vol98iss14

Volume 98, Issue 14

October 20, 2008

McGill THE

DAILY

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Develop and build your leadership skills. Attend a minimum of five workshops throughout 2008-09 academic year and receive a certificate of completion.

This October and November, check out...

• Event Planning and Promotions Make it Happen Monday, October 27, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Red tape got you down? Learn the ins and outs of event planning at McGill. If you’re in a club or service planning on holding a fundraiser - make sure you’re there!

• Balancing Act of School, Work & Social Life Tuesday, November 4, 5:30 - 7:30 pm Having a tough time juggling all of your different school, work and social commitments? Take steps towards a more balanced life by attending this practical workshop focusing on time management tips and strategies.

Registration for Workshops:

In person, one week in advance, on a first-come, first-served basis, in the First-Year Office.

For more info, drop by the First-Year Office in the Brown

Building, Suite 2100, or call 514-398-6913

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Travel directive to restrain research

3

Sweeping guidelines make politically-sensitive areas off-limits to students, but not faculty Alison Withers

The McGill Daily

M

cGill faculty and students are resisting an administrative travel directive that would prohibit curricular and co-curricular travel to a majority of politically-sensitive countries.

The directive, currently in draft form, would restrict undergraduate and graduate McGill-sponsored travel to countries or regions listed under the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) with a formal travel warning, which caution against either non-essential travel or all travel. The guidelines – which are not referred to as official McGill policy – will likely not affect faculty members.

SSMU VP University Affairs Nadya Wilkinson and other students will seek out professors who disapprove of the directive, write letters to the Dean and administration, and research similar travel policies at other Montreal universities.

“If we wait for the guidelines to come out, we won’t be able to control them or push them back,” Wilkinson said.

She accused the directive of limiting undergraduates to act as legal adults who are capable of making their own informed decisions.

“It speaks for a disrespect to what [undergraduates] do, or toward us as people,” Wilkinson stated in her report to SSMU Council on Thursday.

“That’s not the intent of the policy, but it’s how it comes across.”

Students’ hopes to legally navigate around the directive with a waiver granting McGill immunity from financial liability relating to travel in dangerous areas were recently dashed. As stipulated by the Civil Code of Quebec, students could still hold McGill liable in the case of injury, death, or moral harm even after signing a waiver.

“We wanted to propose a waiver, but they don’t carry the same weight in Quebec,” said Pat Boily, AUS VP Academic.

Unaffected by Quebec’s rules on waivers, Ontario’s Queen’s University enacted policy that allows students

to conduct field research in unmanageable risk areas in groups of two or more. Prior to departure, students make a risk-assessment of their activity and sign an acknowledgment.

Queen’s policy is not rooted in DFAIT’s warnings.

Wilkinson was shocked that McGill had yet to find a way to incorporate individual consent into its travel policy.

DFAIT states on their web site that “Travel Reports and Warnings provide recommendations about security conditions abroad to enable travellers to make their own informed decisions regarding destinations.”

But Daniel Barbarie, a spokesperson for DFAIT, explained in an email to The Daily that the University could act in lieu of the individual’s decision to travel areas rated dangerous.

“It is the institution’s sole responsibility to determine whether they will allow or deny travel opportunities,” said Barbarie, The directive aims to manage risks associated with travel to certain areas, according to its engineer, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson. The directive was in part triggered by the last-minute cancellation of a 14-person McGill research team set to fly to Indonesia, and the Canadian International Development Agency’s decision to remove youth internships from countries with formal travel warnings.

While undergraduates will be affected by the directive and their objections to the policy may be less seriously considered, graduate students may be hit hardest, Wilkinson claimed.

According to McGill political science Professor Juliet Johnson, Director of Political Science Graduate Studies, who is working against the policy’s implementation, the directive would greatly harm the quality of masters and PhD student research.

“We realized that if they implemented that, it would be devastating to our graduate program,” Johnson said. “The point of political science is to study conflict, and if you can’t go there then the research you can do is limited.”

Johnson added that students from countries like Lebanon and Pakistan would be prevented from returning

home to complete research or internships under their current program.

In a letter written by the Graduate Association of Political Science Students to the University, they pointed to how the directive would deter applicants from choosing McGill, and compromise students part-way through research in countries upon which warnings have been issued.

The directive affects course work and field research, and is also likely to affect internships – meaning that McGill would refuse credit for independent internships in high-risk areas. Currently no Arts program mandates an international internship.

Mendelson recognized the value of interning and researching abroad.

“We are mindful of the positive role that international experiences can play in university education, so we want to ensure that students have access to as broad an array of opportunities as possible,” Mendelson wrote in an email to The Daily. “Of course, our primary goal is to ensure the safety of McGill students.”

But Wilkinson was dismayed that the directive only consulted academic Deans, and thought it should have passed through Senate, considering the far-reaching implications of the policy it mandates.

Mendelson explained that a working group was established to draft a more nuanced statement of practice and to continue discussing guidelines.

“Once the draft is ready, there will be appropriate consultation with the Deans, faculties, and students,” he wrote, adding that an new draft would be ready at the end of the month.

It is likely, however, that the directive will still assess the ability to travel based on DFAIT’s Travel Warnings.

Its implementation will extend existing policy, as certain programs at McGill already operate according to the DFAIT guidelines, including the Arts Internship Office and the McGill Field Studies program.

According to McGill economics Professor R.T. Naylor, the DFAIT warnings provide an unsound basis to evaluate whether students may travel, as the categories are based

on political determinants that do not explicitly take safety into account. “[The administration] is dependent on bureaucrats in Ottawa inventing these silly categories,” he said.

“They’re arbitrary definitions that shift only as a result of political negotiations.”

DFAIT states their warnings are monitored on an ongoing basis, frequently reassessed, and updated promptly in response to events “including the threat of

terrorism, civil unrest, war, rebellion, natural disasters, political instability, and health emergencies,” but adds that ‘non-essential travel is a personal decision, based on each individual’s family or business requirements, knowledge of a country or region, and other issues.”

Affected Countries Avoid all Travel: Afghanistan, Algeria (R), Azerbaijan (R), Bangladesh (R), Burundi (R), Cambodia (R), Chad, Colombia (R), Comoros (R), Democratic Republic of Congo (R), Ecuador (R), Eritrea (R), Ethiopia (R), Georgia (R), Guinea (R), Guinea-Bissau (R), Haiti (R), India (R), Indonesia (R), Iran (R), Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza (R), Kenya (R), Lebanon (R), Mali (R), Moldova (R), Myanmar (Burma) (R), Niger (R), Nigeria (R), Pakistan (R), Panama (R), Peru (R), Philippines (R), Russia (R), Somalia, Sri Lanka (R), Sudan, Thailand (R), Uganda (R), Uzbekistan (R), Venezuela (R), Yemen.

Avoid non-essential Travel: Albania (R), Algeria (R), Angola, Armenia (R), Belize (R), Bolivia (R), Burundi, Cameroon (R), Central African Republic, China (R), Colombia (R), Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia (R), Guatemala (R), Haiti, India (R), Indonesia, Iraq (R), Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza (R), Lebanon, Liberia, Libya (R), Malaysia (R), Myanmar (Burma) (R), Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia (R), Rwanda (R), Sierra Leone (R), Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Turkey (R), Zambia (R), Zimbabwe.

(R) indicates that only regions of the country are affected by the warning.

Sasha Plotnikaova / The McGill Daily

THE DEPARTMENT OF JEWISH STUDIES

Call for Submissions Blacher and Glasrot Families Memorial Award for Holocaust Research Established in 2000 by Mr. and Mrs. Josef Glasrot, survivors of the Holocaust and residents of Montreal. Open to any student at McGill University, the award is presented for excellence in research in Holocaust and related studies, and particularly on the history of the ghettos of Warsaw and Kovno [Kaunas]. Essays prepared in any course or independent research may be considered. The award is administered by the Department of Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Jewish Community Foundation. The award will be presented during the Closing Exercises of the Department of Jewish Studies in May, 2009. The value of the Blacher and Glasrot Families Memorial Award is $1000.

• The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students at McGill University.

• Students must submit 2 typed copies of their essays together with full contact information.

• Essays can be based on primary or secondary materials and work in all related disciplines will be considered.

MG B F Redpath Hall, 3461 McTavish Street (Terrace Entrance)

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• Essay submissions must reach the Dept. of Jewish Studies Office, 3438 McTavish Street, no later than April 10, 2009.

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CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Elections McGill is accepting nominations for the following positions in the First Year Committee of Council (FYCC):

1. President 2. VP Internal 3. VP External 4. VP Communications 5. VP Academic 6. VP Finance Elections McGill is also accepting nominations for Yes / No committees for the next set of referendum questions.

Nomination kits are available online at www.electionsmcgill.ca or from the Elections McGill office, Shatner 405.

Nominations are due Monday, November 10th at 4:00 pm Shatner, salle 405 Téléphone: (514) 398-6474 contact@electionsmcgill.ca

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Shannon Kiely

The McGill Daily

S Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

Harassment policy reviewed

SACOMSS hopes survivors can appeal policy decisions Lendon Ebbels

The McGill Daily

M

cGill’s policy sexual harassment is up for review this year for the first – and perhaps only – time in its existence.

Adopted in December 2005, the policy, called Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination Prohibited by Law, outlines the process by which members of the McGill community – students, employees, and office holders – can file and resolve a complaint of harassment, sexual harassment, or discrimination.

But since it is mandated to only undergo a review in its third year of existence, with no provision for future reviews, the stakes are high within the McGill Senate working group.

The Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), urged the body to focus on revising the definition of sexual harassment in a document submitted to the working group.

The current definition of sexual harassment requires “intent, in whole or in part.”

“We want to focus on the effect of the situation because that’s most relevant to the survivor, as opposed to intent, which is more relevant to the perpetrator,” said SACOMSS external coordinator Becky Harris.

According to SACOMSS, regardless of intent, the effect is still sexual harassment if that’s how the survivor perceives it.

Professor William Foster, Assistant Provost Policies and Procedures, who is chairing the group, said they will discuss the definition “intent.”

“It can have a significant impact,” Foster said. “The issue of intent will be looked at.”

He noted the difference between subjective intent, defined as delib-

erate and conscious, and objective intent, the way a reasonable person would interpret conduct regardless of intent to sexually harass.

SSMU president Kay Turner was concerned that decisions on sexual harassment cases effectively lie in the hands of two people.

According to current policy, a member of the McGill community may file a complaint against another member to an assessor – an appointed administrator or academic. The assessor then attempts to facilitate a mutually agreeable informal resolution, but if the agreement fails, the assessor then recommends or discourages disciplinary action to the Provost. They in turn can render whatever disciplinary measures they see fit without having met the parties involved.

“It would be better for complaints to go through some sort of group of people,” Turner said. She also criticized the current system’s lack of a mechanism for appeals.

“My perception is that this is not an optimal policy. There are better ways it could be shaped for all parties involved, specifically in the review of complaints and the appeals process,” Turner said.

SACOMSS’s letter shared Turner’s sentiments and suggested the working group create a provision for appeals.

If parties agree to an informal resolution – such as a formal written apology or switching residences – they waive any right to external or further internal recourse. The survivor is therefore unable to sue the perpetrator in a court of law, or take any other course of action should they change their mind. If the decision goes all the way to the Provost, the survivor must go through a grievance procedure to appeal the decision.

SACOMSS representatives have been invited to the next working group meeting.

SMU councillors voted overwhelmingly against adopting as policy for the remainder of the academic year the six General Assembly (GA) motions that failed to reach quorum at the event and in the subsequent online ratification.

SSMU President Kay Turner argued in Thursday’s meeting that Council could justifiably adopt the policies on its own initiative, based on what she said was high participation in the online ratification.

“It’s rare for us to get that number, and it would be a huge waste to throw it away,” Turner said.

By-laws adopted last fall require GA motions passed with fewer than two per cent of SSMU members in attendance – 397 students – be submitted for ratification online over the following two days. Only 250 showed up to the GA, with no more than 110 present at any one time.

But the online vote also failed to reach its quorum – set at 15 per cent of SSMU membership – with only 1,669 students – 8.4 per cent – voting online.

Club rep Cameron McKeich supported Turner’s motion and was satisfied with the GA turnout. He said voters were part of a core group of interested students that SSMU would have trouble expanding.

“The constitution is a malleable document. There’s no point in defending a process that’s clearly broken,” said McKeich. “To ignore that input because of a technicality would take away the integrity of the GA.” Many councillors objected to bending SSMU constitutional by-laws. Engineering representative Manosij Majumdar was worried the motion would set a dangerous precedent for rejecting quorum.

“That would be like winning a video game by reprogramming it,” he said.

Turner maintained the motion respected SSMU’s constitution,

News brief Int’l tuition hikes opposed Over 30 students from different Quebec universities protested the provincial deregulation of international tuition outside of the Quebec City summit of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) on Friday.

Most participants were graduate students from the universities of Sherbrooke and Laval, according to Joel Pedneault, U2 Anthropology.

SSMU bussed ten McGill students to Quebec City. Many students were from francophone countries, particularly Haiti and Senegal.

claiming that SSMU Council is a separate body allowed to set policies.

Turner argued that the bylaws were nonsensical, and suggested amending them to avoid future grey areas in quorum debates. She stressed the GA motions would be voted on again at the Winter GA regardless of Council’s decision.

Alexandre Shee, the Law Student Association’s VP External, wondered what number of votes Council considered sufficient for creating SSMU policy if quorum is to be ignored.

“Should we listen to the silent majority or the vocal minority? Maybe some students read the motions and decided they weren’t interested,” he said.

Devin Alfaro, SSMU VP External, thought the eight per cent of students who voted online was a substantial number compared to the 29.8 to 35.8 per cent voter turnout in the last four SSMU elections, given that GA by-laws prohibit campaigning and restrict the voting period to 48 hours following the GA. He added that there are typically about 100 people actively campaigning to encourage voter turnout over the six-day election periods.

Engineering representative Courtney Lessard objected to the motion based on the contention over certain GA question and the razorthin margin with which those questions passed at the event.

Alfaro hoped the motion would help SSMU improve on the criticism it most often meets – that it doesn’t prioritize student consultation, as was the case last spring, when SSMU informed The Tribune they would force the newspaper into independence only two days before the motion went to council.

“The [GA] system is broken, and this is an interim, band-aid solution.”

While Council debated, VP Finance & Operations Tobias Silverstein giggled and whispered with Tribune editors in the gallery. He returned to his seat at the table when it came time to vote.

Speeches focused on French nations’ access to French education.

“One student said he wouldn’t be able to come from his third-world country to the University of Sherbrooke if tuition was so high,” said Pedneault.

OIF aims to promote access to education in French speaking countries – particularly African ones, making the location of the protest particularly poignant. Accordingly, in theory the OIF should be opposed to economic barriers like tuition hikes.

But Pedneault said their speeches were heard by police rather than delegates of the conference.

“There were more police at one point than actual students – though that was because of the summit,” he said. “We had loudspeakers, but we don’t know if they heard us behind the barricade.”

– Erin Hale

What’s the haps

SSMU shelves GA motions

5

Peace Talks and Israel’s Control of Palestine Monday, October 20, 7 p.m.

QPIRG building, 3647 University Jesse Rosenfeld, a McGill graduate in International Development Studies, is now a journalist based in Ramallah, Palestine. His presentation focuses on Israel’s occupation of Palestine following the Annapolis peace negotiations. No cost.

Garbage Man screening Tuesdsay, October 21, 8 p.m.

3475 Peel, Room 101 McGill Cinema Politica screens Oliver Hodge’s Garbage Man, an examination of Michael Reynolds’ “earth biotecture” advancement for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing in New Mexico.

It’s free kids.

McGill Bookfair Tuesday, October 22, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Redpath Hall The Women Associates of McGill and the McGill Women’s Alumnae Association host their 37th annual book fair raising money for student scholarships. Books start at 25-cents.

Women in Academia: 21st Century Challenges Thursday, October 23, 6 p.m.

Otto Maass Chemistry Building, Room 112 Dr. Evelynn Hammonds, the Dean of Harvard College, and Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, professor of the history of science, will give the Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture on challenges women face in academia. Admission is free.

Where are the wild things?

Thursday, October 23, 6:30 p.m.

AUS lounge, Leacock basement The Fine Arts Council is hosting a photography exhibit of work by McGill students.

Admission is free, and as it is part of AUS’s weekly pub night, beer and wine will be sold.

Green Business Week – Sustainable design Thursday, October 23, 6 p.m.

Bronfman Building, Room 451 Eco-entrepreneur Cheryl Gladu, co-founder of ECOCITÉ – the people who brought you Habitat 1 – speaks on aggressively green, innovatively designed urban housing. The event is part of a week-long Green Business Week organized by Shaping Tomorrow’s Organizational Practices. Free.

Send your non-profit event details to news@mcgilldaily. com with “haps” in the subject

6

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Governance bill responds to $380-M UQAM debt John Lapsley

News Writer

D

ays after promising to bail University de Québec À Montréal (UQÀM) out of its $380-million debt, Minister of Education Michelle Courchesne announced she will finally send a bill to the Quebec National Assembly that addresses provincial university governance.

The debt UQÀM has incurred over the past three years is in part a result of real-estate investments like the stillunfinished Ilôt Voyageur site – a complex of dorms and offices – that had been dragging the university steadily into bankruptcy until the government agreed to pick up the tab.

In a Ministry press release, Courchesne stated that UQÀM called to attention the need for a better governance legislation.

“I am more determined than ever to move forward this fall with a bill that will better regulate governance of our universities without impeding their autonomy,”she said.

The bill will attempt to resolve internal problems Courchesne believed led to UQAMs debt, such as a need for more independent governing boards

Classifieds To place an ad via email: ads@dailypublications.org phone: 514-398-6790 fax: 514-398-8318

and increased transparency.

While it has been applauded by McGill principal Heather MunroeBlum and the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) – of which Munroe-Blum is president – the Federation étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), an umbrella organization of student associations, called the bill cosmetic.

FEUQ, CREPUQ, and Couchesne agreed that university accountability needs reform. But while Courchesne and CREPUQ have emphasized that governing boards should primarily feature individuals independent from the university, FEUQ President David Paradis disagreed that this would remove conflicts of interest.

“In the UQÀM situation, it was the so-called independent administrators who just slept and let the school sink nearly half a billion in debt. The first whistle-blowers were in fact students and teachers,” said Paradis. “Bringing in more so-called ‘independent people’ is most likely the best way to repeat the UQÀM disaster across Quebec.”

Instead, Paradis stressed the need for more direct reform of university accountability structures.

“Principals need to leave behind their selfish philosophies...[and give]

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

Construction of offices and dorms at the Ilôt Voyager contributed to UQAM’s $380-million debt. the public a clear picture of what’s going on: where are public funds going [and] how are they spent?” he said.

The bill, which has yet to be presented, will likely be based on recommendations of the Institut pour la gouvernance d’organisations privées et publiques (IGOPP), accord-

ing to both Paradis and CREPUQ Director-General Daniel Zizian. The IGOPP, co-founded in 2005 by HEC Montreal and Concorida, presented 12 principles in their working group’s September 2007 report outlining better university governance.

The bill’s incarnation and its actu-

The McGill Women’s Alumnae Association

Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture

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al effects on universities like McGill remain to be seen, and Paradis hopes that the bill will emphasize more accountability before presented.

“This is an invitation for her to change her project so that it can solve the problems and not create more of them.”

Thursday, October 23 at 6:00pm Otto Maass Chemistry Building, Room 112

Free

For further information: (514) 398-1429 Co-sponsored with the McGill Senate Sub-Committee on Women

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Science+Technology

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

7

Scientists to bring back extinct tortoise Turtles to shack up, and one day give birth to long extinct species

Kevin Wei

Sci+tech writer

A

giant turtle is going to be brought back from the dead.

Scientists in the Galapagos have found a species from the island of Isabela that shares DNA with the extinct turtle, G. elephantopus. Dr. Gisella Caccone, a lead researcher on the project, says that planned breeding of Isabela turtles will allow the extinct turtles to make a comeback.

“By mating Isabela tortoises that are most genetically similar to G. elephantopus, selecting the offspring that are most similar, and mating those, through successive generations the species’ genetic makeup may be largely restored,” she said in an interview with The New York Times.

When Darwin went through the Galapagos Islands he was almost as interested in turtles as in finches, and wrote about them in his Origins of Species. Noting that each of the islands housed many distinct species of tortoise, Darwin speculated that all the tortoises originated from one mainland species, but later evolved characteristics advantageous to their own particular islands.

Darwin also noted that, thanks to the fashionability of turtle soup and oil lamps, the tortoises were being killed in great numbers by passing sailors.

Ironically, while the turtle meat and oil industries are responsible for the extinction of four Galapagos tortoise species, it is also partly responsible for the G. elephantopus’s resurrection. Researchers suspect that a few G. elephantopi were picked up from

their island Floreana, then dropped off on the island Isabela where hunting was less intense. The lucky turtles then passed on their genes by interbreeding with natives of the island.

The genes of the first FloreanianIsabelan hybrids were split evenly between the two species. Through the next few generations, the Floreanian genes became more diluted. Thanks to the tortoises’ long lifespans, only a few generations have passed since the first tortoises mated with Isabelan natives, so the genes aren’t too diluted. Consequently, it should be easy for scientists to retrace the mating steps and recollect all the Floreanian genes in one turtle. By comparing modern-day turtles’ genetic codes to that of a museum specimen of G. elephantopus, scientists will know which turtles should be mated in order to retrieve the species’ genes.

Professor Ehab Abouheif, an Evolutionary Biologist in the Biology department at McGill, said that this approach could be applied to other species as well.

“The same approach can be potentially applied to other organisms if the museum specimens are well maintained and properly curated. By identifying extinct species and their close relatives, we can understand how particular species were lost and formed...and this is particulary important in designing future conservation strategies for endangered species,” he said.

However, Abouheif expressed concerns about museum curation today. “The problem is that the curation of museum specimens is no longer given the respect that it deserves and as a result important collections have suffered,” he said.

Although it will take only a few carefully-selected matings to resurrect G. elephantopus, none of us will see this resurrection in our lifetime.

Due to the tortoises’ long life span, mating of even four generations will take more than a century. But when this is done, the G. elephantopus will be reintroduced to Floreana and crossed off the extinction list.

Entropy. Fight it.

Write for scitech:

scitech@mcgilldaily.com

Lindsay Waterman / The McGill Daily

Fountain of youth in sight Shannon Palus

Sci+tech writer

D

iscoveries in the drug realm are changing the world – and maybe extending your life. Pharmaceutical company Sirtris claims to have inadvertently discovered the fountain of youth while testing a compound intended to cure diabetes.

Sirtris’s website claims the company is “creating revolutionary medicines for diseases of aging” and according to S. Jay Olshansky, coauthor of The Quest for Immortality, they may be right.

“This has the potential to be a blockbuster drug,” Olshansky said.

A compound in red wine that is believed to increase lifespan inspired testers to create the drug.

The compound, resveratrol, is found in the skin of grapes, and tampers with sirtuins, proteins that regulate the body’s responses to stress by causing it to enter an energysaving mode, which some believe can increase lifespan. The energysaving mode triggered by resveratrol is identical to that achieved by low-calorie diets – the only proven way to increase maximum lifespan – and leads to many healthy body changes, including lowered cholesterol and blood pressure. The biology behind the longevity that comes with restricting calories is largely unknown.

Although resveratrol has been seen to increase lifespan by over 50 per cent for yeast and fish, the effects in humans may not be as advantageous. Because humans break down resveratrol so slowly, they would need to eat a few kilograms per day to enjoy any benefit.

Sirtris has found a way around this obstacle, though, by modifying resveratrol so that the body does not break it down.

This modified version of resveratrol, called SRT501, will initially and primarily be marketed as a cure for diabetes, despite its potential to combat other diseases of aging.

According to Dr. Leonard P. Guarente, the drug will likely have many beneficial effects in humans.

“I think it’s clear that these sirtuin-based drugs have a lot of beneficial effects in animal models. So, it would be astonishing if they did not have a lot of applicability to human health. I think that’s on the horizon, right away with this diabetes drug,” Guarente said.

SRT501 is already in phase two clinical trials for type II diabetes, and is beginning trials as a cancer medication. Cardiovascular and metabolic disease medications are not far behind, and SRT501 should hit the market in five to ten years.

SRT501 functions in a unique way; it will prolong the number of healthy, middle years of life, rather than the time spent in nursing homes, as many medical breakthroughs involv-

ing diseases of the elderly do.

Although no one yet knows exactly how many middle years SRT501 will provide, popular studies estimate a decade.

If SRT501 does significantly extend life and cure diseases of aging, the populations of countries with high life expectancies will grow in size and productivity. Guarente speculated that the drug might also have a social upshot.

“I think it’s going to help to have people with the wisdom and experience of a lifetime staying healthier longer,” he said.

Olshansky, too, noted that increasing lifespans would benefit society.

“The postponing of bodily deterioration will have enormous social, economical, and health dividends for today’s generations and for future generations,” he said.

But Michelle Dipp, director of corporate development at Sirtris, cautioned such optimism, asserting that at first SRT501 will only be available as a treatment option for diabetes.

“SRT501 will be used to treat diseases of aging. It will not be marketed as an anti-aging drug,” she said.

Yet Guarente speculated that prudent people who do not have diabetes will use the SRT501 once it hits the market provided that it lacks side effects.

“If it looks good in phase two, I’m going to start taking it. Preventatively.

Why not?”

8

Features

Polar opposites

Graeme Burrows for The McGill Daily

A summer in Nunavik teaches Graeme Burrows about Inuit education, and why many northern First Nations students aren’t pursuing postsecondary degrees

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held a large white board with the day’s schedule sloppily jotted in black marker and answered Michael’s question: “8:30 a.m.: Breakfast; 9:30 a.m.: Games; 11:00 a.m.: Fishing.” He’d pointed to the scrawled lines and asked me what they said. His eyes darted from my face to the board with a focused intensity as I read out each line, his finger idly picking at the large scab on his lip – the remnants of a recent bicycle accident. At ten years old, Michael is fluent in both English and Inuktitut, but still can’t read English or French. His literacy level is on par with that of most eight-year-olds, and many ten-year-olds, in Kuujjuaq – the largest town in Nunavik, a region of arctic Quebec.

This summer, I spent six weeks working at Kuujjuaq Youth Camp, and found that most children were illiterate in English – albeit bi- or trilingual in spoken English, French, and Inuktitut – and that many older youth were struggling to complete basic secondary degrees. What made this especially frustrating to a financially strapped student like myself is that the government sponsors postsecondary education for all Inuit residents of Nunavik. Transport, tuition, and boarding are all included. Now, as I watch the interest accumulate on my as-yet unpaid

tuition – not to mention on the tens of thousands in loans – I begin to wonder just why the overwhelming majority of capable Inuit youth don’t take advantage of the free education they’re offered.

As an almost BA-holder, I figured I was clever enough to make an initial and spot-on assessment: the kids are not literate in English at ten, so are likely still behind by the time they finish high school. From there, the step up to CEGEP or university may not be feasible. The problem, I suspected, was rooted in the early years of education when Inuktitut was promoted and English neglected, which I soon would discover was a rather ethnocentric perspective.

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n the current education system in Nunavik, kindergarten, first, and second grade are taught exclusively in Inuktitut. At third grade, parents may choose to enroll their child in either a French or an English program. So, by nine years old, most kids have had little to no instruction in English or French – Canada’s dominant languages – and have virtually no literacy skills in either. From the standpoint of getting ahead academically – and professionally – in an English or French world, this seems

like a troubled system, perhaps even the fundamental problem preventing native students from cashing in on their free postsecondary education.

Dr. Donald Taylor, a professor of psychology at McGill, has worked extensively in the Inuit education field. Elucidating the evolution of the current Nunavik education system, he explains that before 1963, speaking, reading, or writing Inuktitut in the compulsory federal schools were punishable offenses. In 1963, the Quebec government established a more progressive provincial schooling system in the North to run parallel to the preexistent federal program. The key differences in the provincial system included Inuktitut development in the earliest years of schooling and training of Inuit teachers. Still, the Inuit had little say in the curriculum, and few people took advantage of the provincial system while the federal system endured.

The largest change, however, came in 1975 when the James Bay agreement mandated the formation of the Kativik school board, turning over complete control of the Nunavik school system to the Inuit. Immediately, it implemented an Inuktitut program for kindergarten in all communities but Kuujjuaq. In Kuujjuaq, there

was a group of qalunaat (white people, literally “bushy eyebrows and big stomachs”) who had enough clout to keep French and English the only languages of instruction. This worried some members of the community, as Inuktitut, like 50 out of 53 other Canadian aboriginal languages, would surely disappear without a strong Inuktitut component in elementary education.

One such concerned community member was Peter Bentley. Taylor describes him with a chuckle as an interesting guy and a “cynical son of a bitch.” Bentley became the principal in Kuujjuaq’s school, and decided that, according to Taylor, “over his dead body would Inuktitut not be in the schools.” Bentley confronted the anglophone and francophone communities, and succeeded in establishing an Inuktitut program to run alongside the other two options.

What Bentley realized was that without an Inuktitut program, Inuit culture would likely deteriorate and eventually be obliterated, like so many other native cultures in Canada.

But how can this system justify the potential losses in English literacy that result from early Inuktitut education? According to Taylor, after years of research “the Inuktitut program was so overwhelmingly better for the kids that no par-

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

ents would put their kids in English or French.”

Taylor and other social scientists found the new system was better for self-esteem, groupesteem, and most importantly, linguistic development in Inuktitut, English, and French.

The Inuktitut program is clearly an essential and beneficial program, and is not preventing northern youth from pursuing further studies.

While it may delay the onset of English or French education, the study found that students were undeniably better off academically with the Inuktitut program than without it. However, the Kativik school board still reports 261 students in kindergarten and only 53 in secondary five, the equivalent to 12th grade. So why are so few students finishing their degrees?

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t seems to come down to the issue of cultural irrelevance. Learning among the Inuit has always been a flexible process of observation and imitation, and a formal education holds far less value in Kuujjuaq than it does in the South.

Jesse Jones, a mellow and down-to-earth Inuk woman in her early fifties, has taught Inuktitut, creative writing, and Nunavik history in Kuujjaq for 30 years. Asked if she thinks a formal education is fairly irrelevant in a northern context, she agrees completely: “You don’t need that much education…if you’re willing to learn just by watching; you don’t need to use books and all that, that’s our way of learning.” And it’s true. In Kuujjuaq, you just don’t need that much formal education to do just fine in the community; a secondary degree is sufficient to secure a fairly well-paying job, and getting a job without one his not an impossibility, although salaries increase based on the employee’s level of education.

Outside of the North, however, kids can’t compete for work without a degree or diploma. This poses a difficult dilemma for many northern native students. Leaving the North for school means leaving their culture and families behind, and facing a slew of unfamiliar cultural norms, values, and lifestyles. Jones explained that she travelled to Ottawa to attend high school because Kuujjuaq did not have one at the

time. She had an absolutely terrible experience: “What was so scary for me was that I went to a huge school that had 1,500 students from grade nine to 13, and I was always getting lost. I had no friends, I mean, it was awful,” she emphasizes.

Jones’s experience wasn’t encouraging. In fact, she decided to stop by the end of tenth grade.

“I quit school and said I’d never go back inside a classroom again, but maybe six months later the school needed a teacher’s aide that could help out in the classroom, so I took it up,” she says. She’s been teaching since, and ultimately had no need for the formal degree Canadians often consider a necessity and a right.

Nevertheless, degrees are steadily gaining value in the North. The resource-rich land is not a secret, and many educated, non-native people are filling high-paying positions that could be going to individuals from the Inuit community. So, while a degree may not be essential yet, its relevancy is intensifying in places like Kuujjuaq.

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egative experiences in the South and the desire to stay near family seem to be the major reasons why Inuit students are less likely to pursue postsecondary education. Jojo Jones, Jesse Jones’s 27-year-old daughter echoes her mother’s thoughts on education, noting that most students would like to attend CEGEP or university, but can’t handle the transition to the southern lifestyle. Programs designed specifically for First Nations students, like the Aboriginal Student Resource Centre at John Abbot College, aim to help native students with the harsh transition. Michael O’Connor, a pedagogical counsellor at John Abbot’s Aboriginal Student Resource Centre explains that even with this program, only about 50 per cent of northern native students leave their communities to complete their degrees. As Jesse Jones notes, “some of these kids don’t even know what they’re up against. No wonder they’re given an orientation week just to get adjusted to the surroundings and all that hustle and bustle you deal with down there.”

The negative legacy of an abusive and racist education system in the North contributes

to the aversion some students feel to leaving home for postsecondary. “Formal schooling as we know it is a foreign place. Moreover, many of their experiences with it have been not only negative, but extremely negative,” Taylor explains, referring to the experience of northern adults who were raised in a western-centric school system. The traumas that residential schools inflicted have not been forgotten, and the attempts at assimilation through western education systems imposed throughout the colonization of the North keep many northern native people at a cautious distance.

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hen the Kativik school board was formed, it recognized that addressing a lack of enthusiasm for conventional education among native youth by continuing to impose an incredibly western-centric system is counterproductive. While the Inuit-run Kativik school board has made vast progress, especially in the area of elementary education, the lack of northern students completing secondary school or moving on to postsecondary options has yet to be effectively addressed. It seems that the first step to encouraging youth to take advantage of a free education would be to increase its relevancy to their lives, both in curriculum and location. As Jojo Jones says, “Why would you waste a quarter of your life just for school, when you could be home helping out?”

If the Kativik school board and the Nunavik community can find a way to encourage youth to take advantage of government-sponsored postsecondary education, the next generation of Inuit can lead the arctic workforce in the way degree-holding southerners are doing now.

The highest-paying jobs in resource exploitation and tourism go to the candidates with formal degrees.

Establishing a college in Nunavik, however, may be unrealistic. O’Connor points out that although many Inuit would like to have a local postsecondary school, it’s logistically unfeasible at this point. Staffing high schools with sufficient teachers is hard enough. Few people willing to live in isolated northern communities have the advanced degrees necessary to teach

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at undergraduate or graduate levels. Instead, O’Connor advocates a “full” college experience, one without the limitations of a small northern school. He insists that students should have access to the diversity of peers and rich ideas offered in southern schools. He thinks “it would be good if [northern schools] had a one year intensive program to qualify for their programs down South. Then they could start in the CEGEPs down here and be much more successful.” The program would ideally take place in a community like Amos, Chibougamou, or Val d’Or – towns many native students are familiar with – where the curriculum could work toward easing both the cultural and academic transition to CEGEP. A transitional program like this, if effective, could encourage students to finish their secondary degrees and move on to higher education.

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hen I asked one of the kids at camp what he wanted to do when he grew up, he shrugged and said, “Probably what I’m doing now.” I asked him what he did, surprised and envious that a ten-year-old already had a job he aimed to keep for life. He told me that he restocks pops in the machine at the local supermarket – a coveted job for many of the campers, I later learned. His answer disappointed me at the time. My self-righteous Western values identified an injustice, a lack of opportunity, a school system that forced kids to stay put and stock pops for life. What I should have understood, however, is that the boy was expressing exactly what he, and most residents of Kuujjuaq, really do seem to value: home. And the idea of home is not only family and location, but everything that makes up Inuit culture – above all, Inuktitut. The key to improving livelihoods in Nunavik, then, lies in the challenge of reconciling a profound love for home with the increasing need for postsecondary education that is not available there. The question remains as to whether a profound love of home can be reconciled with a northern job market that is starting to demand postsecondary education that, in the current system, must be acquired elsewhere.

10 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Not your grandmother’s socialist revolution

volume 98 number 15

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Graeme Burrows le délit

Maysa Phares redaction@delitfrancais.com Contributors

Steven Aylward, Johanu Botha, Graeme Burrows, Maeve Clougherty, Sara Duplancic, Lendon Ebbels, Nicole Gileadi, Sean Hayward, Camille Holden, Ricky Kreitner, John Lapsley, Ming Lin, Vinay Kumar Mysore, Clarke Olsen, Shannon Palus, Sasha Plotnikova, Maia Reed, Zachary Shuster, Kevin Wei

Ricky Kreitner

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t almost seems as if “they” planned this recent global economic collapse to coincide with the ubiquitous U.S. presidential election. While all of us were obsessing over Sarah Palin’s oversized lapel jewelry, “they” pulled a fast one on us. “They” don’t want us to know The Truth. Who’s “they?” The Belgians?

The Vikings? No, no. The pinkos. The commies. The crazy, left-wing, youthought-we-were-done-for, good ol’ Midwest-style American socialists.

Hot damn, their fingerprints are all over this steaming turdpile of a mess we’ve got on our hands. Or didn’t you know it?

This seems to be the cry presently emanating from some sectors of the far-right and all sectors of the conspiracy theorists’ community. It was all planned. This sounds pretty familiar because it’s the same shit we hear every once in awhile from “9/11 Truth” organizations, who always seem to disrupt my pleasant Sunday stroll to Tam Tams. Not only is the American government an inept cabal of narcissistic morons, but it’s also chock full of fascistic neocons who will do anything for power.

I think it’s a pretty ridiculous assertion, not to mention overly flattering to the narcissistic morons.

Please. They didn’t plan this, but they

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We had a good ride, but the world’s piggy bank is empty. lend to each other because they do not know which are stable and which are unstable, so they don’t know if they’ll get their money back. The “final solution” is to forcibly inject capital into every bank, even if they don’t want it. The goal is to create a level playing field (sounds familiar?) so the less stable banks will not feel ashamed to take the money. So, to sum up: the stated goal of this program is to invest in wobbly banks, some of which we know are too unstable – because of their own malpractice – to survive in a free market. And the executives of all these institutions, stable and unstable, get to keep their comfy black leather chairs. Congratulations, taxpayers, meet your new employees.

And yet nobody has the chutzpah to call this nationalization. That is what really gets me: the Orwellian

doublespeak. The free-market conservatives of the world appear to be oratorically as flexible as they’ve proven to be ideologically. When Venezuela does it, it’s nationalization; when we do it, it’s an intervention. Yes, that’s it. George Bush told us “Wall Street got drunk.” Well, doggonit, they need an intervention.

Now that’s something Bush would know a little bit about, n’est pas?

Who knew that when the Red Revolution finally swept the globe with a wave of socialist fanfare, the most eager flag-bearers would be those imperially naked denizens of the land of the free and the home of the brave?

lives can also make it pretty serious.

Walking on Sherbrooke, I was on my way to enter McGill through the Roddick Gates, ecstatic for the next installment of my Understanding Planet Earth class. I noticed though, as I’m sure you have, that very few (if any) passers-by make eye contact.

So deciding to push the social barriers, I resolved to say a mere “Hi” every time someone passed me close by. Just a friendly, throwin’-it-out-there “Hi.” It actually worked wonders. At first, people glanced up while looking like they were thinking about maybe saying something. But as I grew more adamant with my “Hi’s” people started to greet me back.

Here’s the phenomenon: people seemed thankful to have made contact. To have joined in on something.

They walked away almost smiling.

Not by any means laughing or grinning, but almost smiling. Which is, like any new mother will tell you, a very good start.

This went both ways; knowing

that they had a tiny bit more smiliness in them gave me enough smiliness to last the week.

Coming back to the non-funniness of love. There is obviously a transition here. Between giving and receiving; how both bring joy by connecting with another human being, by being aware of life through sharing life. This is very real, and the prospect of losing it is not humorous.

Being eaten by a shark kind of stuff.

Whether romantic or brotherly, the love around us, though often spurred by feelings, is activated and sustained by choice. I don’t suggest greeting everybody everywhere but when passing the people you share in life with, throw out a “Hi,” a handshake, or a hug. Take a note out of our ancestors’ book from the seventies, and make the love choice.

Ricky’s column appears every Monday. Send your edition of Bailout for Dummies to pinatadiplomacy@mcgilldaily.com.

Make the love choice

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might as well have. In both cases, September 11 and September 2008, they merely took advantage of external circumstances to tighten their control of the political and economic institutions that previously acted as impediments to their dreams of global domination. And, honestly, World: What’s so wrong with that?

First off, there was the $700-billion gift to the financial industry. If anyone reading this can provide me with a concise, Financial Bailout for Dummies lesson, please have a go at it. Until then, I will continue to consider the bailout as the last Sovietinspired straw that broke the back of the Great American Free Market.

Even this apparently did not get the job done.

And then in the span of a few days last week, the global bank buyin (somehow prepositionally different than a bailout) was proposed, debated, adopted, and enacted.

Following the example of Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the world decided that this would be a last-ditch effort to save the global economy. Since when does the world take its marching orders from Britain? I vehemently (and rightly, I think) shun anything the Europeans call a final solution.

In essence, the banks refuse to

Johanu Botha

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ere’s the funny part about love: it can often be very, very blatantly, fatally, unpredictably not funny. As not funny as an old lady being robbed. The kind of not funny that lets you dive into a beautiful blue ocean two seconds before a great white shark chomps you in two.

Here’s the thing, I am going to breach one of the most important rules of writing for a large audience by telling you something most people would only tell a small audience... like an audience of one.

You ready for it? Here it goes:

Love exists.

I’m dead serious. It’s actually here.

Psychologists would call it many neurons reaching an action threshold; philosophers would say it is a form that exists outside of space and time; St. Paul would say it is patient and kind and that it does not envy. And what I’m trying to say is that despite Montreal traffic, incurable diseases, and that guy who cut in front of you in the McDonald’s line, love exists.

And sure it can be hilarious at times, whether in your own life or on the silver screen. But it’s existence – or nonexistence – in our day-to-day

Johanu’s column appears every Monday. Send free hugs to lifelines@ mcgilldaily.com. Lately, he’s been yearnin’ for some lovin’.

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Should parents choose their child’s sexual orientation?

Steven Aylward and Sean Hayward

POINT

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ecent medical findings suggest that hormone levels in the womb during development have a strong effect on the eventual sexual orientation of a child after they hit puberty. We strongly believe that, should it become safe and feasible to do so, parents should have the right to determine the sexual orientation of their children.

The main issue at stake – as it must be for policies affecting minors – is the best interest of the child, which is best served by a world in which parents can choose to have children whom they are best-suited to raise. Children place tremendous importance on the acceptance and approval of their parents. But the status quo is that a child’s sexual orientation is determined by chance, which means that some children end up with parents who, owing to personal prejudices, are unable to provide this acceptance or the emotional support they need, but instead cause lasting psychological and emotional harm to their child.

LGBT individuals often have difficulty coming out of the closet due to this very fear of familial, and more specifically, parental rejection. A gay

Nicole Gileadi and Vinay Kumar Mysore

COUNTERPOINT

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ociety has a problem. LGBT individuals are often not accepted by their families, and are consistently discriminated against by society. The proposal to allow parents to choose their child’s sexual preference will not solve the fundamental problems faced by this population, and will in fact do more damage to the LGBT rights movement.

We want to make clear that the modern conception of sexuality does not divide people into a strict binary – rather, sexuality is a spectrum. This proposal would eliminate this valuable diversity and engineer sexuality into a strict binary.

In the cases where children do identify with either heterosexuality or homosexuality, this proposal only fosters a false sense of parental acceptance, rather than a genuine one. We believe that being accepted for who your parents want you to be cannot replace true acceptance from parents who love you unconditionally. This proposal only succeeds in making children aware that their parents’ love and approval is not unconditional, but rather that it is based on one aspect of their identity.

male might feel compelled to suppress his sexual identity, forcing him to internalize the guilt of failing to meet his parents’ expectations and the burden of always having to conceal his true self. If parents are able to choose the sexual orientation of their children, no child will ever have to endure such pain.

Further, parents may feel they are better suited to cater to the needs of a child with a specific sexual orientation. Helping a child to come to grips with his or her sexuality is one of a parent’s most important and difficult roles. In addition to the general sensitivity of the issue and prevailing prejudices, non-heterosexual teenagers are often confronted with feelings of exclusion and otherness. Parents are best equipped to help their children with problems with which they identify and are familiar. Gay parents have more experience with gay relationship dynamics, straight parents with straight relationship dynamics, and are thus better able to judge when to step in and when to back off.

Further, given that the parents will have known the sexual orientation of their child since its fetal development, they will have plenty of time to prepare both emotionally and in terms of parental education and networking for the unique challenges afforded by each sexual orientation.

This measure is the best means to empower gay rights groups and communities. Especially in small communities where support networks and advocacy groups are not in place, gay teenagers have to express their sexual orientation on their own, in what may be a hostile environment.

If we allow parents to choose to have gay children, it will mean that these children will know first of all that they have the support of their family.

Secondly, families who opt to have homosexual children would know from the beginning that gay rights would immediately affect the welfare of their child, and thus have a vested interest in fighting for these rights – they would become the backbone for advocacy and support groups.

These groups shape preferences by putting individuals in touch with others in similar situations and with similar needs. They make it easier for a lesbian to be a lesbian, meaning she might be more confident and vocal about her rights. It is exactly by empowering gay and lesbian individuals to demand their rights in dialogue with other social actors that anti-gay prejudice can be most effectively combated.

Further, it is important to consider the broader societal implications of this proposal. We believe that allowing parents to choose their children’s sexual orientation is detrimental to the gay rights movement.

In the face of such serious religious and cultural opposition, de-stigmatization of homosexuality can only occur with the erosion of anti-gay sentiments. While we work toward that goal, we provide various forms of support for individuals coming out to their family, friends, and community. As society moves forward, communities become accepting of LGBT individuals through interaction and dialogue.

Thus the integration of, and dialogue between, homosexuals and anti-gay communities is particularly important to broader societal goals.

The problem with parents selecting their children’s orientation is that it necessarily dismantles this crosscommunity acceptance.

Furthermore, it propagates “antiqueer” communities and regions.

If we agree that our goal is to make the world a place in which a person’s sexual orientation does not hinder their ability to interact and be part of a community, then it makes no sense to support policies that help create a society that allows for the ghettoization and polarization of pro- and

anti-queer rights communities.

More importantly, we believe that by making homosexuality something that can be medically altered, this proposal promotes the idea that homosexuality is an illness or condition that is avoidable or a lifestyle choice that can be seen as deviant and wrong. There is nothing wrong – medically or otherwise – with a child being homosexual, much like there is nothing wrong with the race a child is born with.

By making homosexuality a choice rather than an intrinsic characteristic, this proposal effectively legitimizes homophobia and groups that oppose gay rights.

In sum, while the issue of gay rights and acceptance in society remains a problem, allowing parents to choose their children’s sexual orientation does not foster real parental acceptance, and actively impedes broader societal goals in terms of gay rights and equality.

Steven Aylward is a U4 Philosophy student, and Sean Hayward is a U2 History student.

Nicole Gileadi is a U1 Political Science student, and Vinay Kumar Mysore is a U3 Philosophy student.

Steven, Sean, Nicole, and Vinay are members of the McGill Debating Union. They will be debating the above resolution tonight at 6:00 p.m. in the Lev Bukhman room, on the second floor of Shatner.

Put politics before gender

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When The Toronto Star printed an article introducing Israel’s current Foreign Affairs Minister and Acting Prime Minister last month, the first sentence didn’t include the politician’s name, credentials, or party association.

It told the readers only one thing: that she’s a woman.

The article unfolds into a clear and fair portrait of Tzipi Livni, never again referring to her strictly by gender. But the aftertaste of the first sentence doesn’t fade, and the fact that the leader is a woman tinges even the article’s most neutral statements.

The media is a powerful being, and it’s often the public’s sole access to extremely important information; it’s how we know politicians, governments, international affairs, the ailing economy, and Brangelina. We’re so used to its presence in our lives that we often forget that the media’s influence colours everything we know. The Daily isn’t exempt from this, but with our Statement of Principles, we openly state our biases in terms of the stories we print and the way we frame them.

It’s especially crucial that now, just two weeks before this ubiquitous American election, we critically examine the information that we’re seeing, reading, and hearing in the media. Throughout the seemingly endless campaign, McCain has been portrayed as a sickly geezer, Obama a Muslim, while Biden has completely fallen off the radar. And the women in the running were depicted even more two-dimensionally. Clinton was depicted either as cold and calculating, or as weak and wimpy. Further, the year-long Obama-Clinton ordeal saw the former portrayed as a cool and collected statesman, and the latter as a cold, quasi-crazy buzzkill. It seems as if it would be too much for major media outlets to portray women as being both competent and feminine.

Meanwhile, Palin is rarely identified as anything other than a moosekilling “hockey mom.” While Palin is responsible for spawning the term, the media is responsible for exploiting it. The media has a great deal of control over what we know about these people – not just by in the stereotypes and generalizations they use, but in the way small details can get blown up to define a candidate’s entire persona.

If the media can only see Palin first as a woman, and second as a politician – who could one day conceivably be one of the most powerful people in the world – how can the public see her stance on real issues?

Palin’s gender is used to deflect critiques about her credibility. The media’s focus on such mindless details prevents the public from criticizing her in a balanced, rational way. Her gender is unrelated to her potential performance as Vice President.

Her treatment is not an isolated case. The media needs to stop focusing on points that have no bearing on a candidate’s qualifications or abilities as a political leader. We need to see a more comprehensive and varied depiction of women that doesn’t reduce them to false dichotomies.

It is well understood that the media’s depiction of issues often involves some distortion. The onus remains on readers, viewers, and listeners to avoid being hypnotized by the images on TV screens and bolded headlines. We don’t mean to imply that media outlets should pretend to be completely objective, but they have a duty to provide more balanced and comprehensive reporting – especially with respect to female politicians.

Editorial

Use yer noggin’.

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12 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Trib Blindness article uninformed Film critique a perfect example why the National Federation of the Blind continues to fight derogatory accounts of blind people in the media WMST 401 students and professor

HYDE PARK

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aura Tindal’s article “For you eyes only” (The McGill Tribune, Oct. 7) represented a valuable point of departure for those of us who are engaged in critical disability studies, and are interested in looking at the continued prevalence of disabledphobic attitudes in our society. To start off, we want to thank Tindal for providing such an excellent jumping-off point for relevant class discussion!

This is not meant to be a critique of the film (Blindness) so much as one of the film’s critics and the article Tindal wrote, which is openly condescending toward the National Federation of the Blind’s (NFB) criticism of the film. We also are in no way trying to smother dissent, but rather, we’re attempting to point out the patronizing and derogatory nature of Tindal’s article, and the fact that it expressed open hostility toward and an obvious misunderstanding of disability issues.

Tindal seems to be making the assumption that blind people would not be able to read her article, and therefore felt free to write in such a condescending tone. Even the title of the article itself, “For Your Eyes Only,” implied that this piece was literally written only for a sighted audience. Tindal also seems to assume that she had the privilege to see this film, while blind people would not have, and therefore, felt that she was more qualified to critique the movie than blind people themselves. As is the case with many marginalized

Letter SSMU should grant pro-life group official club status Re: “Pro-life group seeks SSMU club status” | News | Oct. 6 I’m just writing to encourage Samantha Cook in her seeming inclination to support granting club status to Choose Life. Without knowing anything about Natalie Fohl or her organization beyond what is represented in the article, I think it is important, in evaluating Choose Life’s suitability, that SSMU not succumb to political pressure from the stridently

groups, the idea that a member of a majority group has the right to define the views or identities of those in that marginal group is inherently disempowering and offensive.

Supposedly, the point of the article was to critique the NFB’s critique on the film, yet Tindal does not directly refute or address any of the NFB’s points about the film. It would probably have been a much more interesting and enriching piece had she attempted to do so.

We also question what Tindal thinks the NFB’s mandate is. She purports that “like a spoiled little kid throwing a tantrum when he isn’t getting enough attention, the NFB heard the word ‘blind’ and decided ‘Hey, we haven’t been getting enough press recently, let’s make a big fuss about this film and see what comes of it.’” In other words, that NFB hadn’t been getting enough attention, and so they just made a mountain out of a molehill for no reason.

If Tindal believed the film was not, in fact, an assault on blind people, there is nothing wrong with expressing this. What was wrong was her blatant disrespect for the lives of people with disabilities and for refusing to even consider as valid the NFB’s claim that these images even might have presented the lives and identities of blind people in a derogatory manner. This is clear when she writes that the NFB “claims that blind people are as capable and smart as everyone else, yet they contradict themselves by creating such a controversy over something so irrational.” The implication that blind people must prove that they are as smart or capable as “normal” people

is – ironically – one of the key reasons why the NFB exists and continues to fight back against derogatory images of blind people in the media!

Her attempt to try and silence one of the few voices of advocacy that exist for blind people in our society is reason enough for the NFB to exist and continue to publish statements like the one it did about Blindness.

The fact that this article was published in The Tribune sheds light on the importance of promoting a more informed community regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.

Part of the NFB’s goals is trying to empower blind people, a good number of whom very rarely get a platform to voice their concerns. In fact, a blind person tried to post a response to this article on The Tribune’s web site, and was unable to, due to the CAPTCHA feature – which requires the user to decode a distorted or warped word set of letters – in order to post comments.

This illustrates an obvious dichotomy in accessibility in terms of who gets to voice their opinions on these issues – how ironic that a sighted person could write an entire article on blind issues, while a blind person was not allowed to post even one comment on that article! People such as Tindal, who have the privilege of writing for a school newspaper – especially one run by the Student’s Society of one of the largest universities in Canada – should think about adopting a more critical approach when it comes to looking at disability issues in our society.

pro-choice corner.

I won’t address the notion that “we don’t like what this club stands for” is a good reason to deny Choose Life club status, because Cook is clearly aware that it isn’t. More likely to hurt Fohl’s chances is the castiron certainty that every activist group within hailing distance will noisily decry her club as hateful and regressive. The narrative will be some variant on Gilary Massa’s contention that a pro-life group is, prima facie, “sexist, or discriminatory,” because that’s really the only assumption that would make it possible to withhold club status and keep a straight face.

What I urge SSMU council to keep in mind is that such contentions are essentially rhetorical and partial. No reasonable definition of “discriminatory” comes anywhere near describing the mere possession or propagation of pro-life views, and here the word simply encodes a

closed-minded antipathy. Look, the pro-life position is hardly a maniac fringe (in fact, two thirds of Canadians support some level of restriction on abortion), and it’s disingenuous to behave as if the ethical questions surrounding abortion had been conclusively settled – which is precisely what SSMU council would have to suppose, if it were to bat away Choose Life on moral grounds.

I hope the council is decent enough to avoid making an unfair decision for political reasons.

Women’s Studies 401 studies is a Gender & Disability class.

Stuart Wright U3 English The Daily received more letters than it could print. They will appear in the next possible issue.

Send your letters to letters@ mcgilldaily.com. The Daily does not print letters that are sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise hateful.

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

Why Harper didn’t win Clarke Olsen

HYDE PARK

A

ll the parties are saying that they somehow “won” last Tuesday’s election. The Greens got more votes, the NDP has more seats, the Liberals are proud to be the Official Opposition, and the Conservatives have a new mandate.

While all of that may be true, I think it’s fair to say that only one party lost.

The Conservatives set out to earn a majority government just over a month ago, and they didn’t get it. As always, Canadian politics are simple and easy to understand: the winners lost. Get it?

So as I sat down to watch the Prime Minister’s victory speech for a campaign he didn’t really win, I wasn’t expecting much. I certainly wasn’t expecting to have my conservative nature stoked into a frustrated disgust. But Harper managed to do so with only his first two words – the same tired greeting John McCain has been repeating to increasingly ravenous crowds across the U.S.: “My friends…”

The first time he said the words, I cringed, the second offering exasperated me, and by the third, I had been driven to write this little rant. The media has been discussing all kinds of reasons why the Conservatives lost the election, but, my friends, let me tell you the real reason is much more simple. No, those elitists in their governmentsponsored ivory towers of opinion will over-think the point on this one.

Sure the Conservatives thoughtlessly cut spending to sensitive Quebec arts programs! Sure they ran a gaffeprone, visionless campaign! But the real reasons are simpler than that; the Conservatives don’t have a majority government today because a few powerful people in the Conservative party wish that they were working for the Republican Party. And, my friends, most Canadians don’t much like Republicanism.

Seriously Harper, I’m rooting for you here. My friends? My goddamn friends! You’re not my friend, you’re my Prime Minister. I find that kind

of talk condescending, and I haven’t even been an adult that long. How must it make the rest of the electorate feel?

I cannot believe that Harper’s entourage is blind to just how fake, awkward, and down-right creepy it sounds when McCain refers to his audience in such a friendly way. When Harper says it, it just sounds plagiarized. Perhaps I should be thankful it only sounds plagiaristic. What are you going to do next Harper, start saying God Bless Canada at the end of every speech? Oh…wait.

I proudly cast a ballot for the Tory candidate in my Montreal riding. In fact, I’m a card-carrying Conservative. And yet the party itself never ceases to amaze me with its blunders. I believe that most of them are the result of its attachment to a weird strand of conservatism that has swept our ideological neighbours south of the border since the Reagan: neo-conservatism.

Bright, rightward-leaning politicos have been in awe of the electoral successes of their American counterparts for years, and wondered why they haven’t been able to achieve similar results. With Harper they thought they finally had their chance, and they went for it with guns a’ blazing and life sentences for 14-year-old children.

Conservatives lost the campaign because they lost Quebec. And they lost Quebec because they failed to adequately fumigate their party of its neo-conservative, evangelical, Reform past.

There is a new – or should I say old? – conservatism brewing out there. It rejects the ideologically driven strictures of George W.’s neocon faith, and is beginning to find a voice in authors like Andrew Sullivan and W. Wesley McDonald. It is in the interest of the Conservative Party of Canada to pursue some of these new, more open forms of conservatism. It caught the last philosophical wave much after it had crested. For my party’s sake, I hope it doesn’t entirely miss the next one.

Clarke Olsen is a U3 Political Science and Economics student, and the Events Director of Conservative McGill.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

13

Not looking for another revolution Canadian correspondent Patrick Brown pairs contemporary China with his own personal struggles Camille Holden Culture Writer

S

ince Beijing got the bid to host the XXIX Olympiad, China has been a hot topic for anyone with a pen, a voice, or an opinion – so I’ll admit that I picked up Patrick Brown’s Butterfly Mind: Revolution, Recovery, and One Reporter’s Road to Understanding China with a tinge of skepticism. The cover features the famous photo of the 1989 Tian’anmen Square incident, in which a man stands defiantly in the way of a People’s Liberation Army tank. Seeing it, I thought: okay, is this going to be one of those books?

Patrick Brown, a journalist for the CBC since the late 1970s, has reported on many of the last century’s major conflicts and acted as a correspondent from London, Beijing, and New Delhi. Now living in Beijing, he’s written a memoir about his struggle with alcoholism and his career reporting from the world’s war-torn regions.

Though China is one of the main focal points of Brown’s book, he claims he has never been a specialist in anything, and therefore can’t fully understand China.

On the contrary, it becomes clear that Brown has a very clear and deep understanding of the country’s culture and politics. He seems to have escaped making superficial judgments, offering the on-the-money observation: “Chinese who want to see changes in China today are not looking for another revolution. They are looking for an honest followup to the first one.” It’s refreshing to read an educated and informed opinion instead of another knee-jerk and one-dimensional value judgment passed by a so-called “Asia expert.”

But China aside, Butterfly Mind is mainly a memoir about Brown’s career as a war correspondent and his struggle with a lifelong alcohol addiction. The book is divided into seven chapters, each dealing with a different step in his fight with alcoholism. In each chapter, Brown takes us through the various war zones he has covered during his career, and draws parallels between his personal life, the wartorn area he is covering, and China.

Brown’s book feels like a hall of mirrors, in which every aspect of his life is echoed by ongoing events in war-torn countries. Brown sees a very strong parallel between his own self-destruction and self-destruction of various nations. In the same way, he explains that only in coming to terms with the past can a fresh start be made – both for an alcoholic and for a country like China, struggling with the task of building anew since the death of Mao. At times, the constant mirroring between Brown’s private life and national struggles for freedom feels contrived, which is unfortunate for

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

a book otherwise so sincere and thoughtful in its self-introspection.

I did, however, find the parallels he makes between different uprisings and crises quite interesting. Brown compares the cult of personality of Romania’s Nicolae Ceauçescu to that of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, for example, and draws links between the Taliban

years in Afghanistan and the Cultural Revolution in China – both periods in those countries’ histories when the government was intent on radically changing society from the inside, refusing any outside interference.

A thoroughly engaging read, Butterfly Mind gives an insightful overview of late 20th century tur-

moil. Brown provides a very clear explanation of the different powers involved in every crisis, as well as a vivid picture of what it was like on the ground.

Meet Patrick Brown at Paragraphe Books (2220 McGill College) on October 26.

What is the sound of two whales fighting?

Fantasizing about the secret life of Sigur Ròs

Stuck on Shuffle Zachary Shuster

S

igur Ros makes music that borders on utter nonsense – and I don’t mean that as pejorative, because I think they’re kind of cool.

Their songs sound like a gang of whales fighting one another with lightning. They usually start out with ethereal vocals. These represent whale introductions, as far as I can tell. They build up from there, at a slow burn, as the whales become

frustrated with one other. The singer will bend the pitch a little bit, which I guess is profanity in whalespeak, and when you hear the first sound that sounds like lightning, that means the fight has started in earnest. Judging by the band’s metronomic comfort zone, whales mostly fight in slow motion.

Sigur Ros comes from Iceland.

Where, exactly, is Iceland? Is it

technically part of Europe? Is it a Greenland’s geographical afterthought? Is it just part of...the ocean?

I think the first Icelandic societies were either started by fishermen or Vikings (I didn’t have time to Wikipedia this part), and I think the band formed spontaneously one morning when the sun shone across a dewy, Icelandic meadow and made a flower happy.

Their lead singer’s name is unpronounceable to me because it contains letters I’ve never seen, and I suspect are made up, like “Hopelandic,” the language they supposedly sing in. I looked up their name and it means “Victory Rose.” Whaaaat?

Needless to say, I’m confused.

They make appealing music, but I have no idea what the deal is, and I

distrust anyone who says that they know for sure. My fantasy is this: Sigur Ros is as confused about me as I am about them. (I don’t mean me personally, I mean the whole deal: the society that you and I come from, our customs, our respective countries, our language, food, etc.)

They land in North America to play concerts, and they’re immediately shocked that no restaurant is serving squirrel. They suspect that there’s some logic to the major record label thing, but for the life of them, they can’t figure it out. All they know is they walk onto a big platform every couple of nights, interact with one another in the traditional Icelandic way (a simulated whale fight) and someone gives someone else they know a lot of

smelly green paper.

They survive this way until somehow, by the grace of God, they make their way safely back to Iceland, where they go underground and transform back into to soft balls of light. Their lead singer doesn’t know that you’re not supposed to play a guitar with a cello bow. Sigur Ros has no idea what’s going on.

Edit: Alright, I saw them in concert and it turns out they speak English.

Either they’re figuring us out, or this whole theory is bullshit.

Check out future installments of Zach’s column for more outlandish statements on music and pop culture. Look for Stuck on Shuffle every second Monday in the Culture section.

14 Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Human after all

Witch boy meets girl in Players’ Theatre season opener Dark of the Moon Sara Duplancic Culture Writer

W

ith the air outside now noticeably crisp, the moon glowing in the darkness of a strikingly younger evening, and Halloween quickly approaching, the scene is set for a date at Player’s Theatre, where the first show of their season, Dark of the Moon, is currently playing.

Dark of the Moon, written by Howard Richardson and William Berney, has not made the big theatre circuits in earnest since its run on Broadway in the 1940s. The play presents a simple story in a simple way: a young witch boy falls in love with the mortal Barbara Allen and must overcome many obstacles, including gaining mortal status, while following the course of true love. Yet for director Zak Rose, the play also holds universal mes-

sages about the relationship between authority and youth, and the dangers of dogma and prejudice. In his director’s note, Rose explains, “It has been my intention with this production to combine thought-provoking storytelling and entertaining spectacle, to bring all those topics to light.”

It is precisely the “storytelling” framework within which the play is set that gives it its charm. The set is remarkably bare; for example, only the outline of a tree suggests a forest, and written signs indicate locations.

Nearly the only three-dimensional objects on-stage are simple, black blocks.

Costumes, along with props, play a much greater role in orienting us within the small town, early 20th-century world of the play. Props are also minimal, but they are well placed, allowing the audience to extrapolate and imagine the entire environment of a scene. The lighting does a good

job of heightening elements of mysti- guishes the supernatural characters cism without overstating them, and nicely from the mortal ones. To conalso has the effect of fragmenting the tinue with another campfire necesplay into perceptible scenes or por- sity, Dark of the Moon is filled with tions – most often in conjunction with song. Indeed, all of the music in the an obvious, yet efficient, set change. production is live, produced by the This incremental progression, once again, heightens the storytelling effect of the A good campfire story is play, and the audience can never complete without unique almost imagine themselves voices or accents, and at that sitting by a campfire as the story develops. this play certainly does not fail A good campfire story is never complete without unique voices or accents, and actors on stage. Although not always on this count Dark of the Moon perfectly polished, the cast has a also certainly does not fail. The pleasant sound when singing as an entire cast speaks in a southern, ensemble, and there are also a few midland dialect which they sustain truly beautiful solo performances.

In comparison to many student well throughout the course of the play. Commendably, the language productions, the cast is refreshingly of the text remains discernible and large, with 13 actors in 19 roles. The understandable almost without fail. carefully crafted characters establish Colourful voice work also distin- themselves within the dynamics of

“

Culture briefs Obsession and insanity Take a break from midterms this week and enjoy some free movies on campus! A film festival featuring three of German director Werner Herzog’s films, Grizzly Man, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Cobra Verde, is taking place in the Cultural Studies Building screening room (3475 Peel).

For film buffs and regular movie lovers alike, Herzog’s films offer an unusual perspective that captures the bizarre and the mundane, often blurring the line between fiction and reality.

Werner Herzog emerged on the German New Wave scene in the 1960s and developed a reputation as quite the eccentric; this earned him considerable acclaim in the indie festival circuits. His approach to film is fairly unorthodox as he refuses to use storyboards, improvises large portions of his films, and often enlists locals as extras.

“He’s the master of capturing magical realism on film, but he doesn’t need a studio or special effects to create it,” festival organizer Jesse Hahm explains. “He just has a knack for finding people whose obsessions verge on insanity – for example, Timothy Treadwell’s impossible dream of living harmoniMing Lin / The McGill Daily

their small town, and the sheer magnitude of the cast provides a powerful energy crucial for exploring the aforementioned themes of dogmatization and the influence of authority over the individual. Together, all of the colourful characters create a cohesive ensemble. Overall, the welldirected play features strong performances that carry us smoothly into the particularly powerful second act.

Dark of the Moon calls for a suspension of disbelief, and invites us to frolic within its supernatural world and observe the sometimes all-toohuman behaviour of people guided by their forceful convictions.

Dark of the Moon is playing at the Players’ Theatre October 16-18, and 23-25 at 8 p.m. Saturday Matinees are October 18, 25 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $6 for students/seniors and $8 for adults.

ously with a bunch of grizzly bears.”

Come to any or all of the films this week and experience Herzog’s unconventional style for yourself – or at least find out if Timothy makes it out of grizzly territory alive.

Grizzly Man plays Monday October 20 at 7 p.m. Aguirre, the Wrath of God plays Thursday October 23 at 7 p.m. Cobra Verde plays Friday October 24 at 7 p.m.

– Maeve Clougherty

One man’s trash is another man’s sustainable housing Looking to put some significance into your Tuesday night? Then search no further than McGill’s new incarnation of Cinema Politica, a film forum that aims to entertain and educate the McGill community through film.

Screening independent documentaries on current social and political issues, Cinema Politica’s unique selections cover a variety of controversial topics.

Their first feature, Garbage Warrior, depicts the struggles of Michael Reynolds – a zany architect intent on building a future of sustainable homes...out of garbage.

Films will be shown every Tuesday at 8 p.m. starting October 21 in the Cultural Studies Building (3475 Peel, Room 101). The full screening schedule can be found at cinemapolitica. org/mcgill.

– Maia Reed

Compendium!

The McGill Daily, Monday, October 20, 2008

Lies, Half-truths, & the Crossword on the top half so you can easily fold the page and enjoy the wordplay

Thanksgiving leftovers Regina Phelangi

Across 1. Charge 5. Borders 10. In the middle of 14. Not for 15. Seabird 16. Table, to Pablo 17. Fermentation by-product 18. Beneath 19. Poetic foot 20. Sidedish with a fruity addition?

23. Hints at 24. No (nineties band) 27. “In addition ...”

28. Gemstone 31. First part of Brazilian city 32. Bond, for one 34. Hag 35. “To is human ...”

36. Condiment with a southern twist?

40. You, to Yvette 41. Sit in on 42. Dash abbr.

43. Battering device 44. Colours 45. Bar bill 47. Accused’s need 49. Sacred oils 53. Tropical thanksgiving dessert?

57. Arabic prince 59. Kind of wheat

60. Urkel, for one 61. WC’s 62. Kind of battery, for short 63. Horsefly 64. Fingerboard ridge 65. Montreal band 66. “... or !”

Down 1. Jewish clergy 2. Deprive of heat?

3. ___ throat 4. One of an Asian mountain range 5. Tickled 6. Baseball plays 7. Language of Islamabad 8. Not kosher 9. Slave in the Middle Ages 10. Buddy 11. Suffice 12. An end to sex?

13. Apply gently 21. Clamour 22. Runs in neutral 25. Actress Thora 26. Ripped 28. Iris root 29.

Hope 30. Whichever 32. Snuff brand 33. Rustic

15

34. Surrender 36. Norweigan river 37. Low point 38. Accept 39. Atmosphere 45. Bigger than quarters 46. Limb 48. Explode 49. Possible weather forecast 50. Hex 51. Entangles 52. Bulrush, e.g.

54. Barbie’s boyfriends 55. Give off 56. Village People hit 57. Will Ferrell flick 58. Damage

Solution to “Financial Picnic”

(fold here!)

A summer spent installing sheet metal In Part II of The Daily’s admittedly overdue series on shitty summer jobs, Katie Burrell brings you the inside take on drinking dollar beers, watching locals snort coke and dance to country music, and moving 500-pound furnances in “Canada’s Worst Town”

P

retty much everybody that I talked to in the first couple weeks of school had the best summer ever. They learned six languages while volunteering for the UN in Botswana, rescued 400 prisoners from an Iraqi prison, and ended hunger in the Congo by planting magical fucking beanstalks. Then they flew around the world and went shopping.

I, on the other hand, installed sheet metal in Port Alberni, voted “Canada’s Worst Town” three years running by some magazine based out of Toronto. My social life consisted of dollar beers on Thursday nights at the local “Club FX” where I watched a 40-year-old woman in a tracksuit snort coke out of her hand while dancing to country music. And I did all of my shopping at Wal-Mart.

Working sheet metal this summer meant the following: my name changed – to “dumb-ass” or “fuckstick” – and I was encouraged to be racist, curse unnecessarily, and flirt with Frank, my boss’s best friend and self-proclaimed “operator.” It also means that I went to the dump a lot.

I made a bit of a scene at the dump once involving a metal bin and me throwing cardboard in it by accident.

This was, according to the dump lady, totally unacceptable, and she let

everyone know that I was a bad person. I told my boss that I couldn’t go to the dump in the afternoons anymore because that’s when she works and I was scared of her. Because safety was not particularly a paramount concern at Dolan’s Heating Ltd – our motto being, “Don’t spend half the day setting up wimpy scaffolding when you can throw up the 50 footer and git ‘er done in ten minutes” – my boss told me to get over it and to not pay her the next time if she was being bitchy.

One day I stopped at a gas station to fill up my pickup truck. While doing so, I looked down and noticed that the fronts of my steel toed boots had worn through. At the same time I noticed the rips in the knees of my jeans, the cloud of construction dust that poofed out from me every time I shifted my weight, and the stick of pepperoni in my hand. I was pretty much a 45-year-old man.

Not that I want to be one of those girls who thinks their waitressing job is so hard because Tiffany, the new totally under-qualified hostess, triplesat their section during the rush and how impossible groups of lunching middle-aged women are because Judy wants two and a half ice cubes in her glass of water, and Linda wants four cubes halved, and Shelly wants a slice

of lemon-lime fusion in her room temperature water, and Sandra wonders if it would be too much of a hassle if the entire menu could just be rewritten because nothing seems to be gluten-free and that will give her a rash.

Giving salads to a couple of women that play bridge and take golf lessons in their free time is not difficult. Moving a 500-pound furnace into position is difficult. It takes about two hours to move it six feet, which makes you cry.

This article originally appeared in The Red Herring. The rest of the story can be found at theredherring. net, alongside other pieces on summer jobs. For now, check out the focus in the coke-doers’ eyes!

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily