vol98iss3

Volume 98, Issue 3

Students sue AUS

September 8, 2008

news 3

McGill THE

Inside a climber's life features 10 + 11

DAILY

Going under since 1911

Drowning deaths uncovered Sci+Tech 9

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

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Queen E. workers strike David Koch

News Writer

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ozens of picketing hotel workers lined the sidewalks outside the main entrance to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel last week to demand benefits and improved working conditions.

Nearly 600 workers – including kitchen staff, servers, receptionists, bellhops, and housekeepers – went on strike August 28 after being without a contract for nearly two months.

With over one thousand rooms, the hotel – located on René Lévesque and Mansfield – is the largest in the province and the latest in a string of conflicts between Quebec hotels and their staff.

Pascal Côté, president of the local Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), which represents the workers at the “Queen E,” accused the hotel of using scabs – workers employed illegally to replace striking union members – in order to keep the hotel running.

“They don’t respect the law. If they were only the people who are allowed to work inside, they [would]

have no service at all,” Côté said.

Hotel clients Greg and Petra King had no complaints about the service during their stay, which coincided with the strike.

The company which is managed by the multinational Fairmont Hotels and Resorts claimed in a press release last Thursday that “[t] he Queen Elizabeth will continue to maintain service to hotel guests with the support of management staff.”

Jean-Pierre Larche, a spokesperson for CSN, indicated Queen E workers decided to strike because they were unsatisfied with the progression of negotiations with hotel management.

The union is demanding a reduction in workload for housekeeping staff members, who, under the previous collective agreement were expected to each clean 14 rooms per shift. Larche noted that as hotels had renovated rooms over the past decade, adding extra beds and mirrors, the workload had become heavier for housekeepers.

“The workload...has surged but nobody ever talks about reducing the maximum number of rooms that

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

Unionized workers on the picket line accuse hotel of employing scabs. they have to clean per day. That was a huge problem and we’re happy to break that,” he said.

CSN aimed to limit the number of rooms to 13, according to Tammy Bernier, who serves afternoon tea at the hotel.

“The reason for that is because there’s a lot of physical injuries and it’s very hard physical labour,” Bernier said.

Jennifer Cloutier, a housekeeper

at the hotel, said that her co-workers have reported injuries on the job.

According to Cloutier, at a union meeting, a room service worker said he had to help a housekeeper who injured herself on the job when she fell in a bathtub, . Initially enlisting the help of security, the room service worker ended up dealing with the situation on his own.

“When [the room service worker] came back, he noticed that [the

housekeeper] was still there, in tears in the tub. He brought her down, but no one gave her new clothes to change into,” Cloutier said.

On August 28 in a press release, the company said that working conditions and benefits at the hotel are “among the best in our industry in Canada.”

The spokesperson for the Queen Elizabeth was not available for comment at press time.

Arts Undergraduate Society sued by their own for $14,000 Erin Hale

The McGill Daily

T

hree Arts students – Geoffrey Hall, Stephen Antoline, and Nathan Tockerchuk – successfully sued the Arts Undergraduate Story (AUS) this summer for $14,000 in back-payments they were owed for coordinating the 2007 Arts Frosh.

AUS President Nick Wolf and Hall, both said that the dispute began over a poorly written contract.

“It came down to a difference of interpretation between coupons and gift certificates,” said Wolf. “The coordinators thought [À la Carte coupons] should be counted as gift certificates, but the AUS vehemently disagreed.”

The coordinators, who were supposed to receive a cut of the advertising revenues, sued over differing interpretations with AUS over what constituted their share.

Hall, now a McGill alumni, said that Elizabeth Mirhady, 2007-2008 AUS VP Finance, had budgeted enough to pay the all three coordinators their full salary, but they were only awarded half of it.

“When I was working with [Mirhady], we were only working on a budget for 1,000 [froshies] to be safe, but 1,200 showed up.... That was enough money to pay the fees of the coordinators,” Hall said.

Hall was also suspicious of the figures AUS presented in court that

revealed a round, $500 defecit for frosh – plausibly made up.

The tight-lipped AUS was initially hesitant to reveal information about the case, which had been kept off-the-radar all year, until rumours of undisclosed budget cuts, outsourcing of the AUS handbook to China, and running Frosh to make a profit all in order to cover losses surfaced only days after the semester began.

But the AUS countered the rumours and declared that they began planning contingencies in December, when the case was filed, should they lose the case.

“Departmental funding vital to advancing student life was unaffected,” said an AUS press release.

“Unessential expenditures such as supplemental departmental funding and materials were reduced or cut.”

RJ Kelford, the 2007-2008 AUS president, admitted by email that it was a sore topic, but refused to comment further, claiming he was no longer a spokesperson for AUS. While AUS VP External Hanchu Chen claimed that a lawyer had looked over the 2007 contract pro bono, he would not give a name because it had been a personal favour. Hall contended there was never a lawyer present.

“That is factually incorrect,” he said. “In fact [it’s] impossible, given the timeline of writing, drafting, and editing the contract,” he said of Chen’s claim.

Kelford, Chen, and Wolf all said that the AUS will improve their ways now by consulting lawyers, thus creating better contracts.

A former AUS councillor, who ical of AUS’ handling of the incident.

“The AUS runs a shady operation.

They didn’t deal with the coordina-

tors in a professional way, [so] they got what they reasonably deserved.

The contracts they wrote were shitty so [the coordinators] won.”

CKUT produces national news segment Nikki Bozinoff

The McGill Daily

S

tudents craving grassroots media may want to tune into CKUT 90.3 FM Friday when McGill’s community radio station produces this month’s edition of Groundwire – Canada’s only independent national news radio program.

Courtney Kirkby, a volunteer at CKUT hopes that when students listen to GroundWire this Friday, they’ll hear something fresh.

“Often when you listen to the TV, it’s the same vocal persona,” she said.

“It’s neat listening to Groundwire because there are so many voices.”

Production of Groundwire rotates monthly among all 20 of the community radio stations involved in the project – an unprecedented initiative, according to Gretchen King, CKUT news director. Submissions can come from any independent Canadian producer, and each program has content from all over the country.

The September edition of

Groundwire, which airs Friday during CKUT’s weekday news program Off the Hour, will feature labourrelated content including a piece commemorating the 1978-79 nickel workers strike in Sudbury and an investigation into present-day labour action in Montreal.

King was excited that GroundWire will prioritize issues absent from other news sources.

“All of these issues are never explored in mainstream media....

Much of the media has turned toward profit rather than content,” she said.

The program aims to emphasize human rights activism, labour rights, democratic information exchange, and progressive political and social policy.

Kristin Schwartz, a Groundwire contributor who is a former member of directors of the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA), agreed that the program’s content sets it apart from other news sources, and said that students will likely identify with it.

“Youth in particular have a critical view on mainstream media, and are

looking for alternatives,” she said.

The idea for an independent national news program came out of the NCRA’s 2004 conference in Edmonton, but due to funding constraints and a lack of news producers, it took until this past April for the first edition to air. King explained that CKUT played an important part in keeping the idea alive.

“CKUT has been the Bunsen burner on the project, and has made an effort to make sure that this project gets off the ground,” she said.

Kirkby, who is a contributing producer on this month’s program, said the project gave radio journalists a great wealth of experience.

“It is a good opportunity for journalists who are just getting their feet wet to produce with guidelines, and for a national audience,” King said.

Schwartz was also positive about what listeners will gain by tuning into Groundwire.

“I hope that young people in particular will appreciate a program that amplifies the voices of people who are engaged in community struggles,” she said.

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

Tensions to rise in Montreal North

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Community one step further from justice with newly appointed crown prosecutor on Villanueva investigation, says activist Shannon Kiely

The McGill Daily

T

hirty days after Montreal police shot and killed Freddy Villanueva in Montreal North, the details of the altercation and the investigation into the 18-year-old's death remain unclear.

François du Canal, a member of the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP), worried about François Brière’s appointment by the government as the Crown Prosecutor in the case.

In 2007, Brière presided over a police investigation in which Quilem Registre, a black Montreal North resident, was killed after he was struck with up to six shots from a taser after police said he hit three parked cars and acted intoxicated.

Brière dismissed charges against police.

Since 1987, there have been 43 people killed by police in Montreal.

In the same period, only four police teams have been charged of murder.

In half the cases, the officers were acquitted.

La Presse’s Jean-Paul Charbonneau was the first to discover and publicize Brière’s appointment, on August 19.

COBP challenged the article’s statement that Brière’s experience with the justice system would prove an asset in calming tensions in Montreal North in a letter the newspaper refused to print.

