Ryerson Free Presss February 2009

feb

2009

Palestinians and Tamils resist war and occupation Canadian government opts to blame victims for their own suffering

RSU AUDIT and ELECTION COVERAGE Pages 4 & 20

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

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NEWS Halper: israel land grabs making palestinian state untenable Sara Faruqi Jeff Halper stands in a narrow room on the second floor of Oakham House. It’s a cold afternoon in Toronto and the heat is turned up, making the room uncomfortably hot, with the seating space running out and the audience having to stand in the back room.

No one seems to mind as they have come to see Halper speak.

Halper is an Israeli-American academic, political activist and Nobel Prize nominee.

He was at Ryerson on Jan. 22, to give a talk on the siege of Gaza. Halper spoke about the conflict, his work in Gaza and the international community, including Canada’s, negligence towards the Palestinian people.

He took questions from the audience, some

who supported Israel’s justifications of selfdefence, while others made obvious by their kaffaiyahs, were sympathetic towards the Palestinians.

In a short presentation Halper showed a map of what the two-state solution would look like. The concept is to divide the western portion of Palestine into two separate states, one Arab and one Israeli. According to Halper, this was accepted by the Palestinians two years ago but rejected by the Israeli government although he added that a vast majority of Israelis would accept it as well.

With the rejection of this deal Halper felt as though something else is going on. He went on to say that it was not a matter of peace or security, he felt that there had been a con-

scious campaign to “disabuse the Palestinians of any illusion they have of a legit claim to the country.”

What the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) was doing in Gaza, according to Halper, could not be explained in a responsible or rational way. The only way to explain it would be that Israel wants to sear into the consciousness of the Palestinians that they are defeated.

One audience member asserted that with 10,000 rockets being fired into southern Israel, the Israelis had no choice but to retaliate.

Halper replied that by accepting the two-state solution Palestinians had made it clear that they certainly did not want to destroy Israel.

He used the words apartheid and ethnic cleansing to describe the actions of the Israeli

government, to back his claims he described the destruction of the Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank by Israel in 2002, which is now a football stadium. He also pointed out the implantation of settlements within the area which was to be ‘Palestine’ in the twostate solution as a means of isolating Palestinian towns which would create a Bantustanlike territory similar to that of Apartheid South Africa. He felt that the Annapolis Conference would only further this Apartheid like state. As its major points would include fragmenting the West Bank into 70 ‘islands’ with the settlement blocks acting as divisions between them.

‘HALPER’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

canada fails to condemn slaughter of palestinians nora loreto news editor As thousands of Israeli troops marched into Gaza on Jan. 3, tens of thousands of people around the world demonstrated against Israel’s offensive.

In Toronto alone, close to 10,000 people marched from Dundas Square up to the Israeli consulate at Avenue and Bloor Sts. and down to the American Embassy on University Avenue.

They marched to show support for the people of Gaza facing the onslaught of the Israeli Defense Forces. The ground mission is a response to rockets that have been fired into southern Israel from Gaza.

“Only two governments in the world have supported what Israel is doing in Gaza,” shouted Peter Liebowicz, a representative from the United Steelworkers. “The United States, and Canada. It’s time that out government understands that Canadians, Muslims, Christians and Jews stand together and say to Israel: end the massacre… end

the siege,” he said.

“There is a growing worldwide movement of Jews who are saying that the killing of Palestinians must stop now,” said Allen Lehrner from Not In Our Name-Jewish Voices Against the Occupation. “We have learned that if some of us aren’t free that no one is free… what we’re seeing in Israel in so many ways is the same aggression used against us in Europe, we’re now replicating the oppression.” “[Israel is] breaking international law and Canadian law,” said Khaled Moummar, national president of the Canadian Arab Federation. “We are really angry about government and mainstream media who are complicit in this. They are reporting inaccurately and treat people from the third world as if they don’t count,” he said.

From when Israel started its incursions on Dec. 27 to Jan. 3. at least 460 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed.

The attack by Israel has bombed several mosques, schools, media outlets and other civilian buildings.

The high density of people in Gaza, and a ground war

of soldiers will likely lead to a high number of civilian deaths. In the same amount of time, four Israelis have died as a result of rockets launched from Gaza into southern Israel.

The protest in Toronto was one of dozens across the world. In Canada, rallies were also held in Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg. The largest protests were held in London, England and in Sakhnin, Northern Israel.

“This is the biggest demonstration against Israel’s treatment of Palestine [in Toronto],” said Judy Rebick, a professor of politics and holder of the Sam Guindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson. “Every person of good conscience has to stand up against a massacre, and that’s what’s happening [in Gaza].”

[People in Gaza] should have the right and they do have the right to defend themselves.”

Since this piece was written, the death-toll has risen to 1,300 Palestinians. It is estimated that almost 300 of the dead are children. 13 Israelis have also died.

FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

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ryerson students fast, form human chain as tamil death-toll mounts

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the monthly newspaper for continuing education, distance eduation and parttime students at ryerson

Ryerson Free Press address

nora loreto news editor The largest population of Tamils outside their native Sri Lanka (or Tamil Eelam) is in Toronto. And, as a culture who believes strongly in the right to education, it’s no surprise that Ryerson is the school of choice for many Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area. The Ryerson Tamil Association (RyeTSA) has been working hard this semester to bring attention to the human rights abuses.

In conjunction with CanadianHART (Canadian Humanitarian Appeal for Relief of Tamils), RyeTSA held a 30 hour famine to bring attention to the

genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. For 30 hours from Jan. 26-27, they fasted in the student centre and talked to students walking by about the suffering of Tamils ‘back home’ and the need for the Canadian government to intervene with relief money and aid.

On Friday, Jan. 30, almost 50,000 people formed a human chain that stretched from Front St. up past Ryerson’s doorstep at Gould St. People wore signs calling for aid to be sent to the suffering Tamil population and for the Canadian government to intervene.

Here are some of the pictures from the two events.

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Amanda Connon-Unda Sara Faruqi Mai Nguyen Alyssa Friesen Vanessa Santilli Alex Fox Whitney Wager Angelina Irinici Tracy Chen Indy Bansal Omair Quadri Angela Walcott Umber Siddiqui Jeff Winch Jessica Campbell Jeff Winch Max Arambulo Maiya Keidan Pacinthe Mattar Stephen Carlick publisher

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inside this issue 4 RSU AUTONOMY THREATENED 8 CESAR FIGHTS TO DROP FEES 9 KHADR’S FATE UNCERTAIN 10 DIVERSIFYING RYERSON CURRICULUM 12 CABBAGETOWN EXPLORES ENVIRO-HEATING OPTIONS 13 CRIMINALIZING PANHANDLING INEFFECTIVE 14 DEFYING OCAP STEREOTYPES 16 TALKING ABOUT JEWISH-PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY 18 BURGERS GO GOURMET 20 EDITORIAL: RSU

ELECTIONS

23 MOVIE REVIEW: SLUMDOG WORTH THE RUPEES 27 CITY HALL LACKS DIVERSITY 28 RECORD REVIEWS

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

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audit threatens rsu autonomy Below are some questions asked of the executive hopefuls during the Feb. 3 all candidate’s debate at Ryerson Students’ Union Running for president What have you done for the school in the past that makes you feel right for the position of president?

Abdullah Snobar (RyeCHANGE) “What I’ve done in the past, (I have) extensive experience at Ryerson. I was president of the Ryerson Commerce Society, I sat on the executive finance committee of the RSU…I worked for Mariposa Cruise managing other people.

(I’m) looking at the best way we increase the value of our degree.”

Jermainne Bagnall (Undivided) “I’m new to Ryerson, a second year grad student. I wasn’t afraid to step up as graduate chairperson.

I saw a gap in HIV/AIDS education and stepped up to the plate. I’ve done work on drop fees, (it’s) not enough to write a letter - gotta hit the streets.

I’ve served as a TA here at Ryerson shaping the minds of students. I want to do this as president; I want to shape the culture of Ryerson.”

Running for VP education What has your involvement been in the Drop Fees campaign this year?

Dana Houssein (RyeCHANGE) “I feel like we can revamp the drop tuition fees campaign to be more inclusive of things like our book costs or our lab material or our casework. If all those are included in tuition fees, we’re getting the most of our tuition fees. (Have more) scholarships, bursaries…not just buttons, posters and stickers.”

Liana Salvador (Undivided) “If people wanted to revamp the campaign there were plenty of opportunities. (Since August there’s been meetings) every Wednesday at five. We’ve had record student turnout.

Regardless of what you think (thousands of) Ryerson students signed petitions, 70,000 (Ontario students) signed petitions, 6,000 marched to Queens Park, (we were) endorsed by MPPs. We have the public support and if we don’t fight for it, who will?”

Running for VP finance and services There’s $300,000 allegedly missing money from the health and dental plan. How will you get the money back into student’s hands?

Osman Hamid (RyeCHANGE) “I’ve already done the first step asking for a review of the RSU health and dental plan. I’ve assured the student’s don’t foot the bill and pay for the audit.

I’m a finance student and I didn’t understand the audit they don’t specifically tell you were the money is.”

Toby Whitfield (Undivided) “I think the question is it’s an allegation. I want to ensure all students in this room there is no missing money.

Every year (we) do an audit; we present it to you and everyone.

This audit is interesting because before even doing thorough research people are throwing around allegations all about it about elections.”

Running for VP student life Events aren’t just about drinking and pub nights, how would you diversify the events on campus?

Sid Naidu (RyeCHANGE) “Not all events are about drinking [there’s also] multicultural week…gives a taste of what culture is. In terms of pub programming, we can lead to education there’s no reason why events cant be educational.”

Lise de Montbrun (Undivided) “Education events get students connected [and they] learn about education issues, that’s what Ryerson needs.

Everybody loves parties but it’s more than that…(We need) educational issues as well as learning about what’s going on in other people’s countries.”

Ronak Ghorbani Editorial Assistant A motion passed by Ryerson’s Students’ Union (RSU) has the university taking on the costly tab of a 20 year-audit of the union’s affairs and questions the functioning and autonomy of the RSU. The auditors are Deloitte and Touche and the Ryersonian reports a one-year audit by the accounting firm costs $10,000 and a 20 year audit could cost more than $200,000. The money paying for the audit is coming from the university’s operating budget.

The motion, passed at a board of directors meeting on Jan. 15, alleges mismanagement of money, low staff morale, lack of transparency, election fraud and a flawed governance structure.

At the meeting, motivators Dana Houssein, a community service faculty director, and Osman Hamid, student groups director, repeatedly ducked out of giving examples or proof for the accusations.

Houssein and Hamid are running for executive positions in the upcoming RSU election. This has left other directors questioning their motives.

“It’s an election tactic,” said Toby Whitfield, vice-president of finance and services. “Just the fact that they want this audit to come out before polling confuses me.”

The motion said the audit would look at finances, election procedures and staff relations and should be done by Feb. 5, four days before voting starts.

Whitfield said that the RSU conducts its own annual audits and there’s no reasonable explanation to have the university pay for it.

Every year at the semi annual general meeting (SAGM) an auditor makes a presentation to the RSU membership and they vote on which auditor to use.

This, Whitfield said, gives decision power to the membership. A presentation was not made this year because the meeting was adjourned after an online-voting motion failed.

Houssein claims the RSU is not transparent enough and feels silenced and ignored by RSU executives. She and Hamid went to Ryerson president Sheldon Levy a few weeks before the meeting asking for advice.

“We wanted it before elections to have a sense of confidence that we would have a chance of fair elections,” she said.

Houssein and the rest of her slate, RyeChange, feel that last year’s election procedures were biased and corrupt.

Running under last year’s slate as Ryevolution, they felt the chief returning officer (CRO) was lenient toward Renew, the slate which executives Whitfield, vice president of education Rebecca Rose and president Muhammad Ali Jabbar were part of.

“It’s a little shady when you get the majority of executives from one team and the majority of directors form another team,” Houssein said.

However, Rose points out that the student membership has several ways to evaluate the union. Besides the semi and annual general meetings where students vote for by-law changes, including election procedures, students vote in a new board of directors and executive they feel best represents them every year.

“To go to ma and pa up in Jorgenson hall and ask them to come in and do a review, I think that’s insulting to the intelligence of our members who are all adults,” she said.

With only a few days to go before audit results are supposed to be announced, priorities need to be made, Houssein said.

Sitting on an audit review committee, created at the Jan. 15 RSU board meeting, alongside Hamid, business faculty director Chandan Sharma and Abdullah Snobar, who is running for RSU presidency, they have decided the most urgent results are a review of election procedures and the health and dental plan.

Snobar has told campus press the RSU owes students up

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to $400,000.

“When they gave me the budget and the numbers didn’t add up,” he said. “I did some thorough investigation and the numbers weren’t adding up.”

The problem with this is that the RSU has a history of changing membership costs for the health and dental plan, Whitfield said.

According to Whitfield, in 2004 the RSU executive subsidized the member’s health and dental plan, which cost the union approximately $190,000 to do. In 2005, the executive decided to subsidize again by about $50,000.

And then in 2006 the RSU merged several bank accounts into one at the recommendations of their auditors.

That year they also gave $600,000 to the construction of the Student Centre and a $250,000 loan to the Student Centre board which is in the final stages of being paid back.

“Everything does balance and add up,” Whitfield said.

“The same group of people who want to audit the RSU for 20 years because they have a concern about the health and dental plan are the same people who agreed to support and renew the health and dental plan.”

At the November SAGM, RSU membership voted to start a tender process to find a new insurance broker. Snobar wanted to extend the RSU’s contract with current insurance broker Gallivan and Associates by one year.

Concerned about the insurance negotiation process on Jan. 9, Snobar attempted to look at the request for proposal (RFP) by the brokers.

A box holding RFPs was in executive director of operations and services, Mike Verticchio’s office. Since Snobar is only a board member he doesn’t have the authority to see the RFPs. Security was called to remove him from the offices.

“I don’t really understand how you do that to a board member,” Whitfield said. “If a student had come in and talked to me (about it) I would talk to them.”

Whitfield said he is currently in the process of putting together proposal packages from the insurance brokers to present to the board of directors, who decides which broker to go with.

Among these accusations the purpose of the students’ union is being forgotten, which is to serve the students, and by involving the university the union can not do its job completely, says Rose.

“We have to always stay autonomous and separated from the administration or that would effectively stop us from doing our job,” she said.

Rose said that the RSU advocates for things not in the best interest of the administration like demanding lower tuition ‘RSU’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

“Somehow the President of the University has found $100,000 for what has been termed a ‘Magical Mystery Audit’ by the campus press, an audit that is ridiculous in its scope (20 year period, everything from finances to elections) and audacious in its attack on the autonomy of students’ unions from the university administration.”

Gail Alivio, President of CESAR

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‘RSU’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

fees or defending students against university decisions.

“It’s not possible to guarantee the administration won’t meddle in the student’s union (actions),” she said. “They’re already eroding our autonomy by agreeing to this review.”

In a Feb. 3 press release, president of the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson Gail Alivio questioned the administration’s funding priorities in light of their refusal to fund childcare for students taking night classes.

“Somehow the President of the University has found $100,000 for what has been termed a ‘Magical Mystery Audit’ by the campus press, an audit that is ridiculous in its scope (20 year period, everything from finances to elections) and audacious in its attack on the autonomy of students’ unions from the university administration.”

When Houssein and Osman met with president Levy, he said he did not want to get involved with their politics.

“We made it very, very clear that the university has got to respect the (RSU’s) independence and it was up to them through their board to take action, not the administration,” Levy said.

“I spoke to Ali about it I said in a very, very nice way, ‘it’s your problem.’”

For Levy, paying for the audit is just like giving money to any other campus group or event.

“People are part of our community and when our community asks for help from the administration what other reason are we here for?” he said.

To make sure the RSU understands the administration recognizes the RSU’s autonomy, a legally binding letter was sent

to Jabbar indicating the administration will pay for the audit but does not want to see the results and has no vested interest in them.

Although this letter does secure the independence of the RSU it doesn’t for other universities across the province. The University of Toronto’s Student Union (UTSU) sent a letter to the RSU board requesting the union veto the audit motion. In the letter they outline how on every U of T campus, the unions have been fighting against administration from meddling in their business.

“When you give over that much of your autonomy to the administration the problem is that often times we’re working in direct opposition the administration,” said Sandy Hudson UTSU president.

“We are a union for students, we advocate on behalf for our students. Sometimes the administration has a vested interest in the outcomes of our affairs.”

Hudson said now that the motion has passed, it sets a new precedent for U of T. “Our administration can look to Ryerson and say, ‘this isn’t that weird this is something that’s happening on other campuses.

Clearly students think it’s necessary.’ It doesn’t’ help us at all in any way.”

Besides UTSU, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is concerned what this audit will mean for their members; since the motion says staff relations will be audited. Jim Morrison, CUPE national representative said staff issues should be taken up with CUPE. He also wrote a letter to the RSU saying that if any actions are taken against their members, CUPE will file grievances.

“I wanted to put them on notice that we’ll be watching if they proceed with this motion and carry out implementation,” he said.

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Leadership in Start Ups A little advice from the right people can go a long way. Two award-winning entrepreneurs, who started their businesses from scratch, came to the Ryerson Business school to share key tips on how they did it.

Alyssa Friesen On Jan 20, as part of the Leadership in Start Ups speaker series presented by StartMeUp Ryerson, special guests Justin Poy and Michael Rosenblat gave their personal accounts of how they rode the roller-coaster of entrepreneurship to the top. Poy, a Ryerson Radio and Television alumni, started his own creative ad agency, and Rosenblat founded a construction product manufacturing company at 21. The aspiring audience engaged in an interactive discussion with the speakers followed by chance to network over refreshments.

“It is important for students to hear how young people run a business,” said Olga Kozitska, StartMeUp Ryerson Project Manager. “The speakers provide a live example of someone who has been in their shoes, and who is not going to sugar-coat the difficulties of starting up a business.”

Rosenblat, winner of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Young Entrepreneur Award in 2003, contributed his success to numerous failures. All he has learned so far has been a result of his failure, he said, though the process of developing a thick skin and new skills was painstaking. Rosenblat identified that he was not a natural salesman, yet he forced himself to

pick-up the phone and attempt to sell his product.

“One out of 20 calls would be successful,” he said.

But it was mastering the skill of selling himself, rather than selling his product, that led to the breaking-point in his career.

“Especially in small businesses, your word is all you got,” Rosenblat enlightened his audience. His business, VoidForm International Ltd., grew to a level where he could afford to turn away customers, because he had confidence in his product and believed every word of his sales pitch, he says. That honesty transferred to his customers, who in turn wanted to invest in his product.

Not to be outdone, Poy, Creative Director of the Justin Poy Agency and winner of the first Canadian Youth Business Foundation Entrepreneurship Champion Award, is a perfect example of a man who let his passion drive his business sense. After graduating from Ryerson, he took a job at CTV, but immediately discovered broadcast wasn’t his niche.

“I hated having a boss and always wanted it to be lunch-time,” he laughed.

Poy left CTV to collaborate his commu‘START UPS’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

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Engineers have no borders Dear editor: On the evening of Thursday, Jan. 22, over 700 passionate students from universities all across Canada gathered on the Ryerson campus quad to celebrate the Fair Trade movement in Canada, and their passion for international development. Above is the image of the students spelling out the words “Fair Trade!” on the quad.

The event on campus followed a massive outreach event held in downtown Toronto, which consisted of handing out 10,000 Fair Trade Times newspapers with “Fair Trade” pins and chocolate. Fair Trade-certified products ensure that the workers who make the product receive a fair wage. A video of the event can be found on YouTube: tinyurl.com/ bgzefq.

