The Queen's Journal, Issue 40

T h u r s d ay , A p r i l 7 , 2 0 11 — I s s u e 4 0

the journal

Q u e e n ’ s U n i v e r s i t y — C a n a da ’ s O l d e s t S t u d e n t N e w s pa p e r — S i n c e 1 8 7 3

Executive ideas

obituary

In memory

Inside ams portfolio in review

Queen’s saddened by loss of Andrew Lloyd Over 300 people filled a standing-room-only Wallace Hall on Wednesday night for Andrew Lloyd’s memorial.

Lloyd, ArtSci ’12, died last week at his student house in Kingston.

David Felkai was one of several friends and family members to speak about Lloyd on Wednesday.

Felkai, who knew Lloyd since their time at Toronto’s Upper Canada College, said the immense turnout at the memorial proved how people were drawn to his friend.

“Lloyd was never just anyone’s acquaintance,” Felkai, Sci ’12, said. “It wouldn’t just end at hello.

He’d know you after the first time you met.”

Lloyd’s mother, father and sister were at Wallace Hall long after the memorial’s close, speaking with friends about their son and brother.

Those who knew him spoke of photo by Justin Tang Lloyd as generous and caring with AMS President Safiah Chowdhury (centre), Vice-President (Operations) Ben Hartley (left) and a courage to speak his mind bluntly. Vice-President (University Affairs) Chris Rudnicki (right) consider their year in office an overall success.

See He was on page 6

For full story, see page 2.

news special project—part three

Services adapting to expansion

Examining the contentious investments of the AMS corporation. page 3

darts and laurels Journal staff deliver condemnations and congratulations. page 8

edible & avant-garde

Arts had the chance to chat with Luke Hayes-Alexander, Kingston’s local culinary prodigy. page 17

gaels report card

In the third installment of the news team’s examination of AMS finances, Common Ground and TAPS are put under the magnifying glass B y K atherine Fernandez -B lance Assistant News Editor Both TAPS and Common Ground have seen huge increases in student usage over the past year, but increased revenue has also meant

student travel

Check out the latest travel tips and get inspired to travel this summer.

see supplement on page 11

increased costs for both services.

In 2005, the Queen’s Pub (QP) and Alfie’s nightclub were amalgamated into TAPS. While both services are calculated into the total revenue and losses of TAPS, they appear individually on the budget.

This year, TAPS’ revenue is budgeted to be $30,839.67 up from last year.

TAPS is budgeted to finish the year at a $1,913.14 loss. This is a significant improvement over last year when TAPS suffered a $45,714.94 loss.

News in brief

Student death mourned

First-year student Kyle Kinsella died Tuesday morning. Kinsella, Sci ’14, was from Kingston and lived in Waldron Tower.

AMS President Safiah Chowdhury said the AMS executive was saddened by the news.

“Each death is affecting us separately. The news of another death set us back,” she said. “It’s a very sombre thing.

“It made us consider what we need to do. We started to strategize with our council on how to increase support to students.”

Chaplain Brian Yealland said the news of Kinsella’s death is devastating for the entire community.

“We’re all just in a state of

shock,” he said, adding that he’s working to provide outreach to students during this difficult time.

“There are a copious number of discussions going on … to bring to our attention the needs, the struggles [and] the issues that our students are facing.”

Anyone needing support is encouraged to contact Health, Counselling and Disability Services at 613-533-6000 x 78264 and/or University Chaplain Brian Yealland at 613-533-2186.

Students can also contact the AMS Peer Support Centre (x 75111) which is open seven days a week as a drop-in service or by appointment from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. in room 32 of the JDUC. —Clare Clancy

Jay Deslauriers, TAPS head manager, said that while TAPS expenses have increased by $78,467.75 this year mostly because of the minimum wage increase, food sales at QP have skyrocketed.

According to February’s month-end financial statement, the QP is $26,585.88 ahead of its Year to Date (YTD) budgeted food sale revenue.

The QP is also beating its budget in alcohol sales. As of February’s month-end, the service is $59,170.84 ahead of its YTD budgeted revenue. QP is also $59,082.73 ahead in revenue of where it was at the same time last year.

“All the revenue is based fully on volume … a lot more people are using the service,” Deslauriers, ArtSci ’10 said.

Although QP’s prices stayed the same and there was limited menu change, Deslauriers said that QP is being seen as more of a restaurant on campus, which helps explain the increase in user volume. “[This was] my kind of vision for QP. We’re the only real restaurant on campus,” Deslauriers said.

See Revenues on page 7

Grading the successes and disappointments of winter athletics. page 26

best of kingston

The votes are in. Check out the best spots in Kingston for student life. page 30

remind with rewind A look at this year’s most important stories. page 33

last words

Outgoing Editor in Chief Tyler Ball and Managing Editor Rachel Kuper bid farewell to Vol. 138. page 48

News

2 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Left: Team CHR wins AMS elections on Feb. 5, 2010 with 54.5 per cent of the vote. Right: President Safiah Chowdhury, ArtSci ’11, says bringing back Homecoming was a focus of CHR’s election campaign. Vice-President (Operations) Ben Hartley says the debit, credit and swipe card options brought to Common Ground were beneficial to the service.

journal file photos

AMS executive

Ending the party with team CHR Outgoing AMS executive talks about their year in office, their initial campaign promises and their achievements B y L abiba H aque Assistant News Editor Homecoming, municipal elections and solar panels were some of the things that marked team CHR’s year in office. The team is comprised of President Safiah Chowdhury, Vice-President (Operations) Ben Hartley and Vice-President (University Affairs) Chris Rudnicki.

Chowdhury, ArtSci ’11, said that although her team was unsuccessful in bringing back Homecoming, it was a focus of their year.

“We met with Principal [Daniel] Woolf, the Kingston police, city councilors. We asked ‘what is it that we need to do to make sure that Homecoming comes back’ and in no uncertain terms [Principal Woolf] told

us … it needs to be any other weekend in terms of student turnout,” she said.

One of CHR’s main platform points regarding Homecoming was ensuring that students knew their rights if they were out on the streets. Although they didn’t have student officers out on the night of Fauxcoming, Chowdhury said her office was open that night so students could voice concerns if they felt mistreated by police.

“We took every step we could to make sure that students understood this is what we need to get done to get this event back,” she said.

Another key platform point of the team was to provide students with halal and kosher food options, however due to

Avoid BrAin Freeze

the lack of suppliers they were unable to expand options.

“We looked [for suppliers] in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, however we faced issues related to freshness of food, shelf life and costs. So we do have an extensive database, which I will be leaving for future executives but if we really want to provide this service to students we really need Kingston to pick up the slack,” she said, adding that in order for this to be successful the market needs to expand.

In essence the incoming “[vice-president (university

affairs)] needs to take seriously the mandate of the AMS and the ways they can mobilize students to take a stance on issues.

”

—Chris Rudnicki, AMS vice-president (university affairs)

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, such [as a] shortage of suppliers for kosher or halal food, we were not able to complete some of our platform points,” she said. “But these are things that we did pursue and we did look into them.”

Hartley, ArtSci ’10, said that one of Team CHR’s best successes was the implementation of the debit and credit options at Common Ground. Their original platform point also included swipe cards, which would function

like a CoGro gift card.

“We did want to do it in a two phase process, just to see if the first part would be advantageous to the service,” he said, adding that the cards have already been made and will be ready to be put into action in September.

“The vision is finished. The cards are ready to go. It’s just a matter of rolling them out.”

AMS Vice-President (University Affairs) Chris Rudnicki said the solar panel project was a major success for the team. During the campaign period, he said they faced skepticism in regards to the feasibility of their idea. Rudnicki, ArtSci ’11, said after winning the election, Team CHR partnered up with Queen’s Solar Coalition to provide information to students about the huge potential of the Queen’s solar project.

Currently the school is in discussion with energy firm Johnson Controls to negotiate the finishing terms of the contract.

“It’s a go. Currently we have nine roof tops and ground mounts,” he said, adding that the installation will take place in the summer.

Rudnicki said one thing he regrets about his time in office is that AMS assembly didn’t take a strong stance on many of the issues they had to deal with this year, such as promoting a mayoral candidate.

“In essence the incoming [vice-president (university affairs)] needs to take seriously the mandate of the AMS and the ways they can mobilize students to take a stance on issues,” he said.

Platform points in review • Lobby administration to bring back Homecoming

• Improve the clubs website; provide better club support

• Install solar panels on campus

• Educate students on academic changes

• Provide swipe cards and debit capabilities at Common Ground

Heat things up this summer at McGill www.mcgill.ca/summer summer.studies@mcgill.ca

• Working towards halal and kosher food options

•

Update students regularly about happenings in the AMS; install of a ‘what’s your beef?’ forum on the AMS website

• Creating an informational one stop academic shop website (whatswhat.ca)

• Partake in an efficient transition process

• Consolidate the Used Bookstore, Tricolour Outfitters, Destinations

• Hold an on-campus mayoral debate

• Promote Alumni Speaker Series • Provide students with better job opportunities in Kingston • Support Queen’s Athletics

Thursday, April 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

•3

Features AMS

Carbonated contention Current AMS executives say there are no concrete plans to create an ethical investing mandate B y J ake E dmiston Features Editor With over $3 million in AMS funds invested in a stock portfolio that includes Coca-Cola, a missile dealer and the Alberta Oil Sands, student government officials say the current investment strategy is lacking ethics.

Unlike the University’s financial administration the AMS doesn’t have concrete policy ensuring responsible investing.

Vice-President (Operations) Ben Hartley is responsible for overseeing the stock portfolio. He said it’s meant to act as a safety net for future years.

“The mandate thus far has really only been ensuring financial health,” Hartley said. “Is there room to move beyond financial health and into what students think is right for this kind of thing? I’d say yes.”

The AMS uses CIBC Wood Gundy to manage their six mutual fund portfolios. Funds are invested in sectors like energy, federal government, healthcare and consumer staples. In the energy sector, the AMS invests in leading Oil Sands corporations like Suncor and Talisman.

Last year, AMS members voted against the AMS divesting from the oil sands in a Winter Referendum

with 67.93 per cent.

“The mandate thus far has really only been ensuring financial health,” Hartley said. “It’s an issue that students can seek to address via referendum, which they have.”

AMS abstains from alcohol, tobacco and firearms investments, although there’s no policy stipulating such divestments, Hartley said.

The AMS owns over 30 shares in Lockheed Martin, a leading missile manufacturer in the United States.

There’s a lot of “inconsistencies in the

AMS in terms of what we stand for and what our investments reflect.

”

—Safiah Chowdury, AMS president

Breakdowns of the AMS stock portfolio aren’t available to students online, though Hartley provided a copy of the Dec. 2010 quarterly review to the Journal.

Hartley said basic reviews of AMS investments occur on a monthly basis but more in-depth analysis occurs annually, causing much of the oversight to be carried out

The AMS invests over $3 million into its stock portfolio, including over $30,000 in Alberta Oil Sands companies.

by the AMS general manager, a permanent staff member. The Board of Directors approves the fund’s budget annually.

When asked why AMS investments weren’t readily available to the public, Hartley said the absence of online information is an issue worth remedying.

“We could probably move towards a model that indicated what types of stocks we were in and what sectors,” he said. “But for confidentiality’s sake I wouldn’t want to get into how much we have where. Unless, I guess, we were specifically asked.

“If it’s something that students wanted, I don’t think we have a problem doing it.”

Policy regarding AMS investing lays guidelines for managing and selecting stocks, but sets no ethical standards for such investing. This policy document was only devised

AMS Stock portfolio Lockheed Martin • AMS shares valued at $2,533.12.

• An American based aerospace, defense, security and advanced technology company, is an international leader in the design, development and production of missiles and missile defense solutions.

Suncor Energy • AMS shares valued at $29,131.08.

• A Canadian oil and natural gas company pulling its resources from Alberta Oil Sands • In a 2007 report, PollutionWatch found Suncor to be the sixth worst greenhouse gas producer in Canada, discharging 7.6 million tonnes of harmful gases into the atmosphere. On April 2, 2009, Suncor was fined for dumping undertreated wastewater into the Athabasca River.

Coca-Cola • AMS shares valued at $4,346.56.

• The exclusive cold-beverage distributor on Queen’s campus, including AMS food services.

• AMS President Safiah Chowdury said the AMS is against the renewal of the exclusivity contract next year in an interview yesterday. Campus groups have protested Coke’s distribution on campus, stating human rights violations at Coke Plants in South America.

this year, with final revisions occurring last week but according to the policy document, AMS investing has occurred since the mid 1990s.

“Could we have a more robust policy? Yeah, I’d say so,” Hartley said. “There’s not much [policy] outside of simply the business.”

To find and lodge complaints against the AMS stock portfolio is currently a multi-step process.

A member would have to request access to Quarterly reviews of AMS investments and then bring any concerns arising about specific investments in corporations to the assembly.

“My job is to manage [the investments], not have an opinion on them,” Hartley said. “I don’t feel like I’m empowered to make those kinds of decisions.

“If a decision came down from assembly that said ‘Ben, go divest from whatever company,’ they’re my boss, so I’ve got to do it.”

This is definitely “against the Social

Issues Commission mandate.

”

—Daniella Davila, social issues commissioner

Unlike the AMS, University administrators have a policy document regarding investment ethics. The Queen’s Statement on Responsible Investing deems that special action be taken based on a concept of “social injury”—defined as “the injurious impact which the activities of a company are found to have on consumers, employees, or other persons.”

At a 2009 AMS annual general meeting, members voted to recommend the termination of the Coca-Cola Exclusivity contract that was up for renewal this year. Since the contract, which has brought in $5.8 million for the University over 12 years, was extended to next year, campus groups have further lobbied for the end of Coke’s exclusivity in vending machines as well as AMS food services.

Photo by Corey lablans

The AMS Social Issues Commissioner has been among those opposing Coke’s presence on campus these years, stating human rights violations in Coke plants in South America.

As of Dec. 2010, the AMS had over $4,300 in Coke shares. Davila said the AMS investment directly violates the mandate of one of its commissions.

“This is definitely against the Social Issues Commission mandate,” she said.

“There are many corporations the AMS and the University have bought shares from, and there are many issues of equity in regards to those corporations.

“At this point we can look critically at sources of funding for the AMS and University, and we have to speak out against things that really go against our mandate.”

Davila said she is trying to find a way to ensure that none of the profits from the Coke stocks will end up funding her commission.

“We have to ensure that further funding we receive is equitable and does not violate our mandate and our views on human rights,” Davila said. “We’re still receiving money from other sources of the AMS but if we have control over it, we will ensure that sources of funding for SIC are equitable.”

According to AMS President Safiah Chowdury, the lack of any responsible investing policy causes several inconsistencies between AMS political positions and its investments.

“The barrier is the fact that we don’t have this policy, which I think is a problem.”

Chowdury said the AMS executive team is having informal discussions with the AMS Chair of the Board of Directors to develop an ethics policy. No concrete plans have been announced.

“There’s a lot of inconsistencies in the AMS in terms of what we stand for and what our investments reflect,” she said. “It’s definitely something the AMS should look into in the coming year.”

—Terra-Ann Arnone

4 •queensjournal.ca

News

Thursday, april 7, 2011

EDUCATION

Increased enrollment 60,000 additional spaces to be created by 2015-16 in Ontario B Y J ESSICA F ISHBEIN Assistant News Editor

said that seven out of 10 new consequences of simply increasing jobs will require some form of the number of enrollment spaces in post-secondary institutions, post-secondary education.

Questions are being raised “Today, 64 per cent of people Slobodin said.

“In some ways we are regarding the effectiveness of in Ontario have post-secondary new government funds directed education and training credentials — over-capacity. Residences have towards post-secondary education. that’s higher than any Organization more students than they’re journal File photo The provincial government for Economic Co-Operation and supposed to have … if we increase Academic Affairs Commissioner Kieran Slobodin says will be dedicating $309 million Development (OECD) country in enrolment we can promise less increased enrolment doesn’t necessarily help educational access. to the creation of 60,000 new the world,” she told the Journal residence spots to first years,” he want to see steps from the budget Counselling and Disability Services. spaces in Ontario’s post-secondary via email. “Our government’s goal said.

Budgets are constrained, but The Enrollment Planning to fund this.” education sector by 2015-16. is to increase that number to 70 Additional barriers that prevent students rely on these services and Committee, which is made up of Linda MacKay, manager of per cent.” issues management and media According to Mackay, Ontarians administrators as well as the AMS people from accessing education are need to see a stable form of funding. relations in the Ministry of with higher levels of knowledge and SGPS President, will decide not being addressed by increasing Funding needs to be increased to a level where these services can Training, Colleges and Universities, and skills have better employment how to use funding to support these enrolment spaces, Slobodin said.

“Research shows groups such expand,” he said. prospects, earn higher wages, are spaces, and how many spaces to Other post-secondary more engaged citizens and help take on. Slobodin said the amount as Aboriginal peoples that are of enrollment spaces increased in under-represented face additional institutions in Ontario face similar strengthen Ontario’s economy.

“That’s why our government each college or university will differ. barriers to education. Having spots funding issues, Slobodin said.

“Western recently created a new He said one of the concerns available doesn’t quite address is creating more than 60,000 additional spaces by 2015-16, by is that with increased enrollment, these support and informational fee for their counseling service. If barriers,” he said. “Having number they got direct funding from the investing more than $64 million quality of education could suffer.

“A common way of judging of spaces means more students can government, they wouldn’t have in 2011-12, growing to $309 million in 2013-14, in additional quality is the faculty to student attend, but it’s not enough to truly had to do this,” he said.

Slobodin said he hopes parties operating grants to colleges and ratio … without an equal funding address those access barriers.”

The vast majority of in the upcoming election make universities,” she said, adding that commitment to get more teachers since 2003, 140,000 more students and training for teachers, an under-represented groups are rising tuition costs and issues of are attending Ontario colleges increase of students would dilute unaware that financial aid is accessibility to education a focus of their campaign. Slobodin said the quality of education,” he said. available to them, Slobodin said. and universities.

“These informational, financial tuition costs have been rising According to AMS Academic “We need to increase the number of Affairs Commissioner Kieran teachers to students and we need and cultural barriers start early … by five per cent per year for the many students don’t know the real past five years. Average Ontario Slobodin, the increase in enrollment funding to do this.” undergraduate tuition for the Slobodin said there isn’t enough cost of university.” spots won’t necessarily improve Slobodin said he’s been working 2010-11 school year rose to $6,307. funding put towards accessibility accessibility to education.

“What we’re really hoping for with the Ontario Undergraduate “For students, creating enough and quality of education.

“If we’re funding these spaces we Student Alliance OUSA to lobby is every party running to look spaces isn’t enough of an answer.

They still need financial aid and need to be funding the quality,” he for students to receive more direct towards the quality aspect of funding for education as well as support programs,” Slobodin, said, adding that more technology funding from the government.

“We want to see more money rising costs for students, and is ArtSci ’12, said. “There are in the classroom and well-kept buildings and are markers in given to specific areas, such as committed to keeping these costs still concerns.”

There are unintended judging educational quality. “We Learning Commons or Health, low and reducing them,” he said.

News

Thursday, april 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

•5

NEWS IN BRIEF Academic leniency provided in light of tragedy The AMS executive has asked for academic leniency for students.

Following the death of first-year student Kyle Kinsella on Tuesday, AMS President Safiah Chowdhury, VicePresident (Operations) Ben Hartley and Vice-President (University Affairs) met with senior University officials including Principal Daniel Woolf.

Kinsella’s death followed the death of third-year student Andrew Lloyd last Wednesday.

Hartley, ArtSci ’10, said not all students are comfortable asking for help when they feel stressed.

“It’s really hard for students to ask for extensions. They need to know that support mechanism is there,” he said, adding that because of the strain on Health, Counseling and Disability Services, students could find it hard to get the documentation normally required for an extension.

Chowdhury, ArtSci ’11, said students

should focus on self-care.

“A lot of people are affected by the deaths on campus and we’re entering one of the most stressful times in university [exam period] … it’s fundamentally important people be taking care of themselves,” she said.

Following the meeting on Tuesday night, a message was sent to all the deans informing them that there is a need to be flexible, she said.

“My impression is that [faculty knows] if student don’t have work in on time, don’t penalize them.”

—Clare Clancy

New associate vice-principal appointed Effective July 1, 2011, Ann Tierney will be the new associate vice- principal and dean of student affairs at Queen’s.

Currently, she holds the position of vice-provost (students) at the University of

CAMPUS CALENDAR Thursday, April 7

Saturday, April 9

Queen’s Loves U Across campus 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

The Chocolate Connection Wallace Hall, JDUC 7 p.m. $50 per person Tickets sold in advance at Ban Righ Centre.

QUIC English Conversation Group JDUC, QUIC 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Friday, April 8 Inside the Bird Brain: Toru Shimizu Ellis Hall, room 327 2: 30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Next Generation Film Festival Ellis Hall Auditorium 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Free.

Monday, April 11

Calgary. “It’s actually similar to the position at Queen’s,” Tierney, LLB ’89 and MPA ’04, said. “I’d say the only major difference is that in Calgary, I also have the registrar’s office portfolio that’s part of my office, but at Queen’s, the registrar’s office is separate.”

As associate vice-principal and dean of student affairs, Tierney said she’ll work with groups including the AMS and student clubs to help promote the services Queen’s uses to engage students.

“I want to work with the student leaders as well as the faculty and administration to define the priorities in the portfolio. John Pierce [current associate vice-principal and dean of student affairs] has been great in the time he’s been there and I’m looking forward to working with him in the next months,” she said.

As of Aug. 1, 2010, Pierce has held the position in an interim capacity since he

replaced Patrick Deane who left to become president of McMaster University.

Tierney was assistant dean of the Queen’s Faculty of Law between 1999 and 2004.

She was also an adjunct sessional instructor and director of the Faculty of Law’s Career Services Office.

Tierney said although it will be difficult to leave Calgary, she’s happy to take the opportunity afforded her by Queen’s.

“I work with great people and have met wonderful people [in Calgary],” she said.

“I’m very excited about coming back to Queen’s. I’m a Queen’s grad. We have family in Kingston and lived there for a number of years, not only as a student, but afterwards as well. Two of my children were born in Kingston, so we have fond memories and a strong association.”

—Savoula Stylianou

OnLine reneWaL Open a new tab.

Check out the redesigned Journal website at queensjournal.ca

Noontime meditation Ban Righ Centre, Flower Pot Room 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Tuesday, April 12 Lecture: Moodle Course Development Mac-Corry Hall, room B176 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

MAKE IT LARGE FOR $5.00 MORE

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

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Andrew Lloyd, ArtSci ’12, traveled to Kenya in high school to build a school.

Continued from page 1

According to friends at Queen’s, there was always a spot to sit in Lloyd’s bedroom for anyone wanting to talk.

“It was those simple things,” Felkai said.

“He wanted to know how you were doing.

He was never too busy for anyone.”

Felkai and Lloyd spent most holiday breaks with other close friends at cottages during the summer, and skiing and snowboarding during the winter.

“Going and not having him there is going to feel strange,” Felkai said.

While in high school, Lloyd traveled to Kenya with peers to build a school. He was a major proponent in fundraising for the trip. While in Africa, he climbed Mt. Kenya despite food poisoning.

“He would always push you to be more,” Remi Ojo, Sci ’12, said.

Ojo said Lloyd was the person he called when he needed advice.

“He was always reassuring,” Ojo said.

“He had a kind of ‘don’t worry about

it’ attitude.”

Lloyd studied geography and economics at Queen’s, working at his uncle’s Kingston restaurant over the summer months.

Friends said Lloyd never showed up empty-handed to a dinner. A housemate said the remaining inhabitants of Lloyd’s Frontenac St. home are now without their de facto patriarch. Lloyd paid bills, offered advice and fended off burglars, said housemate Marc Gregoire, Sci ’12.

Any donations in Lloyd’s memory can to be made to the Canada Helps organization as well as the Lewa Wildlife Reserve— the organization Lloyd volunteered with in Kenya.

Khalid Diab, Sci ’12, worked out at the ARC with Lloyd almost every day. Diab said he was always at ease with Lloyd.

“I felt comfortable with him,” Diab said.

“I could always just be me around him. I would do anything on my mind. I didn’t have to worry about what he’d think.”

—Jake Edmiston

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

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•7

Revenues rising for Common Ground and TAPS Continued from page 1

Alfie’s has not seen similar increases in revenue this year.

Although they are budgeted to make $32,682.67 more in revenue than they did last year, as of the Feb. month-end financial statement, they are $34,944.03 behind the budgeted YTD sales.

“A lot of people are contributing our lower Alfie’s nights to all the big DJs happening at [clubs like] Stages,” Deslauriers said, adding that despite this, new events like Classic Rock Night, have brought more people back to Alfie’s.

Other special event days like St. Patrick’s Day and the last day of semester also increase sales at QP and Alfie’s dramatically, Deslauriers said. While TAPS typically makes around $7,500 on Thursday and Friday nights, on special event days, revenue can increase to $11,500.

Ben Hartley, AMS vice-president (operations), said that the common assumption he’s heard around campus, that Alfie’s is causing TAPS to suffer financially, isn’t justified.

“TAPS this year is taking on extra cost in wages, salary and [Student Constable] charges,” Hartley said, adding that TAPS currently requires two Student Constables to be on duty after 8 p.m. at the QP, and seven on Alfie’s nights.

“Their charges went up as a means of retaining staff. When you do that, it affects the people that use them,” Hartley said.

Hartley said that he expects TAPS to beat its budgeted loss this year.

“I don’t know if it will be by a ton, but I expect it to be profitable,” Hartley said. “We’re a little bit behind, but I’m not terribly concerned.”

TAPS’ YTD net profit is $54,811.49 compared to the $55,683.66 budgeted as of February’s month’s end financial statement.

Hartley said that the merging

of QP and Alfies into TAPS has increased the financial sustainability of both services and Alfie’s is not at risk of shutting down.

“It’s kept Alfie’s as being the student nightclub … Alfie’s offers a lot of intangible benefits to students as well,” Hartley said.

Hartley said that because the TAPS services have been around for over 30 years, their finances are a bit more predictable than a service like Common Ground, which Hartley said is still in its infancy. Even though it has existed for 10 years, Hartley said that its move from the original location in the JDUC to the Queen’s Centre has meant a completely different operation for the service because of huge increases in user volume.

Hartley said that Common Ground suffered some financial difficulty last year and sat at a $84,362.59 loss. This year they are budgeted to come in at $62,789 loss.

“One of the main problems for them was the shift over to the Queen’s Centre … it was a move from a small space in which their operation was fairly refined to a larger space,” Hartley, ArtSci ’10, said.

Now fully functioning in the Queen’s Centre, Hartley said that Common Ground saw an unexpected 37 per cent increase in user volume this year.

“When your volume goes up, your cost of sales and operating expenses go up,” Hartley said. “The margin becomes the important piece.”

Hartley said that it’s important for services within the AMS to be financially sustainable.

“With Common Ground and the AMS in general … if you try to fix everything in one year you can actually do more damage than you might expect,” Hartley said.

“We were looking at [Common Ground] on a two to three year scale. What we expect is for them to be in a position to break even …

Breaking even Every year, all sectors of the AMS are budgeted with the intent of breaking even rather than making profit.

Although AMS services like the Tricolour Outlet, Common Ground, TAPS and the P&CC are profit seeking by nature, all money made is pooled back into the AMS’s operating fund.

Ben Hartley, AMS vice-president (operations), said this is because the AMS is not just a student government, but also a $14.7 million not-for-profit corporation.

“We can’t be profit seeking,” Hartley, ArtSci ’10, said. “We can have individual ancillaries that can do that … the books at the end of the year will be a reflection of not only the services but the entire operations of the society.”

Hartley said that in the event that an area of the AMS or the AMS as a whole does make a profit, the excess revenue will go back into the AMS’s operating fund.

“A surplus for a service does not benefit [it] in the next year,” Hartley said. “It’s not reflective on their operating statement for the next year.”

In the event that a part of the AMS is in a deficit, Hartley said that the AMS will absorb the costs.

“AMS Assembly as well as the offices budget for zero, as well as the services as a whole,” Hartley said.

—Katherine Fernandez-Blance

Queen’s Pub (QP) is $26,585.88 ahead of its year-to-date budgeted food sales.

I expect Common Ground would be in reach of [this] next year.”

Hartley said that he is fairly confident Common Ground will do better than expected due to exemplary sales.

According to February’s month end year to date sales, Common Ground is $128,289.98 ahead of budgeted sales, and $189,974.11 ahead of sales at this time last year. They were budgeted to be $85,484.12 ahead of last year.

“Common Ground faces the obvious competitor of Tim Hortons [in the Queen’s Centre],” Hartley said. “You’ve seen [it] develop into something that really takes in the concept of student life … when people are up there it makes them feel welcome.”

Tristan Lee, Common Ground head manager, said that this year has seen some huge changes for the service.

“Last year we were [in the Queen’s Centre] for half a year, but at that point the team before ours had planned to move in here before August,” Lee, ArtSci ’12, said, referencing the Queen’s Centre flooding in July 2009.

“For us, we had the entire summer knowing we would be in this building … we wanted to this be a starting point,” Lee said, adding that his management team tried to prepare for an increase in customer volume.

“We decided we wanted to rebuild Common Ground from the bottom up … on top of that we wanted to market so that we could get a large increase in customer volume,” Lee said.

During Orientation Week, Lee said that the service registered with Tour of the Town so that 2,000 incoming students would be brought to Common Ground. In addition to this, Lee said that the management team strived to make the new space as appealing as the old one by putting more artwork on the walls, and bringing plants into the space.

“We [also] went through the menu and revaluated. We did this to ensure that all our products would be ones we would sell a lot of,” Lee said. “Building our brand was another part of our concern for the summer.”