Martine Bérubé, spokesperson for the Quebec Bureau of Criminal

and Penal Prosecution, said Brière was selected because he worked with the St. Jérôme jurisdiction, 30 km north of Montreal, and thus could approach the case from an impartial point of view.

“Brière has a lot of experience, and we have no reason to believe that he won’t do a good job,” she said.

The COPB has organized annual marches against police brutality for the past 12 years.

McGill Daily: Are you confident that François Brière’s involvement with the Villanueva case will afford the family justice?

François Du Canal: No. Brière is known for being an anti-Mohawk prosecutor from his involvement with the Oka Crisis in 1990 and the 2004 police coup in Kanehsatake.

He is an investigator who seems to enjoy putting Mohawks in jail.

What’s even more scandalous is that he was the Crown Prosecutor in the Quilem Registre killing in Saint-Michel in 2007.... [He] decided not to lay charges against the officers involved. La Presse claimed that Brière was experienced and his work with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) will calm people down, but we think that’s total nonsense. Brière’s nomination is a warning that the Freddy Villaneuva case will conclude the same way his other cases did.

MD: Do you think the SQ will pursue a fair investigation into Villanueva’s death?

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

Du Canal, choosing to partially conceal his face out of fear of police persecution, stands in silhouette.

FC: The system is always the same even if it is the other police corps who are investigating. Police forces are always in solidarity with each other.

MD: Is the SQ delivering as promised to make the results of their investigation public?

FC: The SQ investigation is always secret. The [Villanueva] family doesn’t have access to the police report. The family only heard about the investigation through the media.

They also didn’t interrogate the

cops involved. How can we trust this investigation when they’re not doing what they should? The SQ is claiming that they’ll make their conclusions public, but we haven’t seen anything yet.

MD: How do you think Brière’s involvement in the case will impact relations between the police and Montreal North residents?

FC: If people learn that Brière acquitted Registre, it won’t give people confidence in the system. He acquitted the cops in that case.... He’s

City hikes rent for transmission tower Matthias Lalisse News Writer

A

t a public forum Wednesday, plans to modify the Société Radio-Canada (SRC) transmission tower, which crowns Mount Royal, stirred residents’ resentment toward the mountain’s most prominent eyesore.

The tower, which provides television service to Montreal, will undergo internal modifications to implement new high-definition technology, a plan that roused many who resent the antenna that currently juts out from the mountain’s green canopy. With their neckties loosened

in sweltering heat, the city and SRC fielded concerns from Montrealers at the meeting who wanted to see the antenna relocated from its present perch.

The modifications are part of Canada’s universal shift to HDTV transmission that will make old transmitters obsolete.

According to CBC Senior Technology Director François Conway, the tower must remain atop the mountain to compensate for the city’s unique topography, which creates a telecommunications “shadow” that blocks service for many residents.

“There has to be a direct line of sight between the antenna and the receiver,” Conway said.

Several Montrealers questioned the antenna’s effects on public health, citing radio wave concentrations that exceed legal limits at multiple points around the antenna.

Conway stressed that the altera-

tions will repair the trouble spots, but clarified that the current levels in those areas – which barely exceed parameters that scientists consider potentially hazardous – are in fact harmless.

“When public safety is at issue, we don't take any chances,” Conway said.

Kristina Litvin, U1 Management, noted that the mountain, located close to McGill’s downtown campus, provides a necessary break from Montreal’s urban atmosphere for McGill students.

“I love the mountain. It’s the only thing that harnesses Montreal’s natural side, since most of the city is skyscrapers and cars,” Litvin said, adding the antenna’s location and aesthetic disruption are inconsequential.

“I think given that we live in a century where everything is so technologically driven, I'm just glad the antenna's not in the middle of my living room,” said Litvin.

Wednesday's forum came in the wake of a new 15-year agreement that hikes the rent that the SRC pays the city for the zone holding the antenna by several hundred thousand dollars annually. The city plans to allocate these funds towards preserving and beautifying Mount Royal.

Although irritated with the augmented fees, Martin Marcotte, the SRC representative who negotiated the new agreement, conceded that the rent increase was not unreasonable.

“The rate is comparable to other metropolitan areas,” Marcotte said.

Hosted by Les Amis de la Montagne, a nonprofit group working to preserve Mount Royal, the bilingual gathering attracted some 35 Montreal residents, ranging from concerned citizens to podium-seeking activists.

Construction on the antenna – expected to last 17 days – will cause interruptions in nighttime broadcasts throughout Montreal.

MD: What action can Villanueva’s family take if they do not agree with the decision made by the SQ and Brière?

FC: They have to go through the coroner to get a public inquiry.

The lawyer can then file a civil suit against the police and that will take time.

What’s the haps

Mountain antenna to receive HD upgrade

really arrogant, and he showed no respect to Registre’s family. That will make relations between people in Montreal North and the police even worse.

GRASPé Orientation Meeting Tuesday, Sept. 9, 5:30 p.m.

In front of the Arts Lounge in Leacock Wanna know more about radical activism both on- and off-campus? Get yourself extra-involved. No activist experience necessary!

Political Picnic & Rally Wednesday, Sept. 10, 12 – 2 p.m.

Roddick Gates Join in the roaring kickoff to the Reclaim Your Campus campaign! Midnight Kitchen will be serving up one of their pay-as-you-can vegan lunches.

Growing Grassroots Media in Palestine Thursday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m.

Le Sociale, 1455 Bishop The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) in Bethlehem, Palestine throws a benefit bash for cash. Slidingscale donation is $5-$10.

Got events to share?

Send your non-profit haps to news@mcgilldaily.com.

News

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

McGill switches gears on cycling Montrealers Ashley Joseph News Writer

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cGill is fed-up with being a through-route for Montreal’s two-wheeled commuters. Security guards were instated as gatekeepers to redirect bike traffic on campus in an effort to dissuade Montreal citizens from passing through McGill.

Jim Nicell, Vice-Principal University Services for McGill, noted that heavy bike traffic was not sustainable for McGill.

“We’re doing everything we can at McGill to preserve the campus, but this is not a thoroughfare – it’s McGill,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is become a highway.”

The problem is rooted in the missing link in Montreal’s bike-path system. With no connecting route

between the de Maisonneuve bikesuperhighway and the Milton bike lane, cyclists travelling west on Milton toward downtown must cut through campus or face on-coming traffic on University. According to Velo-Quebec, 3,000 cyclists pass through McGill’s gates every day, only 500 of who are McGill students or staff.

Nicell explained that the MiltonUniversity biketrap that led cyclists right through Milton Gates necessitated circulation patterns designed to facilitate traffic flow.

“Measures are being taken to address the bike traffic issue, starting with security at the Milton Gates to ensure cyclists follow the direction of traffic, or for cyclists to slow down or dismount,” he said.

Cyclists must ride up towards the James Administration building and around, as opposed to the lower

road which runs in the opposite direction. But reports of disgruntled cyclists swearing, yelling, and even throwing hot coffee in the face of these security guards suggests that the redirecting is not all-together smooth.

David Gruber, a member of the McGill cycling team, said that the re-routing shouldn’t be an issue for students.

“The extra 30 seconds doesn’t really make a difference....

Pedestrians don’t expect you to come the wrong way down the street,” Gruber said.

Nicell said that McGill still wanted to promote the use of bikes through initiatives like Car-free day.

“We’re blocking off more of the campus every year, and we’re growing and moving in a sustainable direction,” he noted, adding that a complete shift to bikes was not fea-

7

Stephen Davis / The McGill Daily

A McGill security guard redirects cyclers around campus. sible at the moment.

“There will need to be a transition,” he said. ‘We need to figure out how we’re going to integrate with the city and generate more bicycle space.”

Nicell noted that re-routing issues were likely to worsen next summer, when upper campus would be under construction, limiting bike traffic to lower campus.

Montreal not to ban bottled water, yet

Aaron Vansintjan for The McGill Daily

Ali Withers

McGill Daily

C

onvinced that water bottles are clogging landfills, Montreal is pushing for a deposit-based recycling system on plastic bottles instead of crusading alongside other Canadian cities against the presence of bottled water in the city all together.

London, Ontario banned the sale of bottled water in city buildings and arenas on August 18, prompting Toronto, Kitchener, Ontario, and Vancouver to consider similar actions.

While the city has not ruled

out the possibility of the ban, Alan DeSousa, responsible for sustainable development within the Executive Committee of Montreal, is hoping that the city will decide to charge consumers a deposit tax on bottles of water to add a monetary incentive to recycle. The plan was outlined in a proposal presented to the Quebec government on February 19.

The committee has yet to hear back from the province about the proposal.

