The Queen's Journal, Volume 141, Issue 20

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F R I D AY , N O V E M B E R 8 , 2 0 1 3 — I S S U E 2 0

J THE OURNAL QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY — SINCE 1873

ALUMNI

Free Speech Wall

We didn’t know it was going to happen but we were aware of the issues that could come from that group. .

ENGINEERING SOCIETY

Alumni caught up in media storm surrounding Toronto Mayor Rob Ford B Y A LISON S HOULDICE Editor in Chief

A number of Queen’s alumni are caught up in the drug scandal currently plaguing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Amin Massoudi, ArtSci ’10 and Ford’s current communications staffer, is directly involved in some of the latest allegations. According to a Vice Magazine article published Tuesday, Massoudi hired a hacker in May to retrieve the video showing Ford smoking crack cocaine. Vice claims they spoke to the hacker and have emails allegedly sent between the hacker and Massoudi. In an email to the Journal, Massoudi denied the allegations, calling them “absurd”. “The entirety of the story is false and everything referenced therein has been fabricated. It is telling that the story neither quotes any named sources nor provides any independent corroboration of the alleged hacker’s information,” this year’s three-storey Queen he said. He added that he’ll be contacting of Hearts castle was the largest the City of Toronto’s IT services structure the event has ever seen. “[It was] the biggest in history,” Atkins, Sci ’14, said. She said the administration is likely to restrict the size of the structure in the future, and that the committee may look into changing venues. “In future years they could consider putting it into a different venue, because class sizes are getting bigger,” she said. Grant Hall was too small to seat the entire fourth-year

Annie Orvis, SLC Officer page 4

Recent grads face Ford fiasco

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SciFormal considers revamp

Significant overspending this year could mean a change in structure B Y S EBASTIAN L ECK Assistant News Editor This year’s Engineering Society (EngSoc) Science Formal went overbudget, pushing the Science Formal Committee to consider changing the event’s structure in the future. This year, the event went forward as planned; however, significant overspending affected the planning process, forcing the committee to cut building materials and alter the DJ booth setup. Final expenses for the event haven’t yet been calculated. Despite

Sports Tomorrow, Gaels football returns to Western in search of the Yates Cup. For two bitter rivals, there’s more than a trophy at stake. We’ve compiled a graphic pitting Ontario’s top two teams against the other. Just one OUA opponent is left — and for Queen’s, it’d be the sweetest win of all

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this, the Committee is working to find additional donations and streamline the event’s overall costs. Engineering students attending the event must complete 40 volunteer hours to design and build a main structure within Grant Hall, which is unveiled at an open house before the event. Each year’s SciFormal has a theme which corresponds with the decorations and structure. This year’s theme was “Alice in Wonderland”. Lauren Atkins, the communications chair for the Science Formal Committee, said

to investigate whether his email account was spoofed. Other Queen’s grads connected to the events in Ford’s office are Brooks Barnett, ArtSci ’09, and Kia Nejatian, ArtSci ’10. Barnett was a policy advisor for the Mayor until Wednesday morning, when he handed in his resignation without a public explanation. The previous day, Ford had admitted publically to smoking crack cocaine. While at Queen’s, Barnett served as the ASUS chief electoral officer, as an ASUS student senator and ran in the 2008 Rector election. Barnett was unable to be contacted for an interview. Nejatian was Ford’s administrative assistant until the end of May, leaving just weeks after the first crack video allegations emerged. He now runs his own vacation-rental business in Toronto. Nejatian was named in the 465-page court document released last week regarding the arrest of Sandro Lisi, Rob Ford’s personal driver, who is an alleged drug dealer. See Alumnus on page 7

Inside this issue:

See Cuts on page 7

Features

Arts

Students don’t cut corner stores

Hannah Georgas plays The Grad Club this Saturday

page 3

page 10

Opinions

Sports

Ferociously fighting the fur industry

Football’s physical and psychological pressures

page 9

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