The students involved were part of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Annual National Conference, being held in Mississauga this year. On Thursday evening, hundreds of EWB members from universities across Canada (as well as the national office staff, the overseas team, and other speakers) gathered in the Ryerson quad to celebrate the

Canadian movement in fair trade, the massive outreach event downtown earlier that day, and the EWB organizations’ success.

This is an annual event held in different cities every year. It draws a huge crowd, and attracts a lot of media and public interest. EWB is an organization that focuses on promoting human development through access to appropriate technology, which basically means we work to ensure that we incorporate appropriate development methods in the communities where we work. We believe it can drive extraordinary change.

For more information, please contact EWB-Ryerson or visit www.ewb.ca or www. conference2009.ewb.ca.

Alex Fox Fashion Communications (1st year), Ryerson President, EWB Ryerson Chapter

can Vitamins treat the disease at its root? Maybe not Orthomolecular medicine: criticised by mainstream experts Vanessa Santilli Ads for orthomolecular medicine say that their methods have enjoyed success in treating cancer, autism, schizophrenia and depression, to name a few. On the homepage of a Facebook group called orthomolecular health, there is an image of oranges inside an intravenous bag with a caption that reads, “What if this was your treatment for heart disease?” Another image shows fruits and vegetables spilling out of a medicine container—instead of pills— and asks, “What if this was your prescription for high blood pressure?” The group currently has 82 members who have nothing but praises to sing for orthomolecular medicine, a new brand of healthcare that is based on the idea that the body needs the right molecular balance of vitamins, minerals and nutrients to stay healthy.

Alison Pope, a member of the group, says she follows orthomolecular medicine because it makes the most sense.

“It treats the underlying cause rather than medicating the symptoms in a Band-Aid method, has the fewest side effects and a much higher success rate than conventional western medicine.”

But while promoters of orthomolecular medicine campaign for it in advertisements, on Facebook, in a documentary and at information sessions, critics suggest it is being oversold.

Registered dietician Sandra Skrzypczyk disagrees with the fundamental assumptions of orthomolecular medicine.

“I would not consider this approach to be credible.

I tried to look for more research and did not find any information regarding orthomolecular health in any peerreviewed scientific journals,” she said in an interview. “If you notice, the majority of the references on the website are from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and not much else from scientific journals to support it.”

Reinhold Vieth, a professor in the University of Toronto’s departments of nutritional sciences and laboratory medicine and pathobiology, also points to the lack of scientific evidence in support of it. “In alternative medicine, they don’t like to do placebos. So the style of research that is done to support complementary medicine or orthomolecular medicine is a style that is not mainstream evidence based. It’s more try it and see what happens.”

Skrzypczyk also says she has an issue with the lack of information available about the process orthomolecular practitioners use. “There is not enough information on Orthomolecular Health’s website to give me an idea of how an orthomolecular practitioner diagnoses a patient’s nutrient needs, which for me is a red flag,” she says.

“It depends on the practitioner,” says orthomolecular practitioner Aileen Burford-Mason, who has a doctorate in immunology from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. “But if you came to see me, I’d discuss with you the 40 essential nutrients. You’d have to understand that you need to get all of them into you in the right amounts.

At that meeting I’d put you on a basic vitamin-mineral program. I’d recommend a multivitamin, tell you to get a

blood test done for vitamin D and then advise you on how much vitamin D to take. I’d put you on a fish oil supplement because there is no way diet can provide what our brains need.”

In response to critics, Burford-Mason says that those who are researching nutrients are not people that understand where nutrients fit together. “They’re checking them as if they’re drugs. Nutrients are not drugs and cannot be studied in the same way.”

In terms of risks, Terry Vanderheyden, a naturopathic doctor specializing in orthomolecular medicine, says that if you look at drug toxicity statistics (which look at the harmful effects of drugs), orthomolecular clearly has the upper hand. “But in the hands of an unqualified practitioner, the worst potential for harm exists in that this type of unlicensed practitioner may not recognize the need for intervention.”

There are currently 63 orthomolecular health practitioners in Canada, according to Orthomolecular Health’s website. “One can practice orthomolecular medicine without any formal certification,” says Burford-Mason.

“Nutrition is a very unregulated profession.”

Skrzypczyk says that people with serious health conditions who choose only to follow this approach run the risk of not benefitting from effective and proven treatments.

“However, I can understand if someone is given a diagnosis of a potentially life-threatening disease, he or she is probably going to want to explore all the options.”

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War resisters being punished for refusing to kill, deported one by one Mai Nguyen Christian Rivera picks up a handful of snow with his mitten-covered hands and tosses it up in the air. He stands still, head sticking up, and waits for the sprinkles of snow to land on his face. He shivers when the wet, cold flakes hit his cheeks. He laughs and does it all over again.

Meanwhile, people have formed a tight circle around him, some holding plastic lanterns, others holding signs. They begin to sing. Christian may be playing, but he knows why the people are singing. He knows why they are holding signs that say “Stop the Deportations.” He knows why his mother, Kimberly Rivera, struggles to hold back tears. Christian, just six years old, knows that his mother could be going to jail any day.

His mother is the first female soldier to desert her mission in Iraq and flee to Canada. She’s one of many American war resisters who came to Canada to seek asylum after refusing to be involved in what they see as the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq. Kimberly, her husband Mario and their young children, Christian and Rebecca, left their hometown of Mesquite, Texas and drove to Canada where they arrived in February 2007. The Rivera family have since made a home for themselves in Canada with a new member of the family, Katie, their Canadian-born daughter.

In June 2008, a majority in the House of Commons passed a motion to allow war

resisters to stay in Canada as permanent residents instead of deporting them back to the United States, where the penalties for desertion range from an “other-than-honourable-discharge” to a maximum of five years in prison.

However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper ignored the motion and implemented a policy to deport war resisters back to the U.S. to face their punishments. Harper immediately put that policy into effect and called for the deportation of U.S. Marine Corps deserter Robin Long, who was living in British Columbia for three years with his wife and newborn son. Long was arrested and court-martialled. He is now facing 15 months behind U.S. bars, a penalty that many anti-war activists have stated is too harsh for a conscientious objector of the Iraq war.

The circumstances today

Just before Parliament resumed on Jan. 27, five war resisters across Canada faced deportation dates one after the other in the span of 10 days. The War Resisters Support Campaign held a “Let Them Stay” week of action from Jan. 19 to Jan. 26 to call for an end to the deportation of the war resisters.

Rivera is one of them. She faced deportation on Jan. 27.

“We are very anxious to prevent the deportations from happening,” said Lee Zaslofsky, coordinator of the War Resisters Support Campaign. “We’re very concerned about the way the government is engineering this and we feel that it is mean-spirited.” Zaslofsky adds that he doubts Barack Even though the “Let Them Stay” week of action is over, Obama, as the new American the fight isn’t. The War Resisters Support Campaign has relied on the support and activism of regular Canadians to president, will be looking into this problem immediately. shame the government into letting Iraq war resisters and “Many of these war resisttheir families stay in Canada to avoid facing harsh penalers came to the conclusion ties in the U.S. that the war in Iraq is wrong, Pick up a phone or grab a pen and paper. Tell Stephen just like many Americans have Harper, Jason Kenney and your Member of Parliament done,” he said. “They put to stop the deportations of war resisters. Write a letter to in a conscientious objector the editor of a newspaper. During the week of action, the Prime Minister’s voicemail was reportedly swamped with messages and the Toronto Star published an editorial calling on the government to support the resisters.

Time is running out.

How you can help

The Right Hon. Stephen Harper Phone: 613-992-4211 E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney Phone: 613-954-1064 or 613-992-2235 E-mail: Kenney.j@parl.gc.ca or minister@cic.gc.ca Opposition Party Leaders Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff Email: Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca NDP Leader Jack Layton E-mail: Layton.J@parl.gc.ca Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe E-mail: Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca Opposition Party Immigration Critics Liberal party immigration critic Borys Wrzesnewskyj E-mail: wrzesnewskyj.b@parl.gc.ca NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow E-mail: chow.o@parl.gc.ca Bloc Québécois immigration critic Thierry St-Cyr E-mail: st-cyr.t@parl.gc.ca

application so they can get off combat duty, but 98 percent of those are turned down. So, there’s a small number that have found Canada as an option. These resisters get work permits and work to support their families.

There has not been one police incident with any of the resisters in five years.

“They’re going to be good citizens if they’re allowed to stay here and they’re already helping to build this country.”

Many of the war resisters who fled to Canada did so after finding the War Resisters Support Campaign website and reading up on the support of Canadians on the issue.

An Angus Reid public opinion poll taken in June 2008 found that a majority of the population in every region of Canada want war resisters to stay in Canada. On a global level, Amnesty International has taken a stance to support the resisters and called on Canada to stop their deportations.

The week of action began with a prayer vigil held at the Peace Garden at City Hall.

Organized by Catholics for PEACE, the event was attended by organizers, community members, media, city councillors and war resisters Kimberly Rivera and Joshua Key. The prayer that was recited was first heard during a 1991 march against the Gulf War held by Pax Christi, a Catholic peace organization.

Today, the war resisters movement has received tremendous support from the New Democratic Party, Bloc Quebecois and members of the Liberal Party. At a press conference held on Jan. 21 as part of the “Let Them Stay” week, NDP MP for Trinity-Spadina Olivia Chow, Liberal MP for Davenport Mario Silva and Mary Jo Leddy, co-founder of the Romero House community for refugees, spoke strongly against the Conservative Party’s action in going against the majority decision of Parliament to keep war resisters in Canada.

“We are a nation of compassion and peace. We should not be splitting up families,” said Chow. “I would challenge Stephen Harper to go out and ask anybody on the street what they think. They would say they want our war resisters to stay in

Canada.

“I hope we can outlast this government, which continues to want to do the dirty work of Mr. Bush, who is no longer around,” she said.

Chow also mentioned that if a coalition government with the Liberals and NDP were to transpire in Parliament, it will be representing 62 percent of the population and support war resisters through the establishment of a special programme that will allow them to apply as permanent residents of Canada.

During the Vietnam War, Pierre Trudeau allowed thousands of American military deserters to come and stay in Canada as conscientious objectors. Many have argued that the reason war resisters of the Vietnam War were able to seek asylum in the country was because many of them were forced into the military due to a mandatory conscription policy at the time, as opposed to the war resisters of today who voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. military.

However, according to Chow, that’s a myth. The 50,000 to 100,000 Vietnam War resisters who found sanctuary in Canada consisted of both those that were drafted and those that voluntarily enrolled in the war. Zaslofsky added that the myth is being used as a weapon against today’s generation ‘RESISTERS’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

news

Prorogue ends, MPs hit the floor

Whitney Wager It’s been a quiet holiday, but the pot has been stirring behind the padlocked doors of Parliament Hill.

Prior to the Dec. 4 Prorogation of Parliament, Canadians had experienced more than their fair share of schoolyard chicanery from their political leaders. MPs shuffled back into Parliament on Jan. 26 to smell the changes that have been stewing.

Throughout November and December, there were outcries from the public, and rallies in favour of and against Stephen Harper’s budget plan, and rallies for and against the Liberal-New Democratic Party (NDP) coalition. Days before the release of the budget, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had renewed the plausibility of a non-confidence vote, and the potential for another election, while Conservative representatives pre-emptively exposed a gaping $64-billion deficit over two fiscal years.

While the voter turnout for the 2008 election was among the lowest in Canadian modernity, the outrage concerning the coalition and consequent prorogation shocked everyone. These were issues that united most Canadians, despite party-allegiances, religious backgrounds and local interests.

Parliament resumed on Jan. 26, and the next day, stringent Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered his much-anticipated budget and plan for Canada’s financial future. Flaherty, notorious for his role in the Mike Harris government, is well known for his frugal, and often irritatingly anal, penny-pinching methods with Canada’s finances.

As such, it was a pleasant surprise when the Conservatives agreed to run into a $64-billion deficit. Canadians, and the members of the fragmented coalition, can only hope that the extra amount will be used for effectively stimulating the economy. But let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.

Already, Flaherty and the Conservatives have executed Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), currently available with Canadian financial institutions. The idea behind them is that Canadians can annually earn up to a whopping $75 in tax savings. This figure was based on a person in the highest marginal tax bracket (about 50 per cent), a $5,000-yearly maximum contribution, and a modest three per cent annual interest earnings.

The TFSAs will cost the government $3 billion annually by 2030 in forgone taxes; and it sends the wrong message to Canadians. Essentially, taxpayers should be spending, not saving, which was the whole reason for the bumbling coalition in the

first place. Not to mention that there is a greater benefit for the banks, which still reel in profits from account fees, deposits, and withdrawals.

In the short-term, the plan is laughable.

But in the long-term there is good coin to be saved. If enough people open TFSAs, it could ultimately provide some relief for banks floundering in the mortgage crisis as well.

Experts expected the budget plan to include broad-based tax cuts, in addition to a stimulus. On Nov. 27, 2008, Flaherty announced a proposal for more tax cuts to come out of election campaign funding, which is what instigated the vehement “patriotism” that we all witnessed before the prorogue. All parties relied on this public funding, though the Liberals and Bloc Québécois more so than the Conservatives and NDP (both had effective private fund-raising campaigns). For every vote each party attained, they received $1.95 of publiclyfunded reimbursement. The Conservatives proposed to lower this amount, apparently to ease tax-payers’ burdens, but more likely

to deliver a blow to their competitors and quiet the popular “Anyone But Harper” campaigns from the previous election.

As the action in the Parliament buildings winded down during its break, it became easier to see through all the translucent concerns for the economy and Canadians’ wallets. Stephen Harper was simply trying to make it easier for himself in the next election, while continuing to pad the pockets of the groups who don’t necessarily need it the most, as per usual with the Conservative agenda.

The coalition members made a last-ditch attempt at the top spot, and were ultimately shown the door by the public. Any sympathy Canadians had for Stéphane Dion withered away as Canadians quickly realized his blatant intentions. The Liberals had the worst federal showing ever in the October election, and it wasn’t because voters loved Harper.

And the most dastardly character of the bunch – Jack Layton, who displayed his stark greed for more orange seats in the Commons. Disappointed were the NDP-

supporters who gave Layton, shrewd and insightful, the benefit of the doubt, as a leader who has patiently been chugging away honourably for years. So much for the kitchen table.

With the economy the way it is, and the excess of debauchery so readily available with this political cast, anything is possible. However, here are some safe bets.

Michael Ignatieff will formally replace the blundering Dion in May at the Liberal Party Convention, but is now leader for the time-being. Dion’s haphazard dream of a coalition will crumble to pieces. The Conservatives will boast their same swagger and arrogance, akin to a pack of celebrities. The NDP will lose long-term support because of their involvement in the coalition dealings.

The best bet, Michaëlle Jean remains the only one in government with a head on her shoulders.

Editor’s note: The budget was delivered on January 27 and while it did promise a $33-billion deficit, it included tax cuts and tax relief that would cost the government at least $7-billion over two years.

CESAR DETERMINED TO DROP TUITION FEES IN ONTARIO Angelina Irinici “Part time students, full time debt.” This slogan was plastered on shirts of students at the Drop Fees General Assembly on Tuition Fees and Student Debt put on by members of the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR), Wednesday, Jan. 21 at the Student Centre.

The campaign to drop student fees has been long-running, including their last rally on November 5. Between seven and eight thousand people rallied downtown Toronto taking a stand to drop tuition fees.

First-year journalism student, Jordan Tamblyn agrees tuition is too high.

“It’s kind of sad that Ontario is the second highest province in tuition fees. Living is expensive as it is and I don’t understand how students are expected to pay rent, tuition and still have

money for things like books, food and even a social life. How are we supposed to make good money when we can only work part time when we are going to school? I know I’m having trouble with it.”

As of January 1st, the amount of student debt in the country reached 13 billion dollars. At the meeting, members of CESAR were encouraged to help take action in the fight to drop fees.

Jeremy Salter, the vice-president of finance of CESAR has a positive attitude.

“Our biggest obstacle is simultaneously our biggest opportunity. We need to engage with the general public and make them realize education is not just a student issue, but a social issue. If we are successful we can win the fight.”

At the meeting, members broke out into small groups to brainstorm ideas for the next step in taking action.

Mark Augustine, a class rep for CESAR who is studying at the School of Continuing Education believes it starts with not only students, but with their parents.

“Parents are the ones who are thinking about how much it’s going to cost. They are thinking about their kids future, they will be most effective.”

Shane Milne a second year part-time arts and contemporary studies student, has a another idea. “I think that continuing pressure needs to be put on the minister of education from the Liberal Party, he already agreed to have a meeting. We need to continue to gather more students by going to classrooms and gain media coverage with bigger newspapers and television networks, like CBC.” The Ryerson drop fees coalition meets every Wednesday at the Student Centre located at 55 Gould Street.

9 khadr only foreign national still in gitmo FEBRUARY 2009

ryerson free press

news

TRACY CHEN About 200 people rallied outside of the U.S. Consulate on Jan. 17 for Omar Khadr’s repatriationincluding his family.

“Omar in, Gitmo out,” chanted the group led by Jess HedgesChou from the Coalition to Repatriate Omar Khadr. Other groups that attended the rally included Amnesty International, local MPs and The Omar Khadr Project.

Khadr is a Canadian citizen who was 15 when he was captured by American forces during a four-hour firefight with militants. He is accused of throwing a military grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. Now at 22, he has spent almost a third of his life in Guantanamo Bay. Barack Obama, the new President of the United States has requested the suspension of all military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days. He has said he needs the hiatus to review the case of Khadr and 244 other detainees, according to prosecution reports.

He has also signed an executive order that he will close Guantanamo within a year.

“I hope [Obama] brings my brother home,” said his younger brother. Abdulkareem Khadr.

“He’s feeling like he’s going to be coming home soon.” The last time his brother spoke to Khadr was in November during a phone conversation.

Since Khadr has been captured, he has faced three military judges, had his charges dropped and then re-instated three times. Khadr’s trial has been postponed until May and this leaves him still in

Demonstrators mimic life at Guantanamo Bay. legal limbo.

Khadr’s defense has immediately called on the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to seek to repatriate the young Canadian.

NDP human rights critic MP Wayne Marston and NDP MP Olivia Chow also attended the rally. “He was a 15-year-old child combatant under the UN protocol,” says Marston. “He should have never have been detained.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly refused to intervene in Khadr’s case saying that he will not interfere with the American’s handling of the Khadr case or request his repatriation.

With the inauguration of Obama, Amnesty International

and the Coalition to Repatriate Omar Khadr are hoping that it will pressure Harper to take action.

“It’s been actually really disgraceful that so many other western countries and leaders have come out and condemned Guantanamo and Stephen Harper hasn’t,” says Shanaaz Gokul of Amnesty International. “I think the Americans would actually welcome that request to bring Omar Khadr back to Canada.”

Documents reveal that Khadr was subjected to various forms of abuse such as sleep deprivation and being held in stress positions.

Other reports reveal that he was kept in isolation and was threat-

ened with rape by his American captors.

An FBI interrogator claimed that Khadr recognized a photo of Maher Arar as someone he met in Afghanistan. Arar was a Canadian that was arrested by U.S. officials as a terror suspect in September 2002. He was tortured for a year in Syria before allowed to return to Canada. After a royal commission cleared him all links to terror, the Harper government awarded him $10.5 million as compensation.

However, the claim was discredited as Arar was in Canada during the time Khadr told an FBI agent he saw him.

The Coalition to Repatriate

Omar Khadr remains behind Khadr and has urged the public to contact the Canadian government for support.

His brother says Khadr has been trying to stay optimistic. “He doesn’t like being there but you know he’s doing what he can to stay positive,” says his brother.

“He’s reading a lot, which is good for him.”

His brother feels good about the support. “I think the public has started to stop hating us and see us for who we really are and see my brother for what he really is.

