Adoptlon of Agenda

Lessons from Jan Wong and NASH 72

SONJA SZLOVICSAK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Last week, the Cascade went to the Canadian University Jan Wong (a former writer for the Globe and Mail), left me worrying Press's (CUP) seventy-second National Conference (NASH). The conference was hosted by one of Canada's largest student newspaper, the University of Alberta's Gateway.

NASH is a unique opportunity for student newspapers to get together, learn from experts (and each other), and to get new ideas. This was also a perfect opportu• nity for the Cascade to get feedback about our new look.

This year, four Cascade dclega tcs we£1t to NASH: Jed Minor, a mem• ber of the production team and the brains behind our recent redesign; Joel Smart, a staff writer and surprisingly hilarious individual; Brittany Wiesner, the Sports and Health Editor, and the social butterfly of NASH; and yours truly, the Editor-in-Chief.

This year, there were some very prestigious journalists speaking and hosting seminars (Adrienne Ar:,enault, an award winning foreign correspondent with the CBC, was just one of the many speakers). One speaker in particular, about the state of democracy in our country. Wong was a fabulous journalist. She wrote many great, and sometimes controversial, pieces for the Globe and Mail. She was one of the journalists that covered the Tiananmen Massacre when she was the Beijing correspondent for the Globe and Mail. Her most famous piece was, by far, the most contro• versial piece she wrote. In in article about the 2006 Dawson College shooting, Wong wrote "To be i:;ure, Mr. Lepine hated womefl, Mr. Fabrikant hated his engineering colleagues and Mr. Gill hated everyone. But all of them had been marginalized, in a society that valued pure laine." These two sentences, referring to the only three school shootings which have taken place in Quebec, led to a series of events that eventually led to Wong being fired from the Globe and Mail. NASH was the first time Wong was able to speak in public about these events.

After this article was printed (called "Get under the desk"), Wo11g received hate mail and death threats; her father was incorrectly identified as a criminal (he has no crimit1al r«:!cord, but th«:!re is a man with the same name that has a criminal record); and Stephan Harper wrote a letter to the editor criticizing Wong and her article.

Parliament passed a motion demanding an apology from Wong and her paper (because, apparently, it was a slow week in Ottawa). Now, I can understand why peo· pie were upset that Wong irn;inuated that racism played a part in these three shootings, but frankly, Wong's criticism was valid. Don't forget, in 1995 when Quebec voted to remain in Canada, the premier blamed the "ethnic vote" for the defeat of separation.

But even if Wong's comments had been wrong, what business does Parliament have telling newspapers what they can, and can't, print? Of course, the whole uproar in Parliament was just political posturing, which still goes on today.

Canada is a democratic country. A successful democracy requires dialogue and more than one viewpoint. Hurt feelings is not a good enough reason for Parliament to try to force a journalist to apologize for an articl«:!. But it seems that Canada's cunent government isn't interested in open dialogue or multiple views.

It's worrying that Canada's politicians are beginning to imitate the grandstanding that American politicians are famous for. If our government focused on governing, rather than playing political games, perhaps Harper wouldn't have felt th!! need to prorogue Parliament three years after he attacked a brilliant woman's career.

Student Fined $675,000 For Downloading 30 Son_gs

NEWS & OPINION EDITOR

Astudent from the United States who was fined US$675,000 for BBC. The first of its kind was the case of a Minnesota woman who illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs has filed a motion for a new trial to reduce the damages or to convene a retrial.

Joel Tenenbaum, 25, a Boston University student, was found guilty of illegally downloading and sharing files in July 2009. Tenenbaum was fined US$22,500 for each track downloaded.

The maximum an individual can be charged for illegally downloading music is "$30,000 per infringement," according to the BBC. "I=Iowever, the jury can raise the amount to $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were wilful." CBC reported that "the maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million." The Tenenbaum case is "only the second of its kind to go to trial in the US," according to the was fined $1.92 million "for sharing Z4 /:longs." The ju~y awarded US$80,000 per song in the Minnesota c11se, . Tenenbaum's lawyer argued if1 the opening statement that Tenenbaum "was a kid who did what kids do and loved technology and loved music." 1enenbaum's lawyers also accused record companies of being slow to adapt to changes in the market place. Individuals have begun to donate money to Tenenbaum in sup• port of his case. Tenenbaum has confirmed that "any money raised so far would be used to pay ex• penses to his legal team, many of whom worked for free." The BBC reports that "around $2000" had been donat«:!d to Ten«:!nbaum.

Tenenbaum admitted on the stand to downloading "more than 800 songs since 1999," the BBC reported. He accepted responsibility for downloading and sharing the songs in questiot,. "l shared music. I was thj? one who wanted a say in court. This law1,u,it waB against me. This ii; m;i, v~qict,". ,

According to the CBC, Tenenbaum "would not s.-iy if he regretted downloading mui;ic, sayii;ig it was a loaded question. 'I don't regret drinking underage in college, even though I got bu~ted a few times."'

The article goes on to state that "Tenenbaum said he was thankful that the case wasn't in the millions and contrasted the significance of his fine with the maximum. "That to me sends a message of, 'We considered your sid«:! with some legiti• rnacy,"' he said, adding that "$4.5 million would have been, 'We don't buy it at all."'"

According to Joel Tenenbaum's website joelfightsback.com, "30,000 people have been accused and almost every single case has settled," and "There are actually 133 people in the same [legal situ• ation."

Tenenbaum has confirmed that he ':"'l(l f!le_for 1:>a.11kfu.ptcy ~f force<;} to pay the full fine.

Scansafe, a company which monitors network tiaffic on the Internet, undertook a study which discovered that "the number of attempts to download illegal mp3s and software has increased by more than half over the last three months," as reported by InfoSecurity.com, after ascertaining a "55 per cent increase in illegal down• load attempts over corporate net· works." The study comei; from 100 countries monitored worldwide.

Volume 18 · Issue 2

H.00111 < I 027 53841 Kinµ Road Abbm,tnnJ, BC V2S 7M8

Editor-in-Chief cascade.chief@ufv.ca

So11j;1 Szlov1< ,.1k

Managing Editor cascade.manager@ufv.ca

Lewis V.m l)yk

Production Manager cascade.productlon@ufv.ca

R,111do11,1 C0111·,1d

Production

Jed Minor

Copy Editor

Suz,u111t· K1 ttdl

News & Opinion Editor cascade.news@ufv.ca

P,1ul llr.1mmrr

Arts & Life E\:lltor cascade.arts@ufv.ca

P.1111 Falardt,111

Sports & Health Editor cascade.sports@ufv.ca

Brit t,1ny W,esntr

Staff Writers

Justin Orltw1u Jod Sm,m

Jord,111 Pttdwr 1'rc:vp1 I:l,k

Contributors

Samuel Gl.1si-:ow Kt·nd1,1 M, Pim· D.C,. Moi:11 M,1ri11.1 P,1r.1pi11i L1rry Portt'lanu• Kyle( Sw,1dd1 n

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