Lee said that Common Ground held a sampling day in the summer where customers could try out new sandwiches and drinks and give feedback to the service. This influenced some new items that were added to the menu, such as

photo by corey leblans

Photo by justin chin

Tristan Lee, head manager of Common Ground, says this year the service focused on summer marketing and redesigning the space.

the seasonal gingerbread latte.

Another location was added to Common Ground in September 2010.

The Common Ground (Cogro) Express opened in Common Ground’s old space in the JDUC with limited hours and a condensed menu. Lee said that the revenues and losses from this location of Common Ground are not separated from the service’s financial statements.

“When we count our cash from [Cogro express] it’s deposited [at Common Ground],” Lee said, adding that Cogro Express is doing just as well as it was expected to in a general sense.

Lee said that two staff members are always scheduled during Cogro Express’ 30 weekly operating hours, and that the only additional costs the service has are general food and supply costs.

“It has the potential to have huge increases in revenue … I think it’s something that especially next year will expand even more.”

Lee said that the minimum wage increase last year had a huge effect upon Common Ground. The 50 cent increase meant an additional $35,000 had to be budgeted for wages.

Currently Common Ground is open 109 hours a week. Lee said that although there have been

talks in the past of reducing the service’s hours to cut down on the cost of wages, a change would impact Common Ground’s role for students.

“We believe that the point of Cogro is to offer students great service … because we are open until 1 a.m., we can serve students in the library very late,” Lee said.

Lee said that Common Ground has seen a general increase of sales in all products, and this was largely due to the Golden Ticket marketing campaign run throughout March that offered customers the chance to win prizes by finding tickets in their premade sandwiches.

“It’s something that we wanted to do to really establish Cogro as the place to go and somewhere that would remain [in] competition steadily for the next 10 years,” Lee said, adding that March saw an increase of roughly 100 premade sandwiches per day during the Golden Ticket campaign.

Lee said that he was fairly confident that Common Ground will end with a lower deficit than budgeted.

“I don’t think we’ll break even this year by any means, but that wasn’t really our goal … Given that revenues have gone up so much this year, I think it’ll continue to go up next year,” Lee said.

8 •queensjournal.ca About The Journal

Editorial Board

The Journal’s Perspective

Editor in Chief

Tyler Ball

Managing Editor

Rachel Kuper

Production Manager

Leslie Yun

News Editor

Clare Clancy

Assistant News Editors

Katerine Fernandez-Blance Jessica Fishbein Labiba Haque

Features Editor

Editorials Editor

Jake Edmiston

AMS food services supplies: Meal

offerings at campus food venues are consistently inconsistent—more careful thought needs to go into food ordering and menu planning. It’s nice to be able to order the “usual” once in a while.

Attacks against Nick Day: The tone of the

Craig Draeger

EngSoc exclusivity: The Engineering faculty

Ally Hall

Assistant Arts Editor

Alyssa Ashton

Sports Editor

Darts:

Adam Zunder

Dialogue Editor

Kate Bascom

Assistant Sports Editor

Lauri Kytömaa

Postscript Editor

Kelly Loeper

Supplements Editor

Holly Tousignant

Photography Editor

society demonstrated deplorable hostility to media services this year, attempting to block both the Journal and QTV from attending the grease pole orientation event.

GPA awareness: Despite an extended

window of time in which to inform students, the administration failed to clearly communicate the structure of the new GPA system to students on an individual basis.

HCDS funding: Students continue to

Andrew Stokes Catherine Owsik

struggle with wait times for much-needed appointments. This service is arguably the most important on campus and needs to be a top priority in terms of financial resources and personnel.

Terra-Ann Arnone

Nick Day as rector: Rector Day showed a

Justin Tang

Copy Editors

Web and Blogs Editor Web Manager

Dianne Lalonde

Business Staff

Business Manager David Sinkinson

Advertising Manager

Tina You

Advertising Representatives

Carlee Duchesne Lianne Lew Jesse Weening

Staff

Writers and Photographers Elamin Abdelmahmoud Justin Chin Benjamin Deans Caroline Garrod Lindsay Kline Devin McDonald James Simpson

Contributors

Kavita Bissoondial Corey Lablans Samantha Sexton Savoula Stylianou Thursday, April 7, 2011 • Issue 40 • Volume 138 The Queen’s Journal is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Alma Mater Society of Queen’s University, Kingston.

Editorial opinions expressed in the Journal are the sole responsibility of the Queen’s Journal Editorial Board, and are not necessarily those of the University, the AMS or their officers.

Contents © 2011 by the Queen’s Journal; all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the Journal. The Queen’s Journal is printed on a Goss Community press by Performance Group of Companies in Smiths Falls, Ontario.

Contributions from all members of the Queen’s and Kingston community are welcome. The Journal reserves the right to edit all submissions.

Subscriptions are available for $120.00 per year (plus applicable taxes).

Please address complaints and grievances to the Editors in Chief.

Please direct editorial, advertising and circulation enquiries to: 190 University Avenue, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3P4 Telephone : 613-533-2800 (editorial) 613-533-6711 (advertising) Fax: 613-533-6728 Email: journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca The Journal Online: www.queensjournal.ca Circulation 6,000

““

For every ten of our readers currently trying to prove me wrong on this point, one will succeed.

”

Darts and laurels, 2010-11

discussion surrounding Rector Nick Day went past holding him accountable and became threatening when attack ads circulated online.

Elias Da Silva-Powell

Editorial Cartoonist

Arts Editor

Editorials

Thursday, April 7, 2011

lack of responsibility in addressing the duties of one of the highest positions at the university—even after students figured out what his job entails.

Rico Garcia’s Alpine Tower: This

poorly-researched idea drew attention to ASUS’s enormous financial surplus. Stockpiling an opt-outable fee without a pre-established initiative to fund demonstrates a lack of forethought and raises concerns about how the money will be spent.

SOLUS: The multi-million dollar database

is confusing, non-intuitive and in some cases inaccurate with marks and degree requirements. Who would have thought that students would be nostalgic for QCARD?

Tim Horton’s line-ups: In comparison to

the franchise’s BioSciences Complex facility, the line at the Queen’s Centre location is an unreasonable time-commitment. The long wait is a hazard to foot traffic and a personal frustration, and it’s only going to get worse.

University’s response to the rector referendum: From not taking a firm stance

on the Day controversy to a lack of official policy concerning the Rector’s removal, the administration seemed ill-prepared to deal with a contentious issue.

Having representatives is important—as is being able to remove them.

Laurels:

AMS campaigns: Both teams in this year’s executive race stayed on-message and mounted professional campaigns—a refreshing change from back-stabbing and mud-slinging.

Elias Da Silva-Powell

Eds, out

Bottled water ban: It’s an inconvenience, but hopefully the bottled water ban will encourage the University to make bottle-free water more available bout seven months ago, I on campus. Also, it can’t hurt to encourage the public put pen to paper—or a less to make sustainable beverage choices. traditional finger to keyboard—on a signed editorial for the Journal, Debit at CoGro: The introduction of cash- titled “Get in Bed with Eds.” free transactions is a time-efficient business I wasn’t trying to encourage model and has led to a spike in sales. Offering a anyone to literally get in bed with payment method in line with students’ needs was an me—the Journal prints 6,000 excellent initiative to implement. copies every issue, so doing so would set a record for largest in-bed John Last and the ‘Run This Town’ read-in—but instead to explain the campaign: Last and his friends did an role of the Editorials page within impressive job raising awareness about issues relevant the Journal as a whole. to the youth vote. Despite acknowledging the slim Though the Editorials page acts probability of winning the election, Last showed a as the voice of the Journal as a degree of knowledge on par with the other candidates publication, it can’t represent all of in the race. its employees at once. Getting 20 people to agree on one opinion is John Stackhouse: The current editor in chief like trying to touch your elbow with of the Globe and Mail and Journal alumnus your tongue—you can’t do it, and took time to visit students this February, sharing you’ll look silly trying.

(For every 10 of our readers personal anecdotes about opportunities in the world of journalism. It’s encouraging to see an alumnus currently trying to prove me wrong take the time to reconnect with his or her alma mater. on this point, one will succeed.)

I was afraid that either myself OPIRG hip-hop festival: The first of its or individual members of the kind, this event left the beaten track from the Journal would end up being held type of programming usually offered on-campus and accountable for material published in Kingston. A variety of international acts were on on the Editorials page.

If you look at the Journal’s hand to perform live, lead workshops and encourage Rewind supplement, you’ll see dialogue about different forms of self-expression. why the Editorials section has Queen’s Wears Pink: The breast cancer such incendiary potential: Two awareness campaign got people’s attention with pieces challenge major newspapers. a direct and simple message, encouraging students Another addresses a hotly-contested from all faculties to take part. The response from the piece from Maclean’s. A fourth takes a side on a highly-divisive rugby team was especially encouraging. campus issue—the Homecoming Rob Lee: This year’s AMS Assembly speaker cancellation. The fifth tackles one has taken a front seat in making Assembly an of the greatest moral dilemmas of accessible body, demonstrating an impressive range of our age ... the Tim Horton’s Roll Up The Rim To Win contest. knowledge and a personable demeanour.

Not every day is Watergate.

The Jack Project: This awareness initiative Please, bear with me.

I wrote the editorial, and tucked headed by Eric Windeler is a positive step forward and will hopefully continue to raise awareness it away in my mind, ready at any moment to direct a critic to the around mental health issues. explanation I had provided. And Women’s sports: An impressive year for then the strangest thing happened.

I never needed it. Not once. female athletes included two OUA banners and a Nor, to the best of my knowledge, national championship. With strong commitment and drive, women’s teams were a source of school spirit has anyone from the Journal ever had occasion to refer someone to it. and pride this year.

According to the statistics for queensjournal.ca, people read the editorials—and sometimes even criticize them. But no one has ever sent me a hostile message, email, letter or telegram. No one has ever started a sentence with “Hey aren’t you that jerk who...” (well ... this has happened, but not in reference to my work at the Journal, anyway).

As I bid a quiet farewell to the Journal, and to the Editorials page that I’ve edited with the careful precision of a man with nothing left to lose, it would be unfair of me to pass up an opportunity to thank the readers of this section for being so restrained and respectful over the course of the past year.

So thank you. I’ve been waiting all year for the other shoe to drop, and it never did.

It’s a good thing sandal season is coming.

A

Thursday, April 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

•9

DIALOGUE

Perspectives from the Queen’s community

Point/Counterpoint

Reflections on tragedy in our community Is ‘Queen’s Loves U’ a necessary step for our community’s healing, or a shallow distraction from the real issues? moments of forming community in order to respond have been just as numerous.

We have disagreed on how to go about bringing new realities to campus. The ideal environment on campus is defined differently by so many people, and many times these ideas have come into collision.

Queens Loves U has come under criticism for its approach to dealing with the crises E lamin A bdelmahmoud , A rt S ci ’11 at hand.

Those who are critical of the event There is no way to begin this but to bring up the correct point that Queen’s has acknowledge our scars. Some are as fresh as been a place of negative experiences for so this past week, and the distant trauma from many, and Queen’s Loves U seeks to erase their experiences. others is still lingering in our memory.

Queen’s, to me, is the collective Over my time at Queen’s, so much tragedy has taken place. So much hurt has experiences of all of those who have been felt. So much trauma was experienced, worked towards change on campus. All our disagreements on how one can improve by so many of us.

Times called on us to be strong and to the community should never amount to a break down; to be loud when speaking our disapproval of their efforts.

We lose so much when we think of voice and to take a moment and retreat to take care of our own health; to be Queen’s as the institution. Queen’s goes far consensus-building and to be disrupting. The beyond Richardson Hall, the Gaels, Boo terrible cases of isolation and voicelessness Hoo the Bear and kilts.

Because of the atmosphere at this are wounds too fresh for so many of us.

These are the realities we have faced at university or in spite of it, we all do different this university. I acknowledge them in this work with the expressed purpose of making article because it’s crucial to begin here. campus a better place.

To ground ourselves in our pain is to also understand our drive and passion for change.

Our trials have been many, It’s important to face our scars, and and our moments of recognize them as real. It’s important not forming community in order to sanitize our experiences—the reality is to respond have been just that Queen’s campus can be an extremely as numerous. alienating space.

It can be a space of isolation and of Queen’s Loves U and the conversation marginalization. For many students, it is. And that has developed around it are typical so many try to speak up but are silenced. examples of conversations we should never Still, hope persists.

In the midst of it all, when I reflect on shy away from. That conversation is the very the Queen’s that I’ve witnessed, whether reason for being optimistic about Queen’s.

What we have learned, and what has it’s from within the walls of the JDUC or far away from University & Union, I also continued to prove true is that while have to take a moment to recognize that the institution has been stagnant, the conversations we have been having are community exists.

Amazing people have come together to making a tremendous impact on policies and form alliances, create dialogue and start the atmospheres. We continue to educate each process for change on so many issues. Strong other on how to be responsible members of people have come together for the purpose a community.

The Queen’s community isn’t perfect, but of healing together.

Today is an event entitled Queen’s Loves it’s bent on improving this campus whatever U. The event is designed to respond to the way it can. Even in the worst of times, that is never a weakness and can only be a strength. crisis in our mental health system.

This is what makes the hope live on, and Its spirit is simple: Health, Counselling and Disability Services is overwhelmed and what makes me proud to be a part of the cannot respond to the needs of the Queen’s Queen’s community.

Sometimes there is triumph and community on its own.

So students, not knowing what else to do, accomplishment. Other times—more times, will gather to support each other through it seems—there is tragedy and pain.

Unquestionably, all is not well at Queen’s. this difficult time.

Regardless of the issue, the hope I speak But the spirit of dialogue gives me the sense about is the willingness of the Queen’s that all will be alright.

Today, let’s heal. Then, tomorrow, let’s go community to engage with the challenges back to figuring it out. that lay before it.

Our trials have been many, and our

K avita B issoondial , A rt S ci ’10 During this, the final week of classes of my graduating year, I’ve been dealt a rather confusing hand. This week we saw the launch of the ‘Queen’s Loves U’ campaign.

The event’s aim is to encourage members of the Queen’s community to support each other. It has rapidly gained a lot of attention, amassing almost 3,000 attendees on Facebook and has sparked intense, heated conversation and debate online.

Why is this confusing to me? It’s because for the past five years I have struggled intensely with my identity as a Queen’s student. This school has been the source of much pain and anger for me, it has hurt and betrayed me repeatedly in so many ways that I’ve yet to understand or come to terms with.

When I talk about Queen’s, I’m referring to my collective experiences with professors, administrators and most often my peers.

Queen’s has actually made me sick, and my relationship to it is fraught with anxiety, confusion and trauma. I don’t use that word lightly.

For many of us who fall outside of the margins of what is thought of as ‘normal’ or ‘desirable’ at Queen’s, we have been taught since the beginning that we were never meant to be here.

We were not supposed to exist in a space where we are despised simply for being who we are, be it non-white, poor, disabled, queer, trans, fat or as we’re coming to discuss now, if you have ‘mental health issues.’

For many of us, to survive at Queen’s tests every bone in our bodies. Sometimes it takes all the energy we have to keep ourselves afloat and often, we’re still drowning.

We’re told that silence is the key to survival. To talk about our issues is to raise a problem with the community and the community doesn’t respond well to being told it has a problem.

Often, this process of ‘coming out’ about being unable to survive in ‘the community’ turns into a trial where our experiences are brought up for others to determine their legitimacy. In many ways, this sends the message “be normal, get over your problem or shut up.”

In much of this discussion, it appears as if mental health issues are something we must learn to overcome in order to be considered ‘normal.’

What is lost in that message is the reality

that mental health isn’t simply an issue you overcome. It is, like our race and sexualities, a part of us. Often we are truly unable to talk about it even if someone is there to listen.

The ‘it gets better’ message has the aim of providing inspiration, hope and encouragement but also often has the impact of isolating many and delegitimizing our lived realities. Especially those who are most vulnerable.

To say that Queen’s loves me is to completely ignore, dismiss and deny my five years at this institution and the trauma I am still working through.

I am both excited and saddened that we’re at a point where students are initiating dialogue around mental health, in spite of a lack of knowledge, resources and guidance from our administration.

However it’s important that we be self-reflexive in this process, understanding that there is no “ownership” over this issue, that we all have a stake in it and that we absolutely must be willing to learn to engage criticism without resistance.

Until we have a space where people feel empowered to voice their discomfort and isolation within efforts that seek to assist them and until those critiques are not met with defensiveness, real dialogue and change cannot occur. We must also be honest about the circumstances that we are in.

The lack of meaningful action from the administration in response to so many student deaths infuriates me.

Added support for Health, Counselling and Disability Services through the provision of active listening workshops available for students at large, the promotion of the Peer Support Centre, the development of a suicide prevention strategy in collaboration with the AMS, HCDS, Student Affairs and external groups such as the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention and the promotion of free resources by groups such as The Icarus Project are a few steps I feel we could have easily undertaken this year and still can with serious commitment on the part of our administration.

It’s not up to students alone to deal with this crisis, though we must be a fundamental part of any work that is undertaken to develop a safer campus for all.

I hope that we can be self-reflexive, reach out to others when we need to and really listen when someone else needs to reach out.

Creating our own spaces to talk about what a supportive mental health network looks like is necessary in both surviving and healing.

It’s only after five years here that I’m moving on to that next part, I hope you will too.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS A vote for students

this money. All you have to do is open an RESP to be eligible for the program.

A Liberal government will provide students The Liberal party believes that the cost of with thousands of dollars to help them stay education should not keep students from out of debt and give all students, regardless pursuing their dreams and careers. of income, a shot at university.

How will this plan help all Canadians?

With the “Learning Passport” program, Already two thirds of parents believe that Michael Ignatieff has made it his priority to they will not be able to pay for their children’s make university life easier. All post-secondary education. students will be given a minimum of $4000 Every parent wants to help their child pay over 4 years and those with limited means, for post secondary education, but Michael $6000 over 4 years.

Ignatieff knows that “the cost of college and There are no prerequisites to qualify for university is slipping out of reach for too

many families.”

This plan will cost only $1 billion and with that money the Liberal Party will help students who have been long forgotten by the Harper regime. Some Conservatives have argued that this endeavour is too costly.

Let’s put this into perspective: recently we’ve seen ruinous spending from the Harper government, including $30 billion on fighter jets, $10-13 billion on new mega prisons (despite an all time low in crime) and an internationally unprecedented

expenditure of $1 billion on the G8/G20 Summit. Canada is now in the largest financial deficit of its history.

It’s time to invest in the things that matter: students, families and education. On May 2 your vote will determine whether a plan for university students comes into action. We should vote for a government that wants to help students realize their full potential.

Kyle Richardson, ArtSci ’12 policy director, Queen’s University Liberal Association

Opinion

10 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Talking points panel

Talking Heads

A discussion on life and cinema

... in the Journal office Photos By Craig Draeger

For the final meeting of the Vol. 138 Journal Dialogue Panel, we talked about movies

Judgments and inferences D evin M c D onald , A rt S ci ’13 So suppose you’re a girl and you’re being taken out to a movie by a fine gentleman you just met. This gentleman is faced with a choice; what movie ought he take you to?

Assuming the choice is left completely to him and he may not lean on you for assistance, this places you on rather precarious ground.

The movie, without question, will become a judgment about his

whole being. For instance, what if he takes you to a film he loved, but you despised? How does that bode for the future of your relationship?

I would guess not well.

In deciding which movie I was going to write about for this week’s piece, I was struck with a rather similar conundrum as your would-be date. Whatever movie I was bound to choose would come to be a representation of my being to you, the reader.

I don’t mean to make

Expand your horizons L indsay K line , A rt S ci ’11 Movies have been one of the most important things that have gotten me through my undergraduate degree. They help me unwind, forget about school for a mere two hours and remind me that there’s more than just political theory or Canadian politics in the world.

Recently, I’ve been watching older films, like My Fair Lady, Annie and Father of the Bride.

These films, having been created a number of years ago, are

interesting me more and more as time goes on due to the simplicity of their plots.

I can count on these films being based on the activities of one’s daily life, to be an epic love story or utilize a different style of acting you really don’t see in today’s movies.

I’ve been very struck by how movies have changed over time. Years ago the plot stayed straightforward and the acting, while over exaggerated, appeals to the emotions of viewers. In

Art imitates reality J ames S impson , A rt S ci ’11 Movies can often reflect our own real-life situation. Queen’s has suffered several tragic deaths of students over the past year, including two in the past two weeks.

These deaths have led to increased discussion over the importance of mental health awareness.

One of the most devastating aspects of mental health is the stigma that surrounds it. Often, those suffering from mental illness feel as if they cannot seek help;

they feel shame, or believe that there’s something innately wrong with them.

These beliefs are maintained, in part, by popular culture. Indeed, movies are a medium that often cements the stigmatization of mental illness. Consider the recent film, Black Swan. In this movie, the main character, Nina, is haunted by hallucinations and loses track of reality.

As her mental illness progresses unrelentingly, rather than seek help she pushes herself ever harder.

In the end she is able to perform, but only at a grave cost to herself.

assumptions about the way in which you choose to pass judgment on me, I just feel there is a cultural practice of judging people by the kind of movies they like. I don’t even think this is a particularly bad practice.

It would be near impossible for me not to pass judgment on someone who proclaims their favourite movie to be something like Saving Private Ryan. It’s a good movie, maybe even a great movie, but really is it the height of 100 years of cinema?

The best combination of acting, writing, directing, art direction

and special effects? Some might label me pretentious for making such a choice, which also might be true.

Yet equally so if I was to tell you my favourite movie was some Charlie Kaufman film, I would probably label me a hipster and then lead to a slew of “they’re pretty obscure, you’ve probably never heard of them” jokes.

Thus I’m forced to resign myself from the task of writing a couple hundred words about a single movie, as to do so would inevitably lead to a whole bunch of judgment for which I do not care.

today’s films, storylines have become extremely complex and acting is much more for show rather than relatability.

In congruence with my new-found love for old movies, I find myself in The Screening Room more often these days, hungry for the more original and avant-garde films of our day.

Films such as Barney’s Version and Wasteland have reminded me that movies don’t need to be action packed or Earth destroying.

Like their older counterparts, many of these films rely on some everyday story to be told. For this reason, I find myself in the

theater really enjoying these movies because of the similarities and differences they have to my own life.

All in all, I find that after a long time of watching Hollywood movie after Hollywood movie, I’m urging for something different.

This is not to say that I dislike Hollywood and what they produce.

However, when you realize what else is out there, you have a sense that your world has been opened to a new genre of movies that can continue to take you out of where you are right now, and into a place you’ve never been before.

Nina faces pressure from a wide of perfection. range of sources. Her overbearing Yet we do not have to end mother insists on complete up like Nina. There are so many dedication to dancing. resources on campus that are Nina worries constantly about designed specifically to lighten being replaced, and struggles the load. against herself and her director. She Join clubs to develop social faces anxiety about her perceived networks of like-minded people. competition, and feels as if she must Visit academic counseling to get embody perfection. help with school.

In many ways this struggle is And if it feels hopeless, HCDS what we face as Queen’s students. is always available and is happy to We face enumerable challenges, talk to you. Or call Telephone Aid both from external sources and Line Kingston at (613) 544-1771. from within.

There is no shame in asking We, too, often have overbearing for support. If you’re facing a parents, anxiety about failure and challenge, don’t be like Nina— worries about competition. We take advantage of resources are scared about fitting in socially available to you. and strive for our own brand There is always help available.

What was your favourite memory from this year?

“Discovering the Sports editors’ unknown dance moves.”

Ally Hall, Vol. 138 A&E Editor

“Casual pints at the QP with section heads.”

Kate Bascom, Vol. 138 Sports Editor

“Travelling to Waterloo to cover the women’s hockey playoff run.”

Lauri Kytömaa, Vol. 138 Assistant Sports Editor

“Probably looking around the packed newsroom and asking myself: ‘which seat can I take?’”

Elias Da Silva-Powell, Vol. 138 Editorials Editor

“Meeting people and telling their stories through images.”

Justin Tang, Vol. 138 Photography Editor

From left: panellist Devin McDonald, Journal Dialogue Editor Craig Draeger and panellists Elamin Abdelmahmoud, James Simpson and Lindsay Kline. Panellist Dan Osborne is not pictured.

Photo by Justin Tang

Every week, Journal Dialogue has brought together members of the Queen’s community to discuss events of the day and try to find solutions to some pressing issues. Thank you for following this project.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

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“[Is] the money from travel is going to a regime that is oppressing its people? Do you want your money implicated in issues like this?

Travel

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Travel

A look at the ethics of world travel

Ethical travel companies encourage tourists to look at the social and economic impact of their travels B y H olly Tousignant Supplements Editor Imagine your dream vacation: maybe you’re sitting on a beach at a fancy resort, drink in hand, with nothing but water and sunshine in front of you. Or maybe you’re sailing the ocean in a larger-thanlife cruise ship, surrounded by good food and endless amenities.

When you’re thinking about your vacation, do you stop to ask where the money you’re paying for your trip is going? Or whether any wildlife was ploughed away to make way for your resort? Or how the fumes from your cruise ship are affecting the environment?

If you’re like most Western tourists, probably not. But questions like these are just the kind that ethical travel advocates are hoping you’ll ask.

Travelers interested in learning how to make their trips more ethical need look only as far as the Internet. There are many online organizations dedicated to ethical travel, including UK-based charity Tourism Concern.

Their website claims that they are the “only organization in Europe actively campaigning on tourism and human rights issues.”

Rachel Noble is the campaigns manager at Tourism Concern.

She told the Journal via email that ethical travel isn’t difficult, even for those on a tight budget.

“Travelling ethically doesn’t have to be expensive,” she said.

“Package holidays may be cheap and tempting, but may not provide as much direct local benefits. On the other hand, even venturing

Inside Road trips Five tips for planning the perfect summer road trip. page 13

Staycations Suggestions for planning a vacation close to home. page 13

Camping in ONT.

A guide to the best camping spots in Ontario. page 15

beyond the walls of your resort for some local shopping and eating can enhance the positive impact of your holiday.”

Noble said there are many steps travelers can take to improve their ethics.

“Use water sparingly: even in places with high levels of rainfall, lack of infrastructure means that many local people have very limited access. Use a tour operator or hotel with a responsible tourism policy that addresses key issues, such as basic labour conditions, how they ensure local communities benefit from their presence and protect against environmental degradation,” she said. “You should also consider your carbon footprint—something which we all need to be reducing in order to address climate change—especially if you’re flying.”

Noble said although travel is a lucrative industry, the profits are spread very unevenly and often don’t go to the people who need them the most.

“This is perhaps particularly true in the global South, where land and labour are cheap, and many people are marginalised, poor and easy to exploit,” she said. “Many of the human rights violations associated with tourism development are hidden. These include forced displacement of communities to make way for resorts and hotels, unsustainable water consumption that curtails access for local people, and poor pay and working conditions.”

Global development studies Professor Paritosh Kumar said Ethical travel starts with considering the implications of travelling, Global Development Studies See Take on page 16

pHOTO BY Justin Chin

Professor Paritosh Kumar said.

Careers

Getting paid to vacation

Are jobs in the travel industry really the dream careers that they appear to be?

B y H olly Tousignant Supplements Editor For many, jobs in the travel industry hold an irresistible allure.

Whether giving tours around the world’s greatest cities or writing about your summers abroad for travel magazines, travel industry jobs certainly have their perks.

But what are the downsides to these jobs? Are there enough pros to weigh out the cons, like low pay and possible job instability?

Merilyn Simonds is a local writer who has done travel writing on and off for about 35 years. She has written for travel magazines as well as publishing a book, Breakfast at the Exit Cafe, with her husband Wayne Grady about a road trip they took through the United States. She has also published other works of fiction and non-fiction.

Simonds said she doesn’t think it’s feasible for a writer to make a

living on travel writing alone.

“There aren’t enough publications that will publish magazine travel writing,” she said.

“Each of the transportation venues like Air Canada, WestJest, Via, they all have their own in-house magazines, but there are very few general interest travel magazines.”

Simonds said magazines pay a dollar a word for content (“if you’re lucky”) but that a writer usually has to be already established before magazines will publish them. She said what travel magazines look for in a writer is someone who can provide a unique perspective on the topic.

“I grew up in Brazil and I travelled back to Brazil for the first time since I was a child, so I wrote a story about going back to visit and how things had changed and going with my sister,” she said, adding that the piece was published in En Route magazine,

Air Canada’s in-house publication.

“They put it in a special issue about family travel.”

Simonds had additional advice for wannabe travel writers.

“Don’t write [your story] first before pitching it, but have a very clear idea of what you want to write about so you can give an outline of what the angle is and what you in particular can bring to the story, why you are the only person on the face of the Earth that can write this story,” she said.

Although there are few travel magazines, Simonds said she thinks the desire to read travel pieces is high.

“There’s a lot of appeitite in Canada for stories that take place outside of Canada, particularly in the Sub-continent and Asia and to some extent South America, so I would think the opportunities are quite good. If you keep your eyes and ears open, your trip can make

a great story when you get home.”

Simonds said writers who wish to get paid to travel don’t necessarily have to become travel magazine writers. Each of the pieces in The Lion in the Room Next Door, Simonds’ collection of short stories, take place in a different country, and she travelled extensively to do research for the book. Once a writer sells their book, they can deduct any travel expenses they incurred along the way, Simonds said.

Nabil Ahmed has also found a way to make a living out of travel. He leads tours and works on social media, marketing campaigns and the website for International Student Exchange (ISX), a company based out of Toronto that offers trips for students to various locations in Canada and the United States.

Ahmed said he never thought he would end up working in travel.