Humanized I guess - he’s not just like this person on the news,” his brother says. “Canadian people, you know I have faith in them, so they’re doing a good thing right now.”

The range of people that attended the rally included various ages, ethnicities and religious affiliations. “It really represented a broad base of Canadian society in terms of age from young students to the raging grannies and in terms of ethnicities and religious diversity,” says Gokol. “We had people from The Anglican Church, The United Church and as well as the Muslim community.”

Hedges-Chou was pleased at the positive turnout even with frigid weather. “You know they’re taking the time out of their weekend on this freezing day,” she says.

“It’s kind of a perfect time, we have parliament coming back in.

It’s time for democracy to shine and it’s time to have our voices heard so I think we did a really good job doing that today.”

10 student’s views on economic crisis FEBRUARY 2009

ryerson free press

news

Indy Bansal During the past few months, there has been a great deal of media attention focusing on the failing state of the global economy.

Stock prices have plummeted, businesses are filing for bankruptcy, people are being laid off, there are talks of various bailout packages and one word echoing all around us: recession.

Is this a catastrophe as large as the recession that occurred after the Great Depression of the 1920s? Or is this just another bump in the economic road that’s been blown out of proportion?

Umber Siddiqui, a Ryerson arts and contemporary studies student, explained her take on the economic crisis. “Nothing is being done about it. Jobs can be made easily… and yet they’re giving more loans to businesses instead of creating jobs for the Canadian people by the Canadian people.

This (is) a point in time where we can strengthen ourselves in the international market, make our own shows, charge more for electricity, make more jobs at hospitals and shorten the lines.”

Also, it sucks for students because I suppose interest on loans may increase no?

If so, we’re screwed when we get out, for paying them and if they decrease, we’re still screwed because jobs are still not made.

People are saving so retail is going to be shit and since they are saving, no money is being spent to keep businesses going, which makes people lose jobs. It’s a vicious cycle.

People think in times as such, you should save when that’s wrong. You should spend more in order to boost the economy.”

LOLA LANDEKIC

Sarah Jackson, a student at McMaster University had a different take on the situation. “I know that… this global recession really won’t affect business too much this year, but next year it’ll hit the companies harder. I know that the Liberals and NDP used Harper’s lack of stimulus package to attack him, when really it was too early for one, and the stimulus package would be useless at this time. It’s hit the US, but Canada is still ok. We’re just reacting earlier than necessary due to fear. I think it’s valid.

We, along with the rest of the world, are too dependent on the States. And due to globalization, economies are understandably linked. However, we aren’t the US (as much as people seem to forget it sometimes). We didn’t have a government as corrupt as the Bush administration...

I think it will become a problem, but we’re panicking too early, and creating more problems than there are. I also think stimulus packages are stupid and useless.

I have no insight on whether the economy should be left alone or government should interfere, but stimulus packages are useless.”

Recently in the news, Nortel filed for bankruptcy. At first glance, I believed that this was another business affected by the merciless recession. Nortel was once among the top Canadian companies in 2000. They had a market capital (their number of shares multiplied by the price of each share) that was more than Mexico’s GDP. However, I recently learned that the recession was not the only factor at fault. By the year 2001, the company began losing money due to a failure on the manager’s part to see the market’s product preferences. They had 60,000 job cuts in the past six years.

That is a staggering number. They had to file for bankruptcy because they were unable to gather enough money to pay off the principle on a loan that they had taken out, even though they have a fair amount of capital.

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However, not everyone is spared from the effects of the recession. A student who owned a condo had taken a loan out against her home. Because of the failing economy, the house dropped in value, below the amount of the loan. The dilemma facing this student is the fear of losing her home as well as being forced to gather the money to pay off the difference on this loan.

Another student, in the Business Management programme here at Ryerson, has also felt a bit of the effects of the economy. Her parents funded her education and paid for her tuition costs. Now, they are finding it difficult to continue funding her education and she is now forced to take out a loan for the next semester.

University, said, “This recession is unique because of a number of factors that co-existed: oil prices, banking crisis/liquidity crisis, [and the] real estate collapse.”

Professor Michael Jolly, a macroeconomics professor at Ryerson was able to share his thoughts on this situation. “This recession is due primarily to problems in the banking sector, real estate sector, and to some extent the manufacturing sector (e.g. automobiles). There is some similarity to the earlier recession [the one in the early 1990s] but I think the financial sector is playing a bigger role now. I would say that a major cause of the crisis was excessive deregulation of the financial sector in the United States, not only under Bush but also

“Is this a catastrophe as large as the recession that occurred after the Great Depression of the 1920s?

Or is this just another bump in the economic road that’s been blown out of proportion?”

Robin Aniceta, a student at Sheridan College had this to say: “The layoff of 1000s of people could affect the lives of many. From car industries to business corporations to banking companies and many more. The families of many, due to these layoffs, may cause panic and businesses to be bankrupt.

Whether you’re a large-scale business, or a company just starting to progress your way to the top, many will have to layoff due to the breakthrough of this event. This may, in fact, cause families to change the lifestyle they have now to something a bit different.

Whether you’re a large scale business company, or a company just starting to progress your way to the top, many will have to layoff due to the breakthrough of this event.

This may, in fact, cause families to change the lifestyle they have now to something a bit different.

Sandeep Gidda, a first year business management student explained how this situation affected her. She’s a registered real estate agent and because of the failing economy, buyers are worried about buying new homes. This means that she is not able to make as much profits as she once did.

“People are too afraid to buy. … This is the time to invest and buy a house because over time it will be worth a lot more.”

So what does all this mean?

Dr. Ilan Alon, a professor at Harvard

under Clinton and Reagan. This allowed reckless actions, such as providing subprime mortgages and also the lack of oversight allowed a lot of fraud (e.g. Enron). Another factor was that interest rates were kept too low for too long, which encouraged speculation on the stock market and in real estate...

I think there is no alternative for Canada and other countries than to inject a big fiscal stimulus. This means large deficits for the next few years. I think the stimulus should take the form of more government spending rather than tax cuts. If the government tries to stimulate the economy by tax cuts under present circumstances it will have little effect. The tax cuts will just be saved by households and firms.” He explained.

When asked about the similarities to the recession leading up to the Great Depression, he said, “There are considerable similarities between this recession and the events leading up to the Great Depression.

Then, as now, there was speculation in real estate as well as the stock market. There had been considerable increases in both income inequality and levels of household debt. Finally, both 2009 and 1929 followed a period of low interest rates and lax regulation. Two major differences, however, are ‘ECONOMY’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

Politics department now putting a little controversy into its curriculum

With Ryerson’s student population visibly reflecting the well-known cultural mosaic of Toronto, politics professors have finally recognized their obligation to address this diversity in the classroom. Better late than never. Amanda-Marie Quintino reports.

Noticing the need to diversify the curriculum in order to make it more relevant to and for a changing student body, Ryerson University’s Department of Politics and School of Public Administration is now offering a course entitled Race and Ethnicity in Canada (POG 313).

Political science courses similar in nature have been offered just a few blocks away at the University of Toronto for at least a decade, but POG 313 is the department’s first foray into “dealing with race and ethnicity as a political phenomenon,” said professor Grace-Edward Galabuzi, who will be teaching the course.

Galabuzi is pleased the department has chosen to begin addressing more controversial issues in the classroom.

Courses offered by other departments such as sociology or history discuss how race and ethnicity affect the structure of our social world, but POG 313 plans to be less theoretical and more critical, exploring their impact on politics in Canada.

Political scientist Ranjit K. Arora wrote a book entitled Race and Ethnicity in Education which is primarily intended to encourage teachers to implement equal opportunities in schools and to provide education for a positively diverse society.

“All education should be multicultural, appropriately reflecting cultural, social, political and economic complexity of the modern world,” he wrote.

And according to its syllabus, POG 313 does just that. It “explores Canada’s official multicultural policy, the idea of multiculturalism as a core Canadian value, emerging forms of ‘integrationism’ informed by the ‘clash of civilization’ perspectives, and new and enduring questions about its effectiveness in addressing racial and gender oppression and ethnic diversity.”

Despite a few prerequisites, POG 313 is a professionally-related elective which is

open to students from all programs to take, allowing students with varying skill sets to learn about race relations, anti-racism and multiculturalism.

With the Taskforce on Anti-Racism making its presence increasingly known on campus, the integration of such a course into the curriculum is a step in the right direction.

Although the course has no direct connection with the taskforce, said Galabuzi who also serves as the taskforce’s co-chair, its interests are similar in that both are working towards creating discussion about these issues in an effort to bring about change.

FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

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‘ECONOMY’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

that the agricultural sector was much more important in the 1920s and, most important of all, governments seem to reacting to the current recession in a more enlightened fashion, stressing the need for a fiscal stimulus. If they behaved as they did in the 1930s, obsessing about balanced budgets and cutting spending, I think we could very well have a second Great Depression. I do not think the media have exaggerated this

‘START UPS’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

nication skills with his interest in graphicdesign and start his own business.

As a student who worked for a struggling small business during the summer, Kozitska understands how tough it is for young entrepreneurs. She is excited about organizing more events like Leadership in Start Ups in the future.

‘HALPER’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Halper also explained that the siege of Gaza was fought by Israel according to the Georgia Rules, which says if an army could not distinguish between civilians and combatants than it only had two choices: carry out its mission or protect its soldiers. He said that in a densely populated area like the Gaza strip where it is impossible to distinguish Hamas, the only thing it leads to is massive civilian deaths. He said that the IDF used urban warfare techniques like swarming as well.

“How do you take oppression and frame it as a good thing?” asked Halper as he tried

time.”

This period of recession that we are experiencing is most likely to get worse before it gets any better. The Canadian economy does vary greatly to that of our neighbours, but due to our constant trading, we may feel some effects caused by their financial luck.

Globalization has allowed countries to help one another out in situations like this and therefore, we will not find ourselves in another Great Depression. For the meantime, however, just be glad you are still in school.

“The speaker series is great because it enforces what we learn in class,” she says, “These are people who have made it in the real world.”

Special guests from previous seminars have included the founder of Silver Lining, a business consulting agency, a representative of Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., and Ryerson professor and CEO Fusion Center and AceTech advisor, Steve Gedeon.

to explain that Israel gets the support for its actions as it had achieved what he called a “global pacification system.”

The talk ended with a video made by Palestinian school children in which they sing “Palestine is our homeland” and as Halper had pointed out during the talk, a popular bumper sticker in Israel read as “This is our country, it belongs to us.” Perhaps these two terms define the conflict in the easiest terms, both peoples have a claim to this tiny piece of land. While Hapler believes the answer lies in a one-state solution, with a conflict that has spanned 60 years there may still be a long road ahead before the words ‘peace in the middle east’ ring true.

‘RESISTERS’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

of war resisters to justify their deportation and punishment.

Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, has said that war resisters who have applied for refugee status are “bogus refugee claimants” that are “clogging up the system.”

“We’re not talking about resisters,” Kenney said in early January. “We’re talking about people who volunteer to serve in the armed forces of a democratic country and simply change their mind to desert – and that’s fine, that’s the decision they have made, but they are not refugees.”

War resisters who have applied for refugee status in Canada have all been rejected.

“These war resisters made the decision to join the army,” said Leddy, who has lived and worked with refugees for more than 10 years. “But that did not automatically imply a decision to go to this particular war. The argument that one must follow orders in all circumstances (during war) is no longer justified. Following orders is no longer the ultimate test of patriotism.

“We would be a better country for welcoming these people of conscience who want to be part of a good country, not part of a great empire,” added Leddy.

Despite the events that occurred during the week of action, Chris Teske, a U.S. Army Specialist and Iraq war resister living in British Columbia, was denied a stay of removal by the Federal Court. He was given until Jan. 23 to surrender to American authorities at the border or be apprehended.

Present at the press conference was the Rivera family, as well as war resisters Jeremy Hinzman, the first Iraq war resister to

flee to Canada and Patrick Hart, who faced a deportation date of Jan. 29. The resisters sat quietly on a raised platform in front of a war resisters poster. Hinzman was cradling his six-month old daughter Meghan, while Kimberly was playing with her four-year old daughter Rebecca.

The resisters expressed their appreciation for the support of Canadians, organizations and Members of Parliament. Kimberly spoke out on why she chose to get out of the war. “Three months in Iraq changed my life. A lot of the time, I’m sorry that I ever believed that war was good for anything because I know that it is good for nothing,” Kimberly said with a soft, trembling voice.

“Why were we there? Why were we giving up our lives? These were all questions that I couldn’t answer and nobody could answer for me. I had time to understand how I would feel if I were on the other side in shoes that I couldn’t feel. What was happening to people over there, I wouldn’t want to happen to me.

“I decided not to hurt people and attack families as I was doing.” Kimberly paused, lips quivering. “I hurt many and I’m ashamed of that.” She added that coming to Canada and seeing the diversity here was the peace and communal love she dreamed of.

During Kimberly’s speech, Christian sleeps snugly next to his dad. He rests slightly slanted on a chair, head on the armrest, while his sister Rebecca explores the room. “They know,” said Mario Rivera.

“My son has broken in tears before worrying about his mom getting taken away.

The military has threatened to take the kids away from us and put them in foster care.

I’m worried for my children more than anything else. It’s heartbreaking.”

GRADUATING IN SPRING 2009?

Simply completing your graduation requirements does not mean you have graduated.

If you are a student in your final year/semester/course, you are required to apply to graduate on RAMSS (my.ryerson.ca)

APPLICATION DEADLINES: Friday, February 20, 2009 Final date to apply for graduation on RAMSS for the Spring 2009 Convocation (with $40 graduation administation fee)

Friday, March 6, 2009 Final date to apply in person to graduate for the Spring 2009 Convocation (with $40 graduation administation fee and $50 late fee for a total of $90) Please remind your friends and classmates of these deadlines, especially those who are not regularly on campus!

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Applications to graduate will not be accepted after March 6, 2009.

Eligible students who either have outstanding debts in excess of $10 or who have equipment, cage cards, library books or RESNET cards overdue as of May 12, 2009 will still be invited to Convocation but will not receive their award document at that time.

Log in to RAMSS to determine if you have a 'Negative Service Indicator' (Withhold) and contact the appropriate department immediately to make arrangements to clear the outstanding debt.

For more information visit: www.ryerson.ca/curriculumadvising

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

features

Cabbagetown may soon feature geothermal heated-streets Amanda Connon-Unda A small part of Toronto may be going geothermal and getting off the grid for its heating needs, revealing a possible future trend, as resources become less available. Laurier Avenue, a street in Cabbagetown, may soon become the first downtown street to heat and cool homes using geothermal heating – a clean technology that doesn’t use fossil fuels but instead uses the natural heat in the ground and can even reduce monthly heating bills.

In November, Douglas Worts and Sameer Dhargalkar created a community-based proposal to study the feasibility of geothermal heating. The pair received an award from The City of Toronto’s newly launched Live Green grant program. Their project exemplifies the increasingly popular trend of community groups digging in to “green” Toronto.

Tyler Hamilton, a Toronto Star reporter who has been covering geothermal projects, said community projects educate citizens about their options. He said, “They show people what’s possible, and bring it down to earth. But we need all types of action, including those that are politically or corporate driven…

Everyone has to play a role, and community-based projects play an important one.”

Douglas Worts and Sameer Dhargalkar with mayor David Miller above created a community-based study on the feasibility of geothermal heating.

Back in the summer of 2007, Worts and Dhargalkar (who live Tyler Hamilton of the Toronto Star said, We’re hoping to get a critical mass.” ing firm to do their study, which they hope on Laurier Avenue) started talking with “What I find interesting is that certain indiDuring the Live Green Toronto award to complete by June 2009. their neighbours about the possibility of viduals are taking leadership by organizing ceremony, Mayor David Miller asserted The Laurier Avenue case is different geothermal for their street, and then last others… People feel more comfortable that the Laurier Avenue Geothermal Projfrom traditional geothermal installations, winter they arranged for a presentation by acting together... government is increasect may well stimulate interest in this techwhich are more commonly in rural areas a geothermal renovations contractor. ingly supporting these actions through nology in other heritage neighbourhoods. with plenty of room. In contrast, their The impetus for their project came from creative programs, but there’s still a lot of bureaucratic red tape... Over time I think the change will be positive.”

Live Green Toronto is one such creative program that aims to get people in their communities taking action on climate change.

The rising cost of energy means that not having to rely on the grid will become more important in the future. Dhargalkar said, “For a lot of people it’s about ‘how much are my monthly bills?’ …If we can find the innovative financing, this should pay itself back.” He said the pay-back period could be anywhere from seven to 15 years, depending on a number of financing factors.

Dhargalkar says clean energy is rapidly small downtown street is a tree-lined dead- Practical urban retro-fitting of heritage their desire to switch to cleaner energy evolving. “There’s a huge momentum that’s end block with heritage townhouses. Worts homes will help preserve neighbourhoods forms. Douglas Worts, an environment happening not only from the public but and achieve City objectives of reducing said, “This is something the city is interconsultant, and Sameer Dhargalkar, who also the private sector… banks are realgreenhouse gas emissions. According to ested in because it could have city-wide has worked in the clean-technology inizing they have to start financing… I think Dhargalkar, “Then you can say, ‘This is application.” Within the study, they will dustry, already knew about the benefits of that’s the biggest difference from 10 to 15 how they have done it, and here are the isbe looking at the needs of each house, and geothermal before they approached their sues, benefits, and costs’, and hopefully get years ago, when it was seen as a hippiedoing a thorough analysis of the soil strata neighbours with a plan. fringe movement. Now this actually makes to determine the challenges associated with more people buying in.”

Worts and Dhargalkar said that once Carol Moore Ede, a heritage home-own- sense from a cost perspective, a business drilling down. Laurier Avenue could be a geothermal system is paid for, monthly perspective, and a socially responsible er on Winchester Street, has heard about used as a pilot project. heating costs will be much less: about 50 perspective,” he said. their project. She said, “Anything that Typically a single home geothermal per cent less for air conditioning and 60 Worts can envision a cultural shift we can do to conserve energy… is a good installation costs around $25,000, but per cent less for heating. After months of idea.” She said she would consider a group toward sustainability. He asserts that “our residents might be able to get a group research, Worts and Dhargalkar learned current individual, local, and global unsusdiscount. Dhargalkar said they will explore initiative, but is not confident it would be about Live Green Toronto’s Community tainability is a cultural matter that will be affordable to do alone. She said if the Laufinancing options from both private and Investment Program. They applied and rerier Avenue residents do well, other people public sectors. He said, “That is going ceived $25,000. They’ll now be forming a might get together to do similar projects. to influence how many people sign on… project committee to choose the engineer‘GEOTHERMAL’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

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“For a lot of people it’s about ‘how much are my monthly bills?’ If we can find the innovative financing, this should pay itself back.”

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features

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CriminaliZing panhandlers ineffeCtive in Combatting homelessness aManda connon-unda George Hill, part-time panhandler, carpenter, and father of five children, sits in front of Blockbuster video store on Parliament Street near Winchester Street, kitty-corner to his friend Chris ‘The Viking’ who sits outside the St. Jamestown Delicatessen.

It’s an early Saturday evening and the guys are about an hour into their regular shift from 5 to 10 p.m. (when the neighbourhood liquor store closes.) In the darkening light, each of them holds a paper coffee cup up and asks passers-by to “spare some change.” Most people passing ignore them or nod their head. Chris, who refuses to give his last name because he says it is dangerous, says he has been in the shelter system in the 16 years since his wife died.

He says his bed is full of bed bugs. He uses crutches, has long disheveled blonde hair and appears to be middle-aged.

Hill is wearing heavy working boots and a fall coat. He said that he’s suffered from mental illness and left his wife and kids.

Now he pays child support and rent, buys food and goes to the food bank. In order to make ends meet, he does occasional carpentry work and he panhandles. “It’s my part time job,” he says. On a good shift, he says he makes $5, two sandwiches and a loaf of bread. On rare days, he says, he makes $50.

At the time the province adopted the Safe Streets Act, in 1999, the Toronto Star

wrote that it was “supposed to protect Ontarians from annoying beggars and squeegee kids.” Nine years later, across the GTA, people are still complaining about panhandlers.

The act made it illegal to panhandle near an ATM, pay phone, public toilet, TTC stop, or on the road. It is also illegal to panhandle and threaten, use abusive language, obstruct a person’s path, walk in front, behind or beside them, be intoxicated, or ask for money repeatedly. In 2004 police gave out 2725 tickets, and in 2007 that number almost quadrupled, with 10,584 tickets given for aggressive panhandling, according to Toronto Police Services.

Panhandlers say the tickets range from $65 to $170.

Even though he knows panhandling can be illegal, Hill claims that he doesn’t know much about the act. But he said the streets are safer with him there. Hill says that the regular residents who get to know him sometimes ask him to look after their dog or bicycle.

Douglas Rowlands, resident of 10 years and survey writer for the Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association, says he

regularly gives a panhandler a few bucks for looking after his dog while he shops.

He says, “I have no problem with that.

He’s doing something respectful. There are some pretty ratty people who come to you and lay it on thick and that’s where my sympathy stops.”

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of them wave and I know it’s time to move.

Out of respect I move. I am not here to cause trouble. I just sit here with my cup.”

He said, “I don’t know what goes on in the precinct, but it seems like they say ‘lets go hit Parliament Street and clean it up.’ Then next week they might go to Yonge Street.”

“In 2004 police gave out 2725 tickets, and in 2007 that number almost quadrupled, with 10,584 tickets given for aggressive panhandling.”

According to the association’s 2007 survey of 468 residents in Cabbagetown, 82 percent said panhandling is a very serious problem along Parliament Street. Rowlands said residents cite panhandling as the major deterrent to bringing up Parliament Street’s appeal for residents who would like higherend stores moving in. He said people support the local businesses but at the same time, “People are saying ‘We don’t like going to No Frills.’ Everyone goes to Loblaws at Queens Quay, or to the Danforth.”

According to Rowlands, it’s not only that most people want nicer shops; they don’t want to be panhandled all the time. Rowlands said, “You can be asked four or five times in a few blocks. You can’t get away from it.”

Toronto Police Const. Kevin Cummings, with 51 Division, regularly deals with calls in Cabbagetown, but he says they are not for panhandling. When Cummings was told about the association’s survey results about panhandling, he said, “It sound(s) like panhandlers are on every corner … They are not outside every business. It’s not like that at all.”

He says he comes across panhandlers on his bike, and he’ll give them several warnings before he writes a ticket. He explains, “I am fair. I am not going to see one guy and say ‘you’re going to jail today.’

There are bigger fish to fry. I’m not going to go after the one guy that has a problem. On the flip side…

If we get community complaints we have to answer to those. Our primary goal is the community’s enjoyment.”

Cummings said he wouldn’t classify panhandlers as criminals, “Essentially we are giving the same kinds of tickets like you would get when you drive through a stop sign. It’s a nuisance.”

Chris said he believes the way the law is written it is illegal to panhandle, whether aggressively or not. When he gets stopped Chris said the police usually don’t say much. “Most of them know me.

Some of them say, ‘Chris, Move on.’ Some of them are harsh. Some

He said he’s been ticketed at least once for drunken disorderliness, and on one day he said he got $750 worth of tickets. He and Hill say they post the tickets up on their walls and call them ‘wallpaper.’

Hill, who said he racked up 29 tickets in three years, said he paid his first one, and then he met Chris, who told him he didn’t have to pay. Hill laughed and said, “I stopped paying. Every time the police stop me they check to see if I’m wanted, and it doesn’t come up on their computer.”

Hill said “police tell us here’s a ticket, but you know you guys don’t have to pay.”

He asked “Why give me a ticket if I don’t have to pay? I don’t know what they are thinking.”

Cummings said he doesn’t think ticketing is effective. He says if panhandlers get a short jail sentence it isn’t going to get people off the street. He said a panhandler will “be back out there because he has a problem. He can’t work. He has an addiction, or no housing.”

Doug Fisher, from the Old Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area, said, “Panhandling is not an issue where the police are very effective. They can’t haul everyone to jail. They don’t have the legal authority to do it, and they don’t have the space to do it.”

A.J. Withers, from Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, says that there are already criminal laws in place to deal with assault and harassment and she doesn’t see why there needed to be law directed specifically toward panhandling. Withers said, “This law was the province’s way of criminalizing regular behaviours that people do under extreme poverty.”

Withers says their coalition used to refer people to Downtown Legal Services and Parkdale Community Legal Services, but these organizations recently stopped dealing with panhandling cases. According to Withers, from 2000 to 2006, panhandlers could bring their tickets to the coalition.

Withers said that law students have fought thousands of tickets and had the vast majority thrown out. She says the coalition stopped because they only have one full-time and two part-time staff members.

She said, “We could do it again, but the provincial government passed when the access to justice act, which means you need a registered paralegal. We can’t afford ‘PANHANDLER’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

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A look at OCAP that defies stereotypes Amanda Connon-Unda At the office of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), three desks are squished together in a bunker-like room without windows. Three metal filing cabinets are labelled “Immigration”, “OCAP”, and “Organization History.” A pile of protest banners leans against the wall. The walls are plastered with posters such as: “Fight to Win: March on Queens Park, 2000” and “Convergence 2010. No Olympics on Stolen Land. No Social Cleansing.

No Eco-Destruction.” Others are in Portuguese with images of Brazilian workers. It’s clear that the coalition’s work in Toronto is connected to global struggles. As I wait, four activists arrive from Montreal. A mother among them has a newborn and carries the requisite baby bag with snacks and toys. So much for that militant-activist stereotype.

Some city politicians, residents, and academics claim that OCAP takes an extreme approach in its representation of a vocal minority. But, on a symbolic level, the coalition speaks not just for the panhandlers visible to us, but also for the invisible poor.

Its members speak for those who are too ashamed to fight for a right to government housing and for an increased minimum wage. The organizers at the coalition create a process that is politicizing for those who want to be involved, and forums for protests about broader issues.

As a direct action anti-poverty group, the coalition advocates in Toronto’s City Hall for the poorest people. People who are often referred to as an underclass, those who can’t contribute to society, who are frequently classified as deserving or undeserving, without any examination of the larger economic context. The coalition advocates assertively, frequently breaking the rules. It plays a controversial role in Toronto’s political scene. It sometimes successfully gets homeless people on the map in a terrain that is otherwise dominated by stakeholders with power – the people in suits: developers, politicians, and residents’ groups.

The trouble is that not everyone is aware of the work it does beyond its notoriously

loud protests.

In early September 2008, one city councillor’s constituency assistant spoke to me about the different communities in his ward. When OCAP came up, he rolled his eyes. He’s not the only one who appears to shrug off the coalition as merely a radical activist organization.

For most liberal citizens, the idea of a poor people’s unruly protest is unsettling. It reminds us of revolution, and the reversal of power that took place during significant times in history, like the French Revolution, when people demanded bread and got angry at the royalty, chopping off their heads for their presumptive sense of entitlement. The working classes were hungry and the ruling class disdained them.

The anger that citizens had then was unbounded and brought them together in a frightening force. Clearly they had nothing to lose. Today, many people still find direct-action protest tactics to be in bad taste and, on a subconscious level, terrifying. The large number of police at some protests exemplifies the hyper-vigilance of the city trying to maintain order and the status quo.

A journalism professor at Ryerson University, April Lindgren, who is familiar with Toronto politics, and who is a former Queen’s Park bureau chief, also shared her doubts about the coalition’s reputation.

She said, “Their use of sometimes violent means – organizing the riot on the Queen’s Park lawn a few years ago – undermines their cause.” But the coalition has a different idea about what it is doing.

On Oct. 4, 2008, the coalition marched

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along Parliament Street to “take back Cabbagetown.” According to its website, it “made it clear that poor people who live in the neighbourhood and use services in the neighbourhood are staying in the neighbourhood.” At the local Business Improvement Area (BIA), Doug Fisher said business owners were not impressed with the coalition’s loud and annoying protest against gentrification.

Inside the coalition’s tiny one-room office near the Moss Park Armory, two organizers, both part-time staff at the organization,

beds are infested with bed bugs and that tuberculosis was going around. They demanded that more beds be made available.

But, Withers said, councillors tell them there are enough beds, and they brush off the fact that shelters aren’t safe. She said, “They are not on the front lines dealing with people.”

Most people don’t know about the range of work that the coalition does. Withers said, “Our protests are aimed at broadscale change, but we wouldn’t be responsible as an organization if that’s all we did.

“We are building a poor people’s movement… I think that the detractors of our organization are a testimony to our effectiveness.

It’s a serious fight and you’d expect that we would be loved and hated.”

AJ Withers and Kelly Bentley, explained that they go to city council meetings to remind the councillors of things we would rather not be reminded of. They say they provide access to politicians in a way that most poor people can’t have alone.

“What approach are people supposed to take when they are living in dire conditions?” Withers asked. “We…organize people to take action. So if squeamish liberals and reactionaries don’t like us, we don’t give a crap.”

She added that they went to council last year to let councillors know that shelter

We believe in our Band-Aid day-to-day solutions for people too, and that’s where our case work comes in.”

They compile a list of affordable housing from newspaper listings to distribute to agencies working with low-income clients.

They advise people on legal matters when possible, and on welfare, if they have problems. Withers said they give people the tools to solve problems for themselves, and sometimes they call the welfare offices on their behalf. She said they get around 20 ‘OCAP’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Globe journalist not optimistic about future of newspapers and Afghanistan Omair Quadri Graeme Smith paced back and forth, his left hand buried in his pocket as his right hand gesturing while he spoke. “Afghanistan’s a shithole,” he said. “And it’s going to get worse.”

Smith, the Afghanistan correspondent for the Globe and Mail, was speaking at the annual general meeting of the Ryerson Journalism Alumni Association held January 29 at the Rogers Communication Centre.

Hired by the Globe and Mail in 2001, Smith became the Moscow Bureau Chief at 25 and, since 2004, has been stationed in Kandahar. He has spent more time in southern Afghanistan than any other Western journalist since NATO forces arrived in the region.

During his time in Afghanistan, Smith reported on the Afghan detainee abuse issue where Canadian soldiers handed prisoners over to Afghan officials knowing that they would

be abused and tortured. He also created the breakthrough multimedia series “Talking to the Taliban” an “unscientific survey” of 42 Taliban foot soldiers in five districts of Kandahar who were interviewed about the poppy trade, tribal wars, and the changing view of suicide bombing within the Taliban.

Online multimedia projects such as “Talking to the Taliban” are the future of journalism said Smith. “(A) full meal deal” as he called it. “I don’t get misty-eyed about the future of newspapers, they’re not going to survive,” he said. “People want information that is free, convenient, and easily accessible. They want news around the world they can pull up on their BlackBerry while sitting on the subway. Above all, I think, they want to remove the layer of skepticism that exists with newspapers.”

While “Talking to the Taliban” was a successful endeavour, Smith admitted he received a lot of criticism for talking

to insurgents, something Western governments have refused to do, and has an uneasy relationship with Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs. But, he added, many government organizations and think tanks have used the information he gathered.

On Afghanistan, Smith is not optimistic about the shortterm future of the country. US President Barack Obama’s plan to increase US troop levels in Afghanistan will turn it into a “fucking inferno,” said Smith. According to him, aid agencies in the country will be more restricted, more than 10,000 people will die and many more journalists will be kidnapped and killed.

“But, it’s like forecasting the weather,” Smith added scratching his scraggly beard, a remnant of his time in Afghanistan. “I can tell what’s going to happen in the next ten days… after that, I don’t know.”

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Paper, plastic or cloth?

Angela Walcott Recently supermarkets have implemented a strict policy about plastic shopping bags in a bid to rid the city and the planet of unnecessary waste. But is this meant to make our planet greener or is it a ploy to cash in and capitalize every time you and I forget to bring our re-usables?

Many are asking the question: if you want the world to be green and cut down on disposable waste, why is there a five-cent penalty attached to it? If it was truly in the name of being environmentally friendly, would you not go out of your way to provide brown paper bags which are recyclable if not biodegradable?

Large corporations don’t care about saving the environment because they are profiting from the nickel they charge every time you and I leave our

nice 99-cent cloth totes in the gasguzzling SUV. I want to know this: are the plastics they are handing out at the stores biodegradable or are they made from the same material that is clogging drains and littering our landfill sites?

Everyone has been so up in arms at the sudden charge for plastic bags that stores like Metro and Longo’s have decided to give us a break. That is until April when they are going to come down on us heavy. Compared to parts of Europe where it costs something like $1 a bag, people were so fed up that they started to bring their own bags, and a 90 per cent reduction in disposable bags was seen. Now everyone is using reusable.

No Frills and Food Basics were two of the first major supermarket chains in Toronto to start charging their custom-

ers for the plastic. Most people would buy bags or use empty cardboard boxes that once served as packaging for store goods.

Loblaws and its sister stores like ValuMart have already implemented the policy of charging for plastic.

Metro’s two chains in China will stop selling plastic shopping bags from 2009, making it the first plastic-free supermarket in the city. Customers will have to bring their own bags or buy environmentally friendly packaging such as non-woven bags or cardboard boxes from the supermarket. China has a new law that has stopped retailers from providing free plastic bags completely. In fact, stiff penalties include fees charged for any plastic bags used by customers.

Other places that are taking extreme measures include Ireland which im-

posed a tax on plastic bags. Bangladesh and San Francisco have banned nonbiodegradable plastic bags.

The supermarket chain Metro has decided to give shoppers a break by providing plastic bags free of charge in Toronto until April, along with Longo’s that is still providing free bags for a limited time. This is obviously an attempt to make the transition easier for shoppers.

Ultimately, it is up to us: be diligent and carry your own reusable bags, pay the extra five cents and call it a day, or forget about the bag all together and toss your groceries in your cart. The choice is yours, and whether it has an impact on your environmental conscience or not is a personal thing. Anyway you look at it, though, you are the one left holding the bag – or not – in this case.

SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT PLASTICS Here are some more shocking facts about plastic bags that many of you might not know about: • • • • •

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene.

Polyethylene is a petroleum product.

Production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption.

Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year.

Americans use over 380 billion polyethylene

• • • • •

bags per year.

Americans throw away approximately 100 billion polyethylene bags per year.

Of those 100 billion plastic bags, only one per cent is recycled.

It takes 1,000 years for polyethylene bags to break down.

As polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leak into the soil and enter the food chain.

Approximately one billion seabirds and mam-

•

•

• •

mals die per year by ingesting plastic bags.

Plastic bags are often mistaken as food by marine mammals. Over 100,000 marine mammals die yearly by eating plastic bags.

These animals suffer a painful death: the plastic wraps around their intestines or they choke to death.

Plastic bag choke landfills.

Plastic bags are carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers, and lakes.

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

Q&A features

jewish woman stands with gaza

2009 started with political strife in Israel with an invasion of Gaza,

Palestine and the killing of hundreds. On Jan. 16, Ryerson’s Students’ Union hosted a panel discussion about the events in Gaza and how to become involved with the solidarity movement. One of the speakers Jenny Peto,27, and a group of other Jewish-Canadian women had participated in a sit-in at the Israel consulate in Toronto on Jan 7. Peto spoke with the Ryerson Free Press to about what it’s like to be Jewish person doing Palestinian solidarity work.

Ronak Ghorbani Editorial Assistant

Ryerson Free Press: At the Palestine solidarity event at Ryerson, you said the situation in Israel isn’t Jew versus Muslim. That it’s about oppressor versus oppressed. How did you come up with this conclusion?

Jenny Peto: Well I mean it’s pretty prominent in discussions around Israel and Palestine. I think what happens is very strategic from the Zionists. They want to pretend this is a 200 year old problem that it’s based on religion and it can not be solved. So when you say this is just based on religion and it’s been going on forever, then you don’t have to make steps to prove that. So you find a lot of people who don’t know a lot about Israeli apartheid or what’s going on in Palestine are often saying well this has been

going on for ever.

The truth of the matter is Israel was established in 1948, 780,000 Palestinians were displaced. That’s the root of the problem. The problem is 60 years old and it’s not thousands of thousands years old. There were Arab Jews, Arab Muslims, Arab Christians living in Palestine harmoniously for generations and generations. It wasn’t until Europeans and Jews came in and colonized Palestine.

When they colonized Palestine and displaced over three quarters of a million people, that’s when it started.

RFP: What made you decide to participate in the action at the consulate?

JP: It was kind of an ad hoc thing. A group of people were meeting to discuss.

We were trying to figure out what to do because the situation in Gaza was getting worse and worse every day. Gaza had been under siege for 18 months before the bombs started falling. And then when the ground invasion happened we were all so furious we didn’t know what else to do.

It happened to be mostly Jewish people at the meeting and we decided the time had come for direct action. We had been doing the demonstrations and all those sorts of things but the media was finding these ways of taking pictures of a literally 10,000 person demo and then find 10 to maybe 15 members of the Jewish Defence League. And take these pictures and present them as two demonstrations that were of equal size.

We were really concerned that dissent within the Jewish

FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

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community wasn’t being heard at all.

The Jewish Defence League is outlawed in Israel and outlawed in the United States because they’re considered a hate group; they’ve committed murder. One of their members Barauch Goldstein killed 29 people in Hebron several years ago. He opened fire in a mosque and shot 29 people.

So they are an outlawed group in most parts of the world except in Canada apparently.

So these guys were getting on TV and representing the Jewish community and we were really, really concerned that people weren’t hearing dissent within the Jewish community. And so we thought this would be a very public statement and a way to get that attention to make that voice heard.

Because in all of this, unfortunately, Zionists try to mix up Israel and Jews and call it a Jewish state and talk about how Israel is there to protect Jewish people. They often will have calls of anti-Semitism against us who do Palestinian solidarity work. We felt it’s really important for the non Jewish community to know there are Jews who oppose Israel and that opposing Israel is in no ways anti-Semitic. It’s actually anti-Semitic to assume all Jews support apartheid, that just by a virtue of birth we’re going to be on board with oppressing Palestinian people.

RFP: From what I do know, the consulate is pretty heavily secured. How did you get in?

JP: It was actually really easy because Israel is an apartheid state. If you’re Palestinian you have no freedom of movement. Palestinian people we know who try to get into that consulate get harassed, it’s really quite difficult.

It’s the same as in Israel they have no freedom of movement.

But if you’re Jewish, and all of us were, it was easy. We all had legitimate business to do in the consulate and we just basically walked in and were treated quite well until they knew what we were doing. It’s actually the racism of Israel that allowed us into their consulate. This like massive hole in their thinking, they just weren’t expecting it.

RFP: So what happened when you sat down?

JP: Well basically, we had our spokes person announce we’re doing a sit in. We sat down on the floor and started chanting. At that point people looked confuse because it was the waiting area where people wait for service. They were confused then security came in, took everyone out except us…at one point they asked what we’re doing here.

I said something about them having bombed a UN school and killing 40 people because that had happened the day before. At that point the security guy grabbed me, tried to drag me out. One of the other women tried to take a video of it got hit in the face as he was trying to get rid of her camera. We were expecting some level of violence I think.

At that point the RCMP actually came in. they were doing a routine check of the consulate; it sounds weird but lucky for us they were doing that. They came in and removed the Israeli security and that was sort of the end of the physical violence.

So much of this is because of white privilege, class. If poor people, people of colour do these sorts of actions they’ll get roughed up by the police, by the RCMP and we were treated to so completely respectfully by the police we dealt with.

RFP: Was it strange acknowledging the privilege you have?

JP: It’s not strange acknowledging it; it was one of those moments that led to a lot of reflection. We were handcuffed but the police were joking around with us. [When] led down into a police paddy wagon they were constantly asking us if we were okay.

It was a moment of reflection for me sitting there handcuffed thinking about the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Some of them under administrative detention, they’ve never been charged but they never know when they’re getting out.

We did this because of our privilege. We knew it would work because of our privilege. But yeah…it was definitely a shocking moment you’re just that confronted by your privilege.

RFP: You weren’t charged?

JP: We weren’t charged. We were arrested but not charged.

RFP: There was a big media thing about the sit in, but at the Ryerson event you said you don’t really see the biggest deal in what you did. Could you explain that?

JP: We did have a group of amazing people doing outreach for the media and luckily the internet is amazing so word spread through the activist communities like wild fire.

I think with what we did, you have to have a certain degree of humility about it. And it’s been challenging because there’s been so much of an outpouring of support

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for what we did. A lot of people are thanking us for what we’ve done.

I guess my point in all of this is this was one act of resistance but there’s 60 years of Palestinian resistance.

It’s really humbling to do such a public act in light of all the incredible resistance the Palestinian people have been doing for so long.

We got press at the time but by the six o’clock news it didn’t air. It never made it to air which seems strange but not if you really think about the political stuff that goes on in the media behind the scenes.

I do think for the Jewish community and anti-Zionist Jews people are thinking it was a pretty powerful statement.

Now that a ceasefire has been called what should Jewish people who are against Israel’s actions do to support and keep the ceasefire going?

It’s interesting because Israel’s already violated the ceasefire. They’ve launched ground and air attacks into Gaza.

I think that we need to remember also that the bombings for the most part has stopped but the siege on Gaza continues. They’ve been under siege for 18 months….it’s really hard for the international community to bring in any aid because they’re sealed in on all the borders.

I think what Jewish people and all people need to do is to plug into the existing resistance movements. There’s the boycott divestments and sanctions campaign which has been going on since 2005.

The resistance Jewish people can specifically engage in, and have been engaging in, is when Zionists claim to be representing the Jewish community, we always want to insert an anti-Zionist perspective. To call them out on it so they stop using anti-Semitism, the holocaust, all these sorts of things as excuses for apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

But I do think for Jewish people we need to recognize this is a Palestinian lead movement. Our resistance and fight can not exist without the Palestinian people.

It’s important to have Jewish organizations that can function to disrupt the lies Zionists tell about Israel protecting Jews and all the sorts of stuff.

More generally speaking, students can join students against Israeli apartheid, SPHR (Students for Palestinian Human Rights) at Ryerson, they can back their student ‘Q & A’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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februarY 2009 ryerson free press

features

GoUrMet BUrGer Co. serVes A Better BUrGer iN CoMPetitiVe tiMes aManda connon-unda the grey-haired former restauranteur known as trevor Barryman sits on a bar stool, to eat his gourmet burger with onion rings. he faces the window, looking at parliament street, on a tuesday afternoon. he’s having his second burger in a week at the newly opened gourmet Burger co. in cabbagetown. finishing a bite, Barryman says that people have been predicting the complete gentrification of this commercial strip for the last 30 years. “they told me it would be the next yorkville.” he continued, “they were wrong.” he said, “if someone told me they were opening up a hamburger place here, i would have told them it was a terrible idea. Who would pay for a $13 lunch in this neighbourhood?” But Barryman said that when he came in for his first burger on saturday there was a line-up out the door. this new burger joint faces the usual challenges of setting itself apart from the other restaurants that sell burgers in toronto, and begs the question, can a gourmet burger joint do well and bring people in from other neighbourhoods? in november, John Ward, 39, who is an experienced restauranteur and caterer from australia, opened this burger restaurant at 482 parliament st. his new take-out and small sit-in spot can appeal to a wide range of people with varying budgets – from those who want to pay $6 for a gourmet burger, to those who can afford $13 for a deluxe burger with sides and a drink.

Because of the diversity in income levels in the neighbourhood, doug fisher, staff of the old cabbagetown Business improvement area (Bia), says the businesses that do best here appeal to the largest spectrum of incomes. fisher said that like a hardware store, which everyone likes, the same may be true for buying lunch. according to fisher, “a burger place also appeals to everyone.” fisher says the gourmet Burger co. has a great chance of gaining loyal customers from across the city. a walk along parliament street reveals a real mix of restaurants. there are older diners, ethnic take-away places, and gourmet restaurants, alongside organic butchers, dollar stores, and the discount no-frills grocery store. according to fisher, the rents in this commercial sector range from $1,500 to $5,000 a month. he said, “our rents are lower that those on church street, so they are a bargain for business owners because they can still get customers from some of the nearby neighbourhoods for a third the rental price.” he said that the rental costs have been inching up, but not to the point that older businesses are being priced out.

Walking the streets there are panhandlers, renters from James town and Regent park, students, and home-owning professionals. on parliament, there are no exquisite floral or chocolate stores, upscale clothing boutiques, or bookstores. for a long time, the area has not even had a starbucks (although one is going to open soon in the same block as gourmet Burger co.). if you were walking along parliament street, you might never guess that just a few blocks east is a neighbourhood that boasts million-dollar homes. on the west side of parliament street, in the first block north of cartlon, spiros maniatos owns the block of buildings. they currently house a dollar store, Johnny g’s diner, and now – gourmet Burger co.

februarY 2009 ryerson free press

features

fisher said, “Based on my blog research, there seems to be a lot of talk about gourmet Burger co.” he said the key for businesses in cabbagetown that aim to attract people with higher incomes is to draw people into the neighbourhood. fisher said he thinks that gourmet Burger co. can potentially draw people from outside, as a few other businesses in the area have done.

John lee, the owner of omi, a sushi restaurant that moved into the area in november, said that business has been very good since the move from church street. he said, “We have a lot of our existing customers and the neighbourhood locals coming to our new location.” he said he gets around 70 percent of his business from his existing customers, and the remaining 30 percent from cabbagetowners. at a home furnishing store, mi casa, which has been in the area for 20 years, the manager, andrew halkewycz, said they draw roughly 60 per cent of their customers from outside of the neighbourhood, and around 40 per cent are cabbagetowners. in spite of the few stores that regularly draw people into the neighbourhood, fisher said cabbagetown has not become a destination spot, like the distillery district or church street. “people don’t wake up on a saturday and say ‘let’s go to cabbagetown.’ the neighbourhood is still a locally serving area, with businesses largely there to suit the local populations,” he said. there are many well-known long-standing restaurants on parliament street that cabbagetowners frequent. fisher said, “gourmet Burger co has a good chance to compete.” sure enough, every pub in the area serves a burger; but, gourmet Burger co. is the only place specializing in various kinds of unique burgers. fisher said, “i had a smoky bacon burger with fries and spent around $10. i could have spent less on their normal burger with condiments for $5.50, but i was happy to pay more for the unique toppings. i think they have a good broad price range for their customers.” a glance at the menu at gourmet Burger co. posted on the meticulously hand-written signs above the ordering counter reveals that, in addition to the cheaper basic burger, the signature suggestions made by owner John Ward, range in price from $5.95 to $9.95. down the street, the popular house on parliament

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pub offers their basic burger with sweet potato fries for $12.38, around $4 more than at gourmet Burger co. the pear tree, Ben Wicks Bar & Bistro, Big mamma’s Boy, Jam café, and stonegrill all offer burgers with sides ranging in price from $7.99 to $16. at these restaurants, the burgers are among the lowest-priced items on their menus. fisher said, “if you sell only a burger, you need to sell more.” John Ward says he is selling between 100 to 175 burgers a day, which is quite good, according to geoff Wilson, a restaurant consultant in mississauga, who did a quick calculation of Ward’s sales and costs.

Wilson said that the decision a potential customer makes to buy a gourmet burger versus one from mcdonald’s will be based on a couple of factors. “is the customer in the group that has been significantly influenced by the trend of ‘premiumization’? if so, that customer will be looking for more than just a regular burger, and if it’s different they are prepared to pay more. it has to have an enhanced flavour profile and a more appealing quality proposition. they have to want to buy it for the experience rather than just for filling up their stomach,” he said.

Ward says he has the differential gourmet aspect covered. he’s offering customizable burgers with the toppings they want, including some unique australian options – fried egg and beets – which are common in his home country’s standard burger, but found rarely (if ever) in toronto. furthermore, he says he’ll soon be introducing a burger of the week with either salmon, bison, or pulled pork. currently he has chicken, beef, and lamb burgers on offer with toppings like avocado, bacon, pineapple, gouda and brie. at around 3 p.m. on tuesday, Ward’s wife and twomonth-old son visit the restaurant. Ward says he’s happy to have started this new business, after owning six other successful ones in the last 14 years. he says he’s glad, because with the restaurant he won’t be working late night pub hours, and he can spend more time with his son. Ward says he is up for the challenge of serving anyone who enjoys good food. he said he wants gourmet Burger co. to be like a good pizza place, “everyone enjoys it… 12 year olds and grandmothers. it transcends age. i want people to leave here saying it was the best burger they ever had.”

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

opinion

OPINION

RyeCHANGE: Change you can’t believe in I

t’s not uncommon for the campus media to dismiss disagreements within the Ryerson Student Union (RSU) as petty bickering between two intransigent factions. But this kind of shallow analysis fails to recognize the deep fractures within the RSU that represent two fundamentally different visions about what a student union should look like. How these debates are resolved will affect all Ryerson students, and their ability to defend and expand students’ rights at Ryerson and across Canada.

Over the past few years, the RSU has earned a well deserved reputation as a student union that’s committed to students’ rights and social justice. Its work to build a united student movement on campus, in Toronto, and across Canada has helped to win public support to freeze and reduce tuition fees, one of the most important issues affecting students today.

The RSU has also campaigned against student debt, and for improved access to quality post-secondary education for all students.

In addition, the RSU has initiated and supported a variety of campaigns to challenge racism and Islamophobia, to redirect military spending to education, to support US war resisters who refuse to fight in Iraq, and to make the campus a greener and cleaner space.

Unfortunately, it has become clear that current members of the board who are now running as the RyeCHANGE slate have a track record of weakening students’ democratic rights to accessible, high quality education. Their decisions over the past year have undermined the one clear tool that students have: our strength in numbers.

Students cannot fight together to defend our common interests if we are divided by prejudice and misunderstanding. This is why historically the RSU has worked just as hard to fight racism, sexism, homophobia, and Islamophobia on campus and in society, as it has fought for accessible education. We cannot win a reduction in tuition fees, or adequate child care, or smaller

EDITORiAL class sizes—if we are not united.

Last year, RyeCHANGE board members gutted funding for all education campaigns and re-directed the funds to social events. The campaign budgets for accessible education, for student rights—even the province-wide “Drop Fees” campaign—were cut. RyeCHANGE board members further opposed the motion to grant academic amnesty to those students who wanted to join the 6,000-strong Day of Action rally in Toronto, to voice their opposition to sky-rocketing tuition fees. RyeCHANGE board members went even further, publicly rebuking RSU Executive members for standing in solidarity with University of Toronto students who were arrested during a peaceful occupation of that university’s president’s office.

In fact, this opposition to student unity extends beyond the campus, and is reflected in the RyeCHANGE knee-jerk opposition to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a body that unites over 500,000 students across Canada. RyeCHANGE director Chandan Sharma put forward motions to ban all posters on campus—regardless of content—that displayed the CFS logo.

Instead of helping to unite the movement for peace—an issue that has united the world in opposition to the war in Iraq— RyeCHANGE board members ensured that the RSU became the only university in the GTA to oppose membership in the Canadian Peace Alliance, an organization that brings together faith groups, social justice groups, students, and other advocacy organizations.

But RyeCHANGE’s shameful record on undermining RSU’s anti-war advocacy hasn’t prevented RyeCHANGE candidates from using the popularity of the peace movement to get elected: RyeCHANGE has the audacity to feature a peace-sign logo on its election material.

Most recently, RyeCHANGE’s VP Education candidate Dana Houssein served a motion that would give the administration sweeping powers to audit and review all aspects of the students’ union, in matters ranging from staff relations, election procedures, services, finances, and the overall functioning of the student union.

While the RSU has little to hide—its finances are audited annually—the fact that the RyeCHANGE slate is prepared to surrender the students’ union’s democratic autonomy to the administration speaks volumes. Autonomous students’ unions are crucial in ensuring that students’ interests are represented within the campus community, and especially to the administration that often has interests diametrically opposed to those of students.

Indeed, without independence from the university, it is unlikely that students could have fair representation, since any time a student leader took a position that differed from the administration, the student union would be at risk of losing funding or being dismantled, as we know from past experience.

Moreover, the pressure on student leaders to simply capitulate to the administration would be overwhelming, and the student union could well become simply a rubber stamp for initiatives of the administration.

The debates within the RSU over the past year have been anything but petty. In the upcoming RSU elections, students will be presented with clear choices about what they want their student union to stand for. It is our hope that students will look past the logos on election posters and instead weigh the record and the deeds of the past year. We hope that students will choose leaders with a history of defending students’ collective interests, who fight for unity, and who advocate for social justice.

What’s at stake is more than just an election: it’s the future of our student union.

Sheldon Levy: Can you please justify your summer trip to Israel?

Letter to the Eyeopener. They didn’t publish it, so we did.

Ryerson president Sheldon Levy won’t respond to my e-mails.

I was writing him to request an on-camera interview to discuss his position on Israel.

In the fall of 2007 there was a call within Ryerson for an Academic Boycott of Israel.

Mr. Levy rejected this with the

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as Ryerson’s president to defend academic freedom and maintain a sort of neutral stance on this issue. But then last summer he went to Israel. Along with five other Canadian University presidents Mr. Levy visited several Israeli Universities. Some of these Universities are located on stolen

site or in the President’s newsletter. Why? We live in a liberal democracy where the truth should be visible and those in positions of power should be accountable. I’d like to know what deals or ties were made on this trip and who picked up the tab. As a Ryerson

“As a Ryerson student I don’t like the idea of the school I attend having ties with a country that has such an abysmal humanitarian record.”

defense that it was a violation of academic freedom and, to his credit, he allowed an open debate on the topic.

I wasn’t there, not being a member of Ryerson’s student community at that time, but I have been told from a few sources that the audience and the panel was mostly pro-Palestinian.

I’m sure it is Mr. Levy’s call

Palestinian land, atop villages that were ethnically cleansed by Israel.

Why would Mr. Levy go to Israel knowing it’s such an explosive issue that many in the Ryerson community would take exception to? Another concern is the fact that there is no information about the trip being shared with our community. Nothing comes up on the Ryerson web-

student I don’t like the idea of the school I attend having ties with a country that has such an abysmal humanitarian record (more UN Security Council violations than any other country in the world) and is in the process of killing hundreds of civilians in Gaza.

Palestinian children and University students are routinely kept out of school by being

arbitrarily detained or blocked at Israeli checkpoints. Their schools have been bombed and teachers arrested. Birzeit University, a Palestinian institution in the West Bank, reports “violations of human rights continue unabated and students are often arrested and detained sometimes for being members of the student council. Students from Gaza are often barred to travel to the West Bank to enroll at Birzeit.”

All thanks to Israel’s military occupation. It’s kind of difficult to practice academic freedom if one can’t enjoy freedom of movement.

Naomi Klein writing in the Guardian January 10th said, “It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to Apartheid in South Africa.” There are calls from within Israel from hundreds of academics, scholars and artists for the international community ‘SUMMER TRIP’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

Letter to the editor A

s a student who is opposed to war and has been actively opposing it on campus I am very confused by the Ryechange team (that is running in the RSU elections) using the peace symbol in their campaign materials and trying to somehow position themselves as the Anti war group on campus.

Opposing funding to support anti war campaigns for so called practical reasons, ie, not a priority right now, still amounts to opposing it in principal. Both ways the efforts of students who are campaigning against war on campus are greatly undermined. You cannot have it both ways, you cannot say that you are anti war and then do everything in your power to undermine the anti war campaign on campus.

By voting to cut anti war funding and against RSU membership in the Canadian Peace Alliance, Ryechange members have done a disservice to the student anti war movement. But even worse by pretending to be anti war they are distorting the truth and their own actions in RSU board meetings.

Please don’t use our movement to try get votes it’s not honest and it’ s just not right.

Marwan Ali

21 Palestinians have been ignored by the mainstream press FEBRUARY 2009

ryerson free press

opinion

Jeff Winch What is currently happening in Gaza is called a “conflict” by some, but what it really amounts to is an Israeli operation of intimidation and destruction, causing a heinous loss of innocent life.

The news media generally reports that this is the fault of Hamas and their rocket attacks. Israel and Hamas had a truce that fell apart in November 2008 after Israel broke the agreement by making an incursion into Gaza and killing six Palestinians. This was a violation of the truce and, in response, the rocket attacks resumed.

As part of the original truce, Israel also pledged to end its siege of Gaza, which it never fully did. Despite yet another violation, Hamas did not fire rockets during this period.

The Canadian media continues to portray Hamas as the demon in all this. If you want to believe Hamas is at fault, the question still arises: Is the Israeli response appropriate? What if there were 1.5 million Israelis trapped in occupied Gaza being bombed by the Palestinians? If an oppressed Israeli extremist group fired rockets into Palestine, would the entire incident be their fault and justify the response?

It’s worth mentioning that everything Israel is doing to the Palestinians in the occupied territories and Gaza is in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and International Humanitarian Law. In short, it’s illegal. Why does our news media so rarely describe the brutal Israeli occupation that has been in place for over 40 years? What about the violation of basic human rights the Palestinians suffer every day at the hands of Israel? What about the Israeli theft of Palestinian land and resources to build illegal settlements? What about the Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes – over 18,000 since 1967, not including the current conflict? Shouldn’t all that stop first? Shouldn’t that have stopped decades ago? We keep hearing about Israel’s right to defend itself, but we don’t hear about the Palestinians’ right to defend themselves. Of the two sides, who is the more vulnerable?

Hamas was democratically elected in January 2006. The west, including Canada,

and Israel wanted the Palestinians to democratize. In response, the people of Gaza elected Hamas with a large plurality. The mainstream explanation for Hamas’ electoral success is that the Palestinian people were reacting to the widespread corruption of Fatah. This is a useful explanation if you are looking to demonize the “other.” In other words, these explanations attempt to smear all Palestinians: the Palestinians can’t get it together; and they are either corrupt (Fatah) or terrorists (Hamas).

I believe Hamas won so overwhelmingly in Gaza, where the residents are sealed in and under siege, because the Palestinian people felt that they would do a better job than Fatah of protecting them from Israel.

And then, in an act of Orwellian hypocrisy, the west and Israel refused to deal with them. Apparently, they only believe in a democracy that they agree with. If that wasn’t enough, these same countries imposed sanctions on the people of Gaza to undermine their democratic choice. This was the first time in history that an occupied people, 80 per cent of them dependent on humanitarian aid simply to survive, have had sanctions imposed on them.

It is also significant to see Israel banning journalists from Gaza. While Palestinian concerns and international law seem to be irrelevant, global opinion is not. Israel doesn’t want the human angle of the Palestinians’ desperation getting out to the world. Empathetic stories about Israel get plenty of coverage. The public relations machine is only too happy to give the media escorted tours of nearby towns to speak with Israelis about their terror and fears of rocket attacks. This serves to humanize the Israelis and divert us from the nightmare that has descended on the Palestinians. We can’t empathize with the Palestinians if the journalists can’t get in to record their stories.

The news media is very quiet on all this. The freedom of the press has been denied, and no one is making much of a fuss about it.

Consider the outcome if Hamas stopped firing rockets permanently. Is it likely Israel would comply with international law? Past behaviour tells us it would not. Israel is in violation of more UN Security Council

resolutions than any other country in the world, and 40 years of negotiations, peace processes, and road maps have gained the Palestinians nothing.

In fact, they have lost more land and more dignity, and have encountered more violence. Everything is on Israel’s terms and in its favour.

Why would the Palestinians attack Israel, which has such a colossal military advantage? They have lived under the longest military occupation in modern history and endured incredible suffering. The living, if you can call it that, in Gaza have nothing left to lose. They are literally sealed into hopeless despair and poverty. How do those of us with a conscience expect the people of Gaza to live each day with profound injustice and humiliation imposed upon them?

What are their options?

The French and Dutch who fought against the German military occupation during World War Two were not terrorists. They were called the resistance, the very same word used by the Palestinians when referring to Hamas. It’s what the acronym “Hamas” means: “Islamic Resistance Movement”. Israel’s bullying created Hamas, and its ongoing harshness ensures that Hamas will thrive in the future.

Perhaps the cure to all this is shockingly simple. If Israel just complies with international law and leaves the Palestinian people alone, the rockets will stop.

Jeff Winch is a graduate student researching Israeli/Palestinian relations as part of his thesis project.

Hope over Fear Equals Positive Change Jessica Campbell People all across the world stood, sat, and sometimes cried as they watched the 44 US President being sworn in on January 20, 2009. President Barack Hussein Obama, in becoming the first African-American to be elected President, accomplished something that many people thought could never have happened in their lifetime – even just two years ago.

I know I was one of those people, who couldn’t imagine the United States of America voting in a black president.

But my mind could not see the great plans that God had in store.

Now we must acknowledge that this particular election and presidency is an important and an historical one.

But the fact that President Obama is African-American is not the only part that makes this occasion so special. It’s beyond the colour of his skin. It’s his charisma. Why were so few Canadians interested in the Canadian election in October 2008? Because the political options were all bland and most of us felt that no matter who was elected very little positive change would be made.

Yet these same Canadians, of all walks of life, who couldn’t make their way to a polling station, were glued to their seats watching American election coverage and piling on buses heading to Washington, DC to stand with millions of Americans as they witnessed history, in the blistering cold. The number of joyful tears that I witnessed (on the

TV screen), including my own, could have filled the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that was surrounded by millions of hopeful citizens. People felt a sense of “oneness” beyond country border, race, religion, political standings – that I have not seen before in my lifetime.

What I witnessed on Inauguration Day was what Obama said in his speech, “Hope over fear.” Instead of fearing and hating one another, I saw a shared hope, a hope for tomorrow.

This is one man: one man, like many before, who has a vision, a dream.

One man cannot change the world on his own, though; he needs people to do their own part. That is something that I think President Obama had reiterated throughout the election and at the beginning of his Presidency.

‘OBAMA’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

opinion

Life without power?

Umber Siddiqui

MONEY MATTERS: DEBT Load, STRESS Load JessICA Campbell Who said life is getting easier? I know I didn’t. Especially with the economy going the way it is – you know, multi-billion dollar companies tanking and all – the job market is going to become even more competitive than ever before.

So here we are, students paying thousands of dollars a year to get a piece of paper that says we are good enough to get a high-paying, successful job or career. What happens, though, by the time we graduate from university with that fancy degree, people (who were supposed to retire so that we can take their places) are still working (because if they do retire, they won’t have enough money to survive)? Or what happens when people who have been working in the field for more than five years get laid off from one job and end up applying for the same job as you? Well, you both have a degree, but they have one up on you – they have that experience working in that same field that you don’t.

Regardless of whether or not you get a job, eventually those loans people (or creditors) will be knocking on your door – asking “where’s my money?” (Kind of like pimps, I guess – you do all the work and they get paid).

I can only imagine what students have to go through these days. Oh wait, I can do more than imagine: I can feel the stress too because I am a student, one who is wonder-

ing where I’ll fit in the job market when I’m all done.

And, of course, that’s not the only stress.

Chances are that as a student of the new millennium, we have to work at a parttime, maybe even full-time job, while balancing the books. That doesn’t include the pressure of parents and relatives who are wondering when we are going to graduate, not understanding that in order to survive (as in, pay bills) and go to school it may take a little longer than the standard four years.

In fact, more and more people are going to work first, saving up money and then going to school. So for some people, they are not starting university until they’re 23 years old or older.

SIDE NOTE: If you happen to be one of those students who have parents on your tail, remind them of that infamous tale of the tortoise and the hare.

So after reading this, you may be thinking: what’s the point of going to school?

What’s the point of ending up in thousands of dollars in debt when a) you’re not guaranteed a good job/career off the bat and b) your first few years of work may be spent (no pun intended) paying back those loans people (pimps).

Have no fear, there is indeed light at the end of the long tunnel.

The first thing to remember to help get you through is that special feeling of

instant gratification when you’re handed your diploma. The second thing to remember (which should perhaps be the first) is that this is your life and it is only what you make it. If you work hard and stay passionate about what you do, it will eventually pay off – and maybe even sooner than you think. Also, if you are working part-time/ full time and going to school, then you’ll graduate with some work experience and a degree. Also remember that school, especially post-secondary education, isn’t easy to achieve, so if you graduate, your next employer will recognize your achievement and will most likely choose you over someone who opted to pass on a post-secondary education.

And if these things don’t help you in releasing some of your university blues, try taking up a hobby or activity in your sparse spare time to help relieve some stress.

FINAL NOTES: Will you graduate with debt? Most likely. Will there be stress along the way? Probably. But can’t you see yourself in five years in that corner office or starting your own business or travelling the world as a world famous photographer?

That piece of paper is going to get you places in this day and age more than ever before. The first few years after graduating may be hard but it’s all worth it in the end, especially when finally those creditors are paid off. Keep believing in yourself and you will eventually see that it will all work out.

In 2000, there were an estimated 300,000 homeless people within Canada, with numbers increasing each year. As one of the more heavily populated provinces, Ontario is home to many of Canada’s homeless, especially in Toronto. We see them everyday as we walk to school, go to the mall, and venture around town with our friends. Yet, do we pay any attention to them? Year after year they survive on the streets, through the stifling heat of summer and the frigid temperatures of winter. During winter, people are more apt to donate to some form of charity whether it includes giving extra socks, food, or blankets. Others state that their taxes provide food and shelters, absolving them from worrying about the situation of homeless people.

When asked about his thoughts on the power outage, Chris Bickram said the following, “It was pretty funny seeing how people were reacting as if they were going to die, but it was only one day and homeless people live that life. The malls were even open for people to get warm, and they were opened later… but the homeless get kicked out right away.”

A Ryerson student who prefers to remain anonymous said, “it was scary... it’s scary when something you’re so dependent on is suddenly gone. We didn’t have candles, batteries, or anything. We sat in the dark... you would think we would be prepared for next time, but as soon as the lights went back on, we forgot it had ever happened.”

This year in mid January, the west end of Toronto experienced a power outage, leaving up to 700,000 residents without power for approximately 18 hours. At first, many people panicked, wondering how they would get home and cook food. Afterwards, the reality of the cold settled in. Temperatures were as low as minus 18 C (not including wind chill), meaning people could see their own breath – inside their homes.

However, those without power still had it much better than those on the street.

Those who endured the power outage still had the opportunity to make fires, wear extra layers of clothing, use extra blankets, and, of course, had shelter to protect them from the harsh winds. The homeless who were “lucky” were able to find sewer vents, heating vents, secluded entrances, and other places where they were semi-protected from the wind, and could draw on some form of heat.

First-year arts and contemporary studies student Neil Austin shared his opinion on the homeless, “I think they’re stereotyped... you don’t know why they’re homeless. If they have mental issues, then most don’t know how to approach or help them. I’ve talked to a few, they’re really intelligent, and discriminated by a lot... sometimes including city workers, people who work for the public!”

The question now is: will people continue to live as they are, remembering only that once upon a time in 2009 they spent a day freezing, or will they instead use that memory, and sympathize more with the homeless?

Will people notice them? Give them money?

Buy them food? Or offer a ride to a shelter?

Will anyone even care, or will the reality of homelessness once again fade in to the background of our memories and lives?

FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

culture

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CULTURE This movie Is worth two million rupees Slumdog Millionaire has received a great deal of attention on the Oscar nomination list. And according to Max Arambulo, it’s well-deserved.

If anyone gets a raw deal in western cinema, it’s the East Asians. If anyone gets an even rawer deal, it’s the South Asians. Often in films, they aren’t much more than an accent.

But Slumdog Millionaire, a major west-made movie with actors you would likely only see in Bollywood films, is the first step towards better filmic representation. Slumdog, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is both a coming-out party and a formal, dramatic achievement.

Based on the novel Q&A by Indian author Vikas Swarup, Slumdog tells the story of two brothers, Jamal (Dev Patel) and Salim (Madhur Mittal), whose early childhoods are spent in the Mumbai ghettos. They are slumdogs. After their mother is killed in a riot, they survive on their own by working in an organized begging racket, then as crooked Taj Mahal tour guides.

Eventually, their paths split as the older Salim steals Jamal’s love, Latika (Freida Pinto), and chooses a life of organized crime, while Jamal gets a menial job at a call centre and lands a spot on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” With the TV appearance, Jamal not only gets a chance at two million rupees, but also a chance to win back Latika.

Director Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, Sunshine) will never be confused with his stylistically muted peers, the Clint Eastwoods of the world. Remember the head-spinning, ceiling-crawling baby in Trainspotting?

Slumdog is clearly Boyle-esque -- audacious and flamboyant.

There is an amazing foot chase, (the best on film since Keanu had a pitbull thrown at him in Point Break) through the Mumbai slums. It’s all harnessed chaos as the young brothers run across roofs and through an almost unending series of alleys.

Perhaps, most striking about Slumdog Millionaire is the way the story unfolds. With every “millionaire” question, there’s a flashback to the childhood experience that informed Jamal’s corresponding answer. At one point, for example, we’re whisked back to an instance where Jamal gives a U.S. $100 bill to a beggar. That’s how he correctly answers that C) Ben Franklin is on the bill. This flashback/question structure does two things: 1. builds a bit of audience compassion for our skinny everyman, Jamal; and 2. sets up the canvasses for Boyle’s showy set-pieces.

Boyle also doesn’t forget to, with a knowing wink, acknowledge that gaudy Bollywood tradition. It would have been a crime not to. There’s a choreographed dance piece, 100 people strong, in the closing credits. And there’s the film’s fairy-tale/daytime-drama tone. The violence, for

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“Slumdog Millionaire is both a coming-out party and a formal, dramatic achievement.”

When Jamal (left, played by Dev Patel) gets a spot on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” he not only wins the money, he wins the object of his affection, and most importantly, an escape from his slumdog existence.

instance, always feels safe. When Salim executes a criminal, it feels more like he melted him with a bucket of water, than shot him with a .45 at point blank.

The protagonists, furthermore, do not really struggle with morals or philosophy or logistics. They aren’t that deep.

Latika asks, if she runs away with Jamal, “What would we live on?” Jamal, of course, replies, “On Love.” Jamal is the hero. Latika is the distressed damsel. Salim is the mischievous, but good-hearted force keeping them apart.

There is criticism precisely over Boyle’s choice of tone. Since he’s white and European, is he trivializing the actual depths of Indian poverty? If not a completely sound criticism, it’s at least a compelling and natural one. In this reviewer’s opinion, though, Boyle’s colonial sins are minor. Much like Brazil’s City of God, Slumdog is not a documentary about a country’s violence, disease, and institutionalized prostitution,

nor does it have such pretensions. It is what it is: a piece of honest entertainment that does not disrespect the people and place who inspired the film.

What Boyle does seem to get right is the feel of the in-flux Mumbai. Though it is still a place filled with poor, it’s a place up-and-coming, the epicenter of new industry. Along with the traditional image of people in dumps and washing in brown water, we get the Mumbai of flashing lights, looming skyscrapers, and suffocating traffic -- all infused with M.I.A. swag.

Baby steps. Maybe this film, made for western viewers about brave, strong, and good-looking (specifically Freida Pinto who is a dime) brown people, is just the beginning.

Well, hopefully. I’m waiting, after all, for all those East Asian-starring, post-Crouching Tiger films I was promised a decade ago. Still waiting.

Atheist makes a climb of faith Mount Ararat has always been considered a holy place. Some even say it is the resting place of Noah’s Ark itself. Putting religion aside, a man who believes in no religion makes the climb for himself. Angela Walcott reviews. intrigued by religion. His lack of religious connections leaves him searching for the meaning of life. The novel is written in a very a propos format -- as a slow and steady climb while tracing the real-life encounters associated with making the climb.

His quest is not a religious undertaking, but it is a quest none-the-less. He does it in order to have a look into the lives of the “Ark seekers” as he phrases it, who are simply those who are religious, curious, people from all walks of life seeking to uncover the Ark. He often refers to seeking refuge in the word from a writer’s perspective versus the Word from a Biblical sense.

Westerman has faith of a different kind. He talks of how he found comfort in the logic of sciences which was far removed from spiritualism. However, unbeknownst to him, WesterAccording to the Book of Genesis, after the great flood, Noah’s Ark came to man is greatly surrounded by faith and miracles rest somewhere in the Mountains of Ararat, located about 1200 km from in his life. The difficult birth of his now threeJerusalem. Atheist author Frank Westerman chronicles his own climb up this year old daughter and the close bond he shares holy mountain in Ararat. (Photo courtesy of sacredsites.com) Ararat tells the story of Frank Westerman’s quest for the truth.

The author invites us on his journey to seek Noah’s lost Ark high atop Mount Ararat, which stretches from Turkey to Armenia. Although an atheist, Westerman is still very

with her as a result is an example of this.

Despite his lack of faith nowadays, Westerman was brought up in an environment where religious teachings were incorporated. He speaks of how his wife’s uncle was a bishop and his aunt-in-law served in a missionary convent. This brings the reader to question when and how he was transformed from a believer to a non-believer.

In the final three chapters, the story really picks up as we experience the climb with the author. His hopes and dreams become ours as do his fears and defeats. Our faith in him propels the story further as we are carried on this extraordinary journey of human spirit, strength and sheer will.

Through a non-believer we see the greatest miracle of them all -- the joy he possesses for being a father. And it is this connection that drives Westerman through the ultimate struggle between himself and nature. Those of us who do believe in a Higher power might ask how some could not believe. Perhaps Westerman’s wife summed it up when she stated that “faith starts at a point where you stop asking questions.”

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INTERVIEW Paul Gross took time to talk with Ryerson Free Press reporter Angela Walcott to tell of his experiences of multi-tasking in the already challenging world of entertainment.

Ryerson Free Press: You have been an actor, writer, producer and director. So, what is your first love?

Paul Gross: Well, I started acting and I didn’t do any other things. But early on, when I was in theatre school (I went to the University of Alberta) I figured I would have to do something else to offset acting because a lot of times acting, I found, to be boring.

Just sit around a lot and that is when I started writing. Gradually, I started to work as a producer and director, and that came later on. I never really found them as being separate issues. They are all aspects of telling the same story and sometimes it has a group of people so I thought I should tell this one. But if someone put a gun to my head and said if you have to choose one I think I would probably take writing because it is more varied and I get a real charge off it when it is working well. As it is right now, I am working on something so I’ll choose writing because I am having a great time.

An incredible act to follow Multi-talented entertainer mixes wit, anecdotes and his thoughts on show business at the FCAD Dean’s Lecture Series Angela Walcott A man dressed casually in jeans and a blazer sits comfortably in a black leather chair, ready for the question period to follow.

“You moved around a lot as a kid, did you feel like an outsider?” producer/director David Langer queries. After a quick response, the interviewer continues, “Does luck and perseverance equal success?” The interviewee relaxes in his seat and fires back answers without hesitation.

The man in the so-called “hot seat” is Paul Gross -- a multi-talented Canadian actor, director, writer and producer. For two hours, an entertaining showcase of intellectual stimulation full of witty comebacks, playful banter and deep insight will follow. The audience is in for a treat.

A five minute clip aimed to summarize the life and times of Gross sets the stage for the discussion and teases the audience – filled mostly with image arts students brimming with talent and just waiting to burst onto the scene. It only begins to scratch the surface of this Canadian tour de force and so we yearn to know more. One thing it does reveal in a crystal clear fashion is that this man is very serious about the arts.

Gross has been an advocate of embracing art for years, and so by default, is also an activist, constantly challenging and questioning the Canadian government about the minimal funding providing to the arts. In school, Gross was pushed into the arts because he hated the sciences. Lucky for us that he was steered in this direction or we would not have had great dramatic successes as Due South, Slings and Arrows and Passchendaele. These became a part of the fabric of successful Canadian television.

“You may be lucky to meet the right person, but if you have no talent it doesn’t matter,” says Gross. “What helps me is that I’m stub-

born -- determined to do something.”

Trained in classical guitar, he released a CD called Two Houses back in the 90s. Gross began writing because he needed an outlet for his creativity while waiting for the right acting gigs, or any really, to come around. He learned he was good at it when he penned a few plays and found success with Dead of Winter. This inspired him to take the writing to the next level, which lead him to screenwriting.

“Does writing make you a better actor?”

Langer asks.

“Writing exposes what you think you can do and what you should be able to do.” Gross answers, frankly. “Writers know what actors need and the actors know what writers need.”

His biggest acting achievement came while doing Shakespeare.

“I climbed the highest artistic mountains by doing Hamlet,” he explains, reminiscing.

“Hamlet is the most comprehensive, life-altering experience of an actor’s life.”

Gross reflected on how at times he couldn’t remember doing scenes. He would be acting out his scenes, his mind would go somewhere else, and he would return a few scenes later.

When he asked other actors on stage if he was delivering his lines okay, they said he was doing great. It became an organic experience.

The audience sees the insanely humorous and witty side of Gross on many occasions -particularly as the audience erupts with laughter during his stories of funding escapades as a producer for projects such as Passchendaele.

“It was an interesting class of people,” he says, telling tales of meetings with billionaire financiers. “It was a lesson in how to grovel.”

He realized that the whole process of raising funds for movie deals would have made a good documentary, as well.

Gross has always had a passion for being involved with many aspects of the industry, having directed Men With Brooms and produced

episodes of Due South. He once said that “if anything goes wrong with acting, directing, producing and writing, the whole deck of cards comes tumbling down.”

Passchendaele, an epic World War I tale, was Gross’s most recent foray into the field of acting. He also played the role of director, producer and writer and found that his biggest challenge was directing the battlefield scene.

He described how waiting for rain in sunny parts of Canada was frustrating and he was always chasing bad weather. He learned a lot from the experience, including that you end up working with people whose opinion you trust.

He found he was getting caught up with the minutiae of the movie as well. He did eight or nine audience tests for Passchendaele which were all wrong.

“So with the new production modalities on the web, is it the best of times or worst for students to go out in the industry?” asks Langer.

“It is an exciting time,” Gross replies. “But no one knows how to harness the internet.

Dick Wolf just did a deal with Yahoo which is promising. I can’t make sense of it. The screens are getting smaller and smaller, yet I want a bigger and bigger TV.” The question of Canada still remains: What are we? Gross admits there is a sneering attitude towards this country but the lack of popularity is a badge of its artistic quality. We keep adding to ourselves, he explains. The arts adds to our story, in the most practical terms (his grandfather served in the war, he spoke to him about his experiences and he read stories, books and letters). All of this information grew into the script for Passchendaele.

“The arts (are) a mirror we hold up to ourselves and the practical function makes us understand ourselves,” says Gross, summing up in his poetic, philosophical analogy. But it also translates on a logical plain as well. “It is as functional as medicine.”

RFP: I read that it took about 12 years to compile Passchendaele. Is that a fair estimate?

PG: It wasn’t something that I was working on all the time. I would work on it for about a month if I had a month off and make revisions to it and put it away.

RFP: Did you feel that you were making too many revisions? That it was over-edited?

PG: Film script, in particular, is never finished. It is a naked structure that you arrive at that is filled out by actors and cameras. So I was rewriting that all the way through, even while we were making scenes I was making changes to the dialogue that would arise from actors contributions or the nature of the set we were on or whatever the day was like. So in that regard, a film script is not like a novel or play. You don’t come to a finished point. I think it went through a lot of different changes in the course of this many years. It was one of the few scripts that I had written where it sort of wrote itself. And because I wasn’t on any kind of deadline with it, I started out writing it with the idea that I would be playing that part and that went away for quite a long time.

I was just writing it with the idea that I was directing it and that changed things a little bit. It is kind of inevitable that you do when you are writing a screenplay you are thinking of how it would be on the screen. In the same way that you are writing a play about it being on a stage or it ought to be. It is somewhere in the back of your head.

I was just trying to follow where the story was trying to go.

RFP: What is your next project?

PG: I am working on writing a show set in Jerusalem -- a big television, HBO sort of show, TMN kind of thing. It is set 13 days before the implementation of a peace plan and everything is going haywire.

RFP: If you weren’t a writer, actor, director or producer, what would you be doing?

PG: I think I would have been a doctor.

Intensive care would have been great or shock trauma.

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students take art Classes on toronto subwaY sketch artists meet at Union station every sunday for some instruction and advice aleX conSiGlio eXcaliBUr (YorK UniversitY) TORONTO (CUP) – Mike raises his sketchbook above his head.

“Signalling the universal call of the sketch artist,” he says, laughing. It must be, because as soon as he does, people around him start sliding sketchbooks out of their knapsacks.

They approach him asking: “Excuse me, are you here for the subway sketches?”

A group gathers and begins chatting about the zombies roaming around the Toronto Transit Commission subway until, inevitably, the conversation lands and sticks on Bobby Chiu.

Chiu, a life-drawing professor at Sheridan College and director and owner of Imaginism Studios and Schoolism – Imaginism’s school of digital art – started the subway sketch group in 2005.

Since then, the group has met consistently every Sunday at 3:30 p.m. along the Union Station subway platform in Toronto. The conversation turns back to zombies when, casually, Chiu walks up and joins the group.

“Oh, Bobby’s here,” one artist says in awe, tipping-off those unaware that this short, broad-shouldered, leatherclad man chatting and shaking hands is Bobby Chiu.

Chiu says hello to those he knows and introduces himself to those he doesn’t. He asks the group if they are ready to leave. Those who have already started sketching raise their heads from their sketchbooks and nod while others excit-

edly respond, “Let’s go.”

When the next train pulls into Union Station, the group of artists shuffle aboard and sit in a tight group. Those without a seat hold their sketchbooks close to their chests and wait for a seat to open up, knowing the group will be switching subway lines soon. At St. George Station, the artists file out and transfer onto the Bloor line.

It’s busy, so they spread out, searching for any seat available. Their feet teeter on tip-toe, supporting their sketchbooks; others cross their legs, making a desk – either way, the artists’ legs hide beneath masses of paper.

Chiu takes two full seats to do his work. There is silence: no talking, only the scratching of pencils and the screeching of wheels.

Those who have been here before anticipate the jerks of the subway and lift their pencils.

“It’s usually not this bad,” says Chiu, while others sigh and grunt in frustration as their lines go off-course.

“Initially, the whole idea [behind subway sketching] was so that I could go and get away from my studio work, do some drawing for my-

self, but I always like to teach, so it kind of just organically changed into what it is today,” he says.

He found a lot of people were sending him e-mails for help.

“It’s easy to write an e-mail asking how to draw hands, and it takes me forever to respond, so I figured if they come out and meet me on the subway, they put in the effort, so I’ll put in the effort to teach them.”

Most have found a seat. Some sit on their own, others in pairs, as they workshop their sketches. It’s a comfortable setting and the artists share mutual respect and criticism. All of them are here to learn from one another.

Two artists even sit together with one sketchpad, working on a single sketch together. Mike Seravalle, a third-year English major at York University, sits huddled against one of the ‘ART’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

toronto-based funny man finds fame in anotHer metropolis sometimes inspiration can come from someplace as simple as a city. But for randy pearlstein, it wasn’t his own. Maiya Keidan finds out what locale’s skyscapers and city lights sent him to the top.

It’s not easy to pinpoint where Toronto native Randy Pearlstein’s career in show business first began. It could have started with the homemade movies he shot with his friends at age fifteen which he showcased to his parents and friends.

Or maybe it began with his entering New York University’s prestigious and much-commended film production program.

Or perhaps it was through his early job of casting extras.

But regardless of which steps put him at the top of the comedic ladder, the fact is, he’s there. At 37, he has many credits to his name. He co-wrote Cabin Fever and the original draft for Cabin Fever 2, was a regular cast member on The Chapelle Show, and he founded The Film Lab, which runs seminars for writers and performers.

Pearlstein is an unsuspecting cinematic success. Looking mildly uncomfortable with being asked to speak about himself, he leans back into the deepest crevices of the chair, occasionally

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tucking his Hugh Grant-styled hair behind his ear and then shrugging it out again. He wears sneakers and a V-neck sweater. The air outside is bitterly cold and occasionally the door swings open so wide as people rush in and out that it doesn’t close itself. Pearlstein’s sleeves are rolled up most of the interview but instead of getting up and closing the door, a mere three feet away, he rolls them down, eyeing the door. The only indication of his age is the length of his pants. When he crosses his legs, the pant fabric stretches above his socks, pulled up all the way, revealing a small portion of leg. He may be eccentric but it seems to be a trait that works for him in his trade.

He attributes his success to his love of the Big Apple. Even when he was growing up in Toronto, near Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave, he idolized New York City. He loved the city before he ever decided to move there. Pearlstein watched movies like After Hours, Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy over and over again. “ “Hannah and her Sisters was always on in the background of my house,” he says. His cinematic heroes all had some form or root in New York – they either came from, studied, or filmed there. It was then only natural that Pearlstein applied for the film production program at NYU, where countless greats had operated cameras and edited film before him.

Pearlstein had older friends who had studied there and he recalls them saying, “You must come to New York. It’s really fun around here. And the school’s not bad too.”

The young director wannabe was set on New York and his parents, being the supportive family he “tries not to gush about” only wondered how they could help him get there.

Before his acceptance to the only school he’d even applied to came, he’d been planning a summer move. But eventually, the days warmed, signaling it was almost time for summer, and Pearlstein had still not received a letter from the school -- no acceptance or rejection. He called the school, where they verified they’d sent a letter two months before, but refused to tell him the verdict. “I don’t know what the big secret was,” he says. Pearlstein combed through the apartment building until he finally found the letter, which a neighbour had all along. When he

“Pearlstein combed through the apartment building until he finally found the letter, which a neighbour had all along. When he finally opened that letter, he says, ‘Then it was just a matter of packing my bags and hopping the train.’” finally opened that letter, he says, “Then it was just a matter of packing my bags and hopping the train.”

During university and in the years to follow his postsecondary experience, Pearlstein worked as a casting director for extras. Pearlstein made all of those stories told of people being discovered in Central Park true because that’s one of the places he named as an old hunting ground for talent when he worked for Woody Allen’s production company. “It was kind of a fun treasure hunt really,” he recalls.

Before school, he was exposed, in many different ways to the world of show business. He was in commercials as a teenager. One of his most vivid childhood show biz memories consists of him eating a French fry for Harvey’s on camera.

Every once and a while, Pearlstein interjects an amendment to a previous question, maybe as many as three questions before, while he’s in the midst of answering something else.

He tells me he’s always afraid of saying the wrong thing.

It’s easy to see why Pearlstein is drawn to show business.

He’s friendly and outgoing, not to mention, naturally flirtatious. One of the baristas walks by, offering free samples.

“Would you like to try a cranberry bliss bar?” she asks.

“What is this?” Pearlstein asks.

She repeats herself.

“Oh, thank you. I’m in bliss already. Thank you,” he says, taking it nonetheless, while smiling and maintaining direct eye contact with her. She grins back and moves on to the next patron. He pauses, without having yet taken a bite, then remembers my question.

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culture

The compact disc finally finds a foe —or does it?

Day of the download aside, big-wig music makers are putting money on a physical music format they hope will appeal to consumers who favour plug-n-play products. But critics are giving it six months before it goes the way of the dodo bird. Will it survive shelf-life extinction?

Amanda-Marie Quintino ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Over the years, music has come in many forms – the record, then the cassette, only to be replaced by the current, but already passé, compact disc. Now, despite the fact that we are smack dab in the middle of the age of the digital download, a leading technology company is putting out a product deliberately created to potentially wipe CDs off store shelves.

And because compact just wasn’t small enough, now they’re making them micro.

In a 2008 Market Tools survey, 74 per cent of consumers said having music in a physical format is important to them, while only 11 percent said it was unimportant. Based on these results, in late September, Sandisk, backed by four major music labels, announced a new physical music format dubbed “SlotMusic” -- an entire album on a MicroSD memory card.

The idea behind slotMusic is this: musicians release their music on these MicroSD cards, sell them in stores, and anyone who buys one can instantly listen on their MicroSD card-enabled phone, computer, game console, etc.

But with so many people downloading music from iTunes and similar sites where endless genres, albums and artists are at their fingertips and combined with the fact that sales of physical media has seen an almost 50 per cent decline since 2000, this product doesn’t seem to make sense, nor does it seem like it will make cents.

However, despite the fact that CD sales continue to flounder and the popularity of downloading audio files is consistently on the rise, the companies that have joined forces on this venture have faith that their latest effort to boost physical media sales will prove prosperous. They aren’t ready to give up just yet.

So sure this product will appeal to the millions of consumers who own MicroSD-enabled devices, Universal Music Group, Warner Bros. Music, EMI, and Sony BMG have agreed to release albums by their top artists through slotMusic, and even big box retailers Best Buy and Wal-Mart jumped on the slotMusic bandwagon, acting fast in an effort to ensure that they were signed on to start selling the cards in time for the holiday season.

The music labels involved are describing slotMusic cards as “a versatile new physical music format for the 21st century” and

have launched the format with top artists.

Tech bloggers across North America are baffled with the emergence of this product. When SanDisk announced the initiative, the reaction in the blogosphere was less than enthusiastic. Om Malik, for example, declared that “SanDisk SlotMusic Cards Are Destined To Fail.” Ars Technica chimed in too, with this entry entitled “Labels launch slotMusic format, miss point of digital music.”

But Jon Healey, who blogs for the Los Angeles Times website, believes the slotMusic venture doesn’t miss the point of what’s happening to the market.

for those who prefer plugging and playing over choosing and clicking, according to Carmella Lyman, public relations representative for SanDisk.

“SlotMusic isn’t about replacing online, it is about giving consumers a choice,” writes Lyman in an e-mail. “And it’s not necessarily an alternative, but a complement to MP3 players with a slot.

Lyman says the demographic is any music lover, regardless of the age.

“It can be a mom who is on the go who loves Robin Thicke or a teen who loves Rihanna,” she writes.

SlotMusic cards are sold with-

croSD cards include ABBA, Chris Brown, Coldplay, Elvis Presley, Kelly Clarkson, Kiss, New Kids on the Block, Leona Lewis, NeYo, Pussycat Dolls, Riyanna, Tim McGraw, and many more.

Still, Matt Kostanecki, a fourth-year business management student who works at Future Shop says SanDisk can pump it up and put it out there all they want, it’s still not going to jive with the needs and wants of the present generation of music lovers.

“It will fail,” says Kostanecki, “No one wants a bunch of MicroSD cards that are easy to lose.”

CDs are 5x5 inches, while

SLOTS HAVE NUMBERS ON THEIR SIDE

As a matter of fact, there is an immense and unprecedented installed base of customers. Despite the intense amount of resistance this new product is receiving, it does have the potential to succeed, strictly based on numbers.

Several billion devices play MicroSD:

PHONES

An estimated 500M music phones with card slots sold in 2007, with another 750M expected to ship in 2008 Today, the total installed base of MicroSD enabled phones is estimated at over a billion 80% of card enabled phones use MicroSD, making this an attractive format choice

MP3 players

“Instead, SanDisk and the labels are making a reasonable bet that lots of people aren’t ready yet to join the revolution,” he writes, adding that the company is hoping that some non-trivial percentage of the population still clings to the immediacy and plugn-play ease of physical music formats.

“The slotMusic cards are aimed at people who have no interest in storing and organizing their music collections on their computers, or who don’t want to spend the time creating playlists and transferring tracks from their PCs.” And although SanDisk is admittedly looking to capitalize on the little, if ever, used slots in phones, computers, and other technology, it is also determined to keep the conventional physical form of media sales alive

out digital rights management restrictions and in the form of MP3 files from EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.

By making these cards prepacked with music, SanDisk hopes to open up the world to a whole new way of listening to music. And they’re excited. On the company’s official website, one of the promotional advertisements reads: “Get your slot ready.”

From classic rock ‘n’ rollers to pop sensations to happening hip-hop artists, SanDisk insists there will surely be something available to please every music lover’s taste buds. Right now, they have 30 signed artists, and hope to expand this list further throughout the year. Some of the most popular musicians currently being made obtainable via Mi-

MicroSDs are 15mm x 11mm, roughly 1/30th the size of a CD. Ksenia Remizova, a first-year radio and television arts student agrees, saying that she’s perfectly content with using LimeWire for her music.

“I like to download because it’s fast, I get what I want when I want it,” she explains. “And as for quality, I really don’t mind it as I mostly sleep to it on the subway.”

With regard to price, SanDisk is making slotMusic seem quite affordable at $7 to $10 a pop.

But it is important to consider that cost is per MicroSD card, which means you’d have to multiply that per card, meaning per album, you purchase. Plus, add in the USB sleeve sold to store and protect it, as well as license and ‘COMPACT DSC’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

Most non-iPod MP3 players have a microSD slot and support slotMusic, including Sansa (from SanDisk, #2 in USA), Creative, iRiver and Insignia (Best Buy’s house brand)

COMPUTERS

Every PC – Windows Mac or Linux – has a USB port; one of the nice things about MicroSD is the ease with which you can plug it into an adapter and use it on your PC

IN-CAR

In-car systems increasingly support MicroSD (sleeve may be needed) including recent systems from Sony, Bluepunkt, Kenwood and Pioneer Likewise, most in-car GPS systems can now play back cardbased MP3s

GAME CONSOLEs

Many leading game consoles – including Wii and PS3 – will play slotMusic cards (adapter may be needed)

FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press

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What you see in Toronto is not what you get at City Hall

Inside City Hall, things don’t look quite like they do on Toronto’s streets. The city may be full of diversity, but city council isn’t. According to a Statistics Canada report, only four of 44 councillors are “non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” (Photo courtesy of torontoinfocenter.com)

After some investigation, which consisted of making phone calls that were ignored, sending emails that were disregarded, and sifting through paperwork rife with disheartening statistics, Ryerson Free Press reporter Pacinthe Mattar discovered that Toronto City Hall is not so representative of its so-called multicultural city. But no one wants to talk about it.

Something is amiss at Toronto City Hall.

I don’t mean the child-like antics of City Councillors, who chatter on cell phones, yak away and joke loudly with their neighbours, and heckle other Councillors when they are speaking.

No. I’m talking about something bigger, something that can’t be fixed by turning off an unruly Councillor’s microphone with the touch of a button.

There are 44 City Councillors in Toronto. Only four of them are anything other than white. That’s nine per cent.

Outside the rounded walls of the Council Chambers at City Hall, 47 per cent of the Toronto population is non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour, according to Statistics Canada. Still, Toronto likes to think itself the most multicultural city in the world.

Here’s the thing: Statistics Canada defines “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour” as “visible minorities”. I have a hard time using that term, especially in Toronto, where this “visible minority” is hardly a minority at all.

People of colour are visible majorities almost anywhere you go in this city. Statistics Canada predicts that by 2017, more than half of Toronto’s population will be comprised

of “visible minorities”.

What will we call them then?

Hearing the words “visible minority” strung together to describe a group of people who are as different as they are “alike”, you just have to stop for a minute and wonder if there is such thing as a “visible minority” at all. Are people who don’t fall under that category, then, part of the “invisible majority”? Yes, the idea is as ridiculous as it sounds.

Elsewhere at City Hall, there are definitely visible minorities. From the staff of the in-house restaurant, Café on the Square, to the custodial crew and security officers, there’s more than enough diversity to go around.

But one thing’s for certain: On the City Council itself, there is definitely a visible minority.

And apparently, no one wants to talk about it. The Canadian Centre for Diversity said it didn’t like to comment on stories with “political” elements. And of the four lone Councillors who are visibly a minority on the Toronto City Council, only one didn’t decline to talk about it.

Why the silence? The lack of diversity at City Council isn’t particularly shocking on its own. A report published on November 26, 2008 by the Maytree Foundation and the Toronto City Summit Alliance confirmed what was already apparent: the top levels of public, private, and non-profit organizations in the city all share a “striking” lack of diversity.

To jumpstart changing this reality, the Maytree Foundation, a charity committed to reducing poverty and inequality in Canada, joined the Toronto City Summit Alliance in launching DiverseCity – an initiative to “change the face of leadership in Toronto”. It has set lofty goals for 2010, among them is the intent to help appoint 500 leaders from under-represented groups to city agencies, boards and commissions.

Councillor Chin Lee (Ward 41, Scarborough – Rouge River) is the only City

Councillor of a “visible minority” who cared to weigh in on City Hall’s diversity deficit. “We’ve had complaints about the lack of diversity at City Hall,” he admitted in a phone interview. “City Hall has adopted a diversity plan, but how well it’s working is a different question.”

Lee cautioned that the push for change can’t be one-sided, though, and emphasized that “diversity” is a mentality people from all walks of life should strive to hold.

“It works two ways. People of different backgrounds should take an interest in running their city as well. We have to be members of society that represent diversity as a mentality: be interested in different people, have respect for others,” Lee said. Only then, he claims, will things change.

Here’s hoping. It’s 2009. Barack Hussein Obama just recently took office as the first African-American President of the United States. Surely we can do something even slightly similar here.

But let’s not depend on charities and foundations and initiatives do to the work for us. If we want change, we ourselves must change.

Yes we can, Toronto.

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“Statistics Canada predicts that by 2017, more than half of Toronto’s population will be comprised of ‘visible minorities.’ What will we call them then?”

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FEBRUARY 2009 ryerson free press ryersonfreepress.ca

RECORD REVIEWs This Franz record not such a catchy classic

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand Rating C

Franz Ferdinand’s debut, self-titled album was rightly acclaimed by critics. Unlike the disheveled, lo-fi “do-it-yourself” aesthetic employed by garage-rock revivalists of the time, Franz used laser-sharp guitar lines and production to create a cleaner, sleeker image and sound. The album was relentlessly catchy, but most importantly, it was dynamic. Beat-heavy song-tempos switched up, guitars came in and out as necessary, and singer Alex Kapranos howled melodically along to an album that poised them for long-term success.

Now, five years later, the Scots are back with an album as mediocre as their sub-par second

album, ironically titled You Could Have It So Much Better (2005). Tonight is upbeat, sure, but that doesn’t necessarily make it catchy. The record suffers from an apparent lack of effort on the band’s part -- each of its three-and-ahalf minute songs is characterized by a synth-y beginning that quickly gives way to a simple verse-chorus-verse structure that lacks any of the musical twists and turns that made their debut so much fun. Much of this can be attributed to the lack of any passionate drumming on the part of Paul Thompson, who, at all times, either fails to add energy to the track or is absent altogether.

The omission of drums on a song isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but in Franz Ferdinand’s case, a song without drums just leaves more room on the already over-spacious songs on Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (the most spacious of which is the over-ambitious, nearly 8 minute long “Lucid Dreams”). Don’t get me wrong, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand isn’t a complete waste of time. At its best, the synthesizers bring some melodic flavor to songs that are short, enough so as to keep the energy level high and keep the attention of the listener. Just don’t expect another Franz Ferdinand.

—Stephen Carlick

Outdoors, indoors, on the radio or the iPod, Animal Collective is a worthwhile listen Animal Collective has explained their ninth studio album as one meant to be experienced outdoors, as an homage to the joy they often experienced at concert venues, after which the album was named. The irony, however, is that Merriweather Post Pavilion is arguably best enjoyed on headphones. Ebullient and dynamic though it is, the album contradictorily feels like a party meant specifically for the individual listener, ready to enjoy wherever and whenever the

listener pleases. In other words, Merriweather Post Pavilion is a paradox. It is strikingly complex, but instantly accessible; familiar, yet distinctive; fun, yet serious. Like the band intended, it feels very much like a summer album to be enjoyed live at a sunny outdoor festival, yet simultaneously remains a beautiful and engrossing album to put on your headphones for a cold walk through a snowy night. This is Animal Collective at their most accessible, and as such,

their best. Gone are the divisive attempts to be weird for the sake of weird, as on previous releases. In their place, are moments of explosive bombast (“Lion in a Coma”), soaring melodies (“My Girls”), and compelling electronic blasts of rhythmic drums and keyboard that flesh the album out (“Bluish”). Call me dramatic, but as early into the year as it is, Merriweather Post Pavilion is already a Herculean contender for the best album of 2009. —SC

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Rating: A

Reputable rapper Common spews overtly sexist rhymes in new album

Common – Universal Mind Control Rating: D

First, let me say this: Common is a wellrespected rapper whose discography speaks for itself. From 1992 to 2006, his only arguable misstep was 2002’s Electric Circus, while his albums Resurrection (1994), Like Water for Chocolate (2000), and Be (2005) are considered hip-hop classics. The man has rhyming talent and a knack for choosing producers that compliment his smooth flow with soul grooves, jazzy samples, and warm organic instrumentation. However, the unconquerable qualm I’ve always had with Common is that Common is an overt sexist. From Resurrection’s claim that you could tell a woman was “cool” by how her “titties” hung (I Used to Love H.E.R.) up to Be’s story of a

woman who cunningly lies in order to get her husband imprisoned (Testify), Common has always rapped about women in a way that either objectifies or vilifies them. Until now, it represented a very small part of Common’s rapping character; more often than not, he was spreading the love, advocating equality among races, and encouraging pride in being African American. But Universal Mind Control is so much an explosion of sexism that it feels as if Common’s been making a concerted effort all these years to let it out in small doses, and now he has finally burst. Where Common used to rhyme that he was a gentleman or a guardian of what he clearly felt was the weaker sex, lines like “I’m ’a touch you where the sun

don’t shine” (Sex 4 Suga) represent a definite shift in Common’s attitude that affects more than just women; he has also begun mentioning the fact that he plays stadiums, and waxes on getting paid (“I get money and want more stacks,” Announcement). All this is flipped over production by Pharrell, whose mechanical production makes Common seem even colder while he’s spitting his materialism and hate.

There are only three tracks on the album that Pharrell didn’t touch, and while they provide a welcome relief from his tracks, they aren’t necessarily good; just better. I would tell Common that it’s back to the drawing board, but I’m afraid there’s probably some stuff left there I’d rather not know about. —SC

Ryerson’s Rebecca Eckler has her own Canadian idol

She may write about the non-fictional, everyday happenings of her life a lot, but this writer doesn’t take herself very seriously.

Actually, she longs to read herself as a fictional character so much that she paid to make sure it happens. Maiya Keidan gets to known this Ryerson journalism school grad.

Over twelve years ago, Rebecca Eckler sat in the very same desks as my fellow students and I in the journalism program at Ryerson University.

“It was so hard,” she says repeatedly, though she is encouraging, telling me it gets easier when you enter the professional world.

“I can’t even today think of anything else I’d rather do…except maybe be a rock star,” she says.

Nowadays, Eckler juggles freelance writing and working on her upcoming novels. Her most recent book, geared mainly for teens, titled Rotten Apple, just hit bookshelves in early October. She’s written for Chatelaine, House and Home, and The New York Times. The author has also worked as a columnist for The Globe and Mail and The National Post.

Though the writer says she was never motivated by money, as few

could claim to be in the world of journalism, she currently lives in a home in Forest Hill with her five-year-old daughter, Rowan, has a personal trainer, and an array of designer clothing.

In terms of her climb to suc-

cess, Eckler says, it’s a boring answer but she gives it anyway, “Seriously, it’s hard work.” She thinks all those times she stayed up entire nights to write stories, sometimes having as many as three stories in the paper the next day, may have helped. But now that she has a child, she says she can hardly remember how she managed it.

Another contribution to her climb might have been her early eagerness to share with readers features of her private life. These days, Eckler avoids writing about her personal life -- a decision she credits to the wisdom of age.

But even still, in her recent articles minor details about her life leak into her writing about everything from e-mails to her daughter’s father about Mother’s Day to her desire to be immortalized in a Margaret Atwood novel.

If young journalists are com-

fortable with writing about themselves, Eckler thinks it’s a good route to take. “In newspapers you can write news or you can write personal stuff. I did write news. No one ever remembers the news,” she laughs.

It’s not easy though, warns

Eckler, again stating that it is truly trying to find an inkspot in the shape of your name in the world of writing. There are a lot of factors, on top of the constant competition, that need to be taken into consideration, she advises, like the attention span of the reader and if they’ll actually read to the end of the story.

For Eckler, there was another disadvantage to writing about herself. “People send you crazy e-mails, write stuff about you that isn’t true, or a lot of people just misread things.”

Abhorrers of Eckler have united in cyberspace and in person, through articles and online blogs, even through hosting a party in her honour (or dishonour, rather).

She actually managed to wrangle her way into such a party one January evening last year, about ‘ECKLER’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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barriers beside the exits. He’s in a race with an artist he’s sketching.

Hands move frantically, veins pop, lips squeeze between teeth and his eyes dart between page and subject.

His headphones are on, head bouncing and mind elsewhere. Seravalle zips through face after face in a frenzy of sketching adrenaline. He chooses his next victim, slashes their lines on the page – his lips curved, head and back hunched over.

Chiu sits with his legs crossed, body drooped and relaxed, his hair softly tied in a ponytail and floating above his head while his bottom lip protrudes. Chiu seems more relaxed than Seravalle, lazy even, entranced and thoughtful, not frantic.

Beside him, another artist inks deliberately, choosing every line carefully. Once Seravalle finishes, he shows his friend.

“Sorry, you turned out too menacing; my sketches always turn out so sinister.” Chiu overhears them and asks if they would like some tips.

Seravalle sits beside him, handing him his sketchbook. The others down the subway notice the instruction and quickly scurry over to listen. It turns into a little school session, a mini-lesson on simplifying characters and capturing their essence.

“With caricatures, the idea is you don’t wanna look for the exact lines to copy,” Chiu begins. “It’s not about just enlarging features and shrinking them down; it’s about getting the essence of the character.”

“Ask yourself questions that describe the character, almost like a criminal lineup,” he adds.

Chiu picks a caricature already sketched

by Seravalle and sketches his version while instructing.

“The best way to draw things you aren’t

familiar with is to relate it to things that you do know. You might not know how the toque sits on his head, but to me it kinda looks like a condom, so I’ll push that humour into the sketch.”

After instruction, Seravalle goes back to his seat. His hand simmers, his lips tighten, his headphones come off, and his leg cross like Chiu’s.

He rests his head in his hand, contemplating, before slashing lines onto the page.

Chiu spends the remainder of the afternoon traveling up and down the subway train offering tips and advice.

“He [Chiu] even told me how to use a pencil. I improved like crazy by holding the pencil the right way for sketching,” says Alex, an artist hoping to enroll at Sheridan College. Those riding the subway don’t seem to mind the artists. Rather, they curiously sneak peeks at their sketchbooks and look away when caught.

One lady, drawn into watching one artist sketch, sits with her novel hanging open in her hands, her eyes remaining locked on the artist’s sketchbook and ignoring her book.

The artists that make it out come for the advice, but also the security. Chiu explains that when artists travel in groups, those around them can tell it’s for educational purposes.

“By yourself it’s completely different.

People can be intimidating, but in groups we’re the intimidating ones,” he said.

The group will continue to meet every Sunday, and passengers will continue to gaze on in wonder. The artists lend their knowledge to one another, in a reciprocal and mutually respectful way. They critique each other’s work and offer tips for improvement.

“That’s why I like this idea, because it’s all positive vibes. We’re not here to make money, we’re here for the art of it,” Chiu says.

‘ECKLER’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28

which she wrote in a Maclean’s article, dubbing the party-goers “Coconuts.”

Eckler always tries to write as if she’s speaking to someone, forgetting that tone can be lost in translation. Recently, she wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about ‘me’ journalism. She even posted an advisory at the end of the article, which hinted at the tone. “But still people were like, ‘Is this a joke? Is it not a joke?’” she says.

Controlling if people misinterpret her jokes is something she’s incapable of doing, she says, “Unless I write after everything, ‘I’m joking, I’m joking.’”

Mostly turning her back on sharing her personal life on paper, Eckler instead fuses her quirky tone into her articles. Though no editor ever explicitly tells her to go out and be crazy, “sometimes it’s clearly, like, that’s the story they want me to do,” she

‘COMPACT DISC’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26

whatever else, which brings it close to $20 per card.

So why would I purchase this when I can just go home, type in the song I’ve been humming all day and wham – it’s in my library, ready to import to my nano within a nano second? I am, admittedly, one of those hesitant consumers, not willing to spend money on the newest gadget in the tech world when my own device works just fine. It’s already been paid for, I know how to use it, and it fulfills all of my music needs. There’s no shame in that. I don’t like change, and I’m not the only one.

In the article, ‘SlotMusic cards now shipping: More than 40 top artists available from nearly every genre of music,’ it reads, “More than just your typical music albums or single downloads, slotMusic cards boast 1GB of capacity to offer artists a compelling new way to express themselves to their fans. In addition to songs, slotMusic cards may hold liner notes, album art, videos and other creative content that an artist may choose.”

But iPods offer the same features with even more storage space – up to 80GB. SanDisk may be doing all it can to make slotMusic marketable, but the hurdles facing the product are huge, including the fact that there’s no compatibility with iPods or iTunes, the most popular digital music devices and software on the planet.

The form factor is a tad odd, too – considering the cards are smaller than a flake of Raisin Bran, albeit a teensy bit sturdier.

If you’ve got butterfingers, they’re not for you.

Plus, who really needs dozens of MicroSD cards hanging around? It’s not like they’re like CDs, which can be arranged and shown off in a rack or a tower – they’re hardly even visible so trying to display them would be a waste of effort. The primary reason why I still buy albums by my favourite artists is so that I can have them, hold them. They’re on the right track with attempting to appeal to the

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explains.

Maybe it’s not her self-proclaimed dedication to hard work or her motivation to be different or even her ability to share intimate details about her personal life that has paved Eckler’s path to success. Instead, could it be her idol-like worship of Margaret Atwood?

“I just love her. She’s kooky, really kooky. I love that,” she says.

Eckler attended an auction where she shelled out $7,000 for the privilege of being a character in one of Margaret Atwood’s upcoming novels. Shortly before the event was held, Atwood admitted to Calgary Herald columnist, Valerie Fortney, that, “You have to be a special kind of person to want this.”

And based on her book sales and readership, it looks like Eckler is, indeed, pretty special.

old-schoolers who still possess an appreciation for a physical music format, but ruined it as soon as they proposed a flimsy, fingernail-sized MicroSD card. And with Apple spending millions of dollars promoting downloading, that makes slotMusic’s approach seem anachronistic.

In the Apple blog, Josh Pigford wrote a column headlined “SanDisk slotMusic cards will soon be known as the digital dodo bird,” wherein he outlined reasons why this product is destined to follow in the footsteps of the prehistoric pigeon.

“The music selection on launch is dismal at best,” writes Pigford, explaining that only around 300 songs will be available compared to that of iTunes’ 8 million songs.

“The slotMusic setup just doesn’t scale.

If/when they get in to the 100+ album mark, it will be extremely costly to stock that much shelf space,” he wrote. “I give it six months, at best, before it’s discontinued.”

The biggest problem for the company though, as far as myself (as well as most critics are concerned), is the scarcity of music available on MicroSD. There’s a chicken-and-egg problem here that kills many new formats: consumers don’t want to adapt their routines to a new format unless there’s a good supply of stuff to play on it, but content companies won’t devote much energy (or many titles) to a format until there’s a sizeable demand for it. I’m not sure how much music merits a chance at success, but I’ve got a hunch that it’s got to be more than 30 titles.

Also, from an economics standpoint, I can’t imagine SanDisk is going to be able to make enough to cover costs after they’ve paid the music companies, manufacturing costs, and marketing. Its strategies may be solid, however things are definitely looking grim for the tech giant.

But as of right now, it’s too early to tell if this product will stay on store shelves, much less whether it will become a true replacement for the CD or if it will fizzle fast.

‘Q & A’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

unions which are passing (Palestinian solidarity) resolutions. Everyone and Jews included need to stand up and take a stand for Palestine.

I think Jews are located in ways that are particularly useful. Because often you’ll here (things) like, “we can’t endorse this it’s not balanced we need to hear both sides” and it’s important to talk about (how) you can’t treat both sides as equal.

There are two sides. There’s literally walls and fences and (one side) there’s people with resources and money and water and the fourth largest military in

the world. And on the other side, there’s people living under military occupation and apartheid.

We need to (question) when people want balance. And Jewish people can do that…

Jewish people can stand up and say Jews have become mostly white people, Israel is a western state very closely connected to Europe, Canada, and the US. We don’t need to hear their side, we hear their side all the time - they’re the side of the oppressors. It’s easier for us to do that I think than non Jewish people.

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registered legal aid.” She said that since poor people cannot afford legal defense they will be increasingly convicted. Research done at the Centre for Urban Community Studies at University of Toronto suggested that there is a sizeable sub-group of homeless people committing minor offenses who are stuck in a cycle between shelters, jails, and hospitals, and who are becoming alienated from community life. The report recommends that affordable housing be provided for this sub-group as a more cost-effective strategy.

The coalition says it wants poor people to have their basic needs met through the provision of

adequate shelter beds downtown.

Members said they want the safe streets act to be repealed. Withers said the police need to stop giving tickets and the city needs to provide more free legal services.

This past spring, the City of Toronto said it would use a ‘homes first’ approach to get panhandlers and homeless people off the streets. Fisher, who has had some contact with staff from the city’s new Streets to Homes program, said it sounds positive. He said the staff are supposed to work with individuals in the community to figure out what they need –housing, a meal or clothing program, or community contact.

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On the other hand, Withers said she doesn’t like the program because she said it pushes homeless people out of downtown. She said she hears complaints from the homeless that the housing provided is far away and sometimes in disrepair. She said people have little money to pay for food or TTC to access services downtown.

She said, “It makes space for rich people to not have to look at the poor… The city is working to gentrify the downtown.”

Rowlands said, “I’d like that the social and economic conditions are such that we wouldn’t have panhandlers. But we’re a long way from that. ”

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difficult to address”. Worts sees Live Green Toronto as “changing people’s views by engaging individuals and communities in projects for which they take some responsibility.” He sees the Laurier Avenue project the same way.

He explained, “As we start looking at the underlying systems that affect our lives, like energy, and make a conscious decision to say ‘we need to stop using traditional fossil fuels’, I think that contributes a shift toward a culture of

sustainability.”

The biggest obstacle for this project and others may very well be financing. Dhargalkar said, “If this is going to become too expensive… people aren’t going to do it... Especially because it sits under the ground and it’s not sexy… Even though it’s hugely important and makes a difference in our community.”

The Laurier Avenue Geothermal Project study was one of 14 initiatives funded by Live Green

Toronto in the first go-around.

In 2009, funding for community initiatives will increase to $2.2 million. Bekkering said Live Green will start receiving applications in February 2009, and again in July 2009. Various types of projects are being encouraged to apply: community gardens, collective tree plantings, collective purchases of renewable energy systems, alternative transportation systems, and climate change adaptation actions.

people a week asking for help.

In addition to working with the downtown sector, the coalition also supports a group of Somali women in Rexdale. It has a community among the homeless population and ask people to come to meetings and speak at protests. Bentley said, “I work with Ontario Disability Support Plan recipients to process their socialassistance forms. They know that OCAP is there to support them, and I think it gives them a sense of security and belonging. At the same time, as we tell them about our research, they tell us what is happening on the street.” But, Withers admitted, “The homeless community is transient... Our membership is more fluid.”

Since it formed in 1989, the coalition has held frequent general membership meetings. Until 2001, it had support and funding from the Canadian Auto Workers union, but that relationship ended after a series of incidents which the union could not support.

According to the coalition, the actions that ended the relationship – such as evicting then-Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty from his office because the eviction rate had skyrocketed while he was in power – were some of their most successful.

Withers said that when the union pulled their funding, even a

poll on City TV indicated the popularity of the coalition’s actions.

Withers explained, “We never let our funders control what we do.

That makes things hard, but it’s the way we have integrity.”

Withers also noted the role of the media, stating, “If we sign someone up to get welfare, nobody cares, but anything we do that is sensational gets into the news.” According to Withers, another misperception of the media is about the coalition’s dealings with the police. Withers said, “Lots of times police do something outrageous, like they take a child away from a mother during a protest, but instead of letting them do that, we support people to defend themselves against police violence.” She adds, “How democratic is it if you have to protest in a benign way? We want to express the urgency and the change that people need.”

Withers said, “We are building a poor people’s movement… I think that the detractors of our organization are a testimony to our effectiveness. It’s a serious fight and you’d expect that we would be loved and hated.”

But moments after Withers insisted pugnaciously on the need to break some rules, Bentley asked, “Where can we send people for Christmas help?” Once again, any impression of the coalition as a simple extremist group is shattered.

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My hope is that this feeling of mutual respect among our peers during this special time will continue on.

Not for “one” man, but for “us” as a people.

At the Youth Inaugural Ball that aired on MTV Canada, President Obama told the excited and overwhelmed crowd that he “was inspired by…young people all across America” because he felt that they were the ones who mobilized the large turnout of voters who voted him in as president. The gratitude that he showed helped give hope to young people that yes, we can actually make a difference and that our voices count for something.

Before he slipped away from that ball, he danced with his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, to “At last,” a fitting song and theme that resonated with the mood of the day.

Since the day it was announced that Obama won the election, people everywhere have found a sense of hope – at last – that there could actually be a politician, a President, who genuinely wants to make a difference.

On that note, a famous activist and reverend once had a dream, and in that dream he said we were “free at last.” On January 20, 2009, just one day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, another part of Martin Luther King’s, Jr.’s dream finally came alive, at last.

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to impose sanctions on their own country.

Those of us with a sense of justice should be doing what we can to stop these crimes, not encourage them. If president Levy doesn’t want to participate in an Academic Boycott that is his prerogative but he represents Ryerson. Shouldn’t the

Ryerson community be consulted and have a democratic vote on the issue? Isn’t that part of Academic freedom?

Editor’s note: There is still no word, yet, as to whether or not Canadian academics will be requested by foreign institutions to

denounce genocide and land-thefts which have targeted Indigenous populations since contact in the 1500s. The Ryerson Free Press will keep you all posted on progress on this issue.

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