Improving Quebec’s recycling program would alleviate the need to ban bottled water, explained Richard Goulet, spokesperson for RecycQuebec, a society created by the

provincial government to help implement recycling and waste recovery programs.

“The big issue is not whether it is good or not to cut down on [bottled water] circulation, it’s whether we can increase our recycling programs,” he said.

Goulet said that over one billion bottles were in circulation throughout the province, but that recycling rates of up to 70 per cent meant that most did not end up in landfills.

Zoe Maggio, head of the anti-privatization Water Program at the Polaris Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank, was not convinced that recycling nullifies the negative environmental impact of bottled water use.

“It’s really important to consider the other environmental impacts [of bottled water]– like production and transportation – that are releasing a ton of greenhouse gases into the air,” Maggio said, She added that as low as 33 per cent of water bottles in Canada are recycled.

Safe to drink?

While Maggio maintained that bottled water is not necessarily safer or cleaner than municipal tap water Justin Sherwood, President of Refreshments Canada, the national trade association representing 30 packaged beverage brands, disagreed, refuting claims that bottled water – the safety of which is regulated under Health Canada Food and Drug Act – was tainted.

“To say that because it’s regulated under a different piece of legislation and is therefore inferior is completely false,” Sherwood said about the fact that municipalities monitor inspections of their own tap water.

90 per cent of the bottled water industry is spring or mineral water that undergoes an ozination process before being capped. The remaining ten per cent is taken from a potable water source, such as municipal tap water, demineralized through a multimillion dollar purification process.

DeSousa added that Montreal prioritized a high quality of water, and water fountains in public places.

“Montreal’s water is very good to drink,” he said. “We’re very proud of our water.”

Bottled water all dried up?

Grab a soda instead.

Elizabeth Griswold, Executive Director of the Canadian Bottled Water Association, called London’s decision to ban bottled water highly symbolic.

“It was an easy decision for them to make it look like they were doing something for the environment, when in fact they were doing nothing,” she said.

Griswold pointed to a study conducted in May by Probe Research Inc., a marketing research company, which showed 70 per cent of consumers who purchased bottled water did so as an alternative to buying other packaged beverages – not tap water. “[Municipalities] are sending the wrong message at a time when our society is dealing with substantial concern about diabetes and increasing obesity rates,” she said. “People are not going to turn to the tap, they’re going to turn to other packaged beverages.”

Maggio, however, insisted that there was no such correlation.

“There is no evidence that by taking away bottled water as an option,

people will resort to sugary drinks,” she said.

The Nestlé Group, Canada’s largest packaged beverages retailer, reported the only sector that showed a decrease in sales in the first half of 2008 was bottled water, down 1.1 per cent.

Sherwood argued that removing the option of bottled water from the market was unfair to consumers.

“Municipal politicians and activists are saying we don’t like this product, and so it shouldn’t exist. Where does that stop? You’re taking away consumers’ right to choose.”

News brief Sheraton engages teenage scabs \On August 29, the Quebec Labour Relations Commission ordered Montreal’s Sheraton Four Points hotel – where nearly 70 unionized workers have been striking since August 25 – to discontinue the employment of six scabs. While the hotel claimed they were volunteers, the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) accused the hotel of offering compensation – monetary or otherwise.

The Four Points admitted the six workers performed the tasks of CSN members, according to the Commission’s report.

Four of the workers were minors, ranging in age from 13 to 16. Three were family members of Four Points management, and one was a friend of a manager’s son.

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Consider the Church of St.Andrew & St.Paul. We are a vibrant Christian community located in the heart of Montreal’s downtown. Our College & Careers groups meet regularly for Bible Studies, social events, and retreats.

And if you visit us this Sunday September 14th we’ll treat you to lunch following the service!

Service begins at 11:00am

The Scholarships and Student Aid Office will offer the Work Study Program for 2008/2009 with funds from the University and the McGill Alumni Association, grants from the Quebec Minister of Education, and contributions from the Arts and Science Undergraduate Societies.

What is Work Study?

How do I apply?

Applications can be submitted online through the Financial Aid Menu on MINERVA. Check us out on the web :

www.standrewstpaul.com

For complete program details, please consult the Work Study website at: www.is.mcgill.ca/studentaid/workstudy.

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STUDENT INFORMATION

McGill’s Work Study Program offers part-time, on-campus job opportunities to full-time degree students who demonstrate financial need. Eligible employers benefit from subsidized labour costs when Work Study students are hired.

(Sherbrooke St. @ Bishop) 3415 Redpath St. Montreal, Quebec H3G 2G2 514-842-3431

For more information :

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Science+Technology

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

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Developed world drownings exceed expectations Lindsay Waterman The McGill Daily

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oughly a million children die from drowning each year.

The high mortality rate came as a surprise last year, when surveys in Asia were conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The estimates of these surveys put drowning ahead of car crashes as the leading form of fatal injury for minors worldwide.

This is news to the public health world, which thought it had identified the causes of infant mortality during the “Child Survival Revolution”.

A movement led by UNICEF in the eighties, the Child Survival Revolution was meant to address the major preventable causes of child mortality, like infection and malnutrition. It worked; researchers studied hospital records to identify the main causes of death, created programs that would save lives, and by the end of the decade 12-million children were saved.

But drowning went unnoticed.

Hospitals had no record of drowning deaths, because the families of drowned children didn’t report their loss. According to Dr. Steve Beerman, president of the International Life Saving Federation, the new surveys of Asia have dramatically revised the WHO’s 2007 world drowning report estimate of 400,000 deaths per year.

“Our most recent estimate with new data from Asia places the global drowning burden over one million per year,” Beerman said.

Little has been done to solve the problem. Beerman said that there is an acute lack of funding for antidrowning initiatives.

“As an example of the lack of

resource allocation to drowning, Malaria has a global mortality of 1.2 -million per year, and of those about 20 per cent are children. Malaria gets $4.5- billion for programs of reduction, control, and study. Drowning gets less than $400,000 globally,” Beernman said.

Canada has been a key player in exposing this imbalance, and through its own surveys pioneered the methodology that made today’s clearer picture of the drowning burden possible. The country’s involvement has been partly motivated by the drowning burden within Canada: aboriginal and ethnic populations suffer high drowning rates, and in total, over 400 Canadian children drown each year.

Solutions to the global drowning crisis are simple. In developed nations, drownings usually occur in recreational settings like pools.

Fencing pools, teaching children to swim, and raising public awareness may have all contributed to the 30 per cent decline in drowning deaths within Canada since 1990.

In undeveloped nations, on the other hand, drowning is a danger of daily life. According to the recent report called Drowning in the Developing world, published by the Alliance for Safe Children, most Asian and African children are exposed to a huge number of drowning risks every day.

“There are extraordinarily high exposure rates to potential drowning hazards that occur on a daily basis in almost every child’s daily activities,” the report stated.

Despite the toll infant drownings take on families and society in much of the developing world, a culture of water safety and swimming hasn’t

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

New surveys in Asia indicate that the number of children that drown each year far exceeds expectations. evolved. Beerman remarks that such an evolution is hindered by beliefs regarding water held by some people in poor nations.

“There are many mythical and cultural beliefs in Asia and Africa about drowning. For some, if you

save someone from the Goddess of the sea, you will be the next to die.

Others believe drowning is their god’s wish,” he said.

Pilot projects to reduce drowning deaths are underway in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The ini-

tiatives focus on teaching survival swimming, which increases survival rate by 50 per cent, and social awareness of the drowning problem. With support from rich nations, the pilot projects will soon be scaled up to national and regional levels.

on such large projects because it can handle them more quickly than any single computer. Drawing on over a million home computers, the time the grid takes to compute complex problems is dramatically reduced below even the fastest supercomputers. According to Robitaille, the Grid focuses on some of the most challenging problems in science.

“The World Community Grid looks for projects that will take years of computing [to complete], not just weeks or months... Using a modern supercomputer, the Help Conquer Cancer project would have taken 200 years of computing. The World Community Grid will complete the project in two years, and through those two years we will generate

results that can already [be analyzed],” said Robitaille.

Although the Grid grew to an impressive one million computers this summer, the network could stand to grow much larger. Most of the approximately 600-million computers used every day employ only about 10 per cent of their power, leaving a large reservoir of latent power for the programs of the World Community Grid. The Grid has been trying hard to get more people to download the program because as more people join, more projects will be possible. The Grid community is quiet about up and coming projects, but Robitaille hinted to The Daily that a climate change program may be in the works.

Your idle computer can save the world Patrick Janukavicius The McGill Daily

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ver wanted to be a superhero?

Well here’s your chance to help save the world. World Community Grid is a not-for-profit organization that uses idle personal computers to solve global challenges.