See Jobs on page 16

Travel

12 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Jobs

Au pairing across Europe Au pair and camp jobs allow students to mix work and pleasure while seeing the world B y H olly Tousignant Supplements Editor

Spending a year at Herstmonceaux Castle can be a great experience, but it’s not for everyone, students say.

pHOTO BY Justin Tang

Education

Global students

Students discuss the ups and downs of studying abroad B y C aroline G arrod Staff Writer There are a plethora of international opportunities available for those who prefer to do their travelling in an academic setting. From the Bader International Study Centre (BISC) at Herstmonceux Castle, to course-specific summer trips, to a traditional exchange—one would be hard-pressed to find an option that wasn’t appealing.

An exchange in the fall or winter semester of third-year is the most common choice. According to the Queen’s University International Centre (QUIC), Queen’s has exchange agreements with 110 institutions in 35 different countries, which means that you can go on exchange in a wide array of countries, including China, Australia, Russia and Argentina.

There’s an obvious price advantage to the exchange option, as you pay your tuition to Queen’s, rather than at the foreign institution; but there are other benefits beyond the chance for cheap travel.

Emilie Gauthier, Comm ’11, spent Fall 2009 studying in France at the ESCP Europe, a European business school with five campuses across the continent. She said that about 70 per cent of commerce students go on exchange in their third year.

She said she particularly enjoyed the chance to adapt to a different learning style.

“Here at Queen’s, the commerce

program is quite hands-on and involves a lot of assignments,” she said. “In France, we generally did things more independently, had class discussions and then were evaluated in exams at the end of the course.”

Spending one’s first year at the BISC—or “the Castle”—in England is a slightly more daunting prospect for some, as it involves spending your first year far away from home.

For Adam Sprott, ArtSci ’12, however, the choice was clear.

“I got to stay in a castle rather than Vic Hall. Enough said.”

Sprott extolled the virtues of the program.

“The field studies are amazing—I took an Art History course and got a lecture about the Mona Lisa while standing in front of it in the Louvre,” he said, adding that he doesn’t feel he missed anything by not being in Kingston for his first year, except for Orientation Week.

“When you get to the Castle, everyone is pretty jetlagged, so it’s less intense,” he said. “But once you get back to Kingston in second-year, NEWTS Week makes up for anything you feel you may have missed.”

Deanna Schmidt, ArtSci ’12, said that while she wanted to do international study in undergrad, she was hesitant to give up time at the Queen’s campus. She knew first year at the Castle or an exchange weren’t the right choices for her, but that a summer program

was. Queen’s offers spring and summer terms at the Castle, the Venice Summer School, a course on-location in Havana and several other study abroad opportunities in the summer.

For Schmidt, an art history major, there was a definite draw in enrolling in a course-specific program, which is why she will be attending the Venice Summer School in May. In art history, she said, it’s really important to be able to see art in context, which is something difficult in Kingston.

“Traveling and viewing the works first hand provides a completely different perspective since you can contextualize the work, see how it interacts with its environment and study it in true detail,” she said.

“The value of studying abroad for art history students may differ from that of other disciplines in that respect, because it is so based on the sensory experience.”

Schmidt, Gauthier and Sprott all said they hope to pursue jobs that involve international travel.

Gauthier credited her exchange with inspiring her to pursue a degree in global management in Fall 2011, and hopes to work in international finance.

“Going on exchange, you see Canadians working in international fields that you never even considered as options—there are so many things that you just aren’t exposed to in Canada.”

For some students, working overseas is the ultimate summer job. After all, what could be better than getting paid to see the world?

Asia Zolnierczyk, ArtSci ’12, worked as a group leader for a camp in the United Kingdom. She said she really wanted to travel to Europe and thought working at a camp would give her the opportunity to do so.

“I love playing sports and I enjoy working with children,” she said. “I was able to meet children from all over the world including Egyptian princes, German movie stars, kids from Greece, Japan, etc. I was able to learn some of their languages as well as teach them some English.”

Zolnierczyk’s job included supervising the children and playing sports with them.

“I was pretty much working all day, including the nights when children would pull the fire alarms or cause trouble,” she said. “I had two and a half days off each week, which I used to go travelling through England as well as Scotland and France.”

Like many other students, Zolnierczyk found out about the opportunity through the Queen’s Career Services job board. She worked with other students from Queen’s and all over Canada, she said.

Before departing, she had to fill out many application forms, apply for a work Visa, open a bank account in England and search for cheap airline tickets.

Zolnierczyk said although the job didn’t pay much, the experience was well worth it.

“It’s a lot of work and you need to be patient with the children who can’t speak English, but it’s a really fun job. You’ll learn you’re more patient than you thought you were,” she said.

Scotia Personnel Ltd., a company based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, works in connection with international partner companies to offer overseas jobs, exchanges and education opportunities for Canadians. Among the jobs they offer are au pairing and summer camp work. They also offer placements for teachers and hospitality jobs.

Scotia Personnel President Marilyn VanSnick said the company deals with over 100 students each year.

Students who work at camps get paid around $4,000 for a summer, she said, adding that au pairing is more about the experience than making a lot of money.

“Au pairing does not pay as high obviously,” she said. “It would depend on which area they are working in. If you want to have a nice summer in Spain as an au pair, working only 30 hours a week, that’s totally different than working at a camp in the UK

or Switzerland.”

VanSnick said most students hear about Scotia through their school’s job boards.

“Students would send us an email and let us know they’re interested in working in another country, then we would contact them, then we would find out what their work history is, what their education history is,” she said, adding that they would then check references before continuing on to the interview stage. “At the interview we both decide if they’re interested in proceeding.”

Career Services career counsellor Paul Bowman said working abroad for the summer is a growing trend.

“International experience is being more and more valued, so even if it’s summer experience, if people’s circumstances allow it’s generally a good idea, whether educational travel, volunteer work or paid work.”

It’s a really fun job.

“You’ll learn you’re more patient than you thought. ” — Asia Zolneirczyk, Student and former UK Camp employee

Bowman said it’s really important for students to do their homework before pursuing these opportunities.

“Most of the experiences I’ve heard from people have been quite positive,” adding that for au pairing, it really depends on the family you end up with.

“The hours might be long and they might not get as much language exposure as they were hoping for. Really part of the role of the au pair is to do English lessons with the children they’re working with. I know some people who have felt really isolated, but that’s a minority.”

Students who are planning on working at camps should find out if they’ll be charged for accommodations or if they’re free, Bowman said. Students should make sure that a low-paying cultural experience is really what they want, he added.

With workplaces becoming increasingly more diverse, employers see international work experience as a positive, Bowman said.

“The positive things intercultural exchange can signify to potential employers are things like self-confidence and maturity,” he said. “It speaks to moving outside of your comfort zone and being challenged to learn the language skills and the cultural skills and understandings.”

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Travel

queensjournal.ca

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tRAVEL

Road trip rules Six steps for planning the perfect road trip B y S amantha S exton Contributor Picture the wind in your hair, the sun kissing your skin, your best friends in tow and only open road and clear skies ahead. It’s the ultimate summer vacation: the road trip. The first real recorded road trip was completed in 1903.

Piloted by H. Nelson Jackson, the trip from San Francisco to New York took a total of 63 days and cost nearly $8,000. Since then, millions of North Americans have followed in the footsteps of Jackson in what is now a popular summer tradition.

Modern travelers know that road tripping has evolved into more than just a means of vacationing.

For some, the road trip is an art form and one that must be planned accordingly. Here are some tips for successfully planning your next trip to ensure things drive smoothly.

least have a rough estimate of what direction you’re travelling in. There are plenty of resources online and in print that can help you map out fantastic trips. A good strategy is to create a list of the places you’d like to visit and pick out the best/ most convenient locations to map out a good trip. Be sure to research maps, attractions, events and local recommendations. It’s also important to consider the duration of your trip, your budget and crucial factors, such as accommodation.

Are you looking to camp, stay in hotels/motels or are you willing to consider the unadvisable option of sleeping in your own car? It’s best to pre-book campsites and hotels weeks in advance to ensure you have a place to stay. If you choose not to pre-book, you risk being turned away, but you also have the freedom to go wherever the road takes you, which means not having to keep a tight schedule.

The Vehicle: This is probably the most important thing to consider while planning your trip. After all, it’s the very backbone of this exciting journey. Make sure your vehicle is adequately equipped and prepared. Smart road trippers will have their vehicle serviced before embarking on their journey. Since the first documented road trip took place in 1903, road trips have become a mainstay in pHOTO BY Corey Lablans At the very least, make sure you North American culture. have a full tank of gas, windshield washer fluid, clean oil and a cell to travel by van, SUV, truck, The Food: If you’re looking to plan burger, a Kawartha dairy milkshake phone. A CAA membership is a convertible, sedan, motorcycle a junk food-heavy trip, you’ll have or some McDonald’s fries. Road good idea in case you run into or lawnmower, be sure that all no problem finding places to chow trips are usually synonymous with any problems on the road. Other possible drivers are comfortable down along the highway. This is fast food, but this doesn’t have essentials include a great map and driving the chosen vehicle. It’s also especially true if you’re visiting to be the case. The road tripper Select Your Destination(s): a complete first—aid kit. A GPS good to ensure all your possible our neighbours to the south. It is with a more cultured palate may Whether you want to cross 52 can also be beneficial (especially drivers are comfortable driving and summer vacation after all, so why choose to research fine dining not let loose, banish the BMI and destinations ahead of time. This states in 52 days or just take a picnic if you’re a little directionally— legally able to drive in general. sink your teeth into a juicy Weber’s adds to the traveling experience as to Wasaga beach, you’d better at challenged). Whether you choose it often gives you the opportunity to sample local fare (lobster from Nova Scotia, Pizza from Brooklyn, Local tRAVEL the local wines of Niagara). Lastly, don’t be afraid to pack a few snacks.

Homemade trail mix, energy bars (such as Cliff or Lara bars), bottled If you’re on a budget, the best vacations are the ones that don’t require you to go very far water and homemade muffins are all portable, healthy options to tide Why break the bank to go to the Islands on Heart Island, which is Picton, where you can find a nice Confederation Tour Trolley you over until the next rest stop. ends of the earth when you can in the shape of – you guessed it - a combination of wildlife and an ($12.50 for student), which departs become a tourist in your own heart. The cruise costs $36, but historical downtown. While you’re from the Tourist Information The Jams: What’s a road trip town? Staycations – vacations that the seven-dollar entry fee to Boldt in the area, be sure to check out Office in Confederation Park. without music? The car tunes can involve staying close to home – are Castle is extra. Check the boat Lake on the Mountain. Located History buffs will definitely want to make or break a trip, as many perfect for students on a budget. line website for information about right on the other side of the ferry, check out Fort Henry, a UNESCO of us who have travelled with Here are some suggestions for great dates, times and special events. it’s a natural wonder that is just as World Heritage Site. In addition our parents can attest to. Spend staycations in the Kingston area.

While you’re in Gananoque, try to its name suggests: a freshwater lake to touring the museum, you can some time creating a great playlist take in some of the town’s shops located on the top of a mountain, see Garrison Parades performed and tell your fellow passengers to Gananoque Boat Line, Gananoque, and waterfront restaurants. with a constant flow of water every day at 3 p.m. and attend the do the same. If it’s a long trip, Ontario despite no obvious source. You Sunset Ceremonies, which involves you’ll need some variety. Great • ganboatline.com can also visit Birdhouse City, home music, gun salutes and fireworks. options include classic rock, 90s Just over 30 kilometres from to over 80 birdhouses, located at Members of the Fort Henry Guard mixes or a carefully selected mix Kingston, Gananoque is a Estimated driving time from Macauley Mountain Conservation perform the Ceremonies at 7:30 of road trippin’ songs, like the picturesque town known for Queen’s: About 35 minutes on the outskirts of Picton. p.m. every Wednesday night in July ballad “Drivin’ Down the 401” by its close proximity to the 1000 and August. Kingston’s Martello home—grown talent Jamie Flegg.

Islands. The Gananoque Boat Prince Edward County, Ontario • prince-edward-county.com Towers are also a must-see. Built in Line offers popular day cruises, • ontarioparks.com/english/ 1846, Murney Tower is located at The People: After all is said and including the one-hour Call of the Prince Edward County is one lakem.html the corner of King St. and Barrie St. done, it’s unlikely your greatest Wild Tour ($20), which focuses of Ontario’s most beautiful and is now operated as a museum. memories will be of that one awesome beach, that catchy song on showcasing local wildlife, the areas, famous for its vineyards Estimated driving time from one-hour 1000 Islands Icons Tour and arts community. You can Queen’s campus (to Picton, by • kingstonchamber.on.ca/Tourism/ or that rattling sound coming ($20) and the two and a half-hour get to it without having to leave way of the Glenora Ferry): About Trolley/Confederation-Tour- from your exhaust pipe. Your best memories will be of the people Lost Ships Cruise ($30). Perhaps land, but the most scenic route 80 minutes Trolley who shared those moments with the most popular and well-loved is by way of the Glenora Ferry.

• forthenry.com offering is the five-hour Boldt Check the county’s website for Kingston, Ontario • kingstonhistoricalsociety.ca/ you, of the jokes you shared, the laughs you had and the stories Castle Stopover Cruise, which stops information about special events; murney.html you have for years to come. The for two hours at the famous castle in the past, artists and winemakers As anyone who has lived in built by Waldorf Astoria proprietor have opened up their homes or Kingston for the summer can — Holly Tousignant bottom line: choose good company and a great trip will follow.

George C. Boldt. Don’t forget your businesses for tourists to see. Prince attest, the city is full of attractions passport – the castle is located on Edward County contains several for the staycationer. You can get the American side of the 1000 quaint towns and villages, including to know the City’s sights on the Set Your Pace: Are you a planner or a doer? Your answer will determine which kind of road trip is best for you: the “scheduled” road trip or the “whatever happens happens” trip. While both have their own set of pros and cons, one requires a bit more preplanning than the other, so it’s best to choose which type of trip you want to embark on in the beginning. This is usually determined both by the type of people you’re planning to travel with and how far you’re travelling.

Staycationing suggestions

Travel

14 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Outdoors

Camp your way around Ontario Ethical travel companies encourage tourists to look at the social and exconomic impact of their travels B y S amantha S exton Contributor With the stresses of assignments and upcoming exams looming, one can’t help but to dream about the dog days of summer ahead. After eight months of brutal academics, some form of vacation seems necessary. While relaxing in Anguilla or hob knobbing with George Clooney in the Italian countryside may be nice options, they aren’t feasible for most of us. Camping may seem a little less glamorous, but it can be a fun, affordable way to rejuvenate the mind, body and soul. Getting in touch with your natural side is easy around here, because Ontario is populated with 329 provincial parks to choose from! Here are a few to consider: Sandbanks Provincial Park Located just west of Kingston are two of the largest freshwater baymouth sandbars in the world. Sandbanks Provincial Park features 549 campsites and some of the most interesting natural features Ontario has to offer. Two spectacular stretches of sand dunes occupy the park, some reaching heights of nearly 25 metres high. Sandbanks offers a large beach for those who want to spend their days leisurely strolling along the lake, while more nature-savvy visitors can take delight in the several unusual plants found in the park and species of wildlife roaming the dunes and wetlands, including the pileated woodpecker and the marsh wren. The park also features two short trails for cycling or hiking. ontarioparks.com/english/sand.html Estimated driving time from Queen’s: One hour 30 minutes.

Rates range from $23.75 to $46.00 per

campsite per night.

Bruce Peninsula National Park Located on the Bruce Peninsula, the park is bound by the Niagara Escarpment which drops off into Georgian Bay. Bruce Provincial Park is home to one of the world’s UNESCO Biospheres, featuring the oldest forest in Eastern North America, breathtaking cliffs and a number of rare orchids and wildflowers. The parks encompass the Bruce Trail starting in Tobermory and following the Niagara Escarpment for 773 km. The park is home to walking trails and mountain biking trails. In addition, scuba diving enthusiasts will be pleased to know Bruce Peninsula features 22 historic shipwrecks amongst the 20 islands in the area. www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/on/bruce/index.aspx Estimated driving time from Queen’s: Six hours 45 minutes.

Rates are $4.90 per person per night for group camping, $9.80 per person per night for backcountry camping, $23.50 Ontario parks, such as Bruce Peninsula National Park (picture above), See The province on the next page

Suppled

offer attractions such as walking and cycle trails.

Travel

Travel planning to-do list

Things to remember before embarking on a trip for first-time and forgetful travellers B y H olly Tousignant Supplements Editor International travel can be fun and exciting, but it can also pose many problems for the ill prepared. First-time travellers (and forgetful

travellers) should remember these simple tips before their next trip to ensure an enjoyable, worry-free time.

Have an up to date passport (and a Visa, if necessary)

Don’t leave applying for your passport until the last minute! According to the Passport Canada website, processing times are currently 10 business days in person at a Passport Canada counter and 20 business days by mail or through a receiving agent such as Service Canada or Canada Post. Urgent and Express pick-ups can be arranged, but with additional costs of $70 and $30 respectively. Some countries require that your passport last three to six months past the beginning of your trip, so be sure to check your expiry date before you depart.

Leave your birth certificate somewhere safe and photocopy important documents

If your passport is misplaced, you’ll need proper identification to get yourself out of quite a sticky situation. Make sure to keep your birth certificate somewhere safe and definitely do not keep it with your passport—if they’re lost together, you’ll be out of luck. Ensuring your passport is photocopied will make it easier to replace if it gets lost or stolen.

Find out if you need travel immunization Some countries require you have certain shots before visiting, while for others it’s highly recommended. You can find information about immunizations at your local public health unit and in some cities, entire clinics are dedicated to travel immunization.

The Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Public Health offers appointments to travellers where they can get immunizations and find out more about the health risks in the countries they’re visiting. Their website, kflapublichealth.ca, also provides useful information and links.

Look into investing in travel insurance It’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes

to medical insurance while travelling abroad.

Accidents can happen, and your health plan may not cover all of your health care costs abroad. Your travel insurance will cover the length of your trip, though some companies place restrictions on trips longer than six months. Most banks offer travel insurance, and you can also purchase it at CAA or insurance companies. Make sure to ask questions so you know exactly what is being covered. Trip cancellation insurance can also be a good investment, especially if there are any circumstances you can foresee coming in the way of your trip.

Plan to bring extra cash

Plan your travel budget with the expectation that extra costs will arrive. Maybe you’ll lose your luggage and need to stock up in essentials, or perhaps you’ll to find new accommodations after you realize your hotel has more creepy crawly guests than human ones. You just never know, which is why it’s good to be prepared. You can exchange your money at banks or at foreign exchange centres like Wellington Foreign Exchange at 153 Wellington St. in downtown Kingston.

Also make sure to research exchange rates and the cost of living in the places you’re visiting so you’ll know what to expect.

Consider how much duty and tax you’ll have to pay upon return Upon return to Canada, Canadians are given personal tax exemptions depending on how long they’ve been away. This means that if you’ve spent under the limits set out, you don’t have to pay taxes on the merchandise you’ve purchased. According to the Canada Border Services Agency, you can bring $50 Canadian worth of goods back free of duty and tax for trips lasting more than 24 hours, $400 for trips lasting more than 48 hours and $750 for trips lasting more than seven days. Expect to be asked to pay tax on all of your items if you’ve gone over the limit.

Check the weather

Nothing’s worse than arriving in what you See Don’t on page 16

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Travel

queensjournal.ca

The province has 329 parks to choose from Continued from previous page

unserviced with washroom building having toilet only, $11.70 for additional vehicle and $15.70 per campsite per night for winter camping.

Algonquin Provincial Park In many people’s minds, camping in Canada is synonymous with Algonquin Park. It was the first provincial park in Ontario and is one of the largest. At 7,630 km², it’s larger than Prince Edward Island and the same size as the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The park features rocky ridges, hundreds of lakes and vast forests. Get ready for some exercise, because the only way to get around the interior of the park is by canoe or foot. Algonquin features eight campgrounds in total and over 14 trails. If all of that isn’t enough to keep you busy, consider visiting the logging museum to check out the park’s rich cultural history or embrace your inner artist and explore this summer’s exhibition “A Painter’s Park,” which showcases the iconic landscapes the park has to offer and the talent of Philip Sworden. algonquinpark.on.ca/ Estimated driving time from Queen’s: Three hours 30 minutes.

Rates range from $35.25 to $46.00 ($12.25 for additional vehicles) per campsite per night for the developed campgrounds, $58.00 to $134.50 per night per person for backcountry ranger cabins and $11.75 per person per night for backcountry camping.

Killarney Provincial Park Along with Algonquin, Killarney dominated a number of the Group of Seven’s work, and

it’s no surprise, because the park features an array of beautiful hardwood forests, crystal blue lakes and a series of rocky ridges glimmering with white quartzite. Four ice ages have shaped the tops of mountains and filled in crevices crafting the landscape now seen today. Summer events include both a loon and butterfly count. More adventurous campers may want to consider La Cloche Silhouette Trail. Those who fear intense physical activity beware; the seven to 10 day hike is fairly strenuous, but the reward is great. The hike concludes atop a vista with a vast view of the rugged and scenic park. ontarioparks.com/english/kill.html Estimated driving time from Queen’s: Seven hours 25 minutes.

Rates range from $23.75 to $46.00 per campsite per night.

Rondeau Provincial Park Formed in 1894, Rondeau is Ontario’s second oldest provincial park and the largest home to Ontario’s protected habitat. Birdwatchers can delight in sights of tulip-tree, sassafras, yellow-breasted chat, tundra swans and the endangered prothonotary warbler. These birds flock to Rondeau in early spring on route from migration. If bird watching isn’t your thing, the park features a local version of The Amazing Race in July. Teams can explore the park and overcome challenges.

This ancient park is one of the best kept secrets in Ontario and a special delight for anyone who even remotely likes birds. rondeauprovincialpark.ca/ Estimated driving time from Queen’s: Five hours 50 minutes.

Rates range from $23.75 to $46.00 per campsite per night.

Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit

Ontario Sales Tax Credit

Ontario Sales Tax Transition Benet O

You could get money back. File your taxes and nd out.

This tax season you may be eligible for a number of credits and benets. Visit ontario.ca/taxcredits to see a full list and learn more about qualifying.

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• 15

Travel

16 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

‘Take care to look at the situation of the country you’re going to’ Continued from page 11

travelers should consider all the participants who are affected by travel. There are four important players in world travel, Kumar said, including the tour companies, the tourists and the governments of the countries being visited.

“The fourth player is the people, who are probably most affected and impacted by it but have little say in the whole thing,” he said.

“The important question of ethics is bringing their concerns forward.

Start asking different questions.”

Kumar said companies that claim to offer ethical or eco-friendly trips aren’t necessarily doing as much good as they say. He pointed to the example of a so-called eco-friendly tour company that purchased a cruise ship to use for their trips, even though cruise ships are known to be harmful to the environment.

“If we look at some ethical travel and eco-tourism, it’s hogwash,” he said.

Companies that label themselves ‘ethical’ are at least asking questions that others are not, he added.

“It’s better than companies that don’t talk about it at all.”

According to Kumar, one of the most important things a tourist can do is learn about the people and culture of the country they’re visiting, including trying to become aware of their customs.

“Some people take pictures and it’s not only about asking consent.

In some countries it’s considered very rude to say no,” he said. “A friend of mine, she was traveling with us and there was a death in a family and they were having a ceremony in a temple and she wanted to take pictures. She asked for permission ... and they said yes, but you could clearly see that it was a very private ceremony.”

Since some cultures don’t like having their pictures taken at all, Kumar advises doing your homework before you go away.

“Tourism itself is a very pornographic way of looking at a culture,” Kumar said, adding that this is because a country’s culture comes to be seen as how tourists– outsiders—perceive it.

One of the issues that can arise from this pornographic view of culture is misguided generalizations, Kumar said. He used the example of white women fearing for their safety while visiting Kenya because of sexism.

“What we do often is that we generalize about culture and people and this is not to say that it doesn’t happen, but by stepping into local people’s shoes and trying to understand what sexual violence means to people in Kenya, has it increased after the 1980s, and why has increased, that way we’re saying it’s not something in their genetic code, we are trying to understand.”

Kumar said learning the language can also be an important step in becoming an ethical tourist.

“Language is also important.

Just kind of knowing the language or at least having some kind of knowledge not only makes your travel easy, it makes you interact with local people. It’s one way of showing respect to the country.”

Kumar said in some countries, such as Thailand, revenue from tourists goes directly to development, which means the people of Thailand are actually benefitting from tourism. Travelers should ask questions about where their money is going, he added.

“Doing research is also important, to see whether the money from travel is going to a regime that is oppressing its people. Do you want your money implicated in issues like this?”

Western tourists should also question their belief that travel is a right, Kumar said.

“In context of climate change we start seeing travel as a privilege, when it’s international travel playing a big part in climate change,” he said. “Should we

travel? Our attitude of what travel is changes, it’s not a right but a privilege, so that’s an important issue we don’t really talk about when we talk about the ethics of traveling.”

Jeff Greenwald is the executive director of Ethical Traveler, an organization based out of Berkeley, California.

Greenwald said ethical travel can simply be defined as mindful travel.

“It’s travel with an awareness of your impact and where your money is going.”

The Ethical Traveler website includes a list called The Developing World’s 10 Best Ethical Destinations. This year’s list included Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costs Rica, Dominica, Latvia, Lithuania, Palau, Poland and Uruguay.

“All these countries have wonderful social justice for their citizens, they’re very conscious of how they deal with their tourist economy,” Greenwald said of the countries listed.

For example, some countries ensure that tourist dollars go directly to helping their country’s people.

Greenwald offered a few tips for the would-be ethical traveler.

“Take care to look at the situation of the country you’re going to. [Research] where you can stay or where you can eat that benefits people most directly,” he said.

“Are you staying at a big luxury hotel owned by foreign interests or a local hotel owned by local people? Was a coral reef destroyed to build the hotel or is it well incorporated with the landscape?

“Travel is actually a huge industry, actually as big as oil or steel,” Greenwald said. “As travelers our economic power is tremendous, but we’re really slow in learning that.”

Don’t forget your passport Continued from page 14

expect to be a nice, sunny locale wearing t-shirt and shorts only to find they’re going through a chilly, rainy spell. Doing your research ahead of time about upcoming forecasts and the yearly average temperatures (for longer trips) can help you avoid spending your trip cold, damp and miserable.

Purchase calling cards If you’re going to be far from home, long distance fees will be astronomical. The best way to avoid saddling yourself or the recipient of your call with a pricey phone bill is to buy a calling card. You can purchase them in convenience

Working for a tour company allows you to see some of the world’s greatest cities for free.

‘It’s great to work in something that you love to do’ Continued from page 11

“[Travelling] is one of my favourite hobbies, and it’s great to work in something that you love to do,” he said.

Ahmed has degrees in computer science and business from his home country of Spain, and studied business at York University for one year.

He first heard about ISX as a student living in Toronto and later decided to apply to work for them. Through his work with ISX, Ahmed has travelled to Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, New York, Washington, Chicago and Japan.

“It’s hard to just pick one [favourite place], but I’ll say New York City and Chicago. New York because it never sleeps and Chicago because [of] their food, culture and people.”

Career Services Counsellor Paul Bowman said students interested in working in travel can start by taking as many opportunities as they can to travel. Pursuing a post-graduate degree in tourism or hospitality can also give you an edge, he said.

“There is a post-graduate program in Humber College, hospitality and tourism operations management. If you did this on

and groceries stores for as little as five dollars Canadian and talk to family friends for as little as a few cents a minute. If you have a world phone (a phone that works internationally), you can also look into adding a long distance plan for the time you’ll be away if you don’t already have one.

electronic devices into outlets and use them safely without these tools.

Check what voltage and plug you’ll need for the country or countries you’re visiting, but also keep in mind that universal converters and adapters are available.

• Flight attendant or pilot

Determine a meeting place

• Consulting careers

Buy voltage converters and plug adapters

For those whose sense of direction isn’t up to par, travelling can be as stressful as it is exciting.

If you’re travelling with others, it’s a good idea to establish a meeting place in case you get lost, and encourage everyone to carry a map at all times, It’s also helpful to learn a few phrases in the language of the country you’re visiting so you can ask for directions if necessary.

• Photojournalist

If you’re travelling outside of North America and you plan on charging your camera batteries or blow-drying your hair, you’ll need a voltage converter and plug adapter. Plug shapes and voltage change once you travel overseas, so you won’t be able to plug your

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top of your Queen’s degree you would have much more to offer an employer in this field.”

According to Bowman, travel industry jobs are just like any other in that you have to start from the potentially menial jobs at the bottom and work your way up.

Travel jobs are just temporary for many people, and the allure might wear off quickly for some, he added.

“It depends on the type of role, but you can be dealing with things like illness or annoying clients.

It might be really great the first month you’ve been taking people on these scuba diving adventures, but like a customer service role, you’re going to be dealing with difficult people.”

Bowman said students aren’t restricted to travel writing or tourism jobs if they want a travel-heavy career.

“One of my wife’s cousins, he’s actually an accountant but he works for Four Seasons hotel chain, and he’s worked in Toronto, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Dubai,” he said. “So that’s been a way that he’s been able to have an international career that’s been travel-related but he’s been in a more traditional business role.”

Other travel-heavy jobs

• Sales executives • International development • University Principal: Since his arrival at Queen’s, Principal Woolf has made trips to India, Australia and Israel among many other places

Thursday, April 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

• 17

Arts Concert Follow-Up

Don’t compromise After Toronto’s live-remixing act, Keys N Krates, got the early Zappa’s crowds moving, London’s Shadrach Kabango rhymed from his award-winning TSOL to a full house.

interview

Essential to the scene

photos by tyler ball

artist in profile: luke hayes-alexander

After months away touring their debut record, PS I Love You are returning to their home base for a gig at The Grad Club B y A lly H all Arts Editor The nostalgia I associate with locals PS I Love You has been palpable lately. Maybe it’s the many memories of thrashing along to their tunes over the years with friends who’ve graduated and grown up, or the way the band yelps pure Kingston at me every time it slips onto my shuffle rotation.

Or perhaps it’s because their debut Meet Me At The Muster Station has achieved genuine success, bringing the duo home to The Grad Club on Saturday after a long North American tour.

“We’ve played a lot of good shows at The Grad Club over the years in all the bands I’ve been in, in Kingston” guitarist and vocalist Paul Saulnier said from his seat in a van en route to Toronto. “That’s where I met Diamond Rings, he was playing with The D’Urbervilles.

I’ve met a lot of other cool bands there too just by playing with them and opening for them … The Grad Club’s an important place for me.”

Saulnier said he and drummer

Benjamin Nelson’s support system at The Grad Club and in Kingston landed him at the South

by Southwest (SXSW) festival last month.

They cut it from their “rotation ... they didn’t like the vomiting. ” —Paul Saulnier, PS I Love You’s guitarist and vocalist

“Virginia [Clark] came to a couple of my shows and it was good to see her,” he said. “It made things seem more surreal in a good way … in an unfamiliar place.”

After weeks of a whirlwind tour seeing little more than “the club you’re playing in and the street it’s on,” Saulnier said they’re looking forward to the hometown show.

It’s not surprising PS I Love you chose to film their latest video for their track “Get Over” inside their familiarly fared venue’s walls.

“I’m glad we did the video in Kingston and a bunch of my friends showed up and we used The Grad

Club,” he said, adding, “[It’s] pretty essential to the music scene that we’re out of.”

Directed by Mike Portoghese, the video’s raging party, which is set to the band’s grinding riffs, comes complete with realistic party favors and a culmination of several folks having too many at a karaoke jam (which, let’s be serious, can never be a bad thing).

“He’s a great video director and mostly does mainstream videos for Much Music,” Saulnier said. “This video was him breaking out of that a little bit, it was exciting for both of us … Much Music played it once on The Wedge but they cut it from their rotation because they didn’t like the vomiting,” he added with a laugh.

It seems these two are always on the go, constantly pounding pavement since their October record release. Coming off tour with split-single cohort and resident compadre Diamond Rings, Saulnier said both acts have been pushing hard.

“Touring with Diamond Rings See Down on page 21

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One of Hayes-Alexander’s creations “Blues Junkie Goat (Or, How Coffee Was Discovered),” features a symphony of goat, yoghurt, coffee, chillis, spice, pomegranate, dates, almonds and carrots.

Gastronomy philosophies Luke’s on Princess St. has become synonymous with culinary adventure 1. Who are you?

Luke Hayes-Alexander.

2. What do you do?

I am the Executive Chef at Luke’s Gastronomy.

3. Where can people find you?

We can be found at 264 Princess St. Our website is lukesgastronomy.com

I gather inspiration from so many sources ... recipes, a specific ingredient I want to highlight, a photo, nature. Sometimes ideas come in dreams. I have a vast collection of food books and food history books and they provide much inspiration. I’ll come across an obscure preparation from first Century Rome, for example, and will be inspired to create a dish around that.

7. How do you take an ingredient in its initial form like tobacco 4. If you had a mission statement, and transform it into one of your trademark creations? what would it be?

I believe in gathering my ingredients from local farms and in showing my respect for those foods by preparing them in ways that will delight and amuse my customers.

5. Do you have a favourite recipe to prepare?

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PS I Love You’s Benjamin Nelson and Paul Saulnier (from left) are planning to continue their love affair with Kingston as they gear up to record their second album with producer, sound artist and professor Matt Rogalsky.

No, I can’t say I have a favourite.

I love whatever it is that I’m working on at the time. Although, I am particularly excited when working on a new dish, which can take anywhere from two to four months.

6. Where do you gather inspiration?

That’s such a great question.

When planning a new dish, See One on page 23

inside reviewing reviews The Queen’s Rational Review aims to foster clear communication at Queen’s.

Page 21

18 •queensjournal.ca

film review

Arts

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Melancholy magic

Though the story is told mostly through brief, indistinguishable and heavily-accented dialogue, Jean-Claude Donda manages to voice the role of an illusionist with wounded pride. His ill-tempered rabbit accompanies him on his long and slow journey to a remote island where they find an audience for a short time.

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Adventure ensues when The Illusionist’s protagonist heads to Scotland after finding himself jobless B y P arker M ott Staff Writer Movie: The Illusionist Director: Sylvain Chomet Duration: 80 minutes

 There’s something rather beautiful about The Illusionist. In its 80-minute bit of silence and tiny character grumbles, so much melancholy

and humour is conveyed. It’s like a ballerina dancing on a coffin. The film is narrowed to a selective audience, so it will not find its way through the mainstream crowd.

But I was riveted. It shames the predictable emotions of Toy Story 3 and its overpacked story (which won the Oscar for Best Animated Film).

The Illusionist is so majestic. Its laughs are so modestly clever you could miss them. The comedy is much to do with the characters’ enchantment and fascination with their

world and ultimately their rejection of it—and themselves. In a world developing itself off the commercialism, exploitation and subterfuge of pop culture, there is just no place for magicians anymore. This reminds me of the tragic state of cinema itself nowadays. The Illusionist, I found, spoke so much.

The film tells the story of an unnamed illusionist (voiced by Jean-Claude Donda) who moves about his day doing performances in empty theatres. When there are people, they are bemused by the illusionist’s tricks.

It takes an awkward silence or the manager of the theatre to prompt the applause. The implication is that there is no room for minimalism anymore. The illusionist’s prestidigitations are simple, delightful but—in this ever-changing world—equally banal. In a world losing touch with “magic” can an illusionist truly be magical?

He meets the acquaintance of a young girl Alice (voiced by Eilidh Rankin) and she has faith in this elderly magician. She believes in his slight of hand and that there is a place in this world for his kind. The two embark on a trip that doesn’t accede to the likes of cheap happiness, but fitting melancholy. There’s no other way to tell this story right.

The Illusionist is based on an unfinished script written by mime, actor and director Jacques Tati and it shows. Much of the architecture has a Gothic texture, with pointed arches, large windows, symmetrical shapes and tracery. It follows a passive, shy man as he wanders locales, fascinated and horrified by the dramatic and tragic shift in urban structure. There is a bittersweet goofiness in the process where decor becomes decorations and props for terrific sight gags, much like the inventiveness of Tati’s masterpiece Playtime.

Most importantly, Tati wrote The Illusionist as a reach-out to his estranged

daughter Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel, whom he abandoned when she was a baby. Tati’s regret and pathos are prevalent, but so is his wit. This is a rueful act that never becomes a homily on lost generations or the downfall of originality. It’s so engaging to watch Alice and the illusionist’s relationship spring up into a tender rapport between a father and his daughter.

As the illusionist moves aimlessly about the city, he enters a theatre playing Mon Oncle, an iconic 1958 Tati film about the elderly Monsieur Hulot who is unable to adjust to the proliferation of modern technology. The greatest paradox, and maybe satirical punch, is that Tati was a wild exploiter of technology.

He loved to strip it down, bend it, and pull it out of proportion as a gag—but also to reveal its imperfections.

The Illusionist doesn’t quite reach Tati’s élan, but who could? It’s a film of suggestion, long shots without dialogue that convey more ‘dialogue’ than a series of forced close-ups and long-winded banter. The illusionist’s world is not meant for leisure but a place of considerable agony. When he tries to promote a perfume through magic, he realizes he is just becoming another product himself.

The film understands that and doesn’t alienate what it attacks—modernization and urbanization—but uses it as a symbol of fading talents, who are not fit for this world anymore.

The Illusionist isn’t anything in the way of drama, terrific laughter or fast-pacing. It’s quiet, patient but effective. Its silence speaks more than we can imagine. It’s a great magic trick that doesn’t need to be applauded, but witnessed.

The Illusionist starts at The Screening Room tomorrow night. See moviesinkingston.com for ticket details.

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Jacques Tati wrote The Illusionist in an attempt to reach out to his estranged daughter, a gesture represented in the development of Alice and the illusionist’s father-daughter bond.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Arts

queensjournal.ca

Not new but worth a re-view

• 19

The arts editors weigh in on the highlights of the arts and entertainment scene in Kingston this past year

photo illustration by corey lablans

Clockwise from top left: The Acorn perform at 2010’s Wolfe Island Music Festival, Ken (Peter Wight) and Mary (Leslie Manville) in Another Year, members of the cast of The Mikado, interview all-stars Gobble Gobble, Montreal’s experimental texture quartet Braids, White Cowbell Oklahoma bringing the fire and Kurt Vile grinding out his trademark riffs.

Best Art Exhibit franken

forest

Nestled amongst the Rembrandts and El Greco at the Agnes Etherington was a three piece exhibit by local artist Don Maynard that explored the complex relationship between humans and nature. The exhibit showcased the ever-changing perspective of the viewer; at first glance “Flock” appears to be paper airplanes, but moving a couple steps forward turns the planes into aluminum pieces piercing the wall. In “Franken Forest” Maynard encased trees in different materials, creating some of the exhibit’s most dynamic and stimulating pieces like what I affectionately called the “Christmas tree on steroids.”

Best Film another

year

If you’re familiar with staff writer Parker Mott, you’ll know he can be tough critic to please. So, you can imagine our surprise when into the Arts email inbox pops a review of Another Year with a rating of five out of five stars. This moving film touches audience members with its focus on portraying real people, not archetypal characters.

Real people in real life don’t have the dramatic and predictable plot of a movie; instead their lives often revolve around nothing. Brilliant performances by the cast, most notably Lesley Manville, made watching nothing absolutely heart-wrenching.

you shall be our Stepford Wife forever, Kingston.” After that, I certainly am.

—Alyssa Ashton

Best Concert braids with cherry chapstick

the smorgasbord genres attendees throb along to in the candlelit Wine Cellar of The Mansion each month. DJs Blake Macfarlane and Emre Amasyali told the Journal their intention is to create a “safe, open-minded space where people can come and really let go … dancing to heavy bass music can be very cathartic.”

Best Album

wasn’t in fact doing interviews as we’d hoped. Luckily for us, he’d provided something far, far more intriguing. Concluding his email with an understated, “hopefully this will suffice,” he read our fortune.

“You, birthed in bike month, are a June baby. Your element is air, Gemini, and thus you examine yourself lightly, prostrate before the spectacular astral phallus.” The only thing better than the brilliant full text of the fortune is the accompanying photo—a cassette tape covered topless male torso, attached to an elaborately coloured mask-covered face.

Montréal’s Braids brought k u r t v i l e & t h e sonic bubbles to The Grad Club in violators February. Leaving crowds delirious smoke ring for with live version of the tunes from my halo their hauntingly hypnotic debut Native Speaker, the quartet’s set was The release of Kurt Vile’s one for the books. The audience Best Music Fest was enveloped in their strung- sophomore record put the wolfe island out living soundscape—peaceful, proverbial nail in the coffin of music festival serene, provocative and textural. any arguments challenging the Fellow Montréal post-rockers and lo-fi darling’s potential for musical The Wolfe Island Music Festival Kingston natives Cherry Chapstick longevity. The Philadelphian has an Best Quotes opened the night, setting the stage innate ability to make his grandoise, might be the worst kept secret Best Play white cowbell perfectly for the tones to come. psychedelic folk-rock anthems in the Limestone City. Weeks the mikado oklahoma The show was evidence Braids seem intimate. Songs peppered without mention or reminiscing on have managed to push beyond the with Americana and monastic the festival are rare, yet the event The joy of working for the confines of the post-rock genre, imagery, Vile is a man with lots maintains a down to earth vibe QMT has had a sensational year, with their ambitious spring arts section is the daily dose of emerging with an exploratory style to say. Ranging from fingerpicked and lack of pretension that keeps twinkling to harder strummed attendees spreading the word each production of City of Angels and inspirational quotes from artists. in which nothing is held back. riffs, Smoke Ring For My Halo year. Last year’s installment was their fall masterpiece, The Mikado. But sometimes the truly remarkable The operatic Mikado was the real quotes are the ones that make B e s t D a n c e P a r t y layers into an evocative, dark and no different, featuring favourites atmospheric composition. At their like The Weakerthans and The star of the year, due in large part to your draw drop in both horror sloppy gig at The Mansion last month, Acorn and newcomers Shad and the talented cast who brought the and amusement, case-in-point footwork The Violators complimented the Diamond Rings. With the option love story to life, but added a much White Cowbell Oklahoma. With heavy side of the singer’s stream of to camp overnight and the added needed dose of humour. It’s always their pre-show rituals consisting bonus of rubbing elbows with “Another night of heavy bass.” consciousness style. tough to get students out to theatre of “self-flagellation and flatulation,” local talent (Ron Sexsmith is productions, but QMT was able explaining their dynamic shows Whenever I seen those words often in attendance), the festival to make their fall show relevant to as a result of “getting off pissed splashed onto photocopied posters Best Interview had something for everyone. The students by mocking the Biebs and that so many douche bands were around campus, my heart skips gobble gobble proximity to the Island Grill’s showcasing the projectile pleasures failing the test” and blaming a a beat. A knee-jerk reaction, as floating patio doesn’t hurt either. of homecoming. An extra-large headlining show on the LSD the Palace Sound System’s Sloppy At first, the arts team was shout-out goes to the costume and organizers were on. The ultimate Footwork events have become —Ally Hall set designers who helped realize treat of this interview came in the highly anticipated and guaranteed bummed to read the opening of form of lead singer and guitarist live nights out this year. Future bass, an email from Gobble Gobble’s the romantic Japanese aesthetic.

Clem C. Clemson, “After Friday house, techno and dub are a few of Cecil Frena informing us the band

20 •queensjournal.ca

Arts

Thursday, april 7, 2011

point-Counterpoint

One game to rule them all Three virtual afficianados weigh in to kick off debate on the greatest video game in them. Anyone who doesn’t that gamers can play on any level the best. realize this should get out of the of difficulty while experiencing a A villain can make or break house more. unique style of play every time. a game and the psychotic Video game enthusiasts who The graphics are phenomenal; the mastermind Joker was a perfect criticize Madden as “just a sports be-a-player mode has insane detail foil for the terse and stoic caped MADDEN game” don’t seem to realize that and the online gameplay will keep crusader. He’s voiced by Mark The 2011 NFL season may be sport is synonymous with cool. you up all night. The gameplay Hamill, who does an expert job in doubt, but even amid lockouts Think about it: How many friends on the field is great and looks and perfectly captures the goofy and lawsuits, there’s one constant have you made just over the love of fantastic in motion; players move yet sadistic personality that has football fans can always rely on: a sport? About 95 per cent for us. with the realism you’d expect to made him so popular.

The Joker enacts an elaborate Madden. The franchise, named In North America, football is a way see watching Sunday Football with after Pro Football Hall of Famer of life. So, under our mathematical your buddies. Madden comes as plot to take over the island prison John Madden, was developed equation (we’ll call it “The Law close as ever to bringing you every of Arkham Asylum, Gotham’s

by EA sports in 1988. Ever since, of Madden”) we understand that, spin move, one-handed grab, and home for the criminally insane, and Madden has consistently been a since everyone likes sports and bone-shattering tackle that you see proceeds to unleash all the maniacs best seller, selling over 70 million football is the most popular sport on the real life field. But it is who are imprisoned there—many copies worldwide. Featuring all in North America, video games also much more than that. The of who carry a personal vendetta of the real NFL teams, stadiums about football are the most popular Madden franchise encompasses against Batman for putting both the essence of football and them there. and even playbooks, gamers can (and clearly best).

Year after year, the Madden the strategic, competitive nature With so many enemies, you’ve take control of their favourite players and run the show any way franchise has proven to deliver the of video games in one, making it got to get your hands dirty and most dynamic and detailed football a scary combination to all those the fluid combat gets the job done. they want.

You’ll flow smoothly from punch to But Madden is the best for so game ever. Each match-up provides video game addicts out there.

The legend of Madden NFL counter to aerial flip with dynamic many more reasons. To the world, an experience with unlimited sports are much more than just outcomes, always keeping the within the video game world has moves to keep it interesting. This is entertainment. We’ve all grown up game play new and exciting. been epitomized with the creation contrasted with the sneaking you’ll with, and learned fundamental life Extremely detailed play-books and of the American reality television need to do to take out gunmen; skills from watching and partaking head-to-head multiplayer ensures show, Madden Nation, a show along the way employing an array where players of the game go of gadgets to get the job done.

With the storyline, it’s the details head-to-head for a $100,000 grand prize. Are you serious? that shine. The game’s main plot is Entertainment watching others augmented by 200 puzzles The play a video game? Yes. Riddler has left around the Island, Madden has proven yet again as well as series of psychologist’s that it’s one of the most popular interview tapes with Arkham and recognizable video game inmates. Another great detail was franchises in the world. It’s a the way Batman’s suit is damaged game for everybody, passionate or and deteriorated during his trials not, and is less brain numbing on the island, ending with blood than many of the action games on his face, slashes on his bicep and out there. Madden, rather, is a a tattered cape. game of strategy, like a chess The enemies that inflict these match—except they haven’t created wounds on you are great as well, a reality TV show for chess matches. particularly Scarecrow, who sends you in a drug-induced psychedelic —Noah Batist and Tom Lee nightmare where you do battle with, and overcome, your fears.

It’s trippy, it’s terrifying and it was flippin’ fantastic.

They also manage to weave in the question of Batman’s own sanity, with many of the malefactors asking BATMAN: if maybe you should be behind ARKHAM ASYLUM bars “with the rest of the crazies.”

Nobody wants to be normal. It’s a question given credence Normal people are boring and live by subtle appearances of his boring lives. I certainly don’t want single-minded obsession with bats to be normal, in fact I want to be a and by association, his vocation of superhero and that’s why Batman: crime-fighting.

Arkham Asylum puts you into Arkham Asylum is my choice for the suit of one of the coolest greatest game ever.

The Batman mythos has been characters around, and does in development for more than so gracefully. Play it and you’ll 70 years now, and the designers lose yourself for hours stopping drew on this lifetime of stories Gotham’s criminals, and when it’s and characters to make a fantastic over, don’t worry—there’s a sequel game. The fundamentals are solid; on the way. controls, graphics are good, but —Andrew Stokes it’s the details that make this game

MARIO KART 64 The greatest things are often the simplest and they are great because they are simple. Without ornamentation, they are free to teach us about ourselves. Stare into a Rothko multiform—it’s just shapes and colours. Keep at it, though, and patterns start to emerge. Before long, you’re looking at coloured blocks, but you’re deep inside your own head, seeing something else.

What is it? I am convinced that this is what Nintendo had in mind when they made Mario Kart 64.

The game is simple enough. You have 16 courses, and they are all fundamentally similar, variations on a theme. The obstacles change, but the goal remains the same—be the first racer to complete three laps. Use power-ups to assist your progress or impede your competitors’. And that’s pretty much it. Shapes and colours.

The first time you play it, it feels noisy and cluttered and kind of dumb. Keep playing, though, and it will do strange things to you.

You’ll come to know those courses well, and one day, you’ll realize that you’ve been playing without looking at the screen, without realizing that you were playing at all. You’ll have been somewhere else entirely. Mind freed from body in a way that has got to be some kind of zen. What were you thinking about?

And in limbo, you’ll make choices without actively considering them and these choices will tell you something about yourself. You hit an item box and pick up three red shells. Will you unload all three on one unsuspecting driver? Or will you keep two as weirdly orbiting bulwarks against shells and banana peels to come? Lap three on Koopa Troopa Beach and you’re in first place.

Will you shoot for the shortcut to seal the victory, even without a mushroom or star to help you bridge the gap from ramp to tunnel? Or will you play it safe on solid ground? And whom will you choose to represent you in this world? Will you roll with the lumbering, powerful Donkey Kong? Or will you make your way with the nimble Princess Peach?

I know what choices I’ve made, and what they say about me: they tell me I’m a ruthless, imprudent asshole who longs to fly and to be a woman.

I have spent a monstrous amount of time playing this game.

Over a thousand hours, I’m sure.

I don’t consider a second of a minute of those hours wasted.

They were a small price to pay for self-knowledge. I’ve stared at Rothkos for hours. I could play Mario Kart for a lifetime.

—Adam Wray

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Arts

Thursday, april 7, 2011

literary CritiCism

a fair amount of unnecessary quotation that doesn’t aid in the illustration of the point.

The final essay “Embryos May be Entitled to the Same Moral Status of a Person,” written by James Simpson, was far and away the best essay. Its introduction clearly laid out the progression of his argument, and he chose simple direct words, eschewing any kind subjugate prostitutes, but gives no of rhetorical verbosity. Arguments are presented and then challenged evidence to prove her point.

The essay doesn’t so much and he proceeds rationally from prove a point so much as it does point to point.

It’s refreshing, well written and prove the existence of a phrase within a singular piece of legislation. my only real critique is that focuses The next essay was by a little too much on analogous Alexandrea Bryan and centered on cognitive theories. This essay was again unconvincing; it begins by disagreeing with classical cognitive theories in favour of one called “emergence.” Emergence is given an impressively vague definition, while difficult to distil, seems to claim that cognition is “unpredictable and inexplicable.”

It’s a theory that more or less refutes the possibility of an accurate theory and the forced verbosity of the essay made it difficult to decipher.

What’s also troubling is the author’s use of depression to illustrate her point; after claiming that depression has variable causes, she asserts that this proves it to be emergent (i.e. unpredictable and inexplicable). Citing an aberrant brain pattern as a stand-in for all thinking is a faulty premise to go on and it seems to negate her argument.

Essay three was about the use elemental and blood imagery in Alison Carey’s essay on the story “Mermaids,” of which the author’s name isn’t included. It’s fairly well argued, but as it’s essentially a close reading of a short story, it doesn’t fit with the tone of the other works.

The writing is good, but there’s

Who reviews the reviewer?

The Queen’s Rational Review aims to provide students with a way to familiarize themselves with high-level thinking and persuasive rhetoric B y A nDreW s tokes Copy Editor

the more damning by the fact that the Review had a staff member whose soul purpose was design At first glance, the Queen’s Rational and layout.

Each essay began alongside its Review looked intriguing. It’s a small collection of essays selected accompanying graphic and these for their excellent argumentation were once again horribly pixilated and the progression of a premise and unclear, despite being about along rational lines. The notion 10x10 cm, and as I began reading, drew me in and the cover enticed there were more design problems. me. It’s a twist on the iconic photo The footnotes alternate between “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” raised script and plain numerals, except instead of a flag the soldiers made all the more annoying by the are hoisting a pen. I liked the clever page numbers, which are placed appropriation, but the picture is the end of the first line on the page.

These are relatively small details, fairly pixilated and immediately but ones that accumulate to make mitigated my expectations.

I carried on anyway—I wasn’t the Queen’s Rational Review seem here for flashy pictures, I wanted distinctly amateur.

The first essay, by Michelle to read some good essays. The Review’s introduction was Hunniford, was about the use of charming, speaking of the metaphor to “marginalize fringe publication’s desire to instigate groups” in Victorian England. It discussion on campus. It went focused on a single report that was to say that each essay has its published in 1866 by the House of weaknesses and that these are a Lords, which equated prostitutes challenge to the reader; try to spot with parasites. The problem with this essay was that it didn’t really the weakness in the arguments.

It sounded interesting, asking strive to make a point. It mentioned me to be an engaged reader, but that the metaphor was created out this proved more frustrating of fear, and then described the than rewarding. The table of evolution of “parasite” as a word, contents laid out the four essays as well as the development of and accompanied each with a germ theory.

Hunniford claimed that the small graphic, all of which were terribly pixilated, one to the point upper classes became afraid of prostitutes, ignoring the fact that of incomprehension.

The point of the Rational prostitution has been around for Review is not to look pretty, but the millennia and is prevalent the utter lack of detail that seemed to world round. Its final conclusion go into its design made it difficult is that the biological metaphor of to appreciate. This was made all prostitute as parasite was used to

Down home darlings Continued from page 12

through America was pretty awesome and SXSW was pretty crazy,” he said. “We just played a lot of shows and kind of exhausted and hurt ourselves, but I think it was worth it.”

It’s fitting PS I Love You released a collaborative track with Diamond Rings while they were touring together. Saulnier said “Leftovers” isn’t a new tune.

“That song, it’s been around for a while. I wrote it over two years ago with Benjamin and it always felt like a good song, good guitar riffs and stuff but I could never come up with anything to sing over it,” he said. “John was in Kingston to test some things for our All Yr Songs slash Facelove seven inch and we were hanging out in my studio jamming … I basically asked him if he wanted to finish writing

the song with me and he took it and ran with it and wrote amazing lyrics and vocal melodies.”

The track is a standout and has become a fixture in Saulnier and Nelson’s set as well as adding to the slew of online content on the BFFs. “It took us a while, a year or more even, to get around to recording it all,” Saulnier said.

“We’ve been playing it live every show and it’s always the best part of my set, I think. Everybody gets really excited because he brings a lot of energy to the stage.”

Though John O’Regan won’t be making an appearance as Diamond Rings this Saturday, his gig as vocalist of the now defunct The D’Urbervilles will have him expressing a slightly different vibe with their recent re-branding

as Matters.

Last week’s release of Matters’ single “Get In Or Get Out” with an accompanying video caused an outpouring of media and blog attention. Saulnier warned to be careful what we wish for.

“We’re only doing four shows so it’ll be a short and sweet little mini-tour but I know it’s going to be awesome, they’re all such amazing dudes … we’re going to have tons of fun,” he said. “Their new video’s awesome, I don’t think anyone’s ready for Matters yet. But you’re going to hear them anyway.”

PS I Love You play The Grad Club with Matters on Saturday. Doors are at 9 p.m.

Conquer Your Nerves

GET HIRED!!

Imagine being genuinely EXCITED about a job interview. www.interviewarts.com

queensjournal.ca

• 21

circumstance, slightly losing track of the main point. Besides this, it cogently makes its point and has a conclusion that is perfectly logical.

This was the first year for the Queen’s Rational Review and the newness of the operation rears its head throughout. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but it should be commended for accomplishing its goal.

You’ll be thinking about the holes and laurels of each essay and you’ll definitely be contemplating the importance of design.

The Queen’s Rational Review is online: queensrationalreview.wordpress.com

22 •queensjournal.ca

Arts

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Arts

queensjournal.ca

• 23

One plate at a time www.Cityof Kingston.ca extraordinaire ... simply one of the most respected ‘Gourmands’ in the food world.

Long story short ... we soon became Twitter pen pals, and last November he and his wife flew from Sydney just to dine here two nights in a row.

They ate the entire menu and were blown away. After service we chatted for hours over good whisky ... it was amazing!

Continued from page 12

the first step is to do research ... taking notes and jotting down ideas. Then I start to think about the flavours I want on the plate. Once a flavour has been chosen, vanilla pipe tobacco for example, I must decide on texture and temperature.

Then it’s time for playing/experimentation.

This is why new dishes take such a long time.

Some plates can have up to 15 flavour 11. How many guest books have you components and each one must be perfected accumulated over the years? before I can move on to next. During this Our current guest book is number six. We stage I am always mindful of the contrasting textures and temperatures always present on started this tradition the night I took over as all of my plates. As well, are all of the five Chef ... the day after my 15th Birthday. taste sensations represented?

12. What’s your hope for those visiting your 8. Have you ever attempted a new recipe restaurant? that didn’t go as planned?

My hope is that they will have a dining Oh, of course it happens. Because I don’t experience unlike anything they’ve ever had; follow recipes ... I experiment until I get to have experienced pure culinary bliss. An to what I had imagined I wanted; not all experience they will not soon forget. experiments work.

13. Do you listen to music when you’re 9. Your Twitter account often gives followers cooking? If so, any favourites? a glimpse into what goes on behind the I don’t listen to music during service. But scenes in your kitchen, how has having the I couldn’t do my prep without it. Favourites? account affected life at Luke’s?

Neil Young, Massive Attack, Paul Weller, the I absolutely love Twitter. It’s very funny, Pretenders, Jamiroquai, East Village Opera actually, because I remember when a friend Co. and Boom Crash Opera. recommended that I join ... almost two years ago. I think I rolled my eyes and muttered 14. What’s the most rewarding part of your something about it not being something I’d job? The most challenging? be interested in.

Chatting with our customers and reading Now I can’t imagine life without it. The friends I’ve made ... it just blows me away. the guest book ... affirmation that I am Chatting with, and getting to know, foodies doing what I should be doing. The most and fellow chefs from literally all over the challenging? That’s tough because I love challenging myself. But I guess I’d have to world leaves me speechless. say that getting through my to-do lists can 10. Do you have a particularly memorable sometimes be a challenge. guest who’s come to enjoy your work?

15. What are your hopes for the future?

We’ve had so many incredible people in That’s a tough one. I want to do and our dining room. People from all walks of life and from all over the world. But there accomplish so many things. I want to open is one table I will never forget. After the Luke’s Gastronomy’s in other cities. I want Financial Times did a feature on me, for to travel. I certainly want to do stages in the some reason a lot of people in Australia kitchens of the chefs I most admire. I want to publish books. And so on, and so on ... and started following me on Twitter.

One was a fellow named Franz … a to keep changing the way people think of restaurant critic, food writer, Oz’s food ... one plate at a time.

—Ally Hall foremost Whisky expert, blues musician

Upcoming

PACKING UP FOR THE SUMMER? What will you do with your unwanted items?

Unusable items and garbage Unusable items and garbage can be disposed of at the Waste Management transfer station at 62 St. Remy Place (off Dalton Avenue), from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

For other waste removal services, please check the Yellow Pages of the local phone book or the classified section of a local newspaper.

Bagged garbage Place up to two bags of garbage at curbside on your usual collection day. Additional bagged garbage will be collected if it is tagged. Garbage tags are $2 each and can be purchased at City Hall and the AMS office at Queen’s University.

For more information on organizations disposing of unusable items and other locations selling garbage tags outside the immediate Queen’s University neighbourhood, visit www.cityofkingston.ca/schoolsout.

Don’t know how to throw it out? Go to www.cityofkingston.ca/waste and look it up on the waste sorting lookup tool.

MOVING? Remember to close your Utilities Kingston account.

If you are moving, contact Utilities Kingston as soon as possible to set-up or finalize your account. A minimum of five business days’ notice is necessary to ensure your utility services are set-up or finalized on the date requested. To avoid delays, it is necessary for the account holder or a representative to be at the service address if the meters are not accessible from the outside.

The only person authorized to make any changes to the account is the person whose name appears on the bill. If your name appears on the bill, you are considered fully responsible for the account until your cancellation request is received and processed.

Utility services can be set-up or finalized by calling the Customer Service Center, Monday to Friday, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 613-546-0000 or complete the online application form at www.utilitieskingston.com.

BYLAW ENFORCEMENT REMINDER Illegal disposal penalties range up to $5,000

Property owners, landlords, and tenants are reminded of three bylaws in place to keep the City clean of garbage and debris.

EVERY WEEK Monday - All you can eat Spaghetti Tuesday - 1/2 Price Large Nachos for Members (5-close) Wednesdays - Open Mic - 9pm Thursday - Trivia - 9pm

Fri. April 8th MEMPHIS *Torq from STARS with Katie Moore Sat. April 9th P.S I love you special guests Matters Wed. April 20th The Acorn Sat. April 30th The Rural Alberta Advantage

Tickets available at Tricolour Outlet and The Grad Club and online at ticketscene.ca www.queensu.ca/gradclub 613-546-3427 162 Barrie St.

Illegal Disposal Bylaws The yards bylaw prohibits anyone from using any land or structure within the City to dispose of garbage, refuse, industrial and domestic waste. Domestic waste includes items such as refrigerators, stoves, furniture, and paper. Anyone throwing, placing or depositing debris on any private or municipal property within the City can be charged under a second bylaw that covers illegal dumping. Both these bylaws carry a penalty of up to $5,000. The waste collection bylaw and streets bylaw also prescribe penalties for strewn garbage and littering.

The City is moving towards more stringent enforcement and will issue orders, and/or move directly to charges against property owners in violation of these bylaws. While property owners are responsible for maintaining their properties, landlords must also work with tenants to ensure debris is not left at the property.

Additionally, should debris be left at the property an administration fee of $125 and the cost of clean-up will be applied to the property tax bill.

For more information, please go to: www.cityofkingston.ca/illegaldisposal City of Kingston, 216 Ontario Street, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 2Z3 Tel: 613-546-0000 • contactus@cityofkingston.ca

24 •queensjournal.ca

InFocus

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Miraculous March As the weather dropped below freezing, the Gaels turned up the heat in courts and arenas both home and away. Journal photographers Justin Tang and Balpreet Kukreja followed the action throughout the term.

InFocus

queensjournal.ca

• 25

26 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

sports gaels report card

Winter teams leave their mark The Journal’s Sports staff Kate Bascom and Lauri Kytömaa look back at the Gaels’ winter season Women’s hockey

Grade: A Record: 15-8-4 season, 7-1 playoffs In hindsight, the Gaels seemed to be saving their energy going into the winter break 6-6-4. The women’s hockey team blew past their opponents in the winter semester, only losing two games and scoring 44 goals against their competition.

But the Gaels saved the best for last. In a history-making OUA playoffs, Queen’s defeated the Guelph Gryphons in six overtimes to take the first game of the eventual championship series sweep. In their first CIS berth, the Gaels went 1-1 in the round robin before defeating their OUA rivals the Laurier Golden Hawks 1-0 for the bronze medal.

Fencing

Grade: A Record: First in OUA (Men), fourth in OUA (Women) The men’s team captured their fourth ever OUA banner this season with a strong all-around performance at the championships.

The team took gold in both the individual and team épée and Sabre events. With more than half the team graduating this season, the win gave a good conclusion for the team’s veterans and some motivation for the team’s future fencing champs.

Men’s squash

Grade: B+ Record: Second in the OUA At the Queen’s hosted OUA Championship, the Gaels earned a silver medal, falling only to the 28-time OUA gold medallists, the Western Mustangs. Alex Ford and Amr Hamour were both named OUA All-Stars. Hamour was a notable standout during the OUAs defeating a Mustang in one of the only two games that Western dropped.

inside athletes of the year The Journal Sports staff highlight some of the year’s most successful athletes.

Page 27

Sailing

The Queen’s Sailing Team is moving on to the Americas Trophy after placing third at the North Spring Qualifier. page 28

Queen’s athletics enjoyed a successful winter season, finishing off with two OUA banners from men’s fencing and women’s hockey. The Gaels also had strong showings from men’s squash, and men’s and women’s volleyball.

Women’s squash

Grade: B Record: Fourth in OUA Women’s squash was a team in transition this winter as several new players joined the team. Although the team retained its top two players, Erin Roberts and Heather Lamb, from last season, the OUA championships demonstrated just how important the lower division players can be. Roberts and Lamb finished a combined 6-1 in divisions one and two during the provincial championship to earn the team six of their nine points.

Players in divisions three through six finished with a combined record of 3-11. Despite the poor performance of the lower players, the team almost made the podium, falling from third by losing a tiebreaker.

Fourth-year outside hitter Joren Zeeman was named to the Second Team All-Star team for the third consecutive year.

Men’s hockey

Grade: B Record: 14-11-3 season, 0-2 playoffs The men’s hockey team entered the season with one of the most

their 27-man roster, resulting in a 2-0 sweep at the hands of the Nipissing Lakers.

Figure skating

Grade: B Record: Third in the OUA The figure skating team began the season on top, finishing first at the Queen’s Invitational. Over the See Provincial on page 29

sideline commentary

Off the couch, at the game Appreciating live sports is important despite the improvement of the home entertainment experience gives much more than even the best HD, 3-D television.

Men’s volleyball

Grade: B Record: 16-4 season, 1-1 playoffs Despite some major injuries, the men’s volleyball team had a solid regular season. The team opened the first half of the year with a record of 8-2 without the help of veterans Niko Rukavina and Dan Rosenbaum.

Things looked promising for the defending OUA champions as they entered the postseason with injured players returning to the line-up. Unfortunately the eventual champions, the McMaster Marauders, were too much for the Gaels in the OUA semi-final and they were forced out of the playoffs before the OUA final for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

talented groups of players in years, but injuries and poor goaltending made it difficult for the team to stay in the win column. The team entered the Winter break with a record of 5-8-2 but found a way to pull things together in the second half and finished with a winning record.

Injuries were still too prominent in the first round of the playoffs.

The team dressed only 17 out of

photo illustration by Justin Chin

B y L auri Kytömaa Assistant Sports Editor Covering Gaels athletics this season, my appreciation for live sports has increased twofold. There is just so much to a game that will never be written in the box score. A missed call causing fans to erupt into belligerent chants of “BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT,” a game-winning goal sending the bench into uproar and an injury forcing the star player to grimace will never be captured on a spreadsheet of numbers.

This may be a little bit obvious, but I believe that attending a game

The article will be bland, lacking that extra kick. The writing will just become a verbalization of a box score. No one needs to read that.

From a journalistic point of view, going to a game gives life to an article. At a men’s hockey game in October I watched Gaels forward, Brandon Perry, storm off the ice and smash his stick to bits on the bench in frustration. That moment epitomized the frustration of the team as they fell to the Concordia Stingers 8-5.

During the men’s volleyball playoff run in February, seeing

fans with signs to “Geeve” brought a smile to my face, echoing the team’s new motto of “geeving,” meaning to play carefree.

So much of the story is what happens away from the play. At most of the Queen’s venues you can hear what the players and coaches are saying during a game.

The air is thick with swear words at the men’s games. The women’s games are a little more polite but no less colourful. Even if you can’t totally make out the words, just the volume and frequency of the exclamations communicates the sentiment of the team. A good article doesn’t create anything new, but just evokes the sights and sounds of a game.

When a writer decides to skip the game it shows in the writing.

To the well-trained eye it’s totally See Just on page 27

Sports

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Year in review

queensjournal.ca

Just another fan

Hail the Gaels

Continued from page 26

The Journal highlights stand-out individuals from 2010-11

Mike Arnold midfielder, men’s soccer

Katie Matthews middle, women’s volleyball

Jacqueline Tessier striker, women’s soccer

The Gaels captain scored about a third of the 8-5-1 soccer team’s goals this season. He was the lone Queen’s player to be nominated as an OUA First-Team All-Star after he finished the season in the top three of OUA scoring with nine goals in 14 games.

It was a career-high finish for the fourth-year Arnold who has been in the top 10 of scoring for the past three years.

The team captain was named an OUA East First Team All-Star after finishing a career-best season with the Gaels in her final year at Queen’s. She finished first in the country in solo blocks with 55 as well as accumulating 160 kills and 96 digs.

She was also named the top female student-athlete after being honoured with the PHE ’55 Alumnae Award.

Tessier led the CIS during the regular season in scoring with 18 goals in 16 games. She continued her scoring streak with four goals in the Gaels’ playoff run to becoming CIS champions.

The second-year student made a name for herself early in the season with five goals in a single game. Tessier was named OUA East Player of the Year and a CIS All-Canadian.

Dan Bannister guard, men’s basketball

Brittany Moore guard, women’s basketball

Ashley Ward eight man, women’s rugby

Bannister was the offensive catalyst Moore played a central role on Ward’s rugby career began out east this past season for the Gaels. He the women’s basketball team. She at St. Francis Xavier University finished with the fifth most points averaged 16.45 points per game before spending her final year in the OUA, averaging 17.05 points over the course of the season, good helping the Queen’s Gaels earn per game. enough for fourth in the OUA. Her their first CIS-berth, where they He was also making major biggest performances came as the placed fifth. contributions defensively by the Gaels went on a four game winning She was named a CIS end of the season averaging 1.73 streak at season’s end where she All-Canadian for the first time in steals per game. For his efforts, averaged 20.5 points per game. her CIS career after scoring three Bannister was named to the East Her contributions earned her First tries as an eight man during the Second Team All-Stars.

Team All-Star honours.

Gaels’ undefeated season.

obvious, but even if it isn’t, something will just feel off. The article will be bland, lacking that extra kick. The writing will just become a verbalization of a box score. No one needs to read that.

Fans understand the value of attending a game. It’s almost impossible to get tickets to the Air Canada Centre. The home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, has sold out for over 600 games and counting. Going to games is just fun. The action of a close game sucks you in. Being surrounded by other fans reinforces your interest in the game.

I would usually cover games on my own, sitting in the stands or the press box, but I still couldn’t help but jump up in excitement when the Gaels scored a goal or took a

lead. At times my objectivity could have come in to question, but I couldn’t help it, I just got into it.

The air is thick with swear words at the men’s games. The women’s games are a little more polite but no less colourful.

I had a great time all year covering soccer, volleyball, football, hockey, rowing, squash and water polo. While a broken ankle prevented me from attending all of the games early in the year, it made the winter action even better.

Although the stands weren’t always filled to capacity, the Gaels always brought a good show, and I salute them for a good year.

The emotion of a game is hard to appreciate from the TV.

Matt O’Donnell offensive lineman, football

Dodd-Moher led the women’s The Gaels offensive lineman ended hockey team to a bronze his Queen’s career with an invite medal finish in the team’s first to the East-West Shrine Bowl, a CIS appearance this season. showcase for eligible players in She was named the top goaltender the NFL draft. O’Donnell’s of the championship tournament final season has been filled with after allowing only four goals in the accolades, including being named three games including shutting out CIS All-Canadian for the second the Laurier Golden Hawks in the time, ranking 11th heading into OUA playoffs. the CFL draft and receiving the 2010 OUA J.P. Metras Award for top lineman in the conference.

Joren Zeeman outside hitter, men’s volleyball Zeeman enjoyed a big year for the Gaels this season earning him his third straight CIS All-Canadian honours. He finished second in the nation in points per set (4.9) and fourth in kills per set (4.1) and service aces (22). Away from his strong game performance he also played an important leadership role as one of the team’s veterans.

—Kate Bascom and Lauri Kytömaa

Honourable Mentions: Michael Amoroso (middle, men’s volleyball), Kelli Chamberlain (forward, women’s soccer) , Jonathon Lawrance (forward, men’s hockey), Sam Sabourin (linebacker, football) and Kelsey Thomson (forward, women’s hockey).

photo by justin tang

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICAT ES Financial Planning Global Business Management Human Resources Management International Development International Marketing Marketing Management Public Administration

Mel Dodd-Moher goaltender, women’s hockey

• 27

business.humber.ca

28 •queensjournal.ca

SportS

Thursday, april 7, 2011

sailing team off to the americas trophy

The Gaels traveled to Cornell University to compete in the North Spring Qualifier. The team placed third.

suppliED photo

Last weekend, the Queen’s Sailing team placed third at the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) North Spring Qualifier hosted

by Cornell University. This earns them a qualifying berth in the Americas Trophy, which will be hosted by St. Mary’s College in Maryland from April 16 to April 17.

Team member Peter Soosalu said he thought the weekend went really well.

“I was really happy with it,” he said. “We had the right conditions for us to do well and everything came together, I’d say, surprisingly well actually … .Usually, we’ve come short by just a few points, ending up in fourth or fifth spot.

Top three was something we were aiming for this time and we actually got it.”

Competing universities each sent two boats and four boaters.

The Gaels’ team was comprised of Soosalu, Josh Brown, Greg Harries and Paul Throop. There were 14 races held over the weekend, allowing for a variety of conditions.

Saturday started with a wind delay, followed by heavy breezes of up to 40 kph. The Gaels had a slight scare when Harries and Throop’s boat capsized, but were relieved to see them sail to a third place finish. The Gaels ended Saturday in second place.

The Gaels now go to the Americas Trophy, where they will face off against 10 other teams.

The Gaels already have a few competitors scouted out.

“When we went down this past weekend, Cornell was just a little ahead of us,” Soosalu said.

“Columbia’s also a good school.

Florida will be there as well.”

The Gaels face a slight challenge in preparing because of a different academic schedule.

“Since it’s going to be during exams, we’re going to be mainly doing stuff off-water for the next few days,” he said. “We’re going to be looking more into tactics and strategy, for example, and just talking about it rather than being able to get out because it’s still a bit too cold.”

—Benjamin Deans

SportS

Thursday, april 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

• 29

Provincial champs on top

photo by Justin tang

The women’s hockey team celebrates their first provinical title in 32 years.

Wrestling

Continued from page 26

course of the season, the Gaels saw great individual efforts, leading them to a third place finish in the OUA. Rookie Renee Tse was recognized at the Colour Awards with Varsity Club Rookie of the Year for her multiple medal season.

Women’s volleyball

Grade: Brecord: 12-7 season, 0-1 playoffs Queen’s started the season in typical fashion going 6-1 and only heading to five sets in two games. However the Gaels took a tumble finishing the second half of the season at .500.

The women’s volleyball team lost their OUA quarterfinal in straight sets to the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

The team had many standout individual efforts. Natalie Gray and Katie Matthews were selected as OUA East First Team All-Stars and Lorna Button earned an OUA East Second Team All-Star selection.

Men’s track and field

Grade: Brecord: Seventh in OUA, 16th in CIS Men’s track and field fell one spot at the OUA championships from last season and six spots at the CIS championships. At OUAs the team captured one silver medal and at nationals they collected three sixth place finishes.

The team’s top runner, Matt Hulse, was slowed down by injuries during the fall, which may have hurt his speed this winter. A lack of a field team also continued to hamper the team’s ability to collect points towards the overall standings.

Grade: B-

Kellie Heney was the wrestling team’s top performer this year, grabbing a bronze medal at the OUA championship and placing sixth at nationals in her first appearance. Heney was the Gaels’ lone competitor at nationals.

At OUAs, the Gaels continued to improve with two fourth place finishes by Christine Humphries and Yi Quan in the women’s 67 kg and 72 kg weight classes respectively. The men’s team earned two fifth place finishes from Joel Smith in the 54 kg weight class and Tavis Sisco in the 68 kg weight class.

Women’s basketball

Grade: C+ record: 7-15 season, 0-1 playoffs The women’s basketball took a lot of losses during the regular season but still found their way to a playoff berth. The team started the year with a record of 2-7. Things didn’t improve much until the team broke a seven-game losing streak at the end of the season by rattling off four straight wins to get themselves into the postseason. The end came quickly as the Ryerson Rams defeated them 62-51 in a one game playoff in Toronto.

In spite of the team’s struggles, fourth-year guard Brittany Moore had a great season, averaging 16.45 points per game, earning her OUA First Team All-Star honours.

Women’s track and field Grade: C+ record: Eighth in OUA, 21st in CIS

The women fell two spots from last year’s results at OUAs and four spots from their finish at nationals. Fourth-year runner, Leah Larocque, captured the team’s one

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podium finish at the provincial level by taking the bronze in the women’s 3000m. Larocque would also be the only athlete to go to the CIS championships on the women’s side. Her eighth place finish in the 3000m was the sole point earned by the Gaels at the national competition.

Men’s basketball Grade: C record: 6-16 season

With the graduation of Mitch Leger last season, the Gaels had to move on without their star forward this year. The young squad remained competitive against some of the toughest opponents in the OUA and recorded consecutive 100-plus point nights for the first time in Queen’s history.

Dan Bannister was named an OUA Second Team All-Star for the first time in his Queen’s career, after averaging 17.1 points per game.

First-year Nikola Misljencevic was named to the OUA East All-Rookie Team. This is the first Gael to be named to a rookie team since 2007-08.

Men’s curling

Grade: Crecord: Eighth in OUA A year after taking the CIS banner, the men’s curling team must look to rebuild before it brings another championship home. The team finished with a 2-6 record at the OUA championships, failing to make the podium rounds. The margins of defeat were often very small; three of the Gaels’ six losses were by one point, suggesting that the team can be competitive in years to come.

Queen’s lead Curtis Nichol was also named as a Second Team All-Star after the competition.

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HERE PAST APRIL? Community living Kingston supports individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Volunteers are needed for friendship positions recreation, tutoring, teaching life skills and more. We match according to preferences, interests and availability. Call Eleonor at (613) 546-6613, ext. 284, or volunteer@kdacl.on.ca.

ACROSS 1 Bill 4 Singer Vikki 8 Prayer ending 12 “Hail!”

13 Hodgepodge 14 Cougar 15 Meadow 16 High-ranking 18 Bread tidbit 20 Fond du —, Wisc.

21 Actress Jessica 24 Dissolves 28 They’re nothing trivial 32 Ms. Brockovich 33 Second person 34 Urban disturbances 36 Alias abbr.

37 Greek vowels 39 Inspirational motto 41 Apia’s country 43 Met melody 44 Winter ailment 46 Travelocity mascot 50 Boss 55 Edge 56 Sad 57 Appoint-ment 58 Tackle the slopes 59 Related (to) 60 Cold War initials 61 “— the fields we go” DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Body powder Confirm Suitor Shoemaker’s dessert?

Foreman foe Tractor-trailer “That’s how I —” — Junction, Ariz.

9 10 11 17 19 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 35 38 40 42 45 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Make faces for the camera Ostrich’s cousin Scot’s denial Dine Crazy Entice-ment Island greeting Bedouin Easily edited website Catch suddenly Tournament situations Tittle Agana’s island Use a teaspoon Suppressed laugh Mitigate Neb. neighbor Pub order Pakistan’s language Approximately Karaoke need Eastern potentate Biz deg.

Sort — generis — -relief “Monty Python” opener

LAsT issUe’s AnsWeRs

30 •queensjournal.ca

Sports

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

queensjournal.ca

• 31

postscript

The best of Kingston Afer another year has gone by, Postscript polled our readers to find our favourite spots to study, party, shop and more in the city BEST PLACE TO TAKE YOUR PARENTS TO DINNER 1) Woodenheads 2) Copper penny 3) Olivea/Chez Piggy/Harper’s Burger Bar People’s parents seem to have a wide variety of tastes, from Woodenheads’ famous pizza to other well-known classier places like Chez Piggy.

BEST PLACE TO GO FOR AN ORIGINAl/INEXPENSIVE DATE 1) Harper’s Burger Bar/The Sleepless Goat 2) Phnom Penh/Kingston Waterfront 3) Wolfe Island Harper’s and The Sleepless Goat were a favourite by far.

Their cheap menus and relaxed atmosphere make them the perfect place for students on a budget.

BEST PIZZA 1) Woodenheads 2) Atomica 3) Pizza Pizza No surprises here— Woodenheads and Atomica have been long-standing favourites.

Pizza Pizza’s proximity to the Student Ghetto also makes it an obvious contender.

BEST LATE-NIGHT FOOD 1) Bubba’s 2) Smoke’s/Pita Grill 3) Pizza Pizza Bubba’s and Smoke’s poutine are two of the most popular ways to fill up on the way home from the bar.

BEST PLACE TO DRINK 1) Queen’s Pub 2) Kingston Brewing Company

Harper’s Burger Bar, located on Princess St., was voted as the best place to go for an original and inexpensive date.

3) Toucan/Canteen/The Brass QP won by a landslide: it’s right on campus and you’re bound to run into almost everyone you know. Sangria, anyone?

Although Mango got the most votes, Asian restaurants in Kingston seem to be an all-around favourite for students, from Thai to Chinese to Vietnamese.

BEST PLACE FOR COFFEE/TEA

BEST GREASY SPOON

1) Starbucks 2) Common Ground 3) Sleepless Goat With four locations within walking distance from each other, Starbucks has definitely saturated the market.

1) Morrison’s 2) Stooley’s 3) Limestone Bar and Grill/The Brass With all-day breakfast for as low as six or seven dollars, it’s obvious why Morrison’s continues to lead the pack.

BEST PLACE FOR BRUNCH 1) Windmills/The Brass 2) Morrison’s 3) Wolfe Island Bakery Votes in this category were pretty evenly spread out—clearly Kingston is not short on quality brunch cuisine.

BEST ASIAN CUISINE 1) Mango 2) Phnom Penh/Royal Ankor 3) Wok in/Mekong

BEST GROCERY STORE 1) Loblaws 2) John’s Deli 3) Metro Students clearly aren’t afraid to venture outside the ghetto for Loblaws’ cheaper prices. There’s also a surprising cult following for John’s Deli on Princess St. BEST STEAK 1) The Keg

2) Chien Noir 3) Grizzly Grill The Keg was the obvious favourite here. From ribs to New York style to surf and turf, this place is a steak-lover’s dream.

BEST SUSHI 1) Sima 2) Sakura 3) Asha Of all the sushi joints situated along Princess St., students prefer Sima as the best place to spend their money. Sushi can get expensive, but it’s easy to forget about price when quality is superior.

BEST BOOKSTORE 1) Indigo 2) Novel Idea 3) Campus Bookstore Although the main chain is popular due to its large variety, Novel Idea is also still established as Kingston’s key independent bookstore.

photo by corey lablans

BEST PLACE TO EXERCISE 1) ARC 2) Kingston waterfront/outside Students still seem keen on taking advantage of the ARC’s spanking new facilities, as well as incorporating Kingston’s scenery into their workout.

BEST CHARITY 1) Charity Ball 2) Journal Benefit Concert 3) Goatface Charity Ball was the clear winner; who doesn’t love to get dressed up? But, the Journal Benefit Concert followed closely behind (no doubt due to the abundance of Journal staff voters).

BEST VIEW 1) Kingston waterfront 2) Wolfe Island ferry 3) Fort Henry Kingston’s proximity to water allows for a plethora of choices for favourite scenic views.

SOMETHING YOU WANT TO TRY BUT HAVEN’T 1) Wolfe Island 2) Queen’s Players 3) Karaoke at Tir Nan Og Other notable mentions include Jazz Night at Alfie’s, all you can eat sushi and hot yoga.

BEST ART GALLERY 1) Agnes Etherington 2) Modern Fuel 3) The Artel There’s definitely no shortage of ways to explore your artistic side in Kingston.

BEST AMS SERVICE

Sima Sushi, on Princess St., was voted as the number one favourite sushi place in Kingston. If you’re going to splurge on a sushi feast, it’s worth it to check out Sima.

photo by corey lablans

1) Walkhome 2) TAPS 3) Common Ground All three winners were very close. Queen’s students really know how to take pride in See How on page 32

Postscript

32 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

How would you describe Kingston?

Continued from page 31

their services.

BEST LIVE MUSIC VENUE 1) Grad Club/Clark Hall Pub 2) The Mansion 3) Alfie’s The Grad Club offers a really wide range of music, and they’re also known for having an “ear to the ground” approach to bringing in bands. Clark also tied for its similar appeal to students (Fun fact: Arcade Fire even played there a long time ago).

BEST PLACE TO DANCE 1) Alfie’s 2) Ale House 3) The Spot Alfie’s won an overwhelming amount of votes. Who can resist partying on a Wednesday or Classic Rock Saturdays?

BEST PLACE TO BUY MEN’S CLOTHING 1) Urban Outfitters 2) Gap 3) Value Village As one of the biggest clothing stores closest to campus, it’s no surprise Urban Outfitters ended up as the go-to choice.

Kingston’s waterfront was voted as the best place to escape and best view. It also placed second for best original and inexpensive date and best place to exercise.

behind. It’s easy to find something for everyone with the variety of accessories, games and books these places offer; plus, they’re right on Princess St.

BEST PLACE TO BUY WOMEN’S CLOTHING BEST PLACE TO TREAT A HANGOVER 1) Urban Outfitters 2) Gap 1) Bed 3) Lululemon/Urban Trade 2) Morrison’s Whether you’re browsing the 3) Stooley’s sale racks or the accessories, it’s Although Morrison’s and close to impossible to walk out of Stooley’s are long-time favourites Urban Outfitters without buying at to replenish after a night out, most of you would still rather not least one thing. venture out of bed.

BEST PLACE TO BUY A GIFT FOR UNDER $30 BEST PLACE TO STUDY 1) Urban Outfitters 2) Indigo/Minotaur 3) Modern Primitive Once again, Urban Outfitters takes the cake, with Indigo and Minotaur following closely

1) Stauffer Library 2) Douglas Library 3) Harry Potter Reading Room The two main libraries on campus took first and second place. But many of you just want

to pretend you’re at Hogwarts; nothing wrong with that.

BEST

PLACE TO WATCH

PEOPLE

1) Stauffer Library 2) Common Ground/ARC 3) Queen’s Centre As it’s also the number one study spot, it’s ironic that Stauffer is also the favourite peoplewatching venue. Are we all just trying to figure out who the Dear Stauffer Friends girls are, or what?

BEST POST-EXAM ACTIVITY 1) Drinking 2) Sleep 3) Going to the lake Whether it’s to drown your sorrows or celebrate, nothing beats grabbing a shot or beer to signify the end of the year.

BEST PLACE FOR CLASS 1) Goodes Hall 2) Stirling Hall/Biosciences Complex 3) KHS building One slacker submitted “my bed.” However, this is a valid choice for those Friday classes at 8:30 a.m.

BEST PLACE TO ESCAPE 1) Kingston Waterfront 2) Wolfe Island 3) ARC Once again, Kingston’s beautiful waterfront is another favourite student destination.

Relaxing by the lake is the perfect way to clear your head, after all.

BEST WORD TO DESCRIBE THIS YEAR

photo by corey lablans

“Eventful” “Chaotic” “Clusterfuck” “Fun fun fun fun” There was no clear consensus; however certain words did stand out. There’s no denying it was an interesting year.

BEST WORD TO DESCRIBE KINGSTON “Rainy” “Home” “Cozy” “Vibrant” “Community” One creative soul also submitted the word “Kingston” to describe Kingston—clever.

—Compiled by Kelly Loeper

“Shitstorm”

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Kingston?

Send in any photos from a summer spent in the city to

journal_blogs@ams. queensu.ca. to have them featured on our Blogs.

Urban Outfitters, on Princess St., was voted as best place to buy men’s clothing and women’s clothing and best place to buy a gift for under $30.

photo by corey lablans

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Journal Year In Review

queensjournal.ca

• 33

34 •

Journal Year in ReVIEW

News

Board of Trustees goes to Parliament S eptember 10, 2010 The Queen’s Board of Trustees is trying to reduce the number of elected members from 44 to 25. To do so, they will require parliamentary approval.

The Board of Trustees is one of three governing bodies of the University along with the University Council and the Senate, all of which are assisted by the University Secretariat.

“The Board of Trustees is in charge of making financial decisions, appointing the principal, the viceprincipals and responsible for… overall fiduciary responsibilities,” said Board Chair Bill Young.

Young, Sci ’77, said decreasing membership is meant to increase efficiency within the Board.

“We came to the number 25 as a result of an annual board survey that we have conducted every year, [starting] three years ago,” Young said, adding that the purpose of the survey is to grade how members feel the board is functioning and to identify how the board can improve.

“One of the things evident from the first survey was the sense within the board that too many people were in the room,” he said. “The feeling was that it was too big a group to have in-depth conversations about topics as it would overwhelm the agenda.”

Young said there was strong consensus on substantially reducing the size of the board, especially because it will be cheaper to operate.

Young said the fundamental

responsibilities will remain unchanged, but that the Board should become more effective and efficient.

“Right now with 44 trustees, the Board has nine different committees [and] a lot of detailed work is done by the committees.

However, when we bring issues into the Board, because of its size it’s difficult to have cross-cutting conversations,” he said. “Everyone voted for this because at the end of the day the trustees believe that this is the path that the University should move forward on.”

Young said the change will favour students, faculty and staff representation over alumni opinions.

He added that the board was also careful to maintain the current number of appointments for the University Council so that all six members can sit on the Board. “[Going to parliament] should be relatively straightforward process; however there is some legal process necessary,” he said, adding that the lawyers are currently drafting the document which will be presented to Parliament in order to amend the charter.

The last time a change was made to the charter was in 1996 when the membership of the board increased as two representatives were each added for student, faculty and staff.

The process took eight months.

—Labiba Haque

Fighting for mental health

S eptember 10, 2010

Eric Windeler lost his son to suicide last March and is now on a crusade to promote mental health awareness at Queen’s.

His son Jack was in first year and suffered from depression.

Windeler, Comm ’82, is focusing on helping other young adults who are transitioning into university.

“You’re in a new environment.

You’re in the top of your class in high school and then getting to university you realize everyone is at the top of their class,” he said, adding that this is just one example of the kind of stresses emerging adults face in university.

In order to help others, Windeler set up the Jack Windeler Memorial Fund.

The Fund, which operates through the Kids Help Phone, has raised close to $300,000 in an effort to combat the mental health issues seen all too commonly at university.

Donations to the fund are being used to target mental health issues in 16 to 20 year-olds.

He said his goal is to create awareness around mental health issues and remove the stigma associated with them.

“Normalizing the discussion around mental health is important.

A quarter of people of this age are experiencing a mental health issue,” he said. “So many people struggle to get their mind around that.

That’s what we’re trying to change.

We want to raise awareness, to combat the stigma and show help is available.”

For the first time ever, Queen’s residence dons will be trained in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Windeler said. He helped accelerate the process initiated by Health, Counselling and Disability Services (HCDS). MHFA is a division of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

“The Queen’s dons will be trained by staff members who have become trainers,” he said.

MHFA training will ensure that people are exposed to the warning signs associated with mental illnesses, he said.

“To give people training in Mental Health First Aid means you can recognize the signs in others that they might be experiencing a mental health issue.”

Windeler spoke to frosh leaders prior to Orientation Week

photo by justin tang

Fauxcoming fallout S eptember 28, 2010

Kingston Police Chief Stephen a Criminal Code charge. In total Michael Carclucci said he was at a friend’s house on Friday night Tanner said this year’s Fauxcoming there were 217 liquor license celebration was successfully charges made, 98 on Friday and when a police officer walked in.

119 on Saturday.

“There was no loud music, no controlled by police.

A cost estimate for this year’s “I believe that last year was under-age drinking. We’re all third year or above,” he said. “There a critical point in the history of Fauxcoming could be around was no reason for the police to this event when the decision was $375,000, Tanner said.

“Internally, our early indications come in other than the fact that it made … to keep Aberdeen Street open so that it would be open are probably in the area of $75,000 was a student house.”

Prior to 2008, Carlucci’s and accessible to any emergency of overtime for probably close to get-together would have vehicles,” he said at a press 150 people,” he said, adding that external costs could amount to up coincided with Homecoming conference yesterday.

Early on Saturday night, police to $300,000. “A crowd of 1,500 weekend, but two years ago, former Principal Tom Williams patrolled Aberdeen St. while the or 2,500 versus a crowd of 8,000 cancelled Homecoming events crowd slowly grew. Police cars, is great but a crowd of 1,500 or held in September. This was an mounted units and officers on 2,500 still costs the citizens of effort to suppress the Aberdeen foot also increased their presence this city a great deal … we need Street party which has always steadily. The party peaked in to work to lower those numbers been unsanctioned by Queen’s. numbers at around 11:30 p.m. even more.”

Despite the sizeable police Despite its temporary cancellation, at which time police began to the street party continued, leading block off the street. By 1 a.m., presence on Aberdeen, Tanner to an increased police presence the crowd on Aberdeen St. was said he has yet to catch wind of during what would have been almost gone, bringing an end to the Kingston Police receiving any complaints about their conduct.

Fauxcoming 2010.

Homecoming weekend.

Tanner said the Aberdeen “I’d be surprised if there are none Carlucci, ArtSci ’12, said he was at the Johnson and Toronto Street party saw a low turn-out with that size of crowd and with St. house with 10 or so friends compared to previous years but 100 people being arrested over the and no one had been outside the that police-monitoring of the weekend … but it would be nice if house for at least an hour before event will continue in future years. there wasn’t.”

AMS President Safiah “Our numbers, we believe, are the police officer entered.

Carlucci said upon entry, the significantly down for people Chowdhury said she’s discussing police officer proceeded to ask for attending the event despite the possibility of re-instating his ID and student card, which he relatively good weather. We have Homecoming with Principal estimates in the neighbourhood of Daniel Woolf but the decision refused to hand over.

“I know my rights,” he said. 1,500 to 2,500 in the Aberdeen/ ultimately rests with him.

“At this moment in time, we’re “The officer pulled out a small little University area on Saturday night,” just in a state of gathering all booklet full of Queen’s student he said.

Police arrested an estimated the information we can,” she said. numbers. Most people in the 100 individuals over the course “The [campaign] promise was to house gave over their IDs. Carlucci said he believes the of Fauxcoming weekend, 35 on seek ways to bring Homecoming police were trying to prevent Friday and 65 to 70 on Saturday. back and we have been in touch students from attending the Of the arrests, 45 were for liquor with the Principal ... The decision Aberdeen Street party the license arrests, 16 occurring on to bring Homecoming back will Friday and 29 on Saturday. There not lie in our hands.” following night.

“The officers were just going were 48 (13 on Friday and 35 on —Clare Clancy down the street, looking for Saturday) additional individuals arrested for breach of the peace, Queen’s students,” he said. and encouraged them to take the training.

Queen’s students can benefit greatly from frosh leaders who are aware of mental health issues and resources on campus, he said.

Not everyone always has access to a frosh leader or a don so

Windeler teamed up with Kids Help Phone to spread his message even further.

The Jack Windeler Memorial Fund is primarily focused on the creation of a website which will discuss mental health issues affecting young adults

entering university.

“It will really be targeted to issues youths face in university and high school. This will be geared towards the ‘emerging adult.’”

—Clare Clancy

News

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 35

Painting the town pink O ctober 12, 2010

photo by justin tang

From wearing pink to changing Facebook statuses, people across Canada are teaming up to take part in Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From Oct. 12 to Oct. 28 the Queen’s Wears Pink campaign will make sure all of campus notices.

A new initiative this year, Queen’s Wears Pink aims to raise funds to combat breast cancer.

Throughout October, pink t-shirts with the slogan “Queen’s Wears Pink” will be sold for $10, with proceeds going to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

“Selling these shirts is an accessible and inexpensive way for students to show their support,” Adam Mitchell, outreach commissioner and Advisory Board chair of the Queen’s Commerce Society, said.

“The primary objective of this campaign is to raise awareness and allow students to support such a worthy cause.”

He said the Commerce Society had no set fundraising goal for the campaign but hopes it will explode on campus.

Oct. 28 will be ‘Pink Day,’ Mitchell said everyone will dress in pink and meet at Tindall Field at 11 a.m. where photographs will be taken of students and faculty united in their support for combating breast cancer.

“Within 28 hours we had over 1,400 people attending Queen’s Wears Pink on Facebook,” Mitchell said. “The most amazing thing is that this campaign is so viral.”

Kathleen Kramer, president of Queen’s Nursing Science Society (QNSS), said QNSS is one of many other on-campus groups teaming up with the Commerce Society to help them raise funds.

“The [Q]NSS has assisted in t-shirt sales throughout the nursing faculty, to both students and staff.

The t-shirts say ‘Nursing Wears Pink,’” Kramer, Nurs ’11, said.

One in nine Canadian women is expected to develop breast cancer in her lifetime. In 2010, an estimated 23,200 women and 180 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in Canada. An estimated

5,300 women and 50 men will die from breast cancer in Canada this year.

“Breast cancer is an emerging diagnosis for a lot of people,” she said, adding that so far the faculty of nursing has sold over 100 shirts.

“Through t-shirt sales we have already raised awareness within the School of Nursing,” she said.

“Many people have become very interested in the statistics and the opportunities available within the Cancer Society.”

Besides the Commerce Society, Nursing Society and Tricolour Outlet, other organizations participating in Queen’s Wears Pink include the Engineering Society, Common Ground, Taps and AMS. Some teams participating include Men’s Hockey, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Lacrosse and Women’s Volleyball.

—Jessica Fishbein

Gerretsen wins mayoral race O ctober 26, 2010 Mayor elect Mark Gerretsen won vote followed by Barrie Chalmers with 56.4 per cent of the popular who received 18.1 per cent. The vote in last night’s landslide victory, three candidates for Run This but that’s not to say he’s opposed to Town won a combined 819 votes learning from the other candidates. or 2.7 per cent of the vote. This “Some of the candidates had includes 1.2 per cent of the vote for great ideas, and I hope to take John Last. Nathaniel Wilson and that into account,” he said. “[But] Kevin Lavalley tied, each receiving the citizens of Kingston ultimately 0.7 per cent of the vote. The thought that I would be the best City of Kingston published these person to represent the City.” unofficial results as the Journal Rob Matheson came second went to press. with 22.8 per cent of the popular Gerretsen, who accumulated

17,096 votes, said that while he’s learned a bit from all of the candidates, the youth candidates who made up the Run This Town platform drew his attention to student issues in particular.

“The gentlemen in Run This Town had very specific objectives and they were very clear on that,” he said. “They even said from the beginning that ‘we are not here to bring forth votes, we are here to bring forth the message that young

people need to get voting’ and I think they did a very good job on that.”

As for his future goals for the City, Gerretsen said housing issues are his first priority.

“You know the money is there in the system. It’s just the way of allocating it,” he said, adding that by-law enforcement is essential for ensuring housing standards.

“It’s important that we address that property standards are being

met in the city. We need to make sure that bylaws are enforced.

We have some difficulties and challenges from time to time into getting into properties in order to being able to inspect them, but I’m committed to working with city staff to find new ways that we can continue to enforce our property standards.”

—Clare Clancy with files from Journal Staff

TED talks inspire innovation N ovember 7, 2010 Professor Steven Moore just finished building his home underground to reduce his carbon footprint.

Last Sunday, at the first-ever TEDxQueensU Conference, he told students all about it.

Moore, who teaches at the Queen’s School of Business and School of Environmental Studies, focused on underground architecture and building techniques during his talk.

“Underground architecture is more than just a hole in ground, it’s not dark, and it’s not dingy … our house actually has more light than any house that I’ve ever living in,” he said, adding that currently the construction of his house is complete and he is in the process of putting native plants on his roof.

When building his underground home, Moore first built a strong waterproof building, then he insulated the building and then covered it with earth. Following

this he installed heating and cooling and water systems into his earth home.

He said the most important thing is that we all take measures to live sustainably.

“I think [people] have to realize that the way we are doing things is not the best way. The way we are doing things is wrong. It’s destructive and we have about 10 years to change,” he said. “If everybody lived as students, we wouldn’t have a problem. You live close, you walk, you eat sensibly, you don’t buy a lot of stuff. I mean, that is the model for a sustainable society.”

TEDxQueensU is a branch of the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) brand—a worldwide conference circuit that promotes ‘ideas worth spreading.” The “x” signifies that this conference is put on independently.

Rachel Wayne, MSc ’15, said she attended the conference

photo by christine blais

because the liked the concept of each only spoke for approximately 20 minutes. spreading ideas.

“Just having 20 minute talks gets “There are a lot of great ideas out there but you don’t always straight to the point and gets you get exposure to them just because thinking,” Wayne said.

The conference held all day our time is so limited,” she said, adding that conferences like at Convocation Hall was themed TEDxQueensU gives students from “Superheroes: super powers in all disciplines a chance to check out everyday life.” a wide range of topics.

Speakers included Luke There were 13 speakers, but Hayes-Alexander, head chef at

Luke’s Gastronomy in downtown Kingston, who spoke about local artisan foods. Che Kothari, an established photographer in Toronto, who spoke about the importance of culture and music in terms of his own experiences.

— Labiba Haque

36 •

Journal Year in ReVIEW

News

Rector reprimanded N ovember 12, 2010 During yesterday’s Remembrance regime in Chile, aboriginal Day ceremony at Grant rights in Canada and the Hall, Rector Nick Day gave a Rwandan Genocide. speech to listeners that divided “In order to truly honour the student opinion. sacrifices of those who fought for Day began his speech by justice, we are now required to introducing his position as rector in speak about new forms of injustice,” the university administration. He he said. then shared his personal reflections Last night’s AMS Assembly on his grandfather’s service in the passed a motion in response to Royal Canadian Air Force during Day’s speech. The motion was WWII before segueing into more brought about by member-at-large current affairs.

Craig Draeger. The motion stated Day spoke about present day ‘that AMS Assembly, in order to suffering, referencing Pinochet’s preserve the political neutrality

Homecoming on hold N ovember 26, 2010 Fall Homecoming has been last several years to this event,” he suspended for three more years said. “The reputational damage in a decision made by Principal … even with the last few years of Daniel Woolf earlier this week. non-Homecoming or Fauxcoming, Woolf said that even though the University is still continuing attendance is shrinking, the to suffer.”

Aberdeen Street Party, traditionally When consulting with student coinciding with Homecoming, representatives about the decision, is still too dangerous to warrant Woolf said he made it clear that re-instating the Queen’s tradition. the Aberdeen Street Party had “I would think that [it’s] for the to stop for fall Homecoming to same reasons Principal Williams be restored. decided to suspend it for the first “I had discussions with the two years,” Woolf said. “Those alumni association leadership and reasons still apply.” with the students. I’ve made it very, On the night of Sept. 25, 2010 very clear from the beginning and there were an estimated 1,500 to indeed even before Sept. 25 that 2,000 individuals on Aberdeen the cycle of street parties had to St. celebrating Fauxcoming. By be dead before I would consider 1 a.m. police had dispersed the restoring Homecoming,” he said, crowd bringing an end to the street adding that he spoke to the Society party that traditionally continues of Graduate and Professional for hours.

Students (SGPS), the Rector and The Aberdeen Street Party in the AMS. 2008 drew a crowd of 6,000 to Woolf said the future of 7,000 people, resulting in Principal Homecoming is still up in the air, Tom William’s decision on Nov. 14, but if it is reinstated, he’d like it to 2008 to cancel Homecoming for at coincide with the last home game least two years. of the football season.

Woolf said the smaller numbers “The next steps are we will this year aren’t low enough to continue to monitor the situation bring back the fall event. over the next three years. We “The numbers have gone down will be working with the next but they’re not, in my judgement, generations of student leaders to where they need to be in order to see what form it can be brought restore Homecoming,” he said. back in and at what date,” he said.

Queen’s reputation is another Woolf, Queen’s 20th Principal, is reason Homecoming was currently in the second year of a suspended until 2014, Woolf said. five year term.

“This is one of Canada’s “What we want is a sort of premiere academic institutions. I normal acceptable level of festive would like us to be judged in activity of the sort that has the press by the achievements of happened at Queen’s and every our students, our alumni and our other university in the country in faculty and staff and not by one the past. So we’ll see where we are street party or a series of parties in three years.” once a year that get out of control.

We have had an inordinate amount —Clare Clancy of attention in the press over the

photo by justin tang

of Remembrance Day, formally censures Rector Nick Day for his disrespectful comment at the Remembrance Day ceremony in Grant Hall on Nov. 11 2010.’ The motion brought up an array of different perspectives from student leaders and heated up when members of the gallery brought a Maclean’s blog post regarding Day’s speech to the Assembly’s attention. Members of the gallery were concerned that Day’s speech was bringing negative attention to the University and tarnishing its reputation.

After debate, the motion was passed with a secret ballet with a vote of 14 in favour and 10 against.

11 people abstained.

Draeger, ArtSci ’13 and a member of the Journal Editorial Board, said Day had a responsibility to act in response to the decorum of the situation. Draeger, speaking to the assembly, said Day failed, unnecessarily offending and alienating people in the student body.

“Day isn’t taking responsibility where he should. We are not reprimanding him for his opinions but for his actions,” Draeger said.

In censuring Day’s actions, Draeger said the AMS formally

photo by justin tang

acknowledges that he was not representing the organization.

Censoring Day wasn’t a concern for the Assembly because it was agreed that he was entitled to his own personal opinions. Rather, the motion was concerned with whether or not the Remembrance Day service was an appropriate place to express his own political opinions in association with his position as rector.

Even though he was reprimanded, Day says he wouldn’t treat the situation differently if he were to do it again.

“I’ve already made the decision to make these comments because I thought they were important and meaningful,” he said. “I worked extremely hard to be respectful with my comments because I have the utmost respect for people who make sacrifices for others, so I worked really hard to make sure that what I said was … purely about the ideas and in no way about attacking people.”

—Jessica Fishbein and Labiba Haque

The price of internationalization J anuary 14, 2011 “The people we’re really Silverman told the Journal via Queen’s administration is under scrutiny by student representatives targeting are the bottom five email, adding that underfunding following a decision to raise or ten per cent who might not at the University will likely international students’ tuition be able to come to Queen’s result in annual tuition increases by 10 per cent. The decision otherwise … we’re definitely for domestic and international was passed Dec. 4 at a Board fighting for a smaller minority of students alike.

Unlike with domestic tuition, of Trustees meeting and will students,” Campbell said.

She said that all three student there is no provincial regulation come into effect for the next trustees voted against the fee for international student tuition, academic year.

Queen’s currently has the increase but most other members so universities can decide on rates individually. third highest international voted in its favour.

ASUS Student Senator Rico Provost and Vice-Principal student tuition rate of all Ontario universities with international (Academic) Bob Silverman said the Garcia, an international student undergraduate students paying fee increase was proposed in order from Mexico, attended the almost two and a half times to alleviate financial strain on information session at the QUIC, but said that he was unsatisfied with domestic tuition rates at $17,030. the University.

“Tuition is one of the two the way Queen’s administration The 10 per cent increase will result in incoming undergraduate major sources of revenue for handled the matter.

“I was contacted only a few international students paying Queen’s. These funds, along with between an extra $1,873 and government grants allow us to hours in advance of the meeting. $2,312 in tuition in September run our programs. There is no There were only a few people there depending on their program. AMS government grant funding for and it was simply an information Student Trustee Morgan Campbell international students,” Silverman session. My concern as a student spoke against the fee increase at the told the Journal via email. “The senator was that there was a lack University management and Board of student representation and no Dec. 3 meeting.

“I didn’t support the fee of Trustees must have a pragmatic real student input,” Garcia, ArtSci increase …there is an increased approach to managing the ’13, said.

Garcia said that during the cost of [recruiting and hosting] complex affairs of the University.”

Silverman said he’s aware of meeting, he felt like the Board international students, but I don’t think that the costs of some student dissatisfaction with of Trustees wasn’t taking into having international students the approval process but feels account students.

“Bob Silverman said that the at Queen’s are proportional to it’s unfounded.

“We had a town hall meeting Board basically just ratifies what [is [the fee increases,]” Campbell, prior to Senate and Board proposed.] He said that there was ArtSci ’11, said.

While some international of Trustees at which interested zero likelihood that they [would] students are more comfortable students could express their turn something like this down,” paying high tuition costs, Campbell opinion. All international students Garcia said. said that it’s important not were contacted directly by email —Katherine Fernandez-Blance to advise them about the meeting,” to generalize.

News

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 37

Student raises local poverty awareness J anuary 18, 2011

Say yes to CES

photo by christine blais

February 3, 2011 After several rounds of the oil thigh, flip-cup and the CES campaign song, the atmosphere at the CES election party was tense.

Finally, when the AMS election team, lead by the current AMS executives, walked in, signalling a win for team CES, the crowd literally went wild and chants of ‘CES’ dominated the room for the next several minutes.

“All I gotta say is fuck yeah!”

Ashley Eagan, AMS vice-president (Operations) elect said in her speech to the crowd after hearing the results.

“We worked so hard to create something you could all vote for.”

Eagan said she tried to remain level-headed throughout the campaign and not get her hopes up too high, but that she had her lucky charm with her on election night.

“The first person I called [when I found out] was my boyfriend of

photo by christine blais

Mira Dineen, ArtSci ’11, said she bachelor apartment is $586.

“If you find a job while receiving was surprised to discover the wide Ontario Works (OW), 50 per cent variety of people poverty affects.

Until she went out and spoke of your wages are clawed back or to people living in poverty, Dineen deducted from your next month’s had no idea how dire the situation social assistance cheque ... I spoke to people who said they wanted to was in Kingston.

“I didn’t realize that poverty work but couldn’t afford to work can happen to anyone, and many because 50 per cent of their wages people on social assistance ended would be deducted,” she said. up where they are due to tragic “After paying for transportation, life circumstances,” she said. “A work clothing and child care, lot of Queen’s students don’t they would come out with less see Kingston as their real home money at the end of the month by because they are here temporarily. choosing to work.”

Dineen said as a result of these Unless you have a job or internship in the city you might not learn policies, the cycle of poverty can inadvertently continue. about local issues.”

“Everyone I talked to wanted Last March Dineen decided to get involved with the issue to work. Social assistance keeps by co-authoring a book with a people in poverty and doesn’t Queen’s professor called Persistent support them in becoming Poverty: Voices from the Margins. independent,” she said. “The “This was the first opportunity social assistance system needs to I had to look at poverty in urban be reformed so people can get off settings, right here,” she said. “I social assistance.”

She said that in order saw poverty four blocks from my to understand poverty in house, and I just didn’t know.”

Dineen, ArtSci ’11, said Kingston, she spoke to local people are unaware of how low-income individuals.

“We went to places where prevalent poverty is within their people living in poverty would go, own communities.

Persistent Poverty tells like soup kitchens and Martha’s the stories of impoverished Table,” she said. “Generally Ontarian residents living in 26 speaking, we spoke to people who were living on social assistance, different cities.

Ontario Works, the basic or were working minimum wage social assistance program in jobs that would make them fall Ontario, gives a single adult $585 under a reasonable income.” per month, Dineen said, adding —Jessica Fishbein that this is problematic when the average rent in Kingston for a

five years who goes to school in Ottawa. My lucky charm was the puck that he used to score in his first game in the Triple A league,” Eagan, ArtSci ’11, said.

Morgan Campbell, AMS president-elect, said that for most of the campaign, team CES was definitely the underdog.

“Team AMS, that’s it! I want to say that I saw this coming, but I didn’t … we started off with a small team, that team put in a 100 per cent. I want to thank everyone who came out with no personal connections to the team and just loved our platform,” Campbell, ArtSci ’11 said in her speech to the crowd.

Campbell repeatedly thanked the team’s volunteers and said that the campaign was really about them all along. Campbell said that she’ll be attending her 8:30 class tomorrow, and having lunch with her undergraduate student trustee

successor Lauren Long.

Kieran Slobodin, AMS vicepresident (University Affairs) elect said that he couldn’t think of words to describe his happiness.

“The fact that our entire volunteer force can fit into this kitchen really moves my heart,” Slobodin, ArtSci ’12, said. “We had some great competition.”

Slobodin said that he is most excited for the campus calendar to be implemented now that team CES’s platform points can finally become translated into action.

While last night was about fun, he said today it’s back to business.

“I’m going to walk into my job and resume business in my commission, and maybe do some Econ assignments,” Slobodin said.

—Katherine Fernandez-Blance with files from Catherine Owsik and Savoula Stylianou

Rector’s actions questioned M arch 11, 2011 Last night’s AMS assembly passed letter also called the situation in a motion to hold a special campus Palestine the “biggest human rights wide vote to decide if Rector tragedy of my generation.

Nick Day should be impeached.

“Israeli Apartheid Week seeks to The motion, done by secret raise awareness about a system of ballot, resulted in a vote of 35 separateness and dominance as well in favour and zero against with as its policies and violence. It is a three abstentions. critique of the policies and practices This decision was made after over of a state, it is not a critique of 2,200 students signed a petition to Jewish people,” Day wrote. put a nomination question on the “I was elected to represent the AMS Assembly agenda. To do this, approximately 20,000 students of only 715 signatures were required. Queen’s University. If I ever used The petition began on March 8 the influence of my office and the and was circulated widely by The power of my public voice, as you Queen’s Campus Conservatives, have, to insulate from criticism Queen’s liberal Association and the perpetrator of mass-slaughter, Queen’s Israel on Campus.

I would have a very difficult time The nomination question sleeping at night.” read: “Shall it be recommended Day’s letter was written in to the University Council of response to Michael Ignatieff’s Queen’s University that Nick Day statement on March 7 that not continue to hold the office condemned Israeli Apartheid Week. of Rector of Queen’s University In his statement Ignatieff equated at Kingston?” the week with anti-Semitism This controversy arose as a and intolerance and said that the result of a letter Day, ArtSci ’09 organizers and supporters of Israeli and MA ’12, wrote to Michael Apartheid Week tarnish freedom Ignatieff on March 8 that he signed of speech. as rector. The letter denounced “[It] is an attack on the mutual his and the Liberal Party’s stance respect that holds our society on Israeli Apartheid Week. Day together … I urge all Canadians then posted this as a public note to join with us in once again on his Facebook page and on the condemning Israeli Apartheid website Rabble.ca.

Week here in Canada and around In his letter, Day said that the world,” Ignatieff said in Ignatieff’s statement demonstrated his statement. a lack of intellectual integrity and Israeli Apartheid Week was understanding and he accused formed seven years ago, beginning Ignatieff of helping mobilize frenzy, in Toronto. The event’s official stifle debate, and insulate Israel by website said that the week’s aim making his public address. Day’s is to educate people about the

nature of Israel as an apartheid system. Conflicts between Israel and Palestine have been ongoing for centuries and according to the BBC, stem from a claim to land which lies between the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river.

Principal Daniel Woolf met with Day yesterday afternoon to express his concerns about the letter. Later in the afternoon, Woolf released a letter online to the Queen’s community to state the University’s position on the matter.

“The views in the letter are not the issue—agree or disagree, he is entitled to them—it’s the context in which he communicated his personal opinion,” Woolf said in his statement. “The University’s position is that this was inappropriate … Mr. Day’s views do not and should not be seen as being representative of those of the University or Queen’s students.

While Day said he regrets signing the letter off as ‘Rector,’ he said that he doesn’t regret writing or sending the letter to Ignatieff.

“I love that letter, I think that it’s an extremely important thing to be said … it’s angered a lot of people and that’s not contestable, but I think that that pales as an issue … in comparison to the necessity to have that public debate … I regret that it’s upset a lot of people,” Day said.

—Katherine Fernandez-Blance

38 •

Journal Year in ReVIEW

Features

Currency of a Queen’s grade after undergraduate NOVEMBER 2, 2010 Haley Wilson gets 80s at Guelph University but after conversations with friends, she said she’s unsure she’d fare as well at Queen’s.

“I get the impression that the University of Guelph grades pretty averagely,” the third-year undergraduate said. “It seems that Queen’s caps it off at a far lower level.”

Wilson said she’s heard rumours that 82 per cent is considered

a “good mark” in the Queen’s history department.

“I began wondering how Queen’s marks are interpreted,” she said.

According to grading information collected about Queen’s Arts and Sciences courses over the last two academic years, 18.39 per cent of students in the faculty received final ‘A’ grades, which mean a mark of an 80 per

cent or above. Arts students in the faculty received fewer ‘A’ grades than science students.

Jane Emrich, assistant dean of students in the Queens’ Faculty of Law said Queen’s undergraduates applying to Ontario law schools receive higher percentage of admission offers than students at other universities.

Using data on the number of students who applied to Ontario

Law Schools and the number who were accepted, Emrich developed acceptance rates for the 2010 cycle.

Out of the four universities she surveyed, Queen’s fared the best with 47.8 per cent of applicants receiving offers of admission. The University of Western Ontario was second with 47.6 per cent followed by the University of Guelph with 46.5 per cent and 45.7 per cent for the University of Toronto.

Emrich said she’s heard from other law programs that being an undergrad from Queen’s doesn’t hurt an applicants chances.

“I know that from talking to colleagues, Queen’s students are highly regarded.”

—Katherine Fernandez-Blance

Examining AMS voter turnout JANUARY 25, 2011

Talking trash JANUARY 14, 2011

There was a blizzard on Jan. 12.

“I’m glad they picked this day for you to come with me,” Kyle Hannah said after unloading a snow-filled blue box into his recycling truck.

“You can see, to the full extent, how shitty this can get.”

Waste removal has always been a mystery; a magical thing only witnessed by the select few who rise with the sun.

On Wednesday, I was one of those people, arriving at the City’s garbage truck depot to meet Hannah and his Supervisor at 6 a.m.

The Supervisor, Lyn Suggitt, had explicit instructions for me.

“Don’t break a leg and listen to Kyle,” was the most crucial advice.

Hannah, 25, is one of Kingston’s 31 waste collection workers. My first question for him was an easy choice: “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen throw away?”

Hannah’s answer was quick. A severed deer head. Probably from a hunting trip, he said.

We started at the west end of Johnson St., and moved towards campus. If the street signs weren’t

enough to indicate our arrival in the Queen’s Ghetto, the increase in pizza boxes were.

“Queen’s is bad for sorting,” Hannah said, adding that improperly organized recycling occurred throughout the City.

“Everywhere is different.”

During his dance out of the driver’s seat, onto the road and up onto the side of the truck with bin in hand, Hannah would routinely retreat into the cab to grab a notification slip informing the resident on how their recycling was wrongly sorted.

Before beginning the route, Hannah prepared over 100 notification slips, ready to be distributed into mismanaged recycling bin. Stacks of slips, organized according to mistake, were arranged throughout the cab of the truck.

One stack of slips in the truck reminded residents that the City of Kingston’s solid waste disposal program does not accept number one plastics without screw tops.

“I can see how people get frustrated,” Hannah said. “We’re not trying to get anybody mad,

we’re just trying to do our jobs and educate a little at the same time.”

As we hurried along the Queen’s route, Hannah could easily identify the repeat offenders.

“I’d bet any money this guy’s bin is full of number one plastics,” he said correctly.

He’ll often return to a bin that was improperly organized the previous pickup to find the problem unresolved and his notification slip covered in slime, stuck to the bottom of the bin.

“I don’t think everyone reads the tags,” he said.

Hannah would usually attempt to salvage the recyclable materials from mismanaged bins, but in extreme cases he said leaving the whole bin makes it more likely that individuals will fix the problem.

“People don’t want to wait until next week,” Hannah said, adding that it’s typical for residents to run after his truck in their underwear to deliver their recycling.

“People will get into their cars and cut you off or pull you over saying ‘hey, you missed me.’”

—Jake Edmiston

Despite attracting less than half of students to vote in last year’s AMS election, Queen’s 40 per cent voter turnout makes it one of the highest among Ontario Student Unions.

The University of Toronto’s Students’ Union (UTSU) saw 18 per cent of their 44,000 members vote in its election last year.

“Last year we were able to double our voter-turnout,” current UTSU president Adam Awad told the Journal, adding that turnout averages have remained in the 10-15 per cent range over the past decade.

“Some people will talk about [the election], but it’s sort of the same people who always talk about it,” he said. “Most students care about other things like tuition fees or academic rights.”

In the past five years, AMS elections have consistently drawn turnouts of over 30 per cent.

Current AMS Vice President (Operations) Ben Hartley and his team clinched last year’s election with 54.5 per cent of the vote.

Hartley said a recent trend in campus campaigns involving

DIY videos have shown to be an effective method of raising voter awareness. Within the first week of campaigning, executive candidate teams CES and SDL had promotional videos uploaded to their respective websites, Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts.

“It’s about proliferating into where students will absorb media because it’s different now.”

Last year, Guelph University’s Central Student Association elections drew 25.5 per cent of the school’s undergraduate population—a less than one-point increase over the previous year’s turnout. The University of Ottawa’s Student government saw around 10 per cent turnout last year—a significant drop from 2009’s 27.9 per cent.

Scott Matthews, an associate professor of Political Science specializing in voter turnout, said student government elections don’t have the same built-in pull factor that other elections have.

“In national elections especially, there is a widely-held belief that Please see next page

AMS voter turnout over the years

Features

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 39

Continued from previous page

participation is important, a ‘civic duty’ of every voter,” Matthews told the Journal via email. “It’s not clear that the beliefs about national elections will have any implications for attitudes to AMS elections.”

This year’s Kingston municipal elections in October saw 36 per cent of voters cast their ballot at polling stations using a paper-ballot system. After transitioning into online voting last year, the AMS saw a three-point improvement on 2009’s paper votes.

The Wilfrid Laurier University Student Union (WLUSU) will switch its electoral method to an online system this year. WLUSU elections last year drew a 20 per cent voter turnout—10 per cent lower than the previous year.

In the past 20 years, AMS voter turnouts peaked at 45 per cent in the 1991 election. Turnout rates dipped below the 30 per cent mark in the late 90s and early 2000s, but have stabilized in recent years.

Matthews said the geography of the Queen’s community gives it an advantage over other universities in terms of voter turnout for student government elections.

“This must be connected to the general level of student involvement in campus life, which, as we are regularly informed, is relatively intense at Queen’s,” he said. “At larger universities in urban areas, many of which are really “commuter campuses,” it’s easy to see why students might be—and feel that they are—less connected.”

—Jake Edmiston

Voter turnout accross Ontario The Journal surveyed other Student Unions across the province to determine how voter turnout to AMS elections compares.

Guelph University 2010: 25.5 per cent 2009: 25 per cent 2008: 25 per cent

University of Ottawa 2010: 10 per cent 2009: 27.2 per cent 2008: 12.2 per cent

Laurier University 2010: 20 per cent 2009: 30 per cent 2008: 10 per cent

University of Toronto 2010: 18 per cent 2009: 9 per cent 2008: ~10 per cent — Jake Edmiston

A day with a res custodian FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Stranded in Egypt FEBRUARY 8, 2011 At 5 a.m. last Wednesday, David Walker’s tour guide got a call.

“Queen’s has arranged an evacuation flight for you,” the guide told the group of Queen’s alumni holed up in a cruise ship off the coast of the Egyptian city of Luxor.

Walker, MD ’71 and former dean of Health Sciences, was one of 21 who travelled to Egypt on a tour organized by Queen’s Alumni Relations on Jan. 19.

“Everything started out beautifully,” Walker said.

Walker and his wife, along with three other couples from Queen’s, opted to extend their trip for a cruise along the Nile when signing up for the trip months prior. The rest of the Queen’s group, including former Principal Bill Leggett, headed back to Cairo expecting to fly home.

From his cabin on the cruise ship, Walker said he watched the situation escalate.

“There’s BBC world news showing rioting,” he said. “We’re getting texts from our friends saying ‘it’s not good here in Cairo.’

“So we were getting a bit anxious.”

Then their cellphone and Internet connections went dead.

“Smoke was rising from the towns,” he said. “From time to time on shore there were fires and you could hear gun shots.”

The itinerary had Walker and his group landing in a small town

on the banks of the Nile to visit a temple. It would be the last time the group was allowed off their cruise ship.

“That’s where the story starts to get interesting,” Walker told the Journal in an interview on Friday after he arrived home in Canada.

“We got ourselves caught up in a bit of a riot.”

The group was traveling by bus, passing a line of “shabby-looking” riot police protecting the police station from any arson attempts.

Walker said burning stations had become an ordinary sight.

The tour-guide on the bus dismissed the gathering crowd in town as only “a small riot”, but when the group returned from the tomb, the riot had grown to the point that the bus couldn’t reach the boat.

The shoreline was crowded with demonstrators and entrepreneurs upset that the other cruise ships had refused to dock in town.

“They were angry at losing business, the crowd was angry about Egypt and our bus arrived in the middle of it,” Walker said. “We got as close to the boat as possible.

That’s when it was really scary.

There was shouting and yelling and pushing and shoving.

“I said to my wife, ‘go, go, go’ and we just ran.”

The original schedule drafted

by Alumni Relations planned for the group of Queen’s travelers to dock in Luxor and fly to the Cairo

Clive Strachan’s equipment closet door has a white board on it with “We love you Clive” and other endearments written in dry-erase marker.

“If you have a good rapport with the students it’s a little better,” the Morris Hall residence custodian said Tuesday during my visit with him.

“It does affect what kind of mess they leave,” he said, “I would consider them friends, and you don’t want to leave a mess for your friends.”

Graham McDowell, one of the Morris dons, stopped to talk with Strachan while he cleaned the first floor co-ed washroom.

“It’s surprisingly clean,” I said, causing McDowell and Strachan to exchange knowing glances.

“I guess you haven’t been to the men’s washroom then,” the don said, laughing.

Walking into the men’s bathroom, Strachan turned to face me.

“Well, here it is,” he said.

Crusty blue and white streaks line the tiled walls and stall doors.

All three toilets were clogged, filled to the brim with putrid waste. A half-submerged ceiling tile floated in one, with “Waddup bitch” written on it. Strachan picked up a bottle of anti-dandruff shampoo.

“This is what’s gotten onto the walls,” he said while surveying the splattered tile. Nimbly kicking up a toilet seat, he sprayed it with disinfectant.

“It might not seem that way, but I think the students like me,” Strachan said. “I try not to take it too personally.”

Strachan has been a custodian at Queen’s for over a decade.

He starts his day at 7:30 a.m. by taking out the Morris Hall garbage and recycling.

“Stay in here,” he said when I moved to follow him outside with the bins, “it’s cold out there.”

Before heading to clean the residence floors, Strachan prepares his cart, stopping to chat with

airport, connecting to a flight back to Toronto. But the Luxor airport was closed.

“We were lingering around on this boat … sitting on the deck in the sun watching the shoreline with anxiety,” Walker said, adding that while they were on board the ship a Luxor museum exploded near the coastline and a police station was burned down.

“The tourists were dissolving around us,” he said. “There were many of these Nile boat cruisers around and some of them were packing up, you could tell they weren’t going to have any business

for a while.”

The gift shop on Walker’s cruise liner packed up all their silver and gold, which the shopkeeper told Walker was an attempt at protecting his business from looters.

“I thought ‘great,’ ” Walker said.

“So now if they come on the boat they’ll be looking for our watches.”

The group explored several opportunities for escape from Egypt.

“At this time we hadn’t had much sleep for a day or two and it was getting noisier and noisier all around us,” he said. “All the security disappeared, all the police

a first-year student on her way to class.

Luckily, I escaped having to deal with any vomit. Strachan said usually he only finds vomit on Mondays.

“You have two choices encountering something like that.

You can either clean it up yourself, or call the residence manager to bring in waste disposal personnel,” he said.

The latter option incurs a fine for students on the floor where vomit is found.

Strachan said he prefers to clean it up himself because he doesn’t like to submit a charge to students.

“I wear gloves, throw on a mask and goggles. Usually with stuff like that, it’s contained to the toilet,” he said. “If it’s dry, that’s the best way to clean it up.

Don’t add water, that reactivates the smell.”

—Terra-Ann Arnone

disappeared. All the prison guards left their posts and we heard all the prisoners were out of jail, roaming the countryside.”

By this point, Queen’s Alumni Relations had been working for 24 hours to arrange a flight to retrieve their travelers. Judith Brown, associate vice-principal (alumni relations) worked in tandem with the Tour Operator, Gohagan, to charter an eight-seater jet and evacuate the tourists in Luxor.

—Jake Edmiston

40 •

Journal Year in ReVIEW

Editorials

Globe spins too far S eptember 21, 2010

I

n an article published Sept.

18, the Globe and Mail considered the status of Queen’s University’s in a piece titled “Crackdown on partying at Queen’s threaens university’s raucus reputation.” The piece focuses on the university’s negotiation of alcohol-related issues, specifically related to Aberdeen St., which the article describes as the “party nexus of Canada’s party university.”

The biggest failing of the Globe article isn’t a wealth of unfounded accusations, but a failure to contextualize the facts.

It’s hard to argue that Aberdeen street is not the party nexus of Queen’s—calling Queen’s the party university of Canada is a separate issue. The article points to the docile atmosphere in the

student neighbourhood, describing students drinking at “a swift but polite pace.”

In fact, the Globe article focuses largely on the unsanctioned 2005 Aberdeen Street party, and the recent two-year cancellation of Queen’s official Homecoming festivities—a far cry from the vague “crackdown” mentioned in the headline.

While the article refers to the university’s cancellation of Homecoming festivities—which it mistakenly lists as lasting indefinitely—it fails to distinguish between the university-sanctioned Homecoming weekend, and the unsanctioned street party.

These distinctions may seem obvious to a Queen’s student or Kingston resident, but for

Man up? Moan less O ctober 5, 2010

I

n an editorial published Oct. 2, the Toronto Star’s Robert Cribb considers masculinity in a piece entitled “It’s time for men to man up and take charge.”

Cribb laments the lack of strong male role models for young boys, pointing to a generation raised on a stereotype of helpless men—reflected in popular sitcoms and cartoons.

Cribb explains that men are “no longer leaders” and are being eclipsed in the professional world. Men now come with their balls—as Cribb colourfully puts it—“pre-busted.”

Television is a form of escapism, not the final word on gender politics. It’s a bad idea to use it as a benchmark for relationships on the other side of the screen.

It’s hard to decide what’s most troublesome about the Star editorial. There’s the assumption that being a man automatically involves certain “manly” responsibilities, the suggestion that pop culture dictates how we perceive each other or the idea that men and women are trapped in an “us vs. them” mentality.

The idea that being a man “has to” mean certain things is short-sighted and offensive, and does nothing but contribute to gender stereotypes.

The real problem with the Star editorial is that Cribb fails to explain any of the terms he uses, which makes the content controversial, without being articulate: what does “manning up” entail? How does one return to “the ancient protocols of manhood”?

Cribb’s interview with Elliott Katz—author of a book entitled Being the Strong Man A Woman Wants—doesn’t answer any of these questions. Instead, the reader gets an unsettling view of how Cribb’s ideas would work in real life, summarized by the following statement: “Leaving decisions to her is very frustrating for women.

We all believe in gender equality.

But you’re still the man and you have to take charge.” Who made Katz the spokesperson for women, everywhere?

And who made Cribb the spokesperson for men, anywhere?

Roll responsibly M ar CH 4, 2011

A

n article published in the Toronto Star Feb. 28 explores a moral dilemma with a caffeinated twist—purchasing someone a Roll Up The Rim coffee that goes on to win big.

One such incident took place in St. Jerome, Quebec in 2006.

An elementary school teacher discarded an unrolled coffee cup, which was the winning cup for the contest’s grand prize—a Toyota RAV4. The cup was rolled by two students who found it in a garbage can, prompting a legal battle between each student and the teacher.

It’s important to acknowledge that this incident speaks more to

someone with no knowledge of the university’s stance on the Aberdeen Street party, it sounds as if Queen’s condoned an event that left its “reputation in tatters.”An aside that “the tipsy crowds still come” in September overlooks the steps that Queen’s and the city of Kingston took to combat the party last year, which saw a drastic reduction in attendees.

It’s odd that the Globe avoids directly acknowledging the reality that Queen’s Vice-Principal John Pierce indicates in the concluding paragraphs of the article—that alcohol-related issues are a problem that every university must deal with. Individuals don’t represent the Queen’s community as a whole. But why couldn’t the Globe find one student willing to

act as poster-child for the so-called “party university”?

It’s tempting to react to the Globe’s article with hostility because it depicts Queen’s students as luxury-car driving snobs—or, more poetically, as “the blondes of Canada’s university community.”

In fact, the real issue is that the headline promises a crackdown at a party university, and delivers

neither the former nor the latter.

The faculty, students and alumni of Queen’s University don’t want to be associated with binge-drinking and buffoonery. By re-hashing events from five years in the past, the Globe article has simply ensured that it will take as long as possible for the memories of that distasteful evening to fade.

Maclean’s strains N ovember 19, 2010

A

n article published in Maclean’s on Nov. 10 titled “Too Asian?” asks a provocative question. The piece focuses on concerns about the implications of a university gaining—as one student put it—a “reputation of being Asian.”

The article cites claims that Asian students are more likely to apply themselves to academics, while white students are more likely to emphasize social interaction, extracurriculars and alcohol. Some administrators fear that having an “Asian” reputation will alienate non-Asian applicants.

The article suggests that Canadian universities face a difficult problem. Since these institutions operate as meritocracies, racial identity shouldn’t influence one’s ability to be a successful applicant.

However, universities must

choose between acknowledging the presence of these stereotypes—and risk being labelled as discriminatory—or avoid acknowledging them altogether.

The piece has become the target of substantial hostility, as many have suggested it merely perpetuates racial stereotypes.

Since many of the interviewees are citing individual experiences, the article appears to be a series of generalizations put forth as fact.

Writing a news story about an acknowledged problem based on stereotypes and generalisations is difficult. While the Macleans piece includes a variety of quotations from students, faculty and administrators, no one is in a position to make a definitive statement, nor does any one individual speak for anyone else.

Aberdeen and agony D ecember 2, 2010

A

story published Nov. 26 on queensjournal.ca detailed Principal Daniel Woolf’s decision to suspend Fall Homecoming for a further three years.

Despite being a separate event, Homecoming Weekend has become synonymous with

the desirability of expensive prizes what to do with a prize falls on the than to any kind of innate greed or shoulders of the winner. pettiness on the part of the public.

If he or she feels inclined to share At the same time, it’s a free coffee or muffin—in part or embarrassing to see people behaving whole—with the original buyer, he so childishly about an incident of or she should be commended for random chance. generous behaviour.

Buying someone a coffee with Similarly, the responsibility for a chance in a draw attached is the avoiding unpleasant consequences same as giving someone a lottery falls on the shoulders of the buyer, ticket as a gift. The giver has no not the winner. claim over what the recipient wins.

Anyone with such petty Holding recipients responsible tendencies should probably refrain for sharing what they win begs from purchasing anyone coffee a silly and similar question—do until the contest is over—or ask recipients have the right to hold a for coffee cups that don’t have a buyer responsible when they don’t “rollable” rim. win something?

The responsibility for deciding

the Aberdeen Street Party. It’s disappointing that an outright cancellation of the former is the current solution to the problems posed by the latter.

There are unexplored avenues which could help negotiate the issues posed by the street party, such as attracting crowds to other venues in the city, or continuing to present a strong police presence on Aberdeen Street without cancelling Homecoming Weekend—both would help underscore that the two are not interchangeable.

However, previous attempts at accommodation ended in failure. In light of the street party’s high profile, it would be counter-productive for the University to take any steps that might encourage attendance on Aberdeen Street. The window for a university-sanctioned event has closed—at least for the foreseeable future.

Solving the Aberdeen Street problem isn’t the University’s responsibility.

Well-intentioned emails from the

Despite the numerous criticisms levelled at the Maclean’s piece, one of its most unequivocal points is also its most valid. An admissions system based on anything other than merit is discriminatory.

As the Maclean’s article concludes, universities should target racial stereotyping by encouraging diversity and equity within campuses, not by artificially ensuring a ratio of some ethnicities to others.

An individual is free to discount attending a university based on whatever criteria are important to him or her. If this includes concerns about an “Asian” reputation, then that student is letting their own racism inform a highly consequential decision.

And he or she should probably think twice.

administration—and a strong police presence—have failed to drop attendance to zero. The responsiblity is on the shoulders of anyone who shows up on Aberdeen Street, even those who claim that they just want to see the spectacle. This behaviour only draws attention to the Aberdeen issue—from both the public and the media.

Students and alumni who decry the cancellation as an assault on tradition are right to complain. But Homecoming Weekend has ceased to be about the traditions of one’s alma mater, eclipsed instead by a tradition of shameful behaviour and resultant bad press.

While the loss of a tradition is a tragedy, it’s a greater tragedy that current and future generations of students suffer because of the actions of a select few.

Students and alumni alike should embrace other routes of getting in touch with the Queen’s community of the past and present, and form traditions that haven’t been stained by memories of flipped cars and students in handcuffs.

Dialogue

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 41

Elect MPs, not parties

Wisdom from a veteran

February 8, 2011

February 11, 2011

I’m in a predicament. I rather like the government’s recent proposal to purchase new fighter jets, but I’m quite opposed to its “anti-crime” measures. What can I do?

Under the current political system, I have the following options: support the government because I like one of their policies, support the opposition because I’m opposed to one of the government’s policies or stay at home/spoil my ballot/ vote Green (they’re all pretty much the same thing).

The truth is that few people agree entirely with every decision a political party makes or every policy they enact. Most people have a wide and diverse range of ideas and cannot be easily grouped into any political ideology, much less a political party.

From the eighteenth century until almost the end of the nineteenth, the House of Commons in Westminster was a chaotic chamber, with little absolute stability for governments.

Prime Ministers had to cobble together coalitions of different MPs that would shift with each vote. On every issue, MPs could support or oppose the government, and could cross the floor to express their differing opinions.

At its core, the question boils down to whether MPs should serve as guaranteed votes for a political party, or whether they should exercise their own judgment and independence when making decisions.

Ironic as it may sound today, a young Stephen Harper once decried the House of Commons as being more-or-less the United States Electoral College if the Electoral College continued to sit for four years—a largely ceremonial body that gets together

to vote the exact same way on every issue.

The House of Commons was designed as a forum for the people’s representatives to gather together, debate and discuss ideas to promote the general welfare and vote on the adoption of proposed solutions.

The best and brightest were to think and discuss and come out with different ideas. Where are the Wilberforces, Burkes, Pitts or Foxes of today? Does anybody even pretend that Parliament is a forum to discuss ideas and debate issues?

So, how can we go about reforming our political system? The first and most effective way is to end the ridiculous practice of requiring party leaders to sign nomination forms for candidates.

A local candidate should be the choice of a local constituency, not the party hierarchy.

First, it would make MPs accountable to their constituents, not their party leadership, and second, it would increase the quality of debate in Parliament.

If MPs could say what they wanted without their leaders taking the blame, the quality of parliamentary debate would rise and a wealth of new ideas could emerge.

A true representative democracy requires that representatives have the ability to decide for themselves and use their own discretion on each issue.

We need more floorcrossing, less party discipline and more debate. When we start thinking and debating again, then the House of Commons will work.

—Edward Woolley

No one gives you a credit along the way, Walk through the Globe newsroom and you might think you’re at a Queen’s Journal or a paycheque, or even much of a thank you. reunion. Greg McArthur, Omar El Akkad, You stay because you’re driven to stay and Jennifer MacMillan, Jeff Grey, Carol Toller, make the Journal better.

That kind of drive is the rarest, and most Sol Chrom.

And then there’s the ones who have moved valuable quality, in journalism. I’ve seen it in on—Matt Hartley to the Financial Post, Matt so many people coming out of the place.

I also have come to see how no story, McClure to the Calgary Herald, Drew Fagan and Giles Gherson to Queen’s Park, where no scoop, no rip-roaring exposé was ever they’re deputy ministers (and my colleague achieved without that kind of drive.

On to smarts. Queen’s attracts only smart and friend Margaret Philp to a tragic loss people (hard to believe when you think of to cancer).

What makes the Journal such a good your housemates).

That means the Journal is stocked with breeding ground for print journalists? I think a lot of bright, inqiusitive and intellectually it’s hunger, brains and a bit of luck.

Let’s start with hunger. To the rest of the restless individuals.

Personally, I think the Journal gets a lot of country, Queen’s is a bit of a country club. intellectually restless people because there are Those who go there know it’s not.

It’s a campus jam-packed with competitive, few other places on campus to explore and high-achievers, young women and men who test ideas. The collision of brainpower and energy is magical. are not used to placing second at anything.

And then there’s luck, that great fluke that This hard-driving culture kicks into overdrive in extra-curriculars. It’s not a brought so many of us through the doors of campus where things are done lightly, or the Journal in the first place.

Pretty much none of us went to Queen’s to shoddily. Especially at the Journal, which you know everyone else on campus is going to see become journalists. We were looking for something else. and judge.

Instead, journalism found us. The Journal No one needs to work at the Journal.

We all signed up because we thought it found us.

Instead of working in the pub, or would be fun, or a creative outlet, or a chance to engage in the pursuit of organizing AMS events, we discovered that the uncovering of information, the telling campus democracy.

And then we discovered we had no idea of stories and the pursuit of truth was what what we were doing. And there was no one sparked a fire in our hearts. to teach us. No manual. No one with more —John Stackhouse, than a few years experience at this.

Globe and Mail editor in chief, So we taught ourselves. And we stayed Comm ’85 because we thought we could make it better, perhaps way better.

A breach of trust: Nick Condemning faith-based Day must resign as rector homophobia at Queen’s March 25, 2011

March 11, 2011 As a former rector of Queen’s University, I write to condemn the recent conduct of Nick Day. Whatever my personal opinion on his subject, Day misused his title and attributed his personal beliefs to the student body. These are grave abuses of the office of rector.

Day’s recent pronouncements not only exceed any assigned duty of the rector, but also misrepresent his own views as those of his constituency.

The rector’s role is about the governance of Queen’s University. No aspect of his rectorship requires writing missives to federal politicians, pronouncing on foreign affairs.

Day is free to present his views once he departs his role. However, by signing his letter as rector, Day’s conduct trespassed the bounds of his office.

Moreover, Day attributed these opinions to the students he represents. He did so with the knowledge that these views did not reflect any consensus amongst his constituents.

To knowingly misrepresent your constituents’ views is a betrayal of their trust and a breach of a rector’s foremost duty.

The rectorship is not a soapbox. The role is not to be flaunted to grab media attention.

Without his title, Day’s remarks would have been largely ignored.

By signing as Rector, Day got noticed.

But with that signature comes the responsibility to speak faithfully on behalf of Queen’s students.

Instead, Day deliberately exploited his title to publicize his personal political opinions.

Statements from the pulpit of an elected office convey the heft of your

constituency, particularly when your title is explicitly attached.

Indeed, Day specifically invoked his constituency in his letter, claiming “to represent the approximately 20,000 students of Queen’s University.”

When you speak as rector, you must speak with fidelity to the community you serve, believing that your statements truly reflect the community’s views and interests.

If Day honestly believed his statements reflected a consensus amongst Queen’s students, his judgment is dangerously unsound. If Day knowingly misrepresented his views as those of his constituents, he abused his office.

Day’s conduct is unworthy of the office of rector. In place of his duties, he acted self-servingly. Similarly, he and others may attempt to appropriate future proceedings, claiming Day to be persecuted for his beliefs.

This is simply distracting and self aggrandizing. When elected, students did not give him a mandate to pronounce on Middle Eastern politics.

He forfeits his office not because of his beliefs but because he misused his position.

By abusing his title, he betrayed the trust of his office.

Nick Day should apologize and resign, or Queen’s students should immediately seek his removal.

—Grant Bishop, Queen’s University rector, 2004-2006

I’m writing to draw attention to a specific of the intolerance still present at this school.

We’re coming into a time when Queer form of homophobia running rampant at this university that I find particularly identities are (slowly) becoming accepted in insidious in nature—religious intolerance the public sphere. The intolerance, however, hasn’t gone away; it’s just less blatant. of Queer identities.

I’d like to finish with a bit of my I’m chair of the AMS religious affairs committee. I know that religious faith can favourite scripture. In what I consider to be a wonderful, powerful thing that can be the most beautifully simple yet powerful statement of the entire Bible, Jesus tells us profoundly influence a person’s identity.

However, religious faith can also to “Do to others whatever you would like change the way a person perceives and them to do to you. This is the essence of all reacts to other identities. This is the point that is taught in the law and the prophets,” where religion can become deeply and (Matthew 7:12).

Did you get that last bit? Basically, Jesus tragically intertwined with all kinds of oppression against those of different faiths, is saying “I just summed up the entirety of genders, races or sexual orientations. This God’s law for you in a nutshell. Follow this oppression is not an inevitable consequence one simple rule, and God will be happy.”

He also tells us to “Love thy neighbour of religion.

You may be wondering why, of all as yourself.” I don’t think you have to forms of homophobia, I find faith-based be Christian to agree that this is probably some pretty good advice. homophobia to be particularly insidious.

Fellow students, regardless of religious Stop and think for a second about what the statement “you’re going to hell” implies. convictions, gender, race or sexual Hell is a place for lost souls, a place (in orientation, we are all “neighbours” in most Christian traditions at least) of eternal this unique and wonderful place we call torment for souls so steeped in sin they are Queen’s University.

Despite our great diversity of identities, utterly unworthy of the presence of God. When a believing Christian tells an we have in common a fundamental desire LGBT person he or she is going to hell, they to be treated as independent, thinking, are showing contempt for his or her soul, feeling, loving human beings.

It would be nice if we could do a better the very essence of the person’s existence as a human being. This is a dehumanizing job at this school of respecting each other dimension of hatred far deeper than simple as such. distaste for a certain sexual orientation or —Michael Scott gender identity.

I feel that it’s my responsibility as a concerned member of this community to bring to public consciousness the ugliness

42 •

Journal Year in ReVIEW

A&E

Sparking inspiration for change S eptember 17, 2010 Through a directed choreography, The Lighting the Way Lantern Festival uses movement and light to connect friends and strangers alike in a human chain.

By giving only a few minutes of your time to this year’s AIDS Walk and Lighting the Way Lantern Festival tomorrow evening, you’ll have the opportunity to align with local artists and support those who have died and those who are currently living with HIV/AIDS. Along with the involvement of three community groups creating light installations around the theme of “spark” this Saturday in City Park, a number of professional artists will be creating works during the night between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. This year, the theme represents the light that starts the fire and the ability for one person’s actions to ignite a movement for change.

One of the organizers Julie Fiala explained how through a directed choreography, the community performance will set out to use movement and light to connect both friends and strangers in a human chain.

“Kate Yüksel and I decided we wanted to create an aesthetic experience that would allow people to come together on a large scale to reflect on the condition and represent a sense of support for those living and those who have died of HIV/AIDS,” she said.

Personalizing the issue and ensuring people put the disease in perspective is crucial.

A local member of HIV AIDS Regional Services (HARS) and a person living with HIV/AIDS, Daz, also saw the importance of bringing students out to the event.

“In the case of students, going to university is a time when they’re leaving their high schools and leaving their families and staying with other friends, it’s a place where they may drink and party a little harder than they ever did,” he said. “If precautions aren’t taken, you don’t want to wake up a year later and find out you’re not

photo by christine blais

Much Ado about it all S eptember 17, 2010

supplied

photo by christine blais

well anymore.”

Daz said taking a couple minutes to properly educate yourself can help you dodge a bullet.

“In my case, it changed my life.

The idea of people’s awareness, especially the students who are going to carry what they learn into the future is important,” he said.

“The understanding to educate how it affects people’s lives and to be a little more tolerant of situations … you have to take two minutes out of your lifetime just to learn a little more about it. It doesn’t take much

to learn the small details that will help you along.”

Daz said he was surprised by the direction his involvement in the piece took.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not much of an activist, I’m a complete pacifist,” he said with a laugh.

“They asked for some volunteer help with this project and I went from thinking I was just going to help someone, to actually being a part of something.”

—Ally Hall

Sixteen comedies, 10 histories, 12 tragedies and 154 sonnets made into a two hour production undertaken by three actors.

This is what the King’s Town Players have created with their new play The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).

It’s a crazy whirlwind of Shakespeare’s beloved works that come together in one hilarious and educational play.

What’s so lovable about this play is its ability to take Shakespeare’s work and give it that modern twist. And when I say modern twist I don’t mean the cheesy chick-flick way that movies like She’s the Man and 10 Things I Hate About You have done.

The use of the Star Wars and Jaws soundtracks, actors in Converse sneakers and the claim

that Romeo and Juliet is just about Romeo wanting to get into Juliet’s pants bring these 400-year old plays into a modern context that young audiences can relate to.

While the play is over-the-top, it finds many memorable moments of comedic genius in the way it brings each of the plays to life, such as rapping Othello, having an audience member be the balcony in Romeo and Juliet and turning the histories (like King John and Henry V) into a violent football game.

Director Krista Garrett describes the play best.

“It’s just really, really fun,” she said. “It will make you laugh.”

The play’s slogan says it best, “If you like Shakespeare, you’ll love this show. If you hate Shakespeare, you’ll love this show!”

—Alyssa Ashton

photo by christine blais

Learning how to play by heart O ctober 29, 2010

photo by tYler ball

going to do with my life. It’s just about figuring yourself out and I’ll never forget the first time I saw figuring out that it’s a long process a Diamond Rings video. As my and not everything will make total eyes flashed from John O’Regan’s sense. It’s about enjoying life and pink and blue eye shadow to his seeing the beauty in it.”

The performative quality to impossibly lean spandex clad legs, I was instantly in awe of his ability his art is evident from the bleach to pull off bona-fide pop star while blonde coif on his head to the dancing before a green-screened meticulously cleaned high top image of the Toronto sky line in kicks on his toes. With style best described somewhere between Salt, “All Yr Songs”.

Speaking over the phone on the Pepa and David Bowie, the value morning of his record’s release, he of the visual aspect of O’Regan’s sounded excited and relieved to be pursuit is clear.

“We went through a big period moving into the next stages of his latest sonic pursuit. in the 2000s where independent “It’s been a lot of work,” he said. music sort of neglected the visual “This album is really an experiment and counter-performative aspect,” in my opinion. I wanted to do he said. “I have these songs with something that incorporated a few distinctive looks, Vanilla elements of electronic music … It’s Ice and MC Hammer paired a style that fits the high rises and with something that sounds like street cars and buses and captures the Juno soundtrack, it’s a way to that kind of intensity and vibrancy… blend all those worlds.”

[The record’s] about Toronto, it’s His penchant for denim, bling about my experience moving here and glitter might seem like an effort and not really knowing what I was to grab attention, but his aesthetic

is as much a facet of Diamond Rings as the array of drumbeats in his tracks.

“I was trying to push myself to this point where I was almost sort of uncomfortable in a way,” he said.

“Whether musical or visual, that’s what makes things exciting, finding that place where I’m unsure and uncertain, like tip-toeing up to the edge and jumping off, seeing if you have wings.”

O’Regan hinted that his show tomorrow with P.S. I Love You at The Mansion will be one for the books. When the duo share a bill they’ve been known to join forces on stage for a couple hypnotizing tracks.

“It’s going to be fun, we’ve been great pals for quite a while now and it’s been an adventure,” he said.

“I hadn’t seen [PS I Love You] play in months and they were the best I’ve ever seen them, I’m really very excited for the show obviously.”

—Ally Hall

Sports

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 43

From Oil Thigh to Muay Thai O ctober 1, 2010 In the 90s the sport of mixed martial arts was off everyone’s radar. In part, the casual mention of “MMA” meant nothing in North America because the term had yet to be coined. The sport existed under vague titles: ultimate fighting, cage fighting or “no holds barred” fighting to name a few, always remaining on the fringes of athletics.

For the Cardinal, Ontario native Mike Martelle, who started karate lessons at eight years old, the public opinion of mixed martial arts played no effect on his aspirations.

Martelle said his transition to MMA was almost instant.

“In the early nineties when MMA first came to be, I was aware of it right away, I was fascinated,”

he said. “I [immediately] began training in the martial arts that are more applicable to MMA.” At 19, Martelle began training in Muay Thai, a form of kickboxing.

A year later, in 1994, he began learning Brazilin jiu-jitsu, a sport that focuses on grappling and ground fighting to round out his repertoire. Weight training also became a very important aspect of his improvement as a fighter.

In 1995 Martelle chose to attend Queen’s, but his athletic dreams were always close to heart.

Martelle said that he knew by university that his dream was to pursue mixed martial arts.

“I wanted to go as far as I could as an amateur with the possibility of competing in the Olympics, to

When he’s not traveling the me that was my pinnacle. I just globe Martelle runs his own MMA wanted to get to the Olympics,” he training facility in Kingston known said. “After that it was my goal to as Grizzly Gym. While some of turn pro, or if something were to these “thugs” do show up, they come in my way of going to the don’t last very long.

Running his gym and training are Olympics I would turn pro. These always the focus. In a normal week were always my dreams.”

Martelle’s career took him to Martelle will train two to three the far reaches of the world to times a day for five days a week. take on opponents. He has fought The work has paid off. He has a in Russia, Mexico, Jamaica, Japan 15-2 professional record, including and Alaska. Martelle’s transition four MMA championship belts.

“I was talking about these to professional MMA coincided with Spike TV’s Ultimate Fighter, goals 15-17 years ago,” he said. a reality-TV show following the “Obviously it is very gratifying to UFC. The show’s finale gave Spike see them come to fruition… I think some of its all-time highest viewer I’ve [actually] been on the slow end ratings and suddenly MMA was of the learning curve, but I made it a mainstream sport. The new and that’s all that matters.” limelight brought a blend of results for the sport.

—Lauri Kytömaa

Women’s rugby off to nationals O ctober 26, 2010 The women’s rugby team defeated has been due in part to a new the Waterloo Warriors 15-8 at found sense of perseverance.

Kingston Field on Saturday to reach With an undefeated season and their first OUA finals since 1995. wins over both Waterloo and the Queen’s also automatically earns a University of Toronto Varsity Blues berth to the CIS Championship for in the playoffs, fullback Jocelyn Poirier said the Gaels’ approach to the first time in the team’s history.

The close match saw the Gaels their games has changed.

“The skill level has improved but hold on to their 10-8 lead until late in the game. Fullback Karlye Wong there’s just a different mindset this and Ashley Ward both scored a try year in focusing on our game and and centre/winger Annika Rinas what we’re going to do,” she said. added five points on a conversion “We’ve used the term ‘control the controllable.’” and a penalty kick.

Poirier said the Guelph Centre/winger Samantha Trinier offer no said the team started the OUA Gryphons semi-final game slowly and was exceptional challenge.

“They’re just another team,” she affected by offensive mistakes.

“We haven’t quite reached our said. “We hadn’t played Waterloo full potential yet,” she said. “We before either. We’re going to try definitely picked it up in the second and work our defence [which] half, played a lot better and a has been strong all season. They lot cleaner rugby ... It was just haven’t really had to face a strong a matter of patience and waiting defence yet. So we’re going to for the opportunities to score really try and shut them down that and we definitely got those in the way, get in their heads.”

The team’s confidence this second half.”

The Gaels’ success this season year has been the difference in

Gaels golden in PEI N ovember 19, 2010 The women’s soccer team capped off their tremendous season with the biggest prize of all, as they won gold in overtime at the 2010 CIS Women’s Soccer Championship in Charlottetown last weekend.

Queen’s defeated their OUA rivals, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, 1-0 in extra time to bring home the team’s first national banner since 1988. Midfielder

team became more comfortable on the field and with each other.

“We were down at the beginning but everyone stayed pretty calm and knew we were going to come back. [We] didn’t know when, but we knew we were going to come back eventually,” she said.

The Gaels’ hard work has been years in the making for the women’s rugby program and Wadsworth said the importance of

many games. Fly-half/winger Andrea Wadsworth said the team’s confidence has improved as the Riley Filion ripped a 40-yard blast off the crossbar and into the net their season. in the 107th minute as keeper “We felt pretty good,” Filion said.

Chantal Marson closed the door “We hadn’t played overtime yet on any subsequent Golden Hawk and Laurier had played overtime chances to seal the victory. the night before … they were, Filion said she was ecstatic to I guess, probably pretty tired going see her long-range attempt get into the 90-plus minutes. I just past the Laurier keeper in the felt we had more energy coming tight game. into overtime. We just weren’t “I felt extreme happiness, relief giving up.” and excitement [to know] if we Head coach Dave McDowell could keep it for the next 10 said the team put in a great minutes, we would be national performance over the weekend as champions,” she said. “It was a bad the Gaels defeated the Cape Breton clearance by the Laurier defender Capers and the University of Fraser and then it came to me about 40 Valley Cascades on their way to the yards out and I just kicked it … it gold medal match. was a good one I guess.”

“I thought we did everything The team needed no extra we needed to do,” McDowell motivation as they went into said. “The girls were terrific. All overtime in the biggest game of three games I thought we played

Another one for the rafters N ovember 5, 2010

At 11:44 a.m. on Sunday the women’s heavyweight eight was ready for the last race of the OUA championship hosted by Brock University in St. Catherines.

Anticipation and nervousness gave way to screaming encouragement as they narrowly tallied enough points to take home the banner.

The Queen’s women held a narrow 88-75 team point lead over rival Western entering the last event, but because the top three positions would receive 25, 15 and 8 points respectively so the whole weekend’s efforts rested on the oars of the last competitors.

Queen’s would finish the race 2nd, just four seconds from Western. Though it wasn’t a first place for the crew it was good enough to secure a 103-100 point victory over Western for the OUA banner.

The team point system makes winning the banner a demonstration of a team’s all around capabilities.

The coaches spent a long time adjusting the heavyweight and lightweight teams to maximize the total number of team points.

The ultimate decision was to cut down the number of competing athletes to allow the top athletes to compete in more boats. Head Coach John Armitage said it was somewhat of a risk.

“We reduced our squad by about seven people. It was painful for us, it was painful for the rowers. When we had done our Photo by Sam Mcintyre team goal setting at the beginning the moment is not lost on the team. of September, the girls set the OUA “We’re all definitely excited banner as the ultimate goal at the to be a part of such a milestone end of the season. As coaches we season for the Queen’s women’s are bound to respect that goal, rugby program,” she said. “We’re we took an ultimate gamble, we definitely looking forward to it. We ended up racing with 21 women,” know we’re a bit of the underdog he said. in the finals. We know we can The lightweight women were definitely bring it to Guelph.” the story of the weekend as they came off with 1st place finishes —Kate Bascom in the eight, four and the single.

They were able to reel in 59 of the teams points with these big finishes as well as a 5th place in very well. The gold medal game the double. The heavyweight side is usually not as good quality [due brought home the 2nd in the eight to] playing with no recovery time. and four, 6th in the double and 1st I thought the quality of play was in the single for 44 points. Katya Herman raced in both single events quite high.”

The win provided revenge for and singlehandedly provided Queen’s as they were edged 1-0 21 points.

Lightweight rower, Emily by the Golden Hawks in the OUA Richardson said the team had a lot Finals the previous weekend.

“I dropped right to my knees,” of faith coming into the weekend.

Kelli Chamberlain said. “I didn’t “We expected to win [the know what to do. Honestly just eight], we were a little more pure joy and excitement … It felt sceptical about the four because like we had won right there. You we hadn’t raced that line up have to finish the game but just before. Confident not cocky. We right there, everything that we had worked really hard so there was been working so hard towards [we] no reason we couldn’t win,” she just kind of felt in that moment said. that everything was worth it.”

—Lauri Kytömaa —Anand Srivastava

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Journal Year in ReVIEW

Sports

The unsung heroes of hockey February 17, 2011

At the start of the season the men’s The 2010-2011 rookies showed hockey team looked like a group promise as well. Leading this headlined by newcomers. year’s incoming class were Alexi Just a year before, first-year Pianosi, an offensive-defenceman forwards Payton Liske, Jordan coming off a 50-point season in Mirwaldt and Joey Derochie the Ontario Junior Hockey League exploded into the OUA with big and Jordan Soquila, a forward with offensive numbers. Liske and 45-points in the British Columbia Mirwaldt were leading OUA Hockey League. rookies with 40 points in 28 games, Lost in this influx of flashy while Derochie was sixth potting players were several key veterans.

28 points in 26 games.

Three players in particular had

Bronze-lining for Gaels M arch 18, 2011 The Gaels were the OUA’s best kept secret this year. With many outside the Queen’s community scratching their heads over the Gaels’ quick turn-around at the end of the season, the team never bowed to the intimidation of a first ever CIS berth.

The women’s hockey team showed a quiet determination throughout the year that kept them battling through the challenging first half of the season. In the new year, their determination just got louder.

“We stuck to our own game plan and didn’t really bow to pressure,” head coach Matt Holmberg said.

“We’ve got a good team here and if we execute we can make some noise, and that’s what we did.”

The Gaels’ game plan paid off Sunday afternoon on the biggest stage for collegiate women’s hockey in Canada. Queen’s faced off against familiar foe and OUA juggernauts, the Laurier Golden Hawks, and took them to task in a tense 1-0 win for bronze medal at the CIS Championship.

Other journalists frequently used the word ‘miraculous’ to describe the Gaels’ OUA playoff run.

Holmberg said this understated the team’s ability.

“We never looked at ourselves as a Cinderella story,” he said. “We knew we had the ability to do it but it was just a matter of getting it done.”

The Gaels faced competition from the toughest teams in the

country, including the defending champions the Alberta Pandas and the undefeated McGill Martlets.

Forward Kelsey Thomson, who was an integral part of the Gaels playoff run with three goals and the shootout winner against the Pandas, said the game could not have been more exciting.

“Two great teams battling for a bronze medal,” she said. “It can’t get much better than that ...

They’re a really good team but in the playoffs, I think it just came down to who really wanted it and I think we wanted it more. We just kept going.”

With the clock ticking down, the game looked to be heading to yet another overtime for the Gaels.

Defenceman Kerstin van Bolderen finally solved Laurier goaltender Liz Knox with 1:51 left in the third.

Dodd-Moher said she was excited but had to remain focused to finish the game. van Bolderen buried a backhanded shot off a pass from forward Liz Kench to win. In her first goal of the season, van Bolderen scored what she said was the biggest goal of her life, although her memory of it is a little hazy.

“To be honest I don’t really remember,” she said. “I got the puck and [I was thinking] best shot of your life. It just went in.

It was kind of a blur but it was pretty exciting.”

fallen under the radar: Jonathon Queen’s and had never collected Lawrance, Scott Kenway and more than seven points in a season.

Brock Ouellet.

The trio was penciled in as Fourth-year captain Lawrance the Gaels’ third line as the season was one of only two older players opened in October. They were to to break the 20-point mark the be the shutdown line; their job previous season, as he quietly wasn’t to score but to stop the continued averaging over 20 points other team’s top line. It would be a season. the young-guns on the top two Third-year forward Kenway lines that would put the pucks in was second in scoring for the Gaels the net; or at least that was the plan. in his rookie year, but a sophomore Kenway said the group saw this slump in which he only scored as a chance to prove themselves. three goals hurt his confidence and “We took it as a challenge at the his visibility. start of the year seeing that we Finally there was Ouellet, a were put as the third line,” he said. third-year role player, who had “We thought we could contribute been cut by the University of more than just a checking role.”

Ottawa program before coming to An opportunity for more

responsibility came in a hurry as injuries on the team mounted.

Less than a month into the season three key forwards were missing games. The team lost third-year David Chubb to a long-term injury three games into the season. Payton Liske missed his first game on Oct. 23 and Jordan Mirwaldt was quick to follow him on Nov. 6. With the loss of their first line, the Gaels hit a six-game losing skid in November and the high hopes from the beginning of the season began to dim.

—Lauri Kytömaa

Gaels on point at OUAs M arch 4, 2011 “That’s what I did all weekend,” Over the weekend of Feb. 19 and 20, the men’s fencing team competed he said. “Stayed calm, talked to at the OUA Championships at myself … and just stayed smart.”

When Beaucage-Gauvreau Brock University and finished with stellar results. Accumulating the made it into the final bout, he most points overall, the men’s benefitted from his strong team took home the OUA banner mental game.

“I was really focused,” he said. for the first time since 2003-04.

The men’s team had a dominating “I was prepared mentally and my win with 240 points ahead of opponent was less so. I got the the second-place Carleton Ravens’ first two touches, and he wasn’t really ready.”

198 point finish.

After being seeded in first “The athletes were wellprepared and ready for the place after the pool bouts, competition,” said head coach Beaucage-Gauvreau was able to Hugh Munby. “We took no compete against less experienced and prepared opponents before chances and it paid off.”

Francois Beaucage-Gauvreau facing tougher competition in the won the gold medal in the final few matches. individual sabre and team sabre “Working hard at the beginning competitions. He said he owes his makes a big difference at the end,” success to his training regimen and he said.

The winner of the individual his capacity for calm and focus sabre competition is rewarded the during tough matches.

Schwende-Tully trophy. BeaucageGauvreau also won the George Tully trophy for skill, style and sportsmanship.

“Fencing is not a classy sport, but you have to be respectful,” he said. “You shake hands after each bout, and you have to not lose your temper. It’s about staying clam” The gold medal in team sabre was awarded to BeaucageGauvreau, Scott Bowman, Jimmy Wintle and Greg Nanato.

The men’s epee team also had a successful tournament, with Karl Gardner winning first place in individuals and Mario Gibney placing third. his win.

—Andrew Stokes

The somber side of sports A pril 1, 2011

Injuries hit Queen’s athletes hard this year. The men’s volleyball team had to cope with the absence of key veteran players all year, the men’s soccer team often struggled to field an 18-man roster and the men’s —Kate Bascom hockey team watched a parade of

Photo by Justin Tang

forwards join the disabled list. This continued throughout the year as athletes from many other teams fought to stay healthy.

Athletes sidelined by injuries are faced with a unique set of challenges. Most of them will tell you that there is nothing worse than being stuck in street clothes while their team competes. The inability to compete physically, combined with the psychological pressures of not contributing to the team, makes for a very unpleasant experience.

Dan Rosenbaum, a fourth-year player on the men’s volleyball team, spent most of 2010 struggling to combat a nagging hip problem.

After surgery last April, he faced a long recovery process, and missed much of the season. Rosenbaum explained the long road to recovery.

“It was a tough time. Having had surgery last spring, I wasn’t sure about the timeline for recovery,” he said. “I had expected to be ready for the start of the season, but in hindsight, that was not really a reasonable expectation.”

The desire to get healthy and return to the team can lead athletes

to push themselves too hard and too quickly. Rosenbaum said an impatience to rejoin the squad only led to further setbacks to the recovery process.

“I suffered from trying to return too quickly,” he said. “It was a stupid mistake because I had been told not to rush back into things.

But I struggled so much with figuring out whether it was good to push forward or step back.”

Many athletes with long-term injuries must also learn to embrace new roles on their teams. Sara Buckham, co-captain of the women’s soccer team, missed an entire season because of an ACL injury. She said that her challenge this year was figuring out new ways to help her team succeed.

“Being injured was especially hard, because I have always been so used to contributing on the field,” she said. “So this year, it was all about finding a new niche on the team. Even though I wasn’t being a leader in the way that I have been in the past, I worked hard to find a new role off the field.”

—Gilbert Coyle

Postscript

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 45

Awesome moments go viral M ay 18, 2010 Despite his enthusiasm, In a society where we constantly read about tragedy and gossip, Pasricha said he did not expect his the blogosphere has finally blog to garner such a following. emerged with a place to embrace “I guess maybe these tiny little the simple, awesome things that moments make a big difference make us smile every day, and in a lot of our rushed, jam-packed lives. Maybe these small moments people are catching on fast.

1000awesomethings.com, an add up to a big deal at the end of award-winning blog, was created the day,” he said.

Pasricha gets his ideas for in 2008. The blog’s creator, Neil Pasricha, posts one awesome determining what’s awesome thing that happens in everyday life through the simple things everyone experiences every day. each weekday.

“Awesome things are The Book of Awesome, based on Pasricha’s blog, was published simple, tiny, free and easy daily experiences we all love. Of in April.

Pasricha, a Comm ’02 Queen’s course, the easiest way to tell if alum, worked at Golden Words something’s awesome is if you during his four years at Queen’s find yourself nodding and smiling and was a co-editor in his to yourself while thinking ‘That’s awesome!’ while doing it,” he said. final year.

“I lived in Morris Hall then in Pasricha also credits his alma the ghetto for three years. I love mater as part of his inspiration for the #13 at Wok-In, being first in finding the awesome things in life.

“Queen’s is such a beautiful the Bubba’s lineup, and walking across campus with friends when place and it certainly stoked my it’s late and dark and quiet,” he passion for all things awesome. I remember the sheer insanity of told the Journal via e-mail.

Pasricha said he was inspired putting chocolate milk into my to start the blog in response to residence bowls of cocoa puffs all the depressing news we hear like it was yesterday,” he said.

“I absolutely love and miss the every day.

“Awesome is just an escape Queen’s community and the from the sad news and bad news way people treat each other pouring down every day,” he there. The bubble holds us all said. “It’s a place where global captive in a secret world of allwarming, terrorist threats, and nighters, bent-up bedhead, and health care debates sit backseat to steamy poutine gravy. And warm underwear out of the dryer, that’s a secret world I love.” the cool side of the pillow, and —Kelly Loeper popping bubble wrap.”

photo by christine blais

The struggles of sleepless students O ctober 1, 2010 It’s early morning, and I’m up and at ‘em for my 8:30 a.m. class. I got approximately four and a half hours of sleep last night. Of course, I am to blame: I napped for two hours the day before and drank coffee in the evening, among other sleep-destructing activities.

Sound familiar? You’re probably not alone. University is hardly an environment that allows one to sleep like a baby every night; with essays to be written and nights at the Spot to be had, it’s a wonder us students get any sleep at all.

Lee Fisher-Goodchild, coordinator of health education and health promotion programs at Queen’s, said students will often

ask advice about sleep at health promotion services and clinics.

“More often the problem is just ... not making enough time in the day to have time for sleep to satisfy the body’s need,” she said. “It’s tied up with stress and time management.”

Fisher-Goodchild said studies have shown that your ability to function with little sleep is comparable to functioning at a lower IQ level, and that sleep deprived people often report being less happy and less motivated.

“It’s much more easy to feel really overwhelmed and to become stressed out,” she said, because your ability to think things through,

plan and problem solve is impaired.

If you’re caught in a cycle of going to bed at 2 a.m., it’s possible to reset your body clock, she said, if you go to bed a little bit earlier each night until your body adjusts.

Besides adjusting your schedule, remembering some simple rules can greatly improve sleep.

“Make sure your bed is comfortable,” she said. “Make sure your room is dark; some people are really light sensitive.

“Having a regular bedtime and regular wake time is one of the best things people can do.”

—Kelly Loeper

photo by justin tang

A flock of geese J anuary 21, 2011 Once our campus starts to resemble Narnia’s winter wonderland and the frigid temperatures eliminate any possibility of casual backyard keggers, the Queen’s student population breaks out their unintentional mass uniform.

As for footwear, Uggs are for powder, fleece-lined Hunters for slush and Sorels for hardcore trekking all the way to

Etherington Hall.

Winter coats, on the other hand, are only Queen’s campus uniform-worthy if they’re undeniably puffy, fur-hooded, often bomber style and branded with the characteristic white circular patch with a miniaturized Arctic stitched into the center. Move over, TNA and NorthFace—Canada Goose coats are all the rage, and according

to Goose enthusiasts, for good reason too. Of course, trends rarely come to be without their share of divided opinions.

According to Annette Burfoot, a professor in the department of sociology, the Canada Goose coat carries a message that confuses the idea of both luxury and necessity.

“Items that were designed for a very particular hostile environment, the cold in this case, becoming luxury items raises the question as to how we define luxury,” she said.

In the past, luxury items were unnecessary, which the wealthy acquired with their disposable

income to show that they could afford such extravagances.

“Hyper-neccesity [is] becoming luxury,” Burfoot said.

Emily Valentini, ArtSci ‘14, said she already fears her individual style is getting lost in the sea of fur hoods on campus. “I bought mine two years ago. Now everyone has them.”

Claire Nelischer, ArtSci ’11, said she believes that you’re buying into mainstream culture or you’re buying into the counter culture; either way, you’re buying.

“If you choose to buy a Canada Goose jacket because of the status associated with the product, you’re

choosing to identify yourself with that culture and those meanings associated with it,” she said.

“But if you consciously choose to buy a different coat because you wish [to] distance yourself from that culture, you’re still using your purchase to communicate your identity to others,” she said. “You are using material goods to create and communicate your identity to others … So even counter culture is material culture.”

—Sara Melvin

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Journal Year in ReVIEW

Photos

Photos

Journal Year in ReVIEW • 47

48 •queensjournal.ca

Thursday, April 7, 2011

lAST Words

Photos by Justin Tang

B y Tyler B all Editor in Chief The one question that has followed me through the last six years of my life is “what are you going to do?”

When I was in grade 12, it was in reference to university. When I came to Queen’s, it was in reference to turning a Fine Arts degree into something that pays the bills.

When asked to a newly-elected Editor in Chief, I interpreted it as a challenge. That’s really what this job is about; challenging yourself and your staff to create great things.

Coming from a photography background I was pretty intimidated by being Editor in Chief to this group of talented, driven and intelligent people. I didn’t have much experience writing a story, much less editing it for spelling and grammar. All I knew were lenses and Photoshop.

I knew I wasn’t going to be the one to write the exposé or the investigation this year, so I had to focus on something else. I wanted to provide my staff with the tools to succeed in their short time here, creating the best possible journalism they could.

If you go to queensjournal.ca today you’ll see a new website. I’ve barely thought about anything else for the last month. But it’s all worth it, because I know future Editors in Chief will need our website to reach out to more and more of their readers.

While I was off in The Matrix it was Rachel who kept the roof from caving in.

It was her that took the lead on our print redesign and came up with some of the best ideas for making our paper into a more modern, visually appealing product.

And while we were both tearing our hair out over stories, deadlines, dots and flats it was Gabe who really kept the roof up. She is the glue of the Journal. Without her the left hand wouldn’t know what the right hand is doing—and there wouldn’t be Timbits. She constantly begs, joking I’m sure, to be fired so she can go on a nice vacation, but I won’t because I know that the house will truly fall over.

I hate numbers, so Dave and his business team need to be thanked for keeping the Journal afloat this year, especially in this transitional period for journalism. Dave is the man with the plan, ensuring we have pizza and putting a smile on everyone’s face when storming the layout room with his Chewbacca impression.

And to the staff: As with any volume of the Queen’s Journal, there are some pretty rough times. Late press nights, stressful and intimidating interviews, dealing with media relations people that have terrible attitudes and general stress can all contribute to a detrimental work environment. However, the staff of Volume 138 were able to take the negatives and turn them into positives,

helping and encouraging each other along the when we needed it most.

There were also incredible high points.

Having John Stackhouse, the editor of the most prominent paper in Canada answer our questions and inspire us to maybe give this journalism thing a try. Hearing someone impart such wisdom to the staff was invaluable.

From a women’s hockey win to alumni stranded amongst turmoil in Egypt, I think everyone at the Journal has created something in the last year that they should be proud of.

I hope we created something that students at this university see as important. Whether you agree or disagree with our coverage, thank you for reading, comments, tweeting, blogging and writing letters to the editors.

Those that participate in the conversation increase its value.

As Editor in Chief, there are always going to be things you wished you had done, but I have to remind myself of all that we accomplished this year. Besides, Jake and Clare are ready to achieve much more than I ever could.

Thanks for reading.

B y R achel K uper Managing Editor I would describe my first few days as managing editor as scary, hectic and haphazard. I took office after only one year of Journal experience and was too naïve to even recognize what I didn’t know.

I remember how every tiny edit sent me into fits of self-doubt and any hiccup made me feel like I was failing at my job. I was lucky I had such an amazing support system from both inside and outside of the Journal.

At the Journal there’s Gabe. She’s been working with the paper since before I was born and knows every single thing about it. I used to come in at least an hour before I needed to be at work just to chat with her and sometimes do a bit of online shoe shopping.

Gabe kept me gossiping, but Dave, our business manager, kept me sane. Until I took this job I never felt true physical stress, and so I never learned how to deal with it. As soon as Dave and I became friends, my time at the Journal got exponentially better because he let me vent, laughed at my jokes and never

Tyler Ball and Rachel Kuper are looking for their next big thing.

judged my pastry obsession.

Without Tyler though, I’d be nowhere.

Tyler and I are complete opposites. Whereas he’s detail oriented and a perfectionist, I’m big-picture focused and efficiency driven.

Whereas I have a tendency to panic, he’s calm to the last. The funny thing is though, before working with Tyler I never knew these things about myself.

Beyond our work styles we have very different personalities, but in him I found a great friend and powerful ally. Together, we professionalized the Journal’s workflow and redesigned our print publication.

Until this year I thought pulling your hair out from stress was something people just said. But somehow out of all this chaos and confusion came the absolute best year of my life.

I learned a ton about the journalism industry and could probably rival any journalism school grad in an article write-off, but that’s peanuts compared to what I’ve learned about people.

In light of all the tragedy on campus over the last year it’s so easy to feel alone or stressed or overwhelmed. But if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that when you need them most, people will come through and they will amaze you.

Somehow more than 20 Editorial Board members are willing to give up their St Patty’s Day, their every Thursday night, their mandatory seminar and so much more, all for the sake of a quality product.

I remember how many first-time contributors were thrilled to spend their Saturday night of Fauxcoming traipsing through the rain to get us a story, and how many editors were all too excited to pull out their notebooks and show them how it’s done. Just a few days ago I called one Ed Board member to ask what she was doing for the next couple days and if she’d rather write a last minute article instead—she thanked me for the opportunity.

Some incredible people have come through the Journal this year, but I would expect nothing less. Every generation of Journal staff shows dedication and passion and then, they become a community. Even after graduation, this community doesn’t fall apart.

Journal alumni always want to know not only how the Journal’s doing, but also how you’re doing. While they never overstep, they’re always ready to offer advice, encouragement and an understanding nod.

Since I started working for the Journal two years ago I’ve written more articles than I can count. It seems impossible that I’m finally writing my last one, but even though I’m leaving the comfort of my 190 University office I know I’m not leaving the comfort of the Journal community.