differentiate between mortar shells and inflationadjusted tuition fees. We who strive to achieve an antidote for the wrongs we see in this world, not hemorrhage and spasm at the slightest irritation.

And while the freshmen are here, I might just try to sell them on the benefits of free trade and right-to-work legislation. So please, keep sending them our way!

Alexei Simakov is a U1 International Development student. He eats two species of animal with every meal. He can be reached at alexei.simakov@ mail.mcgill.ca.

commentary

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The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 15, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Letters Speak plain English Dear Daily, Many things have been said about the article “You are racist” (Commentary, October 18, page 7)

by Guillermo Martínez de Velasco in The Daily. A guy who lives in Norway even wrote a response in the Ottawa Citizen. As a racial minority of the female gender, my comment is constrained to: “huh?”

My favourite phrase: “racism is a systematic essentialization of others’ perceived cultural signifiers.”

Mea culpa for not being a Cultural Studies major, but what happened to Orwell’s plea on cutting down the wordy Latin? Do I need to take a class to read a campus newspaper?

The Daily acknowledged the problem of jargon in “Dailyspeak” (Commentary, October 29, page 7), and explains terms like “systematic oppression” and “privilege.” The article in itself was written in an understandable and engaging manner, precisely because it avoidsed using jargon.

But ultimately, I think the article is missing the point. People’s problem with Dailyspeak is not that we are too immersed in privilege to understand. It’s that articles with potentially valuable points are written in a way that alienates people. For one thing, jargon stifles productive public discourse. I may feel uncomfortable rebutting points from Mr. de Velasco’s article, for example, because I feel like I do not have the appropriate academic degree to do so. Secondly, the clarity and conviction of an argument comes from using your own words, not words borrowed from a book.

This is an article for the public, not an essay. Simple words deliver the most force.

I hope the editorial board of The Daily and all like publications commit to making sure all its articles are devoid of jargon. Websites that address similar issues as The Daily commentary section, like Jezebel, publish thoughtful pieces that get their points across in a simple way that makes a lasting impression. It is possible.

—Linda Yu U4 Psychology Honours

Nature of the threat Dear Daily, I was ready to put aside my letter in response to “You are racist,” (Commentary, October 18, page 7) knowing that others had expressed similar frustrations with an article designed in its title and content to offend and not to inform. A second author’s convoluted 1000-word dismissal of any criticism that followed, (“All racism happens because of whiteness,” Commentary, November 8, page 7) however, was too much.

Let’s be clear that racism exists.

It has been most significantly perpetrated through European colonialism, and systemic privileges for light-skinned people persists today; but the article’s division of our modern world into two definitively and homogenously white and non-white categories – implying Serbs are no different from Argentines, or Hausa-Fulani from Papuans – was a statement of tremendous cultural ignorance.

More appalling was the main thesis that “whiteness,” rather than the existence of many human races, causes racism. The first article’s author wrote that “Racism is something that inhabits all humans.” But if it were “assuming anything about anyone based on a perceived deviation from a racial norm known as white…assuming that white is the central node from which one departs to evaluate otherness,” the author would have to mean that either non-whites are not human, or that whites are capable of social recognition and evaluation that non-whites are not.

Race truly affects everyone: each human experiences race, first, in the benefits and detriments their race confers in their historical circumstances, and second, in their role as an individual observer of otherness. Anyone who can see their reflection in a mirror or on a pool of water has this second capacity for observing their differences from another. Otherness-recognition is always “racialized,” but racism is perpetrated by individuals, not by whole ethnic groups.

A person displays racism when they ascribe general and inherent qualities to an ethnicity. Thus, despite the authors’ valiant intentions, the articles were racist.

—Mike Prebil U4 History Daily Public Editor, 2009-10

Pointlessly mean Dear Daily, When we asked if we could write a letter about the Compendium piece “SSMU Council does nothing” (November 8, page 20) and actually get it published, we were told: “As long as its not hateful. And 300 words or less.” Ironic, eh? The amount of hatred, violence, and general lack of basic decency we read in the aforementioned piece was shocking and appalling; yet here we are, being told that we can only express our opinions if we’re not hateful. Which leads to our point: for the nth time this year, we question if the difference between healthy political satire – what Compendium is supposed to be – and lazy, tasteless, offensive insults is known to the editorial staff.

In the same issue, CKUT made their appeal for an additional $1 per student, per year, by saying “there is no better journalism training than student media”; as The Daily is proud to announce on its “About Us” page, it has been a “training ground for generations of journalists since its inception in 1911.” We’ll accept that the kind of hands-on education one gets from working on things like The Daily and CKUT is extremely beneficial, and can launch careers. We have no doubt this will be the basis of The Daily’s campaign during their upcoming fee renewal referendum.

However, what we saw last week, and what we’ve seen in weeks past – allowing students to call another (identifiable) student “Pointless Fuckface” – is not the attitude we should want the journalists of tomorrow to be taught.

Daily, take note – we won’t tolerate this unadulterated hatred toward our fellow students, and particularly not toward the representatives we elected. A little editorial discretion isn’t too much to ask.

—Kate Sheridan* U2 Cognitive Science *Kate Sheridan is the lead author of the letter. Due to space constraints, the full list of 18 co-signers will appear online.

No personal attacks Dear Daily,

An open letter Dear Mr. Strople,

Does being offended at another’s personal opinion (“Dear bootlicking apologists,” Commentary, November 8, page 8) justify a personal attack?

Better phrased: Can any good come out of it?

No, and reminder: words are more powerful than you think.

Name-calling and jokes about one’s cognitive capacity does not add any positive value to a comment. The only usefulness it holds is as emotional persuasion.

Remember: ridiculing someone for being a U5 is a low blow. Let’s accept and respect that everyone comes from different situations.

There are individuals around you with ‘invisible’ disabilities/problems you are unaware of, many of whom most likely already feel inadequate. Please stop reinforcing and perpetuating that belief.

An extremely malicious attitude was supported and left unquestioned. It’s inseparable from bullying when the majority participates.

Ethan may be strong, but some people aren’t.

Please remember the power of your words.

—A U4 student registered at OSD

Drunk poetry is better, anyway Dear Daily, Thanks for everything.

Also, I am too hungover to read poetry right now. Nice lit-sup (November 12) though.

—Carol Ellen Fraser U5 Basket-Weaving Former SSMU VP Clubs & Services

I would be more careful with accusing students of negligence and making essential errors in their graphical depiction of the McGill Board of Governors (BoG) as you expressed in your Daily letter “Errata-city up here” (Commentary, Letters, November 12, page 7). Alongside the table’s picture it was clearly stated that they provided only profiles of “the fifteen that come from outside the University.” It should be asked, why? Let’s think logically.

Students represent a new generation that is smarter, thinking faster, and much better at filtering essential information than the previous generations. It has always been like that in our evolving civilization. If the students “neglected to include the ten representatives of students, faculty, and administrative and support staff” it should be carefully examined why they did so before attacking them.

In this case, students only wanted to know about those external members that are truly powerful and can present freely their opinions shaping McGill strategies.

This approach simply protects their brains from unimportant details about those paid or graded

by McGill BoG representatives.

This minority is easily manipulated and in the last thirty years we have never heard about such representatives being forced to resign after opposing certain policies or presenting alternative views.

Loudly expressed different opinions with dynamic changes are only seen in more democratically organized administrative structures. At McGill, we enjoy something ‘better’ than unity – it is total silence. We never hear about elected BoG representatives meeting openly with their colleagues to present their reports or consult their future policies in this highest governing body. In this way, we have to fully trust the SecretaryGeneral about their “invaluable contribution to the Board.”

How much more trust is needed at McGill without us compromising the value of tuition and salaries?

—Slawomir Poplawski Former McGill staff member

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A mixed blessing Kahnawake reacts to Kateri Tekakwitha’s canonization Text: Christina Colizza | Photos: Peter Shyba

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t’s an early Sunday morning in Rome, and Vatican Square is filling up with people.

It’s October 21, and seven saints will be canonized. Amongst the tens of thousands of spectators in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, a small group of Kahnawa’kehro:non – the Mohawks of Kahnawake – cheer on their hometown saint: blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Aboriginal to ever be canonized.

Several hours later in Kahnawake, the Mohawk reserve just across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal, citizens will be hosting their own celebration.

Dozens of pilgrims will empty out of their tour buses into the small St. Francis Xavier church. Those without seats will filter into the Kateri Tekakwitha School gym to watch the canonization ceremony, streamed from Rome. Some residents will don traditional Mohawk dress. Throughout the world, many will get down on their knees and pray.

Despite the flurry of excitement, some Kahnawake residents won’t be in attendance. Timmy Montour for example, will stay away, preferring a lazy Sunday breakfast. Tekakwitha’s canonization is, for him, “colonization. It’s a slap in the face.”

It’s a feeling that has reopened a centuries-old wound in this small Mohawk community. It is a wound that – despite the influx of pilgrims and tourism dollars and the Vatican’s blessing – stubbornly refuses to heal.

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hen a wave of smallpox swept across the northeast of this continent from 1661 to 1663, 4-yearold Kateri Tekakwitha was left scarred and orphaned from the virus. She was adopted by her uncle, and brought to Kahnawake in 1677, where she is buried. The conventional story of Tekakwitha’s life primarily concerns her devotion and her bouts of selfflagellation. Her myth is built on details about how she slept on a bed of thorns, or crept barefoot through the snow, lost in prayer. Like many stories about saints, she was said to have exuded the flowery “odour of sanctity” upon dying. In her last moments on earth, her scars disappeared, the story goes. She was only 24 years old.

According to Allan Greer, a professor of History at McGill and author of Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits, Tekakwitha’s life has to be seen as both “an actual human life and a literary creation.” The stories of Tekakwitha’s purity and devotion to the point of selfflagellation may be truthful, but often lack the socio-historical context they need.

According to Greer’s book, about a dozen Kahnawake women lived similar lives alongside Tekakwitha. Their stories remain relatively untold, let alone recognized by the Vatican.

Most of what we know about Tekakwitha comes from the voluminous hagiography of her life, written by a Jesuit missionary, Claude Chauchetière.

The account provides a window into late 17th century life. Territorial wars and smallpox were both rampant, and a new European religion was on the march.

Chauchetière, a French Jesuit, was in the midst of his own spiritual crisis. It’s easy to imagine him, huddled at a candlelit desk, writing to his brother in deep despair about his loss of faith. Tekakwitha becomes his own saviour. While he promoted her healing powers while she was alive, it is the moment of her death that brought his revelation: “the climax and turning point” of his life, as Greer describes it. Thirty years later he commited her story to the page.

Chauchetière’s hagiography is the earliest example of the long literary tradition of documenting her life. Children’s books, the Catholic publishing industry, and even Leonard Cohen have all played a part in keeping Tekakwitha’s story alive.

For Greer, Chauchetière is just as remarkable as the saint herself. “My research was as much about the Jesuit as it was about her. He creates her. She is a literary creation of this guy, and no one ever talks about that,” Greer told me when we spoke in his office.

Working in Greer’s logic, Tekakwitha was mortal until proven (or written) holy.

The miracles that have enabled her canonization all occurred years, even centuries, after her life. Now that the 120-yearlong campaign for her sainthood has come to a successful end, it is the people of Kahnawake who will most closely feel the effects of Tekakwitha’s newfound divinity.

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laude Chauchetière was irrelevant for the Sunday faithful who attended her canonization. Pilgrims clamoured their way through the front doors of the small Kahnawake church,

some stopping to snap a photo in front of Tekakwitha’s shrine. Across from St. Francis Xavier, young boys in traditional dress rushed to welcome guests at the neighbourhood school, and guided them to the gym. Projected on the screen was the video of St. Peter’s Basilica, with seven larger than life portraits hanging from its façade. Just like the crowd in Rome, headdresses and habits speckled the crowd.

Although the canonization in Rome was already over, the stream made the event feel live, especially so when young Jake Finkbonner – a young boy cured of his flesh-eating disease by Tekakwitha – received communion on the St. Peter’s steps. When the stream froze, or sputtered, a communal groan filled the gym. All eyes were glued, praying that they would not miss a single thing.

Many Canadian Aboriginals flew to Rome for the canonization, while other local residents simply attended the mass at St. Francis Xavier. Others enjoyed the Sunday like it was any other. Regan Jacobs, a former journalist and creator and owner of Mohawk TV, was one of them. In between reprimanding her kids in her native tongue, we spoke over pancakes in the small caféeshe owns.

Acknowledgement of the canonization, regardless of one’s political opinion, is a respectful gesture toward Kahnawake’s more Christian elders, Jacobs explained.

“Acknowledgement can only go so far without crossing a line,” she said.

“Not only did [the church] steal our land, they basically tried to assimilate us.

But we will still give people slight acknowledgement because that’s who we are as a people. We’re understanding and loving and at the end of the day we will always rise to an occasion.”

That sentiment echoed in the remarks of Timmy Montour, a Kahnawake man sitting at a nearby table. “Respect is the main thing.

You have to respect the church and the people who care,” Montour said. Montour wasn’t shy, however, about expressing his extreme distrust of what he feels are encroachments on Mohawk tradition. He cited the church, particularly its dark history of residential schools, as “responsible for mostly all of the pains that have happened to our people.”

Tekakwitha’s canonization was only working to pit community members against one another. “For me, even Kateri seems like a bit of a traitor,” Montour said.

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et, for Kahnawake’s Catholics in the St. Francis Xavier church, just a few blocks away from Jacobs’ cafe, the day was a wondrous exhibit of the community’s culture for the world to see, and a victory for those who have dedicated their lives to Tekakwitha’s recognition. While few would doubt the atrocities of the Church throughout history, should that negate any spiritual meaning derived from the canonization? Wouldn’t the influx of pilgrims buying prayer cards, lunches, coffees, and votive candles do the local economy some good?

Unlike Jacobs and Montour, Concordia student and part-time worker at a general store in town Vernon Goodleaf was optimistic about the potential for increased tourism. “She’s Mohawk, and I’m Mohawk, so I’m really proud of it. Sainthood is a pres-

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1. The St. Francis Xavier Church in Kahnawake, QC. 2. Votive candles for Kateri Tekakwitha.

3. Pilgrims watch Vatican ceremony in local school.

4. Kahnawake flag pictured in between Canadian and American flags.

5. Pilgrim prays to Tekakwitha’s tomb.

6. Inside the interior of St. Francis Xavier.

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7. Local residents wear traditional Mohawk dress.

8. Members of the church greet pilgrims.

tigious thing, and a good thing all around for everybody. It’ll bring good tourism here because everyone will want to check it out.” Goodleaf hoped the increased tourism would spark an even greater interest in Kahnawake’s culture, to help get rid of “the stigma attached to the reservation.”

Whether explicitly or not, the legacy of the Oka Crisis haunted every conversation I had with Kahnawake residents. The “stigma” Goodleaf described is due to the 1990 escalation of a land dispute between Mohawks in nearby Oka and the town’s

government, who wanted to build a golf course on a traditional Mohawk burying ground. During the ten-week-long standoff between armed Mohawk militants and the Canadian military, the Mohawks of Kahnawake blockaded the Mercier Bridge in solidarity, stopping traffic between the island of Montreal and the South Shore.

In the neighboring town of Châteauguay, residents responded to the crisis by burning an effigy of a Mohawk warrior.

“I was really young and I didn’t really understand anything about it. All I knew was

that everything was blocked off and outside was the enemy. From then on it was just no French [language],” said Goodleaf. Goodleaf has recently changed his tune and sees fluency in French as a valuable tool.

Tekakwitha’s sainthood has opened a space for dialogue, and Kahnawake is talking to itself about the future of the community. In a column in the local paper The Eastern Door, Jessica Deer writes that increased tourism may benefit existing businesses, and even provide for new ones. Kahnawake, she writes, “will have

to wait and see.” Another local reporter, Daniel J. Rowe, quotes a church volunteer who says that the canonization is bringing back tourists from the United States who have been missing in recent years.

The canonization is no Oka Crisis, but the increased presence of tourists does dredge up the pain of that summer. Not all business owners are as open to change, and the Calico Cottage Quilt and Gift Shop refuses to sell anything with Kateri Tekakwitha’s image, while others are banking on it.

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Colours in the concrete Why we hallucinate Tamkinat Mirza Ninth Life

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tudies investigating the cause of hallucinations have established over the years that these originate in the brain’s visual cortex, causing images that, according to a recent article by neuroscientist Paul Bressloff, “are seen in both eyes and move with [the individual].”

A study published in the journal Neural Computation in 2002 examined geometric visual hallucinations, attributing these to a number of causes: “taking hallucinogens such as LSD, cannabis, mescaline, or psilocybin;…viewing bright flickering lights; on waking up or falling asleep;…‘near death’ experiences; and… many other syndromes.”

The study goes on to categorize the types of hallucinations into four groups called “form constants: tunnels and funnels, spirals, lattices (which include honeycombs and funnels), and cobwebs.”

Essentially, these are different geometric patterns.

Physicist Nigel Goldenfeld extended this examination in a similar study last year that engaged with the mechanisms that take place in a brain as it hallucinates. His lab analyzed hallucinations with reference to the Turing mechanism, which plays a part in pattern creation in many biological and ecological systems.

Turing patterns work through a reaction-diffusion system that contain “activators” and “inhibitors.”

Through a feedback mechanism, the activating chemical amplifies its own quantity, while an inhibitor keeps it in check by slowing down its production and diffusing it.

“In principle, the behaviour is generic. The trick is that you have to have the right rates for the chemical reactions, the right diffusion rates of reacting species,” Irving Epstein, a Brandeis University chemist who studies pattern formation, told Wired Science. Within the human brain, the visual cortex controls the process of image creation; as light perceived by the eye stimulates certain parts of the visual cortex, a pattern of neural connections form, resulting in an image. Yet these patterns can also arise spontaneously causing geometric hallucinations.

Goldenfeld and his research team posit that the topological structure of the visual cortex inhibits Turing patterns from working over long distances, and from producing spontaneous neural connections consistently.

This means that while certain changes in the ‘normal’ workings

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

of the visual cortex may cause geometric hallucinations, the patterns caused by external stimuli will still be those most predominantly seen – at least in the average human brain.

Yet individuals who have no cognitive or psychological illnesses often report encountering minimal hallucinations within the course of their daily lives, without determining the “form constants” that are responsible for these. Often, the triggers are attributed to altered levels of stress, sleep patterns, or changes in alcohol and/or drug use.

I talked to Michael D’Alimonte, a student at McGill who falls within this subgroup, about his experiences with such hallucinatory occurrences. “The mildest form [of these] would be in terms of set patterns, especially pavement and brick patterns,” he said, “Often, images will swirl, set lines will become fluid. This could stem from staring at something for too long, or being in an environment with many patterns… I can easily stare at a set of lines or a brick wall for it to morph

and start moving.” Often he finds that staring at concrete causes it to move.

For D’Alimonte, the hallucinations accord with the categories found in the aforementioned study. “It may be more of a honeycomb kind of thing, it’s so spread out and varied that it eventually just becomes one big kind of mesh. I guess the speckles in the concrete stop being confined in place and just become everywhere.”

A variation that also accords with the study, and may be linked to sleep paralysis, is found with hallucinations that occur upon waking up or falling asleep.

“There’s a strange kind of state between sleeping and consciousness where my mind will be awake, but my body isn’t fully awake yet,” said D’alimonte. “My eyes will be open, my mind will be at work but my body won’t be able to move. The most recent case was when I was napping on my couch and my mind woke up but my body wasn’t awake yet, and on the chair next to me was a fully formed person… just chilling on my

couch watching TV with me, which at the time freaked me out. Once I calmed my mind down enough to fully wake up, this person was not there anymore. That’s one of the key instances which I don’t know if you can classify as dreaming… you know when you’re dreaming because your body will respond to you… I knew I was awake, my body wasn’t working and I saw things I didn’t see when I was actually conscious.”

Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has engaged with yet another aspect of hallucinations among psychologically healthy individuals with visual impairments, called Charles Bonnett syndrome, in a TEDTalk.

His studies have determined that over the course of a person’s life, there are subtle changes that can occur within the structural set up of the visual cortex, causing one to hallucinate. “There is a special form of hallucinations that could go along with deteriorating vision or blindness… As the visual parts of the brain are no longer getting any input, they

become hyperactive…they begin to fire spontaneously and you start to see things,” said Sacks in his TEDTalk.

Speaking about one of his patients who experienced these, Sacks states that “she was perfectly sane, she had no medical problems, she wasn’t on any medications that could produce hallucinations…

The hallucinations were unrelated to anything she was thinking, feeling or doing. They seemed to come on by themselves or disappear. She had no control over them…they all seemed oblivious to her.”

It appears, then, that subtle variations within the visual cortex are capable of inciting perceptual changes within the largely healthy human brain. With the human tendency for nuanced individual differences, perhaps it is not so easy to compartmentalize variations from the ‘average’ visual perception.

Ninth Life is a column by Tamkinat Mirza. She can be reached at ninthlife@mcgilldaily.com.

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Are you ready for the super clap?

Antibiotic resistant gonorrhea is here Ralph Haddad The McGill Daily

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f you thought you knew everything about sexually transmitted diseases – think again. The discovery of a new and aggressive strain of gonorrhea, called H041, recently shocked the international health community. Japanese and European researchers early last year found that the strain is resistant to all known forms of antibiotics. While gonorrhea has been known to build a tolerance to most of the antibiotics used to cure it in the past, this strain is stumping researchers.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, development of sulfonamides in the 1940s provided the first breakthrough in the treatment of gonorrhea, but the bug soon became resistant, and physicians switched to penicillin.

Since the 1970s, the bacterium has become tolerant to pencillin treatments, and physicians switched to

cephalosporins (beta-lactam antibiotics). The newest trend is the pathogen’s apparent resistance to these cephalosporins, which is worrying physicians and scientists alike. If this resistance spreads, there will be no more drugs available to treat it.

About half of women and 2 to 5 per cent of men do not show any symptoms. When symptoms do appear, they include a burning sensation experienced while urinating and discharge of pus from the genitals. Women also experience pelvic pain, and any infected people are in danger of infertility as a result.* In a recent laboratory experiment conducted by a team headed by Dr. Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Research Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, this specific strain of bacterium was grown with other types of gonorrhea, and the alarming finding was that this resistant strain could pass its resistance on to the other types of gonorrhea very quickly and increase their resistance to known treatments 500-fold.

In a separate study by the Center for Disease Control of more than 6,000 gonorrhea samples obtained since 2000, most of the samples with increased drug resistance were obtained from men who have sex with men. This may be due to the fact that the anal membrane is highly sensitive, and is more prone to infection. Nevertheless, this situation is troubling since it is uncontrollable and incurable – a reminder of the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s.

Gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world, with over 700,000 cases diagnosed in the United States alone each year. With this new strain, it is especially prescient to stress safe sex, and even abstinence, as well as discussing your previous sexual history with your partner.

For the time being all we can do is be safe, and stay informed. *Disease epidemiology has thus far only studied according to a male/ female binary, overlooking those who do not identify within a binary.

Illustration Joanna Schacter | The McGill Daily

A distracting diagnosis Medicating ADHD is more complicated than ever before Alex Chang Health&Education Writer

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n the battlefield of university academia, students often struggle under the immense pressure of exams.

Among coffee spills, textbooks, and too many deadlines lie pharmaceuticals that offer saviour to those in their darkest hour: Adderall, Ritalin, and Dexedrine, to name a few. The abuse of these wonder-stimulants can ensure focus and serenity, and at McGill, there is often no hesitation when it comes to the decision to take a study pill in the week before midterms. However, an alarming trend in North America suggests the same is being done systematically among adolescents.

In a landmark 1999 clinical study conducted by the Archives of General Psychiatry in the United States, 600 children diagnosed with Attention Defecit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were found to respond much better to stimulant medication alone than they were to behavioural therapy. While many use this information to justify prescription, the information must be

buttressed by the fact that, according to the University of Michigan, at least one in five of all children living in North America are misdiagnosed with ADHD. Government-funded regulatory institutions such as Health Canada have already noted a large number of cases describing side effects with regard to the medication and children. In 2006, an official advisory from the organization was issued describing the possibility of adverse psychiatric effects as well as a warning for patients with preexisting liver problems and overactive thyroid glands with regard to many ADHD medications on the market. Drugs like these are processed by the liver, and while a grown adult could handle it, adolescent livers may have some difficulty coping with a constant supply of a drug, increasing risk of organ failure or altered metabolism.

The past ten years in Canada have seen nearly 600 cases of negative reactions to these drugs, of which one-third were situations of severe depression in children under the age of 15. Each case is recorded, organized, and then filed into Health Canada as an adverse reaction report. Analysis provided

by the Toronto Star found that the stimulants Strattera and Concerta were the second and third highest suspected causes of reported serious side effects suffered by Canadian kids taking any of the drugs during the ten-year span.

While there are no doubt negative side effects for some, there are many other children who enjoy the benefits of the drugs without any substantial side effects. A research study posted in the British Medical Journal on November 4 cited that consumption of the drug will not incur short term cardiovascular damage. Children under the watch of proper doctors are in fact expected to flourish with their ADHD under control.

There are many risks to the introduction of such a powerful drug agent during a period where behavioural development is important, often resulting in mood swings or suicidal tendencies. In addition to its risk, the introduction of drug dependence at such an early age could lead to abuse at later ages of a variety of substances.

Children begin to learn that problems should be dealt with the application of an external substance and thus relate drugs with solutions

to challenges. It comes to no surprise that these medications are listed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule II Controlled Substances, implying a risk of dependence and addiction.

Pharmaceutical companies will of course prioritize sales of such drugs above safety and put responsibility upon government agencies to conduct the proper tests. However, federal regulatory agencies are only responsible for approving a drug on the basis of its fatality and toxicity, both of which are often provided by the pharmaceutical companies themselves. Furthermore, regulatory agencies often re-direct the responsibilities back to the companies claiming that since it is their product on the market, it is their responsibility. Health Canada, for example, is often criticized for its dearth of in-house pharmaceutical safety research.

Ultimately, the decision to medicate children or not comes down to parents. A recent article in the New York Times reported a tendency to prescribe stimulants to low-income children without ADHD as an easy solution to improve performance in school. As one prescribing physician quoted in the article said, “We’ve

decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment.

So we have to modify the kid.”

British psychiatric researcher Malcolm Peet has another solution: nutrition. An incredibly large amount of psychiatric issues can stem from something as basic as blood sugar levels. Too much sugar, for example, can result in shortterm depression; too little and brain function decreases dramatically. Dr. Lendon Smith, a best-selling author, reinforces this simple notion by linking lack of essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals to a variety of different ailments. Should the right diet be applied, according to Peet, many of the human body’s own hormonal organs can easily resolve symptoms such as lack of attention.

While these answers are the results of proper research, large-scale, longterm clinical studies to fully validate the proposals are still lacking.

In summation, ADHD and their respective medications still present a large ethical issue in which only continual, stringent research and enhanced social policy can resolve.

Until then, a more reliable prescription of a proper diet, good rest, and watchful mentors can aid children in need.

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The McGill Daily Thursday, November 15, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

Inherit the Wind sees grey in a black and white play Elena Dugan Archiving the Arcane

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nnabel Raby, the director of Inherit the Wind (and in the interest of full disclosure, a dear friend of mine) has a saying that goes: “It is impossible to agree with anyone more than yourself.” You may respect someone else’s views, or really think their taste in music is slamming, but only insofar as they agree with your own.

You are the final judge of what is right and wrong, even if you cede a little ground tailoring your perspective to that of someone else.

Science and religion are two paradigms that can demand full compliance, full alignment with their precepts and methods, acceptance of all their truth claims as a prerequisite to considering yourself a member of that community. In countless modern legends – such as the Scopes Monkey Trial allegorically represented in Inherit the Wind – we see the freethinkers of science daring to question the backwards dogmatists. That said, science breeds combative scientism, just as religion breeds some virulent fundamentalist movements. You need only to look at the work of Christopher Hitchens or the Creation Museum to see how little each side cares to listen to the other. Thus, the science versus religion legend often takes the form of war reporting, with one or the other side loudly and proudly claiming a victory. Think of the legendary Galileo Galilei losing to the closedminded, desperately afraid Catholic authorities. It requires a dichotomy: us and them. Stephen Jay Gould, a noted evolutionary biologist, posits that the human brain’s tendency to dichotomize is a holdover from our earliest evolutionary choices – fight or flight; eat or don’t eat. Both in our ancient evolutionary past, and in rural America where the Scopes Monkey Trial took place, it’s certainly a lot easier to decide when there are only two choices.

The Scopes Monkey Trial, or the “Hillsboro Trial,” as it’s called in Inherit the Wind, was a small-town dispute in which some big league players took a serious interest. A young schoolteacher dares to read the work of Charles Darwin and teach evolution to his students, violating a state law against it. In the typical liberal narrative, William Jennings Bryan, a highly charismatic populist politician, gives his last hurrah to his real American Bible-thumping supporters, and prosecutes the teacher’s infraction as an attempt to overrule the truth of the Bible and the spirit of his American people. Clarence

culture HAPS

The trial of free thought

i3

The Wildest Ponies on the Range: Collage November 15 7:00 p.m.

Maison Kasini #408, Belgo Building 372 Ste. Catherine W. Free

Toronto-based Jp King and local Billy Mavreas teamed up in 2010 to make a series of collages in the backroom of Monastiraki, a gallery and cafe in Mile End of which Mavreas is co-director. 36 of the collages are being exhibited at Maison Kasini. Assembled out of old Life magazines, the collages express the depth of the artists’ engagement with pop culture.

M for Montreal: Young Rival, Rah Rah, Plaster November 16 12:30 p.m.

Cafe Campus 57 Prince Arthur E. Free

Photo Victor Tangermann | The McGill Daily

Darrow, a brutally successful and controversial attorney, arrives with watertight arguments, scalding rhetoric, and the trumpets of truth and free thought heralding his closing statement, which I was forced to study in no fewer than three history classes as a child.

In my depictions, of course, I am caricaturizing. So too, however, does Inherit the Wind, when it is traditionally staged. Raby had to fight the confines of the play, and of our narrow conceptions of science and religion. She made the play about scientific and religious people. Not just the ideas themselves, but how they come to inhabit the bodies of those who hold them dearly. We see a constant battle between the paradigm and the person, between how much of their self they are willing to take agency over, and how much they sacrifice to the values of science or the precepts of religion.

It is enormously easy, especially on a Northeastern college campus, to metaphorically burn the creationists in effigy as a refutation of backwardness and dogmatism everywhere.

This production works hard to inject an element of humanity into the debate, and make that impossible.

Importantly, William Jennings Bryan is played by a woman. Emily Doyle’s Mary Jefferson Brady is obviously used to stumping on the campaign trail, and one of the most stunning moments of the play is her hysterical confession to her husband that “I hate it when they laugh at me.” We see a broken woman, a collapse of confidence, but most significantly, we witness the human dimension of this discourse.

Browsing Reddit, it’s hard to read some of the smug put-downs on r/ atheism, a “subreddit” dedicated

exclusively to discussing atheism, without wondering what it must be like to be these poor religious straw-men, to have your entire worldview put on trial and savagely destroyed by a complete outsider (or so goes the internet narrative).

It would be easy to paint Brady in light of our modern legends as a hysterical zealot, or a Tea Party bigot, but there are clear directorial choices that make both this portrait and the audience’s haughty dismissal of the character impossible.

Henry Drummond, the Clarence Darrow of the play, is another role that could have been easily played as a slick, charismatic, hotshot lawyer, clean where the town is dusty, sharp where the town is dull and rough.

Instead, Samuel Steinbrock-Pratt plays his character as combative, repulsive, and completely magnetic.

Every joke hits; every argument is crisp, and yet he’s belligerent, almost mean, while his jerky movements and greasy hair were obviously chosen to muddy the waters. Further, his impassioned eleventh-hour defense of Ms. Brady’s character is extraordinarily poignant, and unsettling.

Other standouts are the heartless reporter Hornbeck, played

by Matthieu Labaudiniere, whose caustic urban cynicism strikes unfair blow after unfair blow upon the likeable townspeople. And quietly, but with great dignity, Matt Smith’s Cates is the scared, romantic, courageous schoolteacher who sits perched with enough bewilderment that you see the power of true indecision, the cracked and bumpy path of free thought, and the “twilight on top of the mountains,” where here on earth, we just see night and day, to use a metaphor from the play. With Cates, we see

the director’s vision, the point that we should embrace the twilight of indecision and ambivalence instead of forcing ourselves into a day/ night dichotomy of true and false.

Drummond speaks the words, but the gentle romance between Cates and his ingenue, young Rachel Brown, played beautifully by Katie Scharf, makes you feel their truth.

There’s a great nostalgia for easy choices among youth. The recent Americana fad, with the work of pop artists like Lana Del Rey, and distressed American flag t-shirts on sale in every H&M and Topshop around the world, reflects the longing for the simplicity of “real America” (as it is called in a thousand stump speeches around the country). With the rise of the scientific atheist community and religious fundamentalists of every stripe, we see this longing fulfilled in belonging to a group or a movement that will answer every question, that are implacable in their beliefs, and flexible in their application. This play is an important shade of grey amidst a black and white battlefront; a rejoinder against easy characterizations and narratives, a reminder that nothing as complicated as humans can be depicted well in only two colors.

There is a beautiful collage-style sepia tree as the backdrop, a product of nature with the simplicity and charm of the town, with leaves of manifold colors and shapes. So how’s that for a metaphor, oh ye of little faith?

Archiving the Arcane is a column about religion and myth in the modern world. You can contact Elena at arcane@mcgilldaily.com.

Inherit the Wind runs from November 14 to 17, 21 to 24 at 8 p.m.

Go to ssmu.mcgill.ca/players/news/ for further information.

M for Montreal is happening this week, and we suggest this free midday showcase of Canadian talent. Young Rival are a blazing power pop trio from Hamilton; Rah Rah is a tight group of indie poppers from Regina; and Plaster is a local electro/ jazz outfit who’ve recently reformed after their 2005 debut album won them an ADISQ, the provincial music award. Fans of electro swing would be welladvised to check them out.

Effusion a cappella November 18 7:00 p.m.

Le National 1220 Ste. Catherine E. $10

There once was a group called effusion known to deliver a capella transfusions they’re singing next week sure to be quite a treat so end your term paper seclusion

Expozine 2012

November 17 and 18 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. Église Saint-Enfant Jésus 5035 St Dominique North America’s largest zine festival takes place this weekend near Laurier Metro. With 270 individual author/artists pushing their hand-bound creations, this free event is a celebration of the DIY ethos and a chance to meet the city’s vibrant zine-publishing community.

Attend and be inspired.

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culture

The McGill Daily | Thursday, November 15, 2012 | mcgilldaily.com

Screening subversion Underground film at Cinema 17 Lily Hassall Forays into Film

I

n almost every city, beyond the neon jumble of multiplexes and megaplexes, there’s a good independent theatre or two.

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can even find an alternative film club that showcases the rare and the radical. Cinema 17, run by U4 Cultural Studies student Charles Tuck, is one of these.

The weekly cinema club, which meets at Café Le Cagibi on Monday evenings, screens a mix of cinephile favourites and rough forgotten gems. The entrance fee is “pay-what-you-can,” and the proceeds go toward acquiring films and equipment, most recently, a 16mm projector.

In an interview with The Daily, Tuck explained Cinema 17’s mandate as “if I’m not offending somebody, then I’m not doing it right.”

Tuck has, of course, been doing it right since he first began Cinema 17 in February, as a response to the Quebec student movement. Initially, the club was a platform for films exclusively about strikes.

“I thought this would be a really valuable way of mobilizing support for the strike,” Tuck said. “I was getting into arguments about screenings on the regular.”

After a few months of strike -related films, Cinema 17 broad-

ened its mandate considerably, but continues to showcase subversive material.

“The emphasis is anything marginal, anything that will provoke political discussion, particularly along the lines of race, class, gender and sexuality,” Tuck said.

Last week, Cinema 17 showed Bush Mama, a gorgeous cinémavérité-style independent film about a pregnant woman living in the black ghetto of Watts, Los Angeles.

“I actually got an anonymous email from somebody calling me a racist and asking me why I feel I have the right to show this film,” Tuck said. “Of course, the only thing that would be racist is if I didn’t show the film.”

One of Tuck’s resources for films is McGill’s enormous collection of rare experimental 16mm films from the sixties and seventies, that was only recently rediscovered.

“One student in the mid-seventies, this film buff, was using McGill money to amass this collection of experimental films from the sixties and seventies,” Tuck said.

These films sat in a basement deteriorating, Tuck explained, until a member of the McGill staff stumbled upon them, and asked a film professor to come take a look before they were discarded.

The collection includes some films that had their first screenings at Cinema 16, the screening club Cinema 17 models itself after. Operating in New York in the fifties and sixties, Cinema 16 was the first to screen a number

of the most important, and most controversial avant-garde films of the time.

Next week, Cinema 17 will continue to challenge its viewers with a screening of LA Plays Itself, a 1972 hardcore gay porn film.

“It was at the vanguard of pornographic film in that era, and helped usher in the period that was called porno-chic,” Tuck said, adding that Salvador Dalí and Groucho Marx were in attendance at some of the film’s first screenings.

While the subject matter may cause some to flinch away, Tuck rightly stressed the importance of gay pornography for the gay civil rights movement, as well as the importance of watching and discussing pornography in general.

“We always facilitate discussions after screenings [...] I don’t want people to just come in and watch the films and be on their way without thinking about them,” Tuck said.

Cinema 17 is based on a participatory model, so even if 1970s hardcore gay porn isn’t your thing, you’re welcome to come take in the film and express your views.

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Cinema 17 takes place every Monday at 8 p.m. at Le Cagibi, 4590 St. Laurent. Lily Hassall is a U3 Cultural

Studies student. Forays Into Film and Feminism is a bi-weekly column about alternative films, why she likes them, and where to see them.

The demise of the book?

E-books and the publishing industry Nathalie O’Neill The McGill Daily

I

n 1922, E.E. Cummings’ The Enormous Room, repeatedly spurned by the book industry, was finally self-published and went on to become an established classic, dedicated to the 15 publishers who rejected it. Most recently, E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, first published online as Twilight fan fiction, went from e-book to print publication, quickly becoming a worldwide bestseller. As new platforms for text expand, questions arise about the future of the book, along with fears that reading habits are decaying.

A plethora of new services are available for budding authors.

Print on demand services allow authors to publish their own work through a subsidy service, directly catering to readers. By becoming self-publishers, authors control production and sales of their work as well as retain rights.

Self-publishing companies such as CreateSpace and Lulu often advertise higher profits to authors, as they demand a smaller percentage of book sales. But the very openness of such services creates high competition, making it difficult for authors to make a name for themselves in the self-publishing industry. This drawback causes many authors to rely on traditional publishers, who often provide better marketing services.

The selection process of traditional publishers acts as a quality filter for the sea of aspiring

authors. Relying on publishing houses to provide readers with a varied selection is not as elitist as is often perceived. Small press publishers with a more alternative focus fill the gaps larger publishers ignore, encouraging innovative authors. Small presses publish 78 per cent of new titles each year, and account for 50 per cent of all books sold in print. The multitude of options available ensures a balance between promoting struggling authors and meeting market demand. Publishers also offer the necessary resources for authors by paying an advance, thereby investing in the success of a book.

Editors, publishers, and literary agents are all part of an author’s support system, helping them navigate the market.

With a 117 per cent increase

in ebook sales from 2011, there is a palpable fear among book-lovers that print media are slowly being obliterated. Although print media and their readers have been arguing this point incessantly for the past decade, and though it has now become cliché, there is truth to the idea of the enduring appeal of a book’s physical presence. Though this may be pure nostalgia, I believe the book will always have stayingpower. The print industry continues to survive despite fears of decline.

Printed books have an intrinsic social quality to them; libraries and bookstores remain places for readers to gather and printed books are still the only format that can be shared among friends.

Given the evidence of the printed book’s staying power, proponents of reading should

focus on the beneficial effects of e-books. A 2007 study found that half of North Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 never read for pleasure. Television and the internet have expanded to take up large chunks of time at the expense of reading. E-books might be the best chance to reverse this trend. Amazon recently reported that its customers, on average, buy three times as many books after buying a Kindle, indicating that e-books are not replacing print books but supplementing them.

Statistics also show that the fastest expanding group of readers is between the ages of 9 and 11, promising a bright future for the book. Whether self-published or released by a large company, we should emphasize getting people to read in any format they choose.

EDITORIAL

volume 102 number 21

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Thank you for privatizing

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cover design Peter Shyba contributors Ben Blutrich, Lindsay Cameron, Alex Chan, Elena Dugan, Carol Ellen Fraser, Ralph Haddad, Lily Hassall, Tamkinat Mirza, Nathalie O’Neill, Slawomir Poplawski, Mike Prebil, Declan Rankin Jardin, Kate Sheridan, Alexei Simakov, Bracha Stettin, Jordan Venton-Rublee, Linda Yu

McGill’s Senate – the University’s highest governing academic body – not only takes on the appearance of a corporate boardroom; it acts like one too. Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations) Rose Goldstein’s presentation at Wednesday’s meeting sounded more like a business report than an actual assessment of the University’s research priorities. Goldstein’s goal is to increase McGill’s revenue by selling inventions and raise McGill’s reputation by buying citations.

The focus on producing revenue does not address the quality of research being done, the specific faculties in which this research is conducted, or how any revenue would improve the quality of education for students. Even more striking was the vocabulary used to assess the University’s performance. McGill’s reliance on public funds was mostly depicted in negative terms, and research priorities were identified based on their chance of “success.” Success is determined by awards and distinctions granted by other institutions, as was outlined in the Senate meeting. The financial pursuits of the upper administration at the University have lost sight of what that money is sought for. There is a fundamental difference between how the administration envision sthe University’s higher education and how students do.

McGill is not alone in its eagerness to privatize. This week, a conference called “Rendez-vous du savoir” is seeking to facilitate discussion between the business sector and CREPUQ, a group that brings together the administrators of Quebec universities. The conference website says that Quebec is “directly dependent on the relationships” between businesses and universities. This notion must be challenged.

It is doubtful that the private sector can play any constructive role on our campuses. Moreover, any “dependence” on businesses is bound to translate into greater corporate influence in our university, including what types of research are conducted and for what purpose.

Knowledge for the sake of profit is a fundamentally different pursuit than knowledge to improve the quality of education and scholarship, and selling the product of knowledge can have detrimental effects. McGill’s ties to corporations are destructive environmentally and socially. The most obvious manifestation of this was controversial research produced on asbestos, which deemed the toxic material acceptable (of course, McGill neglected to discuss that this research was paid for by a large private grant). This is visible all over the university: from Mining Engineering’s corporate sponsors who engage in deplorable practices, to the Economics department’s privately affiliated research institution that orients its research to the private sector. It is not about how condemnable each individual manifestation is. It is a systemic, deep-seated problem of priorities.

Challenging privatization is difficult considering the inaccessibility of decision-making bodies at McGill. If things are to change, we need to question the research performed at McGill, rather than passively accept it as objective. We need to consider both the sources and uses of funding in our university. And most importantly, we need to consider whether privatized knowledge causes more harm than good to our communities and our quality of education.

Errata The Daily mistakenly credited Amina Batyreva for the illustration accompanying “Locked up” (Commentary, November 8, page 6). In fact, the illustration was created by Joanna Schacter.

The Daily regrets the error.

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The McGill Daily Thursday, November 15, 2012 mcgilldaily.com

lies, half-truths, and keepin’ the streets free of anarchists

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