From fighting cancer, to making rice crops with higher yields, to developing new AIDS drugs, the World Community Grid is working on it.

The Grid is a partnership between IBM and members of the scientific community. David Robitaille, a manager at IBM’s Corporate Citizenship and Corporate affairs department, is excited about the potential of the

Grid to tackle some big problems.

“The grid is focused on some of the greatest challenges facing humanity,” he said.

The grid works by connecting millions of computers through the internet, then assigning each one a small portion of a huge task. Robitaille explained that the program is unobtrusive, running only when the computer is not in use.

“Users download the software onto their PC. When their PC is idle, the software detects that and asks the World Community Grid server for work to do,” he said.

Some of those donating their computer downtime are right here at McGill. U4 Science student Kelly Gallagher downloaded the program

immediately upon hearing about it.

“I like the cancer project. It made me feel like I was doing something good for the world rather than just being lazy and going on Facebook,” she said.

The grid is friendly for users who, like Gallagher, have a passion related to one of the projects. Users are free to choose, if they wish, the project they want to donate their spare computing power to. The project Gallagher’s computer works on (Help Conquer Cancer) requires hefty computing power, because it investigates the complex 3-D structure of proteins that are related to cancer. Hopefully the project’s findings will lead to pharmaceutical innovations that will help treat the disease.

The World Community Grid takes

10 Features Rock climbing for dummies Mountaineering Mountaineers are the guys and girls who, well, climb entire mountains. While trad or sport climbing are often key components of an expedition, mountaineers employ a variety of techniques and tools such as snowshoes and crampons to reach the summit.

Indoor climbing

As the name suggests, this sport takes place in climbing gyms. Climbers train and compete on artificial walls dotted with removable holds. Designed to imitate the cracks and lumps in real rock, the holds are arranged into routes and problem sets of varying difficulty. Montreal gyms include Allez-Up (1339 Shearer) and U de M’s Cepsum climbing wall (2100 Edouard Montpetit).

Sport climbing

Sport climbers seek to take movement on natural rock to its limit, assuring their safety by clipping themselves to permanent metal rings that designate routes of varying grades of difficulty.

Trad(itional) climbing

Trad climbers tackle rock faces with their own cams and nuts, slotting them into natural cracks. Like sport climbing, routes are often designated in map books, but traditional climbing leaves much more up to the individual athlete’s problem-solving and improvisational skills. It’s also more dangerous.

Bouldering

Though historically considered a training method, bouldering has lately been coming into its own as a separate sport. Ropes and carabiners are abandoned for “crash pads;” climbers drop onto the protective mats when they can go no further or have completed a problem. Short climbing walls can be set up for bouldering, but participants also seek out smaller natural rock formations.

Noelani Eidse/ The McGill Daily Noelani Eidse/ The McGill Daily

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

11

Just don’t look down

The Daily’s Claire Caldwell takes on the rock climber’s guide to life.

O

ne summer day about ten years ago, I found myself clinging desperately to a climbing wall, trembling and sweating, crying for one of my camp counselors to rescue me. After much coaxing, I pushed away from the holds and let myself be lowered gently to the ground – which turned out to be about 5 feet underneath me. Afterward, I limited my rock climbing experience to Everest documentaries and Mountain Equipment Co-op catalogues, though my avoidance was probably driven by humiliation rather than real fear – I’d had barely enough time to stop sniffling before one of my peers darted gracefully to the top of the wall.

This spring, I surprised myself by making tentative plans to spend the day hanging around a climbing gym in Montreal. The plans never materialized, but the inspiration behind them – my then-roommate Amanda – stuck.

When Amanda had introduced herself as a rock-climber, I’d imagined her scrambling up mountains all day long, pausing every so often to enjoy a snack and a view. It wasn’t something I could envision myself doing, but I was still thoroughly smitten with that rugged, romantic image. So, I set about discovering as much as possible about the sport without setting foot (or hand) on a rock face.

One of the first things I learned about rock climbing was that, not surprisingly, it doesn’t exactly match up with any picturesque ideal.

Amanda doesn’t spend her days dangling from cliffs. She works a full-time job to pay the bills and support her climbing addiction. It’s an expensive sport: equipment, gym memberships, travel and competition fees – even weekend camping trips to the Laurentians add up quickly. And there is little financial incentive to pursue the sport.

“There’s no money in it,” says Amanda of rock climbing. “You win money in a comp[etition], or get money for being in a photo, but not everyone does and a lot of companies can’t afford it.”

Put simply, there’s just not much money to go around. Sometimes climbers and equipment companies – both frequently strapped for cash – help each other out: A handful of climbers manage to secure jobs with companies like Mammut or Verve. A lucky few receive sponsorships, which in rock climbing is more like a partnership than a free ride: athletes are given gear, or a small amount of money, and the climber in turn becomes

a walking advertisement. For such a small, self-contained sport, this seems like an ideal arrangement.

In actuality, securing a sponsorship rarely follows a democratic ideal. Climbing is in many ways a male-dominated sport, especially from a corporate standpoint; many products are designed with a male consumer in mind. One would assume, then, that in the interest of selling its products to the target demographic, a company would prefer to sponsor men.

Amanda disagrees. “It might be easier to get sponsored if you’re a girl, ‘cause if you’re pretty you’re going to look good.... Magazines like to have a lot of girls without all their clothes on,” she says. Of course, ads with half-naked girls in harnesses are clearly directed at male climbers. This can be enough to seriously cheapen any sponsorship, and points to less desirable effects of such a strong interdependence between climbers and companies.

From an outside perspective, it’s almost impossible to divorce climbing from pervasive commercial involvement. It doesn’t stop at sponsorships; companies often jump on opportunities to host events – the recent Mammut Bouldering Championship in Salt Lake City, or MEC’s annual bouldering series, Tour de Bloc, are major examples where corporate influence abounds.

It’s hard to say, though, whether this is inherently negative. A sponsor’s involvement in climbing events is obviously influenced by the projected profit. While many companies stage competitions that are little more than disguised ad campaigns, certain corporations have an earnest interest in promoting the sport itself. MEC’s Tour de Bloc, for example, was established “with the aim of promoting competitive climbing in Canada.” The bouldering series takes a grass roots approach to climbing events, offering competition spots to both beginner and experienced climbers. Unlike gear companies that dole out chalk bags and climbing shoes as prizes, MEC’s focus is earning climbers national recognition and raising the standard of the sport.

An uprooted community Perhaps paradoxically, Amanda seems unfazed by the overwhelming commercial influence on her sport. “Making it” as a climber, she feels, is hardly a matter of financial success.

For many climbers, recognition in the com-

munity is a large motivator, as is completing routes of increasingly difficult grades. Still, one of the most valuable rewards from climbing, according to Amanda, is actually free: the international community fostered by the sport.

“It’s such a small community...so you get this huge network of friends,” Amanda says.

As a kid, she participated in a competition in China, and is still in touch with many of her opponents. And those peers are only a small part of the network that she’s become a part of over the years. “I have places to stay all around the world,” she says. It’s another paradox of the sport that, despite climbers’ constant movement around the physical world, they are anchored by their relationships with each other.

Aside from competing on the same circuits, and sharing a passion for the sport itself, what draws many climbers together is a particular lifestyle. This spring, I was often struck by how little Amanda separated climbing from the rest of her life. Work hours depended on climbing trips scheduled for the weekend; any money saved from missing movie nights or shopping outings was spent on competition and equipment costs; everything from eating habits to decisions about school and lodging were weighed against the costs or benefits to her climbing career.

And many climbers, Amanda says, will go even farther to devote themselves entirely to the sport. An example? Most artists associated with the sport – hold sculptors, t-shirt designers, photographers – are also climbers themselves.

Many climbers’ lives revolve around movement, transience, a rapid succession of beginnings and endings – much like the mutability of a rock face. For the most part, Amanda approaches this principle of instability with optimism and a go-with-the-flow attitude.

She exudes a certain confidence that says: ‘I can do anything, but if I can’t do that I’ll work something else out.’ A few years ago, for example, Amanda was in massage therapy school, but quit because the training caused her muscle strain. “I couldn’t climb, so I stopped school,” she states matter-of-factly.

Eventually, Amanda says, she does want to obtain a degree, both for personal achievement and to have something to fall back on once her climbing days are over. And, like so many 22-year olds, she is at once apprehensive and excited about future opportunities for

learning and development. Thus, for Amanda, not finishing school is less of a permanent sacrifice than an indefinite deferral.

Nevertheless, there are serious disadvantages to living so flexibly. Amanda’s shuffled through about seven apartments since she moved to Montreal less than a year ago. For now, this lifestyle is fine for Amanda, but she is aware, she says, of the larger, perhaps more irrevocable price of pursuing her passion: an inability to put down roots. “I don’t want to end up in one place and be stuck there if I need to leave,” she explains. “So I’m going place to place trying to find somewhere I’ll be happy, but never really feeling like I belong.”

She has no idea if this simply comes with the territory, or if she faces a more long-term struggle.

Defending the dirt bag sport Amanda acknowledges that she often finds it hard to grasp exactly what it is that drives her to climb. “Half the time I don’t know what I’m doing,” she laughs, “like, ‘I’m climbing a rock!

I’m so stupid! I’m even living out of whatever – on couches – to do it!’” Asking someone why they are passionate about something is a bit unfair, but Amanda’s laissez-faire attitude perhaps inhibits a more critical look at the sport and accompanying lifestyle.

According to Amanda, most people view climbing as a “dirt bag sport.” “We’re not doing anything for the general society,” Amanda admits. “We’re not putting any money into it.

We’re doing the opposite: we’re trying to live off people, off their couches….It’s Completely selfish. You’re doing whatever you can for yourself.”

With that in mind, it may be naive of me to read anything profound into the rock climbing lifestyle; after all, isn’t that what everyone does? Look out for themselves? But romantic ideas can be hard to shake, and I have to give Amanda and her climbing peers credit for doing what makes them happiest, knowing full well that there is little else to gain and quite a lot at stake.

Gazing up at a 100-foot cliff and saying: “I am going to climb that; it is going to be incredibly hard, I will be tired, and frustrated, and probably scared,” is something that very few of us – both literally and figuratively – ever consider. Grabbing hold of the rock is another matter altogether.

12 Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

Enough is enough, it’s time to reclaim our campus

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Reclaim Your Campus Coalition

Hyde Park

T

his year McGill students will be organizing to reclaim our campus – because for the past few years, students have begun to notice some severe problems at the University. Lectures hall are packed tighter every year, many programs are underfunded, and even seeing an advisor can be a day-long endeavour.

Tuition fees are rising, but from most students’ perspective, the quality of education isn’t getting better.

It has also become more and more difficult to plan events on campus.

Protests or overtly political events are now banned, and even planning something as simple as a barbeque costs exorbitant sums of money and takes reams of paperwork and approvals. On top of that, McGill has been treating student groups with little to no respect. Wide-reaching decisions are made without consultation, and more and more authority is centralized and unaccountable to the community.

Twenty years of short-sighted public policy decisions are starting to take their toll. In the interest of lowering taxes, the public sector has been starved of resources – and as a result, universities have become drastically underfunded.

When McGill administrators complain about the University’s chronic underfunding, they aren’t lying – but the problem is that they’ve chosen to pass on the burden as far down the chain as possible, to students and employees.

Over the past few years, student groups have taken a hard hit. Given their track record, it seems like the Administration views student groups as more of a nuisance than an integral part of the McGill community.

The Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) McGill and CKUTRadio have also been struggling with

Ben Peck / The McGill Daily

the Administration over the decision to unilaterally put opt-outs online.

Last year, The Daily was forced to fight for its survival in a referendum. The formerly all student-run Architecture Café was taken over by McGill Food Services. Many groups have been evicted from on-and-offcampus space like the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students, the McGill Outdoors Club, and the Muslim Students Association.

When students contest these decisions, there is little response from McGill. This was most blatantly apparent when a referendum was passed last year in which students demonstrated their support for independent student groups managing their own opt-out systems. The administration dismissed this result offhand, and was not interested in hearing student opinion. Across campus students are feeling the crunch, and campus life is suffering.

People who work for McGill are

feeling the squeeze too. Last year McGill’s TA union, the Association of Graduated Students Employed at McGill, went on strike for 11 weeks.

Instead of negotiating in good faith, McGill used intimidation and scare tactics, suspending them from other forms of employment on campus.

Likewise, the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association – which represents support staff like library technicians, nurses, and clerical workers – is currently in the midst of renegotiating their collective agreement. Last week, they voted in a General Assembly to reject McGill’s latest offer. To save a penny, McGill is refusing to give its workers a fair deal.

Because of the way that McGill interacts with workers, another semester of labour unrest on campus is on its way.

McGill should be a place where everybody has a voice. We need to band together as a community and fight for decent funding, not pass

on the burden of underfunding to those in the weakest position to fight it. McGill should once again make students a priority, and start treating student groups and workers with respect. It’s time to organize. It’s time to draw the links between the issues and speak out against how students and workers are being pushed to the margins of campus.

This year, groups across campus are coming together to do just that.

Throughout the year, we’ll be planning events, making noise, and presenting an alternative vision of what McGill could be. Come and join us on Wednesday at noon at the Roddick Gates, for our kick-off event. It will be a festive political picnic where we clearly send the message that this is our campus. We’ll be calling out the McGill Administration on its shameful tactics and demanding respect and inclusion. McGill should be for everybody, and everyone deserves to be heard.

McGill’s school spirit: out to pasture?

Liz Cody

Hyde Park

A

s a returning student just trying to finally get “out from under” my undergraduate degree, I read your first fall issue with a mix of delight, nostalgia, and bitter curiosity. As I read, I happily recalled my own adventures exploring Montreal. I got excited when cafés and record shops that I’d explored got lip-service in your guide to the island, and got even more excited when they remained unmentioned, safely hidden away as rewards for more intrepid new explorers.

I felt the flash of those first stings of frustration and bitterness,

remembering past battles with the McGill Administration, where it was always unclear whether their tactics would’ve worked against a less apathetic, fragmented student body. Caught up in my own revery, I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of a place our construction-torn, beerstained, ever-more corporate, and yet somehow still picturesque campus would become for the next batch of freshmen.

As soon as I finished reading, I walked outside the Arts building to stand in the sun and take a long, thoughtful sweeping glance across McGill’s campus. It was then that I was almost run over by a herd of cows. To be precise, a band of pillaging students, many dressed in a cow

spot motif, and all waving a large banner that said “UQAM” [Université de Quebec à Montréal], who were barrelling up the front steps of our campus.

The air rang with “Olé’s” as the troop celebrated their victory above the silent tomb of James McGill. The most frightening thing about this attack – and perhaps the most disappointing for those UQAM students who waged the affront – was that it garnered absolutely no response. The hoard of students packed into Open Air Pub paid no heed, and the only pedestrians nearby wore the pained and dazed expression of individuals being sent from one bout of waterboarding to the next – no doubt en route from the student affairs office to the James Administration building.

Although victorious, the UQAM assault failed, in a way, because when they got to McGill, the castle turned out to be empty. UQAM’s victory was as vacuous as is our faith in the little red Martlett which perches above those steps. Does this foretell the future of a university whose school spirit has been drawn and quartered by the vagrancies of private interests?

Is there anyone left at McGill who could have mobilized a response?

Our school’s pride can only be said to have suffered injury if she hasn’t already been sent to the coroner.

Does she still breath? Will anyone defend her?

Liz Cody is a U3 Cognitive Science student.

Commentary

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

Letters: Dying kids, nude pics

Letters Brevity is not always best Re: “Made for the rich, tested on the poor” (Sci-Tech, Sept. 2) Having participated in a discussion group about the ethics of clinical trials, I was interested in last Tuesday’s article entitled “Made for the rich, tested on the poor.” But it didn’t stand up to scrutiny. The article misrepresented the facts of the situation by omitting crucial information. Basic and highly important facts, such as the total number of subjects involved in the trials and the number of them that were seriously ill beforehand, were not addressed.

According to a Times article on the same incident, the 49 infants who died were from a sample of 4,142, some of whom were already very ill (ie. they may have died anyways).

I’m not going to discuss the ethics of

administrating drugs to terminally ill children, but that little tidbit should have been reported.

And it wasn’t the only omission: the 49 deaths in the trial represent a 1.2 per cent mortality rate. According to the World Fact Book, India’s infant mortality is 3.2 per cent. To be clear, only 2,728 of the subjects were under the age of one (the maximum age at which a death is included in the infant mortality rate). But it’s possible that participation in the trials didn’t increase the risk of death at all. The evidence is inconclusive: as a spokesperson quoted in the Times’ article pointed out, we don’t even know how many of the 49 deaths occurred in the control group!

I agree that using infants as guinea pigs is ethically problematic, and that drug companies may be taking advantage of the uneducated poor.

And the death of a child is always a tragedy. But by misrepresenting the facts in their article, The Daily does little to support these sentiments.

What good is a “science” section that doesn’t accurately report the facts?

Michael Garfinkle Med I

Well hello to you, too Hi It’s kathryn again. Will you ever contact me?

I made those nude pictures especially for you and I wont write to you again!

If you wanna see them just drop me a line at: kathryn102@equipyard.com. kathryn the internet Please send letters to letters@mcgilldaily.com.

Unlike Kathryn, send letters from your McGill email address, and include your name, year, and program.

Please keep letters to 300 words for style and brevity. We will not print letters that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise hateful.

Keep in mind that we don’t know how we’re doing if you don’t send us letters, so please add them to your to-do list and then follow through on it. And if you’re not into to-do lists then we at The Daily suggest you get into them since they’re a splendid organizational tool.

Canadian media twisted bus tragedy John Kmech

Hyde Park

W

henever an event as tragic and random as Tim McLean’s July 30 death on a Manitoba Greyhound occurs, it undoubtedly shakes our sense of security.

Here was a young man, the same age as many university students, killed gruesomely in a seemingly arbitrary, unprovoked attack. Our national insecurities are on display in a clear glass case, but we lose the ability to examine them logically.

Even in 2008, we still work ourselves into frenzies, unable to separate rampant emotions from rational thought, constantly jumping to conclusions. Unfortunately, since the incident, the Canadian news media has appeared more like their American counterparts in fueling these notions.

The first ridiculous idea asserted is that Greyhound buses should have security on par with airlines. Not only is this idea impractical, but it also displays a startling ignorance of exactly how bus travel differs from airline travel.

The majority of stops in small towns are at truck stops, restaurants, or even just street corners.

Even if there were metal detectors at Greyhound stations and random wand checks, it’s highly unlikely Greyhound could provide an almost impenetrable shield against weapons the way airports with single entrances can.

Additionally, a random attack of this nature could have happened anywhere, not just on a bus.

Another shoddy argument being regurgitated is that we should give the accused, Vince Weiguang Li, the death penalty simply due to the shocking nature of the crime.

This neglects the fact that punishment for murder in our judicial system is correctly based on intent, not severity, as well as the fact that Canada hasn’t used the death penalty since 1976. Resorting to capital punishment would be the equivalent of a revenge killing or a public lynching.

Even more ludicrous ideas have been tossed out like confetti.

Opposition MPs approached Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day with a proposal for a knife registry.

Why apply a system that worked so poorly with guns to something that everyone has several of in their kitchen? A scissors registry or spatula registry would be just as useful.

Others argue that the incident should draw an eye to our lax immigration policies, since Li was a recent immigrant, as if a Canadian citizen could not have committed this attack.

People naturally consider extremes more favourably when they feel threatened, and the media perpetuates these ideas by surrounding us with them. The crime may have “sent a shockwave across the nation,” according to a CTV broadcast, but how much of that is the media’s fault?

Although murders tend to make the news, very few ramp up delirium as feverishly as this one did. If media outlets didn’t exploit such tragedies, would anyone still be willing to put their rights aside and buy into such ridiculous ideas?

It’s pretty alluring to believe hyperbole when you’re constantly exposed to it, but we have to be smarter, more discerning, and able to look beyond the Chicken Little effect of such incredibly rare acts.

Otherwise, ideas like a knife registry or intensive bus security in remote regions of the country may start to look reasonable.

Instead of buying into the Canadian media’s fear mongering over the issue, we should be content with the fact that incidents like the one that took Tim McLean’s life are extraordinarily rare and don’t warrant major alterations to security in our society.

John Kmech is a student at the University of Alberta. This article originally appeared in the Canadian University Press.

13

It’s time to care about international fees Last week, Concordia’s Board of Governors succeeded in raising annual undergraduate international tuition by $1,000, but only after the Concordia Student Union (CSU) had exhausted all of its legal and political options in an attempt to halt the increase.

The CSU’s response was so strong, in fact, that it was able to delay the increase for a nearly a full year.

But when McGill’s Board of Governors pushed through similar increases for its international students, nobody noticed. This academic year, foreign undergrads in the faculties of Science, Engineering, Law, and Managment are facing increases of $1,200 in base tuition – and last year, international tuition in every faculty except Management increased by more than $1,000 per year. Or, think of it this way: since 2006, the annual cost of a B.Sc. degree for international students has jumped $3,500.

Yet despite these increases, there has been little to no mobilization around the issue. We’re distressed by the lack of attention being paid to the increases, and we hope that international students take a cue from their in-province counterparts, who led a high profile fight against the de-freeze in their tuition rates just last year.

More concerning is the University’s quest to enroll these high paying students under the auspices of Principal Heather Munroe-Blum’s charge to recruit the best and the brightest from around the world. In a March speech before the Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal, Munroe-Blum pointed to Australia’s practice of charging international undergraduates market-based tuition fees to finance graduate scholarships as a model that “Quebec would do well to consider.” But this would simply deter international students from attending McGill and further undermine students’ right to accessible postsecondary education.

Foreign undergrads shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for improving McGill’s international reputation, nor for its ability to attract graduate students, especially as the University continues to downgrade the undergraduate experience. After all, international students are here for the same reason as the rest of McGill’s students – to, you know, learn.

We’re also curious what market Munroe-Blum is referring to. Is it Canada’s, or is it that of our nearest high-paying neighbours to the south? After all, skyrocketing costs at U.S. colleges and universities have left families scrambling to cover truly outrageous tuition fees, which often run at more than $40,000 per year. No wonder many U.S. citizens perceive McGill’s international rates to be relatively reasonable – though only in a perverse sense of the word.

These drastic hikes are just one part of the University’s goals to produce minds for a global economy – one where education, like bananas or coffee, is subject to market forces of supply and demand. Perhaps our principal should remember the last three letters of her title and quit raising tuition. Further, members of the student movement should more actively engage those on the foreign end of McGill’s tiered fee structure.

Editorial

Errata In “Students find shady jobs through CAPS,” (News, Sept. 2), The Daily wrote that multiple students were paid with a personal cheque at various locations along Ste. Catherine, and that multiple students received nothing until more than a month after being fired. In fact, only one student received a personal cheque, which was issued by a Downshire Capital staff member at St. Mathieu and Maisonneuve more than a month after the student quit.

In the same article, The Daily neglected to specify who paid the students at Second Cup; it was Paul Mastantuono of TelTeck Solutions.

mcgilldaily.com

THE DAILY NEEDS COLUMNISTS.

Please send three 500word sample columns and a short proposal letter to commentary@ mcgilldaily.com by Sunday, September 21.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

14

Sasha Plotnikova / The McGill Daily

Yves Saint Laurent inverts the rules of women’s vogue Tiana Reid Culture Writer

I

t seems that the recently deceased always get the most attention – not that native Algerian Yves Saint Laurent doesn’t deserve it. Shortly after his “Love” exhibition opened on May 29 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the acclaimed designer passed away at the age of 71. The exhibition showcases Saint Laurent’s notable 40-year career of designing women’s wear.

The beginning of Yves’ career was zealous: he began to work for Christian Dior at 17, and became head of the House of Dior at 21. Saint Laurent borrowed concepts from men’s fashion and transformed them into innovative women’s clothing, pioneering many women’s androgynous clothing essentials – calling them trends or fashions would be a travesty – such as the blazer, the pantsuit, the safari look and, most well-known, le smoking, or tuxedo suit. Innovative not only stylistically, but socially and racially, the French fashion designer was also the first to have black models in haute couture runway shows.

His influence can even be seen in this year’s July issue of Italian Vogue, which exclusively featured black models.

The display of the collection is

credited to Florence Müller, guest curator for the exhibition and a fashion historian from Saint Laurent’s home country of France. The exhibition focuses intensely on Saint Laurent’s wide-ranging influences – musical, literary, and artistic. He makes tributes to Van Gogh, Matisse, Braque, Wilde, Lady Macbeth, and Marilyn Monroe, among others. “Love” also showcases various media, from vintage photographs of Saint Laurent and his thickframed eyeglasses to video clips of runway shows and taped interviews.

The use of outside media sources reflects Saint Laurent’s diversity of inspirations and allows the museumgoer to understand Saint Laurent’s vision and direction outside of fabrics and dresses alone.

It’s clear that Saint Laurent distinguished himself by incorporating

familiar stylistic elements into previously unfamiliar places, creating unprecedented vogues. Common throughout the exhibition is the array of contrasting, almost clashing colours in Saint Laurent’s designs.

He creates astonishing embellishments with sequins, as well as alluring fabrics such as suede, wool, and tweed. A few pieces take on shocking volume, using poufs, ruffles, and capes, and many of his male-inspired designs are embellished with ruffles and bows to accentuate femininity.

Though much of the clothing in the exhibit pushes the limits of the imagination, some of his pantsuits, tunics, and ruffled shirts still possess tremendous wearability in everyday life. It may be surprising that pieces made 30 or 40 years ago could continue to be relevant to today’s

fashion culture, but Saint Laurent’s designs remain timeless. The collection includes Lycra and Lurex lamé pantyhose reminiscent of American Apparel leggings, as well as the primand-proper high-waisted skirts that are currently ubiquitous.

Yves Saint Laurent retired in 2002, but the “Love” exhibition delicately brings to life his diverse collection of work. He was a designer directly involved not only with the transformation of women’s wear, but also with the liberation of women in modern society. Newly departed artists may get all the press, but Yves Saint Laurent certainly deserves it.

Yves Saint Laurent’s “Love” Exhibition is open until September 28 at the Montreal Museum for Fine Arts. For more information visit mbam.qc.ca.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

15

Bittersweet exposures

Studio photography pays homage to the Japanese Canadian experience Priam Poulton-McGraw Culture Writer

I

t’s 10 a.m. and the museum is cool and silent. There is nothing to distract from the crisp black and white photographs that are lit up against the relative darkness of the gallery. Though there are a few outdoor shots, the focus of the exhibit is studio work, and nearly every image has the appearance of a carefully planned and executed moment.

The McCord exhibition showcases Japanese-Canadian photography in British Columbia from the turn of the century up until just before the Japanese deportations and internments of 1942, in which much of their property – including photo albums – was seized and put up for sale by the Canadian government.

The collection includes portraits taken in the studio as well as photographs from weddings, graduations, and public gatherings, most of which feature Japanese-Canadian subjects.

The meticulous, dignified attention to dress and careful poses have a fragile beauty that is amplified by the skillful photographic technique.

As visitors to the museum come and go, you are left alone for a moment to contemplate the collection, and a complexity to these seemingly happy images emerges.

Ghettoized in labour camps even

before the internments of the Second World War, and paid half the wages of white workers, the Japanese smile cryptically. A surreal calm and dignity masks a sadness which resonates in the somber ambience of the gallery. The space of the studio and the instant of the camera’s flash perhaps allowed for self-assertion, the control of destiny or self-portrayal or at the very least a reassuring photograph to send back to parents or relatives in Japan.

Some of the most striking photographs come from Senjiro Hayashi, who operated out of the small mining town of Cumberland. They include beautiful young girls with matching dresses and pearl necklaces, men in smart suits, wood cutters at an interior logging camp, and a carefully posed portrait of a baseball player standing at the plate in front of an expansive rural landscape.

The aims of the exhibition are to help recognize the contributions of Japanese-Canadian photographers, many of whom owned and operated their own studios, as well as to “raise questions regarding the value of photographs.” A careful look will reveal that this is no token tribute to Japanese Canadians.

The photographs stand on their own aesthetic merit and the show is far too sensitive and thoughtful to adopt a compunctious or moralizing tone. No photographs of the

A certain eeriness pervades the photos of the Shashin exhibition. internments have been included and historical information is moderated to give emphasis to the meaning in the photographs themselves.

The exhibition’s title “Shashin,” meaning photograph, is a word derived from the combination of the Japanese words for “true” and “reproduction.” These 80 stunning

photographs capture an important historical moment, candidly revealing its unembellished emotional complexity.

Photo courtesy of McCord Museum

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The cost

The exhibit runs until September 14 at the McCord Museum, 690 Sherbrooke O. Admission is $7 for students.

McGill Students & Staff: $6,70/day; $6.20/day for 3 or more days.

General public: $8.10/day; $6.95/day for 3 or more days.

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Raucous symphony and ambiguous space

Housing

APARTMENTS FOR RENT CITADELLE

A retrospective of the first annual Quebec Triennial at the Musée d’Art Contemporain Mikael Rubin

Culture Writer

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tepping into the main gallery of the Musée d’Art Contemporain (MAC), I wasn’t greeted by the usual hushed whispers and footsteps heard in most museums and galleries, but by a veritable raucous symphony: Gwenael Belanger’s Tournis, a looped video of glass breaking.

The placement of Tournis as one of the first pieces in the show is contentious, because there is nothing to mute the intermittent bursts of noise. It is obviously an intentional choice, and this speaks poignantly to the theme of the exhibit: Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed. The video’s repetitive loops repair the broken glass, and this sound transforms into a sometimes exasperating, sometimes nerve-grating background noise in other rooms of the exhibit.

The MAC’s first Triennial provides a general perspective on contemporary Quebecois art, though I couldn’t identify a particular trend – I think

that might’ve been the point. Since continuity with the rest of the show.

Unfortunately, pieces like Jon my knowledge of Quebecois art was nonexistent to begin with, I was Knowles’ The Robert Smithson pleased with the overarching theme Record Collection 2004-2008 felt of the show. It had a more definitive contrived – it seemed overly aware cohesion than was immediately of the museum space’s capacity for apparent, though the choice of artists detached expression, even as the show moved away from this. And was not contingent on the theme.

One of the biggest challenges fac- Cynthia Gerard’s paintings, such as ing a show of contemporary art – especially something as expansive as a triennial One of the biggest – is to convey the essence challenges facing a show of the art without comproof contemporary art is to mising the overall intent of convey the essence of the the exhibit. And to a large extent the Triennial sucart without compromising the ceeds. Throughout the show overall intent of the exhibit. one of the things that I liked most was the way that each piece and each artist was given their Libellule et Balloons, were vivid, but uninteresting in relation to other own distinctly defined space.

This works to the advantage of pieces and the exhibition as a whole. the exhibit because it directs you On the other hand, for an artist like toward each artist in turn, without David Altmejd, who sculpts colosobstructing the message – visual or sal figures, space is a necessity, not otherwise – that the artist is seeking only to accommodate the work, but to convey. In order for this to work, to allow the viewer to access it in its however, the pieces need to both be entirety.

One of my favourite pieces of the exceptional and express a sense of

“

show, Le Dentiste by Altmejd, absolutely demands space. It is a colossus composed of mirrors, fractured and faceted, along with small quail’s eggs encased in transparent glass. The piece enables – and even expects – the viewer to walk around it and engage with it as an ever-changing work; from each angle and from every perspective, a different view appears.

Another work I enjoyed was the sculpture by Michel de Broin, Black Whole Conference, which is an inverted sphere made of chairs whose lack of a center discloses an ambiguous space, obscuring – but not fully hiding – emptiness, and at the same time revealing a sort of transparency. This is how I would describe the Triennial: an inverted whole, displaying a certain cohesion – the theme – a vague homogeneity (because all the artists are Quebecois), and a remarkably ingenuous attitude towards structure. The show presents a collection of works that offer a unique, specific – but not overt or overbearing – survey of contemporary art.

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Saint Andrew’s Anglican Church Saint Andrew’s is a new Anglican church in Montreal.

We are committed to the foundational principles and historic standard of the Anglican tradition in Canada.

We are gathering in Westmount with the goal of eventually uniting with other members of the Common Cause Partnership in a new Anglican Province for North America. We invite you to join with us in worship and fellowship.

Wednesdays 12:15 pm Holy Communion Lunch & Bible Study at Westmount Baptist Church corner of Sherbrooke & Roslyn in Westmount

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brain teaser: what’s missing on page 15? (your name.)

write for culture. e-mail: culture@mcgilldaily.com or come on down to B-24 in Shatner, Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m.

Culture

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

Brutal, beautiful, surreal

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The World Press Photo Exhibition makes detachment impossible Ben Brown Culture Writer

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e often engage with even the most devastating photojournalism as a passive, detached audience. Sure, we enjoy the photographs that adorn our favourite newspapers and magazines, but more often than not a photojournalist’s work serves more as a diversion than as an educational tool or a catalyst for social action. It’s for this very reason that you should check out this year’s most stunning press photography as delegated by World Press Photo in its showcase of the 2007 photojournalism winners, now showing at the Just for Laughs Studio.

World Press Photo is an international non-profit organization that has awarded the cream of the photojournalistic crop for the last 51 years.

Its international jury consists of a highly-esteemed group of 13 experts in the field of press photography who conducted the selection of this year’s winners from late January into early February. The jury whittled down the successful photographs from a pool of over 80,000, reflecting the work of over 5,000 photographers. The winners were announced on February 8 for what is considered the highest honour in photojournalism.

For the World Press Photo jury, the aim of the showcase is to exhibit

CULTURE briefs Break a leg Sweaty palms? Shaky voice? Mind gone blank? If you’ve ever auditioned for a play, you’ll recognize these symptoms not as the warning signs of a neurological disease, but as stage fright. And, if you’ve been unfortunate enough to endure that harrowing experience, you’re probably aware that it can be devastating to securing theatrical roles. This semester, McGill’s Tuesday Night Café theatre is here to help. Every Tuesday night, TNC will host audition workshops from 7 to 9 p.m. at their home in Morrice Hall. The meetings will cover everything from traditional theatre to clowning to improv to performance poetry. Leaders will attempt to expand beyond audition prep with wide-ranging discussions around political theatre, playwriting, and more. Participants are asked to bring a piece they would like to improve on to the workshop, and to say goodbye to the days of wobbly knees and hyperventilation.

Photo courtesy of Balazs Garzi

both the diversifying trends and progression of worldwide photojournalism in 2007. The series covers many of 2007’s major events, from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s opposition leader, to eyegouging basketball players in Utah.

World Press Photo’s website, worldpressphoto.org, includes a fascinating archive of previous winners in addition to the full collection of photographs selected to represent the height of photojournalism in 2007. I highly suggest you take a look at it – but be aware that the images must really be seen in person, rather

than viewed over a 12-inch MacBook screen, to resonate with great effect.

Of particular note is this year’s Photo of the Year captured by Tim Hetherington, a British photographer. Hetherington’s snapshot of a fatigued American soldier stationed in Afghanistan palpably portrays the exhaustion of an army and a nation under a state of war. Nonetheless, the selection of Hetherington’s dark, blurred image as Photo of the Year has caused some agitation among critics who claim the photo is less aesthetically coherent than previous winners’. The response of jurist Erin

Elder has been that one “can’t ever allow technical imprecision to override the emotional or informational content of the frame.”

A great example of this comes in John Moore’s image of a bomb exploding next to Bhutto’s convoy during the attack that took her life.

The photo fails in an aesthetic sense – like Hetherington’s photo, it is dark and blurry – yet it resonates with such poignancy that Moore’s photo secured first place in the singles Spot News category.

As observers we do not share the risks that the photographers or their

subjects face, allowing us to remain detached from the rapidly circulating flow of global news events. Each of the photographs in this collection is a reflection on photojournalism’s ability to instantaneously seize our attention and ignite interest in these news stories. The collection asks us to pause and recall what the last year meant for those outside the often too-enveloping world that is McGill University. Ultimately, that lingering quality is at the heart of World Press Photo’s mandate – the ability to make us feel like detachment is a luxury we can’t afford.

TNC Audition workshops are on Tuesdays from 7 – 9 p.m in Morrice Hall (3485 McTavish).

offers a rounded perspective on the horror of the Algerian revolution.

Screenings start at 9 p.m. sharp, but these low-key gatherings often carry on till the early hours of the morning, so there’s no need to rush home to bed.

Chinatown, absurdist comedy like What?, a violent modernist re-imagining of Macbeth, and the recent Palme d’Or winner The Pianist. So if you are looking for some ink-black, existentially devoid, intelligent suspense thrillers, and also want to court controversy, head on down to Cinema du Parc!

given the opportunity to rework their electromagnetic field recordings into original compositions. A free concert showcasing these works will take place at OBORO (4001 Berri, Suite 200) on September 19 at 7 p.m.

Electric Avenue, you ain’t got nothin’ on St. Laurent. More information is available at oboro.net.

– Sam Neylon

– Leah Pires

– Claire Caldwell

Synthèse screenings Nuts to the weekend! Cinephiles and aspiring scenesters take note: Monday night screenings are fully in effect at Mile End’s lab.synthèse (435 Beaubien O). Taking advantage of the loft’s ample space, film projector, and soft, engulfing couches, the art collective promises to sate your craving for classic, cult, and art house cinema. Priced affordably at sweet nothin’, screenings are bring-your-own-snacks (and drinks) affairs, and all manner of pillows and blankets are encouraged.

Film choices range from Hiya Miyazaki’s joyously innocent My Neighbour Totoro to Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee’s story of bursting racial tension in Brooklyn on the hottest day of Summer. On the big screen this Monday is Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), the tale of a beautiful young woman who cannot bring herself to sleep with her husband, choosing instead to work at a brothel and indulge in violent fantasies. On the 15, The Battle of Algiers (1966), by Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo,

– Joshua Frank

Courting controversy The notoriety of Roman Polanski’s exile from the United States to France casts a long shadow on his artistic achievements. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, debuting soon in Montreal, examines in detail his notorious 1978 trial for sex with a 13-year-old girl. However, this complex figure cannot be tied completely to these events. He remains a controversial rather than ostracized figure largely because of his films.

Cinema du Parc focuses attention on this aspect of the Polanski character from September 5 to 14 with its twelve-film series of his work. Polanski is a rare filmmaker who has worked extensively in both the art house and multiplex, writing, directing, sometimes acting in his many films. He has turned out large Hollywood productions like Rosemary’s Baby, neo-noir like

Electric avenues

Summer’s siren song

We’re gonna walk down to Electric Avenue, and then we’ll take it higher: The Goethe Institut Montreal (418 Sherbrooke E), in conjunction with OBORO New Media Lab, is turning the streets of our city into an electromagnetic paradise. Starting on September 10 at 5:30 p.m. and continuing for ten days, you are invited to borrow headphones, free of charge, from the Goethe Institut and explore the streets of the city like never before.

Each set of headphones has been programmed by German artist Christina Kubisch to transform the city’s pre-existing electromagnetic fields into audible frequencies that can preserved by a built-in recorder.

Kubisch will also host workshops for local sound artists on September 16 through 18. Participants will be

If you’re finding it hard to acknowledge summer’s imminent demise, one coping strategy might be to surround yourself with its sights and sounds.

Why not start with Toronto shoegazers The Darcys? Already alumnis of Mcgill’s Open Air Pub stage (who says James McGill isn’t down with the kids?), the band will return to Montreal on September 10 for a show at L’Esco (4467 St. Denis) with Play Guitar.

The Darcys describe themselves as the aural equivalent of beards, beer, afternoon sunshine, and your aunt’s Fleetwood Mac records. So slip on those cut-offs and Ray-bans one last time, because summer’s not dead yet – The Darcys are playing her exit music, and she’s going out in style.

– Leah Pires

18 Photo Essay

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

Second Season Whitney Mallett

Compendium

Lies, Half-truths, & Pop Cans

NEWS SECTION LIES UNCOVERED

The McGill Daily, Monday, September 8, 2008

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Olympic Metals Arnie Foreman 1

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Across 1. Zeno, notably 6. Algonquian Indian 10. ___ line (major axis of an elliptical orbit) 14. The writer Saki’s real name 15. Covered in trees 16. “Let’s ___” 17. Fashionable 18. Get going 20. Understand 21. Bar bill 23. Aloha state 24. Weighs facts 26. Anger, with “up” 28. Start of a refrain 29. Radioactive pool sport?

32. Magnetic induction units 33. Drops on blades 34. Campaigner, for short 36. Bridal path 37. Atlantic catch 38. Exchanges 40. Aggravate 41. Former French coin 42. Driven to the terminal 43. Lasts forever, sort of 46. Claw 47. Motorolla chips 49. Dream Team’s man of metal?

52. Common preposition 53. “... ___ he drove out of sight” 55. Kuwaiti, e.g.

56. twirled 59. one, sometimes 60. Brook 61. Arabic for “commander” 62. Amiens is its capital 64. Drop 65. mailed 66. Ahead of the pack? (symbolically)

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Down 1. Cuff 2. Charlie, for one 3. In use 4. Bank offering, for short 5. Inner ear parts 6. PC “brain” 7. 100 dinars 8. Qualified 9. facial hair, sort of 10. Wild Sheep 11. Hatian Capital 12. ___ gin fizz 13. The “E” of B.P.O.E. 19. Layers 22. Pep band/team combo?

25. Amscrayed 27. “___ be a cold day in hell ...”

29. Short dams 30. Smell 31. Bach composition 32. Clavell’s “___-Pan” 35. “Acid” 37. partner protein 38. Cargo list 39. Cancels 41. Primitive animals 42. Divination deck 44. Round stone 45. 1969 Peace Prize grp.

48. Star in Cygnus 49. Fat 50. Ohio’s lake 51. “___ Brockovich” 54. Alternative to steps 57. “A jealous mistress”: Emerson 58. “Stupid me!”

63. Not you

Check back next Monday for the solution to “Olympic Metals,” plus another crossword!

Zippee-dee-doo-dah-day!

Concept by Winston Jeffries, Graphics by Sarah Mortimer / The McGill Daily

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Once again, the twisted minds at The Daily’s news desk denied you the full story – for example, in this photo, where they doctored out a pedestrian who was nearly hit by the out-of-control cyclist heading against traffic! Stay tuned for more truth-telling in the weeks to